What???? No Dining Plan...Are you Crazy Mom??? - Our Dining Experiment

tyandskyesmom

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Yep, that's what Tyler said when I first told him we were going back WITH NO DINING PLAN! Then he asked how he was going to have a steak for every meal without a dining plan. Yep, he did.

But this idea was born for two reasons. One, because we did not expect to even be back so we were doing this cheap (I don't quite know how well that worked out for us, we'll find out together) and two, because on our last trip (December 8, 2015 thru January 1, 2016) we used the Deluxe Dining Plan for 14 days...as was normal for me and the kids for about the past 8 years. But now that we added Cary and both the kids are adults, we found it a lot of food and a lot of ADRs with FP+ "appointments" and our dining dynamics had changed a bit. SO we wanted to go the exact opposite extreme (Deluxe Dining Plan with 2-3 meal per day to no dining plan, paying out of pocket for everything) to see which fit up better now or where we needed to be on the dining plan spectrum.

So welcome to our experiment!
 
We are a family of four...

Me, Cary (my significant other), Tyler (17 year old), and Skyler (12 year old).

We have been a "family" for almost four years now. This is our second time traveling together like this. We were in The World from July 15, 2016 thru July 24, 2016. We stayed at Pop Century. We flew. We had a small Garden Grocer order, mostly water. We have Annual Passes from our last trip in December.

We love to eat out and don't do it a lot at home. The kids are on the somewhat picky side...but not, at the same time...it's hard to describe. I will eat almost everything. Cary is slightly picky bit not really. But we all like to eat.

There's the basics of us.
 
Let Then Eat Cake at Midway Airport

We got a Café Americano for Cary...which he said tasted like hot water, a bottle of Coke for Tyler and a Ginger Ale for Skye and I to share. Cary got a Strawberry Croissant...that he said was "eh", since Tyler is a Cinnamon Roll freak, that's what we got him and Skye for a glazed donut. Skye wanted to trade halfsies with Tyler and he refused. Well, her donut was apparently REALLY good and his Cinnamon Roll, not so much...he said " I should have traded her!". She's a nice sister though and ended up giving him some of hers.

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The total there was about $15.00 (can't find this receipt, if I do I will come back and update). Overall, it's a tiny storefront without a lot of room to move and we waited in line a while. The ladies helping did not speak much English so it was hard to understand what was going on and there were not very informative about how the line moved...like we had to wait for Cary's hot water and no one even said anything about that when they took our money. It was crowded in there and not run very well. But we got our food and that would hold us over until we arrived at Mickey's House in few hours.
 
At about 6:32am we were about 550 miles outside of Orlando and the served slightly salted peanuts and Cinnamon Airplane Cookies and drinks...Apple Juice for Skye, Coke for Cary, and tomato juice for me, Tyler passed on all...he was still sleeping.

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Everything Pop

We had decided to get two refillable mugs to share. We do like having our own because we all like to drink different things at different times and Tyler carries a back pack so when we're done with them we have some place to put them. We did not like the new times filled mugs. Skye like to mix sometimes and she had a little bit with this sometimes.

It was just after 11am when we arrived. The only lunch place open was the pizza counter. And there was one breakfast place still open. I did not want breakfast and I did not want pizza. They were getting other counters ready for lunch but there was a woman standing at the end of the line telling people kinds rudely that they were not serving lunch yet. She was not letting you stand in line to wait either.

So I decided I'd wait. Everyone else was happy with pizza. I also don't like the slices they serve now. We liked the individual pizzas. One of my problems was that the slices are hand cut so of course, they are not all the same size. And it seemed like a lot of the time, you got a piece that had been sitting a while waiting for someone to order it. And even as early in the lunch services as it was, they only had one piece of pepperoni left!

So Tyler got the Monster Slice of Pepperoni Pizza - with a caesar salad (but subbed Chips).

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And Skye and Cary got Monster Slice of Cheese Pizza - with a caesar salad.

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And the cashier was the only one out and she was slow. I get that she has to explain dining plans and such but then when she got to us and we were paying cash, things should have gone quickly...but they didn't.

Any way, they liked their pizzas. The chips were really good and I don't even usually like potato chips and expecially not the hard kind like these were but they were good and salty. The salads were good too but I think they were afraid of running out because there's barely any on their plates.

The plastic wear was empty, most of the ice machines were empty, and the drink stations were full of sticky spilled pop all over the place. Must have been one heck of a breakfast rush that completely cleared out before we arrived!?!?!?!

So they got theirs and a table and they started eating. I waited, munching on Tyler's chips. They had checked out at 11:09am.

TOTAL = $69.18

At about 11:20am, they started taking people at the one counter I wanted. So up I went. They had one person taking the order and then filling part of it and placing it on the back counter for someone else to finish...but no one else was there???

I ordered the Picnic Burger - with grilled hot dog, cheddar cheese, sauerkraut, onions, picklets, ketchup, mustard, lettuce, vine-ripe tomatoes, with a choice of two sides...that I got fries and pasta salad for.

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The fries were good and hot. Tyler and Skyler snagged them. Pasta salad was good. Cary really liked it and ate a lot of it. The burger was all mine. It was good. Not great. Very greasy and fell apart really easily. I would probably have been better off eating it with a fork and knife. I don't know that I'd order it again. I mean it was good but eh...I don't know.

But now here's my issue. Do you see how much food is on my plate? Did you see how much food (mainly the salads) that are on the other plates? Ya. Mine was $4.00 more than theirs but I believe that would be because my hamburder cost more than their pizza...the sides are negligible!

I rang out at 11:24am.

TOTAL = $14.90
Grand TOTAL = $84.08


So far I was very disappointed with Everything Pop.

