Food Costs - How Much Did You Spend on Your Last Visit?

[CodeGoddess]

We are trying to do the math to decide if the DDP is for us since we want to a nice sit down meal each night and a couple of those be signature restaurants.

Has anyone added up what it cost them for food on their last trip? I'm curious how it compares to the DDP pricing and if you saved money.

Also for those that did the DDP, how much did you end up spending in gratuity?

 

[SouthJersey]

We are trying to do the math to decide if the DDP is for us since we want to a nice sit down meal each night and a couple of those be signature restaurants.

Has anyone added up what it cost them for food on their last trip? I'm curious how it compares to the DDP pricing and if you saved money.

Do you mean the standard dining plan or the deluxe dining plan?
You won't be able to have a sit down each night AND signatures on others if you're on the standard, as you'll be required to pull points from your other nights for the 2 point signatures.

For us it came to (for two people):

$155 Average for 3-courses @ a 2TS Signature evening dinner
$75 Average for 3-courses @ a 1TS lunch location.
$20 Average daily in snacks in the parks.
$10 equivalent in resort soft-drinks
$260 Daily Average OOP

We always go during free dining and do the deluxe dining plan, because it actually saves us substantially since with or without the free dining, we would do a sit down lunch and a signature dinner each evening. Without the plan, we would split an app, but everything else the same. That's not including alcohol.

It's also possible to dine for far, far cheaper and enjoy the parks. Drinking water, visiting counter-services for lunch and splitting 1 app 1 dessert at a signature, would yield a much lower daily total, even lower if a 1TS dinner.

 

[CodeGoddess]

Do you mean the standard dining plan or the deluxe dining plan?
You won't be able to have a sit down each night AND signatures on others if you're on the standard, as you'll be required to pull points from your other nights for the 2 point signatures.

I think we are looking at the standard plan as we will have a couple night we will be eating off property (universal, ect) or we will just pay oop for the difference of the couple meals.

 

[goofyintoronto]

On our trip two years ago, the two of us didnt have the DP and ended up spending slightly less than what the DP would've cost us if we paid. Only slightly. We were there for a week (6 nights). We ate at Cali Grill, Via Napoli, TRex, Ragland Road etc for example. Hope this helps. (btw im comparing it to the standard DP, the one with 1 TS credit per day)

 

[Alesia]

What other people spent won't really help you much - what you'll spend will be totally different.

You can look at all the menus here: http://allears.net/dining/menu

This will help you determine if one of the dining plans will work for you: http://www.distripplanner.com/

 

[CodeGoddess]

What other people spent won't really help you much - what you'll spend will be totally different.

You can look at all the menus here: http://allears.net/dining/menu

This will help you determine if one of the dining plans will work for you: http://www.distripplanner.com/

Actually what I am looking for is an generic average so the more info from others the better. We have a group going so it's going to be all over the board anyway so I'm trying to put together numbers to help everyone understand what the options are.

 

[CodeGoddess]

On our trip two years ago, the two of us didnt have the DP and ended up spending slightly less than what the DP would've cost us if we paid. Only slightly. We were there for a week (6 nights). We ate at Cali Grill, Via Napoli, TRex, Ragland Road etc for example. Hope this helps. (btw im comparing it to the standard DP, the one with 1 TS credit per day)

Yes that is super helpful!! Did you guys find that you feel that you missed out or held back because you were not on the plan? Or maybe the opposite that you felt more freedom because you were not confined to the plan?

 

[SouthJersey]

Yes that is super helpful!! Did you guys find that you feel that you missed out or held back because you were not on the plan? Or maybe the opposite that you felt more freedom because you were not confined to the plan?

Those who oppose the plan will cite "too much food" and "no freedom" while those who love the plan will say the opposite.
Since you can cancel ADR's the day before without penalty, you should easily be able to know if you'll have time or be cutting it close based off your day prior, so freedom shouldn't be an issue. We've never felt rushed or out of time by being on the dining plan and we do three ADR's a day.

 

[CodeGoddess]

Do you mean the standard dining plan or the deluxe dining plan?
You won't be able to have a sit down each night AND signatures on others if you're on the standard, as you'll be required to pull points from your other nights for the 2 point signatures.

