Eye Opening Food Prices!

[Lisa F]

You should consider Cape May. I'd bet there is availability and it's a lower key but still "3 of the fab 5" characters (no mickey), has good food and is one of the lower buffets (not like Chef Mickey's which is much higher).

 

[bigeyedfish]

I looked at dining prices after I booked Stay, Play, Dine. It’s definitely working out in our favor. We are doing lots of character meals (Storybook Dining, Garden Grill, Akershus, Tusker House) that I would never pay out of pocket for otherwise. Dinner at Akershus alone is $240 before tip

 

[s.r.disney nut]

The breakfast buffet at The Wave in the Contemporary was good and the price was reasonably. I think it was $21.99. You can also use TIW, AP, DVC or Visa for discounts. TIW is the best at 20%, the others are 10%.

 

[Momager]

Thanks everyone for your responses

We actually just booked T-Rex lol. My husband and I figured that we will eat "family style" and if anyone is still hungry later, they can get a pretzel or something along those lines. Every restaurant, even QSs are crazy priced! But we figured that spending the extra money at T-Rex hurts a little bit less since you get the atmosphere. Hope that makes sense!

We have a trip (with ddp) scheduled for this coming November, so thats when we will eat anywhere and everywhere without worry!! LOL LOL

 

[wendlle]

Try visiting from Australia, our exchange rate is hideous at the moment.
However, you do know that the money you spend on the Dining plan usually comes out to be more than what you would be paying OOP. The Dining Plan isn't a great value for most people, sometimes it is. But quite often you end up ordering the most expensive item instead of what you really want to try and make the DDP worth more.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Thanks everyone for your responses

We actually just booked T-Rex lol. My husband and I figured that we will eat "family style" and if anyone is still hungry later, they can get a pretzel or something along those lines. Every restaurant, even QSs are crazy priced! But we figured that spending the extra money at T-Rex hurts a little bit less since you get the atmosphere. Hope that makes sense!

We have a trip (with ddp) scheduled for this coming November, so thats when we will eat anywhere and everywhere without worry!! LOL LOL

T-Rex is actually, crazily, one of the more reasonable TS options b/c they have large portion sizes, so sharing becomes much easier...and they do have the "in house" entertainment...

 

[TeresaWen]

Try visiting from Australia, our exchange rate is hideous at the moment.
However, you do know that the money you spend on the Dining plan usually comes out to be more than what you would be paying OOP. The Dining Plan isn't a great value for most people, sometimes it is. But quite often you end up ordering the most expensive item instead of what you really want to try and make the DDP worth more.

I’ve said it before - to me the dining plan only makes sense if you plan a lot of character meals. And character meals are priced so crazy that they only make sense if you are on the dining plan.

 

[TeresaWen]

LOL LOL LOL

I'll be at the Tropicana next weekend!

We will be at the ocean resort in AC this weekend. We have learned to take advantage of happy hours! The food may be pricy but it is wonderful!

 

[DizneyLizzy]

We will be at the ocean resort in AC this weekend. We have learned to take advantage of happy hours! The food may be pricy but it is wonderful!

Ooh have fun! We tried the ocean resort last summer. We liked the little diner style restaurant downstairs near the casino. I think it was called cafe 500. Very good for breakfast and lunch and very reasonable.

 

[aml3679]

Last trip, in 2013, we had the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan. It was nice to have the freedom of not having to worry about money. That being said, it was way too much food for us. Next trip, we will probably get the quick service dining plan. We got back on Saturday and found that we spent a bit of money on food.

For breakfast, we spent about $30 for the two of us.
We either ate a late lunch or or an early lunch and a late dinner.

Yes you are on vacation, but it is expensive.

Popcorn $8
Soda $4
Water $4
Alcholic Drink $15
Ice Cream $5
Etc....

 

[Anthony1971]

I think to Compare Disney with Other parks like Six flags or Cedar pointe etc is not a good example as well as other places you may visit.
Other parks are one or maybe 2 day events and you will pay for that but yet most people will only eat one meal and than go elsewhere to eat or simply leave and come back...
Other places there is always places that are expensive and cheaper a few miles down the road...Atlantic city and Vegas hmmmm most meals there are free by comp... But even here you can drive a little bit and find a reasonable place to eat and parking is comp'd so long as you have the casino cards.. Yes at Disney you can to but with the new parking fee it makes it harder being you will pay the 25 a night for every night you are there.... In the past Disney kept prices lower than the standard one day things as they wanted you there a week that seems to no longer be the case.
Going overseas well yes in some places you will pay a fortune yet others live like a king for the price of normal fast food but that is just because of the conversion rate and sometimes the normal food prices in more remote places.

