danceintherain: I don't believe the people who claim the DDP saves them money actually tried to figure it out in a systematic way. I think they just look at the prices for steak and assume it does. I thought I needed the plan because I have three expensive restaurants reserved for my trip. The double point deduction actually makes these places WORSE to use on the plan! (You're wasting points by using your plan on a 2 point restaurant vs. two 1 point restaurants if the combined bills of the 1 point places are more than the 2 point one, and they usually are.)
I also think part of the logical fallacies going on in people's heads is the idea that they need the plan so they can pay for everything up front. There's a card game called "
Let It Ride" where the players have to put up three bets and then have the option to take some away as the game progresses. You'd think it would be no different if the rules were put one bet down and add more bets as the game goes on, but it's not. There's something about the human brain that resists changing the initial bet. Similarly, even though it's cheaper to pay OOP, people want to give all the money up front because it forces them to buy meals they wouldn't have if they had to face the bill each time. This is crazy, because these people are willfully trying to trick themselves to spend beyond their wishes. This benefits Disney rather the customer but instead of balking at it, they see it as a feature of the "service." OOP purchases are done with your room key and list of payments is provided at the end of the trip, so I don't get the "sticker shock" claim. I honestly don't have an explanation about the cognitive dissonance about how the DDP is supposed to be easier. I don't understand how having to track your meals to use up points makes things easier.
If anyone has an itinerary that is cheaper with one of the dining plans, please post it. It would be interesting to see an example where the plan works and works to be significantly cheaper than OOP.