Really silly food cost question

[bourlea]

Morning all

Im trying to plan for August 2012 and am being asked how much the "free" dining plan is worth but cannot find a clear adult / child price anywhere!

When we last visited, the quick service plan worked for us but other family members want to know if it is cheaper staying offsite in a villa for two weeks and paying for food (plus the other stuff like car hire, fuel, parking etc)

can anyone help please

Adam

 

[disneyholic family]

Morning all

Im trying to plan for August 2012 and am being asked how much the "free" dining plan is worth but cannot find a clear adult / child price anywhere!

When we last visited, the quick service plan worked for us but other family members want to know if it is cheaper staying offsite in a villa for two weeks and paying for food (plus the other stuff like car hire, fuel, parking etc)

can anyone help please

Adam

it depends on a number of factors...
if you fit 4 people in a room - all four will get free dining.....so that really adds value for money when comparing the cost of free dining vs staying offsite..

also, if you can get OKW or SSR when they're deeply discounted for free dining (something like 42% discount), and put 4 people into that studio, then you're really getting excellent value...

but it's not a straightforward comparison...you really have to work the numbers..

probably staying offsite and eating in your villa will work out cheaper, but you lose certain benefits...such as the convenience of staying onsite as well as extra magic hours...

 

[2Tiggies]

probably staying offsite and eating in your villa will work out cheaper, but you lose certain benefits...such as the convenience of staying onsite as well as extra magic hours...

Also consider carefully whether you will stick to eating offsite most of the time if you stay offsite. It may sound obvious but if you are the type of family who is likely to spend entire days at the Disney parks, you need to be prepared to take food with you or you will end up buying it in the parks anyway - especially during summer months and any other season with extended park hours.

 

[wayneg]

Hi Adam.
Cost to buy Disney Dining Plan: £33.99 per adult, £10.99 per child, per day

Last August I kept a log of all meals here is what I posted at the end of our trip (21 days free DDP for 3 adults)
Counter Service $1078.04
Table Service $2137.84
Snacks $214.81 (brought home 18 bags of Goofy's candy, 3 lollies, 1 tub of cotton candy and 1 box of cookies)

Total $3430.69 which is an average of $163.37/day
Tips $305.06

Offsite we average well under $100/day and approx half the tips compared to onsite.

 

[cooks]

I didn't really think to much about the money. Just loved the convenience of not having to worry about how much money i was spending on food etc. Also not having to carry cash around, well minimal cash $20 in the camera case .

 

[Mermaid2sea]

Hi Adam.
Cost to buy Disney Dining Plan: £33.99 per adult, £10.99 per child, per day

Last August I kept a log of all meals here is what I posted at the end of our trip (21 days free DDP for 3 adults)
Counter Service $1078.04
Table Service $2137.84
Snacks $214.81 (brought home 18 bags of Goofy's candy, 3 lollies, 1 tub of cotton candy and 1 box of cookies)

Total $3430.69 which is an average of $163.37/day
Tips $305.06

Offsite we average well under $100/day and approx half the tips compared to onsite.

Wayneg, just a quick question. Can you use your leftover snack/counter service in Goofy's Candy Bar?

 

[Elise79]

For us free dining was a bonus as it meant that we ate for just the cost the tips as we always stay onsite.

Yes you could stay offsite cheaper however to calculate if it would be cheaper than free dining you only need to look at the actual costs you will be paying.

So for onsite hotel plus estimated tips (average cost of a TS meal for one adult would be around $40 tip on that at 20% = $8)

Offsite you will have villa, parking, food, tips and additional gas.

 

[wayneg]

Wayneg, just a quick question. Can you use your leftover snack/counter service in Goofy's Candy Bar?

