Yayy or Nayy for Dining Plan?!?!

[microscopes]

If you want to pay more and be limited to an entree and desert - get the dining plan.

If you want to pay less and get an appetizer instead of a desert some days - pay out of pocket.

 

[SouthJersey]

We will be arriving at 9 pm on our first day, going to MK the second day and then Sea World and Universal days 3-5. Back to Disney days 6-9 and leaving late morning on day 10. Trying to justify the dining plan. I could squeeze in a bunch of breakfasts but only 4 sit down dinners. We will be eating meals on days 3-5 in other parks. How can we fit 10 counter service meals and 10 snacks and 10 sit down meals into 5 full Disney days and 2 other mornings? Don't want to spend all our time doubling up on sit downs each day. ALL that said, is it still worth a DP?!? We want to keep our reservations for BOG, Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace, Garden Grill and Fantasmic Package. Other than those we don't much care about other reservations. Thank you!!

It's very subjective and often doesn't work for people, while it works for others.

A common theme is that even when it is a 'deal', you're eating more than you normally would because you're purposely fitting meals in. So even if it saves money, would you have eaten that much?

We ALWAYS go on the deluxe dining plan, but here's why it's good for us.

- We don't have small children, no wasted value from not eating.
- We're in the parks early and back home late, so we have meals from 8:30am to 7:30pm+. So we're not gorging food in small timeframes, 12 hours is absolutely reasonable for three full meals.
- We prefer signatures for dinner each night and would even if there was no dining plan.
- Even when we eat at home, we generally do ONE appetizer, an entree each and a dessert each. So all we're doing beyond what we normally do is an extra appetizer instead of sharing one.

If you're going to eat as many meals as the DP allots even if the plan doesn't exist, then yes, go for it.
For your example, with the extra points, remember that signatures and dinner shows with preferred seating will use 2 credits per person.
We get 3 TS and 2 snacks a day. We do breakfast out of pocket at 8:30am, lunch 1TS around 1:00PM and then dinner 2TS around 7:30+pm

 

[starousse]

After doing both regular and deluxe dining plans, I'd probably say nay to the regular and yay to the deluxe. My husband enjoyed both and would do both again depending on our budget. When we go, we usually enjoy a breakfast/lunch and then a signature for dinner. With the regular, for lunch when we did a quick serve, we would never get a dessert. Even for dinner, with my hubby being a diabetic, we'd usually skip the dessert and pay out of pocket for an app. I found that wasteful. I don't know if I would say that I saved, but I definitely don't think I lost. The plus is the convenience knowing that everything is prepaid and I like having those snack credits for drinks/ice cream in the park.

However, when we did deluxe, we did come out very ahead. We'd have a character breakfast/nice lunch and then do a signature for dinner. We would have an app with our meals and sometimes we had a dessert too. The downside is you're going to spend more in tips for the week.

Overall, if I'm able, I would definitely do the deluxe again.

 

[SouthJersey]

After doing both regular and deluxe dining plans, I'd probably say nay to the regular and yay to the deluxe. My husband enjoyed both and would do both again depending on our budget. When we go, we usually enjoy a breakfast/lunch and then a signature for dinner. With the regular, for lunch when we did a quick serve, we would never get a dessert. Even for dinner, with my hubby being a diabetic, we'd usually skip the dessert and pay out of pocket for an app. I found that wasteful. I don't know if I would say that I saved, but I definitely don't think I lost. The plus is the convenience knowing that everything is prepaid and I like having those snack credits for drinks/ice cream in the park.

However, when we did deluxe, we did come out very ahead. We'd have a character breakfast/nice lunch and then do a signature for dinner. We would have an app with our meals and sometimes we had a dessert too. The downside is you're going to spend more in tips for the week.

Overall, if I'm able, I would definitely do the deluxe again.

x2

We do deluxe during Food and Wine Festival, so the two snacks a day work at the food kiosks in Epcot

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

Background: We are a family of 4 (2 adults, 1 7yo, 1 2yo at the time of travel) going for 8 nights next June (4 days at Disney parks, 2 days Disney waterparks/pool, 2 days at Universal (but still eating dinner at Disney resorts). My husband normally drinks at ungodly amount of diet soda; no dietary restrictions for anyone; my 7yo is a light, but adventurous, eater; 2yo eats a LOT.

