how much extra $$ did you spend on food?

[snoopy5386]

We are considering getting the DP for our trip this fall. I am crunching the numbers now to see if it is worth it for us. I am wondering how much extra money did you spend on food above and beyond the plan? Everything from drinks in the park, ice cream, breakfast, etc. If you didn't spend any extra $$, well then how did you do that? We usually bring waters into the park with us, and eat breakfast in the room, I guess we would still do this on the DP. Is that what others do?

[mkycrzy1971]

That is EXACTLY what we do too...we are not big breakfast eaters so a quick breakfast in the room is fine. We normally plan on about $20 extra out of pocket for food each day (for 2 people) NOT including tips...we hardly ever spend this much, but it is always a safe # for us. Have fun!

[Wife2Grumpy]

Our last visit to Disney was December of 2006.
When I originally planned the trip I was not sure if we should do the dining plan.
I first figured all the restaurants I originally planned to eat at and what the cost
would be without the plan. Then I figured what the cost would be with the plan.
It actually was a savings to do the plan. We got to try some restaurants that
I would not have chosen w/o the plan. Of course, this was before they made
changes and now I am not sure if it would be a savings. We enjoyed the plan,
but I am not sure I would do it again for a while. I have 2 kids that just became
"adults" in Disney standards. They tend to not like the adult food yet, and it is
just not cost effective to pay the adult price for the plan for them. When they
get older I could see us doing it again.
I leave in little over a month and will be basically traveling solo. (Hubby will be at
a conference at the Dolphin.) I could not get the plan this time because of
staying at the Dolphin. I doubt I would have anyway.

[pooch]

our CS meals between 2 people (the portions a huge!) so we split a CS breakfast & a CS lunch. 2 SCs in the afternoon or late evening get us a snack and a drink. We then are hungry enough to eat our own TS. We really only spent $ for a few (ok more than a few!) alcoholic beverages. So we'd figure maybe $20 per day extra. Even with the changes in the plan, I think its still plenty of food, will just add an approx tip figure in. Last year's TS meals averaged about $80 for 2 so, now without appys, maybe $12 - $15 tops for tips ( say it 3 times fast!) so I'm planning about $30-35 per day total not per person. But probably won't spend it all.

[TDC Nala]

When I used it, I spent maybe $20 a day (maybe more) on alcoholic beverages.

[snoopy5386]

Thanks, we won't have to worry about alcohol since we don't drink, but we will be feeding our 2 year old on our plans so that is where our extra food will go.

[TDC Nala]

sorry, it wasn't clear that you wanted to know how much extra was spent on food for a child under 3.

[belleatheart]

When we went the last time we did not spend any extra money on food to keep us full through the day and had snack credits to use in the end. The bit we used extra was for goofy candy co. we got some apples, and rice crispy treats.

[choirfarm]

I read about people splitting some of the regular desserts at menus and then asking for the fruit plate (healthy, diabetic option) for a couple of the other desserts and then boxing them up to eat as breakfast in the room the next morning. I'm going to try hard not to spend any extra money other than maybe for the refillable mugs.

Christine

[snoopy5386]

thanks, having the 2 yr old certainly shakes things up a bit. I do of course, plan to spend extra on feeding her as well, especially since she is not a fan of most fast food items.

[ExtinctDino]

Between splitting CS meals and using snack credits as meals we spend almost nothing OOP when we're on DDP. A bottle of wine at Le Cellier, a couple of coffee drinks at the water parks, and a refillable mug or two. The DDP included 2 breakfast drinks, and we used 1 for water bottles to take to the parks. You can also get cups of ice water for free at the snack stands at the parks. With enough ice in it even the non-bottled water tastes decent enough. Now that the DDP doesn't cover appetizers, we'll spend a little more OOP. And of course like everyone else we'll now have to pay the tips.

[kristenz]

Last time I went my DD was 4 and on the plan and my DS was 2 and not. He's a fairly big eater so we did spend a little extra on CS meals for him - but only once or twice the whole time. Other than that, he ate off everyone else's plates (a little from each). with the snack credits, that covered most of our water - just a few extra water bottles, and we did breakfast in the room. Our primary OOP were for the extra character breakfasts beyond the number of TS we had. Both kids LOVED Play 'N Dine (big JoJo and Little Einstien fans!). Next time we go we'll have the tip as OOP as well, but otherwise didn't spend much of anything OOP.

[hoosiergirl7]

We've never done the DDP and as of right now, never plan to. We usually have a light breakfast at the resort. For the 3 of us it costs around $8-$10 depending on what we get. DH and I usually split a CS for lunch or I get a kids meal just like DS does. Still usually under $15 for all of us. Then we'll either do a CS for dinner or a TS. I can't eat as much food as you get on the DDP. I would gain a LOT of weight and/or I would waste a lot of food. If I'm going to spend the money, I don't want to waste the food. I guess if it still included gratuity then maybe it might appeal to me and if they gave you the choice between appetizer and dessert then it would be a no-brainer. DH and I would split an appetizer and a dessert.

[EHakkinen]

We opted not to use the DP - I know we never would have done a sit-down meal every day. I kept all our receipts, and for 2 adults and 1 3 year old, we spent about $50-$60 a day on food. We do less meals and more snacks, since it is too hot to really fill up on a meal. If I remember correctly, the DP would have costed more than this per day, and I would have eaten more just to get our money's worth. That is never a good thing!

