Prices of meals e.g. buffets
 

We’re used to DLP, so the DDP and WDW menus are still confusing me a bit. I miss the dining plan symbols and straightforward pricing, even though I know it will be worth wrapping my head around for the vast range of choices.

I’m trying to make a list of T.S. restaurants we like the sound of, so we can decide where to eat, and whether to use our TS credits or pay OOP (we only have 10 days of credits, so might pay for some TS meals OOP on our other days.)

The à la carte menus seem fairly straightforward - from reading the sticky threads, I see we get a main, a dessert and a drink each for a TS credit. Are there excluded items on the menus? If so, how do you know what is included / excluded? If we pay OOP, the prices are clearly stated for each item, so it’s easy to compare and figure out best value for credits / money.

The buffet meals, eg 1900 Park Fare, are confusing me. Park Fare dinner says that an adult meal is $35-$60. I can’t see child prices on the menu at all, and I don’t know why there is a range of prices for an adult buffet. Does it depend on the season / time of day? Or on what drink you choose? But then surely they’d show a price for the meal, and then the options for drinks separately. I just don’t know what I’m doing! Please help :)

The buffet prices change depending on the season & day of week.
It can get confusing when looking at the prices of buffet meals & to be fair we never bothered trying to find out where our meal would range in terms of season/day etc. on our last trip (was on the QSDP), we simply budgeted for the highest price to cover ourselves & if we came away with anything classed it as a bonus.

As for excluded items of the menu most/all food is covered but if you’re unsure of it ask your waiter they’ll be happy to tell you & should actually point anything out beforehand any ways.

Ps. Park Fare child dinner price is currently saying it ranges between $25.16-$30.99 😊

You shouldn’t really need to be paying OOP if you are on a dining plan, not unless you are doing quite a few signatures anyway. I have sometimes thought I won’t have enough credits, paid OOP and then have left over credits at the end. My advice (that I should really stick to myself!) is the use credits and not even think about paying OOP before the last couple of days when you may know for certain that you would be short.

As for buffets, no real idea how the price works, I always assume the lower price for breakfast and the higher one for lunch or dinner. But it would be irrelevant because I would never OOP a buffet anyway as $60 for a plate of buffet food is not something I would pay.

Thank you, I must have missed that about the child prices so that’s really handy. I still can’t seem to spot it on the menu link on here or the WDW site though - where do you look for child prices for buffets?

That’s a good idea about just taking the higher estimate and basing plans on that, less likely to get caught out with a big bill that way.

I was thinking that we could just ask a waiter about exclusions while there, but I was wondering if there was any way to know beforehand, to help with planning. Again, I guess it’s just easier to assume everything is included if it doesn’t say otherwise, and we can change our exact meal plans while there, if it turns out that something we’d liked the sound of wasn’t included.

Thank you for all your advice!

Sorry, I wasn’t clear in my post. When I said we’d pay OOP on our other days, it’s because we’ll have 4 days without the DDP (moving to a different hotel.) We might just eat at quick service places on those days anyway, but it’s looking like we’ll want to eat at more than 10 TS places, and that’s all we’ll have included.

I hadn’t noticed that the buffet estimates were the same for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so I bet you’re right about that. (I’d only looked at the dinner prices, thinking those would be most expensive, but it is indeed the same price range given for all three.)

I absolutely agree on the $60, which was why I was asking about the prices. I did see at least one buffet (think it was Trail’s End or similar) that was under $30, so that might work out better value OOP than an expensive a la carte menu. Not sure, but thank you for the great advice - I can use all this to get a better idea of what we’re planning now :)

Got you. I did wonder if that is what you were doing after I posted. In that case I would definitely be doing most of the character meals and buffets whilst you are on the dining plan. I had booked an Akershus breakfast for my next trip and as far as I can tell that would be over $60 each which I just cannot justify without a dining plan. If you are thinking of a BOG breakfast I would do that with a credit as well as $28 for the breakfast which is pretty tiny is terrible value too.

Yes, we are considering either BOG breakfast or lunch, not sure which yet (will start a post to get opinions.) Akershus will definitely be a credit use - that price is scary!

BOG breakfast is a lot more expensive than lunch, so I'd definitely do breakfast using QS credits, and pay for lunch. Ideally, do both using QS credits :)

I would generally be happy to do both. The BOG breakfast is great for pre park entry if using a QS credit, I wouldn’t do a BOG breakfast unless it was pre park time. The lunch however, is good for a reserved QS break during the day. I have two BOG lunches booked on my next trip (no dining plan) as it is very reasonably priced. On the other hand I was glad to cancel the over priced breakfasts as MK is opening at 7am every day anyway.

That’s great advice, thanks.