the rest of my "no dining plan" trip results

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

Hi All,

So we did it, a week at Disney without the dining plan. As you may remember from the previous thread, the first day was a great success - we ate well AND were well under the dining plan cost.

The rest of the week proved to be the same. We ate where we wanted, ordered what we wanted and the grand total spent on food for the two of us, for 8 Disney days was $697.86. The DDP would have cost us $942.62, so a great savings!

The only day we went "over" the DDP cost was our Animal Kingdom day. Lunch at Tusker House (the ROL package) was ridiculous! $110 for a buffet lunch ... just crazy! That, and a QS dinner put us over the DDP for the day, but that was the only day.

So, I'm still a "free" DDP girl, but won't be paying for it again. I think the only way you do break even/save a bit is if you're doing A LOT of in the park character meals.

Hope this helps someone else be brave and take the no DDP plunge!

[#1donaldfan]

That's us now ... we will not do the DDP unless it's free ... but really free is not really free .... I think I said free too many times ... hahhaa

[CynBeth]

We have never done the DP. Because of food allergies in my family we have to eat pretty much all 3 meals at TS. I buy gift cards with my Disney Visa so I earn rewards points as well.

[Arielfan98]

It works out for us some trips. Like if we're doing a budget trip, we'll skip the dining plan and just do 1 TS, then the rest share QS meals. Other times, it wouldn't work because we are foodies and LOVE expensive sit down places like Cali Grill.

[1DisneyNut]

I have been telling people for years the dining plan was over priced. The only way to break even is if you eat enough to feed a horse every single day. We got the "free dining plan" once and never ate it all and didn't use hardly any of the snack credits. I just don't see how somebody can eat all of that every day. We never come even close to spending as much on food as what the dining plan costs.

[magicofdisney]

We only paid for the plan once. All the other times we've used it, we did "free" dining. This will be my first year, in about 9, that we're not planning a trip with dining. After reading your posts, I'm excited to try something different. Thank you!

[VWL Mom]

Other times, it wouldn't work because we are foodies and LOVE expensive sit down places like Cali Grill.

We do signature dining quite a bit and have priced it out. Paying OOP normally comes out ahead for us because we always do salad/appetizer and rarely do dessert.