Going without a meal plan?

[DSNY4ever]

We've done the math and the dining plan doesn't save us any money. We don't eat enough to make it worthwhile to purchase. We don't need a dessert at every meal. The dining plan is right about the same as what we normally spend on food at WDW, sometimes we spend less. We always take the room discount instead when we can get them- and we usually only go to WDW at times that we can get them.

You can still eat however you want at WDW. You can go on allears.net and see all the menus and the prices of food.

Ditto. We have never used the dining plan.

 

[bear_mom]

The dining plan was worth it for us when dds were kids and it was only like $11/day and we did quite a few character meals. Neither of my girls are big eaters and they could manage to find plenty of things to eat.

Now that they are considered adults, it doesn't make sense for us at all. Neither of them eats anywhere near $55/day worth of food. We would waste a lot of food everyday.

Emily

 

[Eureka]

The dining plan was worth it for us when dds were kids and it was only like $11/day and we did quite a few character meals. Neither of my girls are big eaters and they could manage to find plenty of things to eat.

Now that they are considered adults, it doesn't make sense for us at all. Neither of them eats anywhere near $55/day worth of food. We would waste a lot of food everyday.

Emily

That's exactly why we are going out of pocket this summer. Both kids will be Disney adults. Last trip, one was still a child and we did the deluxe plan because we like table service. This time, we only have one signature scheduled but at all the TS, it will be easier to order only what we'll actually eat. The kids will most likely still get desserts most places (we schedule TS ADRS for lunch and dinner every day) but I like the fact that when we go to Teppan Edo, for example, none of the desserts really appeal to me, so I won't bother...but then I will still have stomach room for a French pastry or Karamel Kuche treat later. That said, I really liked the convenience (and the snack credits!) of the DxDp.

 

[Ginny Favers]

The first trip we went on, with free dining, we thought, "What a great deal! We get to eat for free!" Of course we paid full price for the rooms. And there was a lot of food.

Second trip, we got a room discount and thought we HAD to have the dining plan, as it's "all part of the experience" and we planned on eating lots of character meals. Well, our daughter had a stomach virus. I can't tell you how much money we wasted with that plan.

This trip, we got discounted rooms, and have only made 4 ADRs at restaurants we know will be popular. I am SO looking forward to going and not letting reservations rule our trip. We might eat at more QS places-- but in Disney, that doesn't necessarily translate to burgers and fries-- they have lots of variety. I really think that it will work better for us, and save us a lot of money. Plus I won't feel pressured to eat the most expensive thing on the menu and choke down dessert! And if one of my kids gets sick, we won't be wasting the money!

 

[pooh4evr]

The dining plan was worth it for us when dds were kids and it was only like $11/day and we did quite a few character meals. Neither of my girls are big eaters and they could manage to find plenty of things to eat.

Now that they are considered adults, it doesn't make sense for us at all. Neither of them eats anywhere near $55/day worth of food. We would waste a lot of food everyday.

Emily

Same for us ..the room discount doesn't save us as much as free dining would , IF our 12 and 10 yr old DDs ate like adults. But we can easily go to a CS and split a couple of adult meals and get 6 yr old dd a kid meal. That being said I am having a hard time realizing that not having a TS meal everyday won't impact the experience of the vacation, we usually do alot of character meals and DH wants to try every TS in the world showcase. So this next time around we will do just a couple of table service meals, BoG, maybe Crystal Palace (tradition) and liberty tree (tradition), then snack around WS. Right now I plan on taking a gift card for about $500 for counter service meals. I will miss getting the snacks though! I need a Mickey Bar!

 

[nats311]

I would never do the dining plan again. Like others have said, just too much food. And the food is pretty much awful everywhere.

 

[2binak]

We personally prefer table service to counter service meals with our little ones, even at home. It's much easier to get settled in at a table and let the food come to us rather than wrangling kids through a busy line and having to carry all the meals to a table. Since we want TS and want to try a couple of character meals, we are giving strong consideration to DDP. We could live without the desserts at every meal, though. It's too bad there's not a way to save a "dessert credit" to use for other things.

When we used the DDP, we asked for fruit or pre-packaged cookies as our dessert and saved them to eat later. Sometimes the fruit or cookies don't appear on the menu but if you ask, they might have them.

 

[OklahomaTourist]

We've been to DW once before back in 2007 and had the free dining plan at the time. We really enjoyed the sit down meals once/night and the food was a huge highlight of the trip for DH and I.

Now our plan is to go again for the last week of August 2013, which seems to have a free dining plan offer during that time each year.

I'm not booking until the offer is out however, and am worried if DH can't get that holiday time off, or if he does and they offer the FD during another week we'd be SOL.

There is no way we can afford to purchase the meal plan on our own ( 2adult, 10yo (adult), 4yo, 2yo)...but can we still have decent dining without it? Are there tips or tricks to enjoying it without the cost?

