How do u pay for your meals w/o DDP?

[gaffz70]

We have always used the DDP. This year w/ my oldest being 10, it just doesn't seem to be worth the $. There is no way he's ordering off the adult menu and honestly, we don't usually eat dessert, and I usually wouldn't finish a full CS meal.

However, I LOVED not thinking/worrying about how much food costs while on vacation. I definitely don't want to carry that kind of cash. I'm wondering if I can prepay a Visa card for what we might spend for food. We have a disney rewards card, but I want to keep food and other purchases separate.

What has anyone else done?

[MstngDrvnDsnyLvr]

You could estimate your food costs and load all of that on to a prepaid visa (Wal-Mart and other big box venders carry them). You could also take advantage of the in room safe and put what you'll spend each day in cash into individual envelopes and place them in the safe. We've used that method and it worked well. Meant we kept on budget for the day to a penny.

[rjmdds]

We accumulate enough points on our Disney Visa to use them for meals and souvenirs. It works really well for us.

[VWL Mom]

I usually pick up Disney gift cards from my grocery store. I get some $25 for my boys to carry with them for snacks and such and then a few larger ones for myself. I buy them whenever I have extra money.

I take pictures of them with my phone in case they get lost while we are on vacation.

[disneymom15]

You could use your KTTW resort card. We've done that before and it works out well. You can elect to allow your kids to have charging privledges.

[magicofdisney]

I generally use a debit card. However, this last trip I placed a $100 limit on our KTTW cards and used that method. You can pay it off each day at the resort so it's continually renewed, or you can place a higher limit on the card.

[Yo Mickey!]

usually the kttw cards. for this trip in dec i am going to try something different. the wife and i went down in oct for f&w and picked up those small gift cards that are on the wristband. i preloaded some cash on those (can be refilled) and got enough for the whole family. so...when the son (10) or daughter (11) want something they can just go and get the card scanned on their own.

we will also have the kttw cards but i thought this might be fun to try.

[cuteduck223]

We're old fashioned. Envelopes for each day, with food allotment and gift/souvinir allotment (separate) because I am an envelope freak,and won't go to Disney until we have the money to do it.

[disneyfan328]

we just use our KTTW card and check our balance each night at the hotel to make sure it checks out with what we thought we spent. Normally it all works out well. The reason that I don't like the prepaid visa/amex type cards is that there are fees for the card, fees for transactions in some cases and if you use it at a TS place a "hold" is placed on the card to allow for tip inclusion. - Note that this isn't the case for all of these type of cards, so please check with the supplier BEFORE you buy it so you know what their fee structure/policies are regading using them - ESPECIALLY at restaurants. I was going to get one of these for my DD during a band trip and found out that in the end it just wasn't worth it. I sent her with cash instead.

for Disney the KTTW card works great and you can tailor the limit to your own family so you don't overspend :D

[Mickey'sGirl]

We're old fashioned. Envelopes for each day, with food allotment and gift/souvinir allotment (separate) because I am an envelope freak,and won't go to Disney until we have the money to do it.
That's how we do it too. Any money leftover from the previous day gets moved into the next day's envelope. It works well for us, and I am usually pretty spot on budget wise!

[TinkerbellT421]

Throughout the course of the year our weekly vacation savings come out and go into a "Vacation fund" savings account. We budget what we are doing, planning, flights, tips, purchases, etc. For food, we take the cost of what the DDP would be for us IF we were to go on so for example lets say for our length of stay and for us, two adults its $800.00 we will budget $800.00 (but NOT buy the DDP). Then we take a certain alotted amount of money each day before leaving of "Tips, meals, spending money". We usually end up coming home with $100 or more of the "meal" budget money. So then it just goes back into next years budget savings.

Like other posters already stated. KTTW card works, you can place a certain dollar limit prepaid at the hotel conceirge desk. If you give them $200.00 that morning they load it onto your card and then once you have reached that limit it will give any stores, etc and error message if you are mostly concerned of staying in budget. Its basically like using your KTTW card like a pre-paid visa. Which might be the way to go because I have heard, all though not experience it, that when you use "pre-paid visas" and the such that theres a fee to load them. Where if you use the KTTW card the same way you are not spending an extra $5 or something to load it.

[ElenitaB]

We've done the same as cuteduck and Mickey'sGirl... works like a charm and you can store the envelopes in the room safe. The less time I can spend in the resort lobby, the better! (Unless it's AKL... then I don't seem to mind as much. :blush: )

[Tink#64]

We're old fashioned. Envelopes for each day, with food allotment and gift/souvinir allotment (separate) because I am an envelope freak,and won't go to Disney until we have the money to do it.

:ditto: :high5: Oh my! This is me to a T! :silly:

[WDWCrazyKaren]

I think there has only been one time in the past (because we also used to do the "food N fun" packages of long ago) that we did NOT have the dining plan (it also never used to be free!). What we did that year, since I don't put vacations on credit cards, was to put $1,000 in cash on our KTTW card as soon as we arrived. We never had to carry cash, and could use them to pay for everything. Whatever is leftover (yeah, like THAT happens!) is given back to you. Worked like a charm, and we only had a few small bills with us for sodas, popcorn and "cart" food.

