Your eating habits if the DDP works for you?

[honeymo78]

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.

I think she was saying that just for the cost of the TS meals, it was $125 less than the dining plan. But with the plan and she will get QS, snacks and mugs. I don't think there is any way she could get all that for less than $125 OOP.

 

[bdklein]

I think she was saying that just for the cost of the TS meals, it was $125 less than the dining plan. But with the plan and she will get QS, snacks and mugs. I don't think there is any way she could get all that for less than $125 OOP.

Gotcha. Makes sense when you reread it.

 

[davedmaine]

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.

But would you have ordered what you did if you weren't on the plan? Most people order the most expensive menu items to maximize value of the plan - did you? Also, 99% of people not on the plan don't get CS dessert - would you have? And Would you have bought all of the snacks? What I'm saying is that it's not apples to apples. the plan will give you convenience, but won't save you money. I argue that you should put the money on a gift card instead and pay for meals that way..

 

[Three cats]

We go with the deluxe dining plan. A table service restaurant for lunch and a signature restaurant for dinner every day. Works out great for us. We saved well over 300.00 last time.

 

[ibela]

I think she was saying that just for the cost of the TS meals, it was $125 less than the dining plan. But with the plan and she will get QS, snacks and mugs. I don't think there is any way she could get all that for less than $125 OOP.

That's what I meant, even if I could manage CS for $18/day for the 3 of us (maybe sharing 2 adult CS between us 3?) I'd still have to get at least a few snacks throughout the week so even though I wouldn't normally get 3 snacks per day and I wouldn't get the mug for any of us let alone all of us, it was still a savings.

 

[worm761]

But would you have ordered what you did if you weren't on the plan? Most people order the most expensive menu items to maximize value of the plan - did you? Also, 99% of people not on the plan don't get CS dessert - would you have? And Would you have bought all of the snacks? What I'm saying is that it's not apples to apples. the plan will give you convenience, but won't save you money. I argue that you should put the money on a gift card instead and pay for meals that way..

When I add up what we would most likely order if we were paying OOP and then compare it to the DxDDP, the DxDDP saves me about $400. While it may not work for you, it DOES work for some of us.

 

[aaarcher86]

We go with the DXDP and save. We do a TS breakfast, TS dinner and a QS lunch each day. Most are character meals. We have 2 child priced children. I'll have to re-evaluate when my oldest (now 7) turns 10 since she's a whopping 37 lbs and will in no way eat enough to make the adult pricing even out. She also prefers macaroni and fruit which isn't much of a hot commodity on the adult menus lol.

When I add up what we would most likely order if we were paying OOP and then compare it to the DxDDP, the DxDDP saves me about $400. While it may not work for you, it DOES work for some of us.

I agree. The DXDP is hard to save on, but it DOES happen.

I did the same math as everyone else. At full price the DXDP was about $100 more than OOP, but I didn't include any snacks at all. We easily spend that much in snacks throughout the trip. With the SPD we had on our trip in February we ended up saving about $700 in meals alone AND had to cancel our last breakfast because of an illness, so it would have been more. Factoring in the 50 or so snack credits we used would have increased the savings even more.

We ordered what we wanted and didn't look at the prices. Even if it was $100 more for the DXDP I'd still do it. I love that everyone gets an appetizer and dessert - we wouldn't always order an appetizer OOP and we would RARELY order a dessert (and no, I didn't add those on to my OOP comparisons. I legit went with what we'd probably order). It is more food at a single sitting (we eat 3 meals a day) than we would normally eat, but I don't feel the need to lick my plate clean by any means. If I ordered the same meal OOP I still wouldn't be finishing it. The portions don't change.

 

[KMarston]

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 think many families who do the DxDP do signatures so some of their dinners are 2TS credits.

We are using DDP with 4 of us, two teens that LOVE desert. Itnwill be our first time using the DDP. We rarely order dessert out! The deciding factor For me on this trip is that my DH by the third day or so is adding up the meals in his head and becomes a bear because he feels cash being sucked out of his account! We cruised for the first time a few years ago and he kept saying all the way home how the fact that everything was paid for made the trip so much more enjoyable. Our bill was only close to $1000.00. He had no clue how much the trip or excursions cost! Money isn't tight for us, he was raised dirt poor and physically spending money puts him overthe edge! That said we eat out 4 or more times a week depending on schedules. So OOP wouldn't be so much different than at home but Inguess he feels more in control of it.

I figure we try it once and see how it goes!

 

[RyMacJ]

We will definitely come out ahead on the dining plan. We have a DD4 (will be 5 by our trip) and DD3. When crunching the number, the adults will be ahead by a little, but for the girls, we'll be ahead by a good bit. We are doing 3 character meals, and the cost of those alone will be a bit more than what we will pay for their DDP. So their lunches/snacks will be "free". I know they won't eat all of their food all the time, and I'm sure some of the adults won't either. But the convenience of it is SO worth it to us. DH loves being able to sit down and look at a menu and not worry about the price, just order whatever the heck he wants.

We are also taking my MIL on this trip, and she hasn't been to Disney since the late 80s...so of course she has never been on the DDP. Her mind is going to be BLOWN!

 

[nat8199]

I ran the numbers and we are going to save money doing the DxDP. I will have one child-aged kid and two under-threes.

We plan on doing a Character Buffet every morning before park openings, a light lunch, and then Signature Dinners for the adults (one adult stay with sleeping kids).

Though we typically eat lighter at home, when we go on vacation we like to eat well. We always order apps and a dessert. DH and my inlaws will get coffee with bkfast and dinner. So it works for us. Plus, we will have a ton of snack credits to use for lunch at F&W on our 2 epcot days.

 

[Wendy5055]

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 totally agree! We are a 3 meal per day family too. I often bring my 70 year old mother and she appreciates 3 meals per day...not to mention the break in air conditioning. We eat 3 meals per day and also have snacks (we happen to be an active family so meals are important).

Also, there's something to be said for having your meals paid for in advance. As a single mom, I appreciate that I can relax and enjoy the meal without stressing over what my dd11 is ordering. In addition, my dd11 NEVER wanted kids meals as she eats what adults eat at home she is not used to chicken fingers and pizzas...won't even touch a chicken nugget! I'm actually relieved that she can now order off the adult menu as she actually eats seafood (loves calamari and mussels) and steak.

As for flexibility...we get only the Base Tickets so I always know where we will be on what day...we never feel like it's an imposition to show up for a meal. I enjoy showing up at a restaurant (just like restaurant reservations at home) being seated and enjoying a meal together.

 

[gjl]

Removed

 

[patsal]

When I used a spreadsheet and included the OOP cost of tips, the dining plan still saves us about $250. At their ages, almost every meal is a character meal (except for 'Ohana!) so the prices are easy to calculate. We have four DD's- three are Disney kids and one is still an infant.

And this is just the scenario that lends itself to getting a dining plan, children and buffet/character meals. So long as there are children in the grouping it will always come out ahead using a dining plan.