Has anyone stayed onsite for 2 weeks without dining plan?

[mummybear]

Hiya!

Has anyone stayed onsite for 2 weeks without a dining plan?

I know this may have wildly different answers but could anyone give me an idea of how much you spent on food & drinks over the 2 weeks? (There will be 4 of us - 2 adults, 1 teen, 1 child).

Thanks

[lumers]

Hi
Yes hubby and I did on our first holiday , staying at Disney All Stars , however we only did this because we did not know about the dinning plan !
The only money we spent was on food and we spent well over a £1,000 ( and that was 10 years ago )
We purchased the refillable cups .

Would use the dinning plan for sure if you have the choice . We later did this twice upgrading from quick service to the dinning plan , staying at Pop Century and Old Key West and barley broke into our spending money, just presents for the grandchildren .

Going in September 2020 for the first time on the Quick Service Plan and first time with our grandchildren and son and daughter in law .
Couldn't afford to eat offsite to be honest with 8 of us going

Sure you will have a fabulous time, whatever you decide

[Shooby doo]

All the time ! Do you mean still eating in Disney though ? For 2 Adults we reckon on £100/day & it's usually a lot less than this & occasionally a bit more if we go somewhere special. Unfortunately if you eat onsite it's twice the price & you can easily spend £80 just on a sit down meal for 2!Prices for 2 onsite:
2 QS plus drinks $35-$40
2 TS plus non alcoholic drinks $80 -$120 plus tip
But to give you an idea:
Olive Garden takeaway = Soup/Salad & 2 mains = $40
Manny's Chophouse = Salad/drinks/ Salmon & a steak main = $60

SD

[sha9]

We spent £700 over a week just two of us but that was eating almost exclusively at Disney and included a meal at Le Cellier. It can definitely be done cheaper.

[BevS97]

We always stay onsite without a dining plan. We don’t always eat onsite and we don’t do many ADRs. I aim to take between $150-$200 per day for four of us. But that’s everything not just food.

I’m not really sure what we spend on just food. We usually do a good supermarket shop for soft drinks / in the room snacks and breakfast.
Then have a mid morning snack in the park. Coffee / pastries etc

Quick service for lunch

And evening meal is either offsite or quick service depending on our plans.

[BevS97]

Just had a thought and found these. This is just what we charged to the room which is not everything. A lot of QS we used mobile ordering and that goes straight to the credit card. Plus we ate offsite. Still gives some idea of onsite costs for 3

[cornishfrogboy]

We did this whilst staying in All Stars Movies in 2005. We had 2 adults and a two year old. We had no car and in any case, knew no better.

We felt that we got absolutely ripped. I was extremely resentful to the extent that we did not return until 2009. It was in 2009 that we stayed on IDrive and found out what things really cost in the United States, (I.e outside of Disney and the Theme parks). Since 2009 we have visited the States 9 further times as well as returning yet again this Easter. We regard the USA as a great value destination overall.

We have learned to shop wisely and eat our own breakfast.

We have learned that it is healthier and miles cheaper to take in our own packed lunches into the parks.

We have learned where to eat out every evening.

As for the actual cost? I can only remember that it deterred me from returning for 4 years. I would never stay onsite again.

[PoohBears#1fan]

Yes all the time. Like Bev we do a supermarket shop and buy breakfast items, coffee, snacks etc. (not a fan of US breakfasts), we'll generally have our main meal off site and a sundae or similar snack in the parks. We'll probably eat a maximum of 2 on site meals a week, with few exceptionsI don't think onsite meals are worth the cost anymore, better food to be had for far less cost elsewhere, so worth a trip offsite.

Just checked our December bill for the 2 of us, we'd eaten at California Grill brunch which was $196 (with TIW discount), a couple of quick service meals which were around $30-35 each time and Skipper canteen in MK which was just over $130 (again with TIW discount). The rest of our meals were off site and significantly less money than those 2.

[Hammo333]

Hi

Our thought on doing DDP was to be able to choose anything off the menu & not worry about cost as obviously it's already paid for.
After doing DDP for 3 years running before deciding to experiment without DDP but pretending we were still on it and buy anything off the menu.
We are a party of 4 adults we like our food and we still ended up spending £800.00 less over a 14 night stay.
On DDP it felt like we had to eat everything going to warrant/justify how much we spent, and always ended up with a freezer full of snacks we just couldn't eat.
Off DDP with most portions being quite big, two of our party would often share a mains.
Not done DDP since.

You are obviously paying £x pppd x 14 day's yet invariably you may end up eating offsite 2,3,4 times out of your 14 for various reasons, wasting your pre paid DDP then having to spend extra as well.

[Disneyfanlincs]

No dining plan last year. Spent $100 a day on food, mainly quick service and Starbucks with the odd table service thrown in. Also bought refillable mugs. I like the dining plan but find I eat more to use the credits and get my monies worth. We always have credits left. Not doing a plan we eat when we want and share meals if we aren’t too hungry. We also eat offsite a couple of times usually which is not included in the plan.