Just Put the Money Down!--A January 2019 Pre-Trip Report FINAL UPDATE 1/10/2019

Double Digit Days and Dining Plan Dread (and MORE!)
As I write this, we are merely 96 days away from our upcoming trip and a LOT has happened since my last update. First, my birthday passed in August and now I'm 24. (Woo!) Then my car decided to die on me. (Boo.) And so I bought a new car. (Woo!) Which means we just spend a bunch of money and added a car payment to our monthly bills. (Boo.) So lots of ups and downs in the last month or so. . .
930a33774170359ea4cc664f29ec5bb4.gif

(I am both at once).

But!! I am determined to let nothing get in the way of our next trip, which seems to get more and more expensive by the day, in spite of discounts being added to my trip.

To recap: 8 nights at Port Orleans Riverside, King Size bed (briefly, we were upgraded to a Royal Room before I put the kibosh on that needless extra expense), 7 day park hoppers, and Disney Dining Plan????

See, there's the rub. I'm trying to determine if the DDP is really even worth it for us now. It includes alcoholic beverages now, which we don't drink. I know we're really not "paying" for them, but we ARE paying for them. And I know one can order non-alcoholic "specialty" drinks on the DDP, but if I'm being 100% honest... I just want water!! Then, I take into consideration all of the desserts I will be too full to eat and all the appetizers I would rather have, and the fact that I rarely order the most expensive menu items.... And I just can't make it work for me. But the DH wants it... despite my best research and efforts otherwise. And I understand where he is coming from too. I mean, he knows he can have 2 snacks everyday, whereas if we're paying out of pocket, he might hesitate to get that extra rice krispie Mickey head or that churro or that pepper jack pretzel or... Now my mouth is watering. Plus its nice to have the food budget settled 100 days out, verses making decisions in real time. But I just want to save money!!!!

(While we are on the subject of Dining, I did move our Via Napoli reservation up to 5:15 to give us more time to get back to DHS to watch Fantasmic on the 17th.)

Now... Onto crowds....

Last I came to you with a crowd level update, things were generally looking less crowded. Well, things are changing again.

on January 13th, Magic Kingdom is up to a 4.
on January 15th, Magic Kingdom increased to a 4 and Hollywood Studios went from like a 2 to a 7!
on January 16th, Animal Kingdom increase to a 6.
on January 18th, Magic Kingdom increased to a 6.
and January 19th, Animal Kingdom is at a 7.

I have decided not to take much stock in these ratings. They seem to change faster than touring plans can even keep up with. And I want to be clear that I respect touring plans but... information flips around like crazy!

And finally, my feelings so far on planning this trip...

I am not enjoying the planning process as much this time. Of course, last go around, I had to learn the ins and outs of MDE, and of ADRs and FP+... I had no idea what the parks were really laid out like... I would be trying all of the restaurants out for the first time... I don't know. I guess this time around, I don't have as much to obsess over. This time, I'm worried more about the budget, since we didn't give ourselves nearly as much time to save up as last time.

Looking forward to fast pass day, which is coming up a month and 5 days from now on November 13th, I need to get in the mindset of planning now, because I want to make sure that I have my days really organized and prioritized. And I think that I'll enjoy the planning process more as I get closer to that day!


 
Yay double digit dance! :cool1:

I think unless you're making an effort to maximize every dining point, the dining plan doesn't save anyone money. I've already paid for the dining plan for the first three nights at CBR, but I haven't added it to our WL reservation yet and am still up in the air about it.

I'm still leaning towards the dining plan and saving up gift cards to pay for it (this has been my savings strategy all along - everything I save for the trip I get it on a Disney gift card so there is no temptation to use it for anything else), so even if we don't put the gift card balance towards the dining plan, we can still use it towards actually paying for meals/snacks and it won't be coming out of our pocket.
 
I think unless you're making an effort to maximize every dining point, the dining plan doesn't save anyone money.
Most people are lucky just to break even with the dining plan. I want to save money, but more importantly, I want FREEDOM. lol.

even if we don't put the gift card balance towards the dining plan, we can still use it towards actually paying for meals/snacks and it won't be coming out of our pocket
We may end up using a similar strategy. I was planning to pay for the whole trip with gift cards anyway...
 
