Looking at menus and having sticker shock!

[trainingupmy4princes]

Oh, they'll live. Sorry, but that just sounds like quite a guilt trip to put on people who may not be able to afford it, or just don't want to spend that much money on meals. I really don't think all they'll remember from a trip to WDW is having to share a meal.

I've had my kids share meals and even treats like dole whips. I'm not paying for something to throw half away. Of course now my older 3 are teenage boys so no sharing but they eyeball DH and my food if we don't eat quickly. None of my kids really remember sharing meals, they remeber some of the fun restaurants like SciFi and Teppanedo. Sharing made those places affordable before we started using free dining. We just had the 2 little kids share this summer at DL and they were OK with it.

 

[Nancyg56]

I've had my kids share meals and even treats like dole whips. I'm not paying for something to throw half away. Of course now my older 3 are teenage boys so no sharing but they eyeball DH and my food if we don't eat quickly. None of my kids really remember sharing meals, they remeber some of the fun restaurants like SciFi and Teppanedo. Sharing made those places affordable before we started using free dining. We just had the 2 little kids share this summer at DL and they were OK with it.

WE all share in my family. I am not tossing food away and then buying more an hour later. My DDIL and I often share entrees, and lunch, or my DD and I will share. I think it is silly to worry about hurt" feelings on vacation when it comes to being practical. You save where you can so that you can splurge when you want.

 

[trainingupmy4princes]

WE all share in my family. I am not tossing food away and then buying more an hour later. My DDIL and I often share entrees, and lunch, or my DD and I will share. I think it is silly to worry about hurt" feelings on vacation when it comes to being practical. You save where you can so that you can splurge when you want.

I agree. We all wanted to go to DL for the 60th anniversary as we had loved being there during the 50th. But, it's a long haul from Kansas City so we had a budget. We still had fun and the kids would rather share at Blue Bayou than order their own cheeseburgers at CS.

 

[mdsouth]

We're taking four granddaughters (17, 11, 8, and 6) to WDW in January and, being the compulsive over-planner that I am, I've started looking at menus trying to find places where all the girls will be able to choose something they like. So anyway, it's been five years since our last trip and I can't believe how expensive some of the meals have gotten, even counter service meals. $14 for a freaking bowl of corn flakes at Be Our Guest for breakfast, and $24 for an open face ham and egg sandwich. And this is a COUNTER SERVICE BREAKFAST! Yikes! I'm looking at $130 just for breakfast lol. I guess I'd better re-think my decision to skip the DDP.

In addition, I know none of the girls are ever going to actually finish a meal, and one meal at WDW can easily feed at least two of them, but will they ever be able to agree on what to order? Or should I just pay up, even though it may cost more, and avoid the whole argument? Traveling with four is going to be a whole lot harder than when I took one at a time. I'm rambling. . .

How fun for you to take your four granddaughters. I agree with others, avoid BOG for breakfast, eat breakfast in your hotel room or the food court at your hotel it will be cheaper and offer more selections. Plus, you won't waste as much park time eating breakfast. If you want to go to BOG to check it out, I suggest you go for lunch. It makes a nice break in the day and good food at lunch. Keep in mind that I have not looked at the new menu or cost of prices since I went in 2014.

We've done ddp in the past many times but this trip decided to just pay oop. We saved a lot of money, everyone was able to order what they wanted, we still did buffets and ts, and even a character meal, but sometimes got apps. as meals and sometimes shared things. It just made for a little less planning because we didn't have to worry about who was sharing and how many credits we had left. How I took care of pre-paying was to purchase Disney gift cards ahead of time. I bought what would have been 2/3 of what we'd pay for the ddp and saved the rest in the bank, thinking we'd put anything more on our Visa rewards card and pay it off when we got back. We only ended up putting like $8 on the card the last day, and some of the gift cards we used on souvenirs too. With 6 people, and not being sure how much each will eat it may be better to plan for more but not waste money on the ddp.

