TS on a budget without dining plan

[pixiewytch]

I guess I'm getting a little freaked out here. We will be staying for four days and I have ressies for TS 1-2 meals a day. Some of the places I booked are LeCellier, Rose and Crown, and Kona for breakfast. I've looked at the menus and they don't look all that extravagant in prices but I'm seeing reviews posted where people are talking about $100-200 bills at these places. I'm just wondering if this means people are taking full advantage of the dining plan (I'm sure I would too) and ordering more food than they really need to eat causing such high bills or if I should be worried.

It will be DH, myself, and my four year old son and I guess I'm just looking for tips on saving money when dining TS and what other people are ordering who don't have a dining plan and are on a budget.

 

[LizinSTL]

I guess I'm getting a little freaked out here. We will be staying for four days and I have ressies for TS 1-2 meals a day. Some of the places I booked are LeCellier, Rose and Crown, and Kona for breakfast. I've looked at the menus and they don't look all that extravagant in prices but I'm seeing reviews posted where people are talking about $100-200 bills at these places. I'm just wondering if this means people are taking full advantage of the dining plan (I'm sure I would too) and ordering more food than they really need to eat causing such high bills or if I should be worried.

It will be DH, myself, and my four year old son and I guess I'm just looking for tips on saving money when dining TS and what other people are ordering who don't have a dining plan and are on a budget.

One of the easiest savings is to order ice water rather than a soft drink or alcohol with your meal. You wouldn't need 3 appetizers, 3 entrees and 3 desserts if you were paying OOP because that is a lot of food for most people. Just plan to share an app (or skip it entirely), order entrees and share a dessert. The child's prices are very reasonable for the most part. When we dine out at home, we sometimes will order a couple appetizers and have salads rather than entrees- it's always cheaper than a typical salad, entree meal.

 

[mince]

We ran up $115 (included tax and grotuity) for 2 of us at Le Cellier. Of course we were encouraged to order 2 milkshakes, 2 desserts and 2 apps. We did pay for 2 glasses of wine OOP on a separate bill.

On a normal night out, we'd only order 1 app, no milshakes?, and maybe 1 dessert. So expect ~$90-$100 for the 3 of you.

 

[pixiewytch]

When we eat out at home we never eat appetizer to dessert. We usually order a couple appetizers (because entrees are so huge these days), dessert, and maybe some drinks or we'll skip appetizer and just order entree. Luckily I'm pregnant so I won't be able to indulge in fancy cocktails or alcohol during this trip.

$90-$100 still seems like an awful lot to me for two adults and a child if we eat this way.

 

[mom2my3kids]

We normally never order apps or desserts.. A way to save money is to drink water, plus I don't drink enough at home so this is my excuse to drink water when we go out. But considering drinks are over 2.00 a person it can add up on a bill real quick. We are going in october without the dining plan, we only have one TS planned and that is O'hana. Other then that we are going to try to eat healthy as can be eating CS. Plus we are going to be spliting some cs I am sure, I am not a big eater and neither are the kids.

 

[nurseypoo5]

have you considered just paying for DDP. For 2 adults it would be under 80.00 per day and pretty much all you can eat. Just wondering. I cant remember what age your child is, but even so, thier dining plan i believe is only about 10/day. Just this way you wouldnt have to even think about tip, prices etc. Even if you get a meal that cost around 30.00 plus tea (no dessert no appetizres) and tip would be near the entire dining plan for the day, it would be like getting the dessert free, appetizer free, the CS for lunch free and the snack free.

just my 2 cents on making it the kind of vacation that takes all the guess work out of it

I guess unless i was doing CS for most meals (and there are good CS out there to be had!) i wouldnt do it without the dining plan.

 

[pixiewytch]

I don't know the specifics but I don't think we qualify for the dining plan. We are Fl residents with a room only reservation, not a package. Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I think you have to book a minimum package to qualify for any dining plan, free or otherwise and in our circumstances it just isn't as cost effective to book a package, even with a dining plan.

 

[gatour]

I would say the dining plan is affecting people's ordering habits. For me and my wife, if we are particularly hunger we may order an appetizer to split, each order a salad or soup, and each an entree and each order a dessert. With that we can approach $100 and with a couple of glasses of wine for me go over. However normally we each get a salad or soup (and sometimes split a salad) and then each order an entree. My wife then may or may not order a dessert. The tab is much lower then.

Another thing to look at is think of as an appetizer as an entree. Or have an appetizer that serves as both the appetizer and salad course. Crab cake appetizers do well in both of these cases. Many times the crab cake(s) come with a little mixed green salad in a vingerate dressing. So what I have done is...

1. Order a cup of soup as the starter, then the crab cake as the "main" course. That way i get my starter, along with a salad, and then the crab cake itself as my entree. I just tell the server that I want the soup brought out first (many times they automaticaly ask this)

2. Order the crab cake as the first coarse and whatever entree stricks my fancy as the main coarse.

 

[winniethepoohsmom]

When doing the dining plan you do have to book a package, you don't get a discount on your room and you need to purchase at least a one day park ticket for each person in your room. If you are getting a good discount on your room for being a florida resident and already have park tickets you can go to the restaurants and not order the extras and have a great meal with out going over the top. I assume you'll have your car with you since you live in FL so you could eat off property at some point to save a few dollars if you want. We have gone to the restaurants just outside disney across the road from downtown disney. I believe it's called the crossroads. If you like buffets you would know ahead of time how much your meal would cost. We went to the cape may cafe at the beach club and had a great dinner for $100 and my DS's were considered s I thought that was reasonable for 4 s.

