Another "is it worth it" question

[cwnhokie]

We will be staying the second week in August in two studios at BCV on points. I plan to get the DDP, but have started to wonder if it is worth it. It will be DH and I with DS8 and DS9 in one room and the grandparents with DS3 in the other. My boys aren't big eaters and will often split one or two kids meals and maybe an appetizer when we go out to eat. We like to have one TS a day to relax and regroup. I feel like one TS a day usually pays for the plan, but if we wouldn't be ordering the extra kids meals, I'm not sure. And if we decide to add an appetizer here and there? I'm probably overthinking it, but that's what happens when you have months and months to plan. Right now our ADRs are:
12/11 Ohana dinner
12/12 50s Prime Time Dinner
12/13 Le Cellier Lunch CPP
12/14 WCC Lunch
12/15 Cape May Breakfast (Plan to pay OOP for that one)

Thanks!

 

[havoc315]

Best way to determine whether it is "worth" it, is to pull out the menus and a calculator. It will really depend on whether you typically order the more expensive or less expensive items, whether you want every member of the party to get their own dessert with each meal, whether you always get soft drinks. If you tend towards more expensive entrees, you want all the desserts, and you are going to use the snack credits, it is probably worthwhile. If you sometimes order an appetizer instead of an entree, if you are going to leave a couple credits behind, and if you are going to skip desserts, then it would be cheaper to just pay oop.

 

[Bete]

I like the plan because you don't pay sales tax with it. If you like table service once a day it's usually worth it to get it. I would not opt for the more expensive dining plans; stick with the basic ones.

It does depend on your normal eating habits. We are satisfied with no dessert and we can drink tap water with our meals. Of course, since it's included in the plan we tend to overeat. My mom never eats her fair share of any meals and my husband is a vegetarian and those meals tend to be cheaper ones than the rest. Usually, I have to order the most expensive meal for myself for the plan to be worth it for us as a whole. With a counter service meal we make out on the plan. It seems we all eat better for those CS meals and so it puts us at the point of doing okay for a DP. Also, we get the Fantasmic Package and we go at Christmas a lot and we do the Candlelight Package; so, all of these considerations helps us with making the plan worth it for us.

If you don't care about TS then the QS plan seems more worth it to me.

In your case you may be able to do one room with the dining plan and one without. That may be the best of both worlds depending on what you want to do with it.

 

[Cafeen]

One thing to note is that at least half of your reservations are for set price meals (Ohana, CP package (I think?) and Cape May). These will be the same price whether the little ones eat or not.

This leaves 50s and WCC. If you order Kids' Meals to split at those locations, you can then use those saved credits at Cape May to pay for the kids there.

Assuming that the adults will be using the entitlements as given (Entree and Dessert at WCC and 50s), you'll still come out just fine so long as you only "skip" up to 3 of the Kids' Meals (and a 4th won't hurt that much, having 1 kids TS credit left over isn't going to break the bank). These credits would then be spent at Cape May instead of paying OOP for the kids (and it's probably a better value here too, as the buffets/family styles tend to be more pricey than a standard kids' meal).

If going this route, I would suggest that you "skip" meals first on your room, and the 3rd (if applicable) on the grandparents' room. This is due to the limits on credit usage for each room. Now, this is just for payment, not necessarily which child gets what.

If the CP Package is not fixed price, then the same applies there, although with 2 credits being used you may end up over on child credits by a bit more... I'm just not well versed enough on CP packages to really know. It would take a little more figuring out if that's the case.

 

[Tammy296]

The math helps... however it won't tell you IF the food is any good or not.

Your list looks OK as far as that's concerned. I personally like O'hana but I can never get my BF to eat there. He hates it. It's prob one of my personal favs.... then again I haven't eaten there since 2007 and since the DDP has cut corners BIG TIME I can't tell you what the food is like there now. :

What is it you LIKE to eat at home? Do you NORMALLY get desserts at a restaurant at home or do you prefer appetizers? If apps are what you want, you won't find it on the DDP as optional unless you want to pay OOP. Myself I prefer the Apps at Disney now but it's because the desserts have also changed since 2007 greatly. Now it's seems pretty much the same everywhere you go. Back in 2007 you could find a lot of VARIETY in the dessert selection and nothing was bad. Now you see a lot of the same stuff you could almost make or have "at home". Nothing really "special" if you KWIM. : When you do the math take into consideration what you'd normally eat. It's hard to compare apples to apples. If you do it that way then it's probably still worth it. Now I'd like to roll my eyes on that because I'd NEVER go to WDW for the food. If I wanted to go somewhere for the food I'd go out of the country to an all inclusive resort. I'd get far better results. We go because our kids are young and it's a "family" vacation and for the $$ well... it's what we can afford.

Tip while doing DDP is also something to take into consideration when you do your math. You have to do what feels like acclimate to get your moneys worth. I personally think the business HOPED making ppl pay for tips would make them think twice about getting the MOST expensive things on the menu just to take advantage of the plan. The whole tipping thing makes us sick everytime we go because we literally have to SAVE for tips. I'm a frugal American and don't like to give my money away especially on lousy food and service.

I hope you enjoy your trip no matter what... Remember that it's supposed to be VACATION. no matter what...