A good idea might be to have more than one gift card (perhaps one for you and your hubby) with money on them for food. So, when you are in the restaurants where there are individual bays for what you want to order, you can send the 17 year old or your hubby to one line to order say chicken with one gift card and you can go to the other line for hamburger orders and pay with a separate gift card.

Money isn't so much the issue as is the waste. I hate to pay for food and see it thrown out because they didn't eat it. I'd feel the same even if the DDP was free. But I took the advice of the poster above and checked out the menu at Art of Animation, which is where we will be staying. The food prices are much more reasonable there. So I guess I will look around more and then decide. Of course, I have to try to find as many places that have broccoli as possible or I will need to bring broccoli with me, as that's the only vegetable the 6 year old will eat, and she eats a lot of it. We've just never traveled with more than two at a time before and I want this trip to be as stress-free as possible. The last thing I want to do is be fighting over dinner. Maybe I will just decide and then tell them "OK, this is where we're eating today."

Good plan! So often, I have seen families in the parks and even with my own family get a little frustrated with each other when everyone is a bit cranky and tired from the heat or the crowds standing around trying to figure out where everyone wants to eat. It goes much smoother when I already have a plan of where we will eat and then everyone can just make their own choices on what to eat when we get there.

IMO, that's the way to do it. Choose restaurants that are affordable for everyone to order their own meal & hype up your choices. They'll be so excited to have the amazing burger, awesome sundae, etc. of their own choosing that it won't matter what restaurant it's at.

Agree!

 

[mdsouth]

Talked things over with DH last night and we've decided to not get the dining plan, eat primarily CS meals unless we do a character meal for the little ones, and just let them order and eat (or not eat) as they wish. None of them are big eaters and I don't expect the 17 year old will even finish a kids meal BUT I plan to make this trip as stress free as any trip with four girls can possibly be.

DH and I have already experienced every dining venue that we've wanted and I anticipate the kids are going to be more interested in the parks than the food. None of them are early risers, so showing up at rope drop just isn't going to happen this trip and the six year old usually crashes early. I don't think we are going want to spend our somewhat limited Disney time sitting in a restaurant for a couple of hours every day.

I appreciate all the input I've received on this thread. It's been a valuable help in the decision-making process. This trip is going to be a surprise for them all until we get to the airport. They love when Papa takes them on a 'prise lol.

BTW, Papa and the little one were siting on the couch last night watching tv and Perry the Platypus (Phinneas and Pherb) went down a tree slide and she said she said she wanted to do that. Papa told her he didn't know where that was and she looked at him and asked "Do you know where Disney World is? I've NEVER been to Disney World!" Papa just looked at me and smiled.

Oh how cute! It will be so much fun when you finally do tell them all where you are going!! So when is your trip? You should think about writing a trip report when you return. I know I want to hear about their reactions to going to Disney!

 

[Poppybeach]

I totally understand. We always do DDP simply because we like to have as much prepaid as possible so we can just go and enjoy. I also like one sit-down meal a day to just relax over after a day at that parks. After quite a few Disney trips, we've learned to slow down and always look forward to visiting other resorts and Disney Springs to have a decent meal and experience new cuisines. But when I see the menu prices, I do gasp and truthfully, I don't think the quality matches the pricing in many cases but that can be said of many of my local restaurants too!

 

[Vijoge]

Oh how cute! It will be so much fun when you finally do tell them all where you are going!! So when is your trip? You should think about writing a trip report when you return. I know I want to hear about their reactions to going to Disney!

We're going the end of January. We're thinking of shipping our stuff down so we don't have to tell them until we check in for our flight at the airport. If the see luggage they'll know we're going somewhere, but no luggage. . .just going to watch the planes take off and land. We do that all the time. . .lol

 

[oceanmarina]

The dining plan eased that pain for us, we prepaid and never worried a moment about the cost of a meal while there.

Agreed. We budget the DDP into our overall savings leading up to our trip. I like having it pre-paid so all I have to worry about is like, tips, drinks and spending $$. Makes it a lot easier once you're down there.

