A Tale of Two Dads: 1 on a frugal budget and 1 on the DDP**COMPLETE 12/18/10**

[DadwhoLOVESDisney]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Okay, so more seriously. The same dad was “frugal dad” for three days, then changed to five days of “buy whatever you want from the menu (as long as it’s on the meal plan).” A snack? You bet. Dessert. No problem!

The back story: our family of 5 (dad, mom & three kids: 12, 10, and 2) are spending 8 days at the World. The first 3 days we stayed offsite at the Blue Tree Resort and then we spent 5 days at Animal Kingdom Lodge. While we’ve been to Disney 4 times with the family, this was our first time to sign up for the DDP.

I’ve always wanted to do the DDP, but felt that it was too expensive. Not sure how I did it, but I convinced my wife that this was the year to try it out (partially because our 2 year old is free). And, if we had spent all 8 days onsite, there’s no way that I could justify the cost to myself. But with a split trip, this seemed like the year to try out the dining plan.

I thought I’d offer a trip report where I compare the out-of-pocket (OOP) plan with the DDP.

Schedule Overview:

Out of Pocket: No dining plan – 3 full days
• Wednesday: arrival day
• Thursday: Blizzard Beach Water Park
• Friday: Magic Kingdom Day #1
• Saturday: Magic Kingdom Day #2

Disney Dining Plan – 5 full days
• Sunday: Move In Day to Animal Kingdom Lodge and Boma’s
• Monday: Daughter’s B-day and 1900 Park Fare
• Tuesday: Hang out and use 2 extra TS credits at Kona’s
• Wednesday: EPCOT! And Teppan Edo
• Thursday: Disney Studios – no table service
• Friday: hang out and go to early Hoop De Revue (6 credits total – spouse not going) and late departure for Houston

And, after reading many, many postings about the best way to use the DDP (thank you, thank you – extremely helpful in making our decisions), I hope that my post doesn’t start any arguments. I’m not trying to convince people that there’s one best option. Just comparing our experiences for others to consider as they make their decisions.

 

[DadwhoLOVESDisney]

Wednesday – Arrival Day

After we had dinner on the road from Texas ($28), we moved into our 1 bedroom condo. We made a grocery store run to pick up milk, fruit, cereal, bagels, water and soft drinks. Cost $50

Total OOP Cost $78

Thursday: Blizzard Beach

We got up and had breakfast in the room. Headed for Blizzard Beach. Packed in a few snacks and some bottled water. Frugal dad purchased a refillable mug for $10 (went up in price from previous years – and got a lot smaller too).

For lunch we bought lunches at main dining area at Blizzard Beach:
Adults: we split a salad and a chicken wrap. Oldest daughter went for chili dog & fries. Youngest kids ordered kids meal hot dogs. No drinks since we had bottled water and a refillable mug. Total cost $37.55

Afternoon snack:
Pail of ice cream – split 4 ways. Son doesn’t really eat ice cream. More for the rest of us Cost $10

Totally forgot about taking pictures when I saw that huge bowl of ice cream. Here’s what it looks like after it was demolished : ) Unfortunately, our stomachs often got in the way of taking good pictures throughout the trip...sorry about that!

Dinner:
Frugal dad figured out a way to sound hungry and our very good friends invited us to their condo for homemade lasagna, bread, and bottled water. Yum! Cost: 20 minute drive and 2 hours of fun with friends!

Total OOP Cost for Thursday: $59

 

[ibcindyb]

I'm in sounds like fun!

 

[4HppyCamprs]

Im in Sounds like fun to compare both OOP and DDP for the same family

 

[kris-co]

I'm on board..want to hear more!

 

[Axelrodb1]

oh yes! can not wait to hear more as i am debating now whether to do dinning plan or not to do it for our party of 3!

 

[kayrosek]

I'm in

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

count me in...

 

[nessz79]

I'm in!

 

[*sarah*]

Can't wait to read more! If your from Houston, you are super close to me lol.