TOTAL so far... $99.08
 


yikes! The price make me think offsite is a better choice. So three pizzas and one burger is a 100 maybe the CS DP isn't such bad idea?
 
yikes! The price make me think offsite is a better choice. So three pizzas and one burger is a 100 maybe the CS DP isn't such bad idea?

They did purchase two refillable mugs and I think those are around $18 each + tax. So that makes the meal total closer to $63...still expensive for what they got, but not as bad....
 
yikes! The price make me think offsite is a better choice. So three pizzas and one burger is a 100 maybe the CS DP isn't such bad idea?

They did purchase two refillable mugs and I think those are around $18 each + tax. So that makes the meal total closer to $63...still expensive for what they got, but not as bad....

Yep...$17.99 each...so the mugs are in that final total as is the approximate $15 breakfast snack at Let Them Eat Cake. So not horrendous but definitely not great either. So around $48.00 for the food...But it was three pieces of pizza, a little bit of salad, a handful of chips, a burger, fries, and pasta salad. This is where the sticker shock comes in. And this is what I was trying to get Cary to see. While on a dining plan you don't really look at prices...well I do because it's a game for me to see if I can beat the plan, but the rest of the people in my party don't. So while they enjoy seeing the end price of a meal, in individual meal is something they were not used to checking out the price of. But at home, 2 whole family sized (or larger) pizzas wouldn't have cost that much...especially for a cheese pizza...and there would have been more food!
 
But now here's my issue. Do you see how much food is on my plate? Did you see how much food (mainly the salads) that are on the other plates? Ya. Mine was $4.00 more than theirs but I believe that would be because my hamburder cost more than their pizza...the sides are negligible!

I also hate when that happens. What I do, is just ask them for more of whatever looks under-sized. I have never been refused. Once in awhile, they will act suprised, but they still give you more. I think they just throw the food together and don't really pay attention most of the time.
 
Never thought to do that...I mean at home, if I were to go into McDonalds and tell them to put more fries in my fry box, they are gonna look at me like I'm nutz...Although maybe others had because we have a time or two where Skye gets PO'd because the people in front of her get a huge plate of food and she got an almost laughable amount of food in comparison. One more thing you don't really deal with at table service venues!
 
Never thought to do that...I mean at home, if I were to go into McDonalds and tell them to put more fries in my fry box, they are gonna look at me like I'm nutz...Although maybe others had because we have a time or two where Skye gets PO'd because the people in front of her get a huge plate of food and she got an almost laughable amount of food in comparison. One more thing you don't really deal with at table service venues!
I have also asked for more fries at fast food places, with no problem. Sometimes they give you a measly amount. It used to bother me but now I just ask and like I said, no one ever refuses. Just say, 'excuse me, could I get a few more fries in there?' No one says, 'no'.

And I don't do it every time, but sometimes the workers are just plating food and not really paying attention.

One time, we were at a food court, either POFQ or POP, and my son got some kind of chinese beef with lo mein type dish. I thought it looked skimpy, but said nothing. As I was checking out, the cashier looked at it, said, 'they didn't give you enough. Go back and get more.' We did, and they gave us more, no problem.
 
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Joining :) We've never stayed at Pop or been to their food court, but yeah those meals don't look that appealing for the price you pay :( I hope you had better meals as the trip went on!
 
Backlot Express

By now we were all getting a bit hungry so we went to Backlot Express for dinner. As we were walking form Star Tours to Backlot Express it was starting to drizzle. We hadn't bought our ponchos yet...uh oh!


The kids hadn't remembered ever being here before because it has been that long since we've done counter service! Everyone though it was a pretty cool set up. It was not crowded when we got in but as it began to rain harder more people poured in. We found a seat outside but under some type of covering but we could see and hear the rain pouring down!

For dinner Cary ordered the Chili-Cheese Dog...served with coleslaw and choice of French fries or carrot sticks (he got fries)...

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He though this was a very good dog and his bun didn't fall apart too much so that's always a plus with a chili dog!

Skye and I decided to share. We got the 8 piece Chicken Breast Nuggets...served with French fries or carrot sticks (with fries)...
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It was plenty for both of us and I even think Cary had one. They were nice and hot and not dried out like a lot of chicken cooked like this gets.

Tyler got the Dark Side Chicken and Waffles...Chicken and Vadar Waffles with maple syrup.

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This was a ton of food! And he loved it! He didn't actually eat chicken and waffles though, he kinds ate chicken------and-------waffles...separate! But whatever! He finally agreed to let Skye have apiece of one of the waffles...she said Mickeys are better! LOL

We also got two soft drinks and you can refill at the machines. This was a bonus. But this is also where we started to have a little bit of the no dining plan blues...see Cary and Tyler don't share pop well... Tyler scarfs it down and then when Cary wants some there's none left. So this was a point of problem every meal. I just don't see that we need to order 3 or 4 pops each meal! Well, they didn't like having to share.

Other than that though, we had plenty of food for all of us. On the dining plan, even a CS one, would I have chosen to share nuggets...no, probably not. But, when I'm paying for it, I will take one for the team...and I'm not opposed to nuggets, I just bet there issomething else I would have rather had if cost was no issue. And honesly, we had plenty of food.

While we were eating Cary made a friend ...

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He was running around under tables looking for food. SO Cary helped him out with a French fry...and then I yelled at him! And then I explained why I yelled at him. And he didn't do it again. But this little guy sat right there next to the chair Tyler was sitting in and ate his fry until it was gone.

It was till raining pretty hard so we took our time eating and enjoying our first night in The World for a while.

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You can't really see the rain in the picture but it was pouring down!

All in all we liked our dinner. It was fast, it was hot, it was good, and there was not a huge crowd. The place was clean and well stocked and you get free refills on the pop.


TOTAL = $38.93
TOTAL so far... $138.01
 

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