My first trip I was with you--I wanted the dining plan for the freedom to not think about it. Then this last trip we just saved up the money and paid out of pocket and honestly, that felt more freeing than having the dining plan. We could order what we wanted without having to get food we didn't want, or the freedom to get two appetizers instead of an appetizer and an entree... We don't drink either so I was doing the same types of calculations, but paying OOP ended up being the best option for us. :)
 


Most people are lucky just to break even with the dining plan. I want to save money, but more importantly, I want FREEDOM. lol.

It's funny, I came into things assuming that the DDP was a no go, as I'd heard from so many people how you lose money on it. I was willing to push past the mental block of paying for the second snack, the drink, etc, because I'm logical enough to accept that I would have paid for it on the DDP, just up front.

Then, I started doing the math. With three Disney kids who are obsessed with characters, it became clear that we'd be saving money with the plan. Like, 2100 for the plan versus 3000 for comparable OOP, and that was before the recent price hikes. There's some serious savings, so I bit the bullet and got the plan. I'd rather the flexibility of doing a ts for just apps and dessert, or getting snacks not on the plan, but I couldn't walk away from that cost savings.

What if you mocked up a plan where you spent the same as you would on the DDP to show DH how much more you could get for the same $$ if you went OOP? If he knows he can still get the second snack and still come out ahead, maybe that will sway him.
 
My first trip I was with you--I wanted the dining plan for the freedom to not think about it. Then this last trip we just saved up the money and paid out of pocket and honestly, that felt more freeing than having the dining plan. We could order what we wanted without having to get food we didn't want, or the freedom to get two appetizers instead of an appetizer and an entree... We don't drink either so I was doing the same types of calculations, but paying OOP ended up being the best option for us. :)
I'm glad I'm not alone in these feelings!

I'll be there the exact same days!! Thanks to my college age daughter, I had our entire trip booked 1/20-1/27 and yesterday she informed me she starts school 1/22. There went all my ADR's. :mad:

Hoping for low crowds too!!

Fingers crossed! And funny enough, we picked the dates because my husband's in grad school and we wanted to go while he was on winter break too. LOL.
 


What if you mocked up a plan where you spent the same as you would on the DDP to show DH how much more you could get for the same $$ if you went OOP? If he knows he can still get the second snack and still come out ahead, maybe that will sway him.
I did this before we booked, but I'm going to run the numbers again now that I know exactly how much the dining plan is going to cost us and where exactly we're going to be eating. I've been working on him and I think he will go for it. I know if we were going to do character dining/buffets the whole time, it would be a much easier call to get the plan, as in your case. Thanks for the thoughts!
 
Major Accommodation Update and 29 days to FP+




Yup, we switched resorts, but we're not going far. We went back and forth last time around about whether to stay POFQ or POR, and last time we chose French Quarter. And we loved it. This time, initially, we opted for Riverside. Why? Just to try something new, I guess. But after some thought, and more consideration of the budget, we pulled a switcheroo over the weekend and we're going back to French Quarter. The food court is more appealing to us, as is the smaller resort size. Also, this switch will save about $300, which is nothing to sneeze at.

I had our Travel Agent tell us how much exactly the DDP portion of our vacation package is, btw. It's an additional $1,207.80 to have it. I'm going to estimate an average of $5 per snack. And at two per day for both of us, that comes up to $160. So subtracting that and the refillable mugs from the total, that means I need to see if we're going to get about $1010 worth of food or more from our Table Service and Counter Service meals or not. I hear food prices went up a few weeks ago at WDW, so I'll need to run all my numbers again. With food prices having gone up, that does make paying out of pocket less appealing...

Time is passing us very quickly by. We have less than a month now until our fast pass day on November 13th. Our TA emailed us about it today and I feel so behind! She also asked us to forward her our flight information for Magical Express... whoops. We haven't booked our flight yet either!

Crazy.gif
 
83 Days and Decisions Made
We're down to just 83 days before the trip and my anxieties have calmed a little bit...
Much math and learning has happened since my last update. If you are considering the dining plan, then this information may be of some use to you, as it definitely was for me. Let's get to the break down:
The total cost of the Disney Dining Plan for an 8 day trip, 2 people: $1,207.80
We assume that out $200 of that cost will be attributed to snacks and refillable mugs (and I did not want to take the time to parse out exactly which snacks we want to eat).
That leaves us with a total of $1007.80 to beat. If we came up with a total greater than that for food we would like to order, then our conclusion will be to go through with the dining plan.
Here are our calculations for what we would order on the dining plan:

