WDW Budget Advice?

[Marionnette]

What do you guys think about the disney quick dining plan though?

I think that it can be a good deal during free dining if you have 2 adults and 2 juniors in your value resort room.

I'm not sure that it is a good value any other time. The plan includes full platters, a soft drink or bottled water and dessert with your meal. It also includes a refillable mug for each person and one snack per person per night. For me, it's too much food in a single sitting and we don't eat dessert twice a day. If you're not at your resort much, the refillable mug is a nice souvenir but adds very little value to the package.

 

[kidd_freeper]

We are a party of 6 (me, DW, DD18, DS11, DS10, DS9) going for two weeks in July. 5 days at the parks + 5 days at waterparks:

Staying Offsite (Windsor Hills 3BR Condo) vs Onsite (2 rooms at ASM)
Offsite: Savings = $2,006.94

Paying for Disney Dining Plan vs Equivalent Meals Paid Out-of-Pocket
Out-of-Pocket: Savings = $335.70

Travel: Drive vs Fly vs Autotrain
Driving: Savings = $1,961.43 vs flying+car rental and $2,218.80 vs autotrain

Park Tickets: Disney YES Program vs. Undercover Tourist
YES Program: Savings = $1,003.98


So, to drive there and pay for meals out-of-pocket and to stay offsite and to participate in the YES program we will save
$5,308
over "Free" dining+onsite lodging+flying+standard tickets

 

[mommycrawford]

If there are specific brands/foods you want to eat in your room, I find it easier to buy them on sale and put those items together and ship a big box UPS to my resort! As yor box gets bigger, the expense of shipping is nominal. (like a dollar a pound over 13 pounds, or something.)

I also ship water from Staples.com...some se Costco.com

 

[Candace]

Another vote for ordering groceries online before you go. I have used gardengrocer.com many times.

 

[pigletto]

Forget grocery shopping. Whatever you save by going offsite to get them you will spend in cab fare or delivery fees.

I disagree with this. We've used Garden Grocer several times, had great service and paid 12 delivery fee and a tip. Well worth it to me to save a ton on breakfast and lunch items and water and not have to bus to DTD, walk to Hess and schlep everything back.

I've never used wegoshop.. but they'll even go to store of your choice. Probably the best money saving tip for food I can give.

 

[Marionnette]

I disagree with this. We've used Garden Grocer several times, had great service and paid 12 delivery fee and a tip. Well worth it to me to save a ton on breakfast and lunch items and water and not have to bus to DTD, walk to Hess and schlep everything back.

I've never used wegoshop.. but they'll even go to store of your choice. Probably the best money saving tip for food I can give.

Actually, I meant save the delivery fee and tip and just shop at the gift shop. Once you factor those into the cost of your groceries, it takes a large order and an extended stay for it to be worthwhile for us.

There's no way that I would take a bus to DtD, walk to the Hess store and then try to haul water back to the resort on a Disney bus either.

 

[ADKSPiette]

If you have a snack size breakfast, go for a later big breakfast at a buffet in the park, and then you can probably get away without lunch and then have dinner.

I definitely second looking into options of buying food at a local WalMart or supermarket to help defray the costs of snacks and water in the park. We always get 2 cases of water. We put some in the freezer which act as freezer packs for the other bottles of waters in the cooler.

 

[Amunet]

You havn't said how long you will be staying or how many people are in your party, or even what resort you are planning on staying at

I'm so sorry! We will be staying for 6 nights and at the All Star Movie Restort. There will be 3 adults: Me, DH and my friend (who was my maid of honor ^_^).

We are mostly paying for this trip, my friend can handle airfare but the rest is on us. My friend has never been on an airplane, not to any sort of resort/amusement park (in her life and she's a few months older than me). She comes from a rather large family with a hand-to-mouth financial situation.
On top of that, my grammy has cancer, really bad, she can't go anywhere cause she needs to stay around for Chemo. So this is also a way to bring her to the most magical place on earth via lots of videos and pictures ^_^

My friend would probably only have like $100, if that for any food/trinkets while there ... if we don't get a dining plan (we're thinking QS), and I think that mug would be awesome for her. We have had experience with the normal dining plan during our honeymoon (man we got sick of dessert!! ).

We're trying to figure out if it would be worth the dining plan or try and cut corners ourself.
If we got the dining plan, my friend wouldn't need to worry about food, but then that's more we spend.

I know we will definately pick up some breakfast food and pack it!

 

[flamingglobessigmund]

Get Brita filter bottles to take into the parks. You can get a cup of ice water for free from counter service restaurants, or the water fountain, and the filter makes it taste better. There are $1-$3 off coupons for the Brita bottles out there, and some places have them on sale.

 

[Amunet]

We once had brita type waterbottles, they were wonderful!

Though, I doubt florida water is any worse than ours here in northern Utah (so minerally, blech!)

 

[Sagginit]

if you do the dining plan, you just have to find the better QS places (such as sunshine season in epcot). as three adults i doubt you will want to split all your meals, eat child sized meals, or eat hot dogs out of a microwave for dinner each night. if you plan on staying onsite i would just go for a two meal a day dining plan since you will most likely end up eating two meals a day and its does save you money. pack plenty of breakfast foods/snacks- or as others said just ship it there.