Our Non-DDP trip (How we did compare??)

[maggiew]

We recently went on a 5 night trip to WDW. We stayed at Old Key West. I debated doing the dining plan vs. not doing the dining plan. My DDs are 14 and 11, so would have been charged as adults. However they eat like birds and we usually share at Disney (and elsewhere) because we can't eat full meals for all of us. So, in the end, I decided NOT to do the Dining Plan. I thought this trip we would eat what we wanted, when we wanted and compare to how we would have done on the dining plan. My family did not know I was going to do this comparison so it in no way affected their decision on what to order, etc.

Overall it seems we spent about $70 less than what it would have cost to do the dining plan. We probably would have gotten more food (apps and desserts, etc.) on the dining plan. But we ate at our favorite places without the worry of "making the most of the dining plan".

Here is a brief detail of what we ate. All prices include tax and tip:
Day 1: Check in late afternoon & EPCOT
Beaches and Cream $61.36
Roast Beef and Onion Rings
Chicken Caesar Salad
Bacon Cheeseburger with fries
Kids Hot Dog Meal with fries
3 cokes
Milky Way sundae

UK Fish and Chips Kiosk $4.46
2 cokes

Total Day 1: $65.82


Day 2 Animal Kingdom 4th of July
Goods to Go Breakfast at Old Key West $14.63
Cinnamon Roll
2 Danish
2 milk
1 coffee
1 hot tea

Tusker House Lunch $35.06
Chicken Sandwich meal
2 Kids meal chicken
Chicken salad
Coke
Diet Coke
Choc. Cake
Cheesecake

Kona Cafe for Fireworks!: $95.78 (with DVC discount)
Includes 2 Beers at 4.50 each with I don't think are covered by dining plan
Shrimp and Scallops Meal
Sticky Wings Appetizer
Chicken Macadamia with greens
Beef Terriyaki
2 cokes
lemonade

Olivias for dessert after 4th of July Fireworks: $19.36
Key Lime Tart
Apple Pie
Coffee
Tea

Total for Day 2: $164.83

Day 3: Magic Kingdom
Chef Mickeys $92.90
Wolfgang Pucks Express at DTD $13.08 (lunch for me and DH)
1 pizza
2 cokes

Cosmic Rays $11.69 (lunch for DDs)
Grilled Chicken Sandwich with chips
2 chocolate milks

Aloha Isle $6.16
2 Pineapple Dole Whips

Total for Day 3 $123.83


Day 4: MGM

I can't find the itemized receipts from this day, but I have the totals from the hotel bill since we charged these all to the room

Sci Fi Lunch $68.61
Steak Sandwich (DH and I shared)
BBQ Ribs
Ham Sandwich
4 drinks

Earl of Sandwich Dinner $31.12
Meatbal Sandwich
Caribbean Jerk Chicken Sandwich
BLT
Kids Turkey & Cheese Sandwich
Chips
1 Beer
3 drinks

Total for Day 4: $99.73


Day 5: EPCOT

We tried to eat a little "around the world" for lunch and didn't stuff ourselves since we had reservations for HDDR for dinner.

UK Fish and Chips Kiosk $10.73
One Fish and Chips
1 coke

French Bakery $8.31
apple tart
strawberry tart

Yakitori House $13.61
Japanese Curry Rice
Kids Meal yakitori chicken with drink
large diet coke

Lotus Blossom Cafe $4.21
Kids meal fried rice with chicken and eggroll and drink

Cantina de San Angel $7.56
Kids meal burrrito, chips and drink
cup of cheese sauce
churro

Hoop Dee Doo Revue for dinner $200.88
4 adult tickets

Total for Day 5: $245.30
I didn't include the beer DH had in Germany ($7.50) since it wouldn't have been covered on the dining plan

OVERALL COST of Food for our 5 day trip for 4 people: $699.51
(This does include 2 beers from Kona Cafe and one beef from Earl of Sandwich)

What it WOULD have cost us to do the dining plan: $759.80

So we saved about $60 by NOT doing the dining plan. (Actually a little more since I included 3 beers in our cost)

We averaged about $140 per day for the 4 of us.

Hope that helps someone.

Maggie

 

[Mackey Mouse]

Sounds like you did great Maggie.......I hope those who have done the dining plan and will check out how well you did...

