Dining Plan not worth it, right?

[kkfisher]

I am thinking of not doing the dining plan on our next trip. Our twin boys will be 10 now, so charged as adults for the dining plan. But they will want to order off the kids menus almost always. Cheaper to pay out of pocket, right?

For example, they will want to order off the kids menu at California Grill, so this meal alone will make it more cost effective to pay out of pocket for our meals, right? 2 adult table service meals EACH--no way will we spend that much for them. They usually get the kids pizza!

Am I missing something? I know I should probably just select what we will order at each place and figure it out, but it seems like I can already figure it out with this one meal....

 

[KateDinVA]

I wouldn't get Dining Plan in your situation. The math breaks down after even one "missed optimization." And unless you're going to a lot of buffets where your kids will be charged as adults, AND maximizing your QS and snacks - the chances are you will not only save money by paying OOP, you'll save a lot.

So unless you (a) get a deal (and even then, crunching the numbers might not be remiss) or (b) REALLY value the all-inclusive feel of DDP, your days of adding dining are probably behind you.

I'm right there with you

On another note, if you DO like the all-inclusive feel (or someone in your family does), just set aside the same amount of money, and eat just like you were on the DDP, getting what you want at each meal. You should have money for a nice extra souvenir at the end

I am thinking of not doing the dining plan on our next trip. Our twin boys will be 10 now, so charged as adults for the dining plan. But they will want to order off the kids menus almost always. Cheaper to pay out of pocket, right?

For example, they will want to order off the kids menu at California Grill, so this meal alone will make it more cost effective to pay out of pocket for our meals, right? 2 adult table service meals EACH--no way will we spend that much for them. They usually get the kids pizza!

Am I missing something? I know I should probably just select what we will order at each place and figure it out, but it seems like I can already figure it out with this one meal....

 

[ZuuL]

Honestly, its up to you.

My family still uses it and the youngest member is turning 20 in a few days. But because your children are turning ten, its probably not worth it if they're going to eat off the children's menu.

 

[deakam]

We were there 2 weeks ago. 4 adults--one was a 10 year old. We had free dining so I did not even think about it. This was the first time that I thought it might have been better to book the 30% off room rate over the free dining. On our last day we had breakfast at CRT which I did pay for oop but we also had 12 counter service meals left. We split a lot of meals. The tuna sandwich at CHH was extremely large. And the bbq pork at Pecos Bills was too much to eat. Seriously thinking my dining plan days are over. Though the free dining was nice since the average table service bill for the 4 of us was $200.00.

 

[DCDisney]

Definitely better off with no dining plan unless you plan on eating almost entirely at buffets. We actually had a lot of fun optimizing not being on the DDP when my kids were at that young tween age. We ate at a bunch of fun places that aren't a good DDP value like Sci Fi, 50's Prime Time, Beaches and Cream, breakfast at Crystal Palace, Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch, etc. My kids worried about not getting enough snacks but that worked out well too. They got some little things they liked but weren't on the ddp and we shared a bunch of things too that were sometimes too pricey for ddp snacks. Now that they are teens and like adult food we do the ddp on occasion again when it's discounted but we've found we are just as happy without.

 

[epsmith921]

I personally just can't wrap my head around the math on the dining plan. And I work in accounting!! I live in spreadsheets but once I look at the room savings I get by choosing that at a deluxe rather than a dining plan, and discounted or previously purchased tickets, I just do better with the room discount.

This is also the way we justify the room we want as my husband refuses to do anything but deluxe, so 30% or so is a lot of ground for the dining plan to make up.

 

[Micca]

Some people seem to have great appreciation for having "everything paid for" in advance on their vacations. It that's you, a DDP could make sense.

As a foodie who loves to be a complete glutton at every opportunity, I still don't think it's worth it, and would totally opt for the room-only discount.

 

[tony67]

It sounds like it won't be of value to you since your kids will order off the kids menu.

I haven't seen the value of the DDP when paying OOP for it in a lone time.

They have figured it out to a point where it is basically break even - and you are really forced to get desserts you may not even want just because you want to break even.

Sure if you were a family of four who would all eat adult meals and were staying at a moderate with free DDP its probably going to work out for you

In the end you have to do the math for yourself - but I don't even bother anymore

 

[awalker1015]

I crunched the numbers myself. We originally planned a trip in May. DD turns 10 in March so the DDP price went up quite bit and I was just going to go OOP. Since then we decided to move the trip up two months and DD will now be 9. So we are rethinking DDP. With two kids under 10 it makes sense to me. But with even 1 kid 10 or older who likely would order off kids menu it made no sense to me to do DDP.

 

[GillianP1301]

I do love the dining plan, but in your situation with 2 light eating and/or picky 10 year olds, then I would also be seriously considering dropping it as well. It may become worthwhile again as they get a few years older, but until they are ordering predominantly from the adult menu, then it's definitely not worth it.

 

[troll buster]

It really just depends on what you order and if you want dessert at every meal. Heck yes I do!!

 

[princess aleya]

DH and I enjoy using the dining plan. We like the fact that everything is paid for before we get there.

 

[Mike&AllisMom]

I personally just can't wrap my head around the math on the dining plan. And I work in accounting!! I live in spreadsheets but once I look at the room savings I get by choosing that at a deluxe rather than a dining plan, and discounted or previously purchased tickets, I just do better with the room discount.

This is also the way we justify the room we want as my husband refuses to do anything but deluxe, so 30% or so is a lot of ground for the dining plan to make up.

Happy to see another accountant here I just did a spreadsheet with all our meals, tax & tips compared to the dining plan & it's really close. We are staying club level though so I know we will not need all the snacks and will probably skip some desserts / apps. First trip without the dining plan but I know we will save some money.

 

[Julylady]

The last time we were on the DDP, we became really disenfranchised with it. At table service meals, we often would have preferred an appetizer over a dessert, but that's not an option. However, our biggest issue was with the counter service desserts. We basically had three choices, a single serving of chocolate cake or carrot cake, or a sugar-free brownie. We would rather skip dessert at both lunch and dinner and then get an extra snack later! The DDP just didn't allow for that. We started taking the money we would normally spend on the DDP and instead, purchasing Disney gift cards that we used only to pay for meals. We are also finding that we like to split or share meals. It works for us!

 

[Dawn68PA]

I always liked everything being paid for in advance but this last visit we noticed the price of the DDP keeps going up but the prices on the menu really aren't so it's not that much of a savings anymore.

I just priced it out for us to come back in January. I don't always eat breakfast nor do I snack much. If we do a light breakfast for the BF and lunch in the room and just eat out for dinner, minus the desert we never want anyway, I'll save close to $130 and that's if we order the most expensive thing in the menu. And there's no way we'll spend $130 on stuff for lunch. So although not a huge savings it's a savings

 

[SouthJersey]

I am thinking of not doing the dining plan on our next trip. Our twin boys will be 10 now, so charged as adults for the dining plan. But they will want to order off the kids menus almost always. Cheaper to pay out of pocket, right?

For example, they will want to order off the kids menu at California Grill, so this meal alone will make it more cost effective to pay out of pocket for our meals, right? 2 adult table service meals EACH--no way will we spend that much for them. They usually get the kids pizza!

Am I missing something? I know I should probably just select what we will order at each place and figure it out, but it seems like I can already figure it out with this one meal....

It's not worth it in your scenario.
For example, we ALWAYS do the deluxe dining plan, because we do a signature restaurant every night and order as adults. Since we don't have kids and generally get everything done we want to do, we have time for a sit down 1TS lunch earlier in the day and the signature later at night. This is how we want to dine each day, so for us it definitely saves money. Could we eat and be full, for substantially less money? Yes.