Ready to Dump the Dining Plan

[bumbershoot]

I've never had the DDP. Has never made sense for how we eat.

It seems like our trips with the Dining Plan also caused us to be so over-stuffed and waddling around the parks, too full to even eat a lot of our favorite snacks.

That sounds miserable for me. Sounds like maybe you weren't happy with it either. Don't do what you're not happy with.

If you could eat how you want to eat (not eating EVERYTHING you're allowed to eat on the plan) with the plan and it still makes financial sense, get the plan. If you can't eat how you want to eat (my husband, for instance, feels strongly that he would overeat tremendously if we ever had the plan, because he was taught to eat what he's supposed to eat and not leave anything behind) with the plan, don't get the plan.

"over-stuffed and waddling around the parks, too full to even eat a lot of our favorite snacks"

You hit it! and that's the way I like it!

Bwa ha ha!

If it isn't making you happy, ditch it.

Exactly.

 

[aretha30]

We used to get the QS DDP and even that was a lot of food. This was when it was still 2 snacks and 2 QS meals a day. We don't eat dessert or drink soda so both of these were a waste of money for us. Now we get Disney gift cards at Target and schedule 3 or 4 TS meals for our 11 day trip and pay OOP. This works much better for us. We can order what we want, eat when we want (with the exception of the ADR's). Do what works best for your family. We make some of our ADR's for our off days so we can try some of the TS restaurants in the hotels around property.

 

[Aliceacc]

We love the DDP. The one trip we did without it, it felt as though we were hemorrhaging money. And when we got home, we found that doing without it had simply allowed us to break even-- but that was with me being VERY cost conscious after a few days.

I do love that one sit down meal per day. It gives us time as a family, to just sit and talk and be together.

We make our ADRs, mostly for dinner. We take a break in the afternoon anyway, so that evening ADR simply signals time to get out of the pool and head back for the evening. Or we schedule a breakfast-- either before the park opens, or at 10:30ish for brunch. Either way, it doesn't interfere with our touring.

But that's our style. No one plan or approach works for everyone. If dropping the DDP will work better for your family, then drop it.

 

[Nancyg56]

We love the DDP. The one trip we did without it, it felt as though we were hemorrhaging money. And when we got home, we found that doing without it had simply allowed us to break even-- but that was with me being VERY cost conscious after a few days.

I do love that one sit down meal per day. It gives us time as a family, to just sit and talk and be together.

We make our ADRs, mostly for dinner. We take a break in the afternoon anyway, so that evening ADR simply signals time to get out of the pool and head back for the evening. Or we schedule a breakfast-- either before the park opens, or at 10:30ish for brunch. Either way, it doesn't interfere with our touring.

But that's our style. No one plan or approach works for everyone. If dropping the DDP will work better for your family, then drop it.

WE do the same. I went without a DDP a few years ago and will not do that again. I did not save a penny, was looking at prices all week. I hated it.

 

[sturner324]

Like many have already said, the dining plan isn't a money saving plan for most people... but people do it for the convenience factor. If it's no longer convenient for you, there's really no reason to continue doing it.

 

[Lisa F]

I don't like doing as many meals as the DDP pays for... and DDP is not a value for me.

shocker. I'm not sure people announce this like it is news. If you don't want to eat what you are buying with the DDP of course it is not going to be a value. this should not be a major revelation

 

[Jake&IzzyLand]

I agree with those that say it used to be good and now they skip it.

The prepaid convenience can be duplicated with gift cards or prepaid visas.

You could always try going without it to see if you like out of pocket better.

 

[loves to dive]

We did it years ago and I think we may have even done it the first time there was the "free" dining plan but we stopped after that. Like others have said it just didn't fit into our style. For us, it had nothing to do with money, we still order whatever we want and we still eat at TS when we want. It was just too much food and we tend to be appetizer but not dessert type people. We rarely snack between meals and if we do it's not on sweets or popcorn or soft drinks, it's on something like nachos or eggrolls or guac at La Cava. We rarely make ADRs in advance, if we feel like a TS meal we just get on MDE on the phone and find something, we always have park hoppers. Then again, we also rarely use all three FPs in a day, although now that you can make them in different parks we might. We just go and relax and go with the flow, if we don't have a FP and want to ride a ride, we stand in line.

 

[tinkerbell1112]

On my last trip to Disney with FP+, it seemed so much more complicated trying to schedule the meals to go along with the parks and the FP schedules. We had to keep changing the ADR's because FP times would overlap the meal times we had already made, or we couldn't get FP's for the parks we wanted, and we already had meals scheduled in a different park, and on...and on... and on...

I'm seriously considering dumping the Dining Plan on our next trip, and just making a couple of ADR for the can't miss meals, and paying OOP. It seems like our trips with the Dining Plan also caused us to be so over-stuffed and waddling around the parks, too full to even eat a lot of our favorite snacks. LOL!

Plus the kids seemed to only want to eat chicken nuggets and pizza anyways.

Has anyone else gone back to the old ways?

