spending money after dining plan????

[luvsJack]

OP, We have always had the ddp you will have. Regardless of how we planned the meals, we NEVER got hungry enough to need to purchase another meal. I have planned the two meals in every combination over the 3 meals in a day.

I always take stuff to have in the room and I always lug it back home again. The first morning we will get up and eat something small before we head out. After that, we just never seem to want anything first thing in the morning like that (maybe from all the food the day before??)

I would get a few things that you know your family likes but unless one of you is a huge breakfast eater, I would not over-worry about it.

 

[madcat]

we did what some people have suggested, we brought bottled water with us and then also brought bagles/cream cheese, milk, cereal and muffins too to eat in the room which brought down the amount we spent on breakfast way down b/c we were not eating at two counter service places every day. We ended up spending 200.00 on tips, and a few other things that we charged for our 6 night stay..not too bad then we had another budget for things that the kids/we wanted but again I think we might have spent 100.00-150.00 on those things to include thank you gifts we brought back to people that were watching the pets while we were gone.

 

[hops&dreams]

I haven't read through all of the responses (yet) but I wanted to let OP know that when we went in 2010, we brought pop tarts for breakfast in the room/ on the way to parks, and granola bars & fruit snack for snacks. I didn't touch ANY granola bars or fruit snacks, other than on the plane. Once we were on WDW property, everything was on the DDP. (we had the same one). Maybe we aren't big eaters, but DH, DD, and I all split 2 CS meals, and ate more often. At night, sometimes we'd get one more CS meal to split as a "midnight snack." We also had like 8 snacks left over at the end of the trip!

We brought $300 in cash for the trip, and came back with over $150. This covered tips (most of our TS meals had tips included), and souvenirs (DH and I each got a mug, DD got some earrings, a bracelet, and a toy, and we got a throw blanket and picture frame for our living room).

In short, we budgeted our meals, only ate when we were hungry, and shared when we could. We did this on our latest trip in Feb of this year as well, and had great success with it. We only brought 2 boxes of pop tarts this time (which is a HUGE treat for us - I never normally buy poptarts) and had a couple of CS meals at our hotel's QS place - waffles! - for breakfast. DH and I usually split one, and DD had one to herself, and we would finish up whatever she couldn't. We also had a day where we went to Main Street Bakery for breakfast - One cinnamon roll counted as 1 snack, and the thing was HUGE! It fed all 3 of us, and we didn't eat again until 1pm!

I also brought a water bottle (Bobble - filtered out the gross FL taste to the water), and each time we got a snack, we asked for a glass of ice water (free). Otherwise, the only other drinks we got were the sodas at meals, and we usually had a beer back at the hotel each night.

Hope that helped

oh, and my CS place in our hotel - they had butter, jam, and Cream Cheese out as condiments... I took note, so that next time we go, I'll probably bring a pkg of bagels and not have to worry about bringing cream cheese.

ETA: I had a bunch of snacks left over at the end of our trip both times... in 2010, I swiped them out at our hotel gift shop for fruit snacks... DD gave a pkg to each kid in her class! in 2012, I had 13 left (10 day trip!) I swiped them out at a snack cart in HS - I got craisins (I use them in salads and baking) and craisins trail mix. I'm STILL eating those things, but they traveled really well.

 

[mousefanmichelle]

My family of 5 went in August once and had the free regular dining plan (1cs, 1ts and 1 snak per day). We had more than enough food on the plan. We did have gardengrocer.com deliver us milk, bagels, cream cheese and I packed little boxes of cereal in my luggage, we flew from MI, along with bowls and spoons. Lots of times we got fruit for dessert and got that in a to-go-box so we had fruit the next morning for breakfast as well.

The best thing I ordered from gardengrocer.com though was the Gatorade. We froze it and put it in our daily pack so that when the kids were so hot - the gatorade was a refreshing frozen drink. Since I put 5 of them in my pak they stayed frozen for quite awhile. That was the best thing I did during that August trip.

Have a great time!

 

[lisam427]

we usually save one of our deserts from either our counterservice meal or sit down or both and eat it the next morning. another thing we have done is just gotten a bagel and cream cheese or muffin for breakfast from our resort food court with our snack credits. in the morning we would fill our refillable mugs with icewater. those mugs kept our drinks cold for hours. we also got free cups of ice water from the counterservice restaurants and packed a few bottles of water in our knapsack that we bring to the parks. i also packed two 6 packs of water in my luggage but this year i am having a case of water shipped from walmart to the resort. its less to lug in my luggage.

