10 days of QSDP(UK Plan)-How much did we cost Disney? Update 8/9, last day on Page 4 - The DIS Discussion Forums

Rienchen · 07-31-2012, 02:34 PM

I've been home from WDW for about 2.5 months now and I think it's finally time to get my reviews online. I want to go back so badly but it won't happen for a couple of years, so this dining review will have to cheer me up for the time being.

My mum and I went to WDW from 5/2-5/12, so we were there for 10 nights.
We were lucky to be there at a time when UK guests had free dining included in their booking with a moderate (or above) resort.
We chose Coronado Springs Resort and had QSDP included, which we were excited about.
We never once thought about upgrading to regular dining plan as we just didn't want to deal with reservations and planning our days too far ahead.
Last time my mum and I went to WDW back in 2006, we both were on a tight budget(I was an Aupair in New York at the time) so we hardly bought any meals at the parks, I do remember getting a double cheeseburger and extra bun, that's how tight our budget was ;-)
So it was such a nice and welcome change to just order whatever we wanted whenever we wanted

So here are the details:

who: me(29) and mum(51)
when: 5/2/12 - 5/12/12
where: Coronado Springs Resort
what: Quick service Dining Plan UK version
40 dining credits
40 snack credits
2 refillable mugs

So, here's the game: guess how much we cost Disney, or rather guess how much food we didn't pay for ;-)Of course we ate more than we would have eaten had we paid out of pocket, but it was still fun to keep track of the amounts and we had a little shock afterwards.
We didn't buy a single snack or meal out of pocket apart from a trip to the mall and our meal at the airport.

Let the fun begin

Direct Links:
Day 1 and 2 Airplane Food, 1st visit to WPE, Jalapeno Pretzel, The Mara, Captn Cooks
Day 3 and 4 Columbia Harbour House, Cafe Rix, Pepper Marke Breakfast Buffet, WPE, Goofy's Candy
Day 5 and 6 Starring Rolls, Writer's Shop, Sunshine Seasons, Fife & Drum, Tangierine Cafe, The Mara
Day 7 and 8 Earl Of Sandwich, Contempo Cafe, Columbia Harbour House, Aloha Isle, WPE
Day 9 and 10 Cafe Rix, Rosie's All American Cafe(HS), Tangierine Cafe, Karamell Kuche, Mickie Pretzel, Capt. Cooks
Day 11 WPE, Goofy's Candy, Cafe Rix

Rienchen · 07-31-2012, 03:52 PM

Day 1

Alrighty, we left our house around 7am(UK time) and finally arrived at CSR around 5:30 US time, so a whopping 15.5 hours later.
We were exhausted but knew we had to go and eat a little something, especially after the rather bland airplane food.

Instead of heading out into a theme park, we decided to start the dining plan at a restaurant we were very excited to try:

Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney
We shared a spicy chicken Pizza, a creme brulee, my mum had a fountain drink and I had some tap water.

The pizza was good, not amazing but good. I would have liked it a bit more *spicy* but I liked the thin base as I'm not a big fan of chewy, doughy pizza bases.

Creme Brulee was nice too.
we will definitely try both of these items again sometime during our trip but this was a good start to our Disney trip.

The meal came to $23.28

We had a quick look around Goofy's Candy to check out some of the snacks we will be spending our snack credits on later this week.

On the way back to our room, we stopped at Rix Market at Coronado Springs Resort to purchase our refillable mugs and some fruit for breakfast.(no picture of this)

The mugs came to $30.87 and the fruit was $3.99(plus tax, no idea how much that was as I can't find the receipt)
39/40 Dining credits remaining
39/40 snack credits remaining
total spent: $58.14

Day 2

We decided to make Animal Kingdom our first park as we were still pretty tired and wanted to be completely rested for Magic Kingdom.

After a breakfast at the hotel of a few bites of fruit(purchased the previous day) and a scone(brought from the UK) we arrived for 'rope drop' and went to the Safari first, followed by the 10:30 showing of 'Festival of the Lion King', a favourite of ours

We're not used to the heat and went in search of a snack afterwards and decided on a Jalapeno cream cheese Pretzel and a Odwalla Mango Smoothie to share

We absolutely loved the pretzel, just the right amount of spice and I will always hunt one of these babies down whenever I visit WDW.
The smoothie was okay, not sure why we chose it as water would have been just fine and I almost felt like it was a bit of a waste of snack credit at the time. Like I said, the smoothie was good and tasted nicely of Mango but not as refreshing as water would have been.

