Disney Dining Plan

[PrettyFlower2]

Is it me or does the DDP seems like a total waste? Just thinking about it I feel like gaining 50 pounds. We were originally considering it but we really don't eat that much. We never eat dessert or snack during the day and come to think of it never eat dessert after dinner either. We don't drink soda, just water. We are probably going go bring a light breakfast to have in the room on some days and make a couple reservations for Be our Guest for dinner and Tusker house for breakfast. The rest of the time will be quick service meals (healthiest thing on the menu) It is just two of us going so I'm thinking if I can get a room discount and just pay oop for food it would be better? When do they usually offer room discounts anyways? We are prob gonna stay at POFQ.

 

[G719]

For your situation, I think you would be better off paying out of pocket. Some families find they do better on the plan and others do better out of pocket.

 

[WizardLarz]

Maybe go with the 'Quick Service Dining Plan'. 2 Counter Service meals per day of plan and you can use the snack credits for bottle water or Fruit or Mickey Rice Crispy Treats to take back for Family.

 

[mickeynut1]

For your situation, I think you would be better off paying out of pocket. Some families find they do better on the plan and others do better out of pocket.

Maybe go with the 'Quick Service Dining Plan'. 2 Counter Service meals per day of plan and you can use the snack credits for bottle water or Fruit or Mickey Rice Crispy Treats to take back for Family.

I think both of these suggestions are good, depending on what you're more comfortable with. I would price out how much the QS plan would cost along with paying OOP for a few TS meals and compare that to paying OOP for all meals. If a room discount comes out for your dates and the resort/room type you want is available under the discount, you can still get a package with the meal plan and get the discount on the room portion if you decide to go with one of the DDPs. Good luck.

 

[6disneykids]

If you are 2 adults, and only doing 2 TS meals, then the DDP may not make financial sense in your situation.

It is not a bad deal if you have children 3-9 and plan on a lot of character meals or buffets. But for adults, it usually isn't a great deal if you don't drink soda or iced tea with your meals, rarely order desserts, and are only planning 1 or 2 TS meals.

 

[jhryb]

At first I was going to recommend that you pay out of pocket for everything.... however the food a WDW is very expensive so I think that it is still worth comparing the menu prices (based on what you think you will eat) to the costs of the dining plan. I am normally a healthy eater too but when I go to WDW I like to let loss a bit and then get back on track when I get home I have always found the dining plan to be a big cost saver.

 

[ilovevacation]

When we were there in the fall we kept all of our receipts (which say $0) if you are on the ddp but we wrote down the price of our meals when we saw the total. We spent about $300 more then the ddp costs. With that said...i don't eat a lot, but my husband has to have breakfast or we can't do anything (crabby!) Also, one of our cs went unused because i thought i was going to be sick, plus we would never get dessert at all of our meals. Lastly, the snacks are hard to use unless you are there during food and wine, yummy!

We have talked about it after we got back and decided we would take room discount next time over free dining, but we say that now...but it's like going to the store hungry, it's easy to be swayed.

 

[TDC Nala]

If you eat like the OP, the dining plan is not for you. It's not intended to be for everyone.

Right now the best way to make money on the dining plan is if you are a family with kids under 10 who plan on lots of buffets, all you can eat or character meals. A group that prefers their own desserts with every meal and tends to order the most expensive menu items may save more, also.

 

[PrettyFlower2]

Thank you all for your help. I will look into the quick service plan. I recentley bought a water bottle that has a filter in it. I was thinking I could take it to the parks. and fill it up at the water fountains. It makes any water taste great supposedly and will save me a lot of money on water. So maybe ill just pay OOP for food since I wont use the snack credits.

 

[sharonabe]

Thank you all for your help. I will look into the quick service plan. I recentley bought a water bottle that has a filter in it. I was thinking I could take it to the parks. and fill it up at the water fountains. It makes any water taste great supposedly and will save me a lot of money on water. So maybe ill just pay OOP for food since I wont use the snack credits.

