Help me decide = QSDP or OOP

[StuckInKS]

A ton of calories should fill you up, but that's not always the case. I can go to McDonalds eat 2 cheeseburgers and a large fry and still not be satisfied (which is why we don't go there.) However, last night my dinner had 420 calories with 8 grams of fiber and 20 grams of protein and I was full for hours. Also at WDW there is a lot of exercise going on, which will make you use up your calories more quickly.

A full CS meal + dessert will fill me up, but it's not going to feed DH too.

 

[havoc315]

A ton of calories should fill you up, but that's not always the case. I can go to McDonalds eat 2 cheeseburgers and a large fry and still not be satisfied (which is why we don't go there.) However, last night my dinner had 420 calories with 8 grams of fiber and 20 grams of protein and I was full for hours. Also at WDW there is a lot of exercise going on, which will make you use up your calories more quickly.

A full CS meal + dessert will fill me up, but it's not going to feed DH too.

For many people, they are expending more energy than usual at Disney, so can afford a few extra calories (couple hundred, not couple thousand)

But the funny thing about your McDonalds statement, demonstrates why America has a major obesity epidemic. When they opened 50 years ago, a full adult meal with just 1 hamburger and a small fries. And that wad considered a perfectly filling meal.
But in the so-called value competition, they kept increasing the sizes of their meals.
Human biology has not changed in 50 years, but expected portions have double and tripled.
We are only meant to eat until we are no longer hungry, but instead many of us expect to eat until we are "full" or "stuffed" and we have thus moved the bar on what should be considered satisfying.

As to sharing cs meals... We were talking specifically about the Cosmic Rays combo meal, which is about twice the size of many other cs meals.

 

[MissJanice]

We love the QSDP. I think it fress us to eat whatever we want, whenever we want. In addition, it gives us the opportunity to do a couple of sit down meals.

If you are spending a day at Food and Wine, then I would definitely go with the QSDP, because all of the booths are snack credits and you will have a ton to use. Also, the booths at F&W are more expensive than your usual snacks, so that may save you money, too.

Because the QSDP only has two meals per person, we usually still share a couple of meals and check in early the first day and leave late the last day to stretch the credits.

 

[sharonabe]

Hey OP! I hope you're still watching your thread.

I just reread your original post. It looks like you say you'll be saving about $35 per DAY if you order and eat the way you want to eat and pay OOP. How many days are you staying? With a four-day stay, you could even do a character breakfast and still save from the amount of the QSDP.

 

[nooneshome]

QSDP is great if it is free or you would actually eat all those desserts and snacks anyway. We enjoyed the FD QSDP before and can't wait to use it in another ten days!!! Ooooh 56 snack credits!!!

 

[JLS]

I am a big fan of the regular DDP and the DxDDP but I would never get the QSDP. Even maximizing the value of it based on ordering the expensive food items, it is nearly impossible to demonstrate how this plan saves money. And if you are a family that it generally not interested in drinks (other than water), desserts and the mugs, forget it. No point in having it. It sounds like even if you throw all ordering caution to the wind and get whatever you want you still will not spend more than you would have paid in advance for the plan. My vote would be no!

 

[dntd]

Just because it has tons of calories it doesnt mean it'll fill me up! So if a dinky burger has 1000 calories, i should split it with my son and be satisfied just cause i got my caloric intake for that meal???? Not gonna happen! Esp with all the walking at disney, I tend to eat more than usual.


A ton of calories SHOULD fill you up. Just like fire should burn you. And ice should freeze you. It's simple science. If you don't eat calories, you will get hungry. When you eat a ton of calories, you will get full.

I'm not talking about you personally, as I don't know you. Problem in general though, many people have grown accustomed to over-eating. They have basically built up a "tolerance"--- they are so used to over-sized portions, that their body comes to expect it. It's the reason why over half of all Americans are clinically overweight. The average American is practically obese. (Yes,, I see you are Canadian, so obviously not talking about you, lol).

1,500-2,000 calories -- The amount in a full combo meal, with soda and dessert.. *should* be more than enough to overstuff any normal person.

The problem is foods that are unhealthy have no bulk, it's missing fibre. If you have a salad instead of a chocolate bar the salad would fill you longer but have less cal. Our bodies weren't built to eat high cal foods all the time. Sharing a burger combo won't fill a lot of people up as it's missing bulk, the bulk one gets with veggies and whole grains....

 

[avic77]

Hey OP! I hope you're still watching your thread.

I just reread your original post. It looks like you say you'll be saving about $35 per DAY if you order and eat the way you want to eat and pay OOP. How many days are you staying? With a four-day stay, you could even do a character breakfast and still save from the amount of the QSDP.

Im watching still . Hate that people decided it was a thread for debating overeating habits in America!
I have decided to budget $150 a day for my family. QSDP would be $151.95 a day for my family so I figure $150 should be good. Since we are going to be at Universal 1 day and we dont eat as much as the QSDP alots I think OOP will in fact be the most beneficial for us THIS trip. I am not interested in Table services because we have only 4 days in Disney and 1 in Universal. I want to spend more time playing then eating. We will probably eat offsite our Universal day anyway since there was a place the kids loved when we did our offsite Universal trip 2 years ago.