The two snacks came to $9.04

After the Nemo Musical, Primeval Whirl(which we loved), Triceratop Spin and the 2pm Flights Of Wonder show we decided we had enough and needed a break and some lunch.

I had done quite a bit of research before our trip and was very keen to go out to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to eat at 'The Mara'.
We took the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge but weren't entirely sure what stop to get off at, but we did manage to find it at the end.
Animal Kingdom Lodge is such a beautiful resort and we took our time walking and looking around.

We each felt like having a salad so we chose the 'Mara salad' with chicken, greens with lentils, feta, chick peas, chicken and tomatoes. One of the best salads I have ever had and so filling with all that protein! Delicious!
We each had the pomegranate ice tea and chose the pineapple and carrot cake for dessert.
We saved the fruit for the next day and just shared the cake, which wasn't a very good carrot cake but enough to satisfy our sweet tooth after the meal. I make a pretty good carrot cake, so this wasn't up to my standards ;-)

The meal came to $35.73

We went back to our hotel, which took a while as we had to go to one of the parks first and then go to Coronado Springs Resort from there but we didn't mind as we each had a seat and were in the airconditioning away from the heat.

After a couple of hours break at the digsite pool we headed back out. This time to the Polynesian Resort. Again, I had done some research as I didn't want us to get bored on the quick service meals so we planned on eating at many different places to get a good variety of food.

I had the Multigrain Turkey Sandwich with fries, mum had the stir fry noodles with chicken, we each grabbed a bottle of vitamin water from the fridge to take with us as we couldn't finish the entire drink with our meal. I had the orange zero flavour and mum had dragonfruit Power C, hers was definitely nicer.
For dessert we shared a dole whip and a macadamia chocolate cupcake, which just looked amazing and earned us many jealous looks on the bus that night as we took this back to the hotel for later.

The turkey sandwich was good but the fries were disappointing. Don't think my mum enjoyed the noodles much either. Not a meal we would repeat.
The dolewhip was a favourite of ours back in 2006, so we had to have one here.
This was self serve and I know I could have fit more into the cup, but this was more than enough for us.

The meal came to $34.66

Afterwards I told mum that I wanted to have a walk around the resort, but didn't tell her that we'd be able to watch Wishes from the beach here, which we both enjoyed. She hadn't done any research at all and was amazed by all the great things I had found, and this was only day one!

The trip home took a while as we went to Downtown Disney via bus and then back to our resort.
What a fabulous first day

35/40 Dining credits remaining
38/40 snack credits remaining
total spent: $137.57

nutz2notz · 07-31-2012, 04:21 PM

Great start to your reviews! The turkey sandwich looks so good and that cupcake looks amazing.

Looking forward to more!

nanienamou · 07-31-2012, 04:33 PM

Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to read more!

IrisSphere · 07-31-2012, 07:51 PM

I'm hooked - I want to know what the total was! Also researching snacks for our Dining Plan, so curious to know what you end up getting.

Also the Pretzel looks amazing - I think i might make it my meal all on its own!

MrsB1228 · 07-31-2012, 08:19 PM

I'm in! Really enjoying your reviews and looking forward to the next installment!

Nohal · 07-31-2012, 08:39 PM

Looking forward to the rest of your reviews

Sheaboys · 08-01-2012, 06:35 AM

looking forward to reading more.

dixonsontour · 08-01-2012, 07:29 AM

Great start

pumba · 08-01-2012, 07:38 AM

thank you for your reviews so far....I always love to read or look at the food others have eaten ..
Thanks again

Disneyof3 · 08-01-2012, 09:43 AM

Great start. Can't wait to hear more. I was thinking the next time we head to WDW to try all the resorts CS. Great idea. Keeps things different

chocolateMinnie · 08-01-2012, 10:59 AM

great start - interested in what else you find. Found the Mara to be ok but not as nice as other deluxe cs.

butiflfeet · 08-01-2012, 11:18 AM

It all looks pretty yummy so far! I can't wait to see what's next

Tracerr00 · 08-01-2012, 11:43 AM

Great start to your reviews!! I really love the idea of keeping thing exciting by visiting different CS places.

Thank you because now we get to see quite a variety of CS foods. I'm excited for day two!

crazyfordisney2000 · 08-01-2012, 12:35 PM

That cupcake looks amazing! Did it have macadamia nuts inside too, or just on the frosting?

