Our 10 day 12/17-12/27 no DP food budget

[Beezle2]

We were a group of 3, 2 adults 1 10 yr old. We stayed at OKW in a 1 bed with a full kitchen.

Food in room: $125
Food in parks: $624
Snacks: $95
Adults drinks: $143

Total: $987 for 10 days. We ate at Mama Melrose, Starring Rolls, T-Rex, Trails End, 50's Prime, many Epcot countries, Sunshine Seasons, Pizza Planet, Yak and Yeti, Kusifari Bakery, Flametree, Pecos Bills, Wolfgang Pucks. We had a great time and passing on the dining plan worked for us this time. We have used it before and liked it but tried something different this time.

These prices do include 20% tips at the sit down places.

 

[disney*mom*82]

We tried WDW without the DDP this summer, we are a family of 5 (2 adults, DS15, DD11, DD3) and we did great too. We were there 10-12 days, cant remember and decided we would still eat however we wanted and allowed everyone a $50 giftcard for snacks whenever they want. We too ate TS (Raglan Road, Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe, Via Napoli, 50's Prime Time, and a few more I forget) plenty of QS and everyone snacked whenever they wanted and still had some money left over in the end that went towards souvies. We never felt like we didnt have enough to eat, it went much better than we expected.

We use to say we would never do WDW without the DDP, but as the price increases, we now say we will never BUY the DDP, if the Free DDP is offered on dates we are going and we need the tickets and all, sure we will go that way, but other than that, OOP is no big deal.

We allowed 1200 on meals and snacks and did not spend that all
DDP would of been around $2100

 

[Neesy228]

We are going in the fall and have been seriously thinking of not doing the DDP if free dining isn't announced, so this is great info to have. Thanks! I'm really starting to think that we could save a ton of money doing it this way....

The only appeal that the DDP has for me at this moment is that it's already paid for and I think that it makes it a little less stressful.

 

[dhardawa]

My daughter and I went in November and had free dining, but there is no way we were even close to the cost of the dining plan.

 

[SplashMo]

We were a group of 3, 2 adults 1 10 yr old. We stayed at OKW in a 1 bed with a full kitchen.

Food in room: $125
Food in parks: $624
Snacks: $95
Adults drinks: $143

Total: $987 for 10 days. We ate at Mama Melrose, Starring Rolls, T-Rex, Trails End, 50's Prime, many Epcot countries, Sunshine Seasons, Pizza Planet, Yak and Yeti, Kusifari Bakery, Flametree, Pecos Bills, Wolfgang Pucks. We had a great time and passing on the dining plan worked for us this time. We have used it before and liked it but tried something different this time.

These prices do include 20% tips at the sit down places.

Could you provide more details? Sounds awswsome!

 

[taaren]

Thanks for posting this ... that's about the same budget I had in mind our our trip in December, also 10 park days in a villas with kitchen. Although I'm hoping to spend about $250 in groceries ($125 each 5 night stay), and only about $500 for in-park dining (which with any luck will be the amount of DDRDs we'll have by then ...).
What were your favorite meals for the most reasonable price in-park? I take it you didn't use TIW? Still mulling that one over since we'll have a minimum of three sit-down birthday dinners ...

 

[4HppyCamprs]

Thanks for posting this it makes me feel better. We are going sans dining planning for this trip as we opted for the room discount instead. We just cannot see spending 900.00 on dining plan when we wont eat that much. We have had the free dining for two previous trips and ate like kings but it took so much time and we think we only ate that much because it was "free". We have ordered food and we are not big into souvinears. We do have a weakness for dole whips though I like the 50.00 gift card idea for snacks per person as our sam's club carries the 50.00 card for 48.88 so i am saving money right off the bat LOL

 

[pigletto]

Wow. This is making me think. I was already tossing around whether or not the DDP would be a good idea for us this upcoming trip. Looks like it's time to start crunching numbers. Did I mention I hate crunching numbers?

I know we would rarely, if ever, get the dessert if we weren't on the DDP. We aren't big dessert fans. Instead we'd be more likely to grab something sweet later in the evening.
I LOVE the idea of giving the kids a 50 dollar gift card for snacks!!!! They love being able to pick out their own snacks on the DDP every day and not having to ask if we'll buy it for them.
We will also be in DVC this upcoming trip. But only a studio.. so I don't think we could do any dinners. I wouldn't really want to even if it was possible. Breakfasts and snacks would be fine though.
DDP would cost us 1018 for 6 nights. If my numbers show me I can come in under that while still getting to go my favourite places and eat what I want then I will give this a whirl.
I worry about getting into a situation where I am constantly telling myself and the kids "No you can't order that." It wouldn't feel too much like vacation. But maybe that doesn't have to happen.

 

[phoebezoemamma]

We passed on the DDP because our dd's 5,3 & 2 eat so little and I can bring in lunch and snacks for them. I'll have to see if that still works as they get older. Thanks for the ideas~

 

[ScottOKW2K]

We had a similar experience last year. We did 13 nights over Christmas / New Years 2010 and spent $1,300 total for the trip. The room was taken care of by DVC points, the tickets were annual passes from the previous early summer trip. We bought groceries for the room, used a restaurant.com coupon for Giordanno's, did a trip to Outback using some gift cards from work. and used the Tables in Wonderland discount on some of the sit down restaurants. Thes was for the three of us - Me, my wife and our 17 year old daughter.

