Usually when we go to WDW, we get the regular dining plan. This year we played with numbers a lot because DD will be considered an adult. I thought for sure that we would lose money by going with the dining plan. Being the OCD planner that I am, I used the menus from wdwinfo.com to plan out where we would eat in which park and what we would probably eat if we ate there. I also added a little here and there for snacks and drinks. There are certain snacks I MUST have while at Disney. 2 years in between eating these snacks is way too long! My figures came out to be a small amount of savings. Could we skimp and save money....sure! But do we really want to skimp on a Disney trip? And then there's the issue of going during Food & Wine festival. MMMMMMmmmmm. I can't be sure of how many things we are going to want to sample. One thing we love about the dining plan is having most our food paid for ahead of time. Its so much easier to keep track of dining credits as opposed to how much money do we have left to eat off of.
After pretty much deciding to go with the regular dining plan, I started thinking about the Quick Service Dining Plan. This is such a short trip, and I didn't want to be tied down to a lot of table service ADR's. Also would we have enough snack credits if we didn't plan to eat "meals" at Epcot because of F&W? The QSDP gives everyone 2 snack credits a day instead of one. I adjusted my menus and numbers. I also took into account that we would be eating a couple of table service meals with my sister out of pocket. I concluded that we would still save about $100 from the regular dining plan, and we would spend about the same amount if we paid out of pocket IF I included enough snacks and drinks. Knowing all of that, we decided it would be soooo much easier to have our food paid for ahead of time AND count dining credits instead of money. We tend to over-think and skimp when we use "real" money (not credits). In addition, the QSDP gives everyone a refillable mug which values at $12 each. That's $48 for us. Any "real" money we spend at Disney will be for souvenirs.
My sister and brother will be paying OOP for their meals because that's what works best for them. I think every family needs to examine what their dining preferences are and then do the math....literally. It was so nice to use the menus available and see what meals at WDW actually cost and then compare it to what you would pay on the dining plan.
Here are our plans for dining in WDW: Keep in mind a LOT of them are tentative because they will be counter services and will depend on where we end up when we get hungry.
Thanks to my sister for getting up early and making our ADR's on the first day we were able to make them!
Friday, Oct. 7 - MNSSHP @ Magic Kingdom
Dinner - Probably Columbia Harbour House (DS & DBIL's traditional 1st meal at MK) This is one of our family's favorite restaurants also. We always eat here while at MK.
Saturday, Oct. 8 - Animal Kingdom
Breakfast - something quick in room OR Pop Food Court
Lunch - Yak & Yeti counter service (I'm dying to try this!) We will probably grab pizzas at Pizzafari for the kids and any other picky eaters.
Dinner - Flame Tree BBQ - we eat here every trip
Sunday, Oct. 9 - MK
Breakfast - Crystal Palace 8:25 - Can't wait to see the MK before the crowds arrive! Worth getting up for an early ADR. We actually had an 8:05 but had to change it when DB added to the trip. Again, worth it for him to be able to come and we still get to get in before the crowds.
Lunch - Pecos Bills (another favorite) OR if it is open....Tortuga Tavern formally known as Pirate el Perico. I've never eaten there but always wanted to.
Dinner - Probably Cosmic Rays or wherever we end up.
Monday, Oct. 10 - Epcot
Breakfast - quick in hotel or food court
Lunch - Food & Wine
Dinner - Food & Wine
** I cannot WAIT for the Food & Wine list to come out!!!! I saw a few new areas that are coming but I want to see the WHOLE list because I NEED to plan!!! Haha! And seriously I have to plan because DS has a peanut allergy. Disney takes great care of us but it also takes us to plan for it as well.
Tuesday, Oct. 11 - Hollywood Studios
Breakfast - quick in hotel or food court
Lunch - Sci-Fi Drive In @ 1:25pm The kids LOVE this one!
Dinner - whatever....I'm not impressed with DHS counter service restaurants.
Wednesday, Oct. 12
Who knows....we are leaving after lunch so it'll depend on where we want to spend our last day.
and that always brings me here!
Also, it was actually Halloween night so it was sold-out and packed! In fact, some of the people that went with us had decided to go kind-of last minute and they had to buy tickets for another party night. Since it was still Halloween weekend it was still kind of full for them, but I know people have gone on other nights and it's not so packed, so you guys should be good. My favorite part, by far, was the parade!! It is worth it just for that! It was our first time doing F&W, too, but we had stayed an extra night to do that and everyone we had been with had gone home by then so that's something else I definitely want to do again and that, I DO believe, would be more fun with a group.
Dancing banana for your sis!
One is all I can handle 
I think we have LOTS of bayou cajuns here on the Disboards. What is it with this area and loving Disney??? I guess I'm living in the right area! 
So I HAD to have one. 
Please jump in any time.
