Are we the only family who does NOT do the Dining Plan?

[sportears]

Agree 100%. Wouldn't do the dining plan unless it were free.

 

[justice11]

i am so excited i got airfare for 200. a person from st. louis to orlando. ii of us going in 93 days. YEAH!!!! my youngest dd, her hubby and twin 16 month olds just got back from driving to dc from mo. NEVER EVER AGAIN. it took us 20 hrs. to get there and 2 days to get home. we were going to take the twins in oct. and fly. this trip was the deal breaker and they are not going. they are the best babies but it was really hard once we got where we were going to get them o eat and nap right. i will take them when they are older.lol. there are 11 of us going 5 grandkids so we will have fun, can't wait.

 

[LVSWL]

We don't use it either, we use the DDE and get by just fine. Just seems like alot of food to us.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

When you have to pay for it - NO!
When it's free - ABSOLUTELY!

1) Maybe.
2) In some cases, taking a resort room discount is cheaper than paying rack rate for the hotel plus the free dining plan. Always better to figure the price both ways.

 

[hellokitty86]

I'm not sure how I'll like it. I am going to try it for free this time, and if we like it we'll pay for it next time (Or just go during free dining again. )

I enjoy eating at TS restaurants every night so I know I'll take advantage of those...And we do it at counter service too, sometimes twice a day (Breakfast and lunch). I don't think we'll be eating CS twice a day on this trip though, since at lunch/dinner we get all that food! No, I wouldn't normally order that much food, but just because of the money! I always like to try different things on the menu, and this way I can order whatever I want without worrying about the price. (For example, once I wanted a steak at concourse steakhouse but didn't get it because of the price.)

Hope everyone has a great time on future trips!!

 

[Laurajean1014]

DP is not for us. We prefer the DDE card.

 

[CheshireVal]

No, we never do it. I'm not really interested in it at all unless it's free.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We went last January when they FIRST rolled out the program. I would have lost my room discount and had to buy additional tickets so we skipped it. All other things being equal we would have saved $150 with the plan.

In October we DID have the plan and we saved less than $300. Chances are we wouldn't have ordered appetizers and desserts every single time without the plan, so htose savings are a little skewed.

In August we will have the plan again for one last time before DS becomes an "adult". We'll see how much we save this time around with the increase in snack choices.

In December we'll have the DDE card and just save 20% on what we actually order at TS. The dining plan with DS after he turns 10 is just silly because he eats so little. If we are ever able to go when dining is FREE then we might consider it again. Or if DS ever starts eating more than a gnat.

 

[4chitlins]

Reading up on dining reviews it seems like EVERYONE is on the Dining Plan. I consider myself a Disney veteran, but the DDP does not excite me. I enjoy the restaurants and usually eat at one sit down meal per day, but never order appitizers and dessert for everyone. That's a lot of food. We usually purchase snacks that are not covered on DDP so we would be spending extra money on that. Maybe someday we will give it a try to see if we actually saved money. We never go during free dining time so hopefully they will bring that back next year and try it then.

We are doing it this trip because it is free. Otherwise we probably wouldn't do it.

 

[Piglet54]

We don't do the dining plan either. We are annual passholders and each have Disney Dining Experience cards which give us 20% off. We just enjoy eating in our favorite restaurants and trying new ones. I think it's great for visitors who wouldn't normally eat at a table service restaurant. Once they are introduced they realize just how much the dining experience is just as much a part of the entertainment.

 

[01Sweetpea]

We are going for Thanksgiving, and do not plan on using the DDP. I have 2 11yos who would NEVER eat an app, entree & dessert EVERY NIGHT. I ran the numbers up, down, sideways, and back again, the DDP just doesn't work for OUR family.

Now if it was FREE, and there was NO CODE for our dates, then Yes... I would use it.

 

[hansel1]

Wow, there sure are alot of people who don't want to "keep track" of points.

I have used DDP in the past and plan to use it this coming january. I think most people miss the big picture with DDP. If you will eat at a table service restaurant at least 4 times on your trip, it will save you money...even if you don't use the other 3 nights worth of table service credits.