07-31-2012, 02:34 PM	#1
Rienchen Real Life Mary Poppins Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: London, UK Posts: 356	10 days of QSDP(UK Plan)-How much did we cost Disney? Update 8/9, last day on Page 4 I've been home from WDW for about 2.5 months now and I think it's finally time to get my reviews online. I want to go back so badly but it won't happen for a couple of years, so this dining review will have to cheer me up for the time being. My mum and I went to WDW from 5/2-5/12, so we were there for 10 nights. We were lucky to be there at a time when UK guests had free dining included in their booking with a moderate (or above) resort. We chose Coronado Springs Resort and had QSDP included, which we were excited about. We never once thought about upgrading to regular dining plan as we just didn't want to deal with reservations and planning our days too far ahead. Last time my mum and I went to WDW back in 2006, we both were on a tight budget(I was an Aupair in New York at the time) so we hardly bought any meals at the parks, I do remember getting a double cheeseburger and extra bun, that's how tight our budget was ;-) So it was such a nice and welcome change to just order whatever we wanted whenever we wanted So here are the details: who: me(29) and mum(51) when: 5/2/12 - 5/12/12 where: Coronado Springs Resort what: Quick service Dining Plan UK version 40 dining credits 40 snack credits 2 refillable mugs So, here's the game: guess how much we cost Disney, or rather guess how much food we didn't pay for ;-)Of course we ate more than we would have eaten had we paid out of pocket, but it was still fun to keep track of the amounts and we had a little shock afterwards. We didn't buy a single snack or meal out of pocket apart from a trip to the mall and our meal at the airport. Let the fun begin Direct Links: Day 1 and 2 Airplane Food, 1st visit to WPE, Jalapeno Pretzel, The Mara, Captn Cooks Day 3 and 4 Columbia Harbour House, Cafe Rix, Pepper Marke Breakfast Buffet, WPE, Goofy's Candy Day 5 and 6 Starring Rolls, Writer's Shop, Sunshine Seasons, Fife & Drum, Tangierine Cafe, The Mara Day 7 and 8 Earl Of Sandwich, Contempo Cafe, Columbia Harbour House, Aloha Isle, WPE Day 9 and 10 Cafe Rix, Rosie's All American Cafe(HS), Tangierine Cafe, Karamell Kuche, Mickie Pretzel, Capt. Cooks Day 11 WPE, Goofy's Candy, Cafe Rix __________________ Disneyland Paris Daytrips in 1998, 1999 and 2002 Disneyland Paris 2 Days/1 Night at the Sequoia Lodge in 1998 Disneyland Paris 3 Days/2 Nights at the Hotel Cheyenne in 2000Walt Disney World April 2004 2 Days(Off Site Youth Hostel) Mother Daughter Trip to WDW offsite April 2006 WDW December 2008 ASMu 2 nannies on a mission to find Mary Poppins at Disneyland Paris-a November 2011 Trip Report Dining Review in Progress: Please take a guess how much we cost the Mouse? Last edited by Rienchen; 08-09-2012 at 05:14 PM.