[BrerGnat]

We just use the KTTW card for everything that we can. We draw money from the ATM as needed, but we only carry about $40 on us at any given time. Luckily, our bank refunds ATM fees so we don't have to worry about how often we take out cash.

I'd never trust using a prepaid ANYTHING, because if you lose it, you're in trouble.

We simply budget for it ahead of time, then charge it all off to our AMEX at the close of our trip. That way, we earn rewards points on our vacation. ;) We pay it off at the next billing cycle. So, in essence, we just keep the money in our bank account ahead of time, where it's safe and sound, and then use it to pay off the bill when it arrives.

I also like the peace of mind that comes with not having to carry my cards all over. If we lose the KTTW card, it's easily replaceable. If we lose our wallet, full of our cards, it's not so easy. We usually keep our credit cards in the room safe during our trip. We carry our KTTW cards, driver's licenses, and tickets.

[Butters]

We just use the KTTW card for everything that we can. We draw money from the ATM as needed, but we only carry about $40 on us at any given time. Luckily, our bank refunds ATM fees so we don't have to worry about how often we take out cash.

I'd never trust using a prepaid ANYTHING, because if you lose it, you're in trouble.

We simply budget for it ahead of time, then charge it all off to our AMEX at the close of our trip. That way, we earn rewards points on our vacation. ;) We pay it off at the next billing cycle. So, in essence, we just keep the money in our bank account ahead of time, where it's safe and sound, and then use it to pay off the bill when it arrives.

I also like the peace of mind that comes with not having to carry my cards all over. If we lose the KTTW card, it's easily replaceable. If we lose our wallet, full of our cards, it's not so easy. We usually keep our credit cards in the room safe during our trip. We carry our KTTW cards, driver's licenses, and tickets.

We do the same, no need to carry anything but KTTW and I bring my ID in case I want a refreshment :beer::thumbsup:

[Disney Doll]

It seems like a lot of complication for nothing with envelopes and prepaid cards and charging privileges. I pay for everything at Disney the same way I pay for everything at home. I use my Disney Visa and we pay it off when we get the bill. Of course we will spend more than normal the month we go to Disney, but we plan ahead and have the money to cover it when that bill comes.

I just don't really understand why you would need to do something different for vacation. Sure I could lose my credit card, but I have no greater chance of losing it at Disney than I would at home.

[micky95]

my dw & i have an alotted amount for each day ,but we share meals and that saves a lot for the next trip.

[BrerGnat]

I just don't really understand why you would need to do something different for vacation. Sure I could lose my credit card, but I have no greater chance of losing it at Disney than I would at home.

I agree with you 100%, but I know that everyone does not think like this. Lots of people either don't have a credit card, or are simply not good at NOT overspending when using plastic. Maybe to avoid overspending, using another system works better for them. Not everyone wants to be keeping track of their spending on vacation, and like the freedom that comes with knowing you have a set amount to spend each day and that's all.

I don't mind keeping tabs on it, but we totally don't go crazy at WDW at all. On our last trip, we ended up charging only a bit under $700 to the room charge, and we didn't want for anything during the trip.

[gaffz70]

Thanks for all of the great suggestions!
I too have a Disney visa card and use it for most of my usual expenses- food, gas etc. and just pay it off at the end of the month.

Since this would be my first time not using the DDP, I just wanted to keep my food money separate so it would be easier to see how much we ended up spending on food - and hopefully see how much we saved! So maybe I'll just use our KTTW card for food and rewards card for other purchases.

[DizneyRox]

Whatever you do, DO NOT USE VISA GIFT CARDS! At least for table service meals. A few years back, we tried to use the Visa Gift cards we received for our DVC purchase and they WOULD NOT go through at any table service restaurants.

We finally got sick and asked, the manager at Cape May Cafe confirmed they don't go through because the initial swipe of the card (prior to signature) isn't accepted for some reason. I'm thinking because of the nature of them, and we still may have left tip on the card (we were TiW and don't leave more than the surcharge anyway, but that's another story), it doens't allow authorization and then a charge. I don't know the specifics, but we ended up having to charge to the room and used the gift cards to pay off the room charge.

They may have changed the system, but I doubt it.

We put everything on our room charge, pay it off with our Visa. We spend what we want when on vacation, we know our limits.

[I LoveJack]

What I do is use one of the gift cards. I can put a little each month on it so by the time trip is here have enough on it for the food and extras, without a big credit card bill at the end of the trip. I also use our Disney chase card to put the money on the gift card so I still get my points too. That way I dont have to carry a bunch of cash or pay extra fees for certain reloadable visa cards. Then the balance just gives me a head start for my next vacation.

[TexansInNY]

KTTW. Ran it up pretty good today...Wishes going right now. Yeah!

[LVT]

We use the KTTW card. THe statements are itemized so you can make up your own spreadsheets if you wish.