Anyone else out there not use the Dining Plan?

[TwoAtDisney]

We've been to WDW too many times to count, & as retirees spent many winters there. We were on "Free" DDP in Nov 2010 for 20 days. That was our first experience on a Disney dining plan. Here's what we learned -

1. While on DDP, we miss out on some favorite non-Disney restaurants. We got tired of all Disney food because much of the quality is not that great.

2. We don't do many days at the parks any more. Seems like Disney dining would be an inconvenience if we wanted to spend our days at the parks.

3. We don't eat as much food as Disney dining gives. We split most restaurant servings. So, our normal OOP dining would be much cheaper than paying for Disney dining.

4. We ate too much & went home much heavier! That's not a good thing!

5. The "Free" DDP was not really free. At the same time free ddp was offered, there was a special reduced price for resorts without ddp. The special resort price w/o ddp was cheaper than the resorts with the "free" ddp.

6. If one flies to WDW instead of driving, there could be a lot of wasted food and/or DDP credits. We drove, so we didn't waste - see how below.

Benefits of Disney dining -
1. We ate more expensive food than we would normally pay for. Therefore, gave us some new experiences, which we enjoyed.

2. We do not waste food. So the fact that we don't usually eat dessert or don't eat so many meals is not a waste. We drove from Indiana to WDW. We took the desserts & excess food back to our Disney resort & immediately placed them in baggies, refrigerated those needing such, & had shopping bags for those not needing refrigeration. Sometimes we reheated food in the resort's food court microwave when we didn't feel like dining out. On the last day, we used our leftover credits for sandwiches & cupcakes from Starring Rolls, Magic cookies from POR, full racks of ribs from ESPN, & much more. We got 2 styrofoam coolers from Publix ($4 each) & used ice from the resort. Both coolers were full to the tops & we had more food in the back seat that didn't require refrigerating. We split a Starring Rolls sandwich, cupcake, & chips on the ride home! At home we froze some of it & enjoyed Disney food for a long time! No waste there!

 

[amberdburke]

We are going in October and eating at a Character Meal (for our 2yo DD) each of our 4 park days. These are the only meals we will eat in the park (the other 2 will be at our condo). Including tip, we will be spending about $300 on in-park food. What throws me off the DP is having to pay tip. My "bill" would be much higher on the DP because I would be eating more expensive food to cover the cost. I am a generous tipper, so this would make a big difference to us. It's much cheaper for us to eat what we want and pay OOP. Maybe if we were going during FD, but that would be it.

 

[Cafeen]

I know there are some of you that can't understand how anyone could be anti dining plan...but I can't understand how it's really that great of a deal. I am hoping that there are some WDW veterans out there that actually have some good reasons why they use it.

I'm not trying to instigate debate...I'm actually looking for another viewpoint.

I would never eat enough each day to justify purchasing one of the plans as a money saver. Aren't the selections on the menus limited? I've actually had waiters thank me for not being on the plan and thus not having to explain what I can and can not have. This happened 3 years ago on my honeymoon so I'm not sure if things have changed. Our concierge on the CL at the BWI last year said,"good girl" when I told him we were not participating in the DDP...so what gives?

I suspect that there are some of you out there that have really figured out how to work this plan to your advantage and I want to know how...is it because it's really worth it or is it to make it an easier system to deal with?

I am interested in trying one of the plans eventually...I would just like another viewpoint so I can get behind it a little more confidently!

Thanks!

I'm being bad and skipping reading the responses.

ZOMG~! I CAN'T BEL...erm.. nm I can't even fake it .

It's all about what's right for you and yours. If a plan isn't right for your situation, it's not right for your situation. Right now, for mine, DxDDP happens to fit, but I won't begrudge anyone for whom it doesn't.

Now, I do get annoyed with the ZOMG DDP KILLED EVERYTHING! people, but for those who simply don't use it as it doesn't suit them, it's all good .

