Breaking Even on the DP

[mcgrawfan]

I have been researching the dining plan. We probably will not order appetizers and desserts most of the time. Have you found that you need to take advantage of what the plan has to offer to break even? I don't care about having our meals "prepaid" like some have said. I only want to do the dining plan if it will save us some money or at least break even. I have been going through menus on AllEars and just pricing entrees and I am not coming too close. Granted I have only priced TS meals and character meals right now.

 

[tndisneyfan]

When you are figuring your costs be sure to include tax and tip. THe DP covers 15% tip and the 6.5%(?) tax.

 

[jjohnson]

The tip went up for 2006 its 18%.You would have to look at the menus to see if you would break even as I do not know your eating habits. But thinking off the top of my head an entree at LeCellier, Kona or Concourse Steakhouse is at least $20 so coupled with drink, tax & tip + you counter service & snack you would probably come close.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

It depends on where you are looking to eat.

For instance:

1900 Park Fare (Dinner with Cinderella and friends) $27.99 + Tax and tip = $34.85

Chicken fingers and fries $6.69
Drink $1.99
including tax = 9.25

Bottle of water 2.00

Total = $46

And that doesn't include the dessert at lunch.

 

[PoohHappens]

Here are a couple of examples for you

Cosmic Rays Burger Meal 5.79 drink 1.99 + tax = 8.26

Tony's at MK, cheapest Entree 18.99 drink 2.19 add tax and 18% tip= 26.23

Mickey Ice Cream bar +tax = 2.66

grand total for day 37.15 you paid 37.99 for the plan

This is not ordering your Appetizer or dessert at TS and no dessert with CS, this is also ordering the cheapest stuff on the menus.

Here is a cheap one

Plaza veggie sand (again cheapest on menu) and drink total with tax and tip
14.67
Pecos Bills Salad with no meat and beverage 7.22with tax
Bottled Water 2.13
grand total 24.02 and an empty belly, personally if this is what I had I would order a big sundae at the Plaza which would add about $7.
If you really do not want to eat the extras you can come out below, but I think you might find that you would enjoy ordering one appetizer to split or a dessert. The other option is you could always have 2 of you use 1 TS and split and just go to a couple more restaurants. Most of the nicer restaurants you will break even with just a entree, beverage, tax, tip and your CS from the day.
B

 

[PoohHappens]

I should also add that we did order what we could, and had fun doing it. The DP cost at the time for us was $480 now would have been $528 and our total receipts were $950. So even if we had not ordered lots of stuff we would have come out even. Stayed 6 nights me DH and DS-3

We ate at
LTT-dinner
Kona-dinner
Sci FI-lunch split
CRT-breakfast-before menu change
Le Cellier dinner
Marrakesh-dinner (only used 2TS son shared)
Biergarten-dinner (only used 2TS son slept through dinner)
Crystal Palace-breakfast, had to pay oop for 2 of us

 

[Ilovestitch]

My bf and I usally don't get appetizers AND dessert when dining at WDW so I always thought we wouldn't get our money's worth.

But I just go to allearsnet.com and add up what we would be spending normally and compare it to the price of the dining plan and usually it comes out to be the same.

For our May trip we were budgeting $400 for food for 8 days (2 adults). Well to add the dining plan to my package it was $405, so we went ahead and did it b/c now we can get extras like appetizers.

 

[MDMOM]

Do anyone know where I can find out how much the disney dining plans cost and what it includes on the web?


Thanks.

 

[drogerstn]

The plan is a great value for what you get. However, we occasionally make sandwiches in our room with items we store in our cooler and we have drinks in the cooler as well. We occasionally eat breakfast in our room while someone is occupying the bathroom area which saves us time in the morning.

We only eat a table service meal every other day or so and sometimes eat a dinner at the food court in the resort. We spend way less than $38 per day for 2 meals and a snack. We carry a few snacks with us into the parks but we do buy some while there and probably average one counter service a day in the parks and resorts.

For us this plan would save money like it does for the person who buys a ton of unnecessary clothes because they are on sale and then says "look how much money I saved" Our total food cost would go up, but look how much we would save....

If you plan to eat a large number of Table Service meals or a few at the higher end restaurants, then the plan can break-even fairly easily and if you plan to order appetizers and desserts with each meal, the plan is extraordinary.

 

[PoohHappens]

dogernstr -- I agree we always ate breakfast in our room and split counter service and ate only 2 or three CS and we spent less, however we did DP last time and found out we enjoyed our vacation so much more, to us because we are always budgeting at home it made our vacation seem extravigant and very much like a vacation. We also figured out that at last years prices we added the total of the plan compared to what we spent the previous year on 3 TS and split CS and food for our in room meals and only spent a few dollars more. This year it would be almost 100 more, but very worth it to us.

Someone asked about the price 37.99/adult 11.99/3-9yrs per night of package reservation. Here is a link to the brochure
http://adisneyworld.disney.go.com/m...gespecific/eng/nontheme/tickets/MYWDining.pdf

 

[eeyore45]

For us we split a cs breakfast meal in the resort - I have to have protein in the morning, and eggs are my favorite protein, dd its the bacon - so we would split a CS credit using one for a breakfast meal, and split a lunch CS meal - that way we had our fill, and we did bring some snacks... we also went during the F&W festival where our snack credits could be used at the booths - so for us it works.... and we get to do more character meals!! We'll do a buffet dinner or two, and just eat 'normally' but more choices, again, from allearsnet.com menus I figured it out, and we did do better with the plan...

 

[ratfam]

Hi!

We were so uncertain whether the plan made sense that I went through and did a calculation for every day based on how we are planning to eat, assuming that we never ordered dessert at counter service unless we could get fruit and mainly used our snack credits for water, since that's our plan. I also assumed that dd10 would eat off the kids menu at many restaurants even though we have to pay for her as an adult (we also have a ds 7). I assumed that we will order appetizers and desserts at all ts, but we didn't plan our ts to maximize value, so we aren't necessarily hitting the expensive places.

Even with these assumptions and paying for dd10 as an adult the plan will save us a little over $200. The plan is costing us about $1,000 for eight nights. Last time we were at WDW, three years ago so dd was always paying kid prices, our ts and cs expenses for a seven night stay were somewhere between $800 and $900 and we ate all breakfasts and about two lunches and dinners in (we are DVC members and had a kitchen). So if we did it on our own we might save slightly off the $1,000 but we would be eating out waaay less and at way less interesting places, