For those who have used QSDP...

[jack'smom]

We have always used the DDP, but this time we will be using the QSDP (free). Did you feel the need to have any sit down meals outside of the plan? I was thinking we might, and looked at maybe Cape May, but that would be over $100 for me, DH, 5 year old DS, and 2 year old DS. Seems like so much money. I may do a character meal, just to do one, but it would probably be breakfast.

I was looking at doing some offsite meals instead (Orlando Ale House, maybe Mimi's, maybe Margaritaville), but don't know if that would be too much of a hassle. (We will have a rental car).

We will probably eat at more of the "upscale" QS locations like WPE, Earl of Sandwich, Sunshine Seasons, etc. We will also be there for 9 nights.

What are your experiences?

Also, is the trek over to Coronado Springs worth it to eat at the Pepper Market? Can I still get the steak there on QSDP? Any experience with this place?

Thanks!

 

[2Tiggies]

We are doing QSDP for the third year in a row this year. We have done 16 nights, 14 nights and will be doing 15 nights this trip. For us, being there for longer stays it is nice to do a few sit down meals and last year we booked 6 OOP. Doing the math, it was still more or less a break even with upgrading, plus we had the extra snacks for breakfasts and waters/Food & Wine (which was running at the time). I just could not face being tied to ADRs for over 2 weeks.

If I went for a shorter trip, say less than 7 days, I would possibly just do one
The good thing about paying OOP for your TS is that you can eat wherever you like, regardless of whether the restaurant participates on the DDP and our newly discovered gem was the House of Blues, which I highly recommend.

 

[maggiew]

We have always used the DDP, but this time we will be using the QSDP (free). Did you feel the need to have any sit down meals outside of the plan? I was thinking we might, and looked at maybe Cape May, but that would be over $100 for me, DH, 5 year old DS, and 2 year old DS. Seems like so much money. I may do a character meal, just to do one, but it would probably be breakfast.

I was looking at doing some offsite meals instead (Orlando Ale House, maybe Mimi's, maybe Margaritaville), but don't know if that would be too much of a hassle. (We will have a rental car).

We will probably eat at more of the "upscale" QS locations like WPE, Earl of Sandwich, Sunshine Seasons, etc. We will also be there for 9 nights.

What are your experiences?

Also, is the trek over to Coronado Springs worth it to eat at the Pepper Market? Can I still get the steak there on QSDP? Any experience with this place?

Thanks!

There is a character meal at the Dolphin that you might want to look into. I believe it is much cheaper.

I think the Hilton at DTD also has a character meal.

Maggie

 

[DisneyRunner2009]

My family likes CSR as a CS option. My husband would like to eat there three times on the planned upcoming trip. Last August, steak was available.

 

[aubriee]

We have always used the DDP, but this time we will be using the QSDP (free). Did you feel the need to have any sit down meals outside of the plan?

We will probably eat at more of the "upscale" QS locations like WPE, Earl of Sandwich, Sunshine Seasons, etc. We will also be there for 9 nights.

What are your experiences?

Also, is the trek over to Coronado Springs worth it to eat at the Pepper Market? Can I still get the steak there on QSDP? Any experience with this place?

Thanks!

We are not fans of CS meals and there are really very few CS restaurants at WDW that we even like (Pepper Market, WGP Express, Sunshine Seasons, Tangeriene Cafe, and Norwegian bakery, but that's about it). No way could we do the QS DP for 9 nights/10 days. We are TS people and freely admit it. We have trouble doing just the basic DDP, because we never have enough TS credits and wind up paying OOP for a few meals, then have some CS credits left over.

As far the Pepper Market, I stayed there in Dec and they had two steaks on the menu (a Mexican steak covered in a red sauce that came with rice, black beans, jalapeno peppers, and guacamole on the side, then a regular steak that came with grilled veggies and fries). You didn't ask about it, but they also have a really big burrito that is very good. You can ask them to add jalapenos, sour cream, and guacamole to it and they will for free.

 

[kaybird]

We loved the QSDP, find as a general rule we were eating more and more often. While we love the TS restaurants, we didn't find we needed a TS. Go to WPE at DTD, QS credit, sit down quality and feel!

 

[SPOERLX3]

We have always done the DDP in the past, our vacations are normally 8-10 days and it is very hard to plan your trip around your reservations. This year we are taking 3 of our grandkids and we are trying the QSDP. (If they come out with Free Dining for early December, we may convert over to the DDP but for now, it is the QSDP). We are however going to do 2 or 3 TS. When I ask my DD21 where she would want to go for TS (since she goes everytime) She chose:
Sci Fi
Tuskerhouse breakfast
O'hana
(She would have chosen Le Cellier if it wasn't so dog gone expensive)

I have been searching the disboards and menu's and thinking about all the places we have eaten in the past since i do not want burgers and fries for every meal so here are the ones we are looking at:
We LOVE Columbia Harbor House-MK
Cosmic Rays or Pecos Bill-MK
The QS in Mexico @ Epcot
The fish and chips in UK-Epcot
Sunshine Seasons-Epcot
Yak & Yeti CS-AK
Flame Tree-AK
Not sure about where we will eat at HS---this is why we are eating at Sci-Fi, not much good selections at HS, but we have eaten at ABC and liked it ok.

We will still need a few more QS meals but I hope to start my trip on the first day at DTD at WGPE (OUR VERY FAVORITE) and we always finish our trip there too and then we pick up sandwiches at EoS to eat at the airport while we are waiting on the plane.