We didn't have any meal credits left, just 23 snack credits on the morning we checked out we went to Goofy's Candy Co(I assume thats where you mean) and used them all up.
http://www.wdwinfo.com/downtown/marketplace/goofycandyco.htm

 

[bourlea]

Thanks for all the replies, just crunched some numbers as follows

16 nights @ £33.99 = £543.84 per adult for the holiday
16 nights @ £10.99 = £175.84 per child for the holiday

so for 4 adults & 1 child for 16 nights it would be £2351.20 if i were to pay for it!

Do you all think that a mixture of eating offsite and some meals / snacks in the parks for 3 adults , 1 teenager and a child would be around £100 per day or a bit higher

Adam

 

[wayneg]

Totally confused with your plans

If you stay onsite you can get free DDP next August.
Stay offsite you can't buy it, you have to be staying onsite.

If you are staying in a value resort with no free DDP then you can buy it but look at costs of OKW with free DDP its probably cheaper. Although maybe not being 5 of you.

I would never buy the DDP, look at my figures for last year, average $163/day or £32.92pppd, £1 cheaper than buying the DDP if we had paid out of pocket but 2 out of 3 of us ate the most expensive options almost every meal, if paying OOP we wouldn't spend anywhere near as much.

 

[bourlea]

Your confused

Im being asked questions like the following and expecting to know all the answers...

If we stay offsite will we need a car? - yes
how much will a car cost - £500 approx
how much will it cost to pay at park - £130 approx
how much will fuel cost - ????
what happens if the disney bus doesnt turn up when you are onsite?
is it cheaper offsite or onsite?
how much will we spend on food for all 5 of us per day?

i need to lie down

adam

 

[2Tiggies]

Your confused

Im being asked questions like the following and expecting to know all the answers...


what happens if the disney bus doesnt turn up when you are onsite?

The buses always turn up. Always. And if one doesn't you won't even notice, because there is another to follow shortly behind.

is it cheaper offsite or onsite?

Tell them it depends (as per the above advice posted)
how much will we spend on food for all 5 of us per day?

i need to lie down

Come back once you've rested

adam

How old are your children?

 

[wayneg]

Your confused

Im being asked questions like the following and expecting to know all the answers...

If we stay offsite will we need a car? - yes
how much will a car cost - £500 approx
how much will it cost to pay at park - £130 approx
how much will fuel cost - ????
what happens if the disney bus doesnt turn up when you are onsite?
is it cheaper offsite or onsite?
how much will we spend on food for all 5 of us per day?

i need to lie down

adam

I would want a car onsite or offsite but depends on each family, others manage well enough without but we do a lot more than just Disney.

A small car for 2 weeks will cost from about £200 or from £250 for a SUV. I have a 7 seater minivan ordered for August incl tank of gas and upto 4 drivers cost £353.

Theme park parking will probably be $15 (£9) per day this summer.

Fuel costs around £3.70(£2.23)/gallon just now, a small car holds 12 gallon so around £25 to fill, I rented about the largest SUV they do in Feb, cost about $70(£42) to fill http://www.orlandogasprices.com/

Onsite/offsite big question, there are for and against both options, it makes it very difficult being a family of 5, Disney don't cater well for 5. Whereas a family of 4 can fit in a studio for about £120/night incl all your food free a family of 5 would have to book a 2 bed villa and about £250/night. but price up yourself on Disney.co.uk
A meal can be bought for as little as about £3.50pp at somewhere like CiCi's Pizza all you can eat or as much as $125pp+ at Victoria & Albert, Orlando caters for all budgets.

