Disney dining discounts deliver delight when deliberating the dollar's deepening dive.

"All right, don't practice your alliteration on me"

Maybe I have managed to pique your interest, just slightly, in the wonders of WDW. 

Perhaps even gotten you interested in going over for a meal or two?

It may be that in doing your own WDW research, you have noticed there are rather a lot of dining options and rather a lot of food.

Given the Aussie Dollar is now starting to slide away from the USD, I'm looking for any discount I can get so I can still eat like a king - rather than stand in a car park sucking an ice cube. 

FREE FOOD?! I'm sooooo there.

We have already explored that WDW is HUGE! 

Look at it! The huge lump! Just like my arse. Which is kinda congruent really. Cause dining at WDW is how my arse got to its "huge lump" state.         OK.........ONE of the causes.

What Disney want, is for you to stay on property and never leave. And spend all your money there.

One way in which they lock you in is to sell you a dining plan attached to your Disney resort accommodation booking.  These dining plans come in different sizes for different budgets and different desires. The Disney Food Blog does a very good job of explaining how the plan works.

So if you are going to join Mrs. Banks and our other Zonta friends who are having a little WDW holiday in the week before International Convention, you may want to work out if the Dining Plan is a sensible option for you.

To work this out is very easy - or really really hard -you just need to, for every meal:

• work out where you want to eat
• what you want to eat,
• the price of all that food compared to the chosen dining plan price.

Excel is my 2nd best friend

The WDW Dining and All ears.net are the go-to websites to check out the menus and prices.  At the DISboard Dining Reviews everyone is food critic! with photos!

Every single menu from every single dining option - AllEars - I luvs you

I have done the Deluxe Dining Plan a couple of times, and it was fabulous to eat amazing, top class, table service meals every night of the trip, at a decent discount and ...... well .... we're back to the size of my arse again, aren't we? But it is A LOT of food - maybe too much.


Another option is to get an Annual Pass or get a friend with an Annual Pass - like me. I have an Annual Pass! With an Annual Pass, for $100 I can purchase a 'Tables in Wonderland' membership and eat almost everywhere with a 20% discount on food and beverages. And I take 9 friends with me and the whole meal scores the discount.

My precious

Read those restaurant menus and decide where you would like to dine. Then whip out your excel spreadsheet and start doing your sums. The best option will be different depending on your family size and your hunger levels.

If you are an obsessive-compulsive planner, this is HEAVEN!

If you are not, then just tag along to my restaurant bookings.

So rabid, hungry readers, what is your favourite dining cuisine?

Go, Little Aussie Battler!!

We all know the AUD is at an all time high.

courtesy: Ozforex

Aussie holiday travellers have been as excited as a bunch of Disney Fans at the re-launch of Captain EO.

At this unprecendented time it is easy to get emotional and caught up in the action - then make decisions out of time.

The little Aussie battler pointing out my failings

So what do you do when our trip to Orlando isn't until 2014 and you want to take advantage NOW of the best exchange rate in 30 years?

Sure you can go the time honoured way and stash some USD cash in your big impenetrable safe

Nice to see kiddies toys remembering "time honoured" burglary. Ummm .... what's the compressed air for?

Time has moved on - for travel cash, kids toys and even for criminals

"Drop it punk! Your bottles are more than 100mls"

But some modernity is actually useful .. and it comes in the form of Travel Cards.

The two big players are ANZ and Travelex. They charge practically the same (1% of loaded amount), offer the same currencies, they work in the same way and their exchange rates are among the best you can get. Open an account on line, EFT your AUD to buy your USD and lock in your exchange rate now. The big advantage of these cards over cash or travellers cheques is that you can use them like a credit card and pay bills online or as a debit card in an ATM.

Your account can be topped up online via EFT from your bank account at any time from the comfort from your home.

So we're not going to Convention until 2014 but you can take advantage of our little Aussie Battler right now.