That being said, i'm sure if you were willing to put in the time before and while you're there to figure out where to go, how much to spend, etc you could do it cheaper. But we save up for sometimes 2 years just to avoid that headache lol.

We always get the Dining Plan. Its prepaid and we don't worry about anything we get there. Something else to keep in mind is the portions at Disney are enormous. We cant eat more than 2 meals per day (and a snack). That is with 2 boys, now in college, and hubby who can all eat a horse each day! I would plan breakfast and dinner. Wing it for lunch, if anyone is really hungry enough to have it.

I would definitely get the DP, seeing that 2 of the children are under 10 and it would cost very little for them. Probably less than to buy their meals out of pocket.

Yep to all of the above! We have been getting the deluxe dining plan since have been going to Disney, we are able to go to around three signature meals a trip since DH and I always skip lunch. Also, I like not worrying about what my meal costs & paying for it. My daughter is also a picker, eats very little. Several times our server didn't even charge our meal point for her since she didn't eat much. For us the meal plan is the way to go, I don't scrutinize the price of item (like I do when we go out to dinner at home), I am able to order what I want and all I have to worry about paying for are all the Disney souvenirs my kids want!

 

[Corbinator]

In 2010 we took our eldest granddaughter on a cruise to the Virgin Islands. When we returned my next door neighbor asked her if she enjoyed her vacation. Her response? "I had brownies and gelato EVERY day!"

Yep, same here. If you ask me in 1989 what I liked about Epcot I would have reported "the crepes and Coca Cola from the cart at France."

 

[Corbinator]

I agree.

I posted earlier about the chocolate chip pancakes, but I left out the way my DH and I planned meals. DH likes a "real" breakfast, and back almost 30 years ago, that meal alone was running us $30 to $40 for the 6 if us. We talked about having cereal and milk in the room, but DH said he did not want that, and he would not give it to the kids, and then have breakfast, so we all went out. By the time we got to Disney, food was YIKES! But we were on a vacation, and back then, the food in Disney was "baskets" which included a hot dog hamburger, fries and a beverage. DH is 6'6" and built like Paul Bunyan, and we had his teen aged nephew with us who was a weight lifter and burned calories like sawdust in a fire. The number of baskets No substitution...you got the whole thing.....was a lot, and then the dinner shows at night, character meals on the Empress Lily, and our food budget was climbing! Well we took them to the Top of the World for Brunch as a final nice meal, and that was something we had never seen before. Omelet and waffle stations, fruit bowls, pastry etc! Go for it kids! They only ate Rice Krispies and milk...you know those little cardboard boxes that turned into bowls????? I thought my DH was going to kill them all. 10 days of full breakfasts, lunch and dinners, anything they seemed to want, and the little dickens' wanted cereal in cardboard!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So the kids remembered the pancakes as their favorite, and 30 years later Buddy and I still remember this! LOL! Turns out you can feed em anything, they don't care. We should have bought a bunch of those variety packs and set them free, left them with the 17 YO a few times and escaped to a champagne brunch just for us.

Omg what is it about the Empres Lily and not eating? What I wouldn't give to have someone make good old scrambled eggs for me now. At the time I just wanted a Danish and a coke. My parents definitely gave me stink eye over this.

 

[Nancyg56]

Omg what is it about the Empres Lily and not eating? What I wouldn't give to have someone make good old scrambled eggs for me now. At the time I just wanted a Danish and a coke. My parents definitely gave me stink eye over this.

Oh my! By the end of this tri my DH was almost in a coma! We stayed at the CR and there was a little flyer in the room describing the Big Red Boat. We did nto know but we woudl have qualified for three free nights! YAY!!!! Right? No. DH said it was a darn good ting he did not know about the special because if he was trapped on a boat with the Fam he would have drowned them all...just tossed them overboard! LOL! Here I was bemoaning the fact we missed a deal and he was thanking God!

