Disney Dining Plan Worth It?

[Chereya]

Everyone in the room has to be on the reservation. If you want the DDP, then you would need to get a package and everyone has to get the DDP. You cannot exclude anyone from it.

Right, I understand the part about everyone who is on the reservation needs to be on the same package plan. I am hypothesizing about the necessity of the DD being on the reservation. The OP's concern is that the DD won't eat the dollar value of the adult DP. So having the DD off the reservation would mean she would not be held to any DP at all and her park ticket could be bought from an outside source.

Is this situation much different than having a local relative stay for a night in your resort room, off the reservation with their own ticket and paying OOP for their own meal, as long as it does not exceed the occupancy?

DD10 would not have a room key and would be unable to attend EMH with her parents.

I was just at Disneyland last fall and was told by the ticket booth sales guy AND the gate CM that generally speaking, they will allow a party to all enter for EMH rather than breaking the party up. A little bit of discretionary magic on the CM's part. What if the DD's ticket was leftover from a previous trip? Really, allowing 1 child of two parents who have legitimate EMH is a small bit of pixie dust in the whole scheme of things.

 

[JasonDVC]

I always thought I would never need the DDP here is why:

• My wife is a light and picky eater

• We would have the feeling of being forced to use all the credits

• Seemed to expensive

• Somedays we just wouldn't be all that hungry so it would be a waste

• we want to spend more time on rides and less time eating

But, now we are planning a 9 person big trip for next summer and am now seriously considering it because:

• We went commando on our last trip and feel that we've seen and done most rides and shows and can take it easy this time

• My parents and in-laws are both coming on the trip. My parents are in their 60's and not prepared to go commando through the parks. They will need to take their time and go slower

• If we are not on the plan, we would never eat at all the restaurants because we are too cheap and would be frightened at the bill

• Prepaying for food will make us stress free while at WDW

• We generally prefer dessert over an appetizer anyway. We think the appetizer will often spoil the main course while we always look forward to dessert

• we will likely do 1-2 signature dining(again, at restaurants that we would not otherwise eat at) and that will use up extra TS credits so some nights we will have the option to eat off site OOP or visit family that live in Celebration and hang out with them those nights.

• It's a great way to convince our parents to go if we can tell them that their meals are included in the trip

• This will be my parents first and possibly only trip ever to WDW and I want to make sure they enjoy as much as WDW has to offer as possible. In other words, I want this to be a trip of a lifetime for them!

Weigh the pro's and con's for your particular situation to determine if the DDP is worth it. This time for us it looks like it will be, in the future it may not. Just remember, your on vacation, enjoy it!

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

Right, I understand the part about everyone who is on the reservation needs to be on the same package plan. I am hypothesizing about the necessity of the DD being on the reservation. The OP's concern is that the DD won't eat the dollar value of the adult DP. So having the DD off the reservation would mean she would not be held to any DP at all and her park ticket could be bought from an outside source.

Is this situation much different than having a local relative stay for a night in your resort room, off the reservation with their own ticket and paying OOP for their own meal, as long as it does not exceed the occupancy?

Well, in a word, yes.

In the case of the local relative, they are staying one night (or two or three) but not the entire stay. And I would assume that the front desk would be made aware that another person would be using the room, because that is what one is supposed to do when adding another person who is not on the original reservation.

 

[Ava]

Has anyone done the DDP with 2 adults and an under-3-year-old? i.e. paying for 2 adult plans and just having toddler share off of your plates. Did you feel it was a good deal? Was there enough food for everyone at CS?

This will be our situation next trip (2 adults and a toddler) and am wondering if the DDP would be a good deal for us. We do like to eat at TS places, and we ate a TS dinner almost every night on our last trip when it was just the two of us.

 

[Faldred]

Children (3-9) come out way, way ahead on QSDP or Basic DDP. Adults, well, the results are iffier.

Child CS meal (avg.): $4.49 + tax (6.5% [7.0% at some resorts]) = $4.78.
Child TS meal (avg.): $7.49 + tax = $7.98
Child Buffet (avg.): $10.99 + tax = $11.70
Adult CS meal (avg., no dessert): $7.99 entree, $2.39 drink, plus tax = $11.05
Adult TS meal (avg., no dessert): $18.99 entree, $2.39 drink, plus tax = $22.77
Adult Buffet (avg.): $18.99, plus tax = $20.22
Typical "snack": $2.50 + tax = $2.66

Child QSDP: $8.99/day, includes taxes, 2 CS meals, 2 snacks, and "the mug". Value $14.88/day (plus the mug!)

Child Basic DDP: $9.99/day, includes 1 TS meal, 1 CS meal, 1 snack. Value $15.42 to $19.14.

Adult QSDP: $29.99/day, includes taxes, 2 CS meals, 2 snacks, and "the mug". Value $27.42 (plus the mug and two "free" desserts)

Adult Basic DDP: $39.99/day, includes 1 TS meal, 1 CS meal, 1 snack. Value $33.93 to $35.98 (plus two "free" desserts)

Verdict: As said above, it's a no-brainer for the kids. If you were going to pay for the same number of meals OOP, you'd do better than break even with either dining plan, plus get the extra snack(s). For adults, it boils down to whether or not you'd be getting desserts if you paid OOP, and would you be more or less likely to order the higher-priced entrees (and beverages, when available) versus the average.