The CMs are likely tired of being forced to give annoying speeches because people can't be bothered to research what they're buying. I always mention to my servers that I know exactly how it works in an effort to stave them off from going over it (in a nice manner, not like "Can it! I know already!" more like a "I'm on DxDDP, here's my card, let's get down to business " (Yes, the smiley is part of the saying).)

As far as another viewpoint, basically if one of the plans suits what you're looking to experience, it's worth a shot. If it doesn't, then it won't be worth it. Not much else to it. For the pre-paid aspect, you can stock up money on a GC and use that to pay off your dining/room bill and have a similar effect.

Making it work for you is actually secondary imo (and I know many from both sides of DDP fence will agree here). The primary thing is to make sure that your desired experience suits what it demands first. If it does, then you can get to work planning things out to take more advantage than you might otherwise.

--- Delimiter ---
Ok, I went back and read it all like a good little forum goer and everything above still stands

To mention, I typically go with DxDDP as a solo. 2010 I "saved" roughly $150 not counting snacks. 2011 it looks like I'll be saving about $200 total (estimating $3 snacks). Now, I don't use it specifically to save money, as that's the second check. I use it because for my trip, I want to eat at least 2 TS per day, I want to do the sigs, I want an app, entree, and dessert with each meal. It works for me. The second check is the financial, to make sure that my plan actually works with the dining plan I've chosen. In both cases so far it has (Dx though). 2012, it might not.

Now, I typically do a 1 credit meal for breakfast or lunch followed by a 2 credit Signature for dinner. Rarely do I do 3 meals and I do plan with some credits left over (last year was 3 or 4, this year is 2 or 3). However, due to my length of stay and the fact that I'm on DxDDP instead of DDP, it still works out.

For 2012, it's going to be interesting. I'm looking at bringing my friend and her to be 5 year old daughter down again. We'd be spending 8 or 9 days down there at the end of Sept, DDP here would work as I can work it to work financially and to make sure she doesn't have to worry about what she orders (she's one of those that would get something cheap and small that she didn't really want). Right after that, in order to save flight money, I'd likely be spending another 8/9 days with Mom. This would be to bring her to the sigs and enjoy F&W as much as possible. Chances are this would work out with DxDDP as it's something she wants to try. However, if either don't appear to be worth it, then I'd certainly switch gears.

 

[SouthJersey]

Not arguing any of that. You are 100% correct about the bolded part. I guess what I was saying is that a typical "foodie" isn't going to be entralled with character breakfasts, dinner shows, buffets and eating in the castle. At least, not anyone within my definition and understanding of the term "foodie". That is why I would steer a discriminating epicure away from the plan.

Well foodie in the sense of signature dining choices, le cellier etc. The castle was thrown in there for the fact of a lot of people like the simple sense of saying they ate in the castle, the food's average at best there. However, a 'foodie' couple vacationing with their kids was how my cousins and their kids made big value of the deluxe plan, all character breakfasts for the kids, chef de france, le cellier and others for dinner for them.

 

[OllieDannyandMe]

It appears that very few fans of the Disney Dining Plan are posting here. Maybe that is because the title of the thread changed to anyone "not" use the dining plan.

To the OP, if you are still searching for reasons to try the dining plan, I do think a lot of good cautionary points have been made here.

1) The dining plan is probably not for connoisseurs of fine food, because a number of the finest dining establishments at Disney do not take the DDP. (A few do, but several wonderful ones do not.)

2) If you are looking to spend the least amount of money possible on food, the DDP is probably not for you either. You can eat cheaper at Disney OOP and still be full.

3) If you are concerned about wasting food or your waist line, then the DDP is probably not for you, especially if you will feel compelled to eat your money's worth in food. As expensive as the Disney Dining Plan is, that becomes a SCARY proposition ​

However, if you are going to Disney restaurants for the entertainment value, and plan to eat at many of the character buffets and try the table service dining experiences (i.e., restaurants in World Showcase, DHS's 50s Primetime & Sci-Fi Dine In, etc.), then the DDP can save you some money.

For me, it works perfectly because I am not a foodie. Everyone has to eat, but the food at Disney is secondary to me. I am there for the theatrical experience. As my daughter ages, this will probably change, but right now it makes the DDP wonderful for me!

