What is no free dining? What's your dining Plan-B?

[Disneylover99]

Breakfast involves bagels, yogurt or scrambled eggs. For dinner, I bring the crock pot from home and a few home prepared frozen crock pot meals like sweet and sour meatballs or crockpot carnitas/french dips. Dump bag in crock, let cook all day, dinner is ready when we are back in the resort. We also bring things like tamales (heat and eat) or pasta and sauce. I make a pot of rice for a side dish on arrival day and again mid-week. Doing this has us eating faster than if we go out to a restaurant upon leaving the parks, so the kids get more pool time and we spend less time in the car. We also do a grocery store stop for fruits and veggies on arrival day.

I gotta say....I'm impressed. I could never do what you do, but if you enjoy it? Hey, more power to you.

 

[AriesAriel]

I have stayed at both. You do save considerable money staying offsite. There is SO MUCH COMPETITION that, yes, you can get a spacious 3bdrm condo for dirt cheap, especially if you are going during a less busy time (isn't that why Disney offers the free dining??)

I've stayed on site, off site, and now am choosing to stay on site for our upcoming trip. (each trip has been with different parties)

The rack room rate for a Boardwalk Villas studio (our room) is $433 NIGHT for our planned week. Are there really people that pay that?! We rented DVC points and it cost us $1400 for the week ($200 a night). I did price out a moderate (Port Orleans) princess room because we considered staying there. It was cheaper to stay at the deluxe BWV by about $150 for the week. I prefer the location of BW so I booked that. The rack room rate for Port Orleans royal room is $261 a night.

We are going over Memorial Day weekend, so there will be no free dining offered. I do think it might have changed my mind on where I stayed though. If I paid $150 more to stay at PO but my dining for the week was covered, well in the end I'd be saving about $550. (My budget for dining for us is ~ $700 or so.)

I could have saved a LOT more by getting a room off site for probably half of what I'm paying to stay on-site. But, as I said, I've done both. I know the FEELING is different when you stay off site. To me an offsite vacation feels more like you are simply visiting an amusement park. I want it to feel like we're IN DISNEY WORLD. It's not something you can explain to people who haven't done both, I think. Yes. I'm paying for a feeling. One that my children will probably only experience once. We're Dave Ramsey folk, we aren't going to be doing this yearly.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I have done both... sadly the feeling I get if I am paying Disney hotel rates is not magical it's "I am being ripped off" LOL!

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Ok, wait- how'd you get $109? I ask purely out of self-interest. I've seen $159, after a government employee discount.

No idea. It was just the rate on their normal booking engine. No special codes etc... All I can assume is they were really slow that day

 

[nat8199]

I've never stayed offsite. But I know a lot of people who do mention the fact that they get a large place with a kitchen as an advantage. That they can cook meals there and save money. To me, that's not a vacation! I'm not cooking one thing while at Disney--and that's part of the experience for me. Yes, we'll have stuff in the room to have a quick breakfast and out the door--cereal/milk, granola bars, donuts, Pop-tarts (I know, I know real healthy, but it's vacation!). There's no way I'm leaving the park to go back to the condo and whip up dinner!

For us, yes, we'd have to rent a car. And pay for parking each day. And gas. Just not seeing the huge advantage.

Exactly!!! If I have to buy groeries, cook, and then clean a kitchen and do dishes, I might as well stay home. That is not vacation. Disney is the one vacation we go on where I don't even have to SEE a kitchen. I would pay a lot more than my package costs for that pleasure.

 

[aaarcher86]

I have done both... sadly the feeling I get if I am paying Disney hotel rates is not magical it's "I am being ripped off" LOL!

So stay offsite or somewhere else. No big deal.

I don't feel ripped off for the prices I pay, and until I do I'll enjoy the resorts on property for their cost. You obviously have different expectations than I do.

 

[SouthJersey]

So stay offsite or somewhere else. No big deal.

I don't feel ripped off for the prices I pay, and until I do I'll enjoy the resorts on property for their cost. You obviously have different expectations than I do.

I happily hand my money over, year after year after year lol.

 

[Sparkly]

We've always stayed offsite- it's only the last 2 trips we've stayed onsite- and we only ever made breakfast in the morning (bread + peanut butter or maybe cereal) or maybe a sandwich for lunch or bringing home some fried chicken for dinner. We ate QS in the parks and ate dinner offsite.

Even at AOA we only used our kitchenette to prepare peanut butter on bagels for breakfast (or a random dessert out of the fridge) and ate QS meals the rest of the time. Just because there's a kitchen there doesn't mean you have to cook necessarily.

We disliked the DDP because of the PITA of getting to a ADR and feeling over scheduled and disliked the QSDP due to the amount of food we seemed to eat a day. Dessert with every meal seems fun until you're a week in and cannot face another piece of cake!
Next time I'll look forward to only getting dessert when I really want it, not having to have it twice a day.

 

[ThistleMae]

Thanks! Thought that was too good to be true. I think I will look at the moderates real quick. I know that DD would love to have a room over at the Caribbean resort just to take her kids to the pool and food court. She used to love that place when she was little. So if there is a little bit of savings, it might be worth it.

You can pay to upgrade to include the table service if you stay at a value resort. I did that the last time and still saved.

