Following on from my earlier thread about paying oop for quick service dining

[Cha cha]

We stayed at AoA for a week Easter this year & paid oop for meals, we ate at AoA, CBR, POR, DS and parks no table service this time just QS meals & it was so much cheaper paying oop than if we'd bought Qsdp.

We bought resort refillable mugs for $18 each & that alone saved a fortune on drinks, we also had a Garden Grocer delivery, which we have even when we are on dining plan. 😊

[Lilyrose]

I think by not paying for the QSDP it increases your flexibility a lot more! If you bought the QSDP you'd with have to stick to that to keep it to that price or you'll be spending £1300+ the extras anyway.

In your position I'd pay oop for my meals, get a garden grocer delivery/go to a supermarket for some in room breakfasts, drinks, bits for your baby and snacks and maybe buy the refill cups for the 2 of you.

[loldis]

I wouldn't pay for QSDP. Regular DDP maybe, but not because it makes the most financial sense. More because it forces me to actually go to the TS places and use the credits.

I appreciate good food but don't really prioritise it when there's other things going on, so DDP means I will actually make an effort to go places. Otherwise I'd probably live quite happily on snacks and kids QS meals.

[thefourDs]

We debated this too when we booked but decided to go with the 'free' QSDP just as it was then another thing taken care of. Just seemed easier for us to have it than not.

[Louiseanne]

We've booked with free QSDP as we've never done it and DD16 really wants to try it. we've only paid the £100 dep so if its a lot cheaper w/o it I may change it - not sure how I'd tell DD though.

[mossyflossy]

It never makes sense to pay for QS rather than OOP to make a saving. It just helps some people to have it for budgeting as then meals are all paid for in advance. If you can't get free dining then I'd be very surprised if you'd each spend (or want to spend?!) £45 per day on QS food: that £45 each (£90) would IMO be better spent OOP covering shared QS for breakfast/lunch and a sit down TS meal each day.

[DisneyDaffodil]

We stayed at AoA at Easter 2016 for 11 nights. 2 adults and 15 year old daughter so 3 adult meals. We booked 2 character breakfasts, BOG lunch and 1 ts meal plus we ate onsite every day. Sometimes my DD and I shared a meal as we weren't hungry enough for one each but we generally ate 2 meals a day plus a few cakes, icecreams, Starbuck's coffees etc. We spent just under £1000 on all food and drink (including around half a dozen beers).
We ate loads and didn't scrimp at all. Next trip we have free qsdp which we have upgraded to ddp so we can have a few more ts meals as we enjoyed those. But we would never pay for a dining plan, I feel its cheaper oop. Hope this helps