If no dining plan, then what do you spend?

[poohmomof3]

We are a fam of 5. Staying a week at the beach club in a few weeks. We wanted the quick service plan, but there are not many options for that at the beach club. So, we are thinking of just paying out of pocket. If you have done this, what did you spend?

 

[hockeybabe]

Well, we have done it, but I didn't actually keep track of what I paid for everything. We are a family of 4, and I am budgeting $10 per meal per day per person for CS. We have 13 DD and 14DS, but picky eaters, so often it will be the kids menu. For times that it's not, I think it will balance out budget-wise. Of course, it pays to know where you are going to be eating, and what you think everyone will eat. For instance, we will easily split the chicken and ribs at Cosmic rays, at $13.99, that meal will be less than $40.00. Earl of Sandwich at DTD will also be less. I'm sure some will be more, but I think $40 per meal will be a good estimate.

 

[mlg32]

This tedious but I remember when Disney first introduced the DDP I planned out our ADRs and then used a site like All Ears to determine an approx cost for each meal.

We used the DDP for our last 4 trips and this trip we are skipping it and just eating where we want and ordering what we want. If we spend a few $$$ over the DDP cost I am ok with that.

 

[CarolinaMomOf3boys]

I have kept every receipt for food from every trip to Disney...a few times we were on free dining....we spend about $100 to $150 a day dining and we are a family of 4...but this does NOT include a character or signature dining...we always plan to do one...we have crunched the numbers and if having a fridge/cooler in our room, purchasing the dining plan does not work for us...but FREE dining...works for us every time

If you are a true plan a holic, like me...I look at any/all restaurants I want to go to, what days/times I am going and look at all menus, keep track of what each of us would order, and tally up what we might spend each meal for each day...if not on dining plan, we eat in the room....having cereal/milk/juice sent to the room from the local grocery store, etc....HTH!

 

[robinbutterfly]

Did the dining plan last time... family of 4. This time not using the dining plan. From my calculations, we will spend around 450. We are eating at 3 TS meals. We are staying 7 nights.

 

[lovesmurfs]

We just returned, and we weren't on the dining plan.

We would eat breakfast at the condo (which is why we couldn't be on the dining plan -- a single hotel room wouldn't work for us...). We wound up spending about $50/meal for counter service (meals are about $8.00+ without drinks and tax). Then the TS dinners were over $100, and most were around $125-$150 (we would often have a beer or glass of wine, though). Next time we will definitely bring a cooler for lunch every day and save that cost.

 

[Pugmalion1]

My girlfriend and I love the restaurants in the parks and resorts. So much so, that not even the Deluxe plan really makes much sense for us. Even for a five day trip, we would run out of table credits before the end of the fourth day.

Keeping this in mind, I alot for us around $200 a day in restuarant costs. Sometimes we'll go a little over and sometimes we'll come in well under, so it's a generous allotment. By doing this, I'm able to save up enough extra cash to make sure we have a good time without having to worry about budgeting.

 

[WDWjen]

...having the same dilemma.

Last year's trip we were offsite so we couldnt do the dining plan, but in Jan 08 we did the regular DDP. I found it to be a lot of food.. for example, counter service lunch for us was a personal size pizza, salad and dessert plus a drink.. we barely ate the salad and took the desserts to go in our diaper bag...It just seemed like such a waste. Then again, our kids were younger - maybe now they will eat more.

We are still on the fence about whether or not to do the DDP this trip. We are leaning that way just because it would cost around $11 a day for each kid and I know they would definitely spend at least that much between 3 meals and snacks. We usually eat breakfast in the room (bagels or cereal) because my kids get up before sunrise and are hungry right away.

We got all our ADRs already and got Le Cellier and Tappen Edo so we would probably save money by doing the DDP.

 

[robinbutterfly]

We just returned, and we weren't on the dining plan.

We would eat breakfast at the condo (which is why we couldn't be on the dining plan -- a single hotel room wouldn't work for us...). We wound up spending about $50/meal for counter service (meals are about $8.00+ without drinks and tax). Then the TS dinners were over $100, and most were around $125-$150 (we would often have a beer or glass of wine, though). Next time we will definitely bring a cooler for lunch every day and save that cost.

Are we allowed to bring coolers?? That is a great idea! Eat at hotel and pack lunches then enjoy a QS or TS dinner.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

It's just the two of us (adults). We never do the dining plan, eat 1-2 TS places a day, don't drink alcoholic drinks generally, don't "do" breakfast, generally get 1 snack a day or share a snack, and usually are too stuffed at dinner to get a dessert and maybe 1-2 times during our 7-9 day trip we'll split an appetizer before our meal. This is how I budget per day (I budget as if we're going to be eating 2 TS meals a day and if we decide to do CS instead that's just extra money in my pocket ):

Lunch: $35-40 for the two of us including tip
Snack: $10 a day total
Dinner: $70-80 for the two of us including tip

This totals about $130 a day for us which, with tip, the dining plan costs about the same (but we like the flexibility of being able to eat 2 TS meals a day). I'll generally save for $150 a day just in case there's any extra snacks/drinks/goodies we may want but generally don't spend much, if any, of it.

