How four DVC members ate for less than the cost of a dining plan (with pics).

[Tiger926]

I guess I'm a little confused...

The DP contains 1 CS credit, 1TS credit and snack - your photos show mainly only CS meals such as sandwiches, fries and fried foods. I know you said you ate at Bahama Breeze and Chefs de France, but not sure this would be a fair comparison to the DP?

Maybe I'm missing something, but with the DP you get TS meals with rice, veggies, salads (I did see a few in your photos), grilled meats and fish. I didn't see any of that in your photos, so perhaps a true comparison to DP would mean that your meals would have been different? I know you ate the way you wanted to, but based on your photos, I only see mainly CS meals, so perhaps the QS meal plan would have been more accurate - I know you showed the price for that as well.

Not trying to debate, just wondering about the specifics of how you ate based on your thread title. Good budget though for the 4 of you, as you seem happy with the way it all worked out.

Tiger

 

[SunnieRN]

Thank you for writing out a very concise trip report!! I love it when people list prices, as you did!! Thanks again!

 

[Pig Pen]

We "saved" money using DDP if we ate that way normally, but we ate twice as much as we would have if OOP, and spent way too much time worrying about ADR times and counting credits. DH said he would never do it again. Normally we eat a light breakfast in our room or at a park, then either a CS or TS late afternoon. We may snack in the evening. In the real world we rarely get desserts and lots of times we each get an appetizer and share an entree. My best tip is to pick up the cheese and bread platter at the bakery in France and take back to your room for evening snacking!

 

[La2kw]

I guess I'm a little confused...

The DP contains 1 CS credit, 1TS credit and snack - your photos show mainly only CS meals such as sandwiches, fries and fried foods. I know you said you ate at Bahama Breeze and Chefs de France, but not sure this would be a fair comparison to the DP?

Maybe I'm missing something, but with the DP you get TS meals with rice, veggies, salads (I did see a few in your photos), grilled meats and fish. I didn't see any of that in your photos, so perhaps a true comparison to DP would mean that your meals would have been different? I know you ate the way you wanted to, but based on your photos, I only see mainly CS meals, so perhaps the QS meal plan would have been more accurate - I know you showed the price for that as well.

Not trying to debate, just wondering about the specifics of how you ate based on your thread title. Good budget though for the 4 of you, as you seem happy with the way it all worked out.

Tiger

Again, I didn't start this thread to debate the merits of a dining plan. Read my title again. It says "How four DVC members ate for less than the cost of a dining plan (with pics)." It does not say that we ate as much food as the DDP. Read it again and look at the pictures again. I'm not getting into a debate over my thread, I think it's pretty self explanatory.

 

[La2kw]

We "saved" money using DDP if we ate that way normally, but we ate twice as much as we would have if OOP, and spent way too much time worrying about ADR times and counting credits. DH said he would never do it again. Normally we eat a light breakfast in our room or at a park, then either a CS or TS late afternoon. We may snack in the evening. In the real world we rarely get desserts and lots of times we each get an appetizer and share an entree. My best tip is to pick up the cheese and bread platter at the bakery in France and take back to your room for evening snacking!

I have read other similar comments as yours. I have never done a dining plan because I have been to WDW enough times to know how we like to eat and what our budget usually is. I have done the ADR thing and end up canceling more ressies than we end up keeping. I hate being on a schedule.

That french and cheese platter is great! It has never made it back to our room, but we will have to try that next time.

 

[Tiger926]

Again, I didn't start this thread to debate the merits of a dining plan. Read my title again. It says "How four DVC members ate for less than the cost of a dining plan (with pics)." It does not say that we ate as much food as the DDP. Read it again and look at the pictures again. I'm not getting into a debate over my thread, I think it's pretty self explanatory.

Ummm...ok, then. I was just asking for clarification. Based on your thread title with the Dining Plan in it, you are comparing how you ate to purchasing the Dining Plan. If no comparison, then why mention the DP at all? You could have simply entitled it, "How 4 DVC members ate for less than xxx?" If you didn't want questions or queries about the DP, then why put it in your title at all?

Tiger

 

[Sandy321]

Actually the Contempo is a relatively new restaurant on the 4th floor of the Contemporary Hotel. After seeing the photos in this thread, I think I'll have to visit the Contempo on our next trip.

