What's the Cheapest?

Hello,

We will be heading to Disney in February. We are getting the dining plan (one quick service, one snack and one table service per day). Due to the fact the we are doing the Hoop de doo (2 credits) we will be over by one table service… meaning we will need to pay at one of these restaurants.

Do any of these stick out as being cheaper than the others? Ie which one would we get the least bang for our buck with the dining plan:

  1. Crystal Palace (Supper)
  2. 50’s Prime Time Cafe (supper)
  3. Chef Mickeys (Brunch)
  4. Biergarten @ Epcot (supper)
  5. Tusker House (breakfast)
  6. Chef Art Smiths Homecoming (supper)
  7. Liberty Tree Tavern (supper)

Thanks for your help!

I think they should have menus and prices on the WDW website. That being said, I had terrible sticker shock at TH despite knowing in advance how much $$ it was. We had the ROL dining package though.

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50’s Prime time

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Check out mouse savers.com I think it’s them anyway. They have a ranking of best to worst in terms of value for dollar on the dining plan.

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For me, 50s would be the least amount of money.

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Not sure of your party’s makeup but at 50s Prime Time and Homecoming, you could definitely split appetizers and entrees to minimize costs, try more things, and not get so much food! The portions are always huge IMO. The others are buffet/AYCE places so it’s a set price per person so you can’t do that at those. I’d echo the others and say to compare what you would likely order at Prime Time and Homecomin with the set prices at the others to decide.

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I agree with previous poster about sharing entrees.

We just didn’t care for Chef Mickey or Liberty Tree. Those would be our least bang for the buck.

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All the menus with prices are here so you can price out what you are likely to order.

You will likely want to use dining credits for all the AYCE as they tend to be high priced and per person. So that narrows the list considerably and means you might want to eat lighter at the others anyway. Perhaps look at the menus for one where you might want to order appetizers instead, or split one appetizer and entree between two people.

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Here is another site I use for prices:

Hoop de doo is actually not a very good value for DDP considering you have to pay 2 credits and still can only get category 2 or 3. I would consider paying for HDD out of pocket, for a few dollars more you could then get a category 1 table. And then you have two other meals to use. Otherwise, I would pay OOP for Homecoming.

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But CM is one of the most expensive character meals on property last I knew! Whether you like it or don’t like it, it’s a good one to use credits at if you are on plan

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Most 2 credit restaurants are a very poor “bang for buck”

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Anything with characters is going to be expensive. I’d review menus at non-character meals, and pick the one that’s cheapest based on the meals you would actually order.

For the 5 of us, we often get 2 appetizers and 2 entrees (not necessarily to save money, but because that’s the food we’re most interested in) at sit-down restaurants. Some restaurants are much better for that kind of ordering than the traditional 1-entree-per-person. Or if you have kids, but there’s an adult entree on the menu you know they could share…that kind of thing.

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This is true - from a financial and DDP point of view. Which I failed to consider. Idk why this buffet just doesn’t work for us. :thinking: Ohana and H&V also don’t work.

It’s a good thing WDW has so many - guests can spread out.

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Totally agree! Homecomin portions are huge! We were four adults last month at WDW. We tried to look at other tables’ food as we sit to get an idea of the portion sizes. At Homecomin, we ordered fried chicken, short ribs, pork chops, and fish for dinner. The fried chicken could have fed 2+ of us. The short ribs could have fed 2 of us, and the pork chops could have fed 1+ of us. We had leftovers. We didn’t have room for dessert.

When we ordered 4 entrees at Grand Floridian Cafe for lunch, we were barely full because the portions are small. But then, we went to have cupcakes at Contempo Cafe afterwards!

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Absolutely!

Which is really sad because the hummingbird cake is so good.

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It was on our list to try. But we were stuffed! So upset we didn’t get to try it.

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Okay, wdwprepschool does a breakdown of the average value of 1 credit for each restaurant, so it’s either the average meal price (for 1 credit places) or half of the average meal price (2 credit places). Here are the values for your choices:

  1. Crystal Palace (Supper) $65
  2. 50s Prime Time Cafe (supper) $52
  3. Chef Mickeys (Brunch) $61
  4. Biergarten @ Epcot (supper) $58
  5. Tusker House (breakfast) 58
  6. Chef Art Smiths Homecoming (supper) 56
  7. Liberty Tree Tavern (supper) $49

Because the Hoop Dee Doo costs $69, that means you’re getting $34.50 value per credit On the face that doesn’t seem like a great use of the credits, but at the end of the day I think the best use is getting the meals you choose, so if you want to go to all of those places then it will still cost you less if you use credits for HDD and pay out of pocket for Liberty Tree or 50’s Prime Time.

I personally would go with 50s Prime Time, because those averages include a dessert and specialty or alcoholic beverage for each person, and if you have water and share one specialty drink and/or dessert (I would get a shake and no dessert) then your total is going to go down considerably. That’s also one where you can share entrees, and the portions are good-sized.

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So I’ve actually never eaten in the restaurant because we were too full from the huge entrees, but I have taken a piece back to my hotel room to enjoy later. We are dining there this week and I plan to be better prepared and save room for it.

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Wow! I am in awe of all the responses and help that you have all provided me!
I am going to consider paying for Hoop de Doo to allow us for another sit down & will compare 50’s Prime time and Chef Art Smiths.

Thanks again everyone!

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Compared to Prime Time Homecomin’ has the better food.

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