Before we get to shopping the sites we need to decide what exactly we’re pricing. Dining Plans? Moderate, Deluxe, Value? Which hotel? Lets start with Dining Plans.
We did the Deluxe dining plan last time having never been to Disney World before. With it you could get three 3 course meals a day (including character meals) and 2 snacks each a day. It was waaay too much food. We went to a few restaurants where 2 credits were needed and still we had meal credits left over at the end. We were only managing 2 meals a day with no snacks. I was too full to try some of the treats I had planned – no Dole Whips, no turkey legs, no churros!! On the last day we had like 22 snack credits left at the end – luckily we used the credits to buy the krispie treats and cookies and brought them back to family as presents.
Here’s some of the restaurants we’d like to visit again
- Teppan Edo
- Le Cellier Stakehouse
- ‘Ohana
- Beaches and Cream
- Be Our Guest
A couple of these, and others we’d like to try, need 2 credits and when I worked it out, we’d nearly have the meal plan covered with those alone. I also liked the piece of mind knowing that food was paid for. In Disneyland Paris they don’t have the same dining plans. We always ended up eating in McDonalds as the food was too expensive to justify for us in the Park. With the great selection of Restaurants in Florida I think its well worth it.
The Quick Service plan includes 2 Quick Service meals and 2 Snacks. As mentioned above, with a few of the restaurants I’d like to visit – I sometimes have expensive tastes. I’d rather the option of having some table service meals for dinner so we decided to splash out a little!
We’re going to go with the Disney Dining plan, which is the middle plan that Disney offer. It includes 1 Quick Service meal, 1 Table Service meal and 2 Snacks per day each. For 2018 Disney World have updated their Dining Plans to include the option of one alcoholic beverage for those over 21 with each meal. We’d only really have a drink with dinner so this is a welcome addition! Last time we spent our money on the glass of wine with dinner and the gratuities. Having picked expensive restaurants to eat in, it meant the gratuities were justifiably more, but we didn’t expect so much. This time we’ll be better prepared.
Before I shop around for the best price, I like to have an Idea of what hotels I’d like to stay in. I’ll trim it down to a couple of options so I can get a full view of the deals available. That’s what we’ll do in the next post!
Talk to you then!
LaLaLander 