Switching our reservations...or not?

[CaroM8]

If this is not the correct place to post this I apologize... We just need some input from you Disney Experts on what to do.

We currently have a vacation booked at the end of September where we used the free dining plan promo for Disney+ subscribers. Staying for 7 nights (CBR), 5 park days, includes Park Hopper. We also upgraded to the full dining plan. It is for myself, my husband and our 6yr old. Never been to Disney. Our current package is about $5k.

With the promo that Disney dropped today, I am thinking of changing our reservations. Looked into the Canadian Residents ticket deal. If we switched to a room only reservation with the new promo (different resort) and booked 5 park days with the CDN promo, our new "package" would come out to about $3500 (give or take depending on resort). This does not include Hopper, but that is not a deal breaker for us.

I guess the big question is if we can/want to forgo the DDP. Is it reasonable to think that we can get away with about $1000 for all our food? With the DDP we were gonna do multiple character meals, but we are ok dropping one or two. We are not super big eaters so we'd be ok splitting quick service meals, especially with the 6yr old. With those savings, we could budget in Genie+ and some extra souvenirs and still come out close to our original $5k...

Help please

 

[sponica]

For me it might depend on what resort you'd be staying at instead.


It'll be tight. 1000/7 is about 142 a day in food. Or about 48 dollars per person per day. It might be doable, but I wouldn't enjoy having that mental calculus in my head.

 

[scrappinginontario]

$48/day/person for food would not include any TS meals. If you do all quick service meals, share some meals and keep it to about 1 snack/person/day you might do it.

I would recommend looking up the prices of meals at the TS restaurants you want, knowing the DDP also includes your drinks which will be additional if you pay out of pocket for food.

For our family, free dining is always a bigger savings than a room only discount, even with the CDN ticket deal. I will say we stay value resort though so the savings is less for the room.

I will say, I have not heard about the new offer so only speaking based on what you're sharing above and additional poster.

 

[ucf_knight]

If this is not the correct place to post this I apologize... We just need some input from you Disney Experts on what to do.

We currently have a vacation booked at the end of September where we used the free dining plan promo for Disney+ subscribers. Staying for 7 nights (CBR), 5 park days, includes Park Hopper. We also upgraded to the full dining plan. It is for myself, my husband and our 6yr old. Never been to Disney. Our current package is about $5k.

With the promo that Disney dropped today, I am thinking of changing our reservations. Looked into the Canadian Residents ticket deal. If we switched to a room only reservation with the new promo (different resort) and booked 5 park days with the CDN promo, our new "package" would come out to about $3500 (give or take depending on resort). This does not include Hopper, but that is not a deal breaker for us.

I guess the big question is if we can/want to forgo the DDP. Is it reasonable to think that we can get away with about $1000 for all our food? With the DDP we were gonna do multiple character meals, but we are ok dropping one or two. We are not super big eaters so we'd be ok splitting quick service meals, especially with the 6yr old. With those savings, we could budget in Genie+ and some extra souvenirs and still come out close to our original $5k...

Help please

Depending on the new resort I would forgo the "free dining" if that meant I now had a budget for G+ and other things. We are not big eaters either and we typically buy breakfast items and leave them in the room (granola bars, yogurt, fruit, donut holes etc.) My wife and I can usually split a QS meal as well so there is savings to be had there. We've done the math over the years and the dining plans never really work in our favor as we do not snack throughout the day (just get the refillable popcorn bucket or bring our own) and we always drink ice water and never soft drinks with meals.

 

[CaroM8]

$48/day/person for food would not include any TS meals. If you do all quick service meals, share some meals and keep it to about 1 snack/person/day you might do it.

I would recommend looking up the prices of meals at the TS restaurants you want, knowing the DDP also includes your drinks which will be additional if you pay out of pocket for food.

For our family, free dining is always a bigger savings than a room only discount, even with the CDN ticket deal. I will say we stay value resort though so the savings is less for the room.

I will say, I have not heard about the new offer so only speaking based on what you're sharing above and additional poster.

I think I might've gotten ahead of myself when I saw the promo this morning...

Current booking:
7 nights at CBR/5 park days/Hopper/Included DDP = $5000

Potential Change:
7 nights at AOA/5 Parks days/Hopper/Genie+ (estimated $375)/4 "big ticket" meals ($775)= $4691

Our "big ticket meals" so far would be Akershus breakfast, Ohana Dinner, Storybook dinner, Tusker lunch.
Our potential change leaves us about $300 for other meals which I realise is not enough, maybe bump it a couple hundreds?

Probably not worth switching over then...

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We spend about $100 per person per day on food averaged out. That gets us one TS, one QS and sbout 2 snacks a day. We do usually 2 or 3 character meals, plus BoG. QS meals are usually around $20 for an adult, TS anywhere from $20 to $100 and over, obviously depending on the restaurant. Look at all the menus on MDE and think about what you’d all order snd add it up. It’s helpful and fun!

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

I think I might've gotten ahead of myself when I saw the promo this morning...

Current booking:
7 nights at CBR/5 park days/Hopper/Included DDP = $5000

Potential Change:
7 nights at AOA/5 Parks days/Hopper/Genie+ (estimated $375)/4 "big ticket" meals ($775)= $4691

Our "big ticket meals" so far would be Akershus breakfast, Ohana Dinner, Storybook dinner, Tusker lunch.
Our potential change leaves us about $300 for other meals which I realise is not enough, maybe bump it a couple hundreds?

Probably not worth switching over then...

I would say not worth switching. I am not a huge proponent of the DDP for my family but if you've got character meals booked and know how to maximize your meal credits, you can do pretty good. You just need to be sure you have a general idea of where to eat to spend your DDP dollars as some of the options are not really "worth" it. The only real appeal of the DDP to me is that your vacation feels more inclusive. But you're right, $300 for all your other meals goes quick at WDW, spread out over 7 days. Don't forget to add the cost of G+ to your current booking numbers.

 

[Disturbia]

I used this calculator in the past:

https://www.distripplanner.com/

We would always have snack credits left over due to all the dining and deserts already included. It is also not a great use for signature dining or cheap dining (thinking sci fi). For a picky eater, I would just pay $1,000. But if you’re looking at booking buffets (harder to book) then the dining plan would be better. Also we don’t drink alcohol except maybe a few sips for a special occasion so that would factor into value.