Tips for Not using Dining Plan

[AgentP]

I'm trying to figure out whether or not I should buy the dining plan for my next trip. I have been looking at menus and prices and the cost of food is incredible. We have a family of 4, our kids are ages 5 and 3. How do you do disney without purchasing the dining plan and still come out ahead? Any secrets for beating the dining plan?

[Strmchsr]

If you will regularly eat ALL the food on the DDP, then that is pretty much your best option. The way we come out ahead is we never order drinks (we prefer water) and usually share a dessert. We also don't always eat at the most expensive locations, though we do occasionally. Just following these tips we save a good bit on meals. The Tables in Wonderland card for AP holders also helps a lot.

[tennantsrwe]

For starters you need to figure out what kind of meals you plan on eating. For us we like to do a table service for dinner, mostly character dinners, so the DP actually is a better deal. That being said some ways to save without the plan are 1)bringing breakfast items. If you don't have a fridge anything that won't spoil works well. We usually take poptarts, granola bars, cereal bars, etc. If you do need milk you can pick some up in the food court at your resort for a reasonable price. 2) Pack your own snacks and water. Disney allows you to bring in your own food and drinks, they even allow certain size coolers I think. You can save a lot of $ by not buying a snack everytime a little one is hungry. Same with water, bring your own bottle and refil it at the fountains. It helps to bring the Crystal Lite style flavor packets. That way you don't feel like you're only having water all day. You can also bring your own sandwiches and have a picnic lunch. 3) If you do buy snacks in the park look for items that can be split. Alot of times people will buy a large popcorn and share. There are lots of splittable options avaliable. Some of the snack carts even offer 'meal' type snacks. For us one of the large baked potatoes from Frontier Land is plenty big enough for a lunch portion. They're only around $4 and that is def. cheap for Disney eats!! 4) Find meals you can split at counter service locations. Places like Cosmic Rays offer 1/2 a Rotisserie Chicken w/ sides that is plenty big enough to feed more than one person. With your kids being little I'm sure they don't each much so you could probably stretch that meal pretty far. You can split any meal really, even ask for extra buns, etc when you're ordering. There is a charge but it's nominal compared to getting a whole other meal. I've seem ppl order a Double Cheeseburger meal w/ an extra bun...then take one patty off and make a whole other burger. They share the fries and the drink and get away with feeding 2 people for under $10. Not too bad! =) Alot of TS restaurants don't have a problem with people splitting meals, some will charge, but others wont. Obviously if it's a buffet sharing isn't allowed. 5) Character meals can add up quickly, to save $ do them for either breakfast or lunch. Usually the lunch menus are the same as dinner but cost less. This is also true at most all table service locations, lunch will be just as good as dinner...but cheaper. Hope these help!!!

[cajunprincess]

Share! The meals have such big portions that you can almost always share. My sis-in-law and I even shared burgers and fries. It is MORE than enough food. This helps cut wayyy down on food costs!

[Scar]

When in doubt... do without.

Chris summed it up. I have no desire to eat 1 CS and 1 TS every day. It's an easy decision for me. If your family wants to eat a TS every day, then it is probably a better deal.

[minnie-mouse]

We don't usually do the dining plan, and we have two children ages 5 and 8. We always stop at super market/Walmart when we get to Orlando and stock up on snack bags and bottled water. We take these snacks to the park with us and have plenty in our rooms for the evening as well. We only do counter service for breakfast and most often our kids only want cereal (which we pre-purchase a box of at market as well). We usually do counter service for lunch and then for dinner it is often counter service and a few character meals. We do not like all the sit down lunches, appetizers, and desserts that the meal plan offers, so we think it is a waste for money.

[luvdiznee]

When it is just me and DD14, as on our trip a couple weeks ago, we don't do the DP. This is because DD weighing about 75 pounds does not eat adult portions.

We did a TS for lunch, which saved a few dollars, but then we really only wanted a QS or snack later in the day. The portions even for QS's are decent, so that can help.

[Tink#64]

Most every trip, I re-evaluate, and it's always less expensive for us NOT to do the dining plan! I book room only & receive the AAA discount, and WDW has told me that I can't purchase the dining plan & receive that discount, so after looking at the menu's & deciding on restaurants, we are better off without DDP.