 

[tndisneyfan]

I have to agree with the others that the higher bills come from alot of appetizers and desserts with the DDP or alcohol. We usually only order either one appetizer or one dessert to split between the two of us. When we went with the DDP we ordered more desserts and appetizers so we could sample different things. I found that most of the entrees weren't too expensive. Have water with you meal instead of soft drinks, your will save $3 or so per person.

 

[Frantasmic]

One thing no one has mentioned on this thread: Le Cellier isn't cheap!!

A look at the prices from sites with menus: cheapest app is 4.99, cheapest entree is 14.99, cheapest dessert is 5.99. Add 2.00 for a drink and 18 percent for tip and you are easily over 30 for one meal.

That entree quoted above is also tofu with veggies. If you want a steak, the price skyrockets.

If the $90-$100 estimated tab still seems steep, remember you are at Disney and you are also at one of it's premier dining places.

Two adult apps (soup and salad is $10), two adult entrees and one kid entree is (25.99 + 19.99 + 6.99 = $53 or so)

Split at dessert at 7 bucks plus 7 bucks for drinks all around and you can easily get in the 90 dollar range with the tip.

Even with your splitting apps and only ordering an entree, the least expensive I think you could get out of Le Cellier for is around $65. I guess the point I am making is that Le Cellier isn't a place just for atmosphere; they have some really good food. It is not the place to go and have two appetizers and a dessert in my opinion.

To get the core of Le Cellier, you'd have to have the soup and one of their steaks. If you want to split, that would work as well. Drink water with that order, order something for your child, and split a dessert and you are still around $60 with tax and tip.

 

[pixiewytch]

$60 sounds more realistic to me. $100-$200 didn't. I'm not particularly a steak eater either so I will be ordering something light. I am mainly going for the soup and bread I've heard about as well as the ambience. The dessert sampler sounds nice too. Oh, and we are going for lunch vs. dinner so that makes a bit of a difference.

 

[PureTcrazy]

that you check out the menus for the restaurants you want to have dinner at and that will give you some idea of the cost of the meal.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Well, yeah, that's a start. You really CAN have just an appetizer, or appetizer and dessert, or salad and dessert, or salad, or whatever you want. This is true of ANY restaurant except buffets and family-style (platter or skillet on the table and everybody shares) meals.
You might also think about cutting back to just one table-service meal per day. Now, if that's a buffet dinner, it can cost anywhere from $11.99 adult $7.99 child (Trail's End breakfast at Fort Wilderness) to $28.99 adult $13.99 child (1900 Park Fare dinner) and you don't have any way to save money on these meals. Oh, wait! As Florida residents, you can purchase the Disney Dining Experience for $85 for a year, or $60 if you have an Annual or Seasonal pass. This will save you 20% at most table service restaurants, including on alcoholic beverages http://allearsnet.com/din/dde.htm

 

[PortieOwner]

Here is what I used to do, pre-meal-plan. I would book breakfast buffets as late as possible in the morning. Hit those and really load up and you should not need lunch, and can probably get by with a counter service dinner. If you want a sit down dinner, try for buffets. Boma especially is a great value, but Biergarten should also be considered. Disney buffets include the drink and dessert.

Portie

 

[Eeyore2003]

Great, more reasonable places to eat are...
Olivia's, Grand Floridian Cafe, Kona Cafe (which you have), Yachtclub Galley. All delicious, but more reasonable and easy to get ressies for than the big signatures. We usually order a meal and dessert, I notice lots of people get appetizers which I think adds up. The meals are usually very good portions. If I were looking to save, I'd just get the meal and a drink and pick up a snack or dessert at a CS place a little later as a snack...........Mickey Bar, Sandwich Cookie, desserts from the CS at Epcot, smoothies, etc.

There's usually also a bakery or snack shop that usually has good things for breakfast. If I were watching money, I'd eat breakfast at a bakery or snack shop and lunch CS and have a nice TS dinner. You can get some delicious CS meals everywhere for lunch, Tusker House, almost any of the countries at EPCOT, Columbia Harbor House, Earl of Sandwich, not your usual fast food fare.

 

[pixiewytch]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I've already looked at the menu prices for everything we have booked. I guess that is why I was a little surprised at seeing how high other guest's bills are. I can say that because we dine locally at places with similar menu prices and never spend that much....but again, we don't order soup to nuts and sometimes we share appetizer/entree because portions at restaurants are so huge these days.

I was definitely prudent about making ressies for TS by the way. We arrive Thursday, no ADR...Friday, lunch-Le Cellier, dinner- Rose and Crown, Sat lunch-princess storybook Akershus, Sun breakfast- Kona, lunch-Tony's......so you can see I left a lot of meals open for CS, food court, or whatnot. I haven't been to Epcot in ten years and I've never experienced TS dining there so I wanted to focus on that. I also forgot to mention that we are attending a pin event at world showcase which is giving us 2 $15 gift cards a piece to go toward meals. It isn't much but it helps a little.

We don't really do buffets well. I can't eat huge portions of food and I would rather have smaller quality food served to me with ambience vs. a lot of mediocre food for $25-30 a person which to me is a lot for a buffet.

 

[DaisyD]

You won't have to spend that much. Most people do not all order their own appetizers AND entrees AND desserts. I'd be big as a house if I actually ate all that! When we eat out we always get an appetizer to share and that is only if we are really hungry. We each get our own entree and usually we get our own dessert. I too read about the DDP folks getting all that food but there is no way they are forcing anyone to order. You order what you want.

 

[bopper]

If you want to save money, don't do two Table Service meals a day! For example in Epcot, most countries have a counter service place as well as a table service. That is certainly the easiest way to save.
Other than that, it depends on how much you eat. Can you order an appetizer and a entree to share between your and your DH?