 

[DadwhoLOVESDisney]

Sorry for the slowness in responding. I wrote out my report in MSWord and inserted the pictures, but when I post the it on the website, the pictures don't automatically insert. So I'm still figuring that part out. If anyone has great suggestions, feel free to send me a PM. Hopefully by tomorrow night I'll have it all worked out.

Thanks!

 

[corkery719]

We need to hear the rest.. Whenever you are ready

 

[TruBlu]

I'm in!

 

[DadwhoLOVESDisney]

[[/quote]

i'm in sounds like fun!

im in sounds like fun to compare both oop and ddp for the same family

i'm on board..want to hear more!

oh yes! Can not wait to hear more as i am debating now whether to do dinning plan or not to do it for our party of 3!

i'm in

count me in...

i'm in!

Can't wait to read more! If your from houston, you are super close to me lol.

we need to hear the rest.. Whenever you are ready

i'm in!

Thanks for the positive words -- I'm making progress. Finally was able to insert my first picture. Stay tuned.

 

[nutz2notz]

So far so good. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

 

[DadwhoLOVESDisney]

Friday: Magic Kingdom Day #1

We ate a quick breakfast in the condo. We brought a bag of snacks (see picture below) and 5 bottles of water for the park. Stuffed all of it in the bin under the stroller. I thought that the security guard might look at us funny given all of the snacks and drinks – but she didn’t flinch in the slightest.

Note: we also had a bag of grapes and some wheat thins that didn’t make it into the picture (so it wasn’t all junk food : )

Snack:
Frugal dad quickly agrees to popcorn purchase (I like popcorn!). Kids go purchase popcorn while dad holds down the parade spot. Daughter comes back with popcorn and a Mickey Mouse chocolate ice cream bar. “Dad, the nice man said happy birthday and here’s some ice cream.” Score! Popcorn and some free ice cream. Cost $4.75

Lunch
We ate for the first time at Columbia House. Parents each got salads. Daughter got fried shrimp. Two kids meals for youngest. One soft drink. Bottled water for mom and daughter. Food was okay. Nothing special. Cost: $40

Snack:
We all really like turkey legs. A lot! But because daughter was distracted with pin shopping, we ended up with only one turkey leg. Excellent for Dad and Son! Cost $8. Forgot to take a picture. The men folk in the family were too energized by gnawing on turkey to stop and take photographs.

Dinner:
The park closed at 7 for Mickey’s Christmas party. After what seemed like a VERY long boat ride back to the transportation center, we drove home. Picked up 2 large pizzas from Papa John’s. Total cost: $21.55 plus drinks and bottled water that we had already bought from the grocery store. No pictures. Regular papa john pizza. Nothing special.

Total OOP Cost: ~$74.50 

 

[DadwhoLOVESDisney]

We ate a quick breakfast in the condo. We brought a bag of snacks and a bunch of bottles of water for the park. Now that we know that the security guards don’t care, we brought even more water. Enough to share with our friends who invited us for lasagna!

Morning Snack:

We pulled out water bottles and our bag o’snacks and everyone dug in to their favorite item. Son wanted a powerade. Frugal dad said yes. OOP Cost: $2.75

Lunch:

We ate in Tomorrow land at that restaurant with the 3 different bays. A salad, a turkey wrap, chicken tenders, hamburger, and a chicken strips kids meal plus 2 drinks and a cup of water. Total cost: $46.

Dinner:
We kind of got busy with rides and none of the quick serve meals sounded appealing (I sure wish I could have gotten some sort of noodle bowl instead of more selections with French fries). This is one downside of not having the DDP -- who wants to pay so much for an expensive dinner. So what did we do? We ate dessert! Went to the bakery on main street with our friends. Bought a hot chocolate, drink, and two desserts. OOP$12

I’m still not certain how we avoided eating a regular, sit-down meal since we were in the park until 11pm. We did eat beef jerky, animal crackers, and a total of 7 or 8 bottles of water. But I’m still surprised.

Total OOP cost: $61.75

 

[fort4evr]

Great trip report so far!

 

[crazyfordisney2000]

Loving your report!! I'm really interested in the final result since we are not getting the DDP and will be paying OOP for the very first time on our upcoming trip.

 

[jwinky]

Love to hear more about your food adventures.