If no dining plan, what do you budget for food?

[MommyBryn]

We haven't gone w/out the DDP for a while...and I swore we wouldn't ever again because we LOVED the DDP. It really "made" the vacation for us because we never had to be concerned about what/where we ate, and that just topped it off. However, there's a chance we may choose to go w/out this time so we have some spending money instead. DH and I probably wouldn't eat $40/day worth of food each anyway, so I'm not sure if it's saving us money. Our oldest DD is only 2.5 and eats like a little bird so we don't even buy her meals.

Anyway, what do you generally budget for food (just parents)?

 

[jellybeans0607]

First of all , you can't share your parents credits. When you eat together and go to pay, they will only be able to pay for what ever credits they bought it for. IE. if there are 2 people on the dining plan they will only be able to redeem 2 dinners at dinner. if there are 4 people on the plan they could redeem 4 dinners. But if there are 2 people on the plan they would not be allowed to redeem 4 dinners.

As far as how much money it depends on where you plan to eat. Do you plan to eat a sit down meal every night? Then I would plan about $80-$100 a day. Do you only plan to eat counter services? Then I would plan around $50-$80 a day.

You can go to allears.net for menus and prices. If you know where you plan to eat you can get a pretty good idea of how much it will cost.

 

[MommyBryn]

First of all , you can't share your parents credits. When you eat together and go to pay, they will only be able to pay for what ever credits they bought it for. IE. if there are 2 people on the dining plan they will only be able to redeem 2 dinners at dinner. if there are 4 people on the plan they could redeem 4 dinners. But if there are 2 people on the plan they would not be allowed to redeem 4 dinners.

We've had the dining plan before, so what I'm referring to is that they are going to have 2 days of credits that won't be used, and we'll use those TS on the 2 nights that we eat together (if we don't get the DDP). Otherwise they'll end up leaving with unused credits. Happened last time, so that time we just offered to pay for random peoples meals. They were thrilled.

As far as how many people/card- last time we just alternated cards/meal (we had 2 rooms, 2 in one, 4 in the other). We all ate together each meal.

 

[jellybeans0607]

We've had the dining plan before, so what I'm referring to is that they are going to have 2 days of credits that won't be used, and we'll use those TS on the 2 nights that we eat together (if we don't get the DDP). Otherwise they'll end up leaving with unused credits. Happened last time, so that time we just offered to pay for random peoples meals. They were thrilled.

As far as how many people/card- last time we just alternated cards/meal (we had 2 rooms, 2 in one, 4 in the other). We all ate together each meal.

You might want to go over to the restaurants board and talk to them. They will be able to tell you official policy, but I am 100% sure that this isn't allowed.

When the CM scans your card the machine will tell the CM how many people are on the plan. It is against the rules to share credits with people who are not on the plan. That I know is very clear in the brochure. I'm not sure what you have experienced in the past, i just know how it works now.

Again definately go over to the restaurant board, there is a dining plan forum. I would hate to go thinking you will be able to do this, and then be stuck paying for your meals. Especialy if you are on a budget.

 

[MommyBryn]

When we were there last, it doesn't say how many people are on the plan, just how many credits remain. Unless that's changed, I know plenty of people here who do the same thing...?? Basically, you only have that many credits, and if you choose to use them on someone else, then you just run out of credits faster and have to pay for the rest of your meals.

I posted here hoping to get an idea of what families budget for food, though- the DDP doesn't really matter, I just added that tidbit because that might make a difference in our food budgeting if we do that or not. Thanks for your replies!

 

[jellybeans0607]

When we were there last, it doesn't say how many people are on the plan, just how many credits remain. Unless that's changed, I know plenty of people here who do the same thing...?? Basically, you only have that many credits, and if you choose to use them on someone else, then you just run out of credits faster and have to pay for the rest of your meals.

I posted here hoping to get an idea of what families budget for food, though- the DDP doesn't really matter, I just added that tidbit because that might make a difference in our food budgeting if we do that or not. Thanks for your replies!

Listen, i'm just trying to help you out. You don't want to listen, fine. I am well versed in how the plan works.
You don't want to listen to me, fine, but Please go over to the dining board, there are CM's there and they will help you out. The people there are very knowledgeable about how it works.

 

[MommyBryn]

LOL I'm not trying to argue with you! I was thanking you HONESTLY! I was just explaining where I was coming from with saying that about the DDP and because I agree with you that there is a better place to post the DDP stuff, I also explained why I posted this here.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

When we were just there in Sept, the KTTW card that includes your dining plan says how many adults and how many children are on your plan. We couldn't use more meals than we had people on our plan at one time.

 

[EthansMom]

Take a look at the prices for the restaurants you would most likely dine at and estimate a daily cost. When DH and I went years ago, I would budget $50 for each of us per day and we always came home with leftover money.

We just took our kids (7 and 4) down a couple weeks ago on the Free Dining Plan and I was shocked at the food price increases in just the two years since our last trip.

We're pretty frugal diners without the Dining Plan (no sodas at Table Service, rarely order appetizers or desserts, etc...), but even with frugal eating it would've cost us close to the cost of the Dining Plan to eat at WDW.... say $8 per person for breakfast, $10 per person for lunch, and $20-25 for TS per adult... If you're happy enough going for CS for every meal and/or sharing meals, etc..., you might be able to get away for cheaper than the Dining Plan, though. So, definitely, figure out a few hypothetical days of meals and price them out. You might find that it's easier/cheaper to go with the plan than without.

 

[MommyBryn]

Well this is making me lean more towards the dining plan again... thanks for the replies!

 

[marcyinPA]

When we were just there in Sept, the KTTW card that includes your dining plan says how many adults and how many children are on your plan. We couldn't use more meals than we had people on our plan at one time.

The plan has worked this way AT LEAST since May of 2007 (the last time we used the DP)

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

For the 4 of us - DH, myself, DD9, DS12 it's about 35.00 per counter service meal. Then if you add alchohol in the mix, add another 20.00.

So figure - 105.00 per day for us normally with maybe another 20.00 every other day or so.

Seems like 35.00 per meal is alot but we actually did that for every counter service meal we had. DH and DS won't share and sometimes DD doesn't want to share so I can never save money that way.

 

[disneyJMD]

the KTTW card does show on the front of the card how many people--child and adult-are on the plan. The meals, as I understand, are still put together as a total number, as are snacks and QS meals. I remember reading our room keys during our September trip.

 

[design_mom]

I agree with the other posters -- look up restaurant menus online (the ones at allearsnet include prices) and estimate what you think your family will really eat.

I did it when we traveled in December 2007, and it was pretty accurate. (I usually "budgeted" a kids meal for DD 3.5, but a lot of time I just ended up splitting my adult meal with her.)

For what it's worth, we did not eat a TS meal every day, and budgeted breakfast in the room and we still came very close to the DDP cost. Our decision to skip the DDP was based more on flexibility than cost. (Although, as I mentioned, we ended up spending less than our budget because we split meals, etc.)

 

[MommyBryn]

Thanks everyone- we decided to go with the DDP again!