 

[disneyholic family]

and to mix it up even more, i've been looking at the US free dining plans, since they include the value resorts (in the pin code offer i have)...
it's only for quick service, but that might actually work for us...
and i've been doing something really weird...
what if i put 4 people in the free dining room...
and then get two additional rooms at the other PIN code rate i have (35% off room only - no free dining)...
so i would get free meals for 4 people, but rooms for 6 people (2 in a room)...
all 6 of us would use the quick service credits and for any table service meals we choose to have, i'd use my tables in wonderland card for a 20% discount...
i started crunching those numbers, but blew out my brain cells in the process......still a king's ransom, but maybe a doable ransom...

let's see...

i would have 3 value rooms..
one room at rack rate, including free dining for 4 people (2 real people and 2 imaginary people)..
2 rooms at 35% discount (free dining NOT included) - this would be for 4 people - 2 in each room..

so i have 6 people in total, in 3 rooms (one couple in each room)..

and i would have the quick dining plan for 4 people....which means 2 quick service meals each day and 2 snacks each day times 4 people..

so for 14 days, that's 28 quick service meals times 4 = 112 quick service meals to be divided among 6 people...
so each person would get 18.6 quick service meals to be eaten over 14 days...
so one quick service meal per day for 14 days....plus another 4 meals to be eaten whenever...
plus 18 snacks per person for the 2 weeks we're there...not bad..

so we'd probably have about 6 onsite table service meals and the other 'missing' meals would be offsite (at sweet tomatoes or wherever)..

hmmmm......that might actually work...
i was avoiding the idea of the free quick service plan, but that might actually work if i have the two imaginary people in the free dining room and then take two non-dining rooms at the discounted room rate.....

now if i could just get everyone to agree on a date i could seriously work on this...
my pin codes die on april 30th.....

 

[2Tiggies]

Very clever Beth. (You know you would be slaughtered on the restaurants board for posting that. It would take about 15 minutes and the thread would be closed at page 27 ).

Honestly though, I can't believe there aren't people who don't do that. I was no better today. Trying to find a way that a single parent with a child under 10 can use a restaurant gift certificate. Saw another post by someone just like me - single mum with a 7 year old and noticed she arrives the same day as we do. So I got thinking, what if we did the dinner together so we had two adults ...... Turns out she is staying at POFQ so I thought, hey, we can even share a bus and arrive at the podium together

 

[bourlea]

Hi 2Tiggies,

My children (both girls) will be (in August 2012) 13 & 7 and the eldest will eat anything put on her plate while the youngest will pick.

My wife & the girls stayed in a 1 bed at OKW with the qsdp and it worked really well (and i didnt need to drive anywhere) but after meeting with Mum (whose idea this all is and who wants to treat us all) she now wants to stay at the "animal hotel"

 

[crabbie1]

God this threads confusing.more spanners in the works. I think u need to decide if you want on or offsite accomodation first. If you have the free ddp you can still hv the odd meal off site or perhaps stay in a 1 bedroom through dvc at AKLV, one of u buy an annual pass and a TIW card so you get discount off your food bill. You would need 2 rooms at akl as dnt sleep 5 so dvc best option .
I dont think £100 a day will cover food snacks for 5 of you.Free dining is the best option

 

[2Tiggies]

Hi 2Tiggies,

My children (both girls) will be (in August 2012) 13 & 7 and the eldest will eat anything put on her plate while the youngest will pick.

My wife & the girls stayed in a 1 bed at OKW with the qsdp and it worked really well (and i didnt need to drive anywhere) but after meeting with Mum (whose idea this all is and who wants to treat us all) she now wants to stay at the "animal hotel"

Have you had a look at the resorts board on the DIS? There is an entire thread on AKL with pictures, questions and reviews. AKL is not a budget hotel though so you would need to decide what is most important to you. If you book to travel on the qualifying dates, you will still qualify for the free dining offer. I am unsure whether you specifically wanted the QSDP rather than the regular Dining Plan or if was just a consideration as you were taking the cost into account, but if you did specifically want the QSDP and manage to book during free dining you are not able to 'downgrade' from the regular DDP, which is what you would get if you booked at a Deluxe resort like OKW or AKL.

Also, if paying for the dining plan I asked the ages of your children as kids are considered kids by Disney up to the age of 9year, so your 13 year old would pay for an adult park ticket and adult dining plan, effectively making your party 5 adults and one child.