been asked 1000x

[WIDisneyFan]

We did the dining plan last summer and will be doing it again this summer. For us it works, with 3 kids and a number of character meals last years math had us saving money and I expect this year will be the same.

I don't have the exact numbers at hand but I do remember we effectively "lost" money on the adults, and were ahead on the kids, and ahead overall. Once our oldest becomes an "adult" in terms of dining plan I would guess we will go back to paying out of pocket.

 

[SLamott1973]

We always get the DDP with DH, DS 16 and DS 6 my men can eat all day long. We usually start the day with character breakfast for youngest, and TS for dinner lunch can either be CS or TS. We went yo food and wine festival this year we had enough snack credits that we used those ate our way around Epcot we had 2 signature meals during our stay with 28 snack credits we used those for treats on the drive home. You have to figure out what will be worth it for you.

 

[Crystal824]

It depends on what and where you are going to eat. I would figure out where you want to eat and then what you might order and try to determine if it is worth it. For us, we saved about $300 not getting it. We shared some CS meals. At a couple of TS meals, I would get an app and dessert and DH would get an entree and we would split.

 

[Gmouse]

In your opinion, is the dinning plan worth it? We will be there for 7days 6nights. This for a family of 4.

I see you have 2 small children, 8 yr old is still in the children's plan (LUCKY you!) It would absolutely be worth it. Your 2 yr old can share with the 8 yr old and/or parents. So no need to order off menu for her. They give the kids an appetizer and I've never seen an 8 yr old that could eat as much as they give them! My son is 13 now, daughter is 3, so the DPs are way too expensive for us anymore. We buy gift cards now instead so we can see how much money we have left every time we go eat! It just keeps us "in line" and not spend too much when we see how much we have spent!!!
Another thing to consider- being there fro 4 days is not alot of time at all. If it were me, I would choose ONE, or two, favorite TS meals and eat QS the rest of the time. You'll be waisting alot of your time doing TS meals, when you could be in the park. They generally take up about an hour and a half to 2 hrs of your day, depending on if you have to travel from one park to another to eat, and how busy the restaurant is. I can take longer. You might be better off to not do DP so you aren't tied down to it. We'll never use DP again, unless the prices come down...wait a minute...prices come down?? It was perfect while our sone was on the childrens' plan Have fun though!

 

[Gmouse]

For those of you who are willing to pay more for the convenience factor: How much are you willing to overpay? We saved $600 over 9 days by not using the DDP. I can't imagine paying that much for convenience.

AMEN to that!! Our last trip we spent right at $800 OOP for 11 DAYS worth of meals, chose several of our favorite TS places we wanted to eat. QSs in between time. Snacks here and there. We were NEVER hungry...trust me We figured it up for this trip coming and it was going to be OVER $2,000 for all 4 of us for the regular dining plan. Mind you, my 3 yr old can eat, my 13 yr old can EAT...but not that much!! I can buy groceries for us for 6 months off that. The DP was GREAT in 09 for us when DS was 9, and DD wasn't even thought of yet But now that she would be on the plan and he would be on an adult plan.....nope....not good at all. Convenience is wonderful for many other things, but really....how hard is it to pull out the debit card vs your DP card???? Some people have more money than sense....

 

[Stbissell]

If you go during FD it's great and is always a great option for a family of four. If not I think it comes down to two things 1) do you plan on eating at a table service restaurant every day. If so which ones and what do you normally eat. 2) do you want to have the convenience of having prepaid meals.

We get the DP. It's worth the convenience to us and we like a sit down meal every night. We actually end up paying for a couple of the cheaper meals OOP bc we usually go to at least one character breakfast and one two credit meal. We may evaluate again when my DSD is not considered a child anymore and the price really jumps.
Also, we do typically like apps when when go out and they are not included in the DP. However, you will get a QS that gives you more than enough food for lunch and you are less hungry at dinner and apps slow down dinner. For us, an hour break is enough. No need to stretch it out longer.

Good luck in figuring out works for you.

 

[bpesch]

IMHO it's worth it if you can get it free, not so much if you have to pay for it.

 

[chartle]

IMHO it's worth it if you can get it free, not so much if you have to pay for it.

But you still have to do the math. Free Dining is not always cheaper.

It depends on how you eat and the ages and make up of your family.

 

[shell8558]

We are considered 4 adults . (My kids are 11 and 13) So for us it can be expensive to eat- but we have always been lucky enough to get free dining pins and for us it is totally worth it!

 

[tracydeech]

I have not been to Disney in years but..... If your staying at a Disney resort can't you just charge your meals to "room card"? If you can that is what I would do. That would be convenient. Then you could save $ by sharing-not wasting-and you can order an appetizer if you want and you don't have to be tied down to an eating schedule.