If we didn't get free dining, we'd never do the dining plan. We had a reservation made for August without dining and I was fine with it. I was almost disappointed when the free dining/hopper pass packages came out because my husband wanted to change to the free dining. LOL. He likes having the food pre-paid for and then he doesn't feel guilty spending $25 on a meal on vacation. I was almost looking forward to just grabbing meals when I felt like it rather than scheduling them so far in advance. With that said, if I'm getting free dining, I do the math on the increase in the package price (which also included hopper passes, which we will use, but hadn't had on our original package). Our per person/per day total is like $37 for the "free" dining plan. I'll keep a running total in my head and as soon as that price is met I don't worry anymore about the food. If that means I don't order a dessert at a sit down restaurant, so be it. As long as I'm "breaking even" then I don't mind.

The other thing we always do to keep from overeating is share a QS meal. There are 4 of us. We get one sit down meal, one snack, and 2 QS meals out of each day because we only order 2 QS each time we go somewhere. So we really get 3 meals from it, rather than only 2 My DS12 and I share because he eats more and my DD9 and DH share because DH eats more

In hindsight I do wish we'd have not gotten that "free" dining on this trip. But there's always next time. LOL

 

[nco91590]

I think our trip with the kids in March will be OOP. We're only going for a couple of days, so it seemed better to have the flexibility of having a sit down lunch for a mid-day break and then either do QS or lounges for dinner/apps.

We love DDP due to the fact that we don't have to think about budgeting for food because it's already paid for. But for our kids at the age they are, I think we're going to try a different approach.

 

[Princess_Kirky]

We went during free dining last year and did the free QS plan and even that was a lot of food. It was nice, though to not worry about ADR's (besides BOG breakfast and lunch). We could eat where we wanted, when we wanted. However, if it hadn't been free dining, I don't think we would have bothered getting a dining plan. I enjoy snacking as well so we ended up splitting our meals into 3 snacks at the Food and Wine festival and at the AK kiosks. But you have to split them and get 3 snacks all at one time and at one place so you have to want 3 things from the same stand.

 

[cheriemek]

For me it's not the DDP that's the issue. It's the fact that you have to have your dining choices booked 180 days in advance. If you could walk into anyplace you wanted when you wanted, the DDP would be wonderful. While I love to plan, it is difficult to be so handcuffed by ADRs and FPs.
That being said, my family loves the Disney Dining experience and we have the free dining for our trip in December.

 

[ShannonMB]

We have always enjoyed the dining plan, it is nice to have it all paid ahead of time, and I for one love not worrying about the prices when choosing an entrée, etc. That said, DD and I are taking a girl's trip this September, and both of us are a little excited not to have the DDP this trip. I think we've outgrown it. Back where there were lots and lots of must-do table service restaurants we had never tried and character meals galore, we really did want that TS credit every day. As we've become more experienced (and the plan has gotten SO much more expensive), we feel restricted by it. I would rather have lobster bisque at Coral Reef than a dessert. I don't want dessert with my QS lunch. I DO want to try a bunch of big snacks that I can't justify with all meals scheduled. And plus it will be Food and Wine, so who needs TS? Not saying we'll never do it again, but looking forward to taking a break!

 

[wdwrule]

We are debating this as well. We've had free dining the past 6 or so years and paid for the plan this past year. We think next year we'll do without. If we choose not to have the dining plan can we still make ADR's 180 days out? We would still have a magic your way package.

 

[AFwifelife]

We are debating this as well. We've had free dining the past 6 or so years and paid for the plan this past year. We think next year we'll do without. If we choose not to have the dining plan can we still make ADR's 180 days out? We would still have a magic your way package.

Anyone can make ADRs at 180 days out without any other reservation.

 

[wdwrule]

Anyone can make ADRs at 180 days out without any other reservation.

That's what I thought but wasn't 100% sure. Thanks!!

 

[kaybird]

I see this as an ADR issue, not a DDP issue. Whether or not you do the dining plan, if you are eating at TS. it is still going to be a time saver to have ADR. We do this on or off the plan.

 

[Vijoge]

We like it when we do an adults-only trip, because we eat more and sit down to more meals. But with 3 toddlers, it's too much food, so we pay OOP when we take the kids.

DH and I stayed 10 nights on the DDP and we loved it. Ate at Jiko, Narcoosee's, LeCellier, Brown Derby, Raglan Road, O'hana, I forget where else. Going in January with the little ones but no DP. They eat chicken nuggets, grapes, and peanut butter lol.

 

[Chiefillini]

We just left a couple of days ago from a trip with extended family. Some had the QS DP and we had the regular DP. I found myself saying several times I wish we would have just got the QS DP. We did a couple ADR's but think we still would have came out ahead compared to what we spent.

 

[oceanmarina]

We loved it on past trips and I'm looking forward to it on our next, but if they truly are going up to 2 credits per meal for several of the character meals, I will drop it like it was nothing and make fewer ADRs.

Yikes!! I haven't heard this - character meals 2 points, that's nuts (I think Chef Mickey's would be empty considering the food)

As for us, we always do the deluxe dining plan because we eat at a signature a few nights out of our trip (DH and I will skip lunch). We like the meal plan because we like having our meals paid for before the trip (minus taxes), also, the bill on our signature meals can get crazy high - and we don't even order alcoholic beverages. Our bill at Narcroosees is bananas.