If you don't do the dining plan...

[mittmee mouse]

how do you eat there? We're planning most likely a 5 day trip there in Oct 2010 to stay in WL, and with the Monster deal, I can't use the free dining plan. Is it worth purchasing? I have myself, DH, my son is 4, and my daughter is 2 (plus an infant who won't be eating all that much yet.)

So, how do you eat for 5 days at WDW without breaking the bank?

I'm new, so sorry if this is a repeat question!

 

[squirrel]

Will you be eating a TS meal each day? Do you want to do character meals? Would you normally split meals, skip dessert, drink water?

First you need to figure out if there is a Dining Plan that suits your eating habbits.

The DDP is $41.99 ad per night and $11.99 ch per night.

So approx. $96 per night, the 2 yr old will eat free at the buffets and family style meals and can eat off your plate at the other TS/CS places. You can check out the menus and see if you would spend that much.

Buffets are a great deal for children on the DDP as it basically covers the price of the DDP, then they also get a CS and a snack. Buffets for adults aren't as good a deal, but still aren't bad.

 

[Missytara]

Have a grocery service deliver groceries to your room.

Take along things like poptarts, instant oatmeal, bagels, etc., to have breakfast in the room.

Do counter services for meals, in lieu of table services.

Avoid the buffets and character meals; they are very expensive.

Eat at Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang Puck's Express at DTD.

 

[Schmoodle]

I've been with the regular dining plan, with the quick service plan, and without. I won't buy the dining plan again, it's just not worth it for us. If we have a kitchen, I can feed us for about $25/day each. Without a kitchen, it's a bit more, but I find my apetite really drops when I'm traveling and I don't eat as much. Or I am getting more calories eating in restaurants, so I can never eat 3 meals/day plus snacks. Plus we all get tired of restaurant food and just want some "regular" food.

I carry breakfast bars or granola bars, and we have those in the room for breakfast, along with nuts and dried fruit for snacks. I bring refillable water bottles and those flavor packets, along with those coffee packets that you can get at Starbucks - Via, I think they're called. They're really good and the coffee at Disney stinks.

If you can get to a store, then keep milk and juice, cereal, yogurt, fruit, crackers, cheese, etc. in your room. If you're flying a long way, and won't be going off property, it's more difficult, but I would definitely share meals among your kids - you get a lot of food, and pack as much snacky stuff to bring along as you can. It will help a lot and you'll want the room in your suitcase for souvenirs anyway. I also think you can order from a local grocery, or online and have delivered to the resort, but I haven't done this myself.
HTH!

 

[Nafinegar]

Five years ago my father took the whole family on a trip. He's retired and on a fixed income. I really didn't think that he could afford what he was paying for let alone adding a bunch of meals. He booked two character meals and we went out to eat at the Rainforest Cafe another night. We stayed off site at a condo, so we could cook dinners at night (something that you may not be able to do)

BUT, I became the queen of packing lunches and snacks. I used cold packs and we learned to love PBJ. I brought bottled water with crystal light and koolaid mix-ins. We also packed fruit snacks and some crackers for extra treats.

One day my DS3 had enough of his sandwich and threw it down a storm drain. We took it as a cue that we had economized enough and ate a counter-service meal in the park. Adults split entrees and children ate off of the kid's menu.

Each day everyone picked out one snack - usually a Mickey icecream bar.

I think that if you do not get the dining plan, you should look at the menus and figure out what counter-service meals might be able to be split by adults. Bring some drinks and snacks along the way to tide you over until the next meal.

Just some pointers that might help from a very self-proclaimed cheapskate!

 

[VAN]

There have been many, many threads about this over the years. I find it funny that some people wouldn't think about going to WDW without a pre-paid dining plan!! LOL!

Without the dining plan, you can fill in between your "special" meals with snacks that they either buy OOP or that you bring into the parks (granola bars, etc), etc. When you are paying OOP you tend not to overeat and don't necessarily return home with 10 extra pounds!! LOL. When paying OOP you tend to eat what you "pay" for ... you don't view it as "free" and I'd better order it and then waste the food.

Without a pre-paid dining plan, you can determine your own eating plan based on your own needs and wants without having to worry about using all your credits or setting your schedule by an ADR.

When we go without the dining plan, we will have breakfast in our room (cereal, donuts, etc) ... we bring our own coffee maker. If we are spending time at the resort, we will make sandwiches for lunch. Otherwise if we are in the parks, we will get something from a CS restaurant to eat. Dinner we may have a reservation or just eat CS. If we are not at the parks, we will frequent restaurants outside Disney or some of those that are not on the plan.

I guess if you are trying to save money, there are many ways to do it with various techniques like these. I don't go to Disney for the culinary aspect of the place. NOW many people do ... eating is the highlight of their trip to WDW ... to those folks, I think the pre-paid dining plan is a necessity.

