Dining plan unnecessary when staying at FW?

[dreambound]

We have one planned character meal for our 10 days and otherwise we were planning to have breakfast at our campsite, take snacks with us for midday and eat cs at the parks and then have late night snacks at the campsite.

We were tossing around the idea of the DDP but we wonder we'd spend more than we need if we can be eating breakfast before heading out each morning.

Any thoughts?

[GreatLakes5]

I normally LOVE cooking outside when we camp. Because I don't have my outdoor fire at FW, cooking there feels like cooking in our first apartment when married :) We did the DDP last time we camped and plan on doing it again in February. That said, if we were not planning on being onsite too much then we'd re-think using it. We generally use it only for lunch and dinner and do breakfast at the trailer though we'll do TE breakfast occasionally when I'm feeling a bit lazy or don't want to smell bacon all day in the camper.

I think it's really a lifestyle decision, that whole DDP thing.

[disney6family]

I agree, DDP is a personal lifestyle decision. We like several small snack/ cs meals to share during the day, with a few character meals thrown in. We don't eat TS if it's not a character meal. We also eat breakfast in the trailer. Therefore the DDP would not work for us. It is a lot of food to get the entree, drink and dessert at the CS rest. for every member of our party. We could easily share these portions and our kids don't really prefer most of the kid's meals.

[clkelley]

Since we're annual passholders, the only way the DDP plan makes sense for us is if it is free and we're staying at a value resort.

I do much better at the Fort with a AAA rate, passholder rate, then use the DDE card. (I don't cook at the Fort.)

[terri01p]

I say if you can afford the dining plan without it hurting your budget then get it, you won't be disappointed. Our last trip it just wasn't in our budget to get the DP so we didn't and we wished we could have, but the time before when we went to WDW we had it and it made a world of differents in our trip, we had so much food going it would have made your head swim, we stayed stuffed the whole trip ( fun times ) :banana:

[bevypoo63]

I personally love the dining plan. My husband and I are not breakfast eaters so we feed my son cereal etc in the moterhome and later in the morning we use a snack credit to get a coffee or danish. then we usually share 2 counter service lunches and have a table service dinner later in the day which gives us time to relax before fireworks. With smaller appetites we have plenty of CS credits to split a late breakfast if we want on other days. We never have to worry about money since it is already paid for,and at the end of the trip when there are extra snack credits we go to the Meadows trading Post and pick up bags of disney snack crckers and cookies to take home for later.:cool2:

[Escape Artist]

We have one planned character meal for our 10 days and otherwise we were planning to have breakfast at our campsite, take snacks with us for midday and eat cs at the parks and then have late night snacks at the campsite.

We were tossing around the idea of the DDP but we wonder we'd spend more than we need if we can be eating breakfast before heading out each morning.

Any thoughts?

I *loved* camping with the Disney Dining Plan! It was great not to have to plan any significant food for that portion of our trip, and our trip was much more fun because we got to "dine around the World," trying so many Disney restaurants and seeing so many different resorts.

But it is a tremendous amount of food, and it does really mess with your ability to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, since you need to be able to keep the dining reservations you made before your trip began.

So for me, thinking about 10 days of it? That would be waaaaay too much. I'd book two reservations, one with the dining plan for a few days (maybe 5 days maximum) and other for the rest of my stay without the dining plan.

BTW, you can book your park tickets for a longer time period than your first campsite reservation, so you still get the price break for buying park tickets that include more days. On our last trip, my campsite reservation with the DDP included 10 day park tickets, even though campsite reservation was only for 6 nights. The tickets that came with those cards kept working until we used up all of our 10 park days, even though I'd moved our campsite onto a "room only" reservation and then we spent our last few nights at the Dolphin hotel. I actually had 4 Disney reservations booked back-to-back, and never had to switch our actual campsite (yeah, 2058!) for as long as we were in FW. We saved some money, and had a ton of fun!

Have a great trip! :goodvibes

Sue in Texas

[loriandmatt]

you are not the only ones......

we to will be camping at the fort for 10 days and i only have two ADRs.

