Tables in Wonderland

It's funny when you have to run mathematical calculations in order to just eat a meal........ and also plan it 180 days in advance. oh well.
You only have to if you want to extract maximum value. The vast majority of people aren’t going to do the math.
 
For people like you TIW would undoubtedly be worthwhile. But $100 a head for a meal (even at Disney- $120 with tip?) is not the norm, even for Disney travellers , or at least on a regular basis. Was it worth the price? I spent similar at Narcoosees last year and it certainly wasn't (I was in dining plan though).
You only have to if you want to extract maximum value. The vast majority of people aren’t going to do the math.
I looked at receipts from our last trip. Makes it faster and easier than guessing where you will eat next time
 
We ate at Yachtsman Steakhouse our first night - 7 adults - cocktails and a few bottles of wine brought us up over $750!!!

We have Yachtsman Steakhouse on our schedule in a couple of months. I don't think we will approach $750, but I do think it will be one of our more expensive of the week. :)
 
With our son living in Miami now and not joining us at dining time, we won't buy the TIW card. It will be harder to get to the level needed to pass the purchase price with discounts.
 


I have decided to purchase the TIW card and keep an excel spreadsheet on the results. We go to WDW about 4 times a year so it will take a while to get the tally but our next trip is 2/11 and we are eating at Artist Point, Chef de France and Marrakesh for dinners (at this point) along with breakfasts, lunches and other indulgences. Hopefully, I post our progress as we go. We will purchase the card at D Springs and go straight to the Edison for lunch. They may not be included yet but we'll find out.
 
Question for those familiar with TIW - how is tax and the tip figured in the bill? Thanks
 
Question for those familiar with TIW - how is tax and the tip figured in the bill? Thanks

Tip is 18% based on original bill price. This I am sure of. I am pretty sure tax is based on discounted price.
So a $100 meal would be $80 + $18 + $8 (assuming 10% sales tax). $106 for the whole deal.

I found that when using the card, my bill came out to pretty close to the exact cost of the items I ordered. There was no surprise added charges that people often times forget to account for.
 


For anyone wondering, the Florida sales tax is 6.5%.
 
When TIW use to be cheaper, I believe around $100, it paid for more than itself as we use to travel with a large group of family for a conference every year, so the 2 Cape May meals of 10 people each (overlap of April each yeah), dinners for conference, food court at POFQ (couple times a year since we live in Florida) more than paid for itself. The annual pass discounts over the last year didn't make it worth it, but at the cost now I don't think we will do it. Drop it to $100 and we might be in.
 
When TIW use to be cheaper, I believe around $100, it paid for more than itself as we use to travel with a large group of family for a conference every year, so the 2 Cape May meals of 10 people each (overlap of April each yeah), dinners for conference, food court at POFQ (couple times a year since we live in Florida) more than paid for itself. The annual pass discounts over the last year didn't make it worth it, but at the cost now I don't think we will do it. Drop it to $100 and we might be in.

...or keeping raising dining prices at the rate everything else is going up and $150 will seem like a steal within a couple of years.
 
Here is a sample check for a California Grill brunch for two, with the tip rounded up to 20%:

View attachment 296769
Thanks. I have my excel spreadsheet done and ready. I entered swag amounts for B, L and D for one day and the savings was $31.33 over DVC and AP (10% food only) and $63.65 over no discount at all. I included a signature restaurant for dinner with wine. 1 week of this equals $219.00. Not that its a big deal but the tax reduces too as it is applied to the discounted amount
 
Thanks. I have my excel spreadsheet done and ready. I entered swag amounts for B, L and D for one day and the savings was $31.33 over DVC and AP (10% food only) and $63.65 over no discount at all. I included a signature restaurant for dinner with wine. 1 week of this equals $219.00. Not that its a big deal but the tax reduces too as it is applied to the discounted amount
Keep in mind too that even with things like a Candelight Processional or similar dining package, while there is no discount on the package you can bill drinks separately and apply TIW to that portion. We did that at Biergarten and Marrakech.BTW, I’m a total Excel nerd for all this stuff too. I really like number crunching. Our TIW card expired at the end of December and our net savings was $455 over the 13 months, not adjusted for where we would have seen some other discount -AP, DVC etc.
 
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Keep in mind too that even with things like a Candelight Processional or similar dining package, while there is no discount on the package you can bill drinks separately and apply TIW to that portion. We did that at Biergarten and Marrakech.BTW, I’m a total Excel nerd for all this stuff too. I really like number crunching. Our TIW card expired at the end of December and our net savings was $455 over the 13 months, not adjusted for where we would have seen some other discount -AP, DVC etc.
upload_2018-1-20_16-19-14.png
 
We found that after we broke even on the $150 fee, we eventually saved about 10% on TIW. So this year we just went with the DVC and AP discounts. It means paying full price for liquor, but we are not big drinkers.
 
We're going to get TIW this year for the first and probably only time because we have booked more expensive restaurants. And some of the places we are going are not on the DVC discount list. I called to order the card last week (so there was lots of time for it to make it to Canada) the woman on the phone told me to wait until February to get it so we get two (potential) March Breaks out of the card. She said they last until the end of the month 13 months after you buy it. (Feb 2018-March 2019)
 
We're going to get TIW this year for the first and probably only time because we have booked more expensive restaurants. And some of the places we are going are not on the DVC discount list. I called to order the card last week (so there was lots of time for it to make it to Canada) the woman on the phone told me to wait until February to get it so we get two (potential) March Breaks out of the card. She said they last until the end of the month 13 months after you buy it. (Feb 2018-March 2019)
We are doing the same thing. We could have ordered it this month but don't arrive at WDW until 2/11. I will purchase it then and add a month to our membership. Curious, which restaurants are you planning to visit?
 
I just priced it out and even though we don't drink we will still save around $400 - $150 = $250 in December. We are going again 10 months later for a shorter trip and will save around $200. So for my family of 7 it is worth it this time.
 

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