We fall into the category of 'Not Big Eaters", we always eat breakfast in the room & tote snacks & water bottles. That said, we do purchase at least one snack a day, shared or not, and we do more CS meals than TS. This year we did all CS meals & it was fantastic! We didn't have to be anywhere at a certain time ( except park opening of course!). We always purchase the refillable mugs & usually get our dinner at our food court & of course then we're not buying drinks! The mugs pay for themselves after just a few days! WDW portions are very generous & we share alot rather than tossing uneaten meals in the trash, add in some fruit, salad or dessert to share & no one leaves the table hungry!

I add up our receipts when we get home & I must say, we always come in under budget on food! But we usually make up for that somewhere else, like sounvenears!

[MyDisneyworld]

Like Tink#64 we do the math to see which way would work better for us each trip and also add up all the receipts at the end of the trip. Every year we end up not getting the plan and have saved a bunch. We also are a family of 4 and normally get 2 adult meals and split it, if anyone is still hungry then we may get a 3rd meal. This way we are not stuffed all day and can enjoy having yummy snacks throughout the day. We have used the dinning plan before and seemed to always waste lots of the food and felt so stuffed after we didn't want to do anything. Enjoy your trip.

[TinkerbellT421]

DBF and I our first trip did without the DDP. Second trip we decided to try it, we did, it was ok, a little bit of a hassel in our opinion when it came to which restaurants excepted, etc. So the second time we used it we decided to save all the receipts (mind you we do not vacation with children so our opinion may be sqewed).
Upon arriving home we did a lot of calculating. And the money we found we "saved" really wasn't savings at all if you took out the deserts at every meal. Yes they advertise as you save "30%" or whatever the figure is they claim to save. Yes you are saving that if you are actually eating EVERYTHING the DDP allows for, 1 ts, 1 cs, 1 desert, daily snack credits, etc. But we found that if you took out the worth of daily snack credits, deserts the money you were saving was based on including those. So in my personal opinion if you will not be using daily snack credits per each of you every day, and you rather not have desert with every meal per person I would go without. What we figure is we save our money in cash as if we are going to purchase the DDP. So for example if for two of us our length of stay would be a $800.00 ddp. We save $800.00 in cash. Then we pay for cash each meal....Every year we come home with money and then that extra cash we come home with goes into next years vacation fund. Also, we found by the time you eat a cs w/ desert, a ts w/ desert, etc., we were so uncomfortable full with food that we never used the snack credits, then at the end of the trip we would be scrambling in the gift shops buying junk food to take home to not waste the snack credits, and every year we came home with an extra cs each.

Personally, for us, the way we vacation, we find it costs less to prepare for the worst and not use DDP but save as much money as if we were. It works for us, might not work for everyone based on their eating habits, vacation styles, food choices, etc.

BUT keep in mind, we also do not starve, if anything, far from it! Not being on the DDP we still are able to eat at such places O'Hana's, LeCellier, etc. So like I saw someone else suggest, take a look at the menu's. Estimate pricing averages per person for each restaurant with just a meal and a drink per person, exclude daily snacks and deserts at every meal and then price what it would cost for all of you to use the DDP. See which one is more cost effective. Also, keep in mind, DDP does not include tip so you still have to have money on hand for tipping.

[lovin'fl]

Another tip is to book mostly menu places, not buffet or family style as those charges are now $30-40. If you get a menu, you may not want the most expensive entre and you may not want a dessert...so it can work out to be well under $30.

[BrerGnat]

If money is a big factor, just plan on mostly doing Counter Service/Quick Service meals. Throw in one or two sit down Table service meals, and then go for lunch instead of dinner (cheaper prices at lunch!), share entrees, do without sodas, appetizers, and desserts, etc.

My family of four doesn't spend a lot of money on food at WDW. We are more "snackers", with maybe one big meal per day. For breakfast, we are fine with cereal or toast and coffee. We pack snacks for our kids (pretzels, goldfish, applesauce pouches, etc.) and we don't buy too many treats. We let the kids have one treat per day, usually an ice cream or something like that. We never do character meals/buffets...just WAY too expensive considering how little our kids eat (they are 7 and 5).

Most of the meals at WDW are large enough to share. Also, instead of getting kids meals, for example, order the kids an adult CS meal to share and buy them each a milk or juice. This will save you money over ordering each child a kid's meal.