 

[fallschurch]

I worked for Disney in the early 90's. They really don't do anything unless it somehow benefits their bottom line. When a program doesn't work or produce the projected revenue, it is cut or modified to make money. Pretty plain and simple. Any savings is minimal at best for the majority of users.

That being said you can make the dining plan work to your benefit. I say, pre-pay for your food and who cares if you are saving or spending 100's. This is Disney time and everybody can vacation as they want.

Myself, I can't eat all of that food, I enjoy wine with my lunch, don't snack and never know what I actually want for dinner until 6:15pm.

 

[Pig Pen]

We had the dining plan for 5 adults and ended up paying over $100 oop on top of the plan at Le Cellier for LUNCH. We had a 2 yo so we had to pay oop for his meal, we all had soup, my beverage was not covered (I got the light-up Tinkerbell drink - nothing alcoholic), then there was the tip. My DS and DD may have ordered beers.

Anyway... DH gets the bill and says "Hey, I thought our meals were already paid for?"

If we had not been on the dining plan we probably would have eaten CS and been happy.

When DH and I go alone we never get the dining plan. We eat TS at lunch and generally eat light. Lots of times I will just get an appetizer and salad. DH likes desserts, but he prefers to eat them as snacks...not immediately after his meal. We like to take a break and have TS mid-day and then just snack in the evenings. I am sort of OCD so tracking meal credits, etc., stresses me out.

I can totally uderstand how it works for most people...just not for us.

 

[Cafeen]

I worked for Disney in the early 90's. They really don't do anything unless it somehow benefits their bottom line. When a program doesn't work or produce the projected revenue, it is cut or modified to make money. Pretty plain and simple.

For sure, and the reason the plans came about was to increase "butts in seats" at the restaurants. It's certainly worked as we hear all the time how easy it used to be to get same day reservations anywhere (even at the vast majority of in-park restaurants!)

It's far better to have a restaurant at 100% capacity making 80% per head, than to have a restaurant at 30% capacity making 100% per head.

We had the dining plan for 5 adults and ended up paying over $100 oop on top of the plan at Le Cellier for LUNCH. We had a 2 yo so we had to pay oop for his meal, we all had soup, my beverage was not covered (I got the light-up Tinkerbell drink - nothing alcoholic), then there was the tip. My DS and DD may have ordered beers.

Anyway... DH gets the bill and says "Hey, I thought our meals were already paid for?"

If we had not been on the dining plan we probably would have eaten CS and been happy.

When DH and I go alone we never get the dining plan. We eat TS at lunch and generally eat light. Lots of times I will just get an appetizer and salad. DH likes desserts, but he prefers to eat them as snacks...not immediately after his meal. We like to take a break and have TS mid-day and then just snack in the evenings. I am sort of OCD so tracking meal credits, etc., stresses me out.

I can totally uderstand how it works for most people...just not for us.

To be fair, those aren't really hidden costs.

All over the information it states that souvenir drinks are not included. It states alcoholic beverages are not included. It's clear that (for adults) apps are not included on DDP. It's clear that if you buy a meal for someone who's not covered (the 2 y/o) it will be oop.

Of course, none of this is to say that "Oh, you should have known and it's all your fault!", I'm not like that. If that's the way you desire to dine, I fully agree with you that it's not the right move. (And that it probably wasn't for that time). (This is all going by the brochures as they have been since 2009. I have 0 experience before that, so ymmv with my response )

 

[everythingALICE]

I really wouldn't consider items that are clearly are not included in the DDP (especially if anyone did order alcoholic beverages)/having to tip your waiter a "hidden cost." I think Disney, for the most part, is pretty clear about what is/is not included in the DDP - if you're not sure, then you should probably ask your waiter.

The past 3 times I've gone to Disney I've used the DDP (once during free dining), but this upcoming trip I've opted to pay OOP. I think the DDP CAN be a great deal, particularly if you plan to do many character meals for dinner. I also feel that it's really convenient, and I really like the idea of paying for my meals in advance.