 

[jimim]

Disney good prices have gotten silly. We use TIW so that softens the blow. There is almost little diff in price with signature vs regular even at the resort restaurants. We usually do 5 signature and the other nights r rough it. One of our rough it nights we went to chicken guy in DS. We were really surprised how good it was and we all said we thought it was cheap for Disney. Maybe OP check that out if u like that kinda food. It was good I felt. We r looking forward to it again this summer.

 

[siren0119]

I’ve said it before - to me the dining plan only makes sense if you plan a lot of character meals. And character meals are priced so crazy that they only make sense if you are on the dining plan.

I forget where I saw the breakdown, but in order to get any kind of value out of the DDP you have to be spending around $41 per person per credit for TS, $18 pp for QS and $5 per snack item. That put it into perspective for us and we realized we'd never hit that TS amount on anything but character meals - we have 4 "Disney adults" but my boys will be 12 and 9 on the next trip and won't eat $40 worth of food if they are ordering a la carte.

We ended up booking a split stay - half our stay is a room-only booking through Priceline, and the other half was booked through the Free Dining offer (but with park hopper tickets that would cover both legs of our stay). It'll work out because we can schedule the pricey character meals for the part of the trip covered by the dining plan, and front-load a lot of our eating. My bet is that by the 5th day we won't want big meals and I'll be paying for QS only the rest of the trip

 

[Nancyg56]

My DH is still squawking about the Disney prices, and we were on the DDP. There should be a menu for people who do not do well even knowing what Disney meals cost. This works for us when we have dined at Del Frisco's with the family. I promise not to tell him what the meal costs and he promises not to try to calculate it on hos own.

 

[TreeFalls]

We are doing our first trip with no dining plan this year. We agree with you, we loved having it all paid for, but when we did the math we thought we could save a little paying OOP. So we bought gift cards for a little bit less than the amount of the dining plan. That way the money is already "spent" on Disney. We'll see if it works!

 

[siren0119]

We are doing our first trip with no dining plan this year. We agree with you, we loved having it all paid for, but when we did the math we thought we could save a little paying OOP. So we bought gift cards for a little bit less than the amount of the dining plan. That way the money is already "spent" on Disney. We'll see if it works!

We did it that way on our last stay with the kids and it definitely works! I loved the convenience of charging things to our room, and then just settled up with the gift cards at the hotel desk at the end of the night. I'm a planner at heart and had a whole spreadsheet of where we'd be eating, how much we'd be likely to spend including tax and tip. So I knew almost to the penny what we'd need in gift cards. We ended up UNDER spending and had some $$ leftover for extra souvenirs!

 

[jaiminee krikit]

DH and I were talking about WDW food last night. He is always so shocked about how expensive the food is. Mind you, he will order a NY Strip almost any chance he gets which drives me crazy because I try to order one of the cheapest things on the menu every meal. He told me he would love to have meals that cost less than $50. I asked "per person?!" half joking.
I've accepted the cost of food as being part of the experience I guess.

 

[siren0119]

DH and I were talking about WDW food last night. He is always so shocked about how expensive the food is. Mind you, he will order a NY Strip almost any chance he gets which drives me crazy because I try to order one of the cheapest things on the menu every meal. He told me he would love to have meals that cost less than $50. I asked "per person?!" half joking.
I've accepted the cost of food as being part of the experience I guess.

OMG my husband...EVERY TIME we go out to eat he just orders whatever off the menu without even looking at the price! It makes me CRAZY. Especially when he picks something reasonably priced but then starts in with adding on things that cost extra. What makes it worse is that he WORKS IN A RESTAURANT so it isn't like he doesn't know that if a server suggests an add-on, they are upselling. DERP.

 

[Texans_loyal]

Try Garden Grove seafood buffet at The swan. $35 for adults, includes all you can eat shrimp, crab, salmon and NY strip. Plus each person gets half of a lobster! The best buffet on property in my opinion and a good value.
No discounts unless you're a AAA member.

 

[TeresaWen]

Ooh have fun! We tried the ocean resort last summer. We liked the little diner style restaurant downstairs near the casino. I think it was called cafe 500. Very good for breakfast and lunch and very reasonable.

We love cafe 500 for breakfast! Excited to try the wine bar - it’s only open on weekends.