So - we went to disney in 06 to 07 (over the new year) with the old dining plan and even at the time, there was family debate over the worth of the plan.

Now with these new plans it makes me wonder even more which one, or if either, or if both, are worth it?

So my question to you is thus-

PER PERSON, in one day, how much do you spend on food and snacks and such.

IE . . we wake up and go to trails end buffet and pay $XX for me, then i get a bottle of water at MK and that costs $XX , late lunch at the Cosmic Cafe for $XX for my meal, and dinner at Coral Reef for $XX oh and a mickey ice cream for $XX.

What do we spend in one day for one person at disney? And are the places you eat even on teh dining plan? I'm just very curious! Thank you for any and all imput!

alot....75.00 character breakfast
50 easy at lunch
150.00 good meal

150.00 on a counter day....
sorry im not a ddp person did not see that part...

How many people are you feeding for 50 for lunch?!?!?

I usually skip breakfast except for the occasional buffet, which would be around $25 (solo visitor). Lunch is quick serve and around $15 to $20. Dinner I go all out, and it can cost from $60 to $100. Then I have to budget $25 or so for drinks (love them martinis!). I use the Disney Dining Experience, which saves me 20% off of all sitdown meals and alcohol.

We did DDP in 2007 and when I compared the cost (I kept the first receipts that still had the amounts) with what DDP cost we saved about $370 for six days. However, we picked all more expensive restaurants to get our moneys worth, picked food based on price, and ate a ton more then we would normally eat. This time we are deciding not to do the dining plan for a couple of reasons.

We have a lot of people coming with us that would not come if the upfront cost was that much higher.
I do not want to feel the need to each so much food.
Last time we had a ton of leftover snack credits that we used for treats to bring home, that I normally wouldn't buy.


Additionally, we are splitting our trip and will be spending the last half on concierge level and if we were on the dining plan we would not use the CL benefits enough - again, just too much!

We used the regular DDP in May of '07. Felt it was definitely worth it. I was feeding two teen boys. And I especially liked knowing the costs, paid for upfront- except for an adult beverage or two per day for me.

Now? With no appetizer included and no tip included. One still has to carry cash to pay for the tip. Guess one could do a room charge for that, but I know that servers prefer cash. It is more difficult to know if one is getting their $'s worth. But it is still a way to know what the costs are going in.

Breakfasts were: snack credit for me(fruit) with a granola bar from home. $4)Counter service for the boys-mickey waffles; bacon, eggs along with 2 beverages- apiece. ($10-a piece)We used our refillable mugs for hot chocolate and got a juice and a water to go. We did breakfast buffets once-$18 each.

Lunch-usually counter service-ranged from 2 meals at Cosmic Rays for $25-portions are huge-big enough for us to share to almost $50 at Wolfgang Puck Express. I found the biggest range for portions to be in the counter service designation-some were more than enough for 2; and some were adequate for one.

Dinner-table service usually. Probably about $30 a piece-if not more. I know the bill at Le Cellier was over $120-but again, that's with starter and tip included-not the case with the '08 DDP.

Snack credits went fast-yanno-mickey ice cream bars, frozen lemonade, hand dipped pretzels at Goofy's...yum!

If you are mainly looking to see if the plan is worth it for your family, I would look at the menus here at MP or over at AllEars (allearsnet.com). See what looks good to you, jot down the prices, and see if you come out ahead. We have done this and 9 times out of 10, the plan still allows us to come out ahead. It may be $10 per person, but that is still about $40 per day...and it all adds up.

Before the plan, we would easily spend about $50 per day per person on food. And that was only 2 meals a day and a snack. I think that would be slightly more now just because we eat a little more.

Just remember that the plan includes taxes but does not include gratuity at TS places. Without the plan, you have add taxes and tip when comparing.

Hope that helps.

I usually skip breakfast except for the occasional buffet, which would be around $25 (solo visitor). Lunch is quick serve and around $15 to $20. Dinner I go all out, and it can cost from $60 to $100. Then I have to budget $25 or so for drinks (love them martinis!). I use the Disney Dining Experience, which saves me 20% off of all sitdown meals and alcohol.

Again, I agree with my friend, Dan. I rarely eat breakfast, but if I do, it's sharing one of those fruit cups and a refill on my mug. So, say anywhere from $0 to $5.

I do a table service either for lunch or dinner, so to save, I'll do lunch for about 1/2 of the meals. Lunch table services are around $25-40. Dinner table services are $40-60. I don't snack often, unless it is to "replace" a counter service meal. I agree counter service is around $10-15.

I sometimes share meals to save money if it is a really budget-minded trip. My DH and I will each order an appetizer, share a main, skip dessert and drinks. THAT makes it incredibly affordable!

In the summer, especially, we would often find ourselves short on snack credits, because we would end up buying a lot of frozen juice bars and other cold treats, of various kinds, and extra bottles of water and cold drinks, to stay cool and hydrated. Bringing our own bottled water helped, but we still would get hot and thirsty, in the parks. We would often end up with "extra" counter credits, because we would share meals, and have simple breakfasts in our room. When we stayed at the Beach Club last summer, we got breakfast at the Marketplace one day, and ended up with extra fruit and water, to use up some counter service credits. Most of our table service meals are prix fixe or buffets. When we got the counter service meals, we never really wanted the pre-packaged desserts. I think Sunshine Seasons at Epcot, had a full selection of desserts, so it was a better deal.

I don't have a day-to-day breakdown, but for what it's worth, here's what we spent.

One week, two adults, two boys (6 and 8). We skipped breakfast, other than getting the boys Mickey waffles at POR two or three days and buying refillable mugs for ourselves. Lunch was always walk-up, but we didn't skimp (eg., $8.99 for adult meals at Flame Tree BBQ). Dinner was big, every night. At least three buffets, Brown Derby, Tokyo Dining, always a sit-down meal somewhere. And usually with a drink. I charged almost everything to the room, and the finally bill was $897.00. That included a few souvineer purchases (I'd guess around $100). I used the 20% Disney Dining Experience that you can get if you're an annual passholder at every sit-down reastruant except Tokyo Dining. For lunch, Flame Tree took the discount, no one else did.

I have found the most simple way to look at it is per day. My two youngest kids are 5 and 8 and the plan is 9.99 each per day. Dinner at almost any TS for kids is at least 8-10 dollars. This means that their lunch CS and snack are free. The adult price is where it's more questionable. It is $38 per person per day. The average buffet dinner is around $22-27 per person. Add a $10-15 lunch and you right at the $38 dollar break even point, snack is free. A regular sit down entree averages $20-28 at most places, then you add $3 for a drink and $5 for dessert and you end up right around break even point with just dinner, lunch and snack are free. Eat at Jiko and LeCelier or the like and you are way ahead of the game. You really need to research where you want to eat and look at the menus. If the entree's fall into this average and you intend to eat TS every night, I don't think you can beat the plan. Hope this helps! :D

We look at the price per person/per day. We calculated it last night, and without the DDP, we would be spending about $53 per person/per day, not including water/soda. Since we'll be staying at the Polynesian Club Level next year, a light breakfast will be eaten in the lounge, then we'll use our snack credits for popcorn, chips, or a water/soda around 10 or 11 AM. Lunch will be at a CS restaurant around 12 or 1 PM. Then, we'll return to the resort for a break and swim, and also will have a light snack and a beverage around 3 PM. After that, we'll return to the park that we were at originally at and have dinner with our TS credits, watch the evening show, then return to the resort late at night with turndown service already done, and spend about an hour in the lounge drinking fresh juice and working on the laptop, then sleep.

That sounds really good right now!! :)