DDP and large families
- Thread starter BiggFam8
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WAHMto5
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We have 5 children aand I cannot say enough GREAT things about the dining plan! It really makes the trip so much easier on everyone! I don't have to worry about what each child orders, they are happy that they get to order anything they want, and everyone is FULL 99% of the time! Everything down to the snacks made it a great choice for us.
We only have 3 children and they are much younger than yours( 11,6 and 2) but our usual trip sounds similar to yours. The only difference is that we generally eat anything that wouldn't be a table service meal in our villa. We don't generally even do a table service restaurant every night. This varies some, but we strive to be budget conscious and get the most enjoyment out of what we do spend.
That said, when I look back at our DVC trip last January we would have saved money and had to cook a lot less by using the DDP. Of course, in January it wasn't available to us. We spent about the same amount of money on food and still did a lot of our own cooking and only had a few choice meals in restaurants. As many more of your children are "adults" I think your savings would be even more significant.
I know I keep feeling hesitant about spending that much up front, but when I add up what we usually spend during the week it's about the same.
That said, when I look back at our DVC trip last January we would have saved money and had to cook a lot less by using the DDP. Of course, in January it wasn't available to us. We spent about the same amount of money on food and still did a lot of our own cooking and only had a few choice meals in restaurants. As many more of your children are "adults" I think your savings would be even more significant.
I know I keep feeling hesitant about spending that much up front, but when I add up what we usually spend during the week it's about the same.
cabanafrau
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BiggFam8 said:Thanks everyone for the great suggestions! We are going on 07/29 - 08/07 and we are still trying to justify spending the extra money. We figured it will cost us about $1,500.00 more to use the plan over our usual meal budget. With 4 DC getting close to college (one this Fall, one next Fall, and two the following Fall), that $1,500.00 would help them. Having said that, this will probably be the last vacation that all of us take together and it would be nice to make it as memorable as possible. Your great comments are making it easier to decide. Thank again, and keep them coming!
Noticed that we will be in WDW (the Poly) the same time frame as most of your trip. Just wanted to say, have a wonderful time and go determined to absolutely enjoy every minute, however you decide to do it! Congrats on having so many teens happy to travel w/ the family and ambition to head for college. Hope our DD's will feel the same at that age.
Wanted to contribute to this thread now that I can speak from experience. Hope this helps those who have posted, and especially the OP.
We are midway through a two week vacation on the dining plan and I thought I might offer some commentary. We are a family of six, our kids ages 18, 15, 11, and 7; three boys and the last a girl.
The dining plan was quite expensive for us, but has been worth it thus far.
There are a wide array of snacks available and we have all enjoyed the snacks randomly through the vacation. We havent gone into the parks every day so we havent run short on snack credits and it doesnt look like we will. It has been fun to indulge this kids a bit, and just say "no problem" to the requests for popcorn, ice cream, etc.
The counter service meal credits are simple to use and the food is plentiful, because they include a main dish and either a dessert or side dish or salad, depending on the place, plus beverage.
We have very much enjoyed numerous table service meals that we have always wanted to try but were too expensive for us. We have also tried several restaurants to which we have only gone to lunch in the past due to expense and have gone there for dinner this vacation instead. It has been an indulgence in a good way for the kids to get beverages at meals, and several restaurants have allowed specialty drinks which we have all enjoyed (smoothies, etc.)
My biggest concern was that there would be too much food for us, and that has been the case somewhat, because we have a tweener. That would be our 11 year old, who doesnt have an adult appetite, yet we had to pay full adult price for him.
We handled this through sharing meals, which has been no problem at all with any server. I have ordered meals that I know he will eat, and split the entree with him. Between my appetizer, half the entrée and the desert, I have had plenty of food, and the half portion has been enough for him. As a result, we have been able to save his table service credits and have enjoyed a few extra meals and / or signature meals with his credits. Of course that left us with a few extra meals worth of counter service, but the teenagers are available to take care of those.
By the way, my teenagers have polished off their meals most of the time. And our 7 year old has done fine with the child menu selections, which are actually pretty varied from restaurant to restaurant.
