Am I just cheap?

[sharonabe]

Last time i checked, adding the DDP (middle version) was an extra 3k for a 7 day trip (party of 5: 3 adults, 2 children!) roughly $85 per day per person ($90 once you add a tip).. not terrible if you ask me.. but certainly significant enough to at least make me pause and think about it..

Make sure you do the math again. If you booked a package today, it would be $277.97 per night for your family, so a 7 night would only be $1945.79.

 

[goofyintoronto]

I was spoiled by the early days of free dining where we ate at great TS restaurants with appetizers, entrees and desserts...for free! Last time we went to Disney we bought the quick service DP, which I felt was a little steep.
Now I am planning our trip for May and I think we are just going to eat and pay as we go. I was thinking we may splurge on a nice dinner maybe on our last night like Ohanas (which I haven't been to since free dining). I mean, I know it's delicious and I know eating out on vacation is obviously more than at "home" but is it really worth $250 for a family of four?? Don't even get me started on the luau at Poly. I know it's a show too but wow. We spend a lot of money on a DW vacation for room and tickets but We can barely afford to eat!! Am I just too cheap??
Sorry so long. Maybe I just needed to vent

$250 for four to eat at Ohana??? No way, definitely not worth it in my opinion. When I ate there i had free dining and wanted to see what the hype was about. Wow, so glad i didnt pay out of pocket. The food was NOT GOOD. Slimy wings, dry meat, dry potstickers and noodles. No thanks. Had i paid out of pocket i would've been ticked.

Lately i've been paying out of pocket and its worked out well. I mainly eat at a la carte restaurants though. Aside from a couple of breakfast buffets (the wave is my fave), I avoid buffets and all-you-can-eat places. Its cheaper ordering from the menu (for the most part) and the food quality is better.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

you didn't actually eat there for free, you accepted a resort discount. They got paid.

If you don't live in a major metropolitan area I can see why Disney prices seem really high. They are really high, but it costs about as much to eat out here.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Get pizza at Blaze Pizza. You can get a pizza for less than $10 per person. And it's a nice sized pizza, not the tiny individual sized ones. Maybe 12" diameter. Thin, crisp crust and excellent. We ate there last week. It was very busy, but very good and quick.

 

[sharonabe]

$250 for four to eat at Ohana???

Just to clarify. OP said $250 for four, but in reality, it's $180 (including tax) for four. That's still a lot of money, but as I said, it's the exact same cost as my local brasa except I would need to add tax to that $180 here.

 

[Magic_Man]

"Let's come up with a Dining Plan that saves guests hundreds of dollars over what they would pay out of pocket and cuts into our bottom line revenue".....said no Disney executive, ever.

The Dining Plan is supposed to act like casino chips. A $10 chip is still $10. But when you are putting shiny, colorful discs on the blackjack table, you get desensitized to the amount you are spending compared to laying out a flat $10 bill for every hand. You aren't losing more money when you lose a chip than if you lose a bill. You just don't mind the pain as much. Same with a pre-paid plan. Disney has this down to a science. You aren't going to save money with a plan, but you shouldn't get soaked either.

Dining at WDW is not all that different than lodging at WDW. The price of a meal is on par with the price of what you would pay at high end restaurants in most major cities. The difference is, in most major cities, your $300 meal will be of a higher quality. For example, the 'Ohana experience is similar (in style) to going to Fogo de Chao. The price of the latter in Los Angeles is $60 pp for dinner. So it is hard to say that they price at 'Ohana is out of line. The difference is, the food at 'Ohana simply isn't as good. But the same applies to lodging. Think about the quality/luxury of your room at the Poly that faces a parking lot. $700? Really? But then again, I can easily find rooms in NYC, San Francisco, Aspen and Boston that cost as much. But they will be in places like the Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental or Ritz Carlton and they will blow away the room at the Poly. So it isn't really "price" that stuns me at WDW as much as it is what I am getting for that price.

 

[goofyintoronto]

Just to clarify. OP said $250 for four, but in reality, it's $180 (including tax) for four. That's still a lot of money, but as I said, it's the exact same cost as my local brasa except I would need to add tax to that $180 here.

In my opinion, its still not worth $180 for four people.

 

[jrmasm]

In my opinion, its still not worth $180 for four people.

I agree. I wouldn't pay $100 for four for that place.

 

[Lovetherodent]

Cheap? I prefer to say I know my priorities. My house isn't big. I drive bottom of the line cars. These things just aren't important to me. Travelling, however, well, that's another matter entirely. My family likes to travel. So, its deluxe resort (although, honestly, that's more a motion sickness on buses situation than anything else), park hoppers, and the dining plan. Means we can't go every year or for long trips, but hey, go and do it up in style.

You, OP, are not cheap. You are simply not prioritizing the Disney dining experiences, and that's totally ok.

 

[Arielfan98]

You're not cheap at all! My family usually does the DP, but that's because it's convenient for us. If we are doing a quick, budget type trip then we will eat out twice and pay out of pocket. In terms of restaurants, I think there are better quality restaurants that give you bang for your buck such as Rose & Crown, Turf Club, Kona Cafe, The Wave, etc.

