For you that used the dining plan,

[Lovemy3babes]

how much did you end up paying out of pocket for snacks or meals that weren't covered, etc? Thank you!

 

[angel's momma]

We found that we had plenty sharing CS meals (we're not light eaters), so we didn't have any OOP except for getting a Kaki Gori because we wanted to try it.

 

[Lovemy3babes]

How did you "cover" the third meal I guess is what I mean? I know you get both a CS and TS per day. If you use those for say breakfast and lunch, what did you do for supper? Maybe shared a CS for lunch and then shared again for supper? Sorry if I'm sounding dumb, the dining plan is a little bit intimidating for me right now!

 

[budbeerlady]

We didnt buy any food O.P. We only had to pay for our drinks. We shared a breakfast, shared a lunch, had a snack (hardly ever, took 12 mickey krispies home) and then each ate our T.S. It was more than enough food!!!!! But next time I might use some cash for some world showcase type treats but still I dont think it would be more than $50 for the trip and maybe $50 for drinks.

 

[tink606]

I wanted to ask this question in case someone out there knew this info. My DH2B and me are going on our honeymoon in Nov. and were using the dining package for the first time. Were both on the premium package which includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the both for us. What I wanted to know is if anyone who has had this package before, knows how many credits you get in total for the both of us to use for 8 days and 7 nights?

 

[angel's momma]

We didn't even pay for drinks, we used a few snack credits for them here & there.

We occasionally used a snack credit for a frozen treat, but we too brought home quite a few krispies.

We're a family of 3. DH doesn't care much for breakfast foods. Usually he would use his CS to get a sandwich or wrap & fruit bowl from the grab & go section the night before & put it in the cooler. Then we used DD's CS for breakfast (which included a dessert at the time, so we usually got another fruit bowl). We'd all share, and usually had leftover fruit to eat at night.

We shared my CS for lunch.

We used our TS for dinner.

Worked very well for us, but wouldn't work for everyone.

 

[angel's momma]

I wanted to ask this question in case someone out there knew this info. My DH2B and me are going on our honeymoon in Nov. and were using the dining package for the first time. Were both on the premium package which includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the both for us. What I wanted to know is if anyone who has had this package before, knows how many credits you get in total for the both of us to use for 8 days and 7 nights?

You'll probably get more responses if you post this as a seperate thread.

 

[Matt'sMom]

We were in WDW during the F&W Fest last fall, had the special offer 'free' dining plan, and never paid for any meals or snacks out of pocket... aside from some candy and such purchased in retail shops such as Goofy's Candy Company (and we used a Disney Visa Rewards Card for those, so they were actually 'free' also). Even the F&W Fest booths accepted the plan's snack credits for their food samples.

There was just so much food--in huge portions--on the plan that we couldn't possibly eat it all. Split/shared our cs credits for breakfasts... and sometimes lunch, sometimes dinner. Ended up hitting the bakery at MK on our last morning before departure, and getting about 12 pasteries and 6 bottled drinks to enjoy on the trip home (you get two bakery items plus a drink for one cs credit, or at least that's how they handled it last Fall). And we still had numerous cs and snack credits left over even after that, which we never did use. Scheduled all of our ts meals, so used up all of those credits (but really wished we hadn't--it was simply too much food!).

I suppose some people might actually be capable of using up all of their credits... but I read a lot of reports from others whose experiences were similar to our own. It's an incredible amount of food. And in retrospect, trying to fit in all of those table service meals took far more time away from our park touring than we would have preferred. If they ever offer free dining again, we might consider the offer, but would not feel compeled to try to use the plan to it's fullest if we did accept. It was sort of nice not to have to worry about paying for anything, and being able to order whatever we wanted off the menu without even considering the cost, though.

 

[tfiga]

What we did was buy donuts, pop tarts, cereal, milk, juice etc for breakfast and ate in the room which allowed us to get to the parks early.... It worked great for us... In regards to oop we spent about $50.00 for refillable cups at the hotel and about $20.00 on additional snacks.... that is all: $70.00 we were quite happy.

 

[Priorityonecb]

We are a family of four who eats light for breakfast and lunch, but like to have a nice substantial meal at dinner. We plan to share 2 CS's for breakfast between us (I plan to get dressed early, go down for breakfast and fill up resort mugs while everyone else gets ready and then eat in the room). We will split 2 CS's at lunch as well. With an entree and dessert...this will be more than enough food for us! Then we will use 4 TS's each evening for dinner. We plan to use our snack credits for water, icecreams and fruit.

We do know we will pay out of pocket for a few candies that we *love and must have that are not on the plan! I am thinking about $20 out of pocket for our entire 7 day stay!