Most entrees at table service restaurants run anywhere from 20-35 dollars. Drinks are usually 2-3 dollars and tax+tip varies. So right there you are close to $30 on the low side. Plus you get a counter service and snack.

You really have to make an ADR anyway if you want to eat at a reasonable time at any of the table service restaurants. So, like I said if you eat at TS restaurants anyway this might be a deal for you.

Points - You get a running total of what you have left after every purchase.

I think the bottom line is this...those that don't use it or don't want to are not the people who want to eat in the table service restaurants anyway.

Personally, I enjoy eating at a nice restaurant everynight and not eating pizza back at the hotel room. It saves me quite a bit of money and I would recommend it to all of you.

 

[ShannonP]

We don't use DDP either. Granted, this trip was planned at the very last minute...all within the last few weeks....so I didn't have a lot of time to crunch numbers and do research.

We've never done DDP in the past...now if it were free, that'd be a different story. How could you pass that up???

 

[nbodyhome]

I'd do it again for free, definitely - but I wouldn't spend the money otherwise. I just don't eat that much each day.

We almost did free dining this year for a few days, but I figured I'd save the money for our Europe trip (we aren't paying much more for our hotels in Europe than we would have at the Pop Century).

 

[Uncleromulus]

Haven't even considered the DDP--the DDE works just fine for us.

 

[Laura]

We saved enough money with our AAA room-only discount that the DDP+rack rate room would have been more expensive. As it was, we just about broke even considering the cost of the DDP alone. We had 4 TS dinners and 3 TS breakfasts in our week's stay, and I only made one ADR beforehand; the rest were on the fly.

 

[blueroses]

No, I don't think I would ever do the DDP. It's not that I think it's "too complicated" to keep up with credits - it seems perfectly easy to use and understand. It just doesn't work for me and my eating habits. I like to graze during the day and my favorite table service restaurants are all signature dining. Plus, who wants to pre-pay for food? I did a really detailed breakdown in a post after my last trip that showed how DDP would cost me more than OOP. And that was with eating a TS dinner every day of the trip. I posted it in the Dining Plan section where it was met with crickets chirping.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1074737

 

[MelanieC]

We usually get overflow rates from SOG, get Annual passes with discounts from SOG and purchase the DDE card for a savings of 20% on most of our meals. We eat breakfast in the rooms (pop tarts and breakfast bars) and usually do 2 sit down meals a day. We don't order appetizer or desserts, except for we do order soups occasionally. With the DDE I can eat at some sit down resaurants for about the same as fast food restaurants (or only a few dollars more).

 

[RI&BMOM]

We just returned from a 7 day stay and I have to say that when we go again we will probably not use the dining plan. If it is offered as an incentive - maybe. I have 3 kids 9, 12 and 15, dh and myself and we just felt it was just too much food. We tried to choose the desserts at the counter services that were sealed (cookies and brownies) so we could take them with us, as we were just stuffed from eating lunch. For snacks we chose drinks. Most times we would order just one appetizer and share. If we could, we would also order our desserts at dinner to go and take them back to the room. For us, it just seemed like too much food.

 

[Laura]

No, I don't think I would ever do the DDP. It's not that I think it's "too complicated" to keep up with credits - it seems perfectly easy to use and understand. It just doesn't work for me and my eating habits. I like to graze during the day and my favorite table service restaurants are all signature dining. Plus, who wants to pre-pay for food? I did a really detailed breakdown in a post after my last trip that showed how DDP would cost me more than OOP. And that was with eating a TS dinner every day of the trip. I posted it in the Dining Plan section where it was met with crickets chirping.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1074737

That's pretty much how it came out for us--the AAA room discount paid for the AAA card itself and then some. We paid a little less for our food than the DDP would have cost us. DH and I ate where and when we wanted, and shared an appetizer and dessert at the non-buffet restaurant like we normally do when dining out. It made my life easier to not have the DDP.

Of course, the free DDP is another animal altogether.