 

[kaybird]

Looks like you had a great time!!! This is what people should keep in mind; what works best for them. We have gone with and without nearly every plan since 1975 except the premium. We used the old Food n Fun plan several times, and got a laugh from the CM who took my ressies the year we skipped it with my comment that we couldn't have that much Fun! For us the plans are a nice way to have everything pre-paid, but we tend to eat at least one TS a day plan or not.

Appreciate your cost evaluation-think everyone needs to do what is best, and remember that for years people had great trips to WDW without the input of 100's of people they don't really know Helpful information, but only YOU know your family!!!

 

[maggiew]

Yes. I agree. We did do about 1 TS and 1 CS each day. Its just that we didn't order 4 apps, 4 entrees, 4 desserts, etc.

Table Service Places:
Beaches and Cream
Kona Cafe
Chef Mickeys
Sci Fi
Hoop Dee Doo (would have counted as 2 TS each)

Counter Service Places:
Tusker House
Wolfgang Puck Express & Cosmic Rays
Earl of Sandwich
UK Fish Shop & Japan CS & China CS & Mexico CS

I am not sure what our breakfast to go from Goods to Go would have "cost us" on the dining plan?? Maybe a CS?

Maggie

 

[Disfan3]

maggie

what about snacks?? just curious as we are light eaters but the snack options are great and with 5 of us....two of them being kids at 11 bucks a day...well it works well for us too much food or not.

Plus we get is free...2 yrs in a row now. So yeah I am taking it...lol

I do like to see what people ate and what they paid for....


We left last yr with 12, yeah 12, cs meals. Two meals a day is just not US while at the World. We could probably not get the plan...but ummm...like I said...FREE.

anyway I like reading about it from others because if we ever go during a NON free time...that is what I would do...sharing and kids meal ordering and such


but curious about your snack

 

[kmermaid]

Just curious, not judging, but do your TS totals include tip?

 

[maggiew]

maggie

what about snacks?? just curious as we are light eaters but the snack options are great and with 5 of us....two of them being kids at 11 bucks a day...well it works well for us too much food or not.

The only food we ate is listed. We don't really snack much. We did get the dole whips when we were in MK. I did bring bottled water with us. Since we had the fridge at Old Key West, we kept water cold. DD and DH drank Propel water.

If my kids were still considered "kids" I would get the DDP in a heart beat.

Plus we get is free...2 yrs in a row now. So yeah I am taking it...lol

I would take the dining plan too if I could get it free!!! But I am a teacher and can't get off work during the free dining time. It sometimes makes me want to change professions. OK. Not really. I love to teach.


Again. We did not set out to try to SAVE money. We ate what we wanted, when we wanted with no thought to price. I was just curious how, in the end, it compared to what it would have cost us if we got the dining plan. I KNEW the dining plan would have been too much food for us. But I wondered if it turned out to be the same price or less than what we would pay OOP, then maybe it would be worth it. This trip was just a TEST period for us.

Maggie

 

[maggiew]

Just curious, not judging, but do your TS totals include tip?

Yes. The table service prices include tip. I don't think we shorted anybody.

Here is the breakdown for the ones that I kept the itemized receipts from. I listed the price of the food, the tax, the tip, then the total.

Beaches and Cream 48.22 3.14 10 61.36
Chef Mickeys 75.96 4.94 12 92.9
Kona Café 79.78 4.87 11.13 95.78

Maggie

 

[kmermaid]

Yes. The table service prices include tip. I don't think we shorted anybody.

Here is the breakdown for the ones that I kept the itemized receipts from. I listed the price of the food, the tax, the tip, then the total.

Beaches and Cream 48.22 3.14 10 61.36
Chef Mickeys 75.96 4.94 12 92.9
Kona Café 79.78 4.87 11.13 95.78

Maggie

Very interesting! Thanks for the feedback. My Aug trip we are on free dining, which is good with kids ranging from 5 -11. But my Nov trip is just me and DH. We did the DP last year just me and him and it was wayyy too much food plus we didn't use all the CS. This year I'm going to get the DDE card and see how that works out for Nov.

 

[SimbaNoodle]

Thanks for the input. We dine at Disney the same way. With both kids now over 10, the ddp is not cost effective for us and we really dont need all that food. My DDE card is working just fine.

Two weeks ago at ESPN Club the four of us shared 2 app. then we shared two meals. I told DW to imagine on the DDP, 4 apps, 4 meal and 4 desserts.

But thanks to all of this typing I am now hungry.