07-31-2012, 03:52 PM	#2
Rienchen Real Life Mary Poppins Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: London, UK Posts: 356	Day 1 Alrighty, we left our house around 7am(UK time) and finally arrived at CSR around 5:30 US time, so a whopping 15.5 hours later. We were exhausted but knew we had to go and eat a little something, especially after the rather bland airplane food. Instead of heading out into a theme park, we decided to start the dining plan at a restaurant we were very excited to try: Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney We shared a spicy chicken Pizza, a creme brulee, my mum had a fountain drink and I had some tap water. The pizza was good, not amazing but good. I would have liked it a bit more spicy but I liked the thin base as I'm not a big fan of chewy, doughy pizza bases. Creme Brulee was nice too. we will definitely try both of these items again sometime during our trip but this was a good start to our Disney trip. The meal came to $23.28 We had a quick look around Goofy's Candy to check out some of the snacks we will be spending our snack credits on later this week. On the way back to our room, we stopped at Rix Market at Coronado Springs Resort to purchase our refillable mugs and some fruit for breakfast.(no picture of this) The mugs came to $30.87 and the fruit was $3.99(plus tax, no idea how much that was as I can't find the receipt) 39/40 Dining credits remaining 39/40 snack credits remaining total spent: $58.14 Day 2 We decided to make Animal Kingdom our first park as we were still pretty tired and wanted to be completely rested for Magic Kingdom. After a breakfast at the hotel of a few bites of fruit(purchased the previous day) and a scone(brought from the UK) we arrived for 'rope drop' and went to the Safari first, followed by the 10:30 showing of 'Festival of the Lion King', a favourite of ours We're not used to the heat and went in search of a snack afterwards and decided on a Jalapeno cream cheese Pretzel and a Odwalla Mango Smoothie to share We absolutely loved the pretzel, just the right amount of spice and I will always hunt one of these babies down whenever I visit WDW. The smoothie was okay, not sure why we chose it as water would have been just fine and I almost felt like it was a bit of a waste of snack credit at the time. Like I said, the smoothie was good and tasted nicely of Mango but not as refreshing as water would have been. The two snacks came to $9.04 After the Nemo Musical, Primeval Whirl(which we loved), Triceratop Spin and the 2pm Flights Of Wonder show we decided we had enough and needed a break and some lunch. I had done quite a bit of research before our trip and was very keen to go out to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to eat at 'The Mara'. We took the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge but weren't entirely sure what stop to get off at, but we did manage to find it at the end. Animal Kingdom Lodge is such a beautiful resort and we took our time walking and looking around. We each felt like having a salad so we chose the 'Mara salad' with chicken, greens with lentils, feta, chick peas, chicken and tomatoes. One of the best salads I have ever had and so filling with all that protein! Delicious! We each had the pomegranate ice tea and chose the pineapple and carrot cake for dessert. We saved the fruit for the next day and just shared the cake, which wasn't a very good carrot cake but enough to satisfy our sweet tooth after the meal. I make a pretty good carrot cake, so this wasn't up to my standards ;-) The meal came to $35.73 We went back to our hotel, which took a while as we had to go to one of the parks first and then go to Coronado Springs Resort from there but we didn't mind as we each had a seat and were in the airconditioning away from the heat. After a couple of hours break at the digsite pool we headed back out. This time to the Polynesian Resort. Again, I had done some research as I didn't want us to get bored on the quick service meals so we planned on eating at many different places to get a good variety of food. I had the Multigrain Turkey Sandwich with fries, mum had the stir fry noodles with chicken, we each grabbed a bottle of vitamin water from the fridge to take with us as we couldn't finish the entire drink with our meal. I had the orange zero flavour and mum had dragonfruit Power C, hers was definitely nicer. For dessert we shared a dole whip and a macadamia chocolate cupcake, which just looked amazing and earned us many jealous looks on the bus that night as we took this back to the hotel for later. The turkey sandwich was good but the fries were disappointing. Don't think my mum enjoyed the noodles much either. Not a meal we would repeat. The dolewhip was a favourite of ours back in 2006, so we had to have one here. This was self serve and I know I could have fit more into the cup, but this was more than enough for us. The meal came to $34.66 Afterwards I told mum that I wanted to have a walk around the resort, but didn't tell her that we'd be able to watch Wishes from the beach here, which we both enjoyed. She hadn't done any research at all and was amazed by all the great things I had found, and this was only day one! The trip home took a while as we went to Downtown Disney via bus and then back to our resort. What a fabulous first day 35/40 Dining credits remaining 38/40 snack credits remaining total spent: $137.57 __________________ Disneyland Paris Daytrips in 1998, 1999 and 2002 Disneyland Paris 2 Days/1 Night at the Sequoia Lodge in 1998 Disneyland Paris 3 Days/2 Nights at the Hotel Cheyenne in 2000Walt Disney World April 2004 2 Days(Off Site Youth Hostel) Mother Daughter Trip to WDW offsite April 2006 WDW December 2008 ASMu 2 nannies on a mission to find Mary Poppins at Disneyland Paris-a November 2011 Trip Report Dining Review in Progress: Please take a guess how much we cost the Mouse? Last edited by Rienchen; 07-31-2012 at 04:01 PM.

07-31-2012, 04:21 PM	#3
nutz2notz Mouseketeer Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Close to the Original Posts: 189	Great start to your reviews! The turkey sandwich looks so good and that cupcake looks amazing. Looking forward to more! __________________ Ann DD22 DD20 DS16 Maggie(3) December 2012: SSR June 2012: OKW March 2011: OKW First Solo Janaury 2011: SSR then AKV Kidani January 2010: Grand Californian December 2007: SSR January 2007: SSR January 1996: Offsite

07-31-2012, 04:33 PM	#4
nanienamou Mouseketeer Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 415	Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to read more! __________________ Royal Pacific Resort/WDW Dolphin - 2011 AOA, Little Mermaid/WDW Dolphin - 2012 Let's celebrate 15 years together by eating around the world! October 2012 Dining Review Two French-Canadians loving food eat and drink around the world! October 2-14, 2011 - a first dining review

07-31-2012, 07:51 PM	#5
IrisSphere Mouseketeer Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Toronto Posts: 97	I'm hooked - I want to know what the total was! Also researching snacks for our Dining Plan, so curious to know what you end up getting. Also the Pretzel looks amazing - I think i might make it my meal all on its own! __________________

