How many ADR's when NOT on the dining plan??

[NJDisneymom]

We have our room at a wedding discounted rate so can't book the DDP with it. We've loved the DDP in the past, it has always been well worth it for our family. I am planning for ADR's the same as I would if I was on the dining plan, DH says we shouldn't plan as many of the character meals, etc. because we aren't on the plan and paying $60-80 for breakfast is killing him.

So I'm curious, how many ADR's do you make if you aren't on the dining plan? For those who alternate between doing the plan and not doing it - do you plan differently??

It would cost us about $95/day to do the plan and we wouldn't really need to buy much out of pocket, so yes, its eye opening to add up what we are going to need to budget for food with all my ADR's.

 

[Brian Noble]

I might be the wrong person to ask, but everytime I total my meal expenses up, just eating what, where, and when we want to eat, we end up spending less than the plan would have cost. Sometimes that's because we don't eat enough TS meals over the course of a trip. Even when we averag 1/day or more, though, we always end up coming in lower.

 

[AmberLuvsWDW]

We do 1 ADR per day. We sometimes make lunch our sit down. The menus don't vary too much in most cases except for price. Check out allears.net to see menus and compare prices of lunch and dinner if you want to be prepared. We will do character breakfasts 2 or 3 times. It's expensive, but it's a unique experience. We usually don't eat again until later in the day if we do a big breakfast and that's usually something small. We also don't usually eat dessert and only occassionally get an appetizer when we don't have the DDP, so we can save there too. Good luck and have a great trip!

 

[PrincessBride07]

For our DFTW one of our guests opted to not take the wedding discount to get the DDP. They found it a better deal with rack rates with DDP than the discounted room rate. (I believe the wedding discount was only 10% at ASM, and there was 5 of them.)

The bride and groom have to meet XXX amount of rooms on Disney property as part of their wedding contract. If you chose to book outside of the room blocks they have established, you can simply give them your reservation number to give to their wedding planner. It will still count towards their contract room minimum.

To answer your question, we usually make an average of 1 ADR per day. Sometimes we do two, but that isn't everyday.

 

[NJDisneymom]

For our DFTW one of our guests opted to not take the wedding discount to get the DDP. They found it a better deal with rack rates with DDP than the discounted room rate. (I believe the wedding discount was only 10% at ASM, and there was 5 of them.)
The bride and groom have to meet XXX amount of rooms on Disney property as part of their wedding contract. If you chose to book outside of the room blocks they have established, you can simply give them your reservation number to give to their wedding planner. It will still count towards their contract room minimum.

To answer your question, we usually make an average of 1 ADR per day. Sometimes we do two, but that isn't everyday.

I did think of that, but we are staying at the Contemporary over New Years Eve for $197/night with the wedding discount. Rates on wdw.com are almost double that so getting the room is a better deal all around but I still will miss the convenience of not worrying about every check that hits the table.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We do the same with the ddp as we would without the ddp. One TS meal per day, and the 3-4 character breakfasts throughout the trip in addition to that.

 

[mickeynut1]

We've had the dining plan the last 2 years during free dining, and now we can't go to Disney without it.....even if we have to pay for it . But before the plan we would only do 1-2 dinners and maybe a breakfast....but we've gotten spoiled being on the plan and now we like a TS every night for dinner and a few breakfasts during the week (which we pay OOP)...so the DDP works much better for us . But to answer your question.....we most likely would not do a TS every night for dinner if we didn't have the DDP.

 

[wdhinn89]

We have never had the DDP. We have 1 TS lunch everyday except on AK day and then we do 2. A character breakfast at the park and a Chef Mickey dinner at night.

 

[Northern_Julie]

I have one booked for each day we are there. I tended to book a few TS lunches instead of dinners because we can sit in the air conditioning and lunches tend to be less expensive. I dont like my food sitting there when I go to sleep either. The places I booked dinner tend to be signature TS or places that don't do lunch.

 

[CharacterFan]

When I'm not on Dining Plan (which these days isn't very often) I still tend to make an ADR a day. We like the break in the day.

 

[Aimeedyan]

We really change it up depending upon the mood of the trip.

This next trip is all about relaxation - no intentions on hitting the parks each day, much less from open to close. We also have transportation and offsite dining is 1) tastier 2) cheaper 3) often easier to get to and from.

I try to eat a table service each day just because I like to be served But that's not always onsite.

This trip we're planning just 2 onsite reservations but we might do some more WDW meals once there.

It really just varies on your family touring style. There are many MANY families that do 10 days at Disney and eat quick service for every meal and have happy magical trips without one regret. While others want a table service every meal (aka my FIL!!) which is overkill for some.

 

[shellbelle]

I book a ts meal every other day. Sometimes more, but do some lunches to save money. Being that it is your wedding/honeymoon, I'd probably book 1 each day.

I have done the ddp a few times. I did enjoy it. I planned a meal each day with the exception of one because I did HDDR which uses 2 ts credits.

 

[NMAmy]

We've never used the DDP. I always make one ADR per day.

 

[~Fisharefriends~]

we have never used the ddp, last year we only made 2 adrs!! this year we have made 11 a mixture of breakfast, lunches and dinners, we are going for 14 nights, the rest of the time we plan to eat c/s or off site.

 

[musicmama]

We had gone to WDW three times before the DDP became "affordable". The first 2 times, I cashed in a boatload of Amex points for character breakfast certificates - 3 for each trip per person. Those were all done with ADRs (PSs as they were then). Otherwise, we ate CS lunch/dinner and breakfast at the off-site hotel. The 2nd trip, I made 1 extra ADR for Biergarten to make hubby happy. The 3rd trip, the Amex relationship was gone and I made 1 ADR for Crystal Palace breakfast and 1 ADR for Candlelight Processional meal. We were still off-site and we ate breakfast at the hotel, most dinners off-site or CS, and lunches were split CSs.

The year after that, we went to DL California and their dining plan is much different (or was then). You got a coupon book that was worth $ towards a dinner or a lunch or a breakfast and you could combine them for greater values. The only ADRs I made were for Ariel's Grotto lunch, Goofy's dinner for Christmas day and 1 Chip and Dale breakfast. (We found that with C&D, an ADR wasn't really needed.)

Fast forward to staying on-site and both purchasing DDP and getting it for free. ADRs for every single day, each trip. Much more work, but much more variety.

 

[Lmichele]

I really think it depends on your budget and traveling style. If you enjoy multiple character meals and are within your budget go for it. If you can't justify spending that much for breakfast 3 times, then scale back on the character meals. I never used the plan and I usually make 1 dinner ADR per day. Then every other we make a breakfast ADR, usually one being a character meal and use CS in the parks for lunch. This year we are staying club level, so I only made one breakfast ADR.

 

[patsal]

We are going back to how we have always eaten before the DDP so for a 14 day vacation I have 10 lunch/dinner ADR's planned. We did the DDP in the past when it was all inclusive but since I have to deal with a tip I'll just pay OOP and save as compared to the DDP.
Last year DH had a convention rate and we couldn't add the DDP to a short vacation--we jumped on joining him for the 5 days. During those five days I spent less OOP than we would have if we had used the DDP and the total I had included the alcohol.
While I didn't worry about breakeven with the old DDP I know the new DDP would be a stretch since we all do not get desserts and we prefer to have apps. We also have no one who is considered a child so the DDP X4 plus OOP is just much more than we will spend OOP.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

When no on the DDP we do one ADR a day which was always lunch or a very late breakfast.

We would usually eat breakfast at our condo. Something small like cereal, waffles, oatmeal.

Then take our midday break at lunch with our ADR.