To shamelessly ask for DLP food advice?!

[SpudsAreLife84]

Sorry sorry, I know this is not an AIBU to I need to get some responses and I know people will see this here!

Taking 3 kids (1 teen and 2 under 5) plus myself and DH to DLP for 5 days. DH booked it and didn't add a meal plan - can anyone tell me if £500 a day will feed us all 2 meals a day or would I better off calling the agent and adding on half board plus or premium?? Thank you!!!! (Sorry again for misusing AIBU!)

Usually the half board meal plans do work out better value for money. And easier with kids as you have 1 snack included etc etc. The food in DLP is pretty awful though so if you’d plan to eat elsewhere or take own food into parks then it might not make financial sense. If you want to go to any of the more special restaurants or do character dining make sure you book in advance! I think you can book further in advance with a meal plan. Definitely go to the Ratatouille restaurant as that was worth it!

£500 a day? Are you crazy. Who spends £100 on a preschoolers food? More than enough. If you mean £500 total that might be tighter but doable.

We did the meal plan and it worked out fine but the food is pretty crap - even in the “better” restaurants. Almost wished I’d not bothered and just eaten chips and sandwiches for a few days!

Disboards are a good place to look for all sorts of Disney advice.

I’m guessing you mean £50 a day and not £500?

The food is very expensive, I took a four year old in June, we had a pass that meant everything was included but we would have found £50 a day impossible if there was a second adult eating, especially when you consider drinks as well.

There’s a Facebook group with a ton of advice on if you have social media, it’s called Disneyland Paris for Uk guests.

From viewing the menus it depends really where you want to eat, or if you want character dining etc.

The group can answer your questions I’m sure

Take plenty of snacks.

You'll need to reserve restaurants in advance as they get fully booked. Have a look at the buffet options for different age groups but be aware that it's France and French food for kids is different.

McDonald's is always an option

Last time we went we did half board - stayed at Santa Fe and the breakfasts were fine (cereals, pastries, fruit, yoghurt, cheeses etc). Meals were a bit meh, but that’s be largely the same if you were paying for each meal anyway. We bought filled baguettes and crisps from the shop on the train station which were about €6-7 each, and big enough for 2 kids to share. Have a look at the menus for the tea stair ants in the DLP website, work out which restaurants you’d be eating in and if they’re covered in a meal plan then I’d get that.

You don’t need to book tables at the counter service restaurants - the best one we ate at was restaurant en coulisse in the front lot of the Disney studios - burger and fries type stuff but fairly decent.

No, I do mean 500 a day. It looks like a burger for example is 25-30 euros, so 3 meals, plus kids meals will be well over 100 euros for lunch. Dinner if wating somewhere decent probably nearer 200, and then snacks throughout the day and drinks etc I thought 500 would be realistic? That's why I wondered if a meal plan might work out better value?

£500 a day is an insane amount of money! We went recently but brought pastries to eat on the train in from Paris and had snacks like Pringles, raisins in our bags. We ate lunch there and got ice creams. I can't remember it being insane. Maybe £80 total for burger meals and ice creams for 4. There are places to eat just outside the park too. We didn't eat there, but there was a lot of choice there.

I think though of you want to make it a big experience and are happy to pay that much, a meal plan might be a good way forward. We were very much thinking 'food is fuel' to be honest!

500 a day is crazy money!

So £2,500 on food? That's insane. That's twice what we spend on our entire holiday for a family of 4.

Food inside the parks is stupidly expensive, and unless you go to the fine dining places it’s basically just fast food!

You’ll find it much cheaper to eat in the village - McDonalds is very reasonable and serves alcohol!
But there’s also plenty of other choice - the pizza place is nice and did Minnie shaped chicken nuggets for the kids, there’s also an Earl of Sandwich which does things like wedges with the meals so quite filling.

Plus there’s a Five Guys, Planet Hollywood and Rainforest Cafe - Rainforest cafe is fab but also fairly expensive - around £120 for 5 of us (including 2 under 5s) and that was before the exchange rate fell do much!

Buffalo Bills Wild West Show is awesome, and you get a meal there that we enjoyed.

Only time I would splash out on meals would be for character breakfast - we went Compass Club so only had to pay £7 per person to add it on and it was the highlight of our trip! Definitely worth paying for the character interaction.

Jeez, if you can spend £500 a day on food why would you not just go on an actual nice holiday.

You could take the kids to Florida for the amount you plan to spend on food! Take packed lunches and snacks in to the park, go to McDonalds etc for dinner. Fill up water bottles at the fountains instead of buying loads of drinks. Book one or two character dining experiences if they're something you want to do. Val d'Europe is only one stop away from Disney where you can go to the Auchan supermarket for lunch supplies. There's no need for it to be so expensive.

Here to say if you can afford to spend £500 per day on food, I suggest you go all out and pay for food package!
Alternatively go to Orlando!

That does sound a bit like crazy money but I know it is expensive. I think when we went you could gte the menus online and get an idea of how much stuff was. We were there for 3 days - 2 adults and 2 children (older than yours but still primary) and I think we had £1000 and lived like kings. I would recommend booking the buffalo bills show one night and also a character meal. The Earl of Sandwich was the nicest food we had and the cheapest. I think we had breakfast included at Santa Fe. It was a bun fight and we hated it but it did a job.

The half board meal plan is great. I mean it's not cordon bleu but it takes so much pressure off. Just make sure you book the restaurants that look nicer. Our favourite was the pirates of the Caribbean restaurant because the food was a little more interesting. With that covering snacks and dinner you will spend a lot less than £500 a day and not have any pressure to find food.

When we ate we had the meal plan with breakfast and one other meal included at buffet restaurants.

Big breakfast, took some snacks which we are in queues, dinner at 4-5pm. Another snack (which we took with us, but we drove) before bed if necessary. Might not work for a big eating teenager. Worst meal we had was the burger and chips fast food we had on last day before left. Other than that the only food we bought was ice cream (plus lunch with the princesses in the palace)

I think you will find most places are not £25 a meal. You may have been looking at the more expensive places. The village just outside the park is very reasonable but I would suggest a big breakfast, late lunch around 2.30 and then a snack in the evening. That way, you avoid the queuing for a table and when everyone else is eating at 5/6/7 oclock, you will be enjoying quieter queues on the park!

£500 a day. What a fucking ridiculous waste of money.

I would get the dining plan. The food is awful, standard american junk, nothing French about it. Take long life snacks with you as you'll pay a fortune for them in the parks. I'm typing this from Disney Florida and I'm spending a fortune on 'fruit cups' as there is zero healthy food here (same as when I've taken the kids to DLP). At least with the dining plan you can eat the salad garnish at the buffets! I really wish I had packed a bag of apples but I guess that depends on how healthy an eater you are!