Deciding between DDP or BK & Lunch @ Villa?

[Camyle]

Hi!

My husband and I are relatively new DVC owners. We are traveling to WDW in June and are staying in a 1 BDR villa at the Boardwalk (to be close to friends staying at the Swan). We will be traveling with a hungry teenager.

How has everyone found eating breakfast and lunch in your villa compared to the DDP cost wise? We have never used the DDP and are not sure of its value. We plan on only eating one character meal - Crystal Palace, with our big traveling group (at least that is the plan so far, but often we end up eating several table service meals together with our friends as a gathering event).

My husband thinks the cost of the DDP at around $45.00 per person per day is quite high and we could save $$ by eating breakfast and lunch at our villa. I thought that price seemed reasonable to me.

I was already planning on eating breakfasts at the villa, but not sure about lunches. My husband also does not like to be tied down to a set schedule either, our lovely teen just wants food.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Do you typically head back to the room around lunch time? If not, it's unlikely you would change your ways to save a few dollars. I'd look at what TS restaurants you will likely eat at and go from there.

 

[Camyle]

Do you typically head back to the room around lunch time? If not, it's unlikely you would change your ways to save a few dollars. I'd look at what TS restaurants you will likely eat at and go from there.

On our last trip to WDW, we probably went back for lunch about 1/3 -1/2 the time. I wouldn't mind if I could get my DH and DD up to be at parks right after they open then come back for a lunch break, but sometimes my wishes don't come true. Then I make them stay in the parks longer and we end up eating quick service meals, if they don't get going early enough for me.

 

[Sandisw]

Another option, if you don't want to be tied down to TS meals is to consider the QSDP. It offers you 2 CS meals and 2 snacks each day plus the mug.

We found it a good deal for those that want to eat that much food. For my kids and DH it worked well. For me...not so much as I just don't need or want that much food. And, it is only $34.99 per day. And, the way it worked out, we were able to use it to cover all of our meals pretty much as we used 1 snack credit for our breakfast (muffin, bagel, danish or yogurt).

For a teenager, it might work out okay. As mentioned, if you plan to be back in the room for lunch and want to eat in, then I think you can save money.

We don't do meals in the room so for us, it has worked out. But, if your DH doesn't want to worry about ADR's for the trip, I would forgo the regular DDP as it requires you to eat TS each day.

 

[Pakey]

We don't do dining plan. We do breakfast and lunch in our villa most of the time and then dinner out. If we eat lunch out, we then have dinner in. It's easier to eat healthier that way; we tend to gravitate towards junk when we have the options out somewhere.

 

[KerTggr]

We do breakfast in, but on park days we do all other meals out. We like to be at the parks early and need to eat breakfast before we get going (since the rest of my family are morning people that's easiest). Since we don't have a car when we are there we find the busses just take too long and we feel like we are missing out on valuable park time. That said on non-park days we eat at the villas almost 100% - with possibly 1 meal/snack at DD or where ever we are that day. (We like to do 2 park days then an off day to experience the rest of the world.)

I went a little crazy for our trip this year and figured out not only where we were eating, but also the average price of an appetizer or dessert, entree, and drink at each location. Comparing this to the dining plan, we would only be saving money on the 3 kids in our group. The other 7 who are adults would spend less by just paying for their meals.

However, we are only doing 2 buffets this year. My parents are getting up there and just don't eat as much as they used to (usually share an entree). Additionally, my family as a whole has lost a lot of weight this year so we won't want to go too overboard on everything. The kids are good with brought from home type snacks for most of the day too. We know when they get to be teenagers we are going to have to go buffet more often - all very active boys within 5 years of each other.

One option which I did with my BFF when we went to DL last time on a cheap trip would be to have breakfast in your room before leaving, pack a psedo-lunch (we did PB&J's in hard plastic containers in our mini-backpacks) and pick up sides in the park. This way we still got to have some of our vice foods like dole whips, churros and fries, but didn't spend a ton on a burger. Might be a good idea to bring a sandwich along for the hungry teenager as an interim / additional food item.