Over all, the plan has been a positive experience, but has required advanced planning for TS meals, and sticking to a schedule accordingly. We have enjoyed it, and will do it again, even though it is more expensive than what we normally pay for food here (we usually eat quite a bit in our DVC room.) My wife has loved the vacation from meal prep and dishes as well.
We will do the dining plan again next time. For us it has made for a more memorable vacation and a much more pleasant dining experience for all of us. I would recommend trying to find the funds and give it a try. However, if you have more than one "tweener" (an "adult" aged child that still only has a child appetite) I would be careful, because it will probably be too much food and you'll wind up leaving dining credits when you depart or throwing away a lot of perfectly good food.
If anyone has specific questions, please feel free to ask. However, I won't be back on line until this weekend.
We are midway through a two week vacation on the dining plan and I thought I might offer some commentary. We are a family of six, our kids ages 18, 15, 11, and 7; three boys and the last a girl.
The dining plan was quite expensive for us, but has been worth it thus far.
There are a wide array of snacks available and we have all enjoyed the snacks randomly through the vacation. We havent gone into the parks every day so we havent run short on snack credits and it doesnt look like we will. It has been fun to indulge this kids a bit, and just say "no problem" to the requests for popcorn, ice cream, etc.
The counter service meal credits are simple to use and the food is plentiful, because they include a main dish and either a dessert or side dish or salad, depending on the place, plus beverage.
We have very much enjoyed numerous table service meals that we have always wanted to try but were too expensive for us. We have also tried several restaurants to which we have only gone to lunch in the past due to expense and have gone there for dinner this vacation instead. It has been an indulgence in a good way for the kids to get beverages at meals, and several restaurants have allowed specialty drinks which we have all enjoyed (smoothies, etc.)
My biggest concern was that there would be too much food for us, and that has been the case somewhat, because we have a tweener. That would be our 11 year old, who doesnt have an adult appetite, yet we had to pay full adult price for him.
We handled this through sharing meals, which has been no problem at all with any server. I have ordered meals that I know he will eat, and split the entree with him. Between my appetizer, half the entrée and the desert, I have had plenty of food, and the half portion has been enough for him. As a result, we have been able to save his table service credits and have enjoyed a few extra meals and / or signature meals with his credits. Of course that left us with a few extra meals worth of counter service, but the teenagers are available to take care of those.
By the way, my teenagers have polished off their meals most of the time. And our 7 year old has done fine with the child menu selections, which are actually pretty varied from restaurant to restaurant.
Over all, the plan has been a positive experience, but has required advanced planning for TS meals, and sticking to a schedule accordingly. We have enjoyed it, and will do it again, even though it is more expensive than what we normally pay for food here (we usually eat quite a bit in our DVC room.) My wife has loved the vacation from meal prep and dishes as well.
We will do the dining plan again next time. For us it has made for a more memorable vacation and a much more pleasant dining experience for all of us. I would recommend trying to find the funds and give it a try. However, if you have more than one "tweener" (an "adult" aged child that still only has a child appetite) I would be careful, because it will probably be too much food and you'll wind up leaving dining credits when you depart or throwing away a lot of perfectly good food.
If anyone has specific questions, please feel free to ask. However, I won't be back on line until this weekend.
slcmkh said:
Just wanted to say thank you for the great advice since your family situation is closer to mine. I think, from all the sugestions, that we will enjoy the DDP experience and will probably give it a try this vacation. If you're at Disneyworld during the first week of August this year and you see a family of 8 (not very many of us out there!) dining in splendor (compared to eating off the "cheap" list), just come up and ask if we're the Biggs Family and say "HI".
Thanks to everyone who took the time to give their opinions to a DH just trying to make this vacation as memorable as possible without going to the poor farm!
Just returned from our vacation yesterday.
It's very true what many say regarding the dining plan being "too much food." We wound up using 22 snack credits on our last day on take home treats from the Boardwalk candy shop. We also wound up leaving 17 counter service credits behind (I have heard of people using CS credits for last minute snacks, but 22 was enough, so we left without using the CS credits.) We also left 1 TS credit, simply because my 15 year old didn't care to eat dinner at 1900 Park Fair on our second to last day and we couldn't really see a way to use a single credit.
