Our Own Dining Plan

[blessedby3]

We did this same thing for our May trip. I had 3 old giftcards and had them reloaded. Two had $150 on them and one had $200. I didnt want all of our money on one card in case it was lost or stolen. I know you can call and report it missing, but I was afraid if someone got it, that it would be drained of everything quickly. Anyway, 3 cards worked for us and I would take one at a time. We ate CS mainly and also used it for snacks and souvineers. We still have $60 on one card because I forgot to use it on our last day when we were buying souvineers
Not to worry, though, I can still use it at the DisneyStore (if I want) or save it for our trip next year. I will be $60 ahead if that is the case

 

[hsmamato2]

....interesting,thanks for clarifying..... I have a couple of gc's,maybe we'll use them this way,at least part of the time. (they were rewards things anyway,so we have to spend them there)

 

[phred52]

[/QUOTE]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.[/QUOTE]

OP I like your idea!

Also, remember when you pay out of pocket at Earl of Sandwich ...show the cashier your AAA card for 10% off!

 

[scdak]

I agree with several of the others, I did the same thing a few years ago for the same reasons - prepaid, no need to carry lots of cash, stayed off site so no KTTW to have charging privileges etc. But the main reason - to give to my elderly mother so she could "pay" for meals and snacks instead of using her own money which she would try to do. She always wants to share the costs of the trips I take her on so this way she pays but not with her own money!

 

[dromio42]

Do you get 10% off at Earl of S with a regular AAA card or just the diamond pass that the travel agant gives when you buy a package?

 

[sallysue66]

I have $450 in Disney gc's for our October trip! I've earned these over the last year from mainly my cc's rewards program and Blue Cross rewards. My cc actually rewards Visa gc's but they are a pain to use so I buy a Disney gc with it. I've done this for several years now but this is the first year I've had so much $$!! I love using them for our food. We have done the DDP..loved the convenience but really feel that we ate too much, wasted too much and spent too much time focused on food. Now I love food as much as anybody but the DDP doesn't seem to be the best choice for my family. And the fact that I didn't pay for the gc's just tickles me pink!!

 

[DisneyMomma81]

I love Disney GCs ~ we'll be using them this weekend at DLR!

 

[delmar411]

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...

I certainly wish I had done this before our trip! Everyone said it wasn't possible to do.

I paid for our dining plan with $15 GCs that had to be manually keyed in. Took well over an hour to key them all in. I had no idea they couldn't just swipe them like stores do. I also did one of the Kroger deals so I saved a large amount of money on our groceries plus got all those fuel rewards so there was a big benefit in doing it but would have been much nicer to simply hand them just a few big $ amount GCs.

 

[leagirl12]

I love this idea. We normally stay onsite but will be going with some friends in June of next year and to save money we are sharing a condo off-site. I don't want to carry cash or charge everything to our credit card. I saw this thread last night and told DH about it but he was worried about having money left over on the GC's.

It didn't hit me till I just read a pp mentioning about saving them for another trip. We are planning on going back for Thanksgiving so that will just be extra money for that trip.

I will have to tell DH about that idea when I get home. I can't believe I didn't think about that.

 

[sau418]

One of the other perks for this is that most grocery stores (not all) have programs where you earn $ off gas or grocery discounts with the purchase of gift cards so it can be a win win situation.

In Western PA, Giant Eagle will have periods where you earn .20 off per gallon of gas with every $50 gift card purchase. For my situation that is great, I earn money off my fuel purchase as well as put money aside for my vacation. Yes, I know some people find it easier or better to put that money in an interest bearing savings account, I don't, I like having Disney gift cards waiting for our next trip.

 

[AKL_Megs]

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.

I don't get it either.

DH and I set aside $400 cash JUST for food. We plan what/when/where (abouts) we will eat, and we do that. (Breakfast in the room, $10 lunch a person, $20 dinner a person, $10 snacks, etc.) and we stick with it. Some days we don't spend $10 on lunch, some days we only spend $10 on dinner... which means, towards the end of our trip, we get to spoil ourselves!

It's about setting limits and not diverting. You don't need a gift card to do that.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

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.

That's exactly what we did, but only used the GCs for counter service and snacks.

To get the QS DDP for me, DH, and DS14 for our 13 night stay it would have cost $1247. We loaded up some gift cards at Walgreen's before our trip, then proceeded to pay for ALL of our counter service meals and snacks with the gift card.

Walgreens puts a max of $500 on each card. It took us until Day 9 to finish ONE CARD! By the end of the trip we only spent $625 on counter service and snacks. HALF what it would have cost us for the QS DDP!

We used the leftover money from the gift cards to pay the room charges, which is how we paid for all of our TS meals. We love signature dinners, but we already knew we came out better on those using the TiW card.

 

[Mouse House]

I love the idea of using the gift cards. This way everyone can still get what they want. No food gets wasted either.

 

[scanmom]

but, what is a TIW card? I know everyone is talking about GC's, and I know that abbreviation, but can't figure out TIW.

 

[fakereadhed]

but, what is a TIW card? I know everyone is talking about GC's, and I know that abbreviation, but can't figure out TIW.

Tables In Wonderland- a discount card purchased by an annual passholder

 

[akayek31]

Since we moved and I now shop at Kroger, I have began to buy the GC's also. They have the $50 and $25 at our store. I also got my $25 laundry's GC in the mail today and almost to my next $25 when my Netflix points kick in. I love the idea. We didn't use the DP last trip because it just didn't seem cost effective to us and in 17 days at DW and US/IOA we spent under $500 on food and that was with us eating at Le Celler and a few other table services.

 

[SSRJen]

We are going to start using Gift Cards, but mainly because I am earning them doing surveys and other incentives online (without spending money). We also have Disney Visa Rewards and our debit cards rewards. We started in February and have already earned $720 in gift cards. I have another $75 online ready to be cashed out. This is the first time I have gotten serious about earning money, and it has been great. I spend about an hour and a half a day online and boom, it is adding up! We are excited to use our gift cards for future trips and feel like our expenses are free.

I do like the idea of buying a couple of big gift cards instead of traveling with a huge stack...great idea...didn't think of it.

 

[jjohnson]

We buy GC's every trip. I buy them thru mypoints with my AMEX (to earn points). If you start to accumulate a bunch just call the # on the back of the card and they can combine them onto one of your cards. I just did 6 the other day.

 

[Pembo]

I don't get it either.

DH and I set aside $400 cash JUST for food. We plan what/when/where (abouts) we will eat, and we do that. (Breakfast in the room, $10 lunch a person, $20 dinner a person, $10 snacks, etc.) and we stick with it. Some days we don't spend $10 on lunch, some days we only spend $10 on dinner... which means, towards the end of our trip, we get to spoil ourselves!

It's about setting limits and not diverting. You don't need a gift card to do that.

We had $300 saved for food, I just put it on a gc for convenience!!! We didn't need the gift card it was just easier than carrying cash.

 

[extremesoccermom]

DD15 and I purchased the package in Feb in which we received a $300.00 gift card with our stay. We put all our food and snack purchases on the card. The only extras we did not use the GC for were RFC we had a coupon and gift card from mypoints and most days we had breakfast in the room. We still have 96.xx left for our Oct trip.
Knowing have another trip planned we knew the card would not go to waste.