My opinion: If you are going to do the meals anyway, DDP in either the QSDP or Basic DDP forms is worth it; even more so if traveling with children. Even if you barely break even (or not), the simplicity of having it pre-paid and not having to fuss about whether a particular entree is worth an extra $X, etc. makes up for it.

 

[d1gitman]

you don't have to get a dessert. it comes with DDP but they certainly don't force you to take it. i showed it as a 'skip' item on OOP. i didn't try to pick OOP to match DDP item for item, rather i did OOP as we would actually choose from the menu. If we were to include dessert, the saving per day would go up even more by using DDP

another interesting thing is that i had originally looked at OOP wiht the kids sharing from the adult plates and only buying beverages for the kids. however, the kids menus are low cost and come with beverages anyway, so to us, the kids meals made sense. for us, it wouldn't be realistic to split both adult meals with 2 kids.

 

[d1gitman]

Has anyone done the DDP with 2 adults and an under-3-year-old? i.e. paying for 2 adult plans and just having toddler share off of your plates. Did you feel it was a good deal? Was there enough food for everyone at CS?

This will be our situation next trip (2 adults and a toddler) and am wondering if the DDP would be a good deal for us. We do like to eat at TS places, and we ate a TS dinner almost every night on our last trip when it was just the two of us.

we have done two trips with DS sharing off our plates because he was under the age. Worked out great.

Where we run into issues is our older DS, (8) doesn't much care for the kids menus as they are always the same. he prefers adult food at home and at restaurants. So, me being the good dad that i try to be , would let him pick my TS meal for himself and i would eat his kids meal.

 

[SIMMSMOUSE]

I will continue to get the DDP until my kids are over 10, because once they are I think they pay the adult price which adds 29$ per day. We like TS meals and character meals, which easily make it worth it. I feel if we had to drive off property for meals it would waste time and I love staying and eating on site. Just MHO.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Even if you do alot of table service places, do you actually buy a dessert for EACH member of your family at EACH meal lunch or dinner, TS or CS, EVERY day? The sheer amount of food is so much my family would not benefit. Also, we sometimes share food. Now sometimes we get separate entrees, but sometimes we share. I think larger families would be more likely to have some sharing going on.
So no dining plan for us.

We've done dining plan when it was free and we sure ate a lot (atleast a lot of TIMES- not necessarily pigging out each time) and seemed like we spent a lot of time on eating (ie: more TS meals/etc.)

Children (3-9) come out way, way ahead on QSDP or Basic DDP. Adults, well, the results are iffier.

Child CS meal (avg.): $4.49 + tax (6.5% [7.0% at some resorts]) = $4.78.
Child TS meal (avg.): $7.49 + tax = $7.98
Child Buffet (avg.): $10.99 + tax = $11.70
Adult CS meal (avg., no dessert): $7.99 entree, $2.39 drink, plus tax = $11.05
Adult TS meal (avg., no dessert): $18.99 entree, $2.39 drink, plus tax = $22.77
Adult Buffet (avg.): $18.99, plus tax = $20.22
Typical "snack": $2.50 + tax = $2.66

Child QSDP: $8.99/day, includes taxes, 2 CS meals, 2 snacks, and "the mug". Value $14.88/day (plus the mug!)

Child Basic DDP: $9.99/day, includes 1 TS meal, 1 CS meal, 1 snack. Value $15.42 to $19.14.

Adult QSDP: $29.99/day, includes taxes, 2 CS meals, 2 snacks, and "the mug". Value $27.42 (plus the mug and two "free" desserts)

Adult Basic DDP: $39.99/day, includes 1 TS meal, 1 CS meal, 1 snack. Value $33.93 to $35.98 (plus two "free" desserts)

Verdict: As said above, it's a no-brainer for the kids. If you were going to pay for the same number of meals OOP, you'd do better than break even with either dining plan, plus get the extra snack(s). For adults, it boils down to whether or not you'd be getting desserts if you paid OOP, and would you be more or less likely to order the higher-priced entrees (and beverages, when available) versus the average.

My opinion: If you are going to do the meals anyway, DDP in either the QSDP or Basic DDP forms is worth it; even more so if traveling with children. Even if you barely break even (or not), the simplicity of having it pre-paid and not having to fuss about whether a particular entree is worth an extra $X, etc. makes up for it.

If we could just do the kids on QS it might be worth it. What you're saying totally makes sense- but when it's a family of 5 it's not. For us we have an 11yr old DS and 15yr old DD- that would both be just fine on a kids meal. So for us it would cost us $128.99 per day... we don't eat that much normally. Even if we were staying at resort instead of FW (eating breakfast and some meals at our TT) we wouldn't eat that much in a day normally. IF we could get the kids price for all our kids- then it would be worth it and that's what they'd eat (kids meals) but we have to pay adult price for them. That's why it's not worth it for us.

Maybe when they get older (I can certainly atleast see my son eating a lot more as he gets older LOL) then it might be worth it. It is really worth it for kids up to age 9- who wouldn't spend $8.99 a day for them to have 2 meals and snacks at WDW? But the other 4 of us don't spend $30 a day EACH and that makes it not worth it for us. I think everyone has to weigh the pros and cons. Depending on the ages, how everyone in that family eats normally, etc. and see if it's worth it to them.

 

[dmorgan170331]

Sounds expensive. To get the most out of the plan go to the pepper market for lunch for your counter service