I haven't done the final math yet, but my estimate is that we ate our way through about 700 to 900 dollars more than we paid for the plan. We had two Signature service meals, one at Flying Fish and one at Yachtsman Steak House that averaged $350 each. No way would we have paid out of pocket for meals like that, but no regrets when using the dining plan. These were far and away our best meals on our vacation, with Ohana and Brown Derby, another Signature service, running a close third and fourth.
A few lessons learned:
1) Remember that the dining plan offers desert with both meals, plus a snack each day. This can add up to three "treats" per day, and my wife and I both gained 5 - 10 pounds.
2) I was a little too compulsive about getting the most for our credits. For example, our first night there we used 5 CS credits at Spoodles Pizza window (1 slice of pizza, 1 salad or dessert and 1 beverage), and then paid out of pocket for a whole pizza, knowing that 1 slice wouldn't be enough for the teenagers and adults. Having left 17 CS credits behind, I would have been better off to use 6 CS credits for the whole pizza (one pizza is 6 slices), ordered 6 bottled water for later use in the parks, and just left the salads behind. I also paid out of pocket for a Mama Melrose lunch (about $100) because we didn't have time or room for desserts -- should have used TS credits, as we wound up using the TS credits at the end of the vacation for other unplanned and not really essential meals, which also added to our leaving behind CS credits which otherwise would have been used.
I had been tempted to pay OOP for less expensive TS lunches such as Mama Melrose, because it seemed a better use of credits to have a TS dinner at $200 or more than to use the credits for TS lunch at about $100. Don't be tempted to maximize this way. I would rather have saved the OOP $100 by using TS credits, had one less TS meal somewhere else, and used CS credits for a CS meal instead. Even with using TS credits for less expensive meals now and again, the plan will easily pay for itself and more.
Don't hesitate to use credits and save your out of pocket cash. You probably won't run short on credits in the end. If you do, use the out of pocket cash then. We even let our 11 year old use a few TS credits on kid meals toward the end of the vacation, and still came out way ahead financially. Remember that at about $10 per CS meal, we left about $170 worth of food behind by walking away from those credits.
3) I would hesitate to use the dining plan again on a long vacation, as two weeks worth was really expensive, and because after 7 - 10 days the family was getting a little tired of the required schedule of ADRs and of the over abundance of food. However, for vacations up to 7 - 10 days, we would use the dining plan again. We would also consider trying to divide the room reservation into two for a long vacation and only using the dining plan for one segment, although there is no guarantee with this that you will get the same room.
4) Sharing meals saved us from wasting a lot of food. As a medium to large family, it would have really went against the grain to throw away a lot of food due to the wastefulness. We shared and also took home quite a bit of food in to go boxes, and ate it later. This may have also contributed to our CS credit excess. However, leftover Yachtsman Steakhouse food was infinitely better than any CS meal, and I would rather waste the credits than waste food. However, sharing meals leads to excess credits, so plan on some signature service and possibly leaving some CS behind. Even so, you'll save money over all.
5) Enjoy the indulgence. We had thumbs up from the kids and yet didn't feel like we were over-indulging them. They loved having beverages at every meal (chocolate milk was consumed in mass quantities). Indulgence? Yes. But hey, we were on vacation.
Have fun.
It's very true what many say regarding the dining plan being "too much food." We wound up using 22 snack credits on our last day on take home treats from the Boardwalk candy shop. We also wound up leaving 17 counter service credits behind (I have heard of people using CS credits for last minute snacks, but 22 was enough, so we left without using the CS credits.) We also left 1 TS credit, simply because my 15 year old didn't care to eat dinner at 1900 Park Fair on our second to last day and we couldn't really see a way to use a single credit.
I haven't done the final math yet, but my estimate is that we ate our way through about 700 to 900 dollars more than we paid for the plan. We had two Signature service meals, one at Flying Fish and one at Yachtsman Steak House that averaged $350 each. No way would we have paid out of pocket for meals like that, but no regrets when using the dining plan. These were far and away our best meals on our vacation, with Ohana and Brown Derby, another Signature service, running a close third and fourth.
A few lessons learned:
1) Remember that the dining plan offers desert with both meals, plus a snack each day. This can add up to three "treats" per day, and my wife and I both gained 5 - 10 pounds.