 

[kldmom2000]

What a lot of people seem to forget also is that in order to do the DDP, you have to pay rack rate on your room. We always stay at the YC or BC off season and rack rate is not pretty In order to get the free dining, we had to nix the AAA discount on the room... the $100 per day of free dining was more than the $60 discount... but if Disney wasn't running the free dining promo, I would not have done the dining plan because you're technically talking $160 per day in food ($100 dining plan + $60 discount on room that you give up) I kept tabs on what we spent last time, and we averaged about $120 per day without trying. (2 adults and 2 kids) Over the course of the week, you'd spend $280 more to do the dining plan.

 

[Laura]

We didn't do the dining plan either and we came out ahead. I did a calculation of our total of what would have been covered and it was slightly less than the cost of the DDP (and I didn't even separate the cost of some of our drinks at some restaurants because I didn't remember the price and it would have figured into the tip as well--so it was even less). With our room discount, we saved $ overall. I only made one ADR before we left, and I had no intention of trying to beat the price of the DDP.

 

[bdklein]

What a lot of people seem to forget also is that in order to do the DDP, you have to pay rack rate on your room.

Sorry KLD, but if you book through AAA you get the room discount and the Dining Plan.

 

[mom2my3kids]

Glad you had a great time. I always love looking at your food pics..

 

[Redmic]

We are going during "free" dining, but I would not otherwise do the plan.

My 11 year old would pay as an adult, but eat off the kids menu. My 15 year old eats like a bird. It is not worth it for them.

I think whether it is "worth" it or not depends on your family. If it was just DH and myself I would probably buy it, but with "adult children" it's not worth the price to us.

Thank you for your calculations, they are very close to the way we usually eat!

 

[kldmom2000]

Sorry KLD, but if you book through AAA you get the room discount and the Dining Plan.

I asked my travel agent at AAA re: this and she said "double dipping" is not allowed???

I then contacted another AAA branch and they told me the same thing?

Perhaps they just meant during the free dining?

 

[bdklein]

I don't know anything about discounts with the free dining plan.

I do know that back in May, when we went, if we wanted the Dining plan and a room discount we had to book through AAA. If we wanted to book through WDW directly, and wanted the dining plan, there would be no discount on the room. If we wanted the AAA room discount through WDW directly, then no dining plan.


KLD-I just want to say that I was not trying to say "Ha-Ha, you were wrong". I just wanted people not to be misinformed.

 

[kldmom2000]

I don't know anything about discounts with the free dining plan.

I do know that back in May, when we went, if we wanted the Dining plan and a room discount we had to book through AAA. If we wanted to book through WDW directly, and wanted the dining plan, there would be no discount on the room. If we wanted the AAA room discount through WDW directly, then no dining plan.


KLD-I just want to say that I was not trying to say "Ha-Ha, you were wrong". I just wanted people not to be misinformed.

Oh I didn't take it that way but thanks for the info....

I'd never done a pkg. before (hence never having the DDP either). I used to by mgmt. at a Disney Store 10+ yrs ago and one of my former Cast members is a AAA Disney Travel specialist at our local branch. I had a room only booked w/ the AAA discount and when the free dining came out, she then told me about how Disney doesn't allow the double dipping on discounts-it's either/or. I guess I just assumed that in general, you would always have to pay rack-rate to get the DDP..... at least now I know that if it works out for us this time around, then perhaps next time I will know to book the pkg. through AAA to get the discounted room if we want to include the DDP again (when it's not free)

 

[Luvamouse]

Even though I don't go until Nov. 2007, I too have decided it won't be cost effective for us to do the DDP. With a (will be then) 13 year old who eats very little, and all of us learning on an earlier trip to Maine this summer that we cannot eat much food on vacation, I decided to look for posts like yours to see how it really worked without the DDP. Also, I didn't choose a AAA agent and so would give up my AAA discount, AND I want to split my stay and would then need to buy the 1 day pass for the 2nd resort to get the DDP--$$$.

You have made me feel much better and your family has eaten what I expect we will eat, give or take--even having a hefty bill for one meal per day.

Thanks for sharing. It is so helpful for others to be able to judge what will work best for their own family.

 

[ReneeA]

Thanks for the post. It's interesting to read how other's eat while at WDW.

I'm wondering if my DS4 will ever eat like a bird. <<Sigh>> At 4 years old, he already eats me under the table and has NO fat on his bones. Wish I were that fortunate.

Glad it worked out for you!!