Anyone want to offer some advice?

[Kellyscrapbooks]

Ok... here's the deal.
DH is retired Air Force, so we can stay at SOG relatively inexpensively with a much larger room, but we can't get the dining plan...correct? This was our original plan, with driving down and staying for about 10 days. We would have a car so we would eat off site a number of times, like we did on our last vacation when we stayed at ASMU.

Now... possability of free dining is there for the time we are looking at, so we start to talk about that. We could stay at a Value (smaller room, hated their busses last time but it WAS spring break) and pay a little more than we would to stay at SOG, but all our meals would be included. Hmmmmm...... we could actually fly down because if we aren't going to eat off property that's one less reason to need a car.....

Now, in researching the DDP, hubby is like, well, let's do that even if they DON'T offer free dining.... wait.. hold the phone... that puts us at quite a BIT more than the original plan, but he likes the idea of having it all paid for in advance and I can't blame him, but yikes, hard to imagine paying that for food.

Now, here's how we ate the last time we we did one character breakfast, snacked a LOT, 2 or 3 counter service meals and had a fridge stocked with stuff in the room.
It worked well, but it would have been nicer to not have to hassle with it. We ate a LOT of our meals off site last time, we lived in florida for a few years and some of our favs were "must do's" with the kidlets.This time they don't care.

I just don't know what we should do, and I'm just so excited that we are going to be going back that it's hard to think clearly! (I'm cross-posting this on the food board, the resort board and the budget board hoping to get some recommendations!)

 

[LizinSTL]

Ok... here's the deal.
DH is retired Air Force, so we can stay at SOG relatively inexpensively with a much larger room, but we can't get the dining plan...correct? This was our original plan, with driving down and staying for about 10 days. We would have a car so we would eat off site a number of times, like we did on our last vacation when we stayed at ASMU.

Now... possability of free dining is there for the time we are looking at, so we start to talk about that. We could stay at a Value (smaller room, hated their busses last time but it WAS spring break) and pay a little more than we would to stay at SOG, but all our meals would be included. Hmmmmm...... we could actually fly down because if we aren't going to eat off property that's one less reason to need a car.....

Now, in researching the DDP, hubby is like, well, let's do that even if they DON'T offer free dining.... wait.. hold the phone... that puts us at quite a BIT more than the original plan, but he likes the idea of having it all paid for in advance and I can't blame him, but yikes, hard to imagine paying that for food.

Now, here's how we ate the last time we we did one character breakfast, snacked a LOT, 2 or 3 counter service meals and had a fridge stocked with stuff in the room.
It worked well, but it would have been nicer to not have to hassle with it. We ate a LOT of our meals off site last time, we lived in florida for a few years and some of our favs were "must do's" with the kidlets.This time they don't care.

I just don't know what we should do, and I'm just so excited that we are going to be going back that it's hard to think clearly! (I'm cross-posting this on the food board, the resort board and the budget board hoping to get some recommendations!)

Do you like to eat on site (if money wasn't an issue?)? Can you tolerate a smaller room if it means better meals without worries about the cost? Would you prefer to fly if that's an option?

I don't think you can beat the savings of Free DDP if you are staying at a value resort. From your picture, it seems that your kids are "children" according to Disney standards. If so, then you can't lose money on the DDP (even if you pay for it) when you consider that the average character TS meal cost for them meets or exceeds the cost for the plan for the day for them.

What I liked about the DDP:
paid for in advance
didn't have to stress about the high costs of food at Disney- who wouldn't cringe at a $45 total at CS for 2 A/2 C meals!?!
Got to say- SURE you can have a mickey bar!
Didn't have to go offsite for meals (gave us more touring time- more fun AT Disney)
Felt totally immersed in Disney for an entire week- it's like being on another planet!
Didn't have to worry if my dd didn't eat the hot dog she insisted on ordering or that my other dd ate some bacon ONLY at Chef Mickey's.
Able to enjoy 7 TS meals on our week's vacation instead of the 1 or 2 we'd have done without the DDP. (The TS meals recouped the entire cost of the DDP anyway...if it was free dining- even better!)
We could share adult CS lunches w/ our kids and use their credits for a hot breakfast (kids credits)- it was plenty of food- we ended up using CS credits towards the end of the week for "snacks" like a deluxe nacho meal w/ dessert and beverage to share in the mid afternoon.
Tax and Tip included !!! We did toss an extra $5-10 on the table for particularly good service (had we visited during free dining- I'd have been more inclined to do that)

What I didn't like....
Nothing. Really. There are few problems with the DDP. The menus are, IMO, quite diverse. If your kids are picky eaters, then check out buffets for many of your TS meals- there's a huge variety and everyone can leave happy and full. We ended up having buffets or fixed price meals at 5/7 TS meals. My 9 year old would have been happy w/ buffets 3x/day so that thrilled her. We don't normally visit them so it was a big treat. The concerns about limited menu choices on kid's CS meals is totally workable. Share adult lunches (CS credits) and use the kid's CS credits for kid's breakfasts. Supplement with snacks or an occasional OOP sandwich and everyone will be well fed the whole week.

I like to plan. I made all of our ADRs based on the park we'd be visiting so we never had to RUSH to make a reservation. It gave us a chance to sit and breath and regroup. Much easier to do that, IMO, then going back to the room.

I didn't mind disney transportation. We stayed at Pop in June and the lines were never crazy. As a matter of fact, IMO, folks were more considerate in the Pop bus lines than they were waiting for the bus at AKL! )

Ultimately it's your decision. You would save on your admissions buying them tax free at SOG , I think. You'd save on your hotel stay there.

In your shoes, I'd reserve SOG and make my ADRs as if I had free dining. THEN, if free dining comes out- crunch the numbers one more time and see where you'd save the most.