Other than the two meals listed above all of our other meals were either in our room or in a Disney restaurant. We ate good, too - Le Cellier, Teppan Edo, Beaches 'N Cream and other restaurants. We never felt hungry and ate what we wanted when we wanted.

I also agree with the other posters about the dining plan. you have to make sure that you order the most expensive items available under the plan and use all your credits to make it work out financially. In our experience this takes a lot of work. For some people the plan works - for us I have found out that the only time the dining plan works in any of its incarnations is to use it for a short trip where we KNOW we will be having all our meals in the parks or the resorts. With the most recent changes I am not even sure if it would be worthwhile today.

 

[ksloane]

Thanks for the info. I've used some variation of the ddp each trip so far, but with the prices increasing and/or getting less for your money, I've been really thinking about it for our next couple trips. In October we'll be staying off property for the first time so it won't be an option so it was time to start crunching numbers to determine how much to bring anyway....

And I really like that $50 for snack idea....for sure going to do that if we aren't on dining plan for any trips. (And yep....I'll buy mine at Sam's as well to save a few pennies)

 

[5forDis]

We are going in the fall and have been seriously thinking of not doing the DDP if free dining isn't announced, so this is great info to have. Thanks! I'm really starting to think that we could save a ton of money doing it this way....

The only appeal that the DDP has for me at this moment is that it's already paid for and I think that it makes it a little less stressful.

I like the idea of having it paid for ahead of time, too, so what I've done on my 2 most recent trips is purchased Disney gift cards of $50 (a few), $100, $200 and used them. There are very few in-park restaurants where you cannot use a Disney card & I am trying to think of one off the top of my head.

My DH loves the dining plan, but I don't. The kids and I thought it was too much.

 

[pigletto]

Ok.. I am back. My head hurts but the numbers have been crunched
So what I came out with is an estimate that is about 150 dollars lower than the DDP will cost us. That's with 6TS and 7 CS. Still eating in the same places we planned, but switching TS to lunches where I could.

150 seems like a narrow margin for this experiment. It doesn't include the mugs. So then the 150 dwindles if we get those. But I estimated high on what we would eat, and who knows if we would eat anywhere near the amount we eat with the DDP if we weren't on it.
The kids probably would.. but doubtful that hubby and I would. We certainly don't eat that much at home. So maybe we wouldn't eat some of those CS meals, or more likely, not a full meal at most of them.
I don't want it to think about it so much. I want free dining and then it's easy math.

Thanks to everyone who is sharing their thoughts. It's certainly given me something to think about. Even saving 150-200 would be great for souvenirs etc.

 

[Beezle2]

Could you provide more details? Sounds awswsome!

>>>

What kind of details are you looking for? I'd be happy to provide them . We feel like we ate well but you can see we weren't doing the most upscale places. We were very happy with the counter service and not being tied to ADRs so much. Pecos Bills as new to us and we really liked it, we had usually gone to Cosmic Rays before. WolfGang Pucks was awesome food! Very good choice for Downtown Disney.

We shared food a bit but not all the time, at 50's Prime we had "Mom" and she was awesome! Steered us to 2 of the sampler platters to share because DD doesn't like kid food but there was no way she could finish a full plate herself. That and 2 of their Boston Cupcake desserts and we had plenty of food.

I guess the biggest money savers for us were breakfasts in room, we passed on most drinks other than water, and we shared 2 desserts. I bought DD a refillable mug that she could use at the pool and she was happy with that. We shared most snacks because they are pretty big and we would have been over full, for example we were on a cupcake quest and tried many of them, 2 split 3 ways was nice, we all sampled but didn't over do it. Dh gained 2 lbs but I managed 5, lol!

 

[Beezle2]

[What were your favorite meals for the most reasonable price in-park? I take it you didn't use TIW? Still mulling that one over since we'll have a minimum of three sit-down birthday dinners ...[/QUOTE]>>>

50's Prime is always a favorite for us and we had an extra fun waitress "Mom" this time. She was a blast and actually steered us to order 2 of the sampler platters for the 3 of us, for dessert we had 2 of the Boston Cupcake desserts. They are wonderful! And we were plenty full.

Not sure if you wanted just sit down meals so for counter serve we liked Yak&Yeti and Flametree with Flametree being superawesome! Great ribs. We like Pecos Bills and went there twice. I wanted to try Columbia Harbor but was over ruled in favor of the chili fries at Pecos They were good. They also have good taco salad.

If you are interested in T-Rex downtown join Landrys Select. It cost $25 but you get that back as a credit and put your birthday as whatever month you are going to be there, I used December as that is when we will go every year. They will give you a $25 credit the first day of that month and you will have $50 to spend there. We had great salmon, ribs, and a wonderful burger there.

The onlt bad food we had was at Trails End on Christmas day. It was really pitiful and we felt robbed, lol.

 

[bear_mom]

We aren't doing the DP for our next trip, both dds will now be adults and I can't see spending $40+/day to feed them.

Younger dd (9, 10 when we travel) is the "typical" child and will only eat chicken nuggets and mac & cheese, maybe an occasional pizza. Plus a kids meal is plenty for her.

Older dd (12) is much more adventerous and likes to try newer foods (salmon is one of her favorties), but there is NO WAY she will eat an entire adult meal so I imagine we will be doing lots of meal sharing since taking meals home isn't really an option.

We will have to see how this works out....

(plus we are staying at the Dolphin on this trip and can't, but that was part of our decision making)

Emily