2) I was a little too compulsive about getting the most for our credits. For example, our first night there we used 5 CS credits at Spoodles Pizza window (1 slice of pizza, 1 salad or dessert and 1 beverage), and then paid out of pocket for a whole pizza, knowing that 1 slice wouldn't be enough for the teenagers and adults. Having left 17 CS credits behind, I would have been better off to use 6 CS credits for the whole pizza (one pizza is 6 slices), ordered 6 bottled water for later use in the parks, and just left the salads behind. I also paid out of pocket for a Mama Melrose lunch (about $100) because we didn't have time or room for desserts -- should have used TS credits, as we wound up using the TS credits at the end of the vacation for other unplanned and not really essential meals, which also added to our leaving behind CS credits which otherwise would have been used.
I had been tempted to pay OOP for less expensive TS lunches such as Mama Melrose, because it seemed a better use of credits to have a TS dinner at $200 or more than to use the credits for TS lunch at about $100. Don't be tempted to maximize this way. I would rather have saved the OOP $100 by using TS credits, had one less TS meal somewhere else, and used CS credits for a CS meal instead. Even with using TS credits for less expensive meals now and again, the plan will easily pay for itself and more.
Don't hesitate to use credits and save your out of pocket cash. You probably won't run short on credits in the end. If you do, use the out of pocket cash then. We even let our 11 year old use a few TS credits on kid meals toward the end of the vacation, and still came out way ahead financially. Remember that at about $10 per CS meal, we left about $170 worth of food behind by walking away from those credits.
3) I would hesitate to use the dining plan again on a long vacation, as two weeks worth was really expensive, and because after 7 - 10 days the family was getting a little tired of the required schedule of ADRs and of the over abundance of food. However, for vacations up to 7 - 10 days, we would use the dining plan again. We would also consider trying to divide the room reservation into two for a long vacation and only using the dining plan for one segment, although there is no guarantee with this that you will get the same room.
4) Sharing meals saved us from wasting a lot of food. As a medium to large family, it would have really went against the grain to throw away a lot of food due to the wastefulness. We shared and also took home quite a bit of food in to go boxes, and ate it later. This may have also contributed to our CS credit excess. However, leftover Yachtsman Steakhouse food was infinitely better than any CS meal, and I would rather waste the credits than waste food. However, sharing meals leads to excess credits, so plan on some signature service and possibly leaving some CS behind. Even so, you'll save money over all.
5) Enjoy the indulgence. We had thumbs up from the kids and yet didn't feel like we were over-indulging them. They loved having beverages at every meal (chocolate milk was consumed in mass quantities). Indulgence? Yes. But hey, we were on vacation.
Have fun.
Just posted a looooong review on our TS meals on the regular dining thread list, if any one is interested.
It can be found at http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=13101186#post13101186
It can be found at http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=13101186#post13101186
indigoxtreme
DIS Veteran
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- Apr 9, 2005
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We had a party of 6 last Sept. 1 70 yr old MIL, 1 4 yr old and 2 22 yr's old DS and us 49. We loved the meal plan. It was the first time we could eat at the TS restaurants as we could never afford to before. We usually ate off site or had hamburgers from McD's etc Sandwiches in the rooms for lunch and Breakfast in the room. It was so pleasant to be able to plan our meals and eat what we wanted. We also split some of the CS meals and had Breakfast a few times at the hotel. Enjoy your trip and yes they do grow up quickly. 
jjohnson said:
We used all our banked and part of our current years points for all 9 nights. $2,500.00 is the reason I'm asking for help! I don't want to spend anymore than I have to but want to enjoy our "final" vacation together as a family. The next 3 years will see 4 of our DC going off to college so this is the "last hurrah" as far as all of us being together on a vacation. It's a big decision for us.
