Your eating habits if the DDP works for you?

abinormal

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 23, 2013
I'm starting to feel like a real weirdo because I went through the menus on allears.net, adding up meals and snacks for a hypothetical WDW visit. And for my family the dining plan would save us a few hundred bucks.

Yet most posts here mention what a waste it is. Maybe I'm seriously overestimating how much we'd eat or something.

We'd be two adults, one child, one under three, with a few character breakfasts. My husband and I drink a soft drink with meals and usually get an appetizer or dessert. Sometimes both - we enjoy eating, I won't lie.

This was one or two TS meals and one QS a day. Maybe I'm the right demographic for it or something but the DP is coming up the winner even if I plan to bring in some food and most drinks from outside.
 
If you're doing 3 meals a day (2TS and 1CS), you'll need to get the DxDDP or pay some things OOP. Same thing if you want apps with your TS. The DxDDP can still be cost effective. It's the regular DDP that is getting harder to see the value.

The cost of the DxDDP is right at $100 for adults and just under $27 for kids.
 
I understand what the OP is saying I have done the same thing but with only one TS, one CS and a snack. It looks like we too will save money. We have bought the DP. We are leaving tomorrow and plan on keeping bills. I'll let you know if it works for us. We are two adults a 9 year old boy and 7 year old girl.
 
We eat 3 full meals per day. When dining out we always get an app and dessert. My children (11 and 7) have 1-2 snacks everyday. So the DxDP is the plan that we get that best suits our eating habits.
If u did the homework and you can see that the DDP is a good fit for you, don't let others change your mind. Some people eat like birds and can function on 1-2 meals per day. My family certainly can not!
 


I am a little hesitant about the plan when I think about the cost, but, my husband and I enjoy table service. Out of curiosity, I will keep my receipts to add up after we are home. That being said, I am not going to stress about how much we are spending and not worry about eating the most expensive item. We will have a better timr.
 
We figured that the DP would work for us. I didn't crunch numbers, but we also like to eat. Since it is likely to be our only trip while the kids are young (DD10 and DS8) and we are not likely to want to wait in line for characters we will do 3 character meals. We also enjoy eating, and DD and I seem to need to do it often or we get grumpy. No one wants a pair of grumpy girls in Disney::yes:: There is only one day we have to double up on TS. Other than that I think sharing some snacks/CS for the other meals will make it so we don't need to pay too much else oop.
 
What I eat when I dine out occasionally versus each day on vacation is very different. While I enjoy an appetizer, entree, alcoholic beverage and dessert when I dine out occasionally, I could never eat that way every day for a week. Even when we go out, DH and I share an appetizer, share dessert and I often take half or more of my entree home with me. If I ordered like that every meal at WDW on DXDDP we woudl have three apps, three entrees, three desserts every meal, even swapping a few for CS would be too much (plus the savings becomes diminished also)! The price works when you go through a menu and order what you would on an occasional restaurant trip but not what most would be able to do 3x a day for a week or more.
 


I feel the same way you do about the dining plan. Plus, I love going on vacation knowing that everything except tips is covered. It's totally a mind thing but I like knowing that I can get whatever I want without looking at the cost because I've already paid for it.
 
patsal said:
What I eat when I dine out occasionally versus each day on vacation is very different. While I enjoy an appetizer, entree, alcoholic beverage and dessert when I dine out occasionally, I could never eat that way every day for a week. Even when we go out, DH and I share an appetizer, share dessert and I often take half or more of my entree home with me. If I ordered like that every meal at WDW on DXDDP we woudl have three apps, three entrees, three desserts every meal, even swapping a few for CS would be too much (plus the savings becomes diminished also)! The price works when you go through a menu and order what you would on an occasional restaurant trip but not what most would be able to do 3x a day for a week or more.

That's an extremely good point. This would be the first time going for us, and really for any kind of long trip that didn't involve staying with relatives. I have no idea if we'd have the same habits every day as we do for occasional eating out.

I guess it's a bit of a risk either way. Go OOP, find we do eat the same way, and be out $, or go DP, find we don't, and be out $. Lol!
 
I guess it's a bit of a risk either way. Go OOP, find we do eat the same way, and be out $, or go DP, find we don't, and be out $. Lol!