We aren't much for breakfast. we will either pack or do counter service for lunch and for dinner we will either eat counter service/eat at the campsite or pick up something off site when DH makes is every 2 or 3 day treck offsite for tobacco or Dunkin Donuts coffee. (he has his vices)

We won't do counter service for lunch and dinner in the same day - and there are plenty of choices at WDW for counter service that doesn't include hot dogs/burgers. (of course a good casey's dog is a must!) We are looking forward to counter service in mexico and at the fish and chips stand in particular!

We have done the Dining Plan before and we grew tired of it. we got to feeling like our entire vacation was centered around food. (getting the most out of what we paid for. keeping those appointments we made for ADRs -eating even when we weren't hungry just because i had to stick to a reservation i had to make 4 months in advance. We grew very tired of this.)

[BeckyScott]

I agree that it's a lifestyle decision.

If you are looking strictly at the $$, I'm sure it would be cheaper to not do DDP and eat meals like you've planned.

But I don't like to cook, and I don't like to clean up, and it's my vacation too!! ;) We'll eat breakfast in the camper, and one night we'll cook out, but other than that, mama's staying out of the kitchen for the week!

[carolinacamper]

I definitely agree that it is a personal choice, and one I have been wrestling with as well. I decided to do the DDP after weighing that I really didn't want to have to plan/shop/prepare meals and snacks or schlep them around the parks all day. We will already be coming back to our site for naps, and I didn't want to take any more time out for fixing meals/snacks. Our kids are 5 and 2 so feeding them on the DDP seemed reasonable. It has given us a great excuse to try restaurants we probalbly wouldn't try otherwise. Finally, I liked the idea of having our TS meals planned in advance. This way we already have ADR's so hopefully we won't be waiting too long for TS meals. Whatever you decide, best wishes for a fabulous trip.

[gkcc]

carolinacamper:

I felt like I was reading about "us" when I read your post, although we haven't made a final decision regarding DDP. We have FW reservations for Oct 27-Nov 4, are from Upstate SC, and have a DD 5 and a DS 2 at travel time.

Thanks to everyone for your opinions on the DDP. My husband and I are having fun deciding how to do this, if we should split our reservation, have lots of ADR/character meals, etc. This will be our first time camping at WDW and we want to make the most of the entire trip. Is it possible, if we book 2 separate ressies with DDP on the first one (and make 10 day ticket purchase), to change our minds and do DDP on the second half of our visit also (without having to buy more tickets)? The cost is not the issue, it is how stuffed do we want to be for the entire trip (or how much weight do I need to lose before we go so I can really enjoy myself :) )

Decisions...decisions...

[olbear]

For us the DP is not needed, as I love to cook for one thing. And I believe I will save money, since it is just DH and I. Also we have the Disney Dining Experience card that saves us 20%.

We do have 5 ADR's planned for our week there. So not too much. And another reason we prefer to not do DDP, I have read some threads where people on it felt very rushed to make all those ADR's, and CS what have you's. And they felt like they missed alot of magic because they felt they had to be so focused on getting all those dining and snack credits used.

As I said, I have planned a few meals to not cook, but I want to really be laid back for the week, and not hurried or too overly planned. It is vacation anyway! Right? Of course I do realize I live an hour and a half away with an annual pass, so I have no reason to get it "All" in. That is a definate plus!!

Blessings
and "good eats" as Alton Brown says! LOL!
Winnie

[OK GRUMPY]

We do not get the ddp. we usally eat a huge breakfast in the morning snack at the park and either have something at the camper or eat out. We wing it alot but the breakfast in the morning really helps us get threw the day. It minimize us wanting snacks. we change thing up alot too! Sometime we will eat breakfast out or lunch or dinner. We are difinatly wingers if you know what I mean! I have thought about the ddp but there are so many times once we are there that our plans change.:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[loveDmouse]

We don't get the ddp either. We eat some in our motorhome and then we eat out some. To me the ddp seems like too much food. Don't get me wrong cause I sure do love to eat just not tons of food. I don't want the focus of our trip to be around food which is how I felt when I was thinking about the ddp before we got our motorhome and changed our ressies from WL to FW.
I am sure it works out well for some it just isn't for us. We actually enjoy cooking out back at the campsite some too.

