Here's the truth, friends.
Disney is not cheap! However,
there are ways to make it much more economical than you might imagine. Whenever I plan a trip, I am looking for the
best value for the most amazing experience.
I have had a great deal of success helping other people to plan their
vacations, and to date no one has ever come back and told me that they had a
miserable time. But there are a couple
of things you need to know.
1. There are some
dreams that are as unreasonable as Miah's assumption that a real live unicorn
was going to appear, simply because she dreamed it at Disney. I once had someone ask me to find a deal for
their family of four that would include staying on property for a week... with
magic your way water park fun and more park hopper tickets... over Christmas...
for less than $1000.00. And if I could
throw in the dining plan, that would be great, too. Uh... not going to happen. Probably not going to happen in 1983. Some things are unrealistic.
2. The other thing
is, vacation budgeting has to be a priority in your life if you want to do
Disney well and as cheap as possible. We
spent the same amount on our first three Disney trips, combined, that we would
have spent on cable TV if we'd had it for all those years. This doesn't make us any better with money
than anyone else. It just means that it
was more important to us to meet the Disney Junior characters in real life than
to watch them on a screen for years and years and years. Granted, neither cable TV nor a Disney
vacation fall into the "needs" category, but I'm just saying that you
might have to prioritize to make it happen.
Today, I'd like to offer some thoughts on the Disney Dining
Plan...
We have used the DDP before.
We will probably use it again.
But only if it's free. These are
my initial thoughts after 12 nights on Disney property.
Earlier this week, I sat down with all of our receipts to figure out
exactly how much the free DDP that came with our package was worth. As it turns out, our family of seven consumed
approximately $3,591.20 retail value
in DDP meals, snacks, and refillable mugs.
It would have cost us $4,099.82 to purchase the DDP for our entire
family for the length of stay. It's not
too difficult to look at the numbers and realize that purchasing the DDP would
have been an error that cost us a little over $500.00. Getting the DDP for free was a good
move. Paying for it would never be worth
it for us, even though 3/5 of our children are really good eaters. Seriously, we all ate so much we thought we
would puke. You can only pack away so
much food.
We also made some
choices that actually decreased the value of our meal plan, allowing for less
table service meals (I will explain this in more detail below). We did this knowingly, and a case could be
made for the potential to eat more food had we made different choices, but
again, we couldn't eat any more food! We
were stuffed all the time! In addition,
choosing less table service meals, overall, should (at least in theory) have
cut down on our tip total. It probably
didn't though. We ate expensive food.
There are several things
to consider while dining at Disney, and let's face it, when you're dining with
kids, characters trump quality. Here are
some specifics on our character meals:
Hollywood and Vine - This allowed
Miah to meet some of the Disney Junior characters without waiting in line. If I had it to do all over again, I think we
would just wait in the lines, because the characters did not take much time
with her (this was odd considering our previous character meal experiences on
other trips). I thought the food was
awful, which was also a disappointment having eaten at Hollywood and Vine
previously. And by awful, I don't just
mean that I was being picky. I was sick
to my stomach after eating for the entire rest of the day. The kids mostly filled up on stuff they could
have gotten at a counter service restaurant and bread... lots of bread... I don't even know what Phil ate, because the
other issue we had was that our reservation was split, so Ian, Miah, and I were
at one table and everyone else was across the room. My teenagers just loved hanging out at the
Disney Junior character lunch. This was
not anyone's fault... just part of
traveling with kids of various ages...
Princess Storybook Dining Breakfast at Akershus, in Norway - Here we found princesses that were
clearly acting out of character. As an
example, when you are Cinderella, you must never, ever talk down to a cast member
who is trying to tell you something when in front of small Disney guests. Thankfully, this was lost on Miah, as were
the eye rolls between Cinderella and Ariel during the princess parade. Look, maybe it stinks to be a Disney princess
day in and day out. Who knows? But if it's your job, you have to be
magical... all the time. Again, the
princesses seemed to be in a rush, but in Cinderella's defense, she did come
back to our table to make sure we had taken all of the pictures we wanted, so I
think she realized things were a little off.
The breakfast at Akershus is fabulous, though. They even brought us an extra bowl of bacon
that was so overflowing we couldn't eat it all.
That's saying something. The
other perk at Akershus is that you meet Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, Aurora,
and Belle, and it only costs one table service credit per person. We would eat there again. I would caution, however, that you should be
careful about your reservation time.
Because we ate close to the end of breakfast time, they were switching
the buffet part of the menu over to lunch.
That might be a perk for some people.
We like our breakfast. Eat early.