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

How did you "cover" the third meal I guess is what I mean? I know you get both a CS and TS per day. If you use those for say breakfast and lunch, what did you do for supper? Maybe shared a CS for lunch and then shared again for supper? Sorry if I'm sounding dumb, the dining plan is a little bit intimidating for me right now!

We found it was so much food that we'd eat a snack early if we needed to, eat lunch about 11, then dinner at dinner time. We paid out of pocket for bananas. They were real cheap so they weren't worth using a snack credit.

 

[Pedler]

Here is what we did last year for a family of 4. Myself, Wife, and Sons ages 8 & 6. This is from a post I did after the trip.

I hesitate to post this but I thought some families would be interested in how we used the dinning plan on our 7 night stay at WL at the end of August.

The short version is:

We ate at the following Table Service Places:

Alfredo's
CP for breakfast
CRT for Dinner
H & V Dinner Fantasmic Package
Concourse Steakhouse
Artists Point
Boma
LTT (Dinner. Great way to end a trip)

For counter service we ate at:

Roaring Forks (1 CS day of arrival)
Roaring Forks (1-2 CS daily for Breakfast)
Pecos Bill
Pizzafari
Pizza Planet
Columbia Harbor House
American Pavilion at Epcot
Cosmic Rays

The only snack we got outside of the dinning plan was a funnel cake at Epcot.
Out of pocket we paid for the kids meals at Alfredo's and CRT. Those we used for dinner for DW & I at Artist Point.

How we did it.

We split counter service meals at all lunch places. We generally only got 2-3 and split them.

For Breakfast we would get 1 or 2 CS meals at Roaring Forks. The breakfast platter would include a large portion of scrambled eggs, bacon, tater tots (OK, they called them hash browns) and a donut for desert.

We got the refillable mugs so we mostly got the 24 ounce bottles of water as our drinks with meals. We always did this at breakfast. We also brought the single serving size of Crystal Lite to mix in the bottles and powdered Gator Aid and some empty Gator Aid bottles to mix for the kids. We generally mixed up a few of these each night and stored them in the refrigerator so they would be cold the next day.

All in for 7 nights on the dinning plan we paid aproximatley $50 for the 4 refillable mugs and about $35 for the two kids TS meals and the funnel cake and a extra drink or two at CS places.

We had more than enough to eat and drink. We kept well hydrated during the whole trip which during August was a big deal. We ended up no buying any alcohol primarily due to the heat and amount of walking we were doing. It just wasn't appealing. The same we extra snacks. The kids always had at one ice cream or something along those lines from a snack cart daily. Between that, desert at CS and desert at TS meals we had more than enough sweats for our tastes.

Any questions let me know.

 

[mikymouse]

We did the basic dinning plan for our family of 2 adults and 2 kids for our 5 night stay. We had more than enough to eat and had to use up snack credits on last day. Two meals a day plus snack was just right for us, although we snacked more than normal due to credits. I packed drinks from home and paid out of pocket for coffee and a few beers, plus our first night dinner due to the Castle Meal and friends recommding the Rainforest Cafe but could have easily done a CS Meal the first night to save the bucks.

ARRIVAL DAY - Out of Pocket for Rainforest Cafe due to saving TS for CRT

DAY ONE
TS Late Breakfast/Early Lunch at Crystal Palace 10:30AM (4 Credits)
Snack - Ice Cream (4 Snack Credits)
CS Late afternoon Mara for Kids (2 Credit)
TS Late Dinner at Chef Mickey 7:10PM (4 Credits)

DAY TWO
CS Early Breakfast at Mara - Kids Split (3 Credits)
TS Late Lunch/Early Dinner at Akerhus(Norway) at 1:20PM (4 Credits)
Snack - Ice Cream (4 Credits)
CS Late at Mara - Kids Split (3 Credits)

DAY THREE
CS Early Lunch 11AM at Pinch Haus (4 Credits)
TS Early Dinner at Bomas 5:40AM Audlts Only (2 Credits)
Out of Pocket for Kids at Child Care
Snack - Kids Ice Cream (2 Credits)

DAY FOUR
Snack Late Fruit Breakfast (4 Snack Credits)
TS Early Dinner at CRT at 4:45PM (6 Credits and OP for Childs Dinner)

DAY FIVE
CS Late Breakfast Mara (4 Credits)
CS To Go Lunch Mara (4 Credits)
Snack - Fruit Apples & Bananna to go (6 Credits)

 

[pooch]

Here is what we did last year for a family of 4. Myself, Wife, and Sons ages 8 & 6. This is from a post I did after the trip.

We are going end of Aug and staying at WL. It's DH, DD (21) DS (15) and me, on DDP. We will be eating at many of the restaurants you chose, too. May I ask a few questions please?