[Camping Cat]

We have done the Dining Plan before and we grew tired of it. we got to feeling like our entire vacation was centered around food. (getting the most out of what we paid for. keeping those appointments we made for ADRs -eating even when we weren't hungry just because i had to stick to a reservation i had to make 4 months in advance. We grew very tired of this.)

We did the dining plan on our trip in May and we felt exactly the same as you. Although we love eating in the table service restaurants at WDW, having a TS meal every day was too much. On our trip in December (staying 15 days at FW) we'll go back to our usual eating plan at WDW.....a few TS restaurants with friends and the rest CS or eating at the camper. I don't like being tied down to a huge meal every day. If we feel like eating at a TS place and don't have an ADR , we'll see what's available. If you're fexible, there is usually something even at the last minute.

[Tent Camping Mom]

We don't do the DDP either. I used the menus on All Ears and did a spreadsheet to calculate our daily meals/snacks and the cost is much higher for us to do the DDP. We always eat at least one counter service meal and always at least one TS meal everyday but we don't eat appetizers, desserts, nor drink sodas; if we did, the DDP would work for us.

[mrzrich]

We don't do DDP when we camp either. We'll make a few ADR's per trip and do a CS here and there. Last trip I did a lot of crock potting. Threw stuff in the pot in the AM and came home to a hot cheap meal at suppertime.:thumbsup2

We also have AP's and the DDE gives us 20% off our TS.

[kmccain]

I too did a spread sheet to plan our meals, makes it a lot easier! I don't want to have to go to the grocery store while we are there if I can help it. :rolleyes:

I am picking up the groceries along now. I bought some meat and cooked it and froze it so all I have to do is heat it up on the grill when we come back to the camper. We plan on having a big breakfast then come back late afternoon for lunch. Have been contemplating having supper in the afternoon and then a light super at night. :idea:

:tink:

[mousebrain]

Well, the first year we went to Disney and stayed offsite at the Sheraton Safari, the worst part and most expensive part of the whole trip was eating.
The second year we booked a week at the fort, got the dining plan which was mostly paid for by the money we saved by camping in the first place! We got back 2 weeks ago from our 3rd stay at the fort now and third year on the dining plan. To me having the ADR's and everything set up takes a whole load off of my shoulders feeding my hungry crew. Disney is so much more than just the parks... and the DP has helped us to explore the whole world (almost). This year was the best yet and as we figure out the tricks to the game it just gets better and better!

:thumbsup2 :thumbsup2
Mousebrain

[gillenkl]

We just got back from the Fort - on the DDP - and I didn't realize that there is no counter service (quick service) available at FW. This was really disappointing to us - but we made the best of it and hit all the monorail hotels for CS. It worked out, but it really wasn't very convenient for us.

[christinou]

I does not work for us, we always come back to the camper around lunch time to rest and eat, our kids are also now considered adults 10 and 12, and they certainly would never eat that much food.

[dreambound]

Thanks everyone. We decided against it, for now. It would be worth it if we planned on doing a lot more character meals, but as it stands we only have two planned and we really don't eat much. We all eat breakfast pretty quickly after waking in the morning, so we'll eat in the camper for breakfast. Usually one counter service meal and a treat (mickey bar, etc) takes care of us until evening, when we snack on something again.

We also know that we all tend to not get hungry at the same time at the parks so someone is always picking up something along the way. Turkey legs, fries, etc. By the time we got to our ADRs, someone is going to either be not hungry or desperately starved and cranky. ADRs would basically put us on a schedule rather than a plan and knowing my family on vacation, we're better off with a plan and not a tight schedule.

Thanks for the advice! One day if dh and I ever go to WDW on our own, you bet I'll be getting the dining plan! YAY!