Is this math correct? - Page 2 - The DIS Discussion Forums

AngiTN · 01-22-2013, 10:55 AM

Disney is great with allergies but more so at TS meals than QS ones. You don't have contact with the chef, ability to preplan/arrange, etc with QS meals. It does make it less easy to tend to an allergy at Disney.

So if you did want to switch to the dining plan and plan more TS meals you may find the allergy issue to be very easy to deal with. But it does mean the switch from more QS to more TS.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunnydays28

The main reason we thought we would not do DP was my daughter's food allergies (dairy and citrus, no juices or soy milk), and it will be hard to substitute for every meal and her snack credits would be wasted, and as a family we only drink water and the occasional tea. But I took a second look because as I understand it, all the credits are there to be used by whomever, certainly dad and I could use up the snack credits while bringing her safe stuff into the park with us. We are only doing 2 sit-downs: Cinderella breakfast and Garden Grill lunch, and will be doing safe stuff in the room or quick service, and after looking at the QS menus, there is no way we will spend over $1000 on meals at WDW, so DP is not a good deal for us.

Thanks everyone, it was a big help to read your responses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 6disneykids

bummer about your daughter's food allergies. My 4 yr old has peanut allergies, I have always found the restaurants to be wonderfully helpful. (specifically TS) Most of the time, the Chef will come out to assist you with choices or preparing special meals to accommodate allergies. I would call with ADR's so the allergy can be noted, and then again when you arrive.

jwgm2012 · 01-22-2013, 06:04 PM

We were also "running" the numbers for our upcoming trip this June... and while in the "real" world, spending $1345 on vacation food seems OUTRAGEOUS, during our last trip we probably spent more! Disney food is about 1.5x the cost of outside food...

We're 6 adults over 4 days = $56 per day/per person... When I break it down to $56 per person - yes, for our group of growing kids (16, 15, 12, 11) who eat us out of the house regularly, the dining plan is completely worth it...

As an example, we'll be having Chef Mickey's for breakfast and that's $37 each... that day alone, I can see us having surpassing the $56 in food the meal plan costs us... had we gone with lunch we would've spent the cost just on that meal...

I'd look at what you plan on doing... if a character meal is in your plans then you've already paid for your child's daily cost...

either way, have a great trip!

gina

tiggerificamanda · 01-22-2013, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwgm2012

We were also "running" the numbers for our upcoming trip this June... and while in the "real" world, spending $1345 on vacation food seems OUTRAGEOUS, during our last trip we probably spent more! Disney food is about 1.5x the cost of outside food...

We're 6 adults over 4 days = $56 per day/per person... When I break it down to $56 per person - yes, for our group of growing kids (16, 15, 12, 11) who eat us out of the house regularly, the dining plan is completely worth it...

As an example, we'll be having Chef Mickey's for breakfast and that's $37 each... that day alone, I can see us having surpassing the $56 in food the meal plan costs us... had we gone with lunch we would've spent the cost just on that meal...

I'd look at what you plan on doing... if a character meal is in your plans then you've already paid for your child's daily cost...

either way, have a great trip!

gina

"LIKE!!!"

Amanda Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

sharonabe · 01-23-2013, 06:51 PM

My family of four, which includes two kids who are Disney adults, can eat THREE meals a day, including at least one TS per day for less than $50 per person per day. And, no, the TS are not all breakfast; usually only one of them is a buffet breakfast.

The reason we can is we prefer to drink water and only one son and I like dessert, so we share one at TS. We do have some snacks, but we usually share those as well.

tinkerpea · 01-23-2013, 10:42 PM

Well I can tell you why we use the DDP

The 1st ye we stayed on site nearly all of our money was spent on food! Lol we didn't know about the DDP as even though I had done Disney many times I'd never stayed on site! And this time our kids was only 1,1,3 lol.

The next time we paid for DDP as it was our wedding and honeymoon we didn't want to worry about prices of food and wanted to eat out every night/day,
I kept our receipts and even though we never used up all our snacks ( we took home over 30 gifts) the total in food price was inane most meals we went to that was just normal TS cost us at least $150 just for the TS meal not including signatures

The next trip we did 3 wks and got the DDP free as we stayed at AKL therw was a few nights where my mum would have the boys and hubby & I would eat at signatures those meals alone just for 2 cost us over $100 and every character meal we did came to around $300 for the 6 of us
No way with out the Dining plan could we afford to do any of the restaurants the tips cost us enough without even adding in the meal price lol!

