What are your thoughts?

[la79al]

Here's the deal....We have a 7 night 8 day trip planned for June. I need to lower the budget a little bit and can't decide whether or not to drop the DDP. We went to Disney last summer and stayed off property. DS was 8 1/2 at the time and was quite content with the amount of food in the childrens meals. When we go in June he will be almost 11 and I'm hoping more able to finish adult portions. So paying adult price for him to be on the DDP is part of the dilemma.
The other part is that I don't know whether we would normally eat as much food as we would get. When we went last year, we ate CS for lunch and then went somewhere off property for dinner. In June I am planning on staying on property the whole time. Because we got kind of sick of CS after 5CS lunches last year, is it safe to assume that we would end up eating at TS for dinner? In other words when I am figuring out cost of meals vs. DDP, I am figuring $30 for 3 adults and 1 child for CS and $95 for 3 adults and I child for TS. Does this sound right? And does it make more sense to do the DDP than jump in the car and head to TGIFridays for a $45 dinner?

 

[susieq76]

For us the DDP makes sense- and we save a bunch of money. We always stay at the parks or Disney areas the whole vacation. My husband will not leave property for anything- not even for Seaworld (I lobbied for it this year)- which I know the kids would love. We love table service meals once a day and we always did them before the DP. So for us its a great choice- I just couldn't eat counter service for that many days (we'll be there nine days).

If you get the DDP and are going to stay on property the whole time you can drop the car rental maybe- that will cut the budget- even when we drive we never touch our car while we're there- it just stays in the spot until we leave.

With the DP, I budget $500.00 for the week (9 days) for alcohol & oop items. Each child has a 25 gift card to spend on gifts as they see fit.

It works for us- I know a set amount I'll be spending

 

[PrincessTrisha]

When you say you got sick of counter service after 5 lunches, were you eating the same thing every meal?

You can save money by sticking to mostly counter service and there is a great variety. Most of the values and moderates have good food courts where for dinner you can get a good variety including meatloaf, chicken, ribs, etc. You can check out the menus online and try to ensure that you enjoy more of a selection of meals instead of the same old, same old.

That being said, whether to keep the dining plan really does depend on how important nice meals are to you.

Are you going to be happy eating counter service or going off property?

If the answer is yes, drop the dining plan.
If the answer is no, keep it.

Maybe you could save money another way?

 

[Mickiethepooh]

have you looked at any of the menus? they have prices shown the average coutner service meal by itself is over 12 per adult and some as much as 15 plus drinks and desert. so your $30 is off for a start. Dinner is more like 30 to 50 per person without alcohol. and these are also with out tip or tax.

So if you still wish to eat well don't drop the plan

 

[karibritt01]

Last year we purchased DDP for DH, me, DS 8, and DD3 for $630. Our meals came to over $900. (I have to guess because we didn't save all receipts.) Without DDP, we would have skipped most or all of the TS meals to save money. However, we really enjoyed taking the time to sit and relax for an hour or so each evening. DH and I agreed this was a great choice for our family, since it made the TS affordable. BTW, 2 adult and 2 child CS meals were always around $50, and TS were approx $100-$125, depending on where we ate. Snacks average $2-$4 each. That's $190 worth of food for $100 each day.

 

[krissyh]

Where else can you cut the budget?
June - it will be very hot and the break, in an air conditioned restaurant, will be good for all.
C/S - I, too, would get sick of that for lunch and dinner but a lot of that depends on your tastes. I'm a picky eater, so the variety of C/S choices, especially like you find at Epcot, is lost on me.
T/S - how important are they to you? You could eat breakfast at a C/S, then have a later lunch at T/S. You'd save some and if your dinner were the latest available, would only want a snack later. Most of the same food, smaller portions and you still get the mid-day break.
You really can't end up going "over-budget" if you budget for the plan, how much extra would you really need each day? $10? You can get a box of Entemenn's donuts at the resort as a snack credit - two days breakfast!
It can be tough to come up will all of that money 45 days before the trip, but you'll spend very little extra on food when you are there and can't be tempted to go over because you really feel like a T/S one night.
Quick breakfast in room, early C/S lunch and then ADRs for T/S around 6. Was perfect for us.



What resort are you staying at? I (and I know many would heartly disagree) would drop from a mod to a value and do the DDP, if it came to that.

 

[unbroken chain]

One question is whether you will do many "fixed price" meals such as all the character meals, 'Ohanas, Poly Luau, Cinderella's Royal Table, etc. For those, you're going to pay the same price whether you order appetizer and dessert or not. So the meal plan for those types of meals makes sense even if you are not a big eater.

We just came back and I did not particularly try to "maximize" the plan.

Cost for 7 nights of DDP for 4 adults: $1092

Receipts for food on dining plan: $1350

If I hadn't had the dining plan, I only had 2 TS meals where I could have skipped dessert (the rest were fixed price), and I could have skipped dessert at all 7 CS meals (but the others in my party would still have had dessert): about $40 less.

We probably all could have skipped appetizers, but again only relevant for 2 TS meals, because the rest of the meals were fixed price: maybe $50 at most savings there, because one of us didn't order appetizers anyway.

Even assuming we skipped all snacks, that'd be about another $80 savings, since we usually just had ice cream from the carts.

So, if all of us skipped all snacks, all of us skipped all appetizers (on the meals where those are separately priced), and I skipped all desserts (on the meals where those are separately priced), we STILL would have spent more more than the dining plan costs.

In short, one example of where the plan is a good deal. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

I say keep the DDP - we enjoy the TS once a day, somedays we use it for b-fast w/ Mickey, other days dinner w/ Cindy. Its nice to take a break at the MK and have a nice dinner at LTT.

Part of the reason we do the DDP is because its pre-paid, NO SURPRISES for food. We order grocery delivery to include cereal, milk, pop tarts, bagels, and some snack and a case of bottled water, so most days b-fast is taken care of too.

For our family, leaving WDW for ANYTHING is not an option. Its a whole 'nother scary world outside the WDW boundries - we stay put. As a PP posted - forget the rent a car and you'll be fine.

 

[pezpam]

The DDP makes sense for us, so I'd be more inclined to change something else. We do stay on-property and don't mind the Disney transportation, so we skip the rental-car expense.

At the end of the day, it comes down to your personal habits/desires. Check out allearsnet.com for menus and a basic idea of prices. Figure what you'd spend on food each day if you didn't get the DDP - don't forget to add in tax and tip. Then compare that number to your DDP cost, which already includes tax and tip. That'll give you a basic idea, but you can also weigh things like whether you'd prefer some TS to all CS, etc........

You can also consider other things. Is the DDE good for you and do you qualify to get it? Depending on your drinking habits, you might also consider getting the resort's refillable mug, then using the bottled drink you get with CS meals at the resort to take to the parks instead of spending a snack credit for a drink later.

EnjoY!

 

[BrerMama]

I've been looking at ways to cut our budget, but for us, the dining plan won't do it. We have several "must do" restaurants (because I just can't do counter service for our entire trip and there are several where we like both the food and atmosphere). When I calculate what we'd spend on just those must do, and eating all the rest counter service, it works out the same as the cost of the dining plan. And the dining plan gives us twice as many table service meals. So we're in. My advice is the same as others... sit down, figure out where you'd want to eat, what you'd most likely order (I should add that when I calculated, I didn't include appetizer or dessert for TS meals as we usually don't order those and I also didn't include dessert for CS... and it still came out even) and compare to the cost of the DDP.