 

[3 Hobbits 2 Disney]

Going back to the villa for lunch if you are at Epcot or the Kingdom, probably pretty easy. Going back from Animal Kingdom or MGM would take a chunk out of your day. Breakfast at the villa gives you a good grounding for the day. If you take snacks with you, it could reduce some of your lunch costs. If your DH doesn't like being tied down, that probably gives you the most flexibility.

If you want to watch costs, for our last trip we ate late lunches as early dinners and then had snacks/cheese and crackers back at the room if we were hungry.

 

[Donna M]

Do you plan on joining your friends for dinner a lot? That will make a difference. We went out with our group to the Rainforest Cafe and two people had to leave because they thought it was covered by the dining plan and it wasn't. So now they were out hunting for a resaurant and we were enjoying our meal. So do your homework.

I think a big advantage of the villa is the option to eat meals there and save a lot of money. (If my DH and I got the Delux dining plan, it was going to cost $1200 for one week of food!!!) Granted it was delux but still.

I have looked at the menus and found that to get all our money back we would have to eat at expensive places and get expensive entres and desserts. Sometimes we wouldn't want to eat that much.

I think the ddp would be great for people staying in a hotel room who have to eat every meal out, for people who really are not planning on doing any meal prep because they are on vacation, for those who will be in the parks every day for both lunch and dinner or if the ease of having the food prepaid is worth it to you. If you will only be in the parks a couple of days like us and will be back in your room around meal times then maybe it isn't for you.

We have a split stay so we are getting the meal plan for one night. We'll go to Boma's which is $40 each and then use it for a breakfast. We will get our money's worth that day.

If you do get it, the quick service one sounds like it would be good since you don't have to be tied to reservations plus your son can use all your snack credits, that would be 6 snacks a day. He should be happy.

 

[tjs198]

I'd go for the dining plan - i hate cooking at home let alone on vacation. I'd eat every meal out if i could - love having people serve me.

But to answer your question, yes, i believe you would save money by eating breakfast & lunch in your villa than buying it. That's a no brainer.

 

[Camyle]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you very much for the wonderful advice. I think we are going to have to sit down with our friends and determine how many table service meals they would like to eat at. I know that the Crystal Palace is a must do for everyone, but if we end up only eating one or two table service meals, it might not be worth the Dining Plan for us. I need to eat something in the morning prior to activity (limits the grouch factor for me), so breakfast is most likely always going to be at the Villa.

I like the advice that if we are close to MK and EP we can easily go back to our villa for lunches as I forgot about the monorail-often quicker than waiting on the bus, I think even at HS, we could walk back and eat lunch.

I wish they could expand the monorail service, but I am sure it is too costly.

 

[dairyqueenmom]

Once two of our children became adults in the eyes of Disney, we stopped using the dining plan. We now eat breakfast in our room and cook some late dinners. We have bought the Tables in the World Card and I did a big spreadsheet with the places/cost with DP vs. place/cost witht the Tables card and we save money. We have groceries delivered, and we cook very easy meals: tacos, pasta, hamburgers/hot dogs, pancakes and eggs for breakfast. I hate to cook, but I just plan very well it is easy.

We don't usually come back for lunch, we prefer to go to a nearby resort, eat at their counter service, take a swim, and then head back to whatever park we are visiting that day.

 

[DCLbrideSept2009]

I'd go for the dining plan - i hate cooking at home let alone on vacation. I'd eat every meal out if i could - love having people serve me.

But to answer your question, yes, i believe you would save money by eating breakfast & lunch in your villa than buying it. That's a no brainer.

We always have a 2-bedroom villa with full kitchen (DVC) and I don't really enjoy cooking on vacation either. So what we do is get EASY meals to prepare in the villa... frozen lasagnas, frozen pizza, bagged salad, precooked bacon for BLT sandwiches, etc. We also hit up Panera Bread and get enough bagels and cream cheese for breakfasts for the week. YUM!!! We do one meal out a day and usually the other 2 meals in the villa. Breakfast is ALWAYS in the villa except possibly a LATE breakfast (more like lunch).