If you think you can eat QS for the whole trip for each meal then you might ....only might get away with it being reasonable but for us although we have had some fab QS meals like sunshine seasons and wolf gang puck it's not enough I need my TS meals and I enjoy the signatures and so for us no matter the cost we will ALWAYS get the Plan free or not!!

davedmaine · 01-25-2013, 08:11 AM

What happened is Disney played a beautiful long game. They gave the DDP away for free for years while they continued to raise the price. Now when most people make reservations, they think they should add (pay for) the dining plan. That's all they've ever heard people talk about and it became part of the collective planning psyche. The truth is that there are very, very few scenarios now where anyone could come out ahead. And don't use those spreadsheets; there's never been once that's been proven accurate (i.e. not taking into account that you're going to be paying a lot more in tips on the dining plan than you would be OOP)

davedmaine · 01-25-2013, 08:15 AM

[QUOTE=disneybliss2;47245108]

We also like having the dining plan so that we can book up to 10 meals at one time. That's nice being able to set your reservations all at once. We look forward to eating at a TS meal each night so the meal/dining plan has worked for us in the past.
QUOTE]

You don't need the DDP to book reservations..

AngiTN · 01-25-2013, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davedmaine

What happened is Disney played a beautiful long game. They gave the DDP away for free for years while they continued to raise the price. Now when most people make reservations, they think they should add (pay for) the dining plan. That's all they've ever heard people talk about and it became part of the collective planning psyche. The truth is that there are very, very few scenarios now where anyone could come out ahead. And don't use those spreadsheets; there's never been once that's been proven accurate (i.e. not taking into account that you're going to be paying a lot more in tips on the dining plan than you would be OOP)

There are people who spend more buying the dinning plan. There are people who spend less. It does work to the advantage for some. It does not work for everyone. Nothing does. I figured our costs using menus, not a calculator and I know for certain it helps us to use the dining plan. Do we save a lot of money? No we do not. We break even or maybe save $100. But we do not spend more. Of that I am certain. And you need to consider the "cost" of peace of mind. For some that's worth quite a lot

WillAustin · 01-25-2013, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AngiTN

There are people who spend more buying the dinning plan. There are people who spend less. It does work to the advantage for some. It does not work for everyone. Nothing does. I figured our costs using menus, not a calculator and I know for certain it helps us to use the dining plan. Do we save a lot of money? No we do not. We break even or maybe save $100. But we do not spend more. Of that I am certain. And you need to consider the "cost" of peace of mind. For some that's worth quite a lot

We are lucky enough to eat in a way that comes out ahead on the Deluxe plan. We came out hundreds of dollars ahead on a 10 night trip last summer. I kept the receipts and figured it out after we got back, just to make sure it was worth it. We do all meals TS and a daily signature, always get appetizers and desserts, generally tip well, and we do the same when we pay OOP. With the new pricing for this year, it's a lot closer, but we decided if we project it to be anywhere close, we'd do the Deluxe plan again for the convenience of it.

sunnydays28 · 01-26-2013, 12:17 AM

Thanks for all the input. We have looked at almost all the menus for restaurants that would interest us and other than maybe adding hoop dee do or the luau, we are going to be very content with snacks or counter service. We have no interest in doing a TS type meal every day, we are going to be easily under $700 so there is no way we will need the DDP.

We will address the allergies at each of the 2-3 TS we will have, we have done that before and they are extremely helpful and yummy. But snacks would be a total waste for us--other than the fresh fruit, which we will have ourselves there is not a snack she can have.

