Need some advice...

[Disfamguy]

My DW and I are celebrating our 25th anniversary at the end of May and are going to Disney World and staying at CBR. We have had the DDP the last two times we went but that was with the kids and now it's just us. Our plan is to take food to the hotel room with us for breakfast each morning and for some late night snacks. We have been debating the DDP for just the two of us.

The last time we went (about four years ago) we seem to remember that the quick service meals were a pretty good size portion and we thought that we might be able to split something like that for lunch and then for supper do a table service meal. If that was the direction we would go, would it make sense to do the DDP or would we save money by just doing it pas as we go?

Thanks (And four years is a long time to be away from WDW).

 

[sharonabe]

It could, but there are some other variables to consider.

Do you prefer drinks (coffee/tea/soda) with your meals? Do you want desserts with all your meals? Would you want two desserts at dinner or just share one? Are you the type to look at the prices and order based on what's less expensive? What will you do with the other QS meal if you share at lunch? You could share a meal for breakfast, but then you would be losing money. Do you have an idea of some of the places you'd like to try?

 

[Disfamguy]

It could, but there are some other variables to consider.

Do you prefer drinks (coffee/tea/soda) with your meals? Do you want desserts with all your meals? Would you want two desserts at dinner or just share one? Are you the type to look at the prices and order based on what's less expensive? What will you do with the other QS meal if you share at lunch? You could share a meal for breakfast, but then you would be losing money. Do you have an idea of some of the places you'd like to try?

We will be having breakfast in our room so we wouldn't use it for that. We wouldn't have deserts with lunches and maybe we would share one at dinner. AS far as places we want to eat, the only thing is we want a nice place to eat for our anniversary dinner. Other than that we don't have any specific plans.

 

[loves to dive]

My son and I have come out much better without it the last few years. We found it was just too much food to have to eat every day. What we do - first let me say we do not look at prices on menus, we order what want and were never ones who thought we had to max out the plan, he is an adult and sort of big eater. So what we do - I usually get a kids meal for breakfast, it's just enough and sometimes even some of that gets thrown out. I use the coffee in my room cause I have to have a cup as soon as I wake up and since I have it anyway, that's what I drink. My son doesn't do breakfast often since he sleeps in but when he does, he usually just grabs a breakfast sandwich and a coke (we are from Georgia it is a rule). For lunch I usually get a kids meal QS and most of the time end up saving the fruit for later because it's too much. My son gets a regular QS but subs a salad for dessert. About 4 out of 6 nights we will eat TS, I usually get an app and salad and dessert (and an adult beverage) my son usually gets a few bites out of my app, orders an entre and if he wants dessert, eats a few bites of mine. We aren't huge sweets eaters and I don't drink soft drinks so it's water for me all day, usually free from the stands in the parks. We both drink adult beverages so it's possible if at any park other than MK, he will get a beer at some point. We rarely if ever eat snacks between meals, 3 meals a day is more than enough but if we do, we grab something before we leave the park for later in the night. Since we drive down there is usually a bag of trail mix and some fruit in the car that also works for those late night munchies. The nights we don't eat TS, we tend to grab snacks around WS or grab a QS at WS. Like I said, we never look at prices and didn't stop using the dining plan because it was less, just because it was too much food - bonus was we ended up spending less on food.

 

[ReluctantDisaholic]

After doing it both ways, I prefer OOP. When the kids were younger and we had free or discounted dining, we did well - I added up our receipts and we always came out ahead. Now that they're over 9, we do better without the plan. The way I look at it, the plan is $60 a person x 4 people - so would be $240. Since we don't spend $240/day to eat when we pay OOP, we're ahead. We spent a lot less last time and still ate well, and had whatever we wanted.
My husband, on the other hand, prefers the plan because he feels like he can order what he wants and not worry about what it costs. I found paying OOP I was more likely to order what I wanted since I wasn't thinking about getting the value out of the plan (like if I wanted a kids meal because I wasn't too hungry, I just ordered one for $9 and didn't have to worry that I'd spent $60 on dining credits).
This trip we're doing 4 nights on the plan and 8 without - the 4 plan days I filled with buffets and more expensive places to make sure we weren't losing $.

 

[Lisa F]

I think if you don't have kids you have to work it to make it work out for you. If you are not interested in doing that and don't have a 1:1 ratio of kids to adults with lots of character buffets planned.... just pay for what you want OOP.

 

[sharonabe]

We will be having breakfast in our room so we wouldn't use it for that. We wouldn't have deserts with lunches and maybe we would share one at dinner. AS far as places we want to eat, the only thing is we want a nice place to eat for our anniversary dinner. Other than that we don't have any specific plans.

With those parameters, I think you'll do better OOP than with any DDP. Go and enjoy! I think I might look at Victoria & Alber'ts for your anniversary dinner. It's pricey, but definitely nice. http://allears.net/dining/menu/victoria-and-alberts/dinner Narcoossees would be another good choice. http://allears.net/dining/menu/narcoossees/dinner

 

[Nancyg56]

We will be having breakfast in our room so we wouldn't use it for that. We wouldn't have deserts with lunches and maybe we would share one at dinner. AS far as places we want to eat, the only thing is we want a nice place to eat for our anniversary dinner. Other than that we don't have any specific plans.

I would look at splitting CS lunch and dinner a time or two, saving a TS dinner credit so that you could go to Narcoossees, for dinner.

WE were three women, and we did need to pay for ou CP package OOP. But after that we sent next to nothing on food. WE split two CS meals between three of us and split two TS meals between the three of us as we.. We were able to have a signature dining experience (Narcoosses split two meals three ways, and LTT lunch as well) dinner every night and a full TS meal at Via Napoli on departure day, and plenty of lunch. One of our party wanted full breakfast one day, and for 8 bucks she had a full meal.

It depends on your choices and how you manage the credits if you would save or not.