Our Own Dining Plan

[Pembo]

We just returned from our trip to WDW. Last year we had the QSDP and I loved the ease of not having to carry money or charge our meals. This year we stayed offsite and I researched the option of using a gift card for food.

We loaded up our gc with $300 at The Disney Store before we left. It was awesome to just hand over the card at each meal or snack. The only meal we charged was our one character meal. We also used the card for our souvenir purchases as well. It was enough money for our 4 days in the parks...except for about $20 at the end of our last day.

Just a suggestion for those who don't like to see their money go flying out for food....

In case you're wondering, we ate breakfast in our condo at Windsor Hills and lunch at the parks. We usually had a midday break and had sandwiches at our condo for dinner. We also used our card at Earl of Sandwich in DTD.

 

[hanutedmansionmomma]

Interesting idea! How many people did $300 feed? Did you do any table service meals? Did you find yourselves ordering/eating less than on the plan?


thanks!

 

[o2bnoz]

I like this idea (not surprised it came from a fellow Ohioan! ).

I've been buying $25 Disney gc's at Kroger, whenever I feel that I have a few extra dollars. They only have $25 denominations, but the money counts toward their fuel program, so I save on gas (20 cents per gallon). However, I have already thought about how cumbersome it's going to be to carry around all of the $25 gc's!!! I guess I will try to take maybe 4 each day? I'm hoping that every place we want to eat will accept them. Did you have any problems in using them anywhere??

Great information and thanks for the idea!

Dee

 

[dntd]

Great idea, when we go next I highly doubt we will get a meal plan unless it's free. I did get good use out of our meal plan but we ate quite expensive and by the end of the week the kids no longer wanted to eat out.

 

[dakuhn]

We bought Disney gift cards from Kroger last year in November when they were running their deal that if you bought $50 in gift cards, you got $10 off that order. We got the gas deal with that too. We ended up buying a few hundred dollars worth of cards, got cash off, and got money off of our gas. Also, if they are stolen or lost, you can have them "turned off" and they'll put that money on a new card (remember to record your card numbers or take a pic of them with your digital camera). We used them the entire time we were in Disney with no problems in December. DS-5 and DD-3 each had their own with all of their souvenir money on it, so we didn't have any whining about wanting things. They were accepted at the Lego Store at DTD and all other stores there.

 

[starwood]

It would be an interesting experiment to put the amount of money on a gift card that you would be paying for the dining plan and then eat the way you want to (i.e. appetizer and no dessert) and see if you have any money left over at the end of the trip.

 

[mwatson011]

...I've been buying $25 Disney gc's at Kroger, whenever I feel that I have a few extra dollars. They only have $25 denominations, ... I have already thought about how cumbersome it's going to be to carry around all of the $25 gc's!!! I guess I will try to take maybe 4 each day? ...

Before your trip, take all of your accumulated gc's to your local Disney Store, and purchase one large one using all of the small ones as payment. Don't go in there asking for them to combine gift cards, they will tell you it's not possible. Say, for example, you have accumulated a total of $400 in $25 gift cards...go to the Disney Store, ask to purchase a $400 gift card, and use the 16 $25 cards as payment for that gift card. Voila...one card to keep track of...

 

[torinsmom]

My bank has a visa card you can put money on--however much you want. This may be something I do next year, since we eat offsite as well.

Marsha

 

[disneymom3]

My bank has a visa card you can put money on--however much you want. This may be something I do next year, since we eat offsite as well.

Marsha

That is a really good idea in addition to the OP. We generally eat offsite when we stay offsite too.

 

[dd50]

I plan on getting GC but not for the full amount. Since many of the CS has different lines my girls can pay at a different line than I may be in. What I plan to do is set up payment with my regular CC with what I plan to spend on food for the day we are leaving so it will be paid for by the time I get home.

 

[Pembo]

Our $300 gc paid for counter service and snacks for 5 of us for 4 days in the parks. We paid for our one character meal with the cc.

I especially liked the convenience of using the gc and knowing that it was pre-paid. Everyplace takes them that we went to. With the dining plan every food place has a computer.

 

[hsmamato2]

I'm sorry,I;m lost here WHY is this idea appealing?
OP had $20 left on a GC at the end,which is now $20 you can't spend on groceries etc when you get home... essentialy tying up a chunk of money in a card,and using it is the same as spending it anyway,and then you spend what you spend,no leftover money.....
not to mention, I can see where it might SEEM simpler to have a kids spending $$$ on a card,but IMHO it isn't 'real' money to the child,therefore less appealing to me also,as I know my kids spend very wisely when it's their own cash.
If you have the $300-why not just note it to yourself that is your budget,and then just pay with your cc each meal,paying it when it comes due like normal?
what am I missing? my dining plan has always been calculate what we need to eat,and what it will cost,then making sure I have the $$$ to pay my cc when it comes due.....

 

[Kellydelly]

I'm sorry,I;m lost here WHY is this idea appealing?
OP had $20 left on a GC at the end,which is now $20 you can't spend on groceries etc when you get home... essentialy tying up a chunk of money in a card,and using it is the same as spending it anyway,and then you spend what you spend,no leftover money.....
not to mention, I can see where it might SEEM simpler to have a kids spending $$$ on a card,but IMHO it isn't 'real' money to the child,therefore less appealing to me also,as I know my kids spend very wisely when it's their own cash.
If you have the $300-why not just note it to yourself that is your budget,and then just pay with your cc each meal,paying it when it comes due like normal?
what am I missing? my dining plan has always been calculate what we need to eat,and what it will cost,then making sure I have the $$$ to pay my cc when it comes due.....