[Hmbldr]

We did DDP and barely spent anything over the plan. We did have a supply of waters from the room and some ate light (poptarts, etc.) from the room also. We used all our snack credits for muffins, fruit, juice from the BC marketplace for breakfast. The meals, both CS and TS left us quite full. Sometimes, if convenient, we took a spare dessert with us for later. Baklava from Tangerine Cafe, Cookies from Yakitori House, Choclate cake from Columbia Harbour House. Sodas and waters at CS orders usually left us with one or two waters to carry out. I think I may have bought one or two waters all week. A glass of wine at Le Cellier, an appetizer somewhere else because it looked so good. Really, probably $5 or $10 a day would be all.

[disneyfav4ever]

I have the deluxe plan, so I'm not planning on taking any extra money for food, just for alcohol.

[Mom2JPL]

We did the dining plan last Oct with 3 kids - 1, 2 and 3 at the time of trip. Never spent a penny over the dining plan (even with only having 3 of us on the plan!). I guess I planned pretty well - our ts each day was a buffet with characters, and we split out cs between lunch and breakfast, or used snack credits for our breakfast. Worked great, and are doing it again this November, but this year it'll be 4 of us on the plan (kids will be 2, 3 and turning 5 on the trip).

I've already figured out the tips for each of our meals (roughly) and will have them separated into envelopes before we even head to WDW. This way, there are no surprises. We are going to add in 2 ts meals oop, and again, I've got those prices figured out and will have that money set aside too.

Have fun planning!

[wishesUT]

When we went last year we had my 4 year old and almost 2 year old. At the buffets my 2 year old got his own plate and and as CS locations we had him split with the 4 year old or share with us. There were a couple of occassions where we bought him his own meal, but it doesn't seem too bad when you're only buying one child's meal. Trust me that you'll have a lot of food to share. Besides that we did buy a few snacks OOP, but then we had snack credits left at the end, so this year we won't be so hesitant to use a snack credit for popcorn or a soda if we feel like it. We were trying too hard to get the most bang for our buck. This year we have one breakfast at CP and lunch at Sci-Fi that we're planning on paying for OOP. We usually just eat a breakfast of cereal in the room and then hit a CS early for lunch.

[snoopy5386]

Thanks, I know it will be a lot of food, especially at the TS meals. DH likes having 1 sit down meal every day, I could do without, but it is his vacation too. I always used to get a kids meal at CS when it was just me, but now that we have DD, 1 kids meal won't feed the 2 of us, so I figure 1 adult CS meal is about $10 and 2 kids meals is about $10 so it is even. We do plan to do several buffets and just split our other TS meals with her. I have an ice cream bar every single day I am at WDW so there goes my snack credit and DH likes his treats too, plus we will be there during F&W so I know some snack credits will go towards that. I guess I will budget approx $10 extra a day for drinks and snacks.

[tlriv5]

Our last trip was our first on the dp and it happened to be a lucky one and be the free dp. Our 3 girls were 8, 8 and 10 at the time and the only thing I bought oop was two ice cream cones and that was because dh was on RnR with all of our cards. We used snack credits for our breakfasts at our resort and sometimes my dd and I would share a counter service. This wasn't intentional, it just worked out best for us. We are paying for the dp this trip, because we loved the ease of it. I wish I didn't have to worry about tips, but that's ok. Oh, we had snack credits left our last day and we got some fruit for our ride home.:cool1:

[ExtinctDino]

My son will be an adult under the plan for the first time when we go for free DDP in August. He would just live on snack credits - popcorn and Mickey bars - if we let him. We'll do some buffets, but otherwise there's no way we'd need to use all 3 adult TS credits at one meal. It would be way more than we could eat.

[Girly_Qs]

Not a penny.

And we took home a *bunch* of "snacks" (big bags of Mickey Pretzels and boxes of Mickey cookies from the shop in our resort).

We'll be doing the same thing this year!

[jrandtysmom]

This thread is so interesting to me because on paper I can't figure out how to not have OOP for a couple of meals. This is our first trip and the first time using the DDP. I don't want to do the deluxe because that would be WAY too much food. We want to do a few Character breakfasts but still would need dinner. Maybe once I get there and realize what the snack credits will cover it will all make better sense. :confused: I currently have 9 TS ADR's (one meal is Hoop De Doo Revue so that is 2TS) but only have 6 TS credits to use? What do others do for dinner on days you use your TS for breakfast and CS for lunch? I figured with all the walking we would be hungry and need the 3 meals a day? So confused!

[pooch]

part of the reason we don't eat 3 meals a day down there is - ITS HOT!!! This sucks the appetite out of me like nothing else! If I ate a sit down buffet breakfast, that would hold me until very late in the afternoon. CS meal would be more of a dinner than a lunch. A small snack or drink between breakfast & dinner & probably another one later in the evening & we're all good. All the walking makes me thirsty not hungry!!

[Girly_Qs]

Well, first off: we have no breakfast ADR's at all -
1) we're not big breakfast eaters
2) I am ALL about the Park 1st thing in the AM

We also don't have any 2TS credit ADR's.

So, each day - we'll have a small breakfast (snacks in the room or snack credit), we'll have an early lunch (1 TS, the rest CS), and we have relatively early dinner ADR's. We plan on 1 larger meal per day (TS generally fulfills that), 1 lighter meal (CS), and snack/bfast. Some of our snack credits are already 'accounted' for - like Dole Whips, but I'm still confident we won't use all of them.

Our 2yo will do just fine between the buffets, and sharing off of our and her sister's plates (allowed by DDP, as she's under 3). And, we always allow for an afternoon break and utilize our resort mugs for drinks there (as well as carrying water at almost all times).

Now, granted that last years' DDP included an appetizer, but we ate ourselves absolutely silly and still had at least 1/2-dozen snack credit left to burn in the resort shop on our last night (in prep for our trip home).