I had been pretty firmly of the NO DDP opinion, but husband made our reservations yesterday and got the regular (1 QS, 1 TS / day) plan. So I decided to go through the menus and see if it makes sense for us (I was thinking it wouldn't). DH says he wants the piece of mind to be able to order whatever he wants without paying attention to prices. (We've discussed just buying $___ in gift cards so we still get the affect of an all-inclusive vacation, and hopefully having leftover $ for souvenirs.) We both agree that if paying OOP, we would opt for cheaper entrees even if we really wanted the more expensive, and we'd skip desserts (even if we wanted them).

Here's the problem:

I made a list of our desired restaurants (we can't make reservations yet, and obv may not get all that we want). I entered our meals and dining preferences into the Disney Dining Calculator, and it says we would LOSE $114.31 by getting the DDP.

HOWEVER,
When I go through the actual menus and calculate OOP meal cost according to what we would probably order (with the most updated prices), I calculate that we would spend (approximately; rounded up to whole numbers):

CRT breakfast = $160
Askershus lunch = $120 (+tip, but that's paid OOP with or without the DDP)
Hoop Dee Doo dinner, cat 1 = $170
Whispering Canyon Cafe dinner = $97
O'Hana OR Boma dinner = $112
Via Napoli dinner = $95 (incl. $11 appetizer not covered by DDP)
Chef Mickey's dinner = $150 (+tip)
Kona Cafe breakfast = $52
plus 6 CS meals @ approx $45/meal = $270
TOTAL = $1,226

That doesn't include ANY snacks (I enjoy getting snacks in the WS, esp at Les Halles.) Two days, we would eat breakfast and dinner; 4 days lunch and dinner; and 2 days dinner only (lunch at Universal those days). This do not taking into account the kids (or us!) maybe getting hungry between breakfast and dinner; or needing breakfast if we get a late lunch reservation.

The DDP would cost $1,124. It would cover 8 of my (desired) 10 TS credits (I would prob pay OOP for Via Napoli and Kona Cafe, since they are the cheapest and even added together are still less costly than either of the 2 credit meals; plus, $11 of the $95 at VN would already be OOP). So DDP would cost $1,124 + ($95 + $52) = $1,271. That's $45 more expensive than paying OOP. BUT we would also get 2 more QS meals than paying OOP, snacks, and the refillable mugs (like I said, my husband drinks a ridiculous amount - more than any other human being I've ever come across).

Am I missing something???

TIA!

 

[CharmedLife]

You do have a lot of buffets listed, but your 2-year-old is free regardless so that's a wash... So with all of those buffets I can see that you might come closer to even than people who eat at a lot of menu-based restaurants.

I'm very surprised that with going to Universal you are still interested in being back to Disney in time to eat there every day. I think with travel time and the time you want to spend in those parks you will really be pushing it. Also since you're not staying on-property at Universal you will not have "front of the line" access and will be spending more time in lines. Why not just eat dinner there or, better yet, at an out-of-park restaurant on your way back?

Personally we find that we just had too much food on the DDP. Yes, our calculations may show that we break even or even come out slightly ahead, but in real life we would not eat a sit-down full-on buffet every single day. By mid-week we were just so tired of eating all the time, and spent so much time on it instead of doing other fun stuff. So for MY FAMILY (because of course everyone has different interests), after 2 trips with the DDP (2006 and 2008, back when it was a MUCH better value and before the menu prices got so jacked up), we decided to forgo it. We eat less, spend less, enjoy more parks time, and are relieved we don't have to keep track of credits and what we are allowed to get, what we're "entitled" to get.

To each their own, but we've never looked back...

By the way, my hubby drinks a TON of soda as well, but we've never found it all that convenient to continually run to the refill stations. Much better to keep some drinks in our room.

 

[Haygar2]

Ordinarily I would say "yes" to the DDP. We love it. Luckily, we go in September, so we get it for free. Even if we didn't, we would still purchase it. For our family of 4, it works. It is me, my husband, my 15 year old daughter, and my 11 year old son. We like o eat and my children are good eaters. I went through and looked at the menus for where we are going. I have a pretty good idea of what everyone will order and how much it will cost. My kids are not appetizer kind of people. They do LOVE their desserts. We like the fact that we can go in and my daughter can order a $40 meal and I don't stress about it.