Absolutely!!!

My family always goes on the "Daddy Dining Plan," which is just a Disneyesque way of saying OOP

Glad to offer you some tips from what we've done over the years. Now, you didn't mention where you're staying, and that may impact how these ideas affect/apply to you, so, as always, YMMV

First, try to identify up front the two or three places you'd really like to have a nice TS meal. Review the menus online, and budget the corresponding dollars accordingly.

Next, if you have your own vehicle while at Disney, head to Sams or Costco before you leave and pick up at least a couple of multi-pack cereal boxes and, once you arrive, grab a gallon of milk (some if not most places have a fridge in the room to store it). That gives everyone a quick, simple, and incredibly cheap breakfast before you hit the parks.

Following that, if you stay busy during each day, see if on any one day or two you can push back lunch or push up dinner. Our family has found that we rarely really want three full meals a day while at Disney, especially if we had a nice breakfast and its seasonably hot. That means you might be able to strategize a nice sit-down restaurant for a late lunch or early dinner meal, where the menu offerings are the same albeit smaller portions at a lower price. That's how my family discovered and instantly fell in love with Chefs de France - got a late lunch reservation at the last minute, something like 2-3pm, and the meal was so wonderful none of us was particularly hungry the rest of the day.

One of the increasingly easy ways to save $$$ at Disney (or any other restaurant for that matter) is to skip the beverages. Get water all the way around. Heck, in the process of dropping about 63 lbs in the last year or so, I've essentially sworn off soda and replaced it with water bottles flavored with Propel powder.

Depending on your kids' appetites, don't hesitate to order one adult entree and split it with the lighter-eating DD or DS. That is a perfectly normal thing to do and does not cause any sort of "issue" with all but perhaps some of the very high-end "signature" dining sites, which we don't do anyway. We did it at the San Angel Inn for our first trip in 2001 and the server brought out extra plates for sharing without our even having to ask.

Don't overlook some of what I consider to be the "under the radar" options at WDW: At Downtown Disney, Earl of Sandwich is an AWESOME value for lunch - very reasonably priced hot and cold sandwiches, all fresh made to order. That's our first destination on the day we arrive! At Epcot, Sunshine Seasons in The Land pavilion is a pseudo buffet of hot entrees, sandwiches, and salads that's usually a great value and variety. We love it.

If you have access to transportation while on your vacation, don't overlook a variety of local area restaurants that can offer you a much less expensive meal if you need a "Disney break" one afternoon.

We're planning to head back this June, and that's an outline of our plan - except for the splitting of meals with the kids (as they're now teenagers and eat everything short of the wallpaper). You still get a bit of "sticker shock" at some places, particularly the buffets, but compared to the full cost of the DDP, we come out way ahead.

I realize not everyone can do everything someone else might suggest, so I hope some of these suggestions will help you in some way.

 

[mommy2jack]

We've done the math and the dining plan doesn't save us any money. We don't eat enough to make it worthwhile to purchase. We don't need a dessert at every meal. The dining plan is right about the same as what we normally spend on food at WDW, sometimes we spend less. We always take the room discount instead when we can get them- and we usually only go to WDW at times that we can get them.

You can still eat however you want at WDW. You can go on allears.net and see all the menus and the prices of food.

Same goes for us. After doing the math it just doesn't seem worth it for us to do it and we eat at atleast 1/TS per day.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

We are going on our second trip without the dining plan and I feel like the dining plan is just not a good value for my family when it is not free. It is especially not a good value at the current prices. 16.18 a child and 54.00 a adult. It is 2.00 higher per child during peak and 3.00 higher per adult. We ended up paying just about the same OOP last visit as we would have for the dining plan but we got to order just what we wanted. We do not do a dessert with every meal. We like character meals/ buffets. We use our "snack" as a dessert typically. Lastly my 4 year old (he just turned 4) would require a meal plan and he simply doesn't eat sometimes. A total waste for him.

We manage to eat plenty lol

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[samacita]

This thread is really getting me thinking... It's hard to crunch the numbers for a 1st trip with the kids. The online menus are a great resource, but the unknown factor is how much they will eat. You are all making me wonder what our OOP expenses would be on food. Thanks for getting my wheels turning!

 

[ShellChelle]

We are also in the I'll-never-do-DDS-again camp. It just didn't work out for us. We dine out frequently at home with our three kids, so I thought DDS would be great at WDW. However, after walking around the parks all day, the last thing my kids wanted to do once back at the resort was to shower, get dressed, and head back out for dinner. They were grumpy and bickered through at several of our evening TS meals.