 

[FrostMommy]

I think you read it incorrectly, but I'm talking from experience. For example, DS's current girlfriend has traveled to many countries. We went to a wedding at Swan this weekend & she was awed by the hotel. We were talking about the places we'd stayed at WDW & UO & she said, "I would love to stay at places like that." Defending her parents, I said, "yeah, but we didn't go to Spain last year & China the year before." Her response was that they always stay in a cheap hotel, in a bad area & she & her brother would rather vacation close to home & stay somewhere nicer that they weren't afraid to walk around in.

When we went to Raglan Road yesterday, she was having a hard time choosing what she wanted to order. I told her to order what she wanted & ignore the price. She said, "but I don't know how to order that way." I said, "just pick something & order it." Incidentally, she ordered the most expensive thing on the menu, because that was what she really wanted. You wouldn't believe how excited this 22 year old college graduate was to order that meal. Whether people want to believe it or not, kids of all ages do want to have a choice.

We decided long ago to vacation less to allow our DS to get what he wants within reason rather than vacation more & constantly tell him no. As they get older, they remember the nos a lot more than they remember the yes'.

FWIW, DS's GF is definitely not a spoiled, ungrateful brat. Believe me, she's the total opposite of spoiled. That's why she was so excited to vacation her way for the first time. She's definitely not the only one. A previous GF of DS's ordered filets at every restaurant, when we took her, just because she could. It's not that we have an unlimited amount of money to spend on vacation. We definitely don't. We just choose to vacation less often, so we can let the kids enjoy the trip to the fullest.

I realize everyone doesn't have the same vacation philosophy we do. That's great. I just think it would be better to purchase DDP (which we don't do) or eat at cheaper restaurants (which there's nothing wrong with) than to force kids to share or order something they don't want.

I can see where you are going with this. We eat out very infrequently. Partially because we have several food restrictions, and partially because we are a large family and it gets expensive. One of the things my husband always lets the kids do when we are eating a nice dinner at Disney is let the kids order "fancy" drinks, something beyond even a soda if that is available. The kids talk about that more than you would think. My 5-year-old still talks frequently about the blue milkshake he got at dinner one night on a cruise that was two years ago. Me and my husband both grew up eating out more often, but ordering anything but water was a no-go.

 

[Kathleen2001]

I think the problem is everyone thinks their way is best, DDP/TS/QS/Target... You have to know your family, your budget, and what y'all like to eat. We really liked the DxDP because we could have an 60-90 min midday indoor break with AC in June, which was awesome! DD is young, we do character meals, and a 2 credit show. Do we finish everything? Do we all order an appetizer? No. And that is ok. Its our vacation, I don't want to stress over food. I don't want to have to be the mom that always says "No" when DD wants the cotton candy, ice cream, etc. The gift cards are a good idea, too, its just for right now in our life, the DxDP works. For my work convention solo trip later this year? Gift cards via Target Red Card and DVC discount, baby. Maybe only 1 or 2 ADRs.

 

[noahdove]

I didn't read all of this thread, but, I will suggest that you go to: www.allearsnet.com
as they have all the restaurants menus and prices and they keep it up to date.
Good luck and happy eating

 

[Nancyg56]

I think the problem is everyone thinks their way is best, DDP/TS/QS/Target... You have to know your family, your budget, and what y'all like to eat. We really liked the DxDP because we could have an 60-90 min midday indoor break with AC in June, which was awesome! DD is young, we do character meals, and a 2 credit show. Do we finish everything? Do we all order an appetizer? No. And that is ok. Its our vacation, I don't want to stress over food. I don't want to have to be the mom that always says "No" when DD wants the cotton candy, ice cream, etc. The gift cards are a good idea, too, its just for right now in our life, the DxDP works. For my work convention solo trip later this year? Gift cards via Target Red Card and DVC discount, baby. Maybe only 1 or 2 ADRs.

You travel the way that I travel. We like knowing that we are good to go, and I know that I cannot untangle the thought that a gift card is money, so I still look at prices.

