Disney Dining Plan calculator - Amazing Tool!!!

[NotThatKevinSmith]

Wow! This is just what I needed! Even if I use all of my Quick Serve points (and I probably won't), it still doesn't pay for me. I think it's because I reserve three table service restaurants that eat up 2 points each.

EDIT: Can someone provide an example one of these spreadsheets that show the dining plan being more economical than OOP? BTW, I noticed the dining plan rates for this spreadsheet are for off-peak. If you're planning for peak times, take the price difference into account.

Yes! Add 3 kids or 4 kids. Lots of times more "kids" makes the DDP more reasonable.

Also good point on off-peak.

 

[loveswdw]

Yes! Add 3 kids or 4 kids. Lots of times more "kids" makes the DDP more reasonable.

Also good point on off-peak.

I agree. We have 2 boys under 10 and do a lot of character dining and all scenarios I've punched into the database, we come out cheaper with DDP than OOP.

 

[JudyW]

Thank you for the information, but I also can't get it to work for me.

 

[Jonathan Swift]

I think this is missing the fish and chips place in Epcot: Yorkshire County Fish Shop

Thank you for the information, but I also can't get it to work for me.

Did you enable editing?

 

[JudyW]

Never mind, it doesn't like Internet Explorer. I was able to do it with Firefox.

 

[JudyW]

I think this is missing the fish and chips place in Epcot: Yorkshire County Fish Shop



Did you enable editing?

It wouldn't even let me sign in.

 

[magicbob]

Just downloaded. I can't wait to start tinkering with it. I developed my own spreadsheets in the past to compare DDP with OOP, but this looks like it could be easier to use, especially to compare the various plans.

 

[emilymad]

This is a great spreadsheet. I am trying to figure out how to account for F&W. On the days we have that planned for a meal I used a counter service restaurant. Would it be more accurate price wise to use a sit down meal?

 

[Jonathan Swift]

It wouldn't even let me sign in.

You need to enter an email address to download it. Is that what you mean?

 

[NotThatKevinSmith]

It wouldn't even let me sign in.

For some reason Wix doesn't like certain web browsers. Try Firefox or Chrome. I don't make any money off of this so I had to go with a free website to host it and clearly it is not perfect.

 

[JenCin78]

Wow this is an awesome tool! We are planning to eat breakfast in our Villa most days-only one breakfast ADR the rest are all dinner. I plugged our ADR info into the tool and found out that we will save over $300 by not using the dining plan.

 

[star04]

Nevermind...got it!

I'm not getting a drop-down menu for the Dinner column.

 

[bless7ings]

I thought it was fun to use!

We have used free dining twice and it was very beneficial for us! I have found if you go to the character meals/buffet meals that the dining plan is well worth it! That is what we have done in the past because our family prefers the variety of the buffet. I have tried by hand using AllEars pricing oop. I have found it could work, but it really depends on what you pick. I have liked in the past that the food cost has been taken care of and has been a great deal for us in the past....

But we have been to a lot of character meals and I am thinking about shaking things up a bit... I have read quite a few peoples views on why they do OOP, it has gotten me to think, especially with the fact that we haven't been since 2008. Alot of people have said A LOT has changed since the early years. The very first time we had free dining was the first year in 2005. It was AWESOME!!!!! That was when you had the appetizer, entree, drink, dessert and tip included!!!!! We all felt like kings and queens on that trip. If you ask the kids about Disney they will mention they loved eating out!!! That was a rarity for our family. In 2008 it changed to like it is now pretty much. We still did a lot of character meals and it was cheaper for us. We liked it, but it was not the same as in 2005.

The OOP people have gotten me to think about how our family likes to eat. Well we miss the appetizers, and the desserts in 2008 were not as good as in 2005. Alls we drink at home is water mostly. So I started playing around on the calculator. In a 7 night stay if we only went to two buffets the rest were like the regular dining plan(TS, CS, snacks), but we bought appetizers and drank water instead of soda, ordered smoothies and or milkshakes for 1/3 to 1/2 the places(because we like them!) did not do desserts because we were full from the meal and milkshakes, but saved them for in the parks (2 per person per day-counting on $10/day/person, so we could order anything we wanted) We saved money. It was a while ago I did it, but I think it was a savings to do OOP by $100 or $200 and the best part was instead of thinking the Free dining plan was the best we applied a 30% room only discount, got our tickets through I believe Undercover something through Mousesavers and customized our food eating habits to what we would prefer seems how the original dining plan nixed the appetizers and better desserts that always made us full, so we didn't care if we had our snacks. It was fun to use the calculator to try different plans and see what we liked best. We liked customizing our own plan to our eating fancy! Which meant OOP! BUT if we decided to have mostly character meals then I believe it was cheaper to stay on the free dining plan, but then we were restricted to what was at the buffet. They seem as if they are all becoming the same. It seems to be hard to get as much variety. You really have to scour the restaurant menus.

Have fun with it and think out of the box. It might surprise you what you really want.

 

[NotThatKevinSmith]

Nevermind...got it!

I'm not getting a drop-down menu for the Dinner column.

What program are you using? As far as I know it really only works well in Excel 2003 or newer.

 

[isaboo]

Same with us! Actually I only want table service and snacks. So we're going OOP this time.

It verified what I thought - the DDP does not work for us; we are not big dessert eaters, especially after a meal. I would prefer an ice cream later on in the evening (while waiting for the bus back to the resort!).

 

[KiKi Mouse]

THANK YOU!

We have done the DDP in past years and this year we are buying the TIW card.

This is for the reservations we have made for October.

TIW $1717
OOP $1744
DDP $2089

 

[parlay]

Thank you!! It confirmed what I thought! It really is a great tool!

 

[rtfelt]

Every way I did it OOP was cheaper then DDP and TIW was the cheapest. We have a big family (8 people), and think with such a large family the TIW is going to make a much bigger difference because that initial fee will be spread out over many more meals.

 

[cahedberg]

Looking forward to checking this out. We have a trip for Jan 2014 and I'm currently trying to decide between OOP, and DDP. Hadn't considered TIW but since we're DVC, I'll have to check than one out. My DH likes the signature dining ALOT! But we have little dd's and they don't eat a lot.

 

[tarak]

My first run through confirmed what I thought - OOP is less expensive than the dining plan. Like bless7ings, our first trip using the dining plan was back in the day when appetizers and tip were included. Even after that changed, we went to a lot of character meals and it worked out to our advantage. But now my kids aren't really interested in those. Last trip, we just had the QS plan and we probably broke even. Now our oldest is a disney adult and it's not really even close. I plan to play around more with the spreadsheet, though. Because I love to plan that sort of thing. And now that my husband has agreed to another trip for next January, it's more than just wishful planning.