I hope you don't take that advice. If you don't use all the entitlements in the plan you will lose money.

Here's a general break down for the QSDP:

Entree $10
Drink $3
Dessert $3
Snack $5

So, let's take away the dessert you don't want. That's a $6 loss each day.
You cold get coffee or juice or bottled water for your drink, but if you reall PREFER water, that's FREE. So another $6 loss per day.
You could get bottled water for your snack (you could also get a free cup at any CS or use your water bottle). But let's do bottled water. At $3 a pop, that's another $2 loss per day.
So you pay Disney $14 to eat the way you WANT to eat. Why would you want to do that???

 

[disneydreaminA115]

It definitely sounds like it'd be a waste *for you*. However I've experienced eating in The World twice now - once with DXDP and once without, and we will never go without again if we can help it. It IS a lot of food, and sometimes we didn't end up ordering dessert, but we realized when we went without it, as we dropped about $200 on one dinner (le Cellier) that we spent way more without it. So for us it's definitely not a waste. It's just a personal decision like anything else at Disney. We would consider using park passes at the Animal Kingdom to be a waste

 

[PrettyFlower2]

I hope you don't take that advice. If you don't use all the entitlements in the plan you will lose money.

Here's a general break down for the QSDP:

Entree $10
Drink $3
Dessert $3
Snack $5

So, let's take away the dessert you don't want. That's a $6 loss each day.
You cold get coffee or juice or bottled water for your drink, but if you reall PREFER water, that's FREE. So another $6 loss per day.
You could get bottled water for your snack (you could also get a free cup at any CS or use your water bottle). But let's do bottled water. At $3 a pop, that's another $2 loss per day.
So you pay Disney $14 to eat the way you WANT to eat. Why would you want to do that???

I completely agree and yes I prefer water No QSDP for me! Thank you for your help!

 

[Jonathan Swift]

I used the spreadsheet in the "Disney Dining Plan calculator - Amazing Tool!!!" thread.

Just about every configuration I tried yields OOP to be the best choice. If the planets happen to be in alignment and the house of Aquarius is in its third moon, it's possible for the basic dining plan to be cheaper, but only by $20 or less. Odds are, you're going to be scrambling on the last day to buy up snacks to meet your quotas.

 

[PrettyFlower2]

I used the spreadsheet in the "Disney Dining Plan calculator - Amazing Tool!!!" thread.

Just about every configuration I tried yields OOP to be the best choice. If the planets happen to be in alignment and the house of Aquarius is in its third moon, it's possible for the basic dining plan to be cheaper, but only by $20 or less. Odds are, you're going to be scrambling on the last day to buy up snacks to meet your quotas.

lol you're funny. I appreciate it! OOP it is

 

[OklahomaTourist]

Is it me or does the DDP seems like a total waste? Just thinking about it I feel like gaining 50 pounds. We were originally considering it but we really don't eat that much. We never eat dessert or snack during the day and come to think of it never eat dessert after dinner either. We don't drink soda, just water. We are probably going go bring a light breakfast to have in the room on some days and make a couple reservations for Be our Guest for dinner and Tusker house for breakfast. The rest of the time will be quick service meals (healthiest thing on the menu) It is just two of us going so I'm thinking if I can get a room discount and just pay oop for food it would be better? When do they usually offer room discounts anyways? We are prob gonna stay at POFQ.

That's where we are, almost to a tee -- breakfasts in room, rarely getting two full meals a day, and the kids are waaaay past character breakfast buffets now. DDP works for some, but not for us.

 

[BlackMagicWoman]

It definitely works for us. My daughter wants a drink, steak and dessert at every meal. I may not have steak but I have a big time sweet tooth and I'm definitely ordering dessert. I calculated mine and OOP without snacks would cost me $383 and since I love Goofy Gummies. I might as well just go ahead and get the meal plan.