Dining Off Plan

[canadiandisneynut]

Hi there! This is the first year we are not purchasing a dining plan. We are staying in a 1 bed villa and always do breakfast in the room.
Does any one know of any coupons or programs available for Disney Springs restaurants? We will not have a car so plan to stay on site for dining.

Thanks!

 

[davper]

I have no discounts for you but that full kitchen gives you a lot of flexibility for cooking in room. Just get a grocery deliver and plan on quick easy meals.

 

[Marionnette]

Hi there! This is the first year we are not purchasing a dining plan. We are staying in a 1 bed villa and always do breakfast in the room.
Does any one know of any coupons or programs available for Disney Springs restaurants? We will not have a car so plan to stay on site for dining.

Thanks!

Earl of Sandwich offers some deals to their Loyalty Rewards members on and off during the year.

Rainforest and T-Rex are Landry's restaurants and they participate in the Landry's Select Club. ($25 to join, $25 credit placed on your account, $25 credit annually which is good during your birthday month).

The 2018 Birnbaum WDW Guide has a number of coupons which are good for some of the DTD restaurants.

I also recommend using InstaCart to order groceries for your villa. They shop at Publix and the prices are pretty reasonable compared to getting a cab or Uber/Lyft ride to and from a grocery store.

 

[Miffy]

If someone in your party has an AP, there are many restaurants in WDW and DS that have AP discounts.

I just returned from a week-long stay at WDW with my sister. Neither of us had the dining plan. Between us, we often spent less per day than the even the QS dining plan would've cost the two of us even though we had 1 TS meal almost every day, and we always spent far less per day, including the day we ate at TH, than the regular dining plan would have cost. We ate all our meals on WDW property

So, OP, unless you're attending a ton of character meals or eat 3+ meals a day at TS restaurants or have someone in your party who needs a great deal of food, it's likely that you're going to spend less without the dining plan than you did with it.

 

[alyssa810]

We use Disney gift cards to pay for all our dining - we get a lot at Target with the red card for 5% off, and I also use cashback credit cards to earn rewards to buy gift cards. For example, one of my cards is doing 5% cashback from grocery stores. For our last trip I bought $1000 in Disney gift cards then earned an extra $50 in cashback rewards (which goes into the Disney fund). We also have bought discounted gift cards at BJs.com (you don't need to be a member). You would just need to make sure you can use the gift cards at the places you want to eat.

The Landry's club is definitely worth it, it's saved us time and money over several trips! The Entertainment book used to have earl of sandwich in there; they do a AAA/CAA discount too.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

We don't typically do the dining plan (unless it's free) and routinely spend less money than even the QS would've cost. We like to buy a Disney gift card each time we get paid (we each get paid twice a month, so four $25 gift cards per month). Doesn't seem like much, but if you do that for 6 months, you've got $600 in GCs. Then we use those to buy lunch and dinner (we don't usually eat breakfast). Plus, this last time I brought a refillable water bottle that had a filter (paid $14ish for it at Walmart). Never had to buy bottled water the entire trip. Always filled at the resort before we left in the morning, fill again before we left in the afternoon and filled it each time coming back to the resort. Never drank so much water in my life. But I didn't pay for any of it (outside of the 1 time fee to buy the bottle).