Our total came up to $948.27, including taxes. Bear in mind, I put myself down for water at each restaurant. If I were inclined to drink anything other than water, and especially if I were to order specialty drinks, we would probably break even, OR even get a ton of value out of this dining plan. My conclusion: if you drink specialty drinks, especially alcoholic beverages, you can get an amazing value for the DDP without trying all that hard, but be warned you will eat until you pop!
Now, we did some calculations for how much our food will cost if we did not order on the dining plan (meaning not necessarily ordering dessert at each meal, or getting an appetizer instead of an entree, etc.)
:

This total comes up to $915.92. Therefore, by not getting the dining plan, we will save a little over $90. That is not a lot of money, but I think I will enjoy the flexibility and not feeling like I have to eat more than I want. My hubby has agreed to this, and now we only have to argue over who's going to bother our TA with this information.
5afb15f7ff76831967f41644fbcee4f1.gif

And, some more math for your viewing pleasure, here's a chart showing how much we would be spending out of pocket with or without the dining plan (food not included on the plan):

All in all, we're still going to budget $1200 for food, but we'll be able to extend the amount of time to save for it in to the final 30 days before the trip. And if we go under that amount, then more money for souvenirs. :rolleyes1

Now, onto flights. I've done some research (aka, 1 Google search) and have found that the best time to book for a winter trip is 62 days ahead of time. So we're going to hold off on booking until November 11. I now don't feel so unprepared and behind!
 
I just found this! I am following along! Another trip!!!! Yeah!

I feel like the dinning plan is worth it if you do buffets and character meals. And it isn't for everyone. For us, it isn't for every trip. I think you made the right decision for you guys.
 
We are going I Janurary too...I got to nervous and booked our flights...even though my DS2 wanted us to wait.
We had to book for 10+ 1 infant...so I just pulled the trigger and did it.
I am trying my best not to look to see if they went down..(torture my self)
We are trying to figure out the food cost too...
I have been buying Disney Gift Cards at target for the last 6 months.
So between credit card points The hotel and airfare paid for....the park passes done with gift cards.
And I have 500 left in Disney GC ..still going to continue buying them. The. Hopefully have enough to pay for all our food. Ect...so completely paid off ...
 
I just found this! I am following along! Another trip!!!! Yeah!

I feel like the dinning plan is worth it if you do buffets and character meals. And it isn't for everyone. For us, it isn't for every trip. I think you made the right decision for you guys.
Thank you for the validation. If we were going to more buffets/character meals, I would say for sure we would do it, but I wanted different experiences this time. Last trip we had 4 all-you-care-to-eat meals, so I have no doubt we got our money's worth. This time is going to be different for sure!

LOL that's *exactly* what we did! :)
Great minds, as they say! LOL. It does make me feel better when other people think the same way as me! Thanks!

We are going I Janurary too...I got to nervous and booked our flights...even though my DS2 wanted us to wait.
We had to book for 10+ 1 infant...so I just pulled the trigger and did it.
I am trying my best not to look to see if they went down..(torture my self)
We are trying to figure out the food cost too...
I have been buying Disney Gift Cards at target for the last 6 months.
So between credit card points The hotel and airfare paid for....the park passes done with gift cards.
And I have 500 left in Disney GC ..still going to continue buying them. The. Hopefully have enough to pay for all our food. Ect...so completely paid off ...
It sounds like a good plan! If I were planning for that many people, I would have booked by now for sure. It would be nerve-wracking to wait. You would hate to be scattered all over the plane, etc.
 
Power Point Presentation Planning
If you are wondering who won the battle over contacting our Travel Agent to tell her we've decided to drop the DDP, well then you probably don't know me very well. LOL. Jacob emailed her last week after my many requests. As far as flights go... still no progress, and to be honest, I haven't even started pricing them yet, and I really should since we're probably going to want to book this week.

But on to more fun subjects! We are now just 70 days out from our departure! Which means just 10 days until fast pass day!!!
I made a power point for my husband to show him our preliminary plans/itinerary for each day, which doesn't seem to be that helpful because he can never remember the dates/days of our trip. Anyway, I figure I would share it with you guys too!


Not much to say about day one, since I've decided to spend our time enjoying the Springs when we first arrive. I didn't want to have to stress too too much about getting an early flight out to get in the parks ASAP, so as long as we make it by our Homecomin' ADR, then we're all good!