Hope this helps! Have a BLAST!!!!

 

[blessedby3]

When we use the CS plan, we usually book a couple of TS meals (breakfasts since they are cheaper) and use the CS credits for lunch and dinner only.
Try checking into Ohana or Crystal Place. These are cheaper than Cape May. Ohana is $20.99/$11.99 (Tusker House is also this price) and CP is $22.99/$12.99 whereas Cape May is $26.99/$12.99. Every little bit helps. We always do Ohanas (yummy) and are trying CP on our next trip for our Piglet lovin dd3.

 

[DLW8]

I am debating this same exact thing for our upcoming trip. We have done the DDP for the past 2 trips and loved it, but this year, it's a very quick trip (arrive late on a Tuesday night and leaving on Sunday afternoon). We are also planning to head to Universal for 1 day to check out HP World.

We will be there for our 15th anniversary, so I would like to do a nice TS meal for that, thinking of Le Cellier since it's been so long since we've been there plus DS now loves steak.

Just trying to do all the math to figure out if I should do the MYW + Dining (QSP or regular) or pay OOP for all our meals and get our tix at AAA (I booked AKL with a 40% room only code).

This is becoming the most difficult Disney trip I've planned with all the options!

 

[jack'smom]

We are not fans of CS meals and there are really very few CS restaurants at WDW that we even like (Pepper Market, WGP Express, Sunshine Seasons, Tangeriene Cafe, and Norwegian bakery, but that's about it). No way could we do the QS DP for 9 nights/10 days. We are TS people and freely admit it. We have trouble doing just the basic DDP, because we never have enough TS credits and wind up paying OOP for a few meals, then have some CS credits left over.

As far the Pepper Market, I stayed there in Dec and they had two steaks on the menu (a Mexican steak covered in a red sauce that came with rice, black beans, jalapeno peppers, and guacamole on the side, then a regular steak that came with grilled veggies and fries). You didn't ask about it, but they also have a really big burrito that is very good. You can ask them to add jalapenos, sour cream, and guacamole to it and they will for free.

Funny...when we were there last September (also 9 nights) we were very dissatisfied with the TS restaurants. Our favorite meals were WPE and Sunshine Seasons. We had some really mediocre TS meals (Kona, which has been wonderful in the past) and some just plain bad (Chef Mickey's, Garden Grill). This was the reason why we actually wanted to do the QSDP this time.

 

[jack'smom]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Maybe I'll make a couple reservations and play things by ear. If we don't feel like we need a sit down, we can cancel.

I was looking at Cape May for their dinner, since I've heard good things. Maybe I can find an offsite place to get a good seafood dinner.

My 2 year old doesn't do well at restaurants, so if we could get away with CS places, that might be best. Also, my older son is on the plan as an adult, so he'll have a bit more variety.

Anyone else have any experiences?

Definitely looking forward to having two snack credits per person per day, especially with my 2 year old not on the plan. He could have an Itzakadoozie every hour if I let him!

 

[MinnieGi]

We just did QSDP for 7 nights over Christmas and did one sit down at HDDR. This worked out great for us. My kids 6 & 10 don't like more than a few sit down restaurants on one trip. QSDP was so great as we were not tied to any schedule and could just eat when we were truly hungry.

 

[TBLaube]

Our last trip we did the QSDP and it worked out nicely for us since DS8 (at the time) was not a sit down dinner kind of boy. He preferred to eat on the go and maximize ride time. I ended up eating most of the kid meals and he ate the adult ones because kid size meals are very small for the older kids....per Disney kid ages. With the snack options, this was a great plan and we had enough food to satisfy us. We are breakfast eaters, but now with the extra drink taken away it isn't the best usage of credits.

We are also Safari Club members so we always eat at RFC which doesn't cost us much especially with the free appetizer. We also tried T-Rex which takes the Safari Club card as well (or at least it did when we went. We don't order the expensive plates and we drink water so the bill is not too bad.

Like others I recommend any other OOP on Disney property is spent at a Breakfast Buffet with Characters. if you are not stuck on having characters, Kona Cafe and Whispering Canyon have nice breakfast menus that are reasonable. Kona has The Big Kahuna for $11.99 (I think) and it has so much food....two could easily share. Check out the menus.

This next trip (in 38 days....whoohoo), DS10 wants to do DxDDP so we are for the first half and then we are doing the regular DDP. We are doing a four night stay at AKL Jambo Villas and then four nights at VWL. ***We are going to be trying HDDR and 16 sit down restaurants in 10 days (taking the red eye so arriving early and leaving late in the evening.) And we are spending a day at Universal....it is crazy, but DS10 is the pilot on thsi trip. We are not huge eaters so this will be more of a sampling of many things, but we are very excited to try out many different foods.

I recommend doing the QSDP. There are many different options that are yummy so you don't have to eat burgers every day...Yak & Yeti, Tangerine Cafe, Capt Cooks, Flame Tree BBQ, etc. I personnally enjoy the different flatbread pizzas offered and also the nice salad varieties. Enjoy!

 

[SPOERLX3]

We just did QSDP for 7 nights over Christmas and did one sit down at HDDR. This worked out great for us. My kids 6 & 10 don't like more than a few sit down restaurants on one trip. QSDP was so great as we were not tied to any schedule and could just eat when we were truly hungry.

I would love to hear your favorite QS meals that you got to enjoy.