Cafeen's Disney Dining Plan Cost Analysis Spreadsheet - Reborn

[Cafeen]

I shared this once, ages ago. But then I fell by the wayside and all was lost. Well, all but the mega sheet itself. And yes, the title of the sheet signifies just how long it is .

Since planning for my 2011 and 2012 trips, I have tweaked the sheet considerably and added some new features (and pulled Excel 97 and Open Office "support").

This is really more than a spreadsheet, it's essentially an application that runs in Excel now. It's huge. I'm warning you here, it's a big big sheet. It's tedious as hell to fill out, but it'll give you a fairly accurate estimation on the best bet for your trip. I still have future plans for this, so I'm still calling this beta (yup, it's been a "beta" for about 2 1/2 years now). As such, I offer no guarantees or anything, because if I did, then that'd be pretty silly of me to do so! "As-is" is the name of the game. It's also free, of course.

--Download Page with Instructions and Such--

Features
The sheet offers several features that you'll probably find somewhere else as well...

• Free Dining Cost Comparison - Just how much is your free dining costing you? Are you better off with a room discount?
• Multiple Itinerary Support - You wouldn't REALLY get all those desserts if you were paying OOP right? Let's compare apples to apples here. The sheet offers different itineraries for 5 scenarios including all 3 of the major dining plans (DxDDP, DDP, QSDP), Tables in Wonderland, and Out of Pocket
• Sortable Value per Credit Analysis - Oops, you went over on your credits and need to know which meal you're getting the least value for? Don't worry, there's a whole tab on there for it.
• Various Cost and Credit Metrics - How much are you actually paying for all this? How much would this cost if it were fully OOP? How much are my servers expected to get? How much value per credit am I receiving? Answer these questions and more!

I've also included an example sheet (it's my actual one for my 2012 trip, in fact) on the download page if you'd like to get a visual of how it's all filled out.

Some Tips and Other Notes

• It's big. The sheet is huge. It's overwhelming at first! However, that's mostly the calculations and all that stuff that you don't need to worry about. Really, the only tabs you even need to look are are the first 4 (Summary, Days 1-7, Days 8-14, Sortable Price Data), and if you're set with your credit count, you don't even need the 4th! And on the "Days" pages, you only need to enter the data there, all the calculations (totals, added tax, added tips, etc) are all done for you.
• The credit numbers per meal are for the restaurant. It will calculate the total credits used by multiplying that number and the number of people you specify. Since restaurants at Disney are (currently) either 1 or 2 credits, only 0, 1, and 2 are allowed in this field.
• TiW section needs some work. Right now it applies the discount if it's a TS location and not if it's a QS location. There is absolutely no way for the sheet (currently) to recognize the restaurant and inherently know if TiW is applicable there (this is out of scope for the spreadsheet). There will, eventually, at least be a way to specify whether or not to use TiW at the meal, outside of the QS/TS switch. That'll be coming in the next version!

Screenshots

You are 100% free to tweak this sheet to fit your own needs, as well as convert it to other formats if you please. If you add features and all that fancy stuff to it, and then share it yourself, I ask of you two simple things. Credit for the stuff I did, and a cut if you sell it! (JK, well, unless you actually do sell it...and are willing... I won't turn it down )

As you can see, I really take myself seriously (sarcasm! ). But in all honesty, I've put roughly 100+ hours into creating, testing, tweaking, formatting, etc this sheet. It's far from perfect, but it should suit most everyone's needs for now (at least, until stuff changes again...)

 

[CantHardlyWait1981]

Not sure what I am doing wrong, but when I try to download it it is telling me "Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here."

 

[Cafeen]

It's because I'm an idiot and completely forgot to actually upload the files.

You know, the whole basis for everything...

Minor details.

Both sheets are uploaded and I actually tried the download links this time to make sure they work.

 

[CantHardlyWait1981]

It's because I'm an idiot and completely forgot to actually upload the files.

You know, the whole basis for everything...

Minor details.

Both sheets are uploaded and I actually tried the download links this time to make sure they work.

Thank You!!!!!!

 

[virge]

Thanks for sharing! You put a great deal of work into creating this & I appreciate your efforts!