Day 2 will be our first park day and we're going to spend it at the Magic Kingdom. I guess I adhere to the stereotype of wanting the first park to be the original--I want to see the castle, etc. I don't think Jacob would want to go to any other park first either. With this being at the beginning of the trip, I worried that we will be hard-pressed to score a 7DMT fast pass, but I'm not too stressed about the time of the fast pass, so we may be able to find one in the afternoon. Otherwise, we can head there for rope drop.


Day 3 will be Epcot, which, to be honest, is probably my least favorite park right now, even when DHS was under construction. But, it's got the best food and it's so big that we'll have to revisit another day. We'll probably head to Soarin' right after our PPO breakfast at Garden Grill, which I am verrrry much looking forward to. All of the food I have seen looks so good, the biggest challenge will be to not make myself sick eating it! I go hard on breakfast food, especially if it's potentially never-ending.


This day actually makes me the most "nervous." I really do not have any interest in spending a whole day at DHS, since the last time we did we LITERALLY ran out of things to do. Of course, with TSL opening, we may have more reason to spend time here, but I still want to see if we can leave and head back to MK in the afternoon, especially because that night we will be enjoying our Fireworks dessert party for Happily Ever After! If I cannot get a Slinky Dog Fast Pass, we can rope drop it, PLUS, I have a contingency plan. . .


5 days in we will finally head to what is perhaps my favorite park. Last trip, we did not spend nearly enough time at Animal Kingdom and we had to skip most of the walking trails. WELL, not THIS time! I have plans for us to spend a full day and a half at Animal Kingdom to make sure we have plenty of time to actually enjoy the animals. This will be a really relaxed, go with the flow kind of day with no Table Service ADRs, so we can really soak it up on our own pace.


So, as promised, here is my contingency plan. If we cannot get on SDD on our original Hollywood Studios day, then we can head there and try again on the morning of day 6. But I think Hollywood Studios is just about a food desert, so even if we go there in the morning, I want to head to Epcot for lunch and dinner, maybe spending a lazy afternoon meandering the World Showcase. If we don't want to go back to DHS and feel we have seen all we wanted to see on our first day, then we can head to MK or Disney Springs, or sleep in, or resort hop, or whatever in the morning. Knowing us, we'll probably spend the morning in some park no matter what! But after dinner, regardless of what we decide to do that morning, we're going to hop to DHS to see Fantasmic!, since it's my favorite night time show.


Day 7, we will finally head back for our second FULL day at Magic Kingdom, leaving, of course, for a trip on the Monorail to Ohana.


And on our final day in the parks, we're going to enjoy a nice morning at the Animal Kingdom and a much anticipated lunch at AKL's Sanaa. Then, in the evening we're likely going to finish our trip in the Magic Kingdom!


Not much to say about Day 9, except for that it will be very sad. We'll have breakfast in the resort before taking a very sad bus ride to the airport. Thankfully, we'll have the next day off of work for MLK day so we won't have to snap back to reality quite so fast. :P



 
  • Like
Reactions: DLo
I made a power point for my husband to show him our preliminary plans/itinerary for each day, which doesn't seem to be that helpful because he can never remember the dates/days of our trip. Anyway, I figure I would share it with you guys too!
DUDE That's a brilliant idea. My husband is the same way. I totally should have made him a power point....

Day 2 will be our first park day and we're going to spend it at the Magic Kingdom. I guess I adhere to the stereotype of wanting the first park to be the original--I want to see the castle, etc. I don't think Jacob would want to go to any other park first either. With this being at the beginning of the trip, I worried that we will be hard-pressed to score a 7DMT fast pass, but I'm not too stressed about the time of the fast pass, so we may be able to find one in the afternoon. Otherwise, we can head there for rope drop.
I'm so with you on this--that's why we did a quick morning at the MK on our first full park day. Gotta get to the MK! Also, you'll probably be able to get a 7DMT fastpass, though like you said, it may be in the afternoon.

Day 3 will be Epcot, which, to be honest, is probably my least favorite park right now, even when DHS was under construction. But, it's got the best food and it's so big that we'll have to revisit another day. We'll probably head to Soarin' right after our PPO breakfast at Garden Grill, which I am verrrry much looking forward to. All of the food I have seen looks so good, the biggest challenge will be to not make myself sick eating it! I go hard on breakfast food, especially if it's potentially never-ending.
So, at the risk of possibly throwing your plans into chaos, if you move your Epcot day to the end of the trip, the Festival of the Arts starts on the 18th. As someone else who isn't a huge Epcot fan, you may like it better with the Festival going on, especially 'cause all the reviews seem to indicate that Festival of the Arts is the best Epcot festival (better than F&W or Flower & Garden), which lots of fun photo ops and fantastic food...*shrugs* might be worth checking out.

