How much is the most expensive QS meal?

[wfdiaff]

Not trying to start another debate about the value or not of DP, I do that enough with myself. I was trying to figure out what the typical QS meal costs for an adult. Assuming Sandwich or burger of some kind, a side and beverage. You get the drift. I know there are some very knowledgeable people on here that know the prices.
My debate is this, DP works out to be $200 a day for a family of 5. 2A and 3kids. We usually just do pop tarts/donuts for breakfast which we bring with us. At $200 a day that is $40 a person. I am wondering if I could do 2 QS and a treat a day per person cheaper than that.
We did DDP last time I was there, I kept receipts and we came out pretty even. I need to mention that when we ordered we didn't care about the price we ordered what sounded good, so sometimes we got expensive stuff and sometimes we got cheap stuff.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I believe the most expensive QS meal is if you do some swap-ins at Flame Tree BBQ.

Get the ribs or platter at $19.99, swap in a side for your dessert (6.49 for the fries with pork and cheese) and a drink at $2.99. So, that's $30.

 

[3DisneyFanz]

I believe one time at Tangeriene cafe at EPCOT it was just over $30 per person for our platters.

 

[wfdiaff]

I believe the most expensive QS meal is if you do some swap-ins at Flame Tree BBQ.

Get the ribs or platter at $19.99, swap in a side for your dessert (6.49 for the fries with pork and cheese) and a drink at $2.99. So, that's $30.

Thanks for your reply. After reading this I changed my question to "typical" cost rather than most expensive. At those rates ($30) the DP is a no brainer.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Typical QS is closer to $15-18 if you eat like on DDP (entree, drink, dessert). If you don't dessert, or split entrees it gets cheaper.

The platter referenced above at Flame Tree easily feeds a family of 4.

 

[sharonabe]

Your math may also depend on the ages of your 3 children and how they eat. At least for right now, Disney is not enforcing the "kid's must eat from a kid's menu" line for QS meals. So if some of your kids will eat adult meals, you'll definitely save some money. If you can use some of the drink/dessert part of your entitlements to get an extra snack or two with your meals, you can easily share many of the larger QS meals and stretch those credits farther to include your breakfast. That would mean no need for the breakfast stuff you bring from home.

The difficulty you'll have right now is that most of the online menus have not been updated with the higher prices that came out during March.

 

[wfdiaff]

Your math may also depend on the ages of your 3 children and how they eat. At least for right now, Disney is not enforcing the "kid's must eat from a kid's menu" line for QS meals. So if some of your kids will eat adult meals, you'll definitely save some money. If you can use some of the drink/dessert part of your entitlements to get an extra snack or two with your meals, you can easily share many of the larger QS meals and stretch those credits farther to include your breakfast. That would mean no need for the breakfast stuff you bring from home.

The difficulty you'll have right now is that most of the online menus have not been updated with the higher prices that came out during March.

It just seems to me as a grown adult I should be able to get a QS meal cheaper than $15 per meal. My kids are 14,11 and 9 and eat less than me. Or am I wrong?

 

[supersnoop]

It just seems to me as a grown adult I should be able to get a QS meal cheaper than $15 per meal. My kids are 14,11 and 9 and eat less than me. Or am I wrong?

You're correct. Which is why the dining plan almost never makes sense (financially) for adults.

 

[sharonabe]

It just seems to me as a grown adult I should be able to get a QS meal cheaper than $15 per meal. My kids are 14,11 and 9 and eat less than me. Or am I wrong?

Believe me, you are correct. We are now a family of four Disney adults, and we can easily eat for way less than the QSDP costs. Your kids ages probably means you can too. IF all three of your kids had been 9 and under, the plan COULD have worked for you, but it sounds like OOP will be the better plan for you.

 

[damskipi13]

It just seems to me as a grown adult I should be able to get a QS meal cheaper than $15 per meal. My kids are 14,11 and 9 and eat less than me. Or am I wrong?

Depending on what you like to eat and how much, you can definitely eat for less than $15/meal. If I'm in the mood for QS pizza, I always get the kids meal cheese pizza. That plus the drink is plenty for lunch for me, plus I have the sides to eat as snacks later. That's a $6-7 meal + "free" snacks. There are other kids meals that are plenty for me, too. Looking at the normal entrees, some places come out to less than $15/meal and some don't. I almost never order a dessert at QS because I know I'll want something from a bakery later, and I like water 95% of the time so I rarely order a drink. Many QS entrees come with sides, so I don't buy more sides. This means I can easily make out for less than $15...usually about $9-12. But if you want those things at every meal, you can reach the $15 point pretty quickly.