 

[starann]

We NEVER buy water while down in WDW, nor do we bring water bottles in our luggage

We bring a few of these

http://shopthermos.com/detail/TMS+F4001TK6

fill them up with ice al lthe way, on our way to the bus stop in the morning, and during the day we stop at places and ask for ice water (the places that have fountain sodas have the cups and ice and 'filtered' water) and refill our bottles. It keeps the water COLD (infact I usually have a few peices of cubes left at the end of the day) and it is FREE!

They also make bigger sizes of the thermos and they can be found in Target or Walmart!

 

[ceecee]

You don't pay extra tax on the dining plan, just the tip. So allow $20-30 a day for each of your table serve tips. DH, DD (age 16) and I split 2 counter meals some of the time and still have plenty of food. You used to get two drinks and a pastry with breakfast, now it's just one (they said people complained about getting too many drinks!) We normally don't use our snack credits on drinks, so we have a snack sometimes in place of breakfast (muffin, etc).

 

[bearloch]

just got back from Dis, had the same dining plan.. cs: no tips needed at counter cafe style resturants! TS tips cost me about 10-18$$ Per meal tax was already included in dining plan! you can bring food ith you on plane! we used to bring dry gronala bars, trail mixes and small cereal boxes and frit snacks so we were covered for park snacks and breakfast.. u will get the refillable mug for coffee/ pop at resorts! to save time and promblems just buy a water bottle and write name on it and refill every day as neeed then put in frige overnight! bring some water mixes as the water tastes diff! I also checked every menu at all resturants at parks etc to determine what ones we were interested in for cs an ts and then printed a list what was " good" in each park to save time of looking for one at meal times!! snacks do include mufins etc and we often got one at night leaving park and saved for next morning!

god luck and have fun!! ( also we did not spend any extra money on food and I got gift cards for eveyone with there spending money so there was no extra suprises! and the extra card money is goig towards photo pass pictures!

 

[EMAW_KSU]

It completely depends. You'll have tax and tip on the dining plan - that's about 30% of the cost of the plan.

The tax has always been included in the dinning plan. It isn't any more?

 

[hsmamato2]

oops,yeah forgot we paid tips other than that it was more than enough food

 

[ShortStuff]

I have been in August and it is hot - hot - HOT!! The humidity is killer, so stay hydrated!!

I like the water at Epcot and Hollywood studios, not so much at MK or AK. It tastes different to me for some reason? My daughter has noticed it also though.

We brought the individual serve packets of kool aid for the kids and crystal light for some of the adults who like it. I brought sweet tea and strawberry watermelon mio, which was super convenient. Whenever we were thirsty, we would ask for two or three ice waters, add our flavorings and it was pretty easy to stay hydrated without carrying tons of water. When we went in may, they were still giving two drinks with breakfast and we had our refillable mugs, so we would buy two breakfasts for the four of us, get four drinks (water and canned coffee, or juice) for later in the morning and drink out of our mugs for our meal.

We have done both the QS and the regular DDP. I took the highest priced items on the menu, with drinks and dessert, added tax and then 20% for the tip went into an envelope which I carried each day. I always carry some cash, so could add to it if I felt that was warranted, but for the most part it helped to have it ready.

I have left mousekeeping tips on the table before, and they didn't take them, so I also make envelopes for that. These are all prefilled and kept in the safe until needed. One less thing to think about or worry about.

We always had snack credits as well as a few CS credits left on the last day. If you go into your resort gift shop, they will normally 'trade' any counter service meals in for 3 snacks. One time we had about 40 snacks to bring home, between snack credits and extra counter service meals.

We would always start with two CS meals and buy more if we needed it after. Most places a whole meal was too big for us to eat, especially in the August heat!!

As for spending money, I tell the boys how much they have to spend. I encourage them to wait until the last day or two to make purchases, as there always seems to be something more exciting at the next park, resort gift shop or DTD. They know how much they have, I have my daughter carry their gift card or cash. They know when that is gone, it's gone. You know how your girls are, what their shopping habits are, so you will know if you have enough for that part of your trip.

I always remind the boys, that the trip is what the 'real prize' is. Most of what satisfies them at their ages are light sabers, monorail sets and duffy. lol. watch out, Duffy is addicting!

Have a great trip!!!