Truly, you can come out WAY ahead without using the dining plan. Just eat reasonably, pack some snacks from home, and you'll be fine.

[LVT]

We do not do it. We share 2 breakfasts 4 ways and get a nice Table service around 4-6 pm.
We all still ate way too much for less than the price of the DPP. We drink water or an occasional beer. Pop at restaurants is way too much. We buy the refillable mugs for the occasional soda pop treat.
We With the new ADR rules we may not be eating on property as much anyway.

[wdwaggie]

So many opinions, so little time...I tried the pack the snacks things once and always seemed like a pack mule for our family of four, then I switched to the Dining Plan and then after fretting about QS and TS balances, said to heck with it and went full blown Deluxe Dining Plan and didn't think twice about what I ordered, how much it cost, how much we ate or didn't eat. To us, it was like food insurance, we paid the premium, ate like royalty and didn't feel guilty if we didn't eat dessert or the fact that we had 2 leftover meals at the end of the trip. For us it was the convienence. Afterall, you are paying thousands for a once every three-four years dream vacation, what's a couple hundred dollars to have a stress-free, no argument over menu prices, eat it or not trip. We tried several signature restaurants and even hit some hidden gem snack places and tried new menu items all becuase we didn't seem to always be looking at costs and figuring out how to split a Dole Whip or other snack 4 ways. Again, just one posters opinion.

[joonyer]

You pay so much less for the room when you don't use free dining, that we come out ahead. We don't eat that many table service meals to begin with, and often skip desserts. DW & I will usually split a meal for lunch. we also take brekfast snacks to eat in our room or on the way to the parks. Our family of four can has spent about $500 LESS on a week-long trip when we don't use the Dining plan, even when it's free. Unless your family really eats a LOT of food, including TS meals every day, that you would pay OOP for anyway, then Disney is making money off you when you sign up for a free dining package. It's really not free at all, and DIsney is making a bundle off it.

[T-Belle]

Share! The meals have such big portions that you can almost always share. My sis-in-law and I even shared burgers and fries. It is MORE than enough food. This helps cut wayyy down on food costs!

Totally agree. My 27 yr old DD and I did this on our last trip. Portions are huge. We even split the adult grilled cheese sandwich and fries at Captain Cooks. We never went hungry.

[Jared]

If your family wants to eat a TS every day, then it is probably a better deal.

Not necessarily! Anyone who has been reading these forums for a while know my feeling about the dining plan, and maybe I'm so jaded at this point that I am refusing to acknowledge its benefits, but my group does eat a table-service dinner every day -- and we still come out behind!

The dining plan forces you to commit to an unbelievable amount of food, and I doubt many families would consume that much if they had not paid for it up front. We never order soft drinks at both lunch and dinner, and we certainly would never order individual desserts. At a table-service restaurant our party of five may share one or two desserts.

Add to the fact that we generally prefer appetizers to desserts, and there's no way the plan makes sense. The only justification I can see for it is if you want to try multiple signature experience and you massage the numbers correctly. But even that may be a stretch.

[FaithTrustPixieDust]

The original poster has kids who are 3 and 5. While probably not big eaters, if they love character meals then the dining plan might make sense. When my kids were that age, we enjoyed the dining plan by booking a character meal almost every single day. Often the cost of 1 character meal for the family could rival the cost of the dining plan for one day. (This was a few years ago . . . have not done the math this year.)

We would use the counter service credits to split some large meals among us, which stretched out the CS credits to cover breakfasts as well. We don't need a huge breakfast, but we do need something to get us rolling!

[alaMode]

On our first trip, we did participate in the first incarnation of the DDP. It was WAY too much food for us and we ended up with 20 snack credits at the end of our trip!!
By our second trip, we realized room only rates are a much better deal for us! We eat a light breakfast in our (typically) discounted room, share CS meals (Cosmic Rays in MK & FlameTree BBQ in AK are two of our faves), and enjoy a TS meal every other day or so. Our DS is a very light eater, but he still enjoys eating what we eat-NOT the kids meals-they are not all that appetizing. We hardly ever think of snacking in the parks-we're usually too busy with everything else that's going on!
The DDP felt like a food treadmill-I never again want to feel obligated to stuff myself with food to get my "money's worth"!