 

[ThistleMae]

We've always stayed offsite- it's only the last 2 trips we've stayed onsite- and we only ever made breakfast in the morning (bread + peanut butter or maybe cereal) or maybe a sandwich for lunch or bringing home some fried chicken for dinner. We ate QS in the parks and ate dinner offsite.

Even at AOA we only used our kitchenette to prepare peanut butter on bagels for breakfast (or a random dessert out of the fridge) and ate QS meals the rest of the time. Just because there's a kitchen there doesn't mean you have to cook necessarily.

We disliked the DDP because of the PITA of getting to a ADR and feeling over scheduled and disliked the QSDP due to the amount of food we seemed to eat a day. Dessert with every meal seems fun until you're a week in and cannot face another piece of cake!
Next time I'll look forward to only getting dessert when I really want it, not having to have it twice a day.

I've only ever had the dining plan and really enjoyed it...but...this year we are paying OOP and it opens up so many more options without wasting food or feeling like you have to eat some plastic cup dessert. Also, we can share meals or have an appetizer for lunch. I'm just really looking forward to "not looking" to see if an item is on the plan! What fun!

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

We've always stayed offsite- it's only the last 2 trips we've stayed onsite- and we only ever made breakfast in the morning (bread + peanut butter or maybe cereal) or maybe a sandwich for lunch or bringing home some fried chicken for dinner. We ate QS in the parks and ate dinner offsite.

Even at AOA we only used our kitchenette to prepare peanut butter on bagels for breakfast (or a random dessert out of the fridge) and ate QS meals the rest of the time. Just because there's a kitchen there doesn't mean you have to cook necessarily.

We disliked the DDP because of the PITA of getting to a ADR and feeling over scheduled and disliked the QSDP due to the amount of food we seemed to eat a day. Dessert with every meal seems fun until you're a week in and cannot face another piece of cake!
Next time I'll look forward to only getting dessert when I really want it, not having to have it twice a day.

Here's a secret...no one is forcing you to eat the dessert! Just like you said, just because there's a kitchen doesn't mean you need to cook. Just because they give you dessert, doesn't mean you have to eat it!

 

[AriesAriel]

Here's a secret...no one is forcing you to eat the dessert! Just like you said, just because there's a kitchen doesn't mean you need to cook. Just because they give you dessert, doesn't mean you have to eat it!

Why not get something that's wrapped to go and sprinkle magic on someone else in the park? I've also seen that fruit counts as dessert, so you could always take an apple or banana to eat at another time?

 

[disneyseniors]

I completely feel you on the "half" dining plan. While there are a few TS places we want to eat at, the reality is that we're looking to try to go for 8 nights, now including 2 days at Universal, and trying to fit in 8 TS meals in a potential schedule has been painful. While I would love to stay onsite during free dining, there is a part of me that feels like I need to just cut my losses and maybe stay just one or two nights onsite with the rest offsite and pay OOP for the meals I really want, instead of feeling like I need to eat at all of these TS places to get the best "value". The hard part for me is that we still have not made it to our first family Disney trip, trying to make it happen this December. So while I would love to try out some TS places when we hopefully go, there is a part of me that is a bit nervous about having that many scheduled meals, when I'm not even sure what our touring style will be and when we'll want to eat. So who knows.

Yes, Minerva, I too worry about using all my ts meals to get the value out of free dining! We also are going to stay 8 days ad go to Universal for 1 or 2 days. If we have free dining while staying onsite, we will be throwing away those 2 days of meals. I guess it doesn't cost us if it's free dining, but I feel guilty about it all the same. We are still not sure what we are doing in Nov or Dec. Hope it works out for you

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

Yes, Minerva, I too worry about using all my ts meals to get the value out of free dining! We also are going to stay 8 days ad go to Universal for 1 or 2 days. If we have free dining while staying onsite, we will be throwing away those 2 days of meals. I guess it doesn't cost us if it's free dining, but I feel guilty about it all the same. We are still not sure what we are doing in Nov or Dec. Hope it works out for you

How about having a signature meal one night? That would use 2 credits instead of 1. We also have used a TS on both arrival and departure days (we arrive early, leave late!). That will use up an extra credit. We usually only do 1 TS per day, but I could easily see doing a TS breakfast, snacks for lunch, and then a TS dinner.

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

We enjoyed the only time we went during FD, but we really prefer room discount and eating on our own. We do not need or want some of the items that come with the free dining meals, such as dessert! With a room discount we eat breakfast in our room and then CS for lunch and possibly a full service restaurant for dinner. Sometimes we are tired after a day of parks and prefer CS for dinner.

 

[rznhal]

I do agree that I would not want to stay off site or deal with cooking any meals but....for folks with limited income, it may be a more affordable option. Has anyone in here actually done a cost comparison they could share?

We did it this past January.....we didn't "save" a significant amount of money, the only thing I felt was better was the hotel room. We had a very nice 2 room suite that cost us less than $100/night. But we rented a car, which we wouldn't have done if we had been on site, so there went our savings..... we ate mostly offsite for dinner....or QS in the parks....food is a major expense and we are not big eaters! We already went this year, so a FD trip will just be a bonus trip....we won't go if there's no FD!