I guess I don't understand the logic either . I would just set aside the money before the trip if I was worried about not having it afterwards.

 

[bumbershoot]

We've done it for our Disneyland trips, and for us it is FAR better than using a card.

They don't expire so they can be used on future trips, or they can be used at disneystore.com. They aren't useless at the end of the trip.

I started it because I had giftcards from the rewards site I do. After using them to upgrade our tickets to APs, and having a bit left over, AND after using our debit (and, on another trip, credit) card for most everything else, I realized that the GC was better. In fact, during the trip when we used the CC, we overspent...I had budgeted x amount, but for whatever reason I just had DH take care of the money on the trip, and he/we managed to spend double the budget. With the GCs, they have the balance on the bottom of every receipt, and it's easier for us to stay under budget in that way.

 

[MamaKate]

I'm sorry,I;m lost here WHY is this idea appealing?
OP had $20 left on a GC at the end,which is now $20 you can't spend on groceries etc when you get home... essentialy tying up a chunk of money in a card,and using it is the same as spending it anyway,and then you spend what you spend,no leftover money.....
not to mention, I can see where it might SEEM simpler to have a kids spending $$$ on a card,but IMHO it isn't 'real' money to the child,therefore less appealing to me also,as I know my kids spend very wisely when it's their own cash.
If you have the $300-why not just note it to yourself that is your budget,and then just pay with your cc each meal,paying it when it comes due like normal?
what am I missing? my dining plan has always been calculate what we need to eat,and what it will cost,then making sure I have the $$$ to pay my cc when it comes due.....

Actually, I think the OP said that she went over the $300 by $20, so she paid for the last meal out of pocket. So she didn't have any of the gift card leftover.

For me, I like the idea of the gift card since it's less temptation to spend the money on other things before the trip .

 

[Ava]

It would be an interesting experiment to put the amount of money on a gift card that you would be paying for the dining plan and then eat the way you want to (i.e. appetizer and no dessert) and see if you have any money left over at the end of the trip.

This would be interesting. Of course most people probably eat more or differently on the plan than they would if they were paying OOP, even OOP with a GC.

I'm hoping to be able to pay for most (if not all) of our food next year with our Disney Visa Reward Dollars. We have almost $400, and should be able to get at least another $50 by next May.

 

[dclfun]

I like the idea. The one thing I liked about the DDP was having meals paid for in advance for the most part and this accomplishes that goal for my budget. We prefer the QSDP vs. the DDP but don't want the dessert so just paying OOP is a better option anyway. I'd rather hand over the card and note my balance than to carry large amounts of cash or use my CC even if I am paying it off at the end of the month. Having the feeling of prepaid/no bills afterward is what I enjoy.---Kathy

 

[Trixiezzz]

I guess this method is just a peace-of-mind thing -- and not practical for some -- but I love to do my vacations like this,too!

Last trip we stayed offsite and ate probably 25% of our dinner meals offsite, and I used giftcards for these meals too. It is just a psychological "lift" to know that a meal is "all paid for" and that you can just relax and enjoy it!

Some of my Disney and restaurant giftcards I got for free from Quick Rewards and MyPoints and that added to the fun, knowing we were enjoying a nice meal out and it was totally free!

We used Disney Rewards Card (from Disney Visa), Disney gift cards and restaurant gift cards (Red Lobster, Carrabbas, PF Changs, MacAllisters and Chick Fil A) for every single meal on our recent Disney vacation. It was almost a cash-less vacation (and prepaid).

 

[Belle5]

We have always loved being on the DDP. This time (last month), however, we purchased a TIW card and paid cash for all our meals. We put no restrictions on our family and encouraged our sons to order whatever they liked including desserts or whatever--just as if they were on the DDP. Well, for starters we found that we just wanted to drink in that hot weather. We were more interested in iced tea than food! We were also with my parents who were on the DDP. They did not want to eat! They were just so hot that food was not appealing. They were disgusted by how much food they were wasting! We came in WAYYYY under budget on food. We were so surprised! Often we would share desserts or not order them at all because we were so full. Certainly, we rarely ordered dessert at our CS meals--even though we encouraged everyone to do so if they desired.

We felt we consumed much more food during our December vacation when it was cool. I think our new strategy may be to do the DDP for winter vacations and TIW for the hot vacations--or maybe not even the TIW if we don't think we'll eat a lot.

Oh, one more thing...we gave each of our sons $50 or so to buy a snack of their choice each day. The money had to last them our entire stay--but if they wanted a milkshake or a cupcake in a theme park--they had cash instead of a "snack credit". They had loved the freedom of the DDP and we wanted to do something to make our trip have a similar feel.

 

[Pembo]

OP here...we did spend all the money on the card including buying some souvenirs. I liked it because it was prepaid and I came home to no cc bills and I didn't have to carry a large sum of cash either.

We stayed offsite so we couldn't use room charging, which we have done in the past.

As Trixiezzz said it is a peace of mind thing knowing it was all paid for. It's not for everyone but it worked for us.