Again, thanks to everyone who took the time respond! Keep them coming. It's a little more than a month, we scheduled the DDP but there's still time to cancel. Does anyone have horror stories about this plan? Not that I'm looking to find fault but there has to some downside to it. It seems too good.
we've used it twice and are using it again in sept (for free! YAY!) and LOVE IT! my super-picky-sister who swore it could not possibly be a good deal and must have flaws and it just won't suit the way they vacation blah blah blah also (surprisingly to her, knowingly to me) LOVED IT!! there truly is not a downside to this dining plan! it's reasonable, it's flexible, it's convenient... what more could you ask for?! it truly is a great plan 
Funny, I hadn't seen any replies to this thread recently and thought it was pretty much done. The most recent reply just came through and I opened it literally as I was talking on the phone to my Disney Brother (DB?) and debriefing him on the dining plan. Realized again what a good thing it was for our family of 6 last month. Really enjoyed it.
No horror stories at all. Never felt like the CMs treated us poorly because we were on the DP. The only drawback for us was that it was just too much food for our 11 year old "tweener." However, even though we left without using some CS meals, our dining tabs added up to nearly $1000 more than the $2800 we spent for the two weeks on the DP.
It was pricey for us, but it was our last vacation as a family as well, and no regrets here at all. We enjoyed numerous restaurants that were always too expensive looking for us, including the Flying Fish Cafe and the Yachtsman Steak House -- both of which were incredible meals. We will definitely do it again, even though it's a bit expensive compared to eating half the time in your DVC room.
Personally, this being your "last" vacation as a family, I think you should go for it and just enjoy indulging your kids this time around.
Good luck.
Again, I say "go for it."
No horror stories at all. Never felt like the CMs treated us poorly because we were on the DP. The only drawback for us was that it was just too much food for our 11 year old "tweener." However, even though we left without using some CS meals, our dining tabs added up to nearly $1000 more than the $2800 we spent for the two weeks on the DP.
It was pricey for us, but it was our last vacation as a family as well, and no regrets here at all. We enjoyed numerous restaurants that were always too expensive looking for us, including the Flying Fish Cafe and the Yachtsman Steak House -- both of which were incredible meals. We will definitely do it again, even though it's a bit expensive compared to eating half the time in your DVC room.
Personally, this being your "last" vacation as a family, I think you should go for it and just enjoy indulging your kids this time around.
Good luck.
Again, I say "go for it."
calypso*a*go-go
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If you are truly looking for advice on how to make your stay less expensive, I feel like the DDP would give your family more food than they could ever eat and you would come out ahead with your original plan of having breakfast and/or lunch in the villa and purchasing a DDE card to get a 20% discount with dinner. But, if you really want to splurge on this vacation...then keep the DDP.
Frankiesmom
DIS Veteran
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- Aug 25, 2005
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Mr Big we are in the same boat as you;and also a DS off to college next month;so for us this is also probably our last family vaca for a while. We are a family of 7;and DD's friend is also coming with us-party of 8? LOL Ages are Myself 34,DH 47,DS 17,DS 16,DD 13 and her friend 13,DS 4 and last DS 1.5. We are also taking the DDP-just to be able to enjoy the finer restaurants that having such a large number of kids I would normally shy away from. it is a large expense-for us it will be $1672.51 for the week. But as everyone else has stated it will also be less work and will make sure our vacation will be really memorable-this will make sure that we all get together at least once a day-just like we were on a cruise-we used to do mostly cruises and we like the thought of not having to worry about accounting for all the food!and keep track of all the receipts etc. we will also be in WDW the same time as you-7/29-8/05.So if we see you all we will be sure to say Hi! DH and I took a no kids trip this past may and we used the DDp and we really saved with the plan so i'm sure this time the savings and the no headaches will be well worth the expense. Angel
laceemouse
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AMEN!!! Agree 100% I still can't understand how folks say they "saved money" IF they generally eat in the room/off-site or CS ALL the time! YES, you do get to eat at the TS places once a day, and the splurge would be nice for anyone, but to actually say "we saved money" you need to compare it to the amount you NORMALLY spend, not to the total on your receipts which would include a BUNCH of stuff you would not normally buy. If the OP wants to splurge....GREAT! But to say that they will save $$$$....I just don't see it!calypso*a*go-go said:
Frankiesmom said:
I see you staying at the BWV, we are staying at OKW. Our "normal" resort is BVC being DVC members but wanted a change this time. Thanks for the advice and we'll be looking another couple looking hagard trying to get all 6 of their "children" to spend at least ONE meal with their parents
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