For us it came to (for two people):

$155 Average for 3-courses @ a 2TS Signature evening dinner
$75 Average for 3-courses @ a 1TS lunch location.
$20 Average daily in snacks in the parks.
$10 equivalent in resort soft-drinks
$260 Daily Average OOP

We always go during free dining and do the deluxe dining plan, because it actually saves us substantially since with or without the free dining, we would do a sit down lunch and a signature dinner each evening. Without the plan, we would split an app, but everything else the same. That's not including alcohol.

It's also possible to dine for far, far cheaper and enjoy the parks. Drinking water, visiting counter-services for lunch and splitting 1 app 1 dessert at a signature, would yield a much lower daily total, even lower if a 1TS dinner.

Thank you! This is so helpful. I didn't think about calculating in splitting dessert and apps vs the one person. Now I wish we were going during the fall when free dining happens.

 

[Brenda Kim]

Your best bet is to look at the menus right here on the Dis website for the signature restaurants as the prices can vary widely. Counter service is all around $8-15 per item. It also depends if you like to get snacks through out the day or how much you tend to eat. The items served at the CS are quite large and most of the time my brother and I share a meal.

Our last trip together we spent $500.00 on a three day trip, however we did spend one day at Epcot's food and wine festival and spent $300.00 there, a lot of that was alcohol though. I know the exact amount because I pre-loaded a Disney gift card and used that for our meals therefore we did not overspend at Food and Wine, which we did the last day. The $125 for the both of us day one and two of the trip, we did CS for lunch and CS for one dinner and TS for one dinner. We shared one lunch both days, but we also bought snacks. We chose to do small snacks through out the day over a larger lunch. Which at the time was an unavailable option. The other $75.00 was for alcohol and souvenirs.

Most of the money went for the snacks, I have to have a Chocolate Caramel covered Apple every morning for breakfast at $9.99 and he has to get his Starbucks several times through out the day.

It truly depends upon how much you eat typically and what you eat. For most people the Dining Plan does not make sense unless it is free or discounted as it is too much food and every time we used it we always had credits left over. However to have the food pre-paid and not an extra expense is worth it for my brother, who hates the credit card bills after the vacation. Which is why I compromised and used the Disney gift card.

 

[SouthJersey]

Thank you! This is so helpful. I didn't think about calculating in splitting dessert and apps vs the one person. Now I wish we were going during the fall when free dining happens.

I just check the allear's or wdwinfo menu's for where we're going and literally just add it up

 

[goofyintoronto]

Yes that is super helpful!! Did you guys find that you feel that you missed out or held back because you were not on the plan? Or maybe the opposite that you felt more freedom because you were not confined to the plan?

Honestly, I felt I had more freedom without the DP. There was no pressure to have a certain number ADRs, no pressure to use up all of my credits, etc. We love our desserts but we dont really need to order it with EVERY meal. So it worked out well without the DP. And I normally drink water with dinner, not pop. Again, worked out well in that case. I really liked it without the DP.

Keep in mind thou, when there's a free dining promotion going on, I take full advantage and jump on it! I just cant resist! Its a much better value than a room discount because we normally stay value/moderate.

The DP makes sense for us cause we prefer desserts over appetizers. So i do prefer it (if its free). But I will not pay for the DP....i'll only take it if its free. Hope this helps.

 

[lilclerk]

We had the dining plan on free dining last year for 2 weeks, 2 adults, no alcohol. I don't think we got any extras, like appetizers... Actually we may have spent a few extra dollars at Via Napoli to add toppings to the pizzas we got.

We spent about $185 on gratuities and extras, I just went through my resort charging receipt. We always tipped the 20% amount on the bill, except in a couple of places we gave more (Rose & Crown specifically, they were super helpful.) And we did Hoop Dee Doo, so that's 2 TS credits where we didn't need to pay gratuity. We also tend to go to some of the cheaper places, like Sci Fi and 50s. T-Rex was by far the most expensive meal we had, aside from Hoop.

If this helps, when we got home, I also added up the receipts of our TS and QS meals to see what they would have been if we'd paid out of pocket. We definitely ordered more than we would have if we weren't on the DDP, so out of pocket, we would have spent much less. No idea what we spent on snacks.