However, I'm vegetarian - at many TS restaurants (that are not buffets or family style meals), there may only be one or two veggie options on the menu, and those are usually the least expensive entrees. So unless I'm doing primarily character dinners or meals like Ohana, etc., it can be hard to "maximize" the value of the DDP. One thing I'm looking forward to this trip paying OOP is getting dessert outside the CS locations where I order lunch or dinner...I can only eat so many chocolate fudge cakes in a single trip!

 

[HJV]

For sure, and the reason the plans came about was to increase "butts in seats" at the restaurants. It's certainly worked as we hear all the time how easy it used to be to get same day reservations anywhere (even at the vast majority of in-park restaurants!)

It's far better to have a restaurant at 100% capacity making 80% per head, than to have a restaurant at 30% capacity making 100% per head.

Oh the good old days when you could call in the morning and make a reservation. Now I have to make a dang spread sheet or I'll mess everything up. And I agree with the full chair theory. Many places like Sci Fi would only be full during lunch and dinner hours before the dinning plan. Now they are full almost all day long.

We've never done the dinning plan, and have made more than ten trips. Sometimes we go all out: app, dinner, and dessert (though we usually split the app and dessert) and sometimes even with a reservation we'll go to some place like Bistro de Paris and get just apps and a bottle of wine. It just depends on our mood. So I wouldn't like being tied down to credits or snacks. We rarely snack, except on the day when we make our own food fest and snack our way through the back of Epcot, which you wouldn't be able to do on the plan. But to each their own.

 

[Disneyevery2years]

if it doesn't work for you, just don't use it.

 

[BriarRosie]

If I were married with a couple kids under 10 years old, and have a lot of character meals planned, I'd say the dining plan would make economic sense. But I'm single with no kids, and I find that the DDP doesn't fit with the way I like to dine at WDW.

Years ago, pre-DDP, I would often go to table service lunches. Then Disney started introducing a lot of signature restaurants at resorts that didn't serve lunch, so I started having a few dinners there and stick with quick service lunches those days.

And often, these days I really like having a couple appetizers as a meal. I like the flexibility of not having to use credits to order the same things with desserts each and every time. I thought it was too much food.

And because I'm eligible to purchase the Tables in Wonderland card, I've been doing that. And it's worked out well for me.

 

[aubriee]

I have done both but if you can afford the dining plan and do your homework, it is the way to go

Not necessarily! I go to WDW several times each year and have used either the DDP or DxDDP every single trip since they were first introduced. Anytime anyone came on here asking, I always recommended them highly. However, I am not a fan of CS restaurants, so found I usually round up paying OOP for a few TS meals and a few appetizers every trip if I was on the basic DDP. Then again, I am not a breakfast eater at all, so in order to use up all the credits on the DxDDP, I had to eat at a 2 credit Signature restaurant every night. I am also not a snacker, so had to run around the last day using up a gazillion snack credits. Then again I found that due to being on the DDPs every trip there were alot of restaurants that I wanted to eat at that I didn't because they weren't on the DDP. There is also the fact that frequently I want two appetizers instead of an appetizer and entree and I wasn't allowed to do that on the DDPs. For both my upcoming Sept and Nov/Dec trips I studied the menus on allears and on the WDW site, ran the numbers of what I really wanted to eat (I refuse to skimp on vacation so looked at the description and decided before looking at the prices), figured in the price of the TIW card and even figured taxes and tips. I then ran sample dining itinaries using both the basic DDP and DxDDP. I found that even for a solo diner the TiW plan would be just a little higher than the basic DDP, and alot cheaper than the DxDDP for my Sept trip and for the Nov/Dec trip my TiW itinerary would be cheaper than both the basic DDP and the DxDDP and I'd be eating exactly what I want. For my Sept trip I have only one CS meal planned and will be able to eat at several restaurants that don't even accept the DDPs. For my Nov/Dec trip I have I think maybe 4 CS meals planned and the rest are TS, but at quite a few I'll be eating a couple of appetizers and a dessert instead of the appetizer, entree, dessert that the DxDDP ties you to.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

We have done DDP and DxDDP. Both times I made sure to "eat my money's worth" to basically make sure I saved money and didn't lose money on the DDP. The DxDDP saved us money for sure, but I always had too much food. This time we will do OOP with TIW so I can eat my normal amounts and not feel like I'm "losing" money. I definitley think I needed to actually do both plans though to learn this for myself and my family and the way we eat since everyone is different.

