WWYD? DDP or not....

[tmbrea]

I'm planning a trip in June 09 with my mother. I'm taking care of cost as she's not working due to cancer dx early this year and chemo/radiation tx.
Neither one of us are big eaters, and I think we will most likely share several (4-5) meals a day rather then eat breakfast/lunch/dinner each day. I don't want mom to feel she needs to pay for meals, but don't know if DDP would be be cost effective for this trip. Was thinking about QS plan, but am keeping an eye on the list of QS spots on the plan. WWYD, just pay for the plan so as not to have to worry Mom or pay OOP as I go. Could just have everything charged to the room and use a prepaid CC. But again I think if I did this mom would try to pay for as least some of the meals.

 

[Tricia1972]

What kind of meals do you plan on eating 4-5 times per day? Would you share an Entree at one TS location and split QS/CS meals 3-4 times? Do you count a snack of a pretzel as one of those times eating?

The DDP will give you 2 TS, 2 QS/CS and 2 snacks per day. It'll cost you about $80/night

The DxDDP will give you 6 Credits per day to use as you choose. TS or CS, doesn't matter - plus four snacks. Cost is just over $140/night

The QSDP will give you 4 QS/CS and 4 snacks per day, and the cost is $60/night


I created this spreadsheet in Excel. You can enter your dining locations to and see how you fare with the various plans as far as cost. Though if you're close and figure you'll only be down slightly - you may be better off with a plan just for peace of mind. LINK To Spreadsheet

Otherwise, could you just convince your mom that your KTTW room card was magic? Use that to pay and tell her that it's all covered with that 'magical' card and then pay off the card before you leave? She may be less inclined to pay that way.

on your mom's diagnosis.

 

[tmbrea]

Since it's just me and mom was thinking....QSDP. There is only a couple of TS places I really want to eat this trip and will just pay OOP of them. I will be in conferance 2 days of the time we will be there, this is why i was thinking of doing the plan. I can control the payment on the days we are together but not on the days i'm in class. I thought is there was any QS meals left on our plan we could get sandwichs for the drive home on the last day....It's a 14hour drive.

 

[SunnieRN]

We went last month and my daughter and I shared a lot of our meals. The QS plan could easily be 4 split meals a day at some of the CS locations. If you find it wasn't enough food you could always supplement it easily enough!!

 

[septbaby]

If your budget allows for the DP, I'd go with the basic plan rather than the QS plan. It is only $20 more each night for both of you to have a nice TS meal daily.

My guess is this trip is to treat Mom, make some new memories and just bond. There are some wonderful meal experiences that can help with that. A way to manage if you're lighter eaters, plan 1 or 2 meals that require 2TS credits. It can be something special like Narcoossee's or magical like eating in the castle with Cinderella.

Keep in mind that both of you will generally be charged a credit at TS meals, but CS meals can easily be shared. So for example if you share one CS credit for breakfast then another for lunch, you'd still have a TS each for a dinner. The DP will require that you make reservations ahead of time for your TS meals. Some people don't like to do that. For us it was fine, the meals were an extension of our Disney experience so it wasn't much different than having show tickets.

Finally, we really like buffets. Many see them as places to chow down and we do our share of that, but the main driver for me is the variety and unlimited quantities. If you or mom wants to load up on a particular food/vitamin etc. its really easy to do that at a buffet (iron rich food, vitamin C, etc). Doesn't mean you'll need to over eat, but there will be enough to get as much of those particular items as she'll want or need. There are no unlimited portions for CS meals.

By the way I didn't understand the value of a fully prepaid WDW vacation until about 2-3 before and I realized that all I had to do was show up. Room, tickets and food were all paid in advance. I broke out into a big smile when that reality really hit me!

Looking forward to Mom winning and the two of you having a magical time!