Another DDP "worth it" question

[eliza61]

Need some help from the professional ddp users.

My family and I tried a meal plan on our first visit to disneyworld many moons ago (it wasn't called the ddp back then). We didn't like it mainly because our kids were small so they really didn't eat much and because we don't like being locked into a TS meal every night.

Now we are going back for a split stay and we're thinking of doing the ddp for the 1st leg of our vacation. I tried doing the math and it seems that we would come out better not doing the plan but I always read about folks saving hundreds of dollars.

Am I doing the math right. I used a day at MK or my calculations

Lunch

4 burger baskets at pecos bill= $7.59 x4 30.36
4 sodas @ 2.39=9.56
round up total= $40.36

Dinner
Tony's Town square
2 seafood diavolos @ $22.99 each =$45.98
1 chicken parm @ 16.99
1 spaghetti @16.99
4 soft drinks @2.39= 9.56
3 desserts @ 5.99=$18.00
Total for dinner=$107.52

I did not include appertizers or tip since no matter which way I go I will have to pay for those.

Grand total for the day would be $147.88.
If I went with the DDP my total would be 159.96.

Did I miss some thing? it seems cheaper for me not to use the ddp.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Don't forget to add in tax and then a snack for the day. Snacks are normally anything under $4.00 each.

 

[SunnieRN]

Also you need to check an additional day to be sure. If you are planning on going to Cosmic Rays and getting the rib chicken combo it is quite a bit more expensive. If you went to epcot and went to tangierine(sp?) and got a meal there for counter service it is more like $13 + drink and dessert. Finish off your day with dinner at Le Cellier, Coral Reef or Tutto Itallia and you will see the savings really add up. It depends where/what your family enjoys eating!
Another counter service which is higher priced with great food is wolfgang puck express,, in downtown disney. Then you can go to goofys candy kitchen and create your own snacks with snack credits, yum.
The menus can be found at www.allers.net. You will be able to know what is best for your family!

 

[squirrel]

You also get a dessert at the CS locations unless you are doing breakfast. Most of the places have a dessert that you can take with you and eat later, if it's too much to eat at one time.

 

[Tricia1972]

You can make the plan work for you, that's for certain! It looks to me like your rounding about accounts for tax, so you already are experiencing the tax 'savings' in your plan cost vs OOP cost.

True, you do get dessert at CS and TS locations. We generally find the CS desserts to be 'ok', but they are not worth it to us and we're fine skipping them and getting a snack in the park later on.

Snacks can be valued at anything under $4, but we found that when we averaged our snacks for a trip (when we weren't working to make the plan pay for itself) to be about $3 in value per credit.

Do take a look at a few more places that you want to eat and figure out what you want to order when you get there. If you spend your vacation getting chicken and ribs to make the plan work, when all you want is a burger, then the DDP loses some value to me personally.

Everyone has different tastes, and not everyone is a good fit with the plan. The plan not working for you takes nothing away from those that the plan works for. Different vacationing styles for different families. It's what makes this country great!

(We've used the plan twice and not used the plan a total of 3 times, we prefer vacationing without the plan and do so cheaper than getting a dining plan would be, even though we eat one TS per day and dine at quite a few signatures)

 

[ROEDISNEY]

We love the plan and I think it's very much worth it.

 

[summermac]

Right, tax and snacks are missing.

My "plan" is to get dessert as part of a CS lunch, save it for a snack for later and use the snack credit to get some kind of breakfasty thing for the hotel in the mornings. One day I will have to alter from that though b/c we want to do a character meal breakfast. I figure we won't be starving for lunch so a snack credit will be good enough for lunch that day and then a CS for dinner.

 

[mickeystoontown]

And desserts are missing from the original poster's counter service meals. Since there are three of us in our group, we usually get two desserts and one fruit selection. That way, we can take the fruit with us and the desserts are shared.

 

[eliza61]

Do take a look at a few more places that you want to eat and figure out what you want to order when you get there. If you spend your vacation getting chicken and ribs to make the plan work, when all you want is a burger, then the DDP loses some value to me personally.

Everyone has different tastes, and not everyone is a good fit with the plan. The plan not working for you takes nothing away from those that the plan works for. Different vacationing styles for different families. It's what makes this country great!

(We've used the plan twice and not used the plan a total of 3 times, we prefer vacationing without the plan and do so cheaper than getting a dining plan would be, even though we eat one TS per day and dine at quite a few signatures)

That's my concern. I tried to realistically pick things that we normally would order. I've read so many post where people intentionally order the most expensive thing to maximize the plan and I did not want to do that. I'm trying to compare to how we really eat on vacation.

I didn't include the desserts because we are not big dessert eaters at any time, I probably would definitely go for it if the appertizers were still included.

Question:
a few folks have mentioned I forgot tax. Is tax included in the DDP

 

[Tricia1972]

That's my concern. I tried to realistically pick things that we normally would order. I've read so many post where people intentionally order the most expensive thing to maximize the plan and I did not want to do that. I'm trying to compare to how we really eat on vacation.

I didn't include the desserts because we are not big dessert eaters at any time, I probably would definitely go for it if the appertizers were still included.

Question:
a few folks have mentioned I forgot tax. Is tax included in the DDP

When I originally looked at it it looked like tax was included, now I see you have rounded up to just about what the tax will be at CS, but TS you'd need to add about $7.

Tax is included on the DDP, and the tax rate in FL is 6.5%