College Age Trip

[davgr]

hi everyone...
I'm in college working a minimum wage job and desperately want to be able to take a trip to Disney with my boyfriend this summer! i grew up going to disney "disboards style" with my mom aka eating all these fancy foods and barely waiting in line...now it's time to do it myself!

i don't care about hotels or anything and i'm fine with not park hopping...i plan to be there for 5 days so we have 2 days for mk and 1 day for everything else. but i really want to be able to visit nice restaurants and relax with my boyfriend. he has always paid for me and i want to do something for him

anyway, i was looking for any advice on saving money while eating. is it cheaper/worth it to get the dining plan? i think typically i would be looking to eat 2 meals a day, 1 nicer one and 1 quick/cheap table service one. here's an example of my plan so far, obviously not set in stone.

6/1: lunch @ kona, dinner @ artist point
6/2: lunch @ teppan edo, dinner @ bluezoo
6/3: lunch @ sci fi, dinner @ victoria/alberts ??????????? (this would be an important day for our relationship so i'm curious if you think v/a is worth the cost. neither of us are 21 so alcohol won't factor in fwiw)
6/4: breakfast @ rainforest cafe, dinner @ morimoto asia
6/5: lunch @ liberty tree tavern, dinner @ the plaza

i'm trying to get a good estimate on what each day would cost. i have the total (and i'm trying to be generous) at ~1200 if we do this plan. is this accurate?

our flight should be free because of frequent flyer miles, so i'm trying to keep this trip under 3k. we plan on staying at one of the all star resorts btw. any "hidden gems" as far as food goes that will bring this cost down?

 

[eeyoresmom]

Well you said you are fine without park hoppers and want to do 2 days at MK and 1 for everything else. Do you mean 1 each? So 1 day for Epcot, AK and HS right? Is your $1200 total tickets and dining or just dining? Look at the menus on Allearsnet.com and try to determine what you think you would order. The Dxddp looks like a good fit for your projected adrs but it would cost you $1060 and $140 is not enough for tips.

 

[Marionnette]

hi everyone...
I'm in college working a minimum wage job and desperately want to be able to take a trip to Disney with my boyfriend this summer! i grew up going to disney "disboards style" with my mom aka eating all these fancy foods and barely waiting in line...now it's time to do it myself!

i don't care about hotels or anything and i'm fine with not park hopping...i plan to be there for 5 days so we have 2 days for mk and 1 day for everything else. but i really want to be able to visit nice restaurants and relax with my boyfriend. he has always paid for me and i want to do something for him

anyway, i was looking for any advice on saving money while eating. is it cheaper/worth it to get the dining plan? i think typically i would be looking to eat 2 meals a day, 1 nicer one and 1 quick/cheap table service one. here's an example of my plan so far, obviously not set in stone.

6/1: lunch @ kona, dinner @ artist point
6/2: lunch @ teppan edo, dinner @ bluezoo
6/3: lunch @ sci fi, dinner @ victoria/alberts ??????????? (this would be an important day for our relationship so i'm curious if you think v/a is worth the cost. neither of us are 21 so alcohol won't factor in fwiw)
6/4: breakfast @ rainforest cafe, dinner @ morimoto asia
6/5: lunch @ liberty tree tavern, dinner @ the plaza

i'm trying to get a good estimate on what each day would cost. i have the total (and i'm trying to be generous) at ~1200 if we do this plan. is this accurate?

our flight should be free because of frequent flyer miles, so i'm trying to keep this trip under 3k. we plan on staying at one of the all star resorts btw. any "hidden gems" as far as food goes that will bring this cost down?

In order to get any dining plan, you would need to stay in a Disney Resort. Judging by your list of restaurants, you would need quite a few table service credits to pay for all of those meals. That would mean purchasing a Deluxe Dining plan and I just don't think you would get full value from it.

That being said, you should be able to eat for $1200 if you eliminate V&A ($185 per person before tax and gratuity for the 7-course meal - it goes up from there) or eliminate all of the table service lunches, a couple TS dinners and opt for quick service instead.

The cost of 5-day base tickets is $394 per person age 10+.
That's if you purchase at the gate. If you purchase from Disney in advance, you will save $20 per ticket. You're looking at about $700 for tickets for the two of you....OUCH!

So, that leaves you with about $1100 to cover hotel room, baggage fees, 9/11 fees, seat selection fees, fees for using your FF miles, souvenirs, Uber rides and misc tips. I think you'll squeak by if you're staying 4 nights. Five nights would be tight.