 

[TygerHawks]

I am currently contemplating the Quick Service plan, only due to the room discount for traveling in early June. Going with the wife, a 14 year old son, and my daughter will be celebrating her 5th birthday in the park. Decided against the deluxe because I don't see us using that many table service meals, though we want to do at least one character dining on her birthday. Seems like most of the responses here touch on the deluxe dining plan, are the opinions similar for the quick service plan?

 

[LovesTimone]

For us it has always been worth it. We love paying up-front then we can relax and not worry about cost. Whether it is our whole family or just DH and I we prefer this. We are on vacation and DH does not want to worry about the bill, or the hassle.

We like DDXDP, as we really enjoy 2TS meals, and character meals, the mug is always an added plus for us. Then there are snack credits.... pastry or cupcakes, candy at Goofy's ,

We bring water, soda, and sports drinks with us, I can not use a snack credit for a bottle of water, when I can get fudge or a mickey ice cream

With all that said, I am heading to the WDW at the end of the month to take my mom for her birthday, and out 1st mother daughter trip, I ran the number and for my mom and I it would be a waste, she just doesn't eat that much and is not a adventurous eater. As a matter of fact I really had to research the menu's before making ADR's.

 

[XGrumpy1]

I have never done the plan. This next trip I am considering the plan because I will be treating my sister, niece, nephew and their 2 boys. If I do not have the plan, I can see it being "can we have 3 checks" or "I will get this one".

Using the plan will be a better choice for me in this situation.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Before my 3 kids turned 10 the DDP worked well for us. Now that they are all over 10 it isn't worth it. I prefer to pay out of pocket and order exactly what I want and not worry about wasting credits.

 

[Naughtilus]

Tried it on one trip.

Good: convenience, too much food makes for a tasty snack later
Not so good: too much food, reservations reduce spontaneity, most likely not a good value (depends on what you order

 

[pawprints1116]

I've done the fly by the seat of my pants type of eating, and the DDP in the past few years... and I enjoyed them both...

Now the fly by the seat of my pants, is more my personality. When it was for my graduation from college with just my mom and I, we did it this way. It was laid back and enjoyable.

Now, I tried the DP with my DBF last year and it was pretty awesome. I ate at places I normally would not of, and got a lot of food (we ate pb&j for breakfasts).

Now, we got the one last year for free. We're getting the one we're doing next month dramatically reduced (some sort of deal).
Was that worth it? Absolutely.

I'm honestly okay either way. If it were up to me, I'd still do the fly-by. But these things are important to DBF, and he enjoys the sit downs at Disney. And since I'm earning a masters, I just like that I could budget my price for vacation prior to going.

Just my 2 cents, of course!

 

[backpacktwang]

I haven't been yet (going in March), but I priced it out and it is going to be slightly less expensive for us to do the plan. But we like to eat and have expensive taste, lol. And it isn't saving much... less than $100 for sure.

 

[alc571]

From what I understand, it's worth it if its free but not if you have to pay for it. We didn't buy it on our last trip. We got a room discount instead. The amount we saved on the room, we used to buy our food. We aren't three-meal-a-day kind of family. We are snackers. And we like to have a meal or two offsite. So the plan doesn't really work for us.

 

[chartle]

From what I understand, it's worth it if its free but not if you have to pay for it. We didn't buy it on our last trip. We got a room discount instead. The amount we saved on the room, we used to buy our food. We aren't three-meal-a-day kind of family. We are snackers. And we like to have a meal or two offsite. So the plan doesn't really work for us.

Even if its free it may not be the best deal. It depends on how many, the make up of the group, how they eat and at what level resort they stay at.

Two people staying deluxe would probably pay less if there was also a room discount offered.

You still have to do the math.

 

[DisNikki]

Check out this other DIS post: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3050182&highlight=planning+spreadsheet

It has a link to a youtube video and an awesome spreadsheet where you can actually compare the dining plans to out of pocket. For us it was within a couple of dollars when putting in where we thought we would eat (but we are big on character meals). It has a bunch of settings like what percentage you generally tip, how often you plan to order drinks (juice, soda, etc) and if you generally order the most expensive/least expensive/average menu items. Then it shows which meals are best to use your credits on (based on per credit price) and lets you quickly choose other restaurants and see how that affects the bottom line. I found that in order to truly compare I had to put in two mock schedules - one where we ate all the character meals we wanted and the other where we ate more counter service. The character meal schedule was within a couple bucks and the more heavily counter service option was about $100 cheaper if we went out of pocket. We're choosing to dump the dining plan mainly so we don't have to worry about the details and we're doing a mix of TS/CS.

Hope that helps

P.S. It also has a tab of the spreadsheet to calculate whether free dining is a good option. I didn't check that tab out too much since it doesn't apply to us but I'm sure others will benefit