We are also going off property for a day. It works for us because that is when I use that TS credit towards a signature dinner. We use the QS credit for breakfast somewhere on another day. Otherwise we eat breakfast in our room.

With all of that being said, I would skip the DDP if I were you. I don't think you will be on property enough to warrant it.

 

[ibela]

Background: We are a family of 4 (2 adults, 1 7yo, 1 2yo at the time of travel) going for 8 nights next June (4 days at Disney parks, 2 days Disney waterparks/pool, 2 days at Universal (but still eating dinner at Disney resorts). My husband normally drinks at ungodly amount of diet soda; no dietary restrictions for anyone; my 7yo is a light, but adventurous, eater; 2yo eats a LOT.

I had been pretty firmly of the NO DDP opinion, but husband made our reservations yesterday and got the regular (1 QS, 1 TS / day) plan. So I decided to go through the menus and see if it makes sense for us (I was thinking it wouldn't). DH says he wants the piece of mind to be able to order whatever he wants without paying attention to prices. (We've discussed just buying $___ in gift cards so we still get the affect of an all-inclusive vacation, and hopefully having leftover $ for souvenirs.) We both agree that if paying OOP, we would opt for cheaper entrees even if we really wanted the more expensive, and we'd skip desserts (even if we wanted them).

Here's the problem:

I made a list of our desired restaurants (we can't make reservations yet, and obv may not get all that we want). I entered our meals and dining preferences into the Disney Dining Calculator, and it says we would LOSE $114.31 by getting the DDP.

HOWEVER,
When I go through the actual menus and calculate OOP meal cost according to what we would probably order (with the most updated prices), I calculate that we would spend (approximately; rounded up to whole numbers):

CRT breakfast = $160
Askershus lunch = $120 (+tip, but that's paid OOP with or without the DDP)
Hoop Dee Doo dinner, cat 1 = $170
Whispering Canyon Cafe dinner = $97
O'Hana OR Boma dinner = $112
Via Napoli dinner = $95 (incl. $11 appetizer not covered by DDP)
Chef Mickey's dinner = $150 (+tip)
Kona Cafe breakfast = $52
plus 6 CS meals @ approx $45/meal = $270
TOTAL = $1,226

That doesn't include ANY snacks (I enjoy getting snacks in the WS, esp at Les Halles.) Two days, we would eat breakfast and dinner; 4 days lunch and dinner; and 2 days dinner only (lunch at Universal those days). This do not taking into account the kids (or us!) maybe getting hungry between breakfast and dinner; or needing breakfast if we get a late lunch reservation.

The DDP would cost $1,124. It would cover 8 of my (desired) 10 TS credits (I would prob pay OOP for Via Napoli and Kona Cafe, since they are the cheapest and even added together are still less costly than either of the 2 credit meals; plus, $11 of the $95 at VN would already be OOP). So DDP would cost $1,124 + ($95 + $52) = $1,271. That's $45 more expensive than paying OOP. BUT we would also get 2 more QS meals than paying OOP, snacks, and the refillable mugs (like I said, my husband drinks a ridiculous amount - more than any other human being I've ever come across).

Am I missing something???

TIA!

Regardless of how often you're off-site, the majority of your meals are on-site, fixed price, and you have a child under 10. If your husband wanted to get a refillable mug OOP (which is pricey but we would do because my boyfriend drinks a ridiculous amout of soda as well, like seriously he could drink a 2L bottle in 1 day, easy) then that's another $18+tax. For the extra $45 you're getting 3 mugs (I don't drink THAT much soda but like a coffee in the morning which he brings me while I get the kids ready, or when hanging by the pool), 2 QS meals, and 24 snack credits! It's not the best "value" but will definitely save you money if you use a snack credit for your 2yo during a QS meal to get a juice or chocolate milk, etc.

I did a similar calculation and have decided to go WITH the DDP. I calculated the OOP cost based on what we would actually order (higher priced entrees in some places, lower priced in others), assumed we would share 2 desserts between the 4 of us instead of each getting our own, mostly water with meals, we do like our snacks especially ice cream or frozen lemonade since we go in August - and even with sharing some QS meals (2 kids) I found that we were saving $40 OOP instead of the DDP. For the $40 we get an additional mug (OOP we'd buy 3, not 4 since 1 is basically a water drinker), 6 QS meals (for the 4 of us, not 24 credits), about 5 more snacks, and beverages with all our non-fixed price meals! Most people say a blanket "don't get it" but in some situations, it IS worth it. Enjoy!