Just don't feel like you can't go to WDW without pre-paying for your food.

 

[mittmee mouse]

Will you be eating a TS meal each day? Do you want to do character meals? Would you normally split meals, skip dessert, drink water?

First you need to figure out if there is a Dining Plan that suits your eating habbits.

The DDP is $41.99 ad per night and $11.99 ch per night.

So approx. $96 per night, the 2 yr old will eat free at the buffets and family style meals and can eat off your plate at the other TS/CS places. You can check out the menus and see if you would spend that much

This is great info! Thanks!

I have a feeling that if we did one, it would be the 1 TS, 1 snack, 1 CS/day. I'd like to do some character meals, but I don't need one each day. DH is a typical man... likes a good meal. I'm a vegetarian who usually ends up sharing my meals with my kids. Is the DDP the deluxe? Those prices aren't that bad. Sorry, I'm not up on all my abbreviations. I think we'll be spending our days at the parks early, breaking for a nap midday, then going back in the evening. What do you think would be good for us with that info in mind?

We'll be flying, so I can't bring a ton of food. I anticipate my youngest, who will be 9 months when we go, will be on some baby food I'll be bringing.

ETA: I guess we don't usually eat dessert each day or meal, and we do drink a lot of water -- just to answer your questions!

 

[mittmee mouse]

Have a grocery service deliver groceries to your room.

Take along things like poptarts, instant oatmeal, bagels, etc., to have breakfast in the room.

Do counter services for meals, in lieu of table services.

Avoid the buffets and character meals; they are very expensive.

Eat at Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang Puck's Express at DTD.

Thanks! I didn't know they did grocery delivery!

 

[squirrel]

The DDP is the regular plan (1 snack, 1CS 1TS per night, per person). Most of us use DxDP for the deluxe plan.

If you are going to eat a TS each day or 4 times while you are at WDW, then I would consider the DDP. Check prices but remember that the dining plans already include the tax and most menus do not add the 6.5% tax.

Some of the TS meals are large enough to share. I usually share the chicken meals with my niece (almost 5 and almost 6 yrs on the past two Free Dining). I didn't bother using her CS in the morning for breakfast, unless it was a non park day as her meals take too long (lactose intollerant). I only purchased some of the popcorn buckets out of pocket as I wanted the container. The container is not that much bigger than the box that is included in the DDP.

I did like not having to watch how much I spend on food. I can walk up and order that Dole Whip Float, if I were paying out of pocket I would probably get a Dole Whip. I know I wouldn't bother with the CS desserts if I were paying out of pocket (there are a few places that do have good ones that I would want).

The credits are per night but can be used anytime from check in to midnight on your check out day. You can't order more meals than the people listed on the KTTW card. So it will say 2A, 1C. You can only get a max. of 2 adult meals and one child at one time. You can get more than 3 snacks at one time, but I find most snacks are large enough to share too.

 

[Mrs D]

It is important to figure how you want to eat while on vacation, what will work best for your family and which dining plan would suit your needs (if any).

Do you want to sit down at a restaurant once a day? Will you want to do character meals so your children can meet the various characters without standing in line in the parks? If yes, then you could look into the Disney Dining Plan (aka DDP, Dining Plus plan or regular dining plan). It gives you 1 sit down, 1 counter serve and a snack.

Do you want to eat counter serve only? Is fo the Quick Serve dining plan (QSDP) gives you 2 counter serve meals, 2 snacks and the refillable resort mug.

Part of my vacation style is I like to plan a sit down meal each day. I love trying new restaurants and I like the break it gives. While I would not normally order a dessert at each meal, I love having that splurge at Disney! Some people with small children prefer to avoid sit down meals.

Your family will pay for 2 adults and 1 child; the 2 yr old and infant are free.
Portions at Disney are usually large and easily sharable.

I like the way menus are shown on allears.net. You can go through and see where you'd like to eat, what you might order and get a general cost of how much you'd be spending by paying for it yourself versus on the dining plan. Tax (6.5%) is included in the dining plan, tips are not.

Buffets can be good for families because the little ones can get whatever they want and you don't have to wait around for a waiter to take your order, food to be cooked and bring it to your table.

I typically break even using the dining plan or come out ahead a little. I like having the food per-paid otherwise I'd be packing PB&Js. And some certain trips I do that route. Even on the DDP I bring breakfast foods to have in the room; granola bars, cereal bars, dry cereal in snack baggies, dried fruit, bagels.

You should also check the Disney dining reservations site to see what restaurants you can book (if you were looking at the free dining time period).

HTH!

 

[TDC Nala]

Whenever and whereever I want, but I'm one person with a TIW card.

