Meal plan?

[minnie mum]

Say you are bringing your own food for breaky and need hot water, can you bring your own kettle to boil water?

If you are in any of the resorts other than a value room, you will have a coffee maker that can heat water. Family suites and DVC will have a microwave. You aren't supposed to use cooking appliances in regular resort rooms, but I know people do it. Just remember to unplug after use. These appliances are fire code violations.

 

[DarkAngel]

If you are in any of the resorts other than a value room, you will have a coffee maker that can heat water. Family suites and DVC will have a microwave. You aren't supposed to use cooking appliances in regular resort rooms, but I know people do it. Just remember to unplug after use. These appliances are fire code violations.

I live in a dorm room at school and have similar restrictions lol is there also hot water available in the food courts?

 

[Nancyg56]

I live in a dorm room at school and have similar restrictions lol is there also hot water available in the food courts?

Yes, there is hot water. I used it to rinse my mugs

 

[Minniesgal]

We Find the dining plan to be way too much food so we don't do it pay oops and always spend way less

 

[JanBlessed]

Glad to bump into this thread & read all of these tips!

I've never had a dining plan and was coincidentally wondering (this morning) if I should look into it....

I have to figure out if it's worth the $

 

[Nancyg56]

Glad to bump into this thread & read all of these tips!

I've never had a dining plan and was coincidentally wondering (this morning) if I should look into it....

I have to figure out if it's worth the $

Make your dining plans and look at the menus. You know your family, you know what they will likely order. I always check out the restaurants we plan on visiting, figure out wha the family will order, and then add it up. I never figure tips into that because we tip anyway, and since the DDP does include tax, if the desserts push the amount up, it is a wash as far as I am concerned.

 

[Mikie]

Glad to bump into this thread & read all of these tips!

I've never had a dining plan and was coincidentally wondering (this morning) if I should look into it....

I have to figure out if it's worth the $

A great site for helping you determine "worth" for your family is www.distripplanner.com
It lets you put in your party size, either specific restaurants you want to try or pick general "counter service lunch", number of snacks per day and will calculate whether dining plan is a good choice for you.

 

[DarkAngel]

A great site for helping you determine "worth" for your family is www.distripplanner.com
It lets you put in your party size, either specific restaurants you want to try or pick general "counter service lunch", number of snacks per day and will calculate whether dining plan is a good choice for you.

Love that calculator

 

[loves to dive]

A great site for helping you determine "worth" for your family is www.distripplanner.com
It lets you put in your party size, either specific restaurants you want to try or pick general "counter service lunch", number of snacks per day and will calculate whether dining plan is a good choice for you.

The problem with that calculator is you could spend $20 to $200 at a TS, or maybe you eat a kid's meal at QS or even TS, that's not taken into account. Or like me, you eat a muffin or roll for breakfast, it is considered at snack and not one of the choices. I wouldn't rely too much on it. You would be better off actually going to the menus of the places you think you might want to eat and pick from there. The key is to be honest with yourself and not try to compare apples to oranges. Try not looking at prices and just pick what looks good, if you don't usually eat dessert, don't pick one just because you are trying to compare. If you normally drink water with your meal, don't pick a soft drink just because it's included on the plan. Do you normally, eat two meals a day and a snack in between? I eat 3 meals a day but they are small meals and I might have a snack but it would probably be a smoothie or some fruit.

 

[JanBlessed]

Thanks for the great suggestions (even though I piggy backed onto the thread - lol!)

Im going to check the calculator.

While I don't always have dessert and sometimes drink water, my family eats a meal for breakfast: a bagel or cereal just won't do. I see some people suggesting a little breakfast & Noticing that it allows them to use the dining plan better - then there are two meals left.

 

[Vernie822]

Thanks for the great suggestions (even though I piggy backed onto the thread - lol!)

Im going to check the calculator.

While I don't always have dessert and sometimes drink water, my family eats a meal for breakfast: a bagel or cereal just won't do. I see some people suggesting a little breakfast & Noticing that it allows them to use the dining plan better - then there are two meals left.

The food courts at the resorts will have things like bagels, pastries, fruit, etc that you can buy with your snack credits. You can use a quick service credit on something like the bounty platter and split it? Or you can just pay out of pocket for whatever you're feeling that day. I think the general sentiment is that quick service breakfast is a bad value on the dining plan because a) it's not a ton of food IMO and b) you could easily fill your mug with your drink of choice and c) no dessert! So you could always pay out of pocket and share meals or get your own. I often get kids meals at the resorts for breakfast, they're quick and inexpensive, and you get fruit and a drink included. $5 or $6 is all it costs and it's the perfect amount of substance to carry me to lunch.