By the way, at $40/person for 2 QS and a snack I break it down like this: average of $4/snack, so that leaves $36 for two QS, or $18 per QS. If I were looking at two real adults and three children who eat less than you, I think a typical OOP day might look like this:
Breakfast: Poptarts/donuts/juice in the room = $10
Lunch: 3 QS entrees @ $11 average, 2 QS kids meals @$6 average, 5 drinks @$3.50 average = $62.50
Snacks: 5 daily @ $4 each = $20
Dinner: virtual repeat of lunch = $62.50

That comes out to $155. Adjust up or down if you think your family will eat more or less, will bring your own drinks/drink tap water, or will want TS meals.

 

[wfdiaff]

Depending on what you like to eat and how much, you can definitely eat for less than $15/meal. If I'm in the mood for QS pizza, I always get the kids meal cheese pizza. That plus the drink is plenty for lunch for me, plus I have the sides to eat as snacks later. That's a $6-7 meal + "free" snacks. There are other kids meals that are plenty for me, too. Looking at the normal entrees, some places come out to less than $15/meal and some don't. I almost never order a dessert at QS because I know I'll want something from a bakery later, and I like water 95% of the time so I rarely order a drink. Many QS entrees come with sides, so I don't buy more sides. This means I can easily make out for less than $15...usually about $9-12. But if you want those things at every meal, you can reach the $15 point pretty quickly.

By the way, at $40/person for 2 QS and a snack I break it down like this: average of $4/snack, so that leaves $36 for two QS, or $18 per QS. If I were looking at two real adults and three children who eat less than you, I think a typical OOP day might look like this:
Breakfast: Poptarts/donuts/juice in the room = $10
Lunch: 3 QS entrees @ $11 average, 2 QS kids meals @$6 average, 5 drinks @$3.50 average = $62.50
Snacks: 5 daily @ $4 each = $20
Dinner: virtual repeat of lunch = $62.50

That comes out to $155. Adjust up or down if you think your family will eat more or less, will bring your own drinks/drink tap water, or will want TS meals.

Awesome info, thanks

 

[Lisa F]

honestly I'm not sure why anyone would debate the DDP. There are two ways to look at it. One, people who want to prepay and know they are done and don't care about nickels and dimes. What's to debate? It is their chosen method of vacationing and who cares.

Then there are those who use it to try to save money. Again, what is there to debate? You put the $$ into a spreadsheet and you figure out if you come out ahead, behind or what. No debate, the numbers are there in black and white.

In your case I would think that you would come out behind given the ages of your children by doing the DDP. The prices of disney QS varies greatly. You can get an $8.99 chicken and peppercorn salad at Columbia Harbor House or you can get a $19.99 meat platter at Flame Tree BBQ that could realistically feed your whole family with the addition of a side or two and maybe a kid meal. It's hard to average it out but what I have kind of figured out is that a lot of the "good value on the DDP are also pretty large meals.

I am doing regular DDP for first 4 nights of a split stay and supplementing with a few OOP TS restaurants and it is working out because I am there for almost a full day the first day and also have the last day as a full park day so I can spread my credits out a bit more. I can't really make the regular DDP work for me for the entire week because I run out of QS restaurants that are a good value on the DDP where I would not be ordering just to make good use of credits. A lot of the QS desserts are nothing to write home about and although the ability to swap a side helps with that, IMO that only really helps if you are sharing. Sure I COULD get $30 of value out of a flame tree bbq credit but I'm traveling solo with my 8 year old and could not eat a full rack of ribs, cole slaw, beans, pulled pork cheese fries and a drink or dessert. I want to hurl just thinking about it. That is probably all enough to feed your whole family though but there are limited places you can use credits like that and you can't keep that pace for a whole week.

Me, for my 4qs I have flame tree, wolfgang puck express, tangierine cafe and the france bakery for breakfast one day (where I believe you can use a lunch type QS credit for sandwich, beverage and pastry) and then I hit the wall on what is a decent use of a QS credit for something I want to eat and without trying to maximize value. Later in the week I might have a hot dog at caseys or a salad at columbia harbor house but neither of those are great use of a QS credit and I will be paying OOP.

with that many people and the number of disney adults but still maybe children culinarily kids you have and sharing and meh desserts and all the rest of it, I really can't see any way to make the DDP come out ahead financially for you. I think you'd end up ordering and eating a lot of stuff you wouldn't have otherwise. If your kids were disney kids (all 3 of them) the math would change significantly.