We eat three meals a day here at home. Not huge meals but three regular meals every day. On vacation, with all the walking we do, we find that we need more calories. We generally eat a large for us breakfast, lunch, and then a good dinner with swimming and what not after to burn those calories too.

I will also point out that I don't feel the need to eat all of what is served to me at every single meal either. So that may have something to do with it. I eat until I am full not stuffed so I can't walk.
 
I just hate:

1. The fact that you have to prepay for food you may not eat (people do go home with unused credits, people get sick, etc.)
2. Have to somewhat work the system to get your money's worth (bang for the buck-need to order the expensive menu items)
3. Have to eat dessert with your meal (with rare exception) as opposed to a few hours after you have eaten your meal.
4. A refilable mug? Not for us?
5. Non-alocoholic drinks with meals. Not for us.
 
We always eat 3 full meals a day, even when we are just sitting around at home! Being active in the parks all day in the heat means we need to eat at least that much. I still can't understand how so many people get by on just 1-2 meals a day, my family would be passing out from starvation, lol!

When I run the numbers on the DxDDP, we just about break-even with what we would probably spend OOP, given that DH would almost never get dessert, and I would almost never get an app, and we would buy fewer snacks. So for the same money, we actually get more food (if we want it), and the lack of guilt every time the bill comes.

And, being able to include it in the package price means I can use the Disney Visa 6-months free financing, which helps too. And if someone gets sick or has to leave in an emergency and can't use all the credits, that's what our travel insurance is for :)
 
It saves us money. Maybe not a ton, but I've run the numbers several times against what we have actually ordered, and it always comes out ahead. We are two Disney Adults, and here's our general eating pattern:

Quick Service Breakfast, usually at the resort. I tried eating a granola bar and having an instant breakfast in the room and was starving a few hours later, so we do a solid breakfast now. We do not generally use a dining credit for breakfast, we pay OOP for breakfast since those items are generally cheaper, and then use a credit for lunch.

Quick Service Lunch in the parks.

Snack; sometimes it's a coffee, sometimes it's the sinfully good cinnamon roasted pecans in Epcot ... ;)

Table Service Dinner. Yes, every night. We've tried doing the big meal in the middle of the day, and it just doesn't work for us. This way we spend the morning and afternoon without worrying about an ADR.

I've run it five ways to Sunday, and we still come out ahead. I even calculated what it would have cost on this last trip we took where we spent a day at Sea World and Medeival Times, and it was the ONLY case in which we would not have saved money if we had the DDP (we didn't), since we weren't on property for the equivalent of two TS meals.

ETA: I just realized that I hadn't even taken snacks into account when I ran the numbers, so we DEFINITELY come out ahead, even if we use the snack credits on a $2.50 pop. Didn't take tax into account either, so the prices I was using for OOP were even lower than the actual cost, making it that much better. You have to pay tips either way, so those are a non issue for me.
 
I'm starting to feel like a real weirdo because I went through the menus on allears.net, adding up meals and snacks for a hypothetical WDW visit. And for my family the dining plan would save us a few hundred bucks.

Yet most posts here mention what a waste it is. Maybe I'm seriously overestimating how much we'd eat or something.

We'd be two adults, one child, one under three, with a few character breakfasts. My husband and I drink a soft drink with meals and usually get an appetizer or dessert. Sometimes both - we enjoy eating, I won't lie.

This was one or two TS meals and one QS a day. Maybe I'm the right demographic for it or something but the DP is coming up the winner even if I plan to bring in some food and most drinks from outside.

First of all OP, you are not a weirdo. What works for some doesn't always work for others. We find the DP ALWAYS works best for us and we are a family of 4 as well. My girls are now older but even when they were younger, it always worked and we always save money with the DP. This is how we eat with the DP (very similar to how we eat at home too). We are all pretty light eaters in the morning so often we will use our snack credits for a bagel or muffin, etc or just pay out of pocket at times. QS credits we use for lunch and TS we use for a nice sit down dinner somewhere. Sometimes we vary, ie: if we decide to do a character breakfast, we'll use our TS for that, but make a later breakfast reservation which holds just fine for most of the day then we use our QS credit for an earlier dinner somewhere. If someone feels like a snack, they'll use their snack credit for something in the afternoon. So see, you're not alone in liking the DP
 
