Who else is doing this re: dining plan???

[It's A Happy Day]

My husband already thinks I've lost it so I will start with that! I have been planning our trip Oct 3-13th and we have the FREE dining plan. I had looked at prices of food (counter service majority when we were paying out of pocket) and had an estimate of how much it would cost us. I wanted to make sure we had enough money on us when we got there. I have folders for each park and inside it is tip sheets, touring plans, and a copy of each reservation with menu and ressie # written onto it. I also have a small notebook that I plan on keeping with me so I can write down things I want to know as we go - ie: Michael didn't care for/Victoria loved so when we plan our next vacation I can add/delete stuff. Now the question: I plan on writing down our meals and how much they cost - TS/CS/and snacks - even if paid for OOP. I want to know how much it would of cost us (grand total) so that I can see if it would be worth it to pay for the dining plan next time around (who knows if they will offer this deal again) - Plus my DH wants a trip total so I would love to say x amount of dollars but had we had to pay for food it would have been y He doesn't realize what a deal we are getting - just thinks I'm going insane overplanning!

SO who else is as crazy as I am?? And anyone have $$$ totals on saved? Would love to hear about everyones great deals at WDW.

 

[YayDisney!]

I think it's a GREAT idea! My family is also going on the free dining (Sept. 25 - Oct. 3) and I'd like to see the grand total including food cost, as well. This will be our 3rd trip as a family and we usually eat at one sit down meal a day - usually lunch since it's cheaper. This time, though, we'll be spending all of our table service credits on dinner (with the exception of one breakfast at CRT!) and saving the counter service for breakfast or lunch in order to get the maximum out of the plan. We'll see how this will work for us.

It's a good idea to make notes of what your family likes and dislikes. We'll be trying all new restaurants this time, with the exception of 2. We've based all of our decisions on the DIS board restaurant reviews (and the pictures in the picture thread ) Hope your family has a magical time!!

 

[christinadei]

Nope, I can figure that at $35 a day, it woudl be worth it easily. One TS would cost that. So that's good enough for me. I'd be willing to pay it because I know it's a great deal, we would get to go to restaurants we otherwise wouldn't eat at and also that it's conenient and easy to prepay.

I dont' think it's a bad idea, just more work than I'm willing to do. I can quickly think about what it costs us in a day for food and we would probably spend less but wouldn't eat near as well.

 

[msmayor]

While I may not write everything down, I am going to try and keep track of what all this food would have cost us out of pocket.

We've never used the dining plan, but see the free offer as a way to 'test drive' it for future vacations, including a large family (18 people) trip in three years. If it works out to be the great value everyone says it is, it could change my mind about not paying for it in the future.

 

[amwhitaker]

I'm just as insane, so my husband thinks too! I have a binder that I have started with all the menus I printed from AllEars divided by tabs for each park and a tab for all the resort restaurants. I will be making a few AR's next month and then winging it for maybe 2 or 3 nights for spontaneity sake.

 

[ReggieB]

We are going outside of the free dining plan offer, but I would like to try it. I have asked my DH about it before, it had just started I think when we went in May, and also when it use to be the old plan. I have never been able to convince him it was worth it. To be honest we have sat down and worked it out roughly and he does have a point, we probably wouldn't really do any better being on the plan..except if it was free then woohoo. Our big problem is we just wouldn't use very many of the counter service credits. We like to use the table service resturants and have the odd snack. We probably only used counter service twice last visit (Pecos Bill and at the hotel)..and I would hate to feel obliged to use it. We feel that we would end up paying for extra TS meals, because we enjoy eating somewhere like that, but not using the CS credits, which we don't enjoy so much and it would be a waste.

I think it's a great idea to work out how much you would be paying for future planning, as until you can pinpoint all that you eat while you are there I don't think you can be sure if it's a good deal or not. You kind of forget the odd snack here and there!

 

[mtdevine615]

I keep every receipt we get and add it up when we get home. Don't want to have that heart attack while I'm down there. It's fun to see how things have changed, not everything has gone up. In 1989 we paid $1200 for airfare and in April 2005 we paid $525. We used the DDE card last trip and saved about $175 can't wait for the next trip in Jan. Maine

 

[keishashadow]

With me it's more of a hobby (the obsessive planning & note taking). My family just rolls their eyes. However, recently I overheard my DH swaping vacation tales with an acquaintance. The other gentlemen indicated that their family spent over $10 K for a week @ the All Star Sports! My DH replied that we could go 3 times for that amount, thanks to me

Using the MYW plan in Feb I also kept my usual notebook (also record in my Passporter later). As we were unsure of the cost value of the dining option, it reinforced my assertation that we'd "clean-up" - which we did, even paying for the plan. Hope they offer it soon to DVC'ers.

 

[Bete]

I'm curious enough to pay attention, but since it's free for our stay, I'm not going to get anal about it. I have two vegatarians with us and it may not be worth it in my case. We are doing buffets part of the time; so, on those days I think I'll be money ahead.