 

[Thing 1]

Several of your choices are not on the DDP so that might not be the right choice. Are you willing to share meals?

 

[mel2014]

You might want to check out this website to get an idea of what your planned dining will cost and whether the dining plan will be worth it for you:
https://www.distripplanner.com/

 

[QueenIsabella]

I think you might want to dial back your expectations in order to meet your budget. There's no shame in eating quick-service for every meal (except maybe one nice sit-down for your special day, but I wouldn't do Vic& Al's).

 

[Imagineer5]

6/1: lunch @ kona, dinner @ artist point
6/2: lunch @ teppan edo, dinner @ bluezoo
6/3: lunch @ sci fi, dinner @ victoria/alberts ??????????? (this would be an important day for our relationship so i'm curious if you think v/a is worth the cost. neither of us are 21 so alcohol won't factor in fwiw)
6/4: breakfast @ rainforest cafe, dinner @ morimoto asia
6/5: lunch @ liberty tree tavern, dinner @ the plaza

I enjoy eating out at Disney! I would say, without alcohol, you're looking at an approximate cost of:

Kona 50
AP 85
Teppan Edo 60
BlueZoo 85
Sci Fi 50
V&A 420
RFC 40
Morimoto 70
LTT 50
Plaza 50

Which equals $960. So if your budget is 1200 for food alone, that leaves some extra $$ for snacks and a little buffer. I wouldn't do the dining plan IMO. I'd also look into maybe Be Our Guest for dinner vs the Plaza (or for lunch vs. Kona). Would your BF enjoy Ohana? I might try for a dinner there - it's one of my DH's all time favorites!

Regarding V&A's, its amazing - if you guys are both into that sort of experience and food and such, and you can fit it in your budget, it could be a huge WOW - but if you might want to scale back, look at Ohana or Flying Fish or Yachtsman - still wonderful dinners out, but a little less pricey. We LOVED our dinner at V&A's - it was an amazing experience, although I will admit I really enjoyed the wine pairings with each course

 

[davgr]

thanks everyone! i guess i never realized how much money my mom spent on me as a kid

whoever linked me the trip planner was really helpful! i plan on purchasing the fun/sun package and staying in all star movies, which will cost $1456.01. which i think is pretty worth it for 5 days. my dad is a frequent flyer on southwest, so we can get free tickets through that by just taking 2 carry ons. i don't plan on leaving the park, so ubers won't be necessary. i also think not having to waste any money on alcohol will help at the nicer restaurants!

i really like eating out and some of my best memories at disney are at the super fancy restaurants, but comparing v/a's price to even something as nice as cali grill honestly doesn't seem worth it, so i might take that out and save it for when we're both old

the 2 restaurants i'm 100% positive my bf will love are scifi and the plaza...hes a huge nerd who will probably want to ride star tours 20 times, and can't live without a milkshake. the 2 restaurants i really want to hit are morimoto asia and bluezoo, because they were both absolutely delicious last i was there and i don't think i could go to disney without going to both of them! i may switch the 6/3 v/a dinner to bluezoo, and then hit a cheaper epcot restaurant on 6/2.

using the trip planner and minus the cost of bluezoo (which would probably be about ~150 trying to overestimate costs), cutting out v/a for a mid-tier epcot restaurant gets the food cost down to about $850. would $1000 be a relatively safe guess? minus tips obviously

thanks for everyone's help! i'm used to just going along for the ride, so having to plan this trip myself is an eye opener!

 

[scrapquitler]

I enjoy eating out at Disney! I would say, without alcohol, you're looking at an approximate cost of:

Kona 50
AP 85
Teppan Edo 60
BlueZoo 85
Sci Fi 50
V&A 420
RFC 40
Morimoto 70
LTT 50
Plaza 50

Which equals $960. So if your budget is 1200 for food alone, that leaves some extra $$ for snacks and a little buffer. I wouldn't do the dining plan IMO. I'd also look into maybe Be Our Guest for dinner vs the Plaza (or for lunch vs. Kona). Would your BF enjoy Ohana? I might try for a dinner there - it's one of my DH's all time favorites!

Regarding V&A's, its amazing - if you guys are both into that sort of experience and food and such, and you can fit it in your budget, it could be a huge WOW - but if you might want to scale back, look at Ohana or Flying Fish or Yachtsman - still wonderful dinners out, but a little less pricey. We LOVED our dinner at V&A's - it was an amazing experience, although I will admit I really enjoyed the wine pairings with each course

Don't forget to add tips. If these meals add up to close to $1000, tips are going to bring it right up to your $1200.