 

[Pumbaa_]

Make sure you do the math again. If you booked a package today, it would be $277.97 per night for your family, so a 7 night would only be $1945.79.

So $2k to feed a family for a week. Plus tips. I think that is obscene

You can eat well at Disney for a lot less than that

Everyone has a different perspective. I can see how attractive it can be to not have to pay each ts bill, instead just sign and go.

 

[RangerPooh]

We're a family of 6 and we debate this. Some trips we splurge for the QS plan, and others go without and pay as we go, using AP/DVC/or TIW discounts where we can. We are also more conservative with our TS locations as we want quality for the price we pay. When OOP we rarely do character meals or buffets as we don;t eat enough to make it worth it. Our trip last month was free TS dining plan as part of a bounce back offer that was a great deal, but not something we'd pay for.

 

[rg35]

Being from NYC, Disney dining prices aren't particularly outrageous to us but I can see how it could cause sticker shock for some.

Also, Ohana dinner is terrible. There are many much better places to spend $250 on dinner at WDW.

 

[goofyintoronto]

I agree. I wouldn't pay $100 for four for that place.

ha ha! For 4 people, i'd be willing to pay $50, but not a penny more.

 

[Meglen]

For our upcoming trip I got us the DDP 1t/1cs/2sn. We are going with my son and mother who have never been and being able to say "you get 2 snacks aday" to my 8yr old it puts alittle leash on his "i want iwant" lol. With my mother this is her first ever vacation and we are gifting it to her and with the DDP she wont need to worry about food or feel bad about the prices since its already paid for. I want to go on vacation and not worry about money everything will be payed for and giftcards to cover any breakfast items we get and things to take home. Gives me peace of mind.

 

[sharonabe]

So $2k to feed a family for a week. Plus tips. I think that is obscene

You can eat well at Disney for a lot less than that

Everyone has a different perspective. I can see how attractive it can be to not have to pay each ts bill, instead just sign and go.

I agree with you; we never do the dining plan anymore.

My "only" up there was because the OP had stated it would be $3000 for the 7 nights. That's a huge math error, in my opinion.

 

[JerseyJanice]

We took three Free Dining trips in 2008, 2009, and 2010. The last trip in 2010 was a bounce back deal at Pop Century. We paid $82 per night for four Disney adults. Those were the days my friend!

First trip in 2008, my boys were Disney adults, but still ate like picky birds. It would have killed me to pay full price for them at the AYCE places.

Anyhow, it was fun, but after going to so many of the Disney restaurants, I wouldn’t look forward to planning and keeping all those ADRs again. I find ADRs to be a huge hassle especially with a group. It’s so hard to get everyone there on time.

 

[KenHutch]

Your not cheap you have to plan what your family needs and can afford. My family always does it but I am paying for 8 not 4. I understand your pain, my daughters maternal great aunt wants to pay for one meal on our next trip to thank us for taking her. She picked Coral Reef and I told her to plan on 400+ and the ban appetizers. I thought for a moment I had killed her from the look on her face. She had no idea on what I pay for these trips (LOL).

 

[Elle23]

Not only is the food expensive, it’s often not good or just ok.

I don’t mind spending a little more for a wonderful dining experience. However, there are only a handful of places like that in WDW.

We were at WDW 12/14-12/21. I honestly could not believe how mediocre the food was. It was shocking to me. At the end of the trip, I was shaking my head at how much money I had forked over for subpar food and service.

When we got to MCO, my kids (15 and 13) were so excited to get McDonalds and exclaimed how sick they were of Disney food. That’s how bad it was!

There were some really good things (like the Ohana bread for example), but overall, the food was absolutely not worth the money we paid. And it makes me really sad to say that.

 

[loves to dive]

It has never been free, it's just been part of a package, the room is always at rack rate for the package and there is almost always a time you can find a room for a discount. I remember the days when you did get the app, entre, dessert and tip with the package and it included 3 TS meals a day. We actually bought it back then because it was really cheap and less than it would be if you got 3 TS meals out of pocket. We bought it maybe twice. I think we may have gotten the "free" dining once when it first came out because I couldn't find a room at a deluxe resort at a discount. Now we don't eat the way the plan is designed. Rarely do we eat a full breakfast, it's normally a muffin or a breakfast sandwich which we split. We will eat QS for lunch and I normally get a kid's meal because I just don't eat big meals any more. We will eat TS for supper maybe 4 out of 6 nights but again, I'm a light eater so I'll get a salad and appetizer or two appetizers. We rarely order dessert and if we do, we split it. My son can eat a big meal some nights, some nights he just wants bar food so we get a refreshing adult beverage and eat bar food for supper. I never book a room at rack rate any more and I have an AP and get at least 3 trips off it, my son had one last year and he got 3 trips, I got 4. We rarely snack between meals, again I'm just not hungry between meals and my son rarely is either. As far as the cost of the food, we live in a major college town, Athens GA home of University of Georgia. Unless you are eating fast food, most restaurants cost about what you are going to pay at Disney so it's not that big of a deal to us.