The plan works perfectly for us, too. We like to get out early for RD, so granola bars and juice boxes (brought from home or delivered) make a good quick breakfast. Since we had a small breakfast, we're ready for a QS lunch around 11:00-11:30 (allowing us to beat the lunch rush). We plan a TS meal for dinner so we can sit down and talk about our day. Snacks get used here and there for drinks and treats, and any leftovers are used to bring some home.
 
amomma23 said:
The plan works perfectly for us, too. We like to get out early for RD, so granola bars and juice boxes (brought from home or delivered) make a good quick breakfast. Since we had a small breakfast, we're ready for a QS lunch around 11:00-11:30 (allowing us to beat the lunch rush). We plan a TS meal for dinner so we can sit down and talk about our day. Snacks get used here and there for drinks and treats, and any leftovers are used to bring some home.

This sounds almost exactly like what we do. Except, we have several cases of water delivered to the resort, so we use snacks for treats, fruit or something like a bagel with peanut butter for our son for breakfast. We love the convenience of the dining plan, have our favorite restaurants and, while we don't eat dessert with lunch and dinner everyday when we are at home 1. We are on vacation, so we treat ourselves when we want it 2. We don't stuff ourselves and stop eating when we are full 3. There are healthy dessert options at most places and there always is the option of taking back to the resort. And finally, based on how we eat when at WDW, the DDP saves us money, when we have paid for it. We have had FD the last four years and use this discount when we stay at POFQ. When we stay at the Wilderness Lodge, room discount promos outweigh the FD, though, and we pay OOP for the DDP.
 
We'd be two adults, one child, one under three, with a few character breakfasts. My husband and I drink a soft drink with meals and usually get an appetizer or dessert. Sometimes both - we enjoy eating, I won't lie.

This was one or two TS meals and one QS a day. Maybe I'm the right demographic for it or something but the DP is coming up the winner even if I plan to bring in some food and most drinks from outside.
You are absolutely the right demographic! Families with children under 10 who want to do character meals usually find the DDP a savings over paying OOP since those character meals are so darn expensive! My 13-year old DD is a fussy vegetarian "Disney Adult" and it just doesn't work for us. There is no way she would eat $57 worth of food every day even though her father and I would give it a good try.

It looks like this might be your first trip back as an adult. Is that true? I have two pieces of advise: (1) If you're on the DDP, do a character lunch or dinner. Don't waste your precious morning eating unless you are doing at an absolutely dead time. You will be able to take advantage of the lower morning crowds and your kids will appreciate the "down time" later in the day. (2) Run your numbers without the desserts at the CS restaurants. With a couple of notable exceptions, they are pretty nasty. I felt bad throwing out desserts after a while and then just started asking for a side of grapes instead. Yeah, the grapes are fine but that little package is no where near the $4.00 (with tax) that you probably used to calculate the value of the DDP.
 
I really like the DDP, and I think it works great, and saves me $. My DD needs a TS break every day to reset her sensory clock's tolerance for WDW. We like character meals and buffets. We occasionally share a CS for a late breakfast when we do RD (we eat granola bars early on those days to take the edge off for a few hours) or for dinner after a later TS lunch.

I also like not looking at prices and getting dessert. ;)

It definitely works for some people, I think people with kids who do character meals and buffets fall into that group.
 
I get it every time, both kids under 10. For my sanity, I need to sit and have a peaceful TS every day and won't cook in the room even if there is a kitchen. This trip I planned out our ADRs and then calculated the cost which was $125 less, for the entire week, than the DDP. So for me it was a no-brainer, for $125 we're getting 21 QS meals, 21 snacks, and 3 refillable mugs. If they're older or we did less character meals or didn't eat TS every day maybe not but for now, it definitely works for us.
 
I get it every time, both kids under 10. For my sanity, I need to sit and have a peaceful TS every day and won't cook in the room even if there is a kitchen. This trip I planned out our ADRs and then calculated the cost which was $125 less, for the entire week, than the DDP. So for me it was a no-brainer, for $125 we're getting 21 QS meals, 21 snacks, and 3 refillable mugs. If they're older or we did less character meals or didn't eat TS every day maybe not but for now, it definitely works for us.

So you spend $125 more, have to give Disney your money ahead of time for food that may not be consumed (trip gets canceled, people get sick at Disney, etc.), lose some flexibility (in case you want to skip some meals at that moment if having too much fun). Doesn't make sense to me.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top