 

[photobob]

You may want to go to allearsnet.com and look at the menus and work up an estimate. They have menus with prices from every eatery on property. I did that our last trip to help decide if we would go with the DDP or OOP. We did OOP for two reasons: We are DVC members of had a kitchen available and #2 when comparing the DDP prices vs. our normal ordering patterns it just didn't work for us.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We average about $150 per day for 3 of us. We do eat a lot of signature dinners, but DS prefers to order his entree from the kid's menu.

The one time we did the DxDDP we ended up paying $210 per day for the plan, then easily another $55 per day in tips. Paying cash there is NO WAY we would average $265 per day on nothing but food. We were stuffed the whole time, DS screeched about ordering from the adult menu all week, I can't even imagine how much money we lost.

I just finished trying to make a Dining Plan work for our trip next June. Can't do it. There simply isn't a plan that fits the way we eat.

We do have a TIW card which is AWESOME.

 

[Hardy]

With us as a family of four, and both kids still qualifying as children, for our habits the basic dining plan is a no brainer. We definitely save at least $30 a day using it. We like having 1 sit down, 1 counter, and do breakfast in the room. Our next trip is the last trip my DS will be considered a child, but we will probably still get the DDP because he is a big eater and likes to eat things like beef filet or fish that are expensive items, and he will be old enough to do so. When my DD ages up in a few years we will have to reevaluate, however, if the plan works out to be a few dollars more, I would probably still choose it just for the ease of prepaying and being able to budget pretty accurately on our food costs.

 

[dancin Disney style]

The only time we will have the DDP is when we can get it for free. In general it doesn't work for us but free is free and I make it work in that case.

When we don't have the DDP we bring breakfast food with us and have it in our room everyday and will often have a few lunches in as well. We find that when having a meal out we will often share something an then share a dessert as well. We are a family of 4...myself, DH, DD18 and DD10...we have spent as little as $450 on food for a 7 day trip.

 

[zhazhazsu]

My mom and I just decided to ditch the dining plan for our May trip and go OOP. Mom is a VERY light eater, if she eats alot of rich food ( and for her anything heavier than a salad or yogurt is rich ) I am an average eater, but I hate the little CS desserts on the dining plan at MOST places anywhere that serves the prepackaged chocolate cakes, I do love the more creative CS dessert options.

Our detailed food budget ( estimated, and rounded up )

7 CS meals at 20.00 a meal average sharing entrees = 140.00

1 CP Breakfast - 52.00 with tax and tip
1 Cali Grille Dinner 130.00 with tax and tip
1 Artist Point Dinner 130.00 with tax and tip
1 Bistro de Paris dinner 130.00 with tax and tip
1 Boma Buffet Dinner 90.00 with tax and tip

snacks, and drinks 70.00 ( this is a few cocktails and a few mickey bars)

this has us sharing a dessert most of the time, but is still rounded up, and much more than we would eat, as we would each be ordering an entree at each TS, and I think that would be too much food for my Mom.

 

[KateMW]

Are we allowed to bring coolers?? That is a great idea! Eat at hotel and pack lunches then enjoy a QS or TS dinner.

What in the world would you do with a cooler for the whole day? IMO, it wouldn't be worth it to lug it around all day.

 

[stitch1094]

We are 4 adults (2 real and 2 disney adults ages 12 and 11) and also have two "real" kids (5 and 3).

A table service for us runs anywhere from $120 to $150. A counter service runs $50 to $60.

For us, it makes sense to get the dining plan. That being said, half of our party prefers apps and the other half desserts. Wish the DDP gave you the option of choosing either.

 

[robinbutterfly]

U

What in the world would you do with a cooler for the whole day? IMO, it wouldn't be worth it to lug it around all day.

I meant like a little insulated lunch bag.

 

[tinacaplan]

I think it really all depends on your individual needs. I am going down in February with my DH and I planned on a LOT of signature dining. Tabbing up one of those meals alone made me see that the DxDP would work quite well for us. But, we are skipping breakfast most days to bank credits for those meals. I'm not sure that the DP is worth it unless you want to plan out all of your ADR's in advance and eat table service. We are eating every meal (minus the breakfasts we're skipping) TS and I am quite looking forward to that. Not sure I'd want to do that with three kids, though! Having said that, my DH and I love the thought of not having to worry about paying OP for the trip. My DH prefers the "fantasy" that he's not really paying!!

 

[KateMW]

U

I meant like a little insulated lunch bag.

Well, that makes more sense. I still couldn't/wouldn't do it. I am not a big packer.