Did you spend extra money WITH DDP??

[BestDayEverx4]

If Disney decides to offer free dining during our stay at the end of the year and we upgrade to the regular Dining from the Quick Service (Approx $300-$400 to upgrade), do you think that we would need to plan to spend more money for food/meals outside of this? Or is the DDP usually enough to not have to worry about doing that?

We will take drinks and snacks of our own into the parks and pack lunches on days if need be.

 

[babydoll65]

We had the regular dining plan on our last trip. We used our snack credits for breakfast so we still had our qs and ts left. You will need to factor in tips(18-20%). We had seven ts adrs and probably spent 150.00 or so in tips.

 

[SGMCO]

We usually have plenty to eat on Reg. Dining Plan. Sometimes have to spend more on Water (don't care for the taste of the fountain water). I use 1 snack credit for a muffin for Breakfast--get coffee or hot chocolate with the refillable cup) or eat a large QS breakfast (get the extra bottle of water--put in our frige in the room for evening). Eat light snack mid day and TS for Dinner. There is also the Tips to figure into the TS meals with DP (I really miss the day when the DP included the tips--Those were the days!!).

 

[chocolateMinnie]

we have in the past subsidised the regular ddp with cash because we generally only go for a week and want to have a table service meal daily with a couple of signatures. The big addition in cost on the ddp for us is the tip as mentioned above. Although a YS use of two dining plan credits seems a bargain it is easy to rack up a tip of $70 or so for the one meal. Also on qsdp we probably wouldn't bother to have a drink in the parks but on ddp we do generally have a wine or beer with our meal.

 

[AlohaAnnie]

Just on Tips and maybe one TS breakfast on the day we leave.

But I don't think it is necessary to have extra money on the DDP with 1TS, 1QS, and 1Snack per day.

You will need tip money and there are some snacks that are not covered under the dining plan so it is a good idea to have a little extra for that purpose.

There are 4 of us so we were always able to eat QS breakfast, QS lunch, and our TS for dinner and still have 1 snack per day.

We did this by sharing our breakfast and lunch.

We would get two of the largest breakfast platters or a huge Mickey waffle and share them at breakfast.

At lunch, we would share 2 QS meals.

At Dinner we would each get an entree, or a buffet/ all you can eat dinner.

We usually wouldn't get hungry for our snack until the afternoon after lunch and have it then.

So there are ways to make the dining plan work so that you do not have to buy extra food.

We were always stuffed eating this way on the dining plan because they give you a dessert at lunch and dinner. But there were times we threw away our lunch dessert because we were stuffed.

I guess it depends on how you eat.

I agree with bringing in water bottles to the park. We do this.

Good Luck!

.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Yes we paid OOP for one TS during the week and breakfast on the day we check out. We did CRT which was two credits.

Also OOP for tips and water.

 

[mickeynut1]

If Disney decides to offer free dining during our stay at the end of the year and we upgrade to the regular Dining from the Quick Service (Approx $300-$400 to upgrade), do you think that we would need to plan to spend more money for food/meals outside of this? Or is the DDP usually enough to not have to worry about doing that?

We will take drinks and snacks of our own into the parks and pack lunches on days if need be.

It depends on how your family eats, but we always spend extra OOP when we do the regular DDP. We do a TS every night for dinner and usually do at least 2 TS breakfasts, so we use the DDP credit for dinner and pay OOP for the extra breakfast meals.

 

[elaine amj]

Depends on how your family eats. Our first trip on DDP I worried so brought breakfast fixings (instant oatmeals), granola bars, and lots of snacks. We didn't touch any of what I brought.

4 snacks a day for the 4 of us was a lot. We're used to sharing 1 snack a day between all 4.

Our last trip, we even went so far as to share TS meals - worked perfectly and we were all stuffed all the time, a completely yummy trip. I did pay once OOP for the Kitchen Sink at Beaches and Cream (not covered on DDP). Ice cream for lunch was a hoot.

I've read a ton of reports and I think the average person on DDP (who usually doesn't share meals) either has breakfast fixings to eat in the room or pays OOP for breakfast (supplemented with a snack sometimes) and then has QS lunch and TS dinner.

 

[Maggie Lizer]

Also, if you want a glass of wine or an appetizer, that has to be OOP (which is why DDP doesn't really work well for me personally as I have been known to make a meal of the two).

 

[shyjade]

We normally travel to Disney under the QS free dining and although we do spend a little on food, we certainly wouldn't have to! We always have leftover credits we scramble to use up on our last day. In October, the extra OOP expense was on a few $3 F&W items that we wanted once we used up our snack credits. I think my DD16 had 8 frozen s'mores while we were there!

 

[klacey1]

The only extra money we spend is tips, some alcoholic drinks, MAYBE an app or two, and lunch/dinner for the one day each trip we go to Universal.

 

[kayrosek]

When we last had the DDP we only spent cash on tips and about 15 dollrs a day supplementing breakfast. We used our snack credits for breakfast and usually purchased a platter to split and a few extra drinks or snacks depending on our mood. When we go next time though Im afraid the DDP wouldent work as well for us as we would spend too much OOP. We have 4 teenagers and all love ts dining and want to try lots of apps. We will probably use the DxDP and still plan to spend a lite ooo for a few cs meals thtt are must do's (CHH and EOS) and I dont want to waste credits on.