No Dining Plan

[NMAmy]

We were just discussing the possiblity of trying the Dining Plan for this trip. I've priced it out based on our normal eating schedule and there's no way we'd save any money using the plan. We like being able to skip an ADR in favor of a pb & j in the room if we feel like it. Sometimes dd and I share an appetizer and a dessert as a meal. Because we can't reliably eat that much food in a given day, we tend to have our TS meals at lunch, and we don't really do character meals or buffets, it just doesn't make sense for us to tie ourselves down to all the dining plan restrictions and struggle to get our money's worth.

You'll be fine, OP! I've found that just having a budget in mind in advance for dining helps get rid of any guilt. We have to eat out on vacation if we're not in a villa. I plan for that and then I don't worry about how much we're spending.

 

[frannn]

This year, we will still be going during free dining, but most likely not upgrading to deluxe. We are big eaters, but are more concerned about our schedule, waistlines, and wallet in 2011. We already had to pay to upgrade from the CS to reg DP, and since we have to buy 2 day tickets to get the promo, we'll probably not get APs. This will loosen up our schedule & give us more freedom about last minute park decisions. I'm a little nervous about all the meals we'll be paying OOP for, as we are 3 meal/day people. I'm in a fridge swap, which will help to save leftovers for snacks/breakfast for other days. I know this is not nearly as big a dilemma as whether to go DP free, but still a challenging issue for our family. If they offer a better free dining option later this year, I'm open to upgrading, but I can't see paying about 525 more (based on our numbers) to get the same amount of meals, just all TS.

 

[Figment2]

We did the DP last February for the first time. For me, never again. I realized that I'm more of a salads & appetizers person and those weren't part of the plan. The only places it worked for me were the buffets. Way too much food.

A PP mentioned the Tables in Wonderland card which we also have and use regularly.

C.

 

[bigal'sdaughter]

We are also skipping it this time. We priced it out and depending on how many times we order a beverage (we are more water people) and/or dessert it really comes out to be within 100 either way (this includes plenty of snacks!).
We are split one app, entree, have ice cream bar later kind of people. We also really like a lot of table services in the parks for breaks with small kids.
Now - if we were to take out the charcter buffets it would definitely be much less expensive without the dining plan.
Mostly though- DH really felt like it was too much food, too much pressure to order/try everything, and just sometimes a little much on the stomach (kwim?)
So we'll see how it goes, but he is much happier without the plans.

 

[seven dwarfs]

We went in October without the plan and it was great. I have six kids which most will say the plan is a better deal with kids. They all ordered off the adult menu and shared. We saved a bunch of money. We ate what we wanted and the kids loved not having to order the yuck kids meals. It was the first time I didn't gain a ton of weight too.

 

[mickey916]

We are also skipping it this time. We priced it out and depending on how many times we order a beverage (we are more water people) and/or dessert it really comes out to be within 100 either way (this includes plenty of snacks!)..

We did this too last April. Ahead of time, I priced it a bunch of different ways (we're water people and max. one dessert per day too) and it always looked like we come within $100 either way. I tracked it while we were there and we didn't even eat as much as I had in my original estimate (we were too full) - but, we ate whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted and we saved $345! I don't think we'll ever do the DDP again!