 

[TinkWink]

I went through that dilemma also - whether to get QSDP, Regular DP or just pay OOP. Since most of our TS reservations were for breakfast, along with one lunch and one dinner, I opted to go with OOP. I would have to pay OOP for at least one meal with either dining plan purchased (or eat in the room), so I figured why not just pay for all of it OOP.

With 5 days adding up 1 TS, 1 QS and 1 snack for each day, we "saved" $20 by NOT buying the DP. I had planned on saving about $50, but that was based on the prices for the meals (all buffets or fixed priced meals) that I found online, which were NOT accurate - each meal ended up being $1-5 more per person than my estimates. However, I am still glad I didn't buy the dining plan, because I would have been ticked if I had overpaid by ANY amount. It wasn't any more stress, or any less convenient, to just charge it to the room (or you could take GC). The savings basically paid for the OOP CS meals we bought for our toddler, and a few extra snacks.

You pretty much have to eat dinner TS and have it be expensive, and choose the highest price snack in order for the dining plan to really be a good value, IMO. HOWEVER - it was only 2 adults since our daughter is only 2. If you have a kid and go to a buffet, that will just about pay for the kid DP right there. Also, we had water to drink and don't eat dessert at each meal, so why should I on vacation? That also adds "value" to any DP, but was not something I purchased, so no savings there. We were at the Contemporary but did go to the Poly and GF for CS meals. We actually get a lot of use out of our refillable mugs - took coffee or Powerade with us in the a.m., got Powerade/Lemonade at naptime, and had at least 2 more fillups in the evenings each day. We just filled up our mugs with a drink at the Contemporary drink station before hopping on the monorail to eat CS at the other resorts, since I didn't want to bend the rules by filling up at those other CS restaurants. It worked out great!

 

[TinkWink]

Re: bulky foods to fill up - the Asian Salad at ABC Commissary was GREAT!! A very generous portion of greens, edamame, crunchy noodles and dressing. I ate that for lunch one day and it really filled me up! (and I am normally a huge meat eater!!) I liked the Noodle Bowl at the Poly's CS - lots of veggies!

 

[Cierese]

For me, if it was just $35 extra for the whole trip, I would get the QSDP and not think twice. No sharing, keep the mugs as a souvie.

Personally, I don't see how any two adults can share a CS meal at WDW. DH and I got the ribs/chicken combo at Cosmic Rays last year, the one everyone claims you can easily share. Even with a side of chili cheese fries it was not enough for either one of us. Not even close. We could easily eat one of those each and have a dessert.

I hope that didn't come off the wrong way, I just honestly don't see how two adults share these meals and leave satisfied

My problem is DS11... Puberty hit and now he's eating everything I have in the house and its hard to keep up! He looks at a sandwich as a 'snack'! As much as I don't like the idea of having to pay 'adult' prices for an 11 yr old, I doubt going OOP would save me any money with his appetite!! I also have DS3 and DD9 and they could be just fine sharing. Sadly though you HAVE to buy either ALL OOP or ALL DDP and you HAVE to pay for however many nights you are there even if you plan to go somewhere else for a day or are only getting say 5 day passes and staying 7 nights! Last time we went we did QS and had food left at the end of our stay. We made good on these though by stocking up right before we left and had food for the road.


61 days and counting... OKW Here we come!!!

 

[Amy&Dan]

For me, if it was just $35 extra for the whole trip, I would get the QSDP and not think twice. No sharing, keep the mugs as a souvie.

Personally, I don't see how any two adults can share a CS meal at WDW. DH and I got the ribs/chicken combo at Cosmic Rays last year, the one everyone claims you can easily share. Even with a side of chili cheese fries it was not enough for either one of us. Not even close. We could easily eat one of those each and have a dessert.

I hope that didn't come off the wrong way, I just honestly don't see how two adults share these meals and leave satisfied

Dh and I are big eaters and we do share, especially as the trip progresses. Our trips are 10-14 nights so after a week of eating out, we start to feel full and just kind of sick of eating and we tend to share then and feel very satisifed. Also, it sort of depends on the place. Casey's is not shareable for my family but Columbia Harbor House is if we get the shrimp basket which is huge.

if we do the DDP, I think the snacks and ts meals do us in appetite wise. We tend to do a lot of buffets when we eat ts and we tend to pig out on those and it just catches up with us.

If we pay OOP, we don't share as much partly because dd14 can get a kids meal. Also if we pay OOP we don't do the buffets but rather eat at places where we can share a couple of appetizers and maybe two entrees. But the snacks and desserts on the DDP and QSDP fill us up and also we do tend to drink the soda that comes with our meal on the DDP and that fills us up too.

I don't think the QSDP is as easy to justify as far as saving money simply because there is no way I'd order dessert if paying OOP at two meals esp if I was eating snacks too. But the free mug and then being able to splurge at WPE, Tangierene Cafe and the food courts and ds16's enormous appetite make it worthwhile.