 

[Missytara]

If I go alone, I don't get it, because I like to eat a few appetizers for dinner, in lieu of an entire meal. There are also places NOT on the dining plan that I love, RFC, T-Rex and Fulton's to name a few.

But if I take a group, especially someone on a budget, like this year, I do the dining plan and make the best ADR's possible. That way I know we are getting the full experience; the best bang for our buck; and they have pre-paid for everything. Much less stress.

 

[TDC Nala]

my cousins and their kids made big value of the deluxe plan, all character breakfasts for the kids, chef de france, le cellier and others for dinner for them.

Chefs de France isn't really a foodie destination, but I guess like anything else that depends on the foodie. Le Cellier could be.. but only for dinner when it's "signature" and is two credits now. No matter how foodie you are, if you are traveling with kids you are probably doing at least one character meal, and if you have a bunch of kids and want to do several I can see DDP being the greatest. For others it's a matter of degree or a matter of how much value they place on the "convenience" factor. I don't consider DDP to be convenient at all but some posters here think it's mightily convenient. We've got single travelers who couldn't live without DxDDP whereas I wouldn't touch it.

 

[JimmyV]

Well foodie in the sense of signature dining choices, le cellier etc.

You have to be careful using your TS credits at Signatures when on the Plan. If you are a "foodie" on the plan for a week and go to three Signatures for dinner, you have used up almost all of your TS credits and still have 4 more dinners to account for. One will be covered by the plan and the other three will have to be OOP. Even though they charge you 2 credits for Signatures, on average, the meals aren't really twice as expensive.

if it doesn't work for you, just don't use it.

The OP has asked for advice and suggestions based on experience so that she can form an opinion and that is what people here are doing. Simply saying "if it doesn't work for you, don't use it" doesn't help the OP in any way and doesn't advance the conversation.

 

[CaraBoo]

Thanks again to everyone for offering your opinions and experiences! I knew that I couldn't try out the DDP on our next trip because I booked it so last minute and I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to make many ADRs, which is the case! I think I might consider it for our next trip, if for no other reason than to try it so I have first hand experience. We have talked about planning a trip with my DH family...none of them have ever been to Orlando, much less WDW. It sounds like the DDP might make it easier on me since I will have to do all of the planning.

I think I have been anti-dining plan all this time because it always seemed so restrictive and complicated because you have to plan so far ahead with ADRs etc. but I can now see that in some circumstances, all that planning is a good thing. Visiting WDW as a parent is a new experience for me and I am realizing that my days visiting the World without a plan are coming to an end...especially when my DS starts developing his own agenda for our visits!

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[Ron from Michigan]

With 40 + trips to our credit we have only done the dining plan once. We took the whole family in 2009 ( 9 adults + 1 child ) and did the dining plan. In this case it worked out well for us. On most trips it is just my wife and myself and we fell that the dining plan would be a waste for us. We just do not eat that much food.

 

[Cafeen]

With 40 + trips to our credit we have only done the dining plan once. We took the whole family in 2009 ( 9 adults + 1 child ) and did the dining plan. In this case it worked out well for us. On most trips it is just my wife and myself and we fell that the dining plan would be a waste for us. We just do not eat that much food.

This brings to light something that's often touched upon but rarely explored as another benefit of the dining plan.

It allows mixed group (e.g. an extended family trip with uncles, aunts, in-laws, etc) the ability to not have to worry about what another part of the family is ordering. For instance, if I'm taking someone who I don't trust to pay me back or just expects me to pay, the DDP can be used as a requirement for said person to avoid getting stuck with the bill after. It's probably a much lesser case than some others, but it is an interesting take.