Even if you can't get a dining plan free you can still purchase one with your package reservation if you want one.

If you don't eat desserts, you share meals often, and you won't want drinks except free water (if you plan to pay for water it could be different) then a dining plan may not be for you. If you are doing a lot of character meals, it might be different, because all character meals are either buffet or all you can eat and each person age 3 or over will be charged a set amount, no sharing (except with the infants).

 

[ppoe65]

We are a family of 6 DSs(15 & 4) and DDs(9 &13). We use the DDP each trip. We are on vacation, so cooking in our room is out of the question. Do we save money? I'm not really sure, but the convenience of prepaying for our meals is nice. Many people say that they do not eat dessert with every meal, neither do we, but when we can we get prepackaged desserts (CS) and save for a snack later. Our daily snack credits get used for either ice cream or bottled water through out the day. There are ways to make the DDP work for you.

 

[Nadjalu]

For us purchasing the DDP still saves us money. Obviously not as much as it being free, but for just DH and I on a 6 night/7 day vacay, we saved a little over $200.

 

[nurtz]

We never use the dining plan either and we eat quite well. We have been traveling to WDW for 20 plus years before there was a dining plan and when we had to watch every penny...believe me, it can be done! We still eat the TS we want and order what we want. We often share meals and like to order an appetizer to share. We almost never order dessert...too full by then. The entrees are normally plenty big to share. We eat a couple of big breakfasts at TS and the rest we just eat in our room before we head out. We aren't big breakfast eaters at home. We keep breakfast items and bottled water in our room. Snacks, too. We hardly ever order snacks at the parks. I never feel like I am missing something by not having the dining plan. We use our debit card for meals so it paid for before we go home. I like that if I have an ADR and want to cancel because we are having fun riding rides, I don't have to worry about making up that TS credit. Sure miss the days where we could walk up to a popular TS and be seated. Sorry for the long answer to your question...just wanted you to know a vacation to Disney World can be great without the dining plan and you don't have to break the bank!

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

We've never done any of the Dining Plans. We only do 1 or 2 TS per 5 day trip, mostly eat breakfast in the room and eat CS the rest of the time. We also do 1 or 2 snacks per day.

I look at all the menus on allears.net, figure out approx what we will eat and save up for it. Sometimes we eat less, sometimes more.

That's what works for us.

 

[kirbygump]

We did the DDP 2 years ago and I felt we broke even. The problem for us was dh wasn't feeling well 2 days and didn't use his TS meals and ended up buying CS meals with them before we left. This time around we're doing 3 days w/plan & 4 days without. We are staying CL and meeting peole off site the later part of the trip, so think being tied to the DDP would not be cost effective.

If you are concerned about having things prepaid you can always just buy a Disney Gift Card now and have it paid for before you and use that for dining expenses. Pay-as-you go option, and if there is anything left on the card when you are checking out, just apply it to your room charges!

Either way, I'm sure you'll have a great trip.

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

For me, the dining plan comes down to whether or not it makes economical sense. If you are going to sit down each day for a meal (majority of them dinners), then it typically is a good deal. I've also found that for the kids, it is a great deal, especially for the price of the character buffets since they cost more than the dining plan does for one night (plus you'll get a snack and a counter service meal).

Sitting down at meals will take time away from other activities though so keep that in mind. I do recommend that you make one or two ADRs for a sit-down restaurant though.

A couple of years ago we went to Disneyworld and we were eating lots of counter service and trying to pinch pennies (no dining plan) and my husband was so hungry and fed up. He wanted a big meal. He was on vacation and sick of eating chicken strips and french fries. I learned then that a vacation for him includes at least one good, sit-down meal a day and so the dining plan was a good choice for us after that Now he tells everyone how 'well we ate'. He enjoyed ordering off the menu and not caring about the price because we already paid for the plan. At one point, he even REFUSED DESSERT Have no fear, he got some to go

 

[Anthony1971]

If you do a TS lunch rather than dinner you will in most cases make out a lot better paying cash. You will also need to drop the DS from the CS meal.

 

[dvcdek]

you will miss out. take adv of this by choosing great full service restaurants like captains grill, and maya grill

 

[KELLY]

We choose the QSDP this time around. We are eating at 3 ts meals one is rainforest not on the dining plan. We would need 200.00 in tips for the 10 days so we are just putting that money towards are 2 character meals. I'm going to buy a rainforest GC before we leave. I do it for the convience of having everything paid for. We did the RDP twice and it just doesn't fit us. We aren't park commando people at all but we like to be able to just do what ever we want for the day without having to be somewhere. I'm gald they offer the QSDP now. I love the fact you get the mugs also. I figure we would spend maybe less than the qsdp but not by alot. Plus I don't need to purchase extra snacks.