Yes, we had a rental car. We stayed in three resorts over our stay (plus Royal Pacific at Universal, and Loewes Miami Beach resort). We stayed at SSR, OKW, and WLV, and ate at both SSR and WLV. We ate at Contempo Cafe which is at the Contemporary, not Coronado. We often resort hop for a meal.

Thanks for correcting my mistake!! (and to think google was my friend!! )

I also think I will have to try a few places based on seeing the photos in this thread!!

 

[MinnieVanMom]

Great post with wonderful information for those want to use it. We use the DDP but also wondered what it would be like to go OOP. Thanks for the food porn and someday we may give it a try.

The bread and cheese is my idea of a great meal.

 

[Dean]

We can and have eaten for less than the cost of the DDP with 2 sit downs per day plus as many other items and snacks. I can also plan and show a great "value" out of the DDP because we order the more expensive meals at the more expensive locations. It's harder with the new plan for obvious reasons.

 

[rocknspots]

Thanks for confirming what I was already calculating. DH wanted to pre-purchase the dining plan but I said we'd spend much more that way due to feeling we HAD to eat. We're staying at Kidani so breakfast will on our balcony every morning... coffee and bagel or something like that. We're conservative with our money when it comes to eating out but we do love an occasional nice dinner. I guess I don't want to be tied down so now that I've read this thread I'll let DH read it for himself and he can see that he married no dummy.

I know I can always count on DISboards to calm my fears, answer my ???s, and feed my Disney addictions.

Thanks... Jackie

 

[mgrebenc]

Thank you for posting such nice pictures and descriptions. My daughter and I really enjoyed looking through this post and talking about what we might try in October.

 

[Entropy]

The DDP allows us to keep it simple. I just tell the kids to order whatever they want on the menu, nobody has to worry about prices, no mental price comparisons. We can also let the kids go off alone tell them to get their own snacks... and they do!
Price isn't the only thing to consider when deciding when to buy the DDP.

 

[dizmom2mwjk]

I have 4 kids, 3 of them under 9, and we have used dining plan 3 times (once with just 2 adults) I have found we used all meals every time, except once - when I got sick and did not eat- I am a planner- and the one time we did not, I took some people with kids through the line with me, and bought them meals...they thought that was very "magical" .... It has always paid off for us...(once was during a free time)...

we are thinking about not doing DDP for our next trip, so thank you for posting this....it is nice to know you can do Disney reasonably on your own...

 

[zalansky]

I also should not have read this on an empty stomach before bed. This is food porn as good as I have ever seen it. Thank you though, for your photos at Chefs De France! I have never wanted to eat there, UNTIL NOW!!! Looks awesome.

 

[Princess Tink]

Is there an exp date on the Wolfgang Puck GCs? We leave in 10 days and I was thinking about ordering 1, as we love WPE.

 

[La2kw]

The DDP allows us to keep it simple. I just tell the kids to order whatever they want on the menu, nobody has to worry about prices, no mental price comparisons. We can also let the kids go off alone tell them to get their own snacks... and they do!
Price isn't the only thing to consider when deciding when to buy the DDP.

There are plenty of threads that discuss the merits of the DDP. That is not the intent of this thread.

That said, you don't need a dining plan to keep things simple. We charge everything to our room so nobody has to worry about prices, they can order what they want, they can get their own snacks, etc. I've been to WDW so many times, I don't worry about prices since I know from experience about how much we are spend.

 

[La2kw]

Ummm...ok, then. I was just asking for clarification. Based on your thread title with the Dining Plan in it, you are comparing how you ate to purchasing the Dining Plan. If no comparison, then why mention the DP at all? You could have simply entitled it, "How 4 DVC members ate for less than xxx?" If you didn't want questions or queries about the DP, then why put it in your title at all?

Tiger

Okay, it appears you didn't read my first two posts and are confusing some issues. I said I wasn't going to debate the dining plan, not that I wasn't going to compare the dining plan.

Let me repeat a few key points to help clarify the point of my post for you.

I’m not trying to convince anyone not to use a dining plan, but merely illustrating an alternative, especially for anyone on the fence.