 

[tpettie]

Thanks Cafeen I just have to see if I'm skilled enough to add two more day into the spreadsheet without messing up the formulas .... I love you spreadsheet and have used it faithfully for the last 3 trips 2012 will be our forth year tanks for all your hours of work! We are going for 16 days this year

 

[mmouse50]

Thank you so much for all the work - I have uploaded it and looking towards next year since this year is with Free Dining.

 

[phillymummer]

That is pretty awesome but my head spins just looking at!

I don't know if I know enough abouut the dining plan and other costs to fill that out!

 

[oceanwave]

Thanks for sharing this

Can't wait to play around with it!

 

[phillymummer]

I downloaded the program and I noticed your information is in both files. Obviously I should change the information about number of nights and people, and the room rack rate but can I keep the DP prices?

We are going in Oct of 2012 and have the free DDP (staying at POFQ)

 

[Cafeen]

That is pretty awesome but my head spins just looking at!

I don't know if I know enough abouut the dining plan and other costs to fill that out!

I downloaded the program and I noticed your information is in both files. Obviously I should change the information about number of nights and people, and the room rack rate but can I keep the DP prices?

We are going in Oct of 2012 and have the free DDP (staying at POFQ)

The information in the "Empty" one on the summary tab is mine, yes. I forgot to clear that part out (doh!), but the dining plan prices on that tab are current for 2012 non-peak season, so feel free to use them. (I did clear out all my restaurants and choices and such though!)

If you need the 2013 prices, there are a few threads around here with them.

 

[phillymummer]

Thank you!

I just realized that there are more pages! I found the day 1-7 details and everything after!

 

[CopperWife]

Yowza! I downloaded this bad boy and was very overwhelmed. But after getting over the intial shock of the spreadsheet, I found that it was super easy to fill out (a bit time consuming, yes, but well worth it!) and I was amazed at all the work you put into it, Cafeen. Thank you so very very much!

 

[Cafeen]

Yowza! I downloaded this bad boy and was very overwhelmed. But after getting over the intial shock of the spreadsheet, I found that it was super easy to fill out (a bit time consuming, yes, but well worth it!) and I was amazed at all the work you put into it, Cafeen. Thank you so very very much!

Can't say I didn't warn you

I did add that as a note above that at first glance, it's a ton of stuff, but a lot of that is either programming related (the tabs after the 4th one) or calculated for you.

Thanks for giving it a go . Eventually I want to write this all up as a webpage of sorts rather than a spreadsheet. It will open it up to anyone with a (modern) web-browser, and lessen the overall blow of opening up the sheet for the first time and seeing all that information. This would be a huge project though, and I haven't found the time or energy to start it just yet. (The UI code alone is looking to be a real pain!)

 

[wetiger]

Great job Cafeen! We're going in late April - early May 2013 so I used your spreadsheet (application, really) utilizing the new dining plan prices to see if it confirmed what I was thinking. It sure did but I was surprised at the degree to which the DxDP is a bad deal for my family.

Bit of background - we're a family of 4: 2 adults, 1 10yo Disney adult, and 1 5yo child. We eat a lot and enjoy eating good food, so I was planning on the DxDP before the 2013 rates were released. We'll be staying 8 nights and I figured we'd use 17-18 of our meals at TS restaurants, with only 1 or 2 of those at signatures.

With the significantly increased DxDP rates for 2013, it seemed to me we'd be spending an additional $45-$50 per day on the DxDP, so I had already figured it might make much more sense for me to invest a little extra up front for an AP and a TIW card for me. Boy, was I right!

In filling out the sheet and calculating each meal, I tended to estimate fairly high for alcoholic beverages to try to account for the non-meal times when my wife and I would prefer a drink to an ice cream snack. I also estimated our food choices on the high end but tried to be fairly realistic. Here's what I came up with:

If we paid OOP for what I've estimated, we'd wind up spending $3,000. On the DxDP at 2013 prices, we actually lose money - $3,375 total once the OOP items and gratuities are factored in. By using TIW, however, we spend less than $2,000 - a savings of $1,000 from OOP and almost $1,400 from the DxDP! I know the cost to us will be a little higher since we won't receive a TIW discount at our non-TS meals and the spreadsheet doesn't account for that but it's still an eye-opener for me!