Original plan though, Garden Grill looks amazing! I might have to grab an ADR there this Feb... :)

And on our final day in the parks, we're going to enjoy a nice morning at the Animal Kingdom and a much anticipated lunch at AKL's Sanaa. Then, in the evening we're likely going to finish our trip in the Magic Kingdom!
Amazing lunch! You'll love it :) If you don't mind waiting, asking for a window seat is probably worth it. :)

Not much to say about Day 9, except for that it will be very sad. We'll have breakfast in the resort before taking a very sad bus ride to the airport. Thankfully, we'll have the next day off of work for MLK day so we won't have to snap back to reality quite so fast. :P
Awesome plan--we found that having that extra day before going back to work was super helpful.

Love your plans! They sound awesome!
 
It's so interesting how much our plans overlap! We are also staying at POFQ Jan. 12-20 and a few of our park days overlap as well. The first night we also have an ADR at Homecomin' for dinner... so weird! My boyfriend and I are both in our early 20's, and he turned 24 in the Magic Kingdom at the DAH event in August.

Speaking of, there is a Disney After Hours event happening on Thursday the 17th-- I know you want to save some cash, but I swear this event is amazing. Not to mention the "free" unlimited snacks.
 
Your plans sound great. And I too love planning ala power point! It helps visualize the days!
Yes! I am glad I did it, plus it was kind of fun.

So, at the risk of possibly throwing your plans into chaos, if you move your Epcot day to the end of the trip, the Festival of the Arts starts on the 18th. As someone else who isn't a huge Epcot fan, you may like it better with the Festival going on, especially 'cause all the reviews seem to indicate that Festival of the Arts is the best Epcot festival
I think that I may revisit Epcot on our final park day after Sanaa to go see the Festival before ending the day at MK, but we'll see.

Speaking of, there is a Disney After Hours event happening on Thursday the 17th-- I know you want to save some cash, but I swear this event is amazing.
I'll have to look into that!
 
Flights and FastPass Eve
So we finally decided to go ahead and book flights yesterday. We are going American this time, which I am sure I have flown before but honestly can't remember. We were going to try for cheaper flights this time, which we succeeded in. I had my husband compare to how much we paid on flights last time and we came in about $100 cheaper. Of course, this time, we did not get a direct flight. We'll have a few hour layover in Charlotte on the way down and about a one hour layover in Philly on the way back. Funny enough, I had layovers in each of those airports on the way to and from London over the summer. Charlotte is undergoing major renovations in parts of the airport, so it's really nice and dusty!

We should depart from Cincinnati on the 12th at 9:26 and arrive in Orlando MCO at 4:15, which gives us almost 3 hours to get to Homecomin' at Disney Springs for our ADR at 7:05. I think it should be fine, but if anyone disagrees or has advice to the contrary, then I will be glad to consider seeing about scooting that ADR back.

Our flight home should depart from MCO at 7:00 and will get us home a little after noon. Since Magical Express will have to pick us up really early, I'm not really even sure if we'll have time to get breakfast at the resort since I'm pretty sure the food court won't be open yet...
tumblr_n38ntvXDFq1s8rrfeo1_500.gif


Tonight is FastPass eve, so it's time to set the alarm a little earlier than usual and review my hypothetical selections.

  • Jan 13: 7DMT, Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion ---- Alternate Splash Mountain if 7DMT is not available
  • Jan 14: Spaceship Earth, Mission Space, Frozen Ever After ---- Alternate Soarin' if FEA is not available
  • Jan 15: Slinky Dog Dash, Tower of Terror, Rock n Rollercoaster ---- Alternate Alien Swirling Saucer if SDD is not available (all FastPass before 3pm)
  • Jan 16: Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris
  • Jan 17: Slinky Dog Dash, Tower of Terror, Star Tours (all FastPass before lunchtime) ---- Alternate, some Epcot FastPasses
  • Jan 18: Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Carribean
  • Jan 19: Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris
Some days I have the same FastPasses selected because I want to give ourselves multiple chances at getting the more exclusive attractions (such as Slinky Dog or Flight of Passage) if everything works out and I manage to get the FastPasses on the first go around, then I may choose others, or in the case of our second DHS morning, just choose to sleep in or do some other park entirely for the morning!

Wish me luck!!!



 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top