Quick service: $418.82 (we had a few credits leftover too)
Table service: $1106.14 (not including gratuities)

I'm done rambling

 

[L&Lfan]

I'd guesstimate around $2500 for two adults on an eight day visit.

 

[CodeGoddess]

We had the dining plan on free dining last year for 2 weeks, 2 adults, no alcohol. I don't think we got any extras, like appetizers... Actually we may have spent a few extra dollars at Via Napoli to add toppings to the pizzas we got.

We spent about $185 on gratuities and extras, I just went through my resort charging receipt. We always tipped the 20% amount on the bill, except in a couple of places we gave more (Rose & Crown specifically, they were super helpful.) And we did Hoop Dee Doo, so that's 2 TS credits where we didn't need to pay gratuity. We also tend to go to some of the cheaper places, like Sci Fi and 50s. T-Rex was by far the most expensive meal we had, aside from Hoop.

If this helps, when we got home, I also added up the receipts of our TS and QS meals to see what they would have been if we'd paid out of pocket. We definitely ordered more than we would have if we weren't on the DDP, so out of pocket, we would have spent much less. No idea what we spent on snacks.

Quick service: $418.82 (we had a few credits leftover too)
Table service: $1106.14 (not including gratuities)

I'm done rambling

No need to stop rambling this is the EXACT info I was looking for. Our group has a wide variety of tastes (and budgets!) so seeing ranges and QS vs TS costs help.

 

[denise5374]

Just got back , was in WDW from 6/20 to 6/27. We were 5 adults (but my DD22 sometimes orders off the Kids menu as did I for QS lunches) Generally we did not have alcoholic beverages with meals.

We ate at The Boathouse, Kona Cafe(breakfast), Cape May Cafe, Coral Reef, Crystal Palace(Breakfast), Ohana, Trattorio al Forno, California Grill, Cinderellas Royal Table (breakfast for 3), Be Our Guest and San Angel inn(lunch).

Our total food costs were about $2700 for the 7 days.

We were not on the DDP.

 

[FTM22]

I am one who gets stressed by reading prices and adding up numbers on vacation. Therefore, we go for the free dining and it eliminates one hassle. I don't have nearly the issue with tipping and carry cash for that. I also plan for any alcohol, F&W, and other extras - though I do use DDP snack credits at F&W since I enjoy that food more than a bottle of water or a Mickey Bar.

So I think it depends on your preference. I don't feel obliged to eat too much, though I do remind our teens to get enough to eat at the DDP meals so we/they aren't shelling extra money unnecessarily.

 

[mickeygirl78]

We always go for two weeks during free dining so I don't really pay a lot of attention to the costs, but I do plan on $7 per TS for gratuity per adult (10+). There are 7 in our party, so they always add the 18%. Some places (Biergarten Lunch, CP Breakfast) are a little less, some others a little more, but I've found that $7/adult/TS (no 2 TS restaurants) to work perfect. The kids (3-9) I budget $3/kid/TS.

 

[hsmamato2]

op I think based on what you want you may save a bit paying for the plan.... if you plan to use 2 ts and pay oop for some places, just pick the least expensive place to pay oop,and use your credits at the pricier place. I am not a fan of ddp in general, b/c I don't want that many TS meals in a week, but if you truly intend to do dinner at a TS nightly then it may make sense. An example,my dsis went one year with her dh, they were on a premium dining plan, she got sick for a couple of days and couldn't eat,that was a waste of money they couldn't get back. If they had been oop, they could have changed it up without losing those prepaid meals.(that said, her dh loves the ddp,so go figure) I like to decide where I want to eat and what,and read the all ears site to get an idea of what we will likely spend based on our preferences.

 

[sharonabe]

If it helps any at all, an adult TS credit on the regular plan is "worth" about $38, a QS credit $18, and a snack is $5. When you use credits to do a 2TS meal, it is very difficult to "spend" that $76 on just an entree, dessert, and drink.

As for tips, if you're group is larger than 6, you'll automatically be charged an 18%. If you go with the DDP and everyone orders all the parts of the plan, then your tip will probably be more than if you paid OOP just because most people wouldn't order all those desserts.

The groups that consistently save money with the plan have at least 2 children in the mix and like to do character buffets. The price of the kid's buffet is right at the price for the whole day for the kids.