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07-31-2012, 08:19 PM	#6
MrsB1228 DIS Veteran Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 2,154 km from our happy place. Posts: 547	I'm in! Really enjoying your reviews and looking forward to the next installment! __________________ Have a magical day! ~Carol New Dining Report - Sept/Oct 2012 14 Days of Gluttony AKA Doing Free Dining Again! COMPLETE! My first Dining Report: It's Time To Eat Again?!? 10 days of free dining with pics! COMPLETE! 1985-2004-Many, many offsite visits; March '05-POP; Dec '06-POFQ; Aug/Sept '07-POFQ; Sept '10-POFQ; Sept/Oct '11-POFQ; Sept/Oct '12-POFQ, Sept/Oct '13-POFQ

07-31-2012, 08:39 PM	#7
Nohal DIS Veteran Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 935	Looking forward to the rest of your reviews

08-01-2012, 06:35 AM	#8
Sheaboys DIS Veteran Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Brimfield, Massachusetts Posts: 539	looking forward to reading more. __________________ Our August 2012 Free Dining Review. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2990330 Mom to 5 little boys WDW-various days during the 70's and 80's as a child. DisneyLand-July 1991, DisneyWorld-April 1992 offsite Caribbean Beach-June 1995 honeymoon, All Stars Sports-December 1998, All Star Movies- November 2000 (me, my mom and the 2 boys) DTD Hotel - May 2001, All Star Movies-September 2001 (me, the 2 boys and my girlfriend), Disneyland-December 2003 (us and the 3 boys), POR-October 2nd-8th 2005 (us and the 3 boys)Caribbean Beach-August 25, 2012-September 2,2012[/SIZE][/SIZE] - (dh41) (me 40) (13)(11)(9)(5)( 3)[/SIZE]

08-01-2012, 07:29 AM	#9
dixonsontour DIS Veteran Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: lancashire uk Posts: 3,879	Great start __________________ 16 trips to US 1997 onwards including All Star Movies Dec 09 with DDP, OKW Oct 10 with DDP, Floridays Resort Oct 2011, Bahama Bay resort May 2012, OKW Oct 2012 with DxDDP DH 38 Me 38 DD 7 Perfectly Princess Tea Party Review Disney Dining 2010 Review Dining on a budget - $100 a day with coupons All new Dining on a Budget of $100 May 2012 Dixons go Deluxe Oct/Nov 12 Next trip October 2013

08-01-2012, 07:38 AM	#10
pumba DIS PUMBARIZER I have a smile on my face a mile wide Let’s just say that Mr. Feeney came out “well done” Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 24,395	thank you for your reviews so far....I always love to read or look at the food others have eaten .. Thanks again __________________

08-01-2012, 09:43 AM	#11
Disneyof3 Mother of my 3 angels, heaven blessed me!!!!! So it was me who had to take the plunge Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Ontario, CANADA Posts: 2,039	Great start. Can't wait to hear more. I was thinking the next time we head to WDW to try all the resorts CS. Great idea. Keeps things different __________________ meDH: P:K M First Family Disney trip Jan.2004, All-Star Movies. 02/05 POR, 03/06 FLO/BG,03/07 POR,03/08 POR,US/IOA,03/09,MK03/10,1stcruise 03/12,03/13

08-01-2012, 10:59 AM	#12
chocolateMinnie DIS Veteran Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Peterborough, Uk Posts: 2,137	great start - interested in what else you find. Found the Mara to be ok but not as nice as other deluxe cs. __________________ Me DH DS (14) DD (10) 10/2003 CSR 10/2007 CSR/ST PETE'S/GF 02/2009 CSR10/2009 CSR 10/2010 CSR 10/2011 AKL

08-01-2012, 11:18 AM	#13
butiflfeet DIS Veteran Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: My happy place Posts: 1,148	It all looks pretty yummy so far! I can't wait to see what's next __________________

08-01-2012, 11:43 AM	#14
Tracerr00 DIS Veteran Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 1,357	Great start to your reviews!! I really love the idea of keeping thing exciting by visiting different CS places. Thank you because now we get to see quite a variety of CS foods. I'm excited for day two! __________________ Mother, Daughter & Sausage Dining Review2012 Sisterhood of the Traveling Sausage Dining Review 2011! A Mom, A 12 Year Old and Sausage On a Dream Voyage - Cruise Trip Report! 2012

08-01-2012, 12:35 PM	#15
crazyfordisney2000 DIS Veteran Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Kingston, Ontario Posts: 874	That cupcake looks amazing! Did it have macadamia nuts inside too, or just on the frosting? __________________ DH DS DD Me

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