Newbie.. Meal Plan vs $500 Credit

[cathyny]

We are going in May for 5 days for the first time with 3 yr old & 7 yr old. We are staying at a Moderate so we got the $500 credit. We also got the Meal plan but we are wondering if we really need it & can just use the $500 credit for food. For all you experienced Disney people.. is $500 enough for 5 days or even if we need to still spend another $200 it still would be cheaper than the meal plan. My 3 yr old is pretty picky so really not sure how much he will eat & my 7 yr old likes some adult foods. We probably would not do sit downs every day unless we do the meal plan. Any input appreciated!

 

[woody5]

With the dining plan you will get a counter service meal, snack and table service meal for each of you for five nights. Can you eat this amount of food for $500, no. Can you plan strategically and each quite a bit with $500, yes. It depends if you want a lot of sit down meals or just counter service. Take a looke at the menus and prices at allears.net. Price out what you would want to eat and then compare.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

The PP gave great advice.

Unless you want to do alot of TS meals or plan on doing alot of charector meals stick w/ the $500 gift card. We figured out our party of 4 could eat 2 TS charector meals and CS 1 meal and 1 snack each everyday for 7 days and it would come in at like $550. If you 3yr old is like my 4yr old they eat like birds and can easily share every CS meal off mom and dad's plate or siblings kids meal, which stretchs the meal budget a little more.

We rarely find that we eat more than 1 CS and 1 TS or 2 CS meals a day so thats what I based out budget on. There is just SOO much food and all that touring (espically in the warmer months) we just don't want to eat more than that.

 

[jjmm]

I guestimated $700 for food, however we are a famliy of four with two adults, a 17 y/o (with a healthy appetite) and an 8 year old. This was based on all meals at the counter service locations at the parks with one lunch at Le Cellier and one dinner at Trails End Buffeteria. We are not big breakfast people so I planned something small in our room. I did the math by checking the menus for each place. It is time consuming but you may want to try this to see what is best for your family.

Currently, we have decided to probably change to the Dining Plan since that would allow us to try different table service locations every night and from my math with this plan, it will be like getting our lunch and snacks for free.

 

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

What about downgrading from the DDP to the QSDP? Its a little cheaper and allows 2 CS meals per day! That might be a better option, then you could use the giftcard if you wanted to do a TS or something like that!

 

[cathyny]

Thanks.. that is a great idea to see to look at lower Dining plan. I am driving myself crazy thinking about this but I think this may be the answer.. I will crunch the #'s now. Part of my worry is if we don't get any dining plan my DH is going to comment every meal about how expensive everything is!

 

[cathyny]

Well going to the lower plan only saves $120 which would be 1 TS so its not worth it to go to the lower plan as we would go to at least one character meal.
They sure do not make this easy do they?

 

[mlittig]

to the DIS boards, cathyny You came to the right place to get lots of helpful information but I should warn you, these boards can be addicting

 

[jenseib]

What about downgrading from the DDP to the QSDP? Its a little cheaper and allows 2 CS meals per day! That might be a better option, then you could use the giftcard if you wanted to do a TS or something like that!

I was going to suggest that too, but it will only work if you don't want many TS.
I like the plan for the same reason you do, my DH would grumble about how much everything cost if we had to pay on the spot. LOL!