Cinderella's Royal Table - What? We had breakfast with the princesses
twice? Well, this one is more about the
experience than anything else. I think
it's a really big deal to eat in the
castle. I love that the kids get wands and
wishing stars and swords (even though they're cheap, and let's face it, your
boys are going to break their swords within days if not minutes). We found the princesses to take much more
time here, conversing with everyone, definitely in character. Here you trade Belle for Jasmine, which I
don't really think is a perk, but to each his (ahem) own... The drawbacks are that this meal costs 2
table service credits per person, and the food is not as good as Akershus. It's the kind of thing that I don't feel like
we need to do every single trip. When
you have a five year old princess, you do it.
The Crystal Palace - This one is pretty much non-negotiable for us. We can eat breakfast at the Crystal Palace
and not eat again all day. We can.
I didn't say we did. Even if it was just the puffed french toast
(which is so amazing I found a recipe for it after our first trip to The
Crystal Palace in 2006), we would find this meal worthwhile. But it's not just the puffed french toast. It's the Mickey waffles... and the fruit...
and the scrambled eggs... and the omelet station... and the bacon... and the
sausage... and the cinnamon rolls... and the cheese danishes... Need I go on?
Because I could. There is just
so... much... food... and it's all good.
On top of this, you get to meet Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore. You might think this is only fun for little
kids. I actually think my big kids had
more fun with these characters than any others (at meals). Of course, Eeyore is my all time favorite, so
I might be biased...
Chef Mickey's - We chose Chef Mickey's for dinner one night. Here you meet Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto,
and Donald. We were there so long that
Mickey came by twice. That has something
to do with the fact that we kept eating... and eating... and eating. Chef Mickey's offers what I would call
"real" food. I don't know
about anyone else, but I can only eat so many chicken nuggets and theme park
pizzas before I feel sick. Here we found
eggplant parmesan, lasagna, turkey, roast beef, vegetables, etc. Some of the people in our family mostly ate
breads and desserts, but whatever.
Everyone left full. There are two
things that I don't love about Chef Mickey's.
One is the photo they take when you get there. I just don't get it. The other is that I think some of the
characters look a little silly in their chef costumes. This is probably just me. I think Donald looks ridiculous. It's OK.
The kids don't care, and it saves a lot of time not having to wait in
line for these guys elsewhere. We would
definitely eat at Chef Mickey's again.
We had three other (non-character)
table service meals:
Rainforest Cafe - I have always wanted to eat at Rainforest Cafe. We were not disappointed. Phil and I both had the chicken parmesan,
which, quite frankly, we could have shared.
Actually, I did share a lot of mine... with the kids... who wanted to
share everything at this meal. So, large
portion sizes and really excellent food?
Yes, please. All of the kids
ordered pasta of some kind. Several of
them got mashed potatoes with their meals.
Grace didn't like her pasta (Italian sausage and cavatappi), but
that was OK, because Caleb loved it, and none of the other kids liked their
mashed potatoes, so Grace just ate them all... and some of my chicken
parm... The volcano dessert was
incredible. And, who doesn't love an
indoor thunderstorm... or two... or, let's face it, we stopped counting and
just enjoyed them...
T-Rex - After our excellent
experience at Rainforest Cafe, we were pretty excited about T-rex, which is
owned and operated by the same company.
Our mistake. I'm really glad we
went, because the dinosaurs were awesome, and Ian loves dinosaurs. The food, though? Not so much.
Phil, Seth, and Caleb all ordered steak, which they thought was just
OK. Grace had chicken, which she said
tasted weird. I had fish. I'm not sure I can recall another time when I
have ordered fish and not finished it all.
I really like fish. This fish was
awful. Everybody loved the dessert. Perhaps if you really want to dine with the
dinosuars, dessert will do... We
wouldn't eat there again.
Le Cellier - Somehow, I have had it in my mind for years
that eating at Le Cellier, in Canada, is the mark of a true Disney foodie. And... well... I like a good steak. We're talking $50.00 a plate here, friends,
so by the time you add in drinks, dessert, and a tip, that's well over $400.00
for our family! Are you kidding me? Just... no.
But on the DDP, it's 2 table service credits per person. That we could do. Once. Here's
the deal. Pretzel rolls are awesome, and
that was one of the best New York strip steaks I have ever had. Something about the price tag is still
disturbing to me, though. I make some
pretty awesome homemade pretzel rolls.
Phil grills a mean steak. There's
just no way I could ever walk in there and pay the price to eat. I think if you're on the free DDP and you
don't feel the need to have table service every night, it's worth a trip to Le
Cellier. If not, maybe not.