 

[RyansMum]

Oh, they'll live. Sorry, but that just sounds like quite a guilt trip to put on people who may not be able to afford it, or just don't want to spend that much money on meals. I really don't think all they'll remember from a trip to WDW is having to share a meal.

I'm not sure how sharing a meal could ruin a Disney trip? Unless these are spoiled children who wear tiaras? I joke. But seriously, my 14 year old son and I shared meals as I explained that to him before we left. We decided not to waste food or money and also we did not want to be stuffed before going on rides.

I would suggest not splurging on table service breakfasts. If you feel the need to have special dining, save that for dinne. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Neverland98]

We moved to FL last year and are annual passholders. Going frequently, food can add up for a family of five with three tweens/teens!

Here are a few things we learned:
1. Do NOT think you need an ADR at a sit down restaurant every day. The CS options are varied, large, and delish, too! And...some do have A/C. In fact, some of our favorites Disney meals can be had at a CS restaurant. (And...these prices are still higher of course, but much less than a TS)
2. Look at the menus. The TS vary widely in price. Maje sure all meals aren't the top, signature dining experiences.
3. Pick your splurge-pick one or two "must try" restaurants. Either for the food, the ambiance, or the characters. You'll feel better knowing this was planned and just enjoy that meal - don't price pick it.
4. Share meals...my daughter (10) and I often do this.
5. Don't order drinks at CS. Ask for a cup of ice water - Free and good for rehydrating. That alone can save us $10-20!!!
6. Eat breakfast in room!!! Bring cereal and buy a milk or bring muffins, doughnuts, granola bars. Make coffee and bring To-Go dispisable cups. Saves $$ and time. Head out early and eat in room or on the way to the bus. If you are there a week, sure, treat yourself to a breakfast or two out. But...if you want to save funds, this is easy way.
7. Replace a meal with snacks - graze at the food festivals or around Epcot tasting a few items. Or have two treats during the day instead of a big meal - which can be nice in the heat of the summer.
8. We haven't done this but have seen others recently - bring a lunch to park or if taking a break, eat in room. Again, maybe not everyday, but a few times will really save money - everyone gets what they like-and you can still find a cool, shady bench to rest and enjoy and take a break

Hope that helps!

 

[RyansMum]

We moved to FL last year and are annual passholders. Going frequently, food can add up for a family of five with three tweens/teens!

Here are a few things we learned:
1. Do NOT think you need an ADR at a sit down restaurant every day. The CS options are varied, large, and delish, too! And...some do have A/C. In fact, some of our favorites Disney meals can be had at a CS restaurant. (And...these prices are still higher of course, but much less than a TS)
2. Look at the menus. The TS vary widely in price. Maje sure all meals aren't the top, signature dining experiences.
3. Pick your splurge-pick one or two "must try" restaurants. Either for the food, the ambiance, or the characters. You'll feel better knowing this was planned and just enjoy that meal - don't price pick it.
4. Share meals...my daughter (10) and I often do this.
5. Don't order drinks at CS. Ask for a cup of ice water - Free and good for rehydrating. That alone can save us $10-20!!!
6. Eat breakfast in room!!! Bring cereal and buy a milk or bring muffins, doughnuts, granola bars. Make coffee and bring To-Go dispisable cups. Saves $$ and time. Head out early and eat in room or on the way to the bus. If you are there a week, sure, treat yourself to a breakfast or two out. But...if you want to save funds, this is easy way.
7. Replace a meal with snacks - graze at the food festivals or around Epcot tasting a few items. Or have two treats during the day instead of a big meal - which can be nice in the heat of the summer.
8. We haven't done this but have seen others recently - bring a lunch to park or if taking a break, eat in room. Again, maybe not everyday, but a few times will really save money - everyone gets what they like-and you can still find a cool, shady bench to rest and enjoy and take a break

Hope that helps!

I check out menus before I go. I'm a light eater and do fine with just apps. I still get a gorgeous restaurant with great service but I don't break the bank