May Need a mathematician!

[Kwesty]

Ok. I'm trying to figure out the best deal for my family. I've never done the dining plan (free or otherwise) but we are going at the end of January when the free dining plan is offered.

My husband has a conference at CSR and his company will pay for three nights there, we'll be staying four nights total and be there for five days. My two kids (6, 12) and I will be doing three days at the parks but my husband will only be able to go one day. We will be eating extensively in the parks/resorts but mostly TS meals.

Would it pay for us to do the Magic Your Way deal for the three of us (excluding my husband) to get the free dining. And just pay for the one day park ticket for him. (His company would reimburse us for the cost of the room for three days, we would pay for the forth night.)

Also, two of our meals are on days we won't have park tickets. The evening we get there we will have dinner at O'Hanas and the day we come home we are eating breakfast at Boma. So will the free dining cover this?

This is probably clear as mud! But would love any input and/or suggestions.

K

[Pirate Granny]

Both those restaurants are on the dining palm. HOWEVER everyone in the room has to have the dining plan..your husband will have to get it, however, you and children can use his meals. If you have to get MTW you all would have to get the same tickets, I believe there is a two day minimum.

[gerald72]

Correct.
Both the arrival day and departure day meals would be covered.
Everyone in the room has to be on the same plan.
Your husband would be wasting two park days, but someone else could eat his meals. Which would give you extra, covering the arrival or departure day meals.
Without doing the math, this would probably be your best option- if the dining is free.
If you pay for dining out of pocket, get room only reservations with separate park admissions.

[DizneyRox]

Also, not sure if his company would enjoy paying rack rates for rooms so that others can enjoy "free" dining. The rooms could be much cheaper if you didn't get the package (they usually are).

You may need to find out what the rules are for his company. At mine, they will pay for the room and up to a certain amount in food expenses per day, and booking needs to be done through their travel company.

[Kwesty]

Thanks everyone for the great knowledge. I'm still trying to crunch the numbers.

His company will actually reimburse us the room rate they are paying for each night, which is nice but it may not work out to be a better deal.
I was never very good at math...

We just found out our departure flight is at 10 a.m. (only one going into Cincinnati that day) so our Boma breakfast is out.