Now, the whole counter service thing blew my mind this time
around. Remember how I said we ate over
$3500.00 worth of food? Yeah, that would
never have happened had we not had the free DDP. The massive amounts of food that come with a
counter service credit are just crazy!
To begin with, when we're paying out of pocket, we order ice water. That, alone, would have saved $21.00 per
counter service meal. And, when we're
paying out of pocket there is no way we order dessert every time through the
line. In fact, we probably don't order dessert,
at all, save a Mickey mouse ice cream bar or frozen lemonade here or there. On average, I'd say the desserts came to
about $31.50 per meal. Still, the retail
value of the food, alone, was totaling $60.00 or more every time we ate. We can sometimes do a meal at a sit down
restaurant (think Texas Roadhouse) for that price, and here we were eating
bacon cheeseburgers and fries. It's
Disney. It's going to cost more than
fast food. I completely get that. Considering, though, I'm not sure we can ever
afford to do Disney without a free
DDP again!
If you're paying out of pocket, I would definitely suggest sharing
meals. It's enough. There were a few times when we shared meals,
even though we had plenty of credits for everyone to have their own meal. The kids complained about this when I
ordered, because they thought they wouldn't get enough to eat. They changed their tune when I was shoving
food down their throats at the end of the meal in order to not waste
anything. And, honestly, by the end of
the trip we were still wasting a lot
of food. I am absolutely not OK with
this. There must be a better way.
Well, this sounds like a lot of complaining, but there were definitely
some bright spots in the counter service experience.
Epcot World Showcase... We like
to eat around the world. Since the lines
were really reasonable at all of the counter service restaurants and food and
wine festival booths, we got to try all kinds of things from different
countries/cultures. The UK fish & chips
are the best (everyone gasps, I know... I know...) and the French
bakery... let's just say I wish we
hadn't already eaten so much by the time we got there. Just to be clear, though. Don't try to order meals for everyone as you
eat around the world. It occurred to me
that I might not have been clear about this while I was blogging our
vacation. One counter service meal at
each country, per family, will do. A
couple of bites here, a couple of bites there.
Eat responsibly...
Some other counter service favorites include Pizza Planet (at Hollywood
studios) - It's not really that great, as far as the food goes, but... it's Pizza Planet...
And Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe (at the Magic Kingdom) - Because, come
on... you know you want to hear Sonny
Eclipse sing about gravity... and grilled chicken is reasonably healthy... and
they will give you a slushy for both your drink and dessert if you ask them to...
And the Electric Umbrella (at Epcot) - Actually, I don't get this at
all. My family loves the Electric
Umbrella. It's kind of like how they
feel about Tom Sawyer's Island. Maybe I
just have a vendetta against umbrellas.
I don't know. But, you can refill
your own drinks here, so I guess there's that...
We discovered Casey's Corner (at the Magic Kingdom) on this trip. I am not a huge hot dog fan, but Miah had a
dream to eat a hot dog at Disney World.
Actually Casey's Corner was pretty good, and they serve frozen lemonade,
so there are no complaints here. When
paying out of pocket, it's a little cheaper there than other counter service
places, as well.
We also discovered Starring Rolls Cafe (at Hollywood Studios). We just used snack credits there for
breakfast. The assortment of pastries
was overwhelming, which is probably why I ended up eating a Reese's peanut
butter cupcake for breakfast one day.
There is nothing acceptable about this.
I have no excuse. It was delicious... My family liked the cinnamon rolls.
And, if you happen to love turkey legs, you should definitely eat one
at Toluca Legs Turkey Co. (Hollywood Studios).
I do not like turkey legs, but Seth does. I'm telling you, I think maybe they served
him an ostrich leg. It was huge. He was happy.
We had so many counter service and snack credits left over at the end
of our trip that we ended up with pounds upon pounds of fudge, Mickey Mouse
cookies, and rice crispy treats to bring home.
There is no exaggeration here.
The fudge has been frozen for Thanksgiving. We could have better utilized these credits
if we had not been sick for part of the trip.
Because we had a couple of days where we stayed at the cabin and did
next to nothing, we also ate there, seeing as we had a full kitchen and plenty
of frozen food. Also, I think the
counter service credits are better utilized at other resorts. We loved staying at Fort Wilderness. We had always wanted to stay there, and it
was fabulous to have our own private space (more so than a hotel room). However, the amenities are really spread out,
and you pretty much have to take a bus everywhere. The value resorts, for example, have counter
service options right in the same building as the lobby. If counter service food had been more
conveniently located, I think we would have eaten more. Which may or may not have been a good thing.
Well... that's a lot of words... I hope they're helpful to someone as they
meal plan their Disney vacation!
L.
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