ETA: I just wanted to point out that *I think* cat 1 is only available via 2credits on DDP if you book a late show, otherwise you can only use the credits for a cat 2 or 3.

 

[Meerkatx]

Great thread. Ddp doesnt seem to make sense to me now. 3 and 5 year old plus me and the DW. I feel like ill be less flexible always trying to make sure we are using our credits. I would just be trading up the concerns over spending $$$ for the concerns of not eating enough.

 

[Squishy15]

Where do you find the calculator that prices all of the meals you have reserved to see of the plan or out if pocket is better? Thank you

 

[goherdibg]

Where do you find the calculator that prices all of the meals you have reserved to see of the plan or out if pocket is better? Thank you

http://www.distripplanner.com

 

[pepe of ohio]

Nay... never used it.... don't like preplanned schedules...

Too much money, too much time, too much hype..

We save more by paying out of pocket and most meals are huge easy to share...

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I will never again use DDP but then I didn't like being restricted to entree plus dessert and the QS desserts suck for the most part...so that's no bargain. I don't do buffets or character meals either. I'm WAY better off without the plan.

 

[hckymominMI]

We just got back and had the dining plan. I'm not sure it was worth it and don't think we would add it again. Many times my family was too full for desert or didn't want a full entree because it was just too much food. I'd say for what you are planning it wouldn't be worth it for you.

 

[TravelMommy]

and our kiddos were not considered "Disney Adults". There are a lot of factors to consider what would work for you. I will have to say our last trip everyone did not want to eat meals we had scheduled, had a big breakfast, had a snack and were not hungry, etc.... I also am so surprised to read about the number of people who go on vacation and would not eat what they want, very surprising. We tend to split meals on beach vacations, such as Fisherman's platter--seriously who can eat one of those on their own?? We are like that at WDW too. Get a appy, or soup and split a meal and maybe split a dessert. For people like us, current plans do not work. I for one wished you could buy the vouchers, like they had years ago so you could get a good deal on some meals and not feel like you have to overeat and/or get the most expensive meal when you just want a sandwich. Whatever you decide, have a great trip and enjoy!

 

[mikeyg1479]

People will argue fiercely each way on the subject, but in my opinion, for your first trip, do the following- price out the dining plan for each member of your family for the intended level of eating you intend to primarily do- whether all counter service, table service, or signature (high end table service).

Instead of actually buying the dining plan- put this money aside as your food budget for the trip- go on vacation, and eat normally, order what you feel like eating.

I almost guarantee you will spend far less than what you budgeted.

The reason I say all this, is for the rate they charge for the dining plan, you would need to make a strong effort to always order the most expensive items, at some of the more expensive places in order for it to be worth it. That's a lot of Steak and seafood, but honestly sometimes you just want a good burger, or fried chicken, or a delicious gourmet pizza that's just as good, but not nearly as much money.

There are a lot of great places in WDW where using the dining plan is almost criminal given what it cost- places like 50's prime time, or sci fi diner where every entrée is mostly under $20, but nonetheless are great places to check out. But considering what you pay for the dining plan, you are just donating extra money to Disney for nothing if you eat there.

Anther thing about the dining plan is what you get is rigid - you must have an entrée, non alcoholic drink, and desert- want an appetizer as your entrée? nope. You'll pay for it anyway. Want an alcoholic beverage? You'll pay for it.

I strongly believe, the only time the dining plan is worth it, is when its free as part of a promotion- if you can get it then, eat it up. Free meals is a no brainer. Otherwise, out of pocket is the way to go. Trust me.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I strongly believe, the only time the dining plan is worth it, is when its free as part of a promotion

If you have children under 10 and you intend to do a character meal (or any fixed price meal) a day, it's worth it. It's pretty hard for an adult to order $60 worth of food every day under the given parameters (even harder if they pick 2 credit restaurants), but on the children's plan just one character meal can work out to their getting the QS meal and snack at no extra cost. Obviously the more children under 10, the better the deal. (this is the regular plan, the deluxe plan is something else entirely and it's hard for any party of any makeup to save money on the quick service plan)

I dislike actually being on the dining plan, so I don't even get it free with the promotion. I would take a room discount.