1. Did you find the breakfasts at RF to be adequate? We aren't big breakfast eaters but DH always has cereal and juice in the morning. DD will be happy (once we can get her up!) with a bagel or a muffin and DS & I can split an egg platter of some kind. Perhaps 1 CS platter and the rest OOP? This will give us 3 CS for lunch.

2. How did you like Alfredo's & H&V?

3. Opinions on your favorite CS meals?

Thanks for the help

Pooch

 

[Pedler]

We were also there at the end of August. Drink lots of water and take breaks!

As for Roaring Forks I don't know how it is now that they have remodeled it but I would say we found it adequate at best for CS Breakfast. The morning drill was for me to go down with the mugs and get drinks and typically the breakfast platter with eggs. Back then they would let you get a donut for a desert with breakfast. We would then pay OP for something else like a muffin. I would also get a water as the drink with the meal. We found we really didn't want much for breakfast after eating the full meals for dinner each day. I think the first day we used 2 CS meals for breakfast and after that it was just one.

As for Alfredo's we liked it. It's the third time that I have been there and I have liked it each time but you will find a wide variety of opinions here at the DIS. H & V was ok at best. We went there for the Fantasmic Package and if it wasn't for that it wouldn't have been worth it. Don't get me wrong the food was ok it just that there are better places in WDW. Our second choice was going to be Mama Melrose but we had already eaten at Alfredo's.

I don't know if I can provide much usefull info on CS places. We were limited by the ever changing tastes of our kids. Kids CS meals at the World are nothing to write home about. Probably our two favorite places in the Magic Kingdom were Pecos Bills and the Columbia Harbor House. The nice thing about the Columbia Harbor House was eating upstairs where it was quite.

In MGM we ate at Pizza Planet. It was good but crowded. At AK we ate at Pizzafari and that was good. AK actually looked to have some really good CS places but it just didn't work out for us.

Lastly Epcot looked to have some good places but as you will find the heat at lunch time is intense. We ended up at the American Pavilion in WS primarly because it was the only CS place in the WS we could find with AC.

One last thought if you get a Mickey bar be prepared to eat it quickly. In the August heat those things melt fast.

All in though the end of August is a good time to go. Even though it is less crowded there are times when the lines can be long. We used TGM and only once waited more than 5 minutes in line the whole week. One day at MK we did around 28 rides and that included taking a few hour break in the afternoon.

We are going end of Aug and staying at WL. It's DH, DD (21) DS (15) and me, on DDP. We will be eating at many of the restaurants you chose, too. May I ask a few questions please?

1. Did you find the breakfasts at RF to be adequate? We aren't big breakfast eaters but DH always has cereal and juice in the morning. DD will be happy (once we can get her up!) with a bagel or a muffin and DS & I can split an egg platter of some kind. Perhaps 1 CS platter and the rest OOP? This will give us 3 CS for lunch.

2. How did you like Alfredo's & H&V?

3. Opinions on your favorite CS meals?

Thanks for the help

Pooch

 

[pooch]

we, too are doing H&V as the Fantasmic package. Not doing Mama Melrose's because of Alfredo's (spooky how similar, huh?) and did Brown Derby last trip so I can't see using 2 Ts for it.

Much thanks for the quick reply. If you have any other late Aug suggestions or advice ( or WL advice) please PM me!!

Pooch

 

[minniemousefan]

We used the DDP last week and had $0 OOP. We took our own breakfast foods as someone else here mentioned. We used every single one of our snacks, ts and cs! It was a ton of food, so we never wanted for anything.

 

[disneyjunkie]

My son and I used the dining plan last April. (He was 13 at the time) I ended up paying $75.00-$100.00 OOP.

The main thing I paid cash for were snacks. The snacks included with the dining plan are very limited. I paid OOP for cookies, fudge, funnel cakes, caramel apples, candy apples, school bread, cheesecake, pretzels, and ice cream. One night we had dinner at Cape May Cafe. The plan covered the meal, but we wanted a side order of crab legs, so I had to pay cash for those.

I also paid cash for a breakfast that we shared from Electric Umbrella. They would not allow me get the fruit bowl with breakfast; (this was before the official change). I felt it was better to pay cash (@ $7.00 for that meal rather than waste a CS credit.

We will be using the plan again during our 4th of July trip. In addition to the plan, I’m added $10.00 per pay for the extra snacks that we love.

 

[renessa]

We spent around $20 for dole whips...not on the plan..also some candy...a few adult drinks...soft serve ice cream at MGM (already in line and decided to pay$...not find another ice cream place)..I'd guess under $50 total for the week!!!

 

[daisyduck123]

Less than $5.00.

We were on the Dining Plan for 8 days in January...the only time we got something not on the plan was when DS7 wanted an ice cream at EPCOT (I think) that was not on the plan.

Otherwise, we did not stray from the plan....we had so many snack credits to use up on our last day.