01-22-2013, 06:04 PM	#17
jwgm2012 Mouseketeer Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: San Antonio, Texas Posts: 353	We were also "running" the numbers for our upcoming trip this June... and while in the "real" world, spending $1345 on vacation food seems OUTRAGEOUS, during our last trip we probably spent more! Disney food is about 1.5x the cost of outside food... We're 6 adults over 4 days = $56 per day/per person... When I break it down to $56 per person - yes, for our group of growing kids (16, 15, 12, 11) who eat us out of the house regularly, the dining plan is completely worth it... As an example, we'll be having Chef Mickey's for breakfast and that's $37 each... that day alone, I can see us having surpassing the $56 in food the meal plan costs us... had we gone with lunch we would've spent the cost just on that meal... I'd look at what you plan on doing... if a character meal is in your plans then you've already paid for your child's daily cost... either way, have a great trip! gina __________________ Me (38) , DBF (45) , DS (16) , DD (14) , DD (12) , DD (11) June 2012 - Our First Semi-Blended Family Trip - CSR December 2012 - 1st Disney Christmas Ever and Adults only June 2013 - Celebrating DD's 15th Birthday - OKW

01-23-2013, 10:42 PM	#20
tinkerpea DIS Veteran Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: RAF Henlow England Posts: 1,397	Well I can tell you why we use the DDP The 1st ye we stayed on site nearly all of our money was spent on food! Lol we didn't know about the DDP as even though I had done Disney many times I'd never stayed on site! And this time our kids was only 1,1,3 lol. The next time we paid for DDP as it was our wedding and honeymoon we didn't want to worry about prices of food and wanted to eat out every night/day, I kept our receipts and even though we never used up all our snacks ( we took home over 30 gifts) the total in food price was inane most meals we went to that was just normal TS cost us at least $150 just for the TS meal not including signatures The next trip we did 3 wks and got the DDP free as we stayed at AKL therw was a few nights where my mum would have the boys and hubby & I would eat at signatures those meals alone just for 2 cost us over $100 and every character meal we did came to around $300 for the 6 of us No way with out the Dining plan could we afford to do any of the restaurants the tips cost us enough without even adding in the meal price lol! If you think you can eat QS for the whole trip for each meal then you might ....only might get away with it being reasonable but for us although we have had some fab QS meals like sunshine seasons and wolf gang puck it's not enough I need my TS meals and I enjoy the signatures and so for us no matter the cost we will ALWAYS get the Plan free or not!! __________________ Me 28,DH 32,DS 10, DS"Twins"8

01-25-2013, 08:11 AM	#21
davedmaine DIS Veteran Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 1,247	What happened is Disney played a beautiful long game. They gave the DDP away for free for years while they continued to raise the price. Now when most people make reservations, they think they should add (pay for) the dining plan. That's all they've ever heard people talk about and it became part of the collective planning psyche. The truth is that there are very, very few scenarios now where anyone could come out ahead. And don't use those spreadsheets; there's never been once that's been proven accurate (i.e. not taking into account that you're going to be paying a lot more in tips on the dining plan than you would be OOP) Last edited by davedmaine; 01-25-2013 at 08:23 AM.

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01-23-2013, 06:51 PM	#19
sharonabe DIS Veteran Join Date: May 2009 Location: North Carolina Posts: 2,992	My family of four, which includes two kids who are Disney adults, can eat THREE meals a day, including at least one TS per day for less than $50 per person per day. And, no, the TS are not all breakfast; usually only one of them is a buffet breakfast. The reason we can is we prefer to drink water and only one son and I like dessert, so we share one at TS. We do have some snacks, but we usually share those as well.

01-25-2013, 08:15 AM	#22
davedmaine DIS Veteran Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 1,247	[QUOTE=disneybliss2;47245108] We also like having the dining plan so that we can book up to 10 meals at one time. That's nice being able to set your reservations all at once. We look forward to eating at a TS meal each night so the meal/dining plan has worked for us in the past. QUOTE] You don't need the DDP to book reservations..

01-26-2013, 12:17 AM	#25
sunnydays28 Mouseketeer Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 350	Thanks for all the input. We have looked at almost all the menus for restaurants that would interest us and other than maybe adding hoop dee do or the luau, we are going to be very content with snacks or counter service. We have no interest in doing a TS type meal every day, we are going to be easily under $700 so there is no way we will need the DDP. We will address the allergies at each of the 2-3 TS we will have, we have done that before and they are extremely helpful and yummy. But snacks would be a total waste for us--other than the fresh fruit, which we will have ourselves there is not a snack she can have.