We considered the QSDP this trip, but we do enjoy a few TS meals out from time to time, and prefer to use the TIW card when we do eat at TS. We also do not need to eat dessert with every meal, nor do we need two additional desserts per day, which is what most of the snack credits are good for. We went on this trip just planning to follow our normal eating patterns and we did not bother making in dining ressies because we hate having a schedule to follow. We ate most breakfasts in our room. We ate primarily quick service places. I did not eat a single fast food hamburger or French fry the entire trip. We did eat TS at Chefs de France and Beaches and Cream using our Tables in Wonderland 20% discount, (though we could have also used our DVC discount at Chefs).

We were in Florida a total of 18 nights, and at Disney a total of 11 nights. We spent time in Miami and Universal also, but I did not include any of those meals in these totals. We spent a total of $1143.74 on food. The DDP would have cost us $1759.56. The QSDP would have cost us $1319.56. If I didn’t have the gift cards for Bahama Breeze and Romano’s Macaroni Grill (or if we didn’t have a car to go offsite), I would need to add an additional $200 for two more TS meals at Disney, or about $100 more for two CS meals at Disney. Even adding the cost of two more meals, brings our total to less than what the DDP would cost and about the same as what the QSDP would cost.


Again, I'm not interested in debating the merits of the dining plans, there are plenty of other threads for that. Hope that helps!

 

[Tiger926]

Okay, it appears you didn't read my first two posts and are confusing some issues. I said I wasn't going to debate the dining plan, not that I wasn't going to compare the dining plan.

Let me repeat a few key points to help clarify the point of my post for you.

I’m not trying to convince anyone not to use a dining plan, but merely illustrating an alternative, especially for anyone on the fence.

We considered the QSDP this trip, but we do enjoy a few TS meals out from time to time, and prefer to use the TIW card when we do eat at TS. We also do not need to eat dessert with every meal, nor do we need two additional desserts per day, which is what most of the snack credits are good for. We went on this trip just planning to follow our normal eating patterns and we did not bother making in dining ressies because we hate having a schedule to follow. We ate most breakfasts in our room. We ate primarily quick service places. I did not eat a single fast food hamburger or French fry the entire trip. We did eat TS at Chefs de France and Beaches and Cream using our Tables in Wonderland 20% discount, (though we could have also used our DVC discount at Chefs).

We were in Florida a total of 18 nights, and at Disney a total of 11 nights. We spent time in Miami and Universal also, but I did not include any of those meals in these totals. We spent a total of $1143.74 on food. The DDP would have cost us $1759.56. The QSDP would have cost us $1319.56. If I didn’t have the gift cards for Bahama Breeze and Romano’s Macaroni Grill (or if we didn’t have a car to go offsite), I would need to add an additional $200 for two more TS meals at Disney, or about $100 more for two CS meals at Disney. Even adding the cost of two more meals, brings our total to less than what the DDP would cost and about the same as what the QSDP would cost.


Again, I'm not interested in debating the merits of the dining plans, there are plenty of other threads for that. Hope that helps!

No worries! Thanks for the clarification - I have read every post, and have not confused any info at all. I am an English teacher, so I know how to process information, and how to make connections. In this regard, I believe your very detailed outline of how you ate, and the cost of it, as compared to Disney's various Dining Plans, is actually a debate about the value and worth of said Dining Plans. Your very detailed analysis of your dining habits, proved that none of the DPs would have been a good fit for your family; therefore, 'debate' and 'comparison' in this respect, are one and the same.

I found your post interesting to read, and full of great details. Really informative post! Glad you enjoyed your food and your trip! Tiger

 

[DISNEYDUET]

Great thread. We have done all 3 dining plans and find that it really depends on what type of trip experience you want. Park Commando (quick service DP) Park Novice (basic DP) or Park Master (deluxe DP). We have also only used our AP, DVC, & TiW discounts for trips and have enjoyed the freedom of that as well.

 

[Teachckg]

There are plenty of threads that discuss the merits of the DDP. That is not the intent of this thread.

Very protective of your thread, eh? I see benefits of both the dining plan and not using the dining plan although we do not use it. Either way I always appreciate to hear the pros and cons of every situation! In my opinion that is what the DIS boards are all about. Once we have kids I may see the benefit of the dining plan!