No dining plan.......

[Babsy]

You are much better off without the dining plan, IMO. You will save money buying OOP with your discounted CL room. As others have said, eat breakfast and most, if not all, of your dinner in the lounge. Then buy whatever you want for lunch, character meals or whatever. You will still save money over buying the dining plan. We do it all the time. We cannot eat enough food to make the dining plan pay for itself even without staying CL . Less stress booking ADR's. You only need one meal a day and some of those will likely be QS. Have a couple of character lunches, a couple of QS and three TS meals and your week is covered! Only 5 ADR's to worry about!

Even your snacks and most beverages are covered with CL. Buy a case of bottled water for about $6 for the room. Or get a carafe from CL CMs like a PP suggested. Easy peasy!

Enjoy!

 

[VillainFavs]

Not to hijack this thread but... What is the difference in price between CL and a regular room? I see people almost using CL as a cost savings. Is it? Is it cheaper to actually upgrade to CL than to just get a regular room and pay for some food? And this is a serious question! Never considered it!

I got the ****** this year for the first time. It's our first time without free dining so looking at ways to save on food as well. Never considered just upgrading to CL. Has anyone done a cost comparison?

 

[Marionnette]

Not to hijack this thread but... What is the difference in price between CL and a regular room? I see people almost using CL as a cost savings. Is it? Is it cheaper to actually upgrade to CL than to just get a regular room and pay for some food? And this is a serious question! Never considered it!

I got the **** this year for the first time. It's our first time without free dining so looking at ways to save on food as well. Never considered just upgrading to CL. Has anyone done a cost comparison?

IMO, it's not a cost-saver. Just looking at the difference between a standard view room at the Poly vs. a garden view CL room during regular season (rack rate), the price difference is about $225/night more for the CL room. Even with a hefty 30% room discount, that difference would only drop to $158/night.

You're not going to be able to make 3 meals a day out of what the lounges offer. You can put together a decent American breakfast, but it's not as if they put out lunch and dinner buffets. The lounge offerings are more along the lines of snacks and appetizers. You're still going to need to pay for meals in restaurants.

 

[VillainFavs]

IMO, it's not a cost-saver. Just looking at the difference between a standard view room at the Poly vs. a garden view CL room during regular season (rack rate), the price difference is about $225/night more for the CL room. Even with a hefty 30% room discount, that difference would only drop to $158/night.

You're not going to be able to make 3 meals a day out of what the lounges offer. You can put together a decent American breakfast, but it's not as if they put out lunch and dinner buffets. The lounge offerings are more along the lines of snacks and appetizers. You're still going to need to pay for meals in restaurants.

That's what I thought! But I've seen posts, not just on this thread but other threads too, basically saying you can almost make meals out of the snacks. I'm thinking they've never seen my teenager eat!

 

[monorailsilver]

Not to hijack this thread but... What is the difference in price between CL and a regular room? I see people almost using CL as a cost savings. Is it? Is it cheaper to actually upgrade to CL than to just get a regular room and pay for some food? And this is a serious question! Never considered it!

I got the ****** this year for the first time. It's our first time without free dining so looking at ways to save on food as well. Never considered just upgrading to CL. Has anyone done a cost comparison?

I don't stay CL either. Even with a discount it won't save us anything as I can ship/bring down a few boxes of cereal,snacks, water, etc...for under $100.

I wouldn't be happy trying to eat meals in CL either. Could I make a meal, sure but I would still want a meal at the land, or a turkey leg, or a burger, etc...

 

[MsThumper]

Not to hijack this thread but... What is the difference in price between CL and a regular room? I see people almost using CL as a cost savings. Is it? Is it cheaper to actually upgrade to CL than to just get a regular room and pay for some food? And this is a serious question! Never considered it!

I got the ****** this year for the first time. It's our first time without free dining so looking at ways to save on food as well. Never considered just upgrading to CL. Has anyone done a cost comparison?

I believe it would depend on the number of people in the room. We have been fortunate enough to be upgraded to club level for free twice, otherwise we would have never experienced it. I have priced club level for trips since then, and with only DH and myself in the room, even with a discount, we don't see the value in paying the extra money for club level. Now if you had more people in the room, such as kids that you don't pay an extra fee for, or more adults that you only pay an additional $25 per night for, then the extra amount for club level might be worth it to some. And anybody please correct me if I have made an incorrect statement about no additional charge for children or the additional $25 per additional adult per night, as neither applies to us.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Ok, all I'm ordering is what's the secret that's getting edited??? Is there some secret discount that I'm not aware of???

 

[cheryllarsen]

Take snacks into the park! and go out of park to eat dinner.

 

[Lynne M]

Ok, all I'm ordering is what's the secret that's getting edited??? Is there some secret discount that I'm not aware of???

If people attempt to promote businesses that have been banned from the DISboards, that reference is removed. Generally, the entire post is deleted, but if there is other useful info in the post, I will sometimes edit the specific reference to the business out.

DISboards rules require that when mentioning a business, you use the entire URL of the business (www.travelagencyname.com). This allows our site's filter to remove references to businesses that have violated the site's posting/promotion rules. Using nicknames to get around the word filter is also a violation of the site's rules.

When referencing a deal, saying "I got a deal through a travel agency" is fine. Speaking about the deal in a way that allows readers to identify that agency is not.

 

[wdw4rfam]

If people attempt to promote businesses that have been banned from the DISboards, that reference is removed. Generally, the entire post is deleted, but if there is other useful info in the post, I will sometimes edit the specific reference to the business out.

DISboards rules require that when mentioning a business, you use the entire URL of the business (www.travelagencyname.com). This allows our site's filter to remove references to businesses that have violated the site's posting/promotion rules. Using nicknames to get around the word filter is also a violation of the site's rules.

When referencing a deal, saying "I got a deal through a travel agency" is fine. Speaking about the deal in a way that allows readers to identify that agency is not.

Cool, gotcha

 

[scrapquitler]

Wife and I are going to take a cab to Winn Dixie, Publix, or Wal-mart...getting some bread, peanut butter and jelly, lunch meat, apples and bananas, granola bars, and bottled water and juice, and maybe doing 1-2 meals for the week. Saving aobut $600 by not doing QS meals and snacks, and bringing our own water bottles to the parks.

You can get cups of water free from any counter service restaurant or food service location that has fountain drinks. I mention this so that you know you can avoid carrying water bottles around the park all day.