The last trip we went without DDS, and it worked out beautifully. We usually ate something light (cereal bars, a piece of fruit, some nuts) in our room in the morning, and scheduled a character breakfast for late morning (10:30-11-ish)--in place of lunch. Late afternoon, around 2:30-3:00 the kids were usually ready for a snack of fruit and yogurt or a smoothie, ice cream, etc... Then, dinner was usually the CS variety either in one of the parks, Earl of Sandwich, or back at our resort.

This was an affordable, OOP plan for our family, and no one went hungry.

 

[writersblock42]

We were going to go without the DDP (I have done it both ways) and then we got a bigger tax refund than we planned so we decided to splurge because now I don't have to worry about counting my dollars.
However, if you want to save money here are some tips:
1. The best deal character dining OOP is probably Crystal Palace
2. If you have a car eat off the property for a couple of meals
3. eat lunch instead of dinner and save 25-40% and that will keep you full all day instead of getting hungry before lunch
4. Order tap water instead of a drink
5. split large meals
6. pack your own water bottles and freeze them
7. pack your own snacks
8. check the menus for cheaper eats on property and for counter service meals that are more than just the standard fast food fare
9. Book a character meal for a late breakfast and eat that instead of lunch
10. Have sandwiches in the room on the nights that you do a table service.

 

[tigger51276]

I actually sat down for a weekend and looked at the menus and prices on allears.net and priced out meals that I would purchase if I was paying for it myself, added in some treats and my kids meals as well and honestly I found that if I truly ordered what I WANTED and not order according to trying to get the most out of the meal plan then I actually came out around $100 ahead of the game. I don't eat a ton of treats and desserts, especially right after I've eaten a big meal so getting a dessert every time I ate was a waste of money. I also drink water almost all day and am just fine with the bubbler water or a cup of free ice water from a QS location, so found I was paying for bottled water I didn't really need....
I think you will find that you can still eat just fine without having free dining and just try to find a good room discount deal instead!

 

[DisneyMomma81]

We had free dining at POP *the regular plan* and it was great. I bumped DS's age to 10 *he was 9* so he could have the adult plan - he had a mature/big appetite even then. We ate well in Epcot and lots of fun character meals.

Would I pay for it? Nope ~ to pre pay for meals at DLR I put money on a Disney Gift Card, if we don't use it all I can use it on other purchases, next visit or disneystore.com purchases.

If we return to WDW this Oct. *might head back to DLR with my sister's family* and we don't have free dining I'll got the DGC route.

 

[rosiegmendez]

and these are all great ideas! I'm not second-guessing our decision to opt out of DDP. THanks!

 

[Kristian]

I hope no one minds if I join in . In September, we did the DDP and although it was convenient as far as food costs being taken care of ahead of time, I felt that a lot of things were kind of wasteful. I also felt obligated to get the dessert at each meal simply because it was paid for already and I hardly ever get dessert at any meal. I might get an ice cream or have something sweet later on in the evening, but never at dinner because I'm so full. Dh, dd, and I all had snack credits left over by the end of our trip too. We used them for things like Dole Whips, popcorn and things like that instead of drinks, but we still had at least one or more left over after the week was up. I also found myself wanting a sandwich instead of the steak at times, but I just couldn't justify getting a cheap sandwich when we had the plan...even though it was free dining.

We have settled on our next trip for January of 2014 and I don't see us doing the dining plan. I like the idea that food is paid for in advance, but I just don't want to feel constrained to certain options on a menu when I'm on vacation. I think that I'll probably buy Disney Gift Cards in the upcoming months and put money on those for dining and tips. I think the Ratatouille design Disney gift card would be cute and would serve well as our "dining card", so I think I'm going to go that route and see how it goes

 

[gjl]

Removed

 

[Marionnette]

There's an excellent dining plan calculator on http://seeyareelsoon.wix.com/seeyareelsoon . It has you answer some questions and input the restaurants that you think you might dine at. Then it calculates the cost to you whether you use the dining plans or pay out of pocket. It also lets you know if you will have leftover credits on the dining plan.

I've always felt that the dining plan wasn't a good deal for us. The calculator just proved it for me. However, it also showed me that the DDP was not the huge waste of money that I thought it would be, either. The difference between paying OOP using TiW vs. the DDP was in the range of $100 for a 6-night stay for 4 adults. The big difference was that paying OOP, we would order fewer desserts and more appetizers.

 

[Fratthouse]

For my family of 4xDD's- (all disney kids) I calculated it all using a spreadsheet. All of our TS are character meals except one at 'Ohana. Including tips, average CS and snack prices and the 'free' mugs that my kids love, using the DP will save us about $250. We still have a couple years until we have a Disney Adult and will have to calculate it all out again when that happens! We used the DDP in 2007, did not use it in 2010, and are back to using it this trip in June. In 2010 we only did one TS meal at Akerhaus and the rest CS.

DDP no longer includes the tip.