First Disney trip with 3 young boys.

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Mommyof3boys2017

Earning My Ears

Joined

Aug 25, 2016

• Aug 25, 2016

• #1

I am planning my families first trip to Disney for next fall. I was hoping to go during free dining but we are hoping to go in October and there doesn't seem to be free dining when we can go. I wonder if paying for dining would be worth it for us (would be $207/day)? We aren't big foodies, burgers and fries are more our style most days. We'll be staying on resort but with a car to get quick breakfasts in our room and snacks to take into the parks. My boys will be 8, 6, & 3 so not big eaters there. I just kinda don't want to miss out on dining experiences because of sticker shock. Is there a better way to food budget than dining plans? TIA

 

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smiths02

DIS Veteran

Joined

Feb 13, 2009

• Aug 25, 2016

• #2

How long are you going for? I'm not a big advocate of the dining plan, but if you want to do some character meals, it might work well for you. While $207 a day is a lot, you are at a point in your life where this will be the cheapest it is going to get for you because Disney charges 10 years old and over as adults. (If you are talking about the regular dining plan with a sit down meal included, remember that you will also have to pay tips, so it will still cost something while on your trip)

If you are there for a week and will be okay with only one or two character meals, then you might do better to pay at each meal.

wdwinfo.com has a lot of menus and prices and you can get an idea what you might order or spend.

There is also a website that has a calculator that does good comparison of the value of the DDP. I'm sure someone will post it soon, I don't have it handy.

 

jeepnjudy

DIS Veteran

Joined

Sep 13, 2009

• Aug 25, 2016

• #3

This depends on you and your families needs/wants and how much you are willing to spend. We eat breakfast in our room, pack in a lunch so we avoid waiting in those long lunch lines, and then treat ourselves to a nice TS meal each evening we are there and still come in way under budget compared to any of the meal plans. We are the type of family that would rather spend that money elsewhere.

 

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Mommyof3boys2017

Earning My Ears

Joined

Aug 25, 2016

• Aug 25, 2016

• #4

We are planning 6 days, and I was really hoping to keep it around $100-$150/day for food. I'd rather use the money for something else, maybe Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween (which will run us about $500 so I'm not sure about that either!) There's just so much to consider when planning a Disney trip!

 

jvz82

DIS Veteran

Joined

Oct 28, 2013

• Aug 25, 2016

• #5

I have 4 kids and we're doing a dining plan. We wanted to do some character meals this time (we've never done one before) and my kids have ENORMOUS appetites so I decided it was worth it for us. We've never done a dining plan before so we'll see how it goes!

From what I've read, it doesn't really save money to do the dining plan. From a budgeting stand point it can be nice to have the food pre-paid for though. Personally I don't want to deal with preparing lunches for 4 kids and 2 adults every day. I just want to eat at Disney! We'll eat breakfast in the resort (something quick and easy), since none of us are big breakfast eaters, and eat a super early lunch to beat the crowds.

 

roseaster

DIS Veteran

Joined

Apr 9, 2013

• Aug 25, 2016

• #6

I think if your kids are more the burgers/fries/nuggets type it would probably just be cheaper to pay out of pocket.

You can go here: http://allears.net/dining/menu and look at prices and get a ballpark of what you might spend and compare it with the dining plan.

 

ChasingLeslie

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jan 23, 2015

• Aug 26, 2016

• #7

IMO, if it's in your budget, I would recommend getting the dining plan and experiencing some character meals. Enjoy the child prices while your oldest is still under 10. It's such a classic Disney experience!

However, if you are not interested in character meals, then definitely go OOP.

 

Pesky

"Who's the monkey?!"

Joined

Apr 9, 2012

• Aug 26, 2016

• #8

Agree to look at the menus and get a sense of pricing based on your eating habits. If you are primarily doing CS for your meals, I think you'll be okay. It can also depend on how crazy you might go with buying snacks -- popcorn for everyone or they share? Buying bottled water or grabbing a free cup of iced water at CS? I would definitely plan to pay OOP for a character meal or two. You can look at some of the reviews to decide where you're going to get the most bang for your buck and preferred food. FWIW, we opted to go OOP as well, based on past history, with breakfast in our room, carrying some snacks along the healthier variety, and giving us the freedom to choose meals as we like, including just eating around the world during F&W for lunch or dinner. We chose to do HDDR which is a more expensive option and Tusker House for our lone character meal, plus a fancy parents' only dinner with the kids at the kids' club.

 

MagicSoup

Earning My Ears

Joined

Jun 6, 2016

• Aug 26, 2016

• #9

Here's a dining calculator that a previous poster mentioned: http://www.distripplanner.com/

I would definitely recommend doing a character meal or two! Breakfast and lunch are often less expensive than dinner.

There are lots of articles with other tips for how to get the best value for your money. There are also lots of articles for how to get the most value from the Dining Plan, if you look at those and decide that's a fit for how you would likely be eating anyway then the dining plan might be a good fit.

If you like the pre-paid aspect you could load your dining budget onto a gift card, that way if you don't max out you have bonus souvenir money.

 

roseaster

DIS Veteran

Joined

Apr 9, 2013

• Aug 26, 2016

• #10

Mommyof3boys2017 said:

We are planning 6 days, and I was really hoping to keep it around $100-$150/day for food. I'd rather use the money for something else, maybe Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween (which will run us about $500 so I'm not sure about that either!) There's just so much to consider when planning a Disney trip!

Click to expand...

If your kids aren't big eaters, and are more likely to stick to the nuggets/burgers/fries type of thing then I would stick to paying out of pocket.

I might, if I were you, plan 1 character meal just for the fun of it and so the kids could meet the characters (if they would enjoy that type of thing) Chef Mickey's has the main characters and has really "kid friendly" food, BTW.

Personally, I would absolutely recommend MNSSHP. I know it's expensive, but my kids so loved it. We just skipped getting a park ticket for that day, and hung out at the pool and headed over to MK at 4pm. The party doesn't start until 7, but they will let you in at 4.

 

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shalynvalentine

Earning My Ears

Joined

Aug 23, 2016

• Aug 28, 2016

• #11

Just a little reference for you to help you decide... I took my daughter and her 3 friends for an overnight stay at All Star Music. The dinner for the 4 of us cost close to $70.00.

 

TigerlilyAJ

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jul 19, 2011

• Aug 29, 2016

• #12

Mommyof3boys2017 said:

We are planning 6 days, and I was really hoping to keep it around $100-$150/day for food. I'd rather use the money for something else, maybe Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween (which will run us about $500 so I'm not sure about that either!) There's just so much to consider when planning a Disney trip!

Click to expand...

I would really look hard at the menus posted above, get a spreadsheet going, and be honest with yourself about snacks you can bring vs. things you know the kids will want in the parks (ice cream, seasonal treats). I had a budget of $100/day when I went to DLR in 2012 with my three sons, who were then 8, 5, and 2.8yo. So, we had two adults, two kids, and a free toddler (free at character meals and buffets). We had a hotel that did a hot breakfast buffet every morning. We only did about six TS/character meals over two weeks there. We ate many dinners at the restaurants outside the parks--and I don't mean the pricey Downtown Disney options. And I still pinched, mainly eating Zone bars and kid leftovers for my own lunch, to meet that $100 constraint. I would think it might be near impossible for five in 2016 at WDW. $150/day would be easier, but before Free Dining came up, I was budgeting $200/day for our upcoming trip.
Any more info you can give us about desire for character meals? TS vs. QS you might prefer? Plans for breakfast in your room? so we can give better suggestions?