How much OOP do you spend on the FD plan?

[luckylady131]

We have never been to Disney and I am trying to figure out where to stay. Currently my choices are at a Hilton with points covering a few nights, the Wyndam Bonnet Creek resort, or Coronado Springs. We will be staying 9 days/8 nights. It will be myself, DH, our 4 year old and 9 month old. My 4 year is a very picky eater, and eats like a bird.

Both with the Hilton and Bonnet Creek, we would have to figure in food costs for the entire stay. I have a quote of ~$2,200 for Coronado Springs with the FD plan.

I was wondering if the FD plan is enough food, and how much food do you usually have to purchase OOP. Roughly how much $$ (outside of tips/alcohol/etc) do people usually spend when on the free dining plan?

Is it worth it to upgrade to the Deluxe plan? If I did my math right, it would be ~$552 extra to go with the Deluxe plan.

 

[Madonna3]

Actually, add another $300 to the Deluxe plan because of all the tips you'll be shelling out.

I find the dining plans to be suitable because we normally don't eat more than 2 meals at home. We find our eating habits decrease, not increase when on vacation.

Also, with the regular dining plan you get 1 snack. I don't burn that snack credit on drinks, I pay for those OOP.

I don't know how heavy of a drinker you are, but a mixed drink ran me about $9 with tip.

I think I spent like $10 a day on drinks (a soda is 2.50) and then about $20 a day on my liquor tab. I used the QSDP so no tips. I did enjoy two TS meals, but paid OOP for those. Even with paying OOP for those 2 meals, my cost was less than the cost of upgrading to the basic dining plan.

I don't like to be tied down to where I eat. When I'm hungry, I will eat. I won't force myself and I won't spend 2 hours of my time every day getting to some place to eat or constantly be looking at my watch to calculate when is my next ADR.

I loved the QSDP and I think the BSDP will be enough for you. The deluxe really is a ginormous amount of food. I did it once and I won't ever choose that plan again unless I am doing a lot of signature experiences.

 

[squirrel]

I pay very little out of pocket while using the DDP. I don't drink so that saves $. I bring a box of cereal for breakfast in the room. Saves time and it's what I usually eat for breakfast. I pack some snacks for my niece to eat as kids get hungry and she's lactose intollerant so sometimes it takes a while to find something she can eat.

We shared the 1/2 chicken meals as it's too much food for me.


I would plan on using you daughters CS for her breakfast (unless you are doing a TS) and then share your CS meal with her, unless it's something she won't eat. Most kid's meals are about $5 for CS. You can usually get a side item for a snack credit (fries, yogurt, chilli, etc.).

We go in October and if we do a TS breakfast we just had a snack for lunch and used our CS for dinner.

 

[2Tiggies]

We are doing the QSDP. I anticipate no OOP expenses whatsoever although we are doing some TS OOP (it still worked out better than upgrading). That said, free or paid, we found it too many credits to exhuast in a trip even if I deducted CS credits to replace the TS meals done.

It will depend on whether you bring or buy a lot of water/drinks in the parks and also whether you share your meals or order one each. Based on my prevoius experience, although sharing is more than adequate for us, I know that we may as well just order one meal each and leave what we don't want.

 

[DCDisney]

When my kids were that little we spent very little OOP because the kids meals were enough food for them. As they got older we occasionally bought extra or things they wanted that were adult choices. If you don't already have reservations I would hesitant to do the deluxe plan because it really takes getting good places at good times to make that many sit down meals work with doing what you want in the parks. With little ones I think it would be especially difficult because late dinners won't be a good option and signature dining might be a problem unless they have exceptionally good behavior. It might work if you intended to have a sit down breakfast at your resort daily but I think it would be very complicated doing deluxe dining.