 

[Cafeen]

Great job Cafeen! We're going in late April - early May 2013 so I used your spreadsheet (application, really) utilizing the new dining plan prices to see if it confirmed what I was thinking. It sure did but I was surprised at the degree to which the DxDP is a bad deal for my family.

Bit of background - we're a family of 4: 2 adults, 1 10yo Disney adult, and 1 5yo child. We eat a lot and enjoy eating good food, so I was planning on the DxDP before the 2013 rates were released. We'll be staying 8 nights and I figured we'd use 17-18 of our meals at TS restaurants, with only 1 or 2 of those at signatures.

With the significantly increased DxDP rates for 2013, it seemed to me we'd be spending an additional $45-$50 per day on the DxDP, so I had already figured it might make much more sense for me to invest a little extra up front for an AP and a TIW card for me. Boy, was I right!

In filling out the sheet and calculating each meal, I tended to estimate fairly high for alcoholic beverages to try to account for the non-meal times when my wife and I would prefer a drink to an ice cream snack. I also estimated our food choices on the high end but tried to be fairly realistic. Here's what I came up with:

If we paid OOP for what I've estimated, we'd wind up spending $3,000. On the DxDP at 2013 prices, we actually lose money - $3,375 total once the OOP items and gratuities are factored in. By using TIW, however, we spend less than $2,000 - a savings of $1,000 from OOP and almost $1,400 from the DxDP! I know the cost to us will be a little higher since we won't receive a TIW discount at our non-TS meals and the spreadsheet doesn't account for that but it's still an eye-opener for me!

I <3 glowing praise... *basks for a bit*

Ahem..

Glad to hear you found out what works best . While I'm a big proponent of the plans (well, DDP and DxDDP...and that's changing with the hikes), I'm an even bigger proponent of figuring out what's best for your trip, hence the size and scope of the sheet.

I'm also more seriously looking into bringing this to a web-based platform. All the math is figured out, so it's just a matter of coding it all (which won't be too difficult, I can do that too ). I think the UI is really what's holding me back on it and have to think of something that works for it. Besides, if I do that, then when someone finds a bug or an issue (e.g. the inability to select TiW on/off for specific TS/QS meals), I can fix it and their stuff will just have the updates applied (yep, I'm going to have the ability to "save" an itinerary in the web-form as well).

 

[wetiger]

I <3 glowing praise... *basks for a bit*

Ahem..

Glad to hear you found out what works best . While I'm a big proponent of the plans (well, DDP and DxDDP...and that's changing with the hikes), I'm an even bigger proponent of figuring out what's best for your trip, hence the size and scope of the sheet.

I'm also more seriously looking into bringing this to a web-based platform. All the math is figured out, so it's just a matter of coding it all (which won't be too difficult, I can do that too ). I think the UI is really what's holding me back on it and have to think of something that works for it. Besides, if I do that, then when someone finds a bug or an issue (e.g. the inability to select TiW on/off for specific TS/QS meals), I can fix it and their stuff will just have the updates applied (yep, I'm going to have the ability to "save" an itinerary in the web-form as well).

What I like about what you've done is that it forces you to account for all of the OOP expenses you'd have on a dining plan. It's very easy to underestimate those costs if you don't go through things systematically. Plus, under this year's prices, I figured the DxDP would be about a break-even proposition for us which is exactly what it turned out to be when I plugged in the 2012 prices. I like the idea of the DP and the intrinsic value of knowing most things are already paid for. But for 2013, Disney has more or less made the DxDP a sucker bet. It might still make sense for shorter visits but for anyone staying 5 days or more, you can get everything you'd get on the DxDP and more for a lot less money.

 

[mousefan73]

Best thing about this spreadsheet is that its so professional. I can play around with it at work and to passerbys, it looks like I am really working!!!

 

[geckodani]

Wow. Your spreadsheet makes my spreadsheet looks like an early attempt at cave painting.

Thank you so much for sharing this!!!

 

[mbforbes]

Love this!