 

[Jetta8300]

We have never done the dining plan but wouldn't have a problem using the snack credit for breakfast. Bagel and cream cheese, giant muffin, cereal, etc.

 

[KangaFan]

Another alternative to ordering groceries for breakfast for kids is to pack one suitcase with snacks/breakfast items--I even packed Horizon milk boxes in our for our last trip since the kids are always eating breakfast on the go. They grabbed their mini box of cereal or granola bar and a milk box and we were ready to head to the bus stop. Then we had an empty suitcase to carry home all the stuff we bought. Fair warning--if you pack a 12 pack of milk boxes and a tub of peanut butter in your checked luggage, TSA will want to take a peak.

 

[EricInPA]

The required desserts and non-included tips make the dining plan not worth it to us. I budget the cost of the dining plan, but pay OOP. With a TS meal every night and sharing a QS for lunch (plus a churro here, a Mickey bar there), we bring home extra cash from the food budget (or spend it on another mug!).

Packing a case of water ($5?) into one of our checked bags saves a bunch of money too.

 

[hisgal2]

Hi, I booked the meal plan(2 snacks, one meal) with a family of 4 kids(6-11) I don't know if this will be "enough" food.. I mean I know I will spend some money on food, I don't mind, but honestly, is this food plan filling?

We just got back from a 9 night stay. Our family has 2 adults and 2 kids (ages 7 and 8). Any child over 9 is considered an adult, by the way....make sure you are factoring that in when you are looking at the cost. We opted for the DDP that you booked not knowing for sure that it would be worth it, but for us (our first time to Disney) just the convenience of not worrying about the cost of the things we wanted to eat/try was soo worth it. It made meal times SOOOOO much less stressful. For our trip, the DDP cost 1277.92. I kept every food receipt and wrote down what each meal/snack would have cost us OOP. Had we paid for everything OOP it would have cost us 1972.81. We did character meals or all-you-care-to-eat restaurants 5 out of the 9 nights, so that pushed out potential OOP costs up a bit. When it came to quick/counter service meals, since kids were not required to eat off the kid menu, they would agree on an adult-portioned meal and split it. The staff was more than happy to give us an empty plate to split food with. They also split the dessert that came with that adult meal. This gave us some "extra" CS meals to use on days that we had really late reservations (like an 8PM Be Our Guest).

Also, one thing we did was get a huge box of instant oatmeal from Sam's Club and put it along with PB crackers and tons of granola bars into one of our checked suitcases. We ran the water needed for the oatmeal through the coffee maker (Cuisenart version of a Keurig at our resort) to get it hot and then just mixed up the oatmeal for breakfast. After the 2nd day, we decided we really didn't need the crackers or granola bars and ended up just dragging those all back home again. Next time, we'll totally skip taking those....they weren't needed for us. Also, some places have snacks that 2 kids could split and it would actually be a meal.....like a turkey leg.

Say you are bringing your own food for breaky and need hot water, can you bring your own kettle to boil water?

We just ran water through the pod-style coffee maker in our room and made instant oatmeal. Also, we stayed at Coronado Springs and when you check in, you can ask if they have any microwaves available for your room. They are first come, first serve for guests, so if they aren't all in other people's room, they'll put one in your room. We were content to use the coffee machine and didn't bother asking.

 

[Nancyg56]

Another alternative to ordering groceries for breakfast for kids is to pack one suitcase with snacks/breakfast items--I even packed Horizon milk boxes in our for our last trip since the kids are always eating breakfast on the go. They grabbed their mini box of cereal or granola bar and a milk box and we were ready to head to the bus stop. Then we had an empty suitcase to carry home all the stuff we bought. Fair warning--if you pack a 12 pack of milk boxes and a tub of peanut butter in your checked luggage, TSA will want to take a peak.

They also will do that if you wrap a few bottles of wine in your checked bag.....just warning....

 

[sharonabe]

Also, some places have snacks that 2 kids could split and it would actually be a meal.....like a turkey leg.

You cannot use a snack credit for a turkey leg; they are a QS meal credit only item.

 

[hisgal2]

You cannot use a snack credit for a turkey leg; they are a QS meal credit only item.

Actually, according to Disney, you can at certain places. Fife and Drum in Epcot considers a turkey leg to be a snack. We just got them as snacks this past week.

 

[sharonabe]

Actually, according to Disney, you can at certain places. Fife and Drum in Epcot considers a turkey leg to be a snack. We just got them as snacks this past week.

Then I would say you were the recipient of some pixie dust as they have never been a snack credit before, and even the menu of Fife and Drum does not have the snack symbol next to them.