So hoping to get some thoughts from people who look at this to see if I'm missing something before I go ahead and book the DDP. I booked a long time ago for our March trip and was not planning to do the DDP. I booked all of our ADRs last month and made park itineraries that included specific QS places and researched the food we wanted to get. As I was about to go pay down the rest of our trip, I decided to run the math on the DDP versus what I had already planned, assuming it would not come out in favor of the DDP. But it actually did, by about $50 (not super significant but psychologically, my husband loves having the all inclusive feel - which I'm fine with, as long as I'm not losing money on it). Again, this was without any effort to maximize the dining plan, so I think I could now probably tinker a bit, particularly with QS and snacks (bc we are likely to order more food than just what I have listed as we have 5 nights but full days on each end), to get even more value out of it.
We have a 5 night trip, 2 adults and 1 2 YO (who does not need a dining plan but will get his own food here and there so that price is not included). So our 5 TS meals are Chef Mickey's breakfast, Crystal Palace breakfast, Kona dinner, Ohana dinner, Sci Fi Dinner. I priced out the QS meals we intended to get for Columbia Harbor House lunch, Docking Bay 7 lunch, Satuli Canteen lunch, Captain Cook's lunch, Captain Cook's breakfast. I assumed a $6.50 average for snacks, which I think we could actually beat with Epcot festival food because we're going during Flower & Garden. We intended to buy mugs anyway because we have a toddler and plan to be back at the resort midday every day for a break and will grab diet cokes, and we will fill up on coffee in the morning (I'm a caffeine addict so this is a needed expense). This does assume my husband and I both get cocktails for dinner, but only some lunches and breakfasts, which is what we would have likely done. It assumes some non-alcoholic options like shakes, smoothies and specialty coffees on the QS breakfasts, the CHH lunch since MK doesn't have alcohol at QS, and the Sci Fi lunch when we intended to get shakes.
Like I said, I didn't try to maximize this or pick the most expensive QS or most expensive menu item or always order alcohol. I just picked what we already intended to order, and I also am using quite a few credits for breakfasts, which I understand is seen as the least valuable meal to use them. Am I wrong to have included some $14-17 cocktails in this equation (this does seem key to coming out ahead?)? Am I right that both QS and TS meals come with alcoholic drinks? I know souvenir container are excluded and didn't include any of those. I know we had already intended to visit some of the more expensive character buffets and we do like cocktails, so maybe this is why it worked out without me really trying? Because we have our 2 year old who won't be on the meal plan, I am definitely not worried about not using all the snack credits because he can make a meal of some of those, too (and we are very prepared to spend more than just the meal plan, obviously know it doesn't include gratuities or all things we might want to eat and some kids meals for our son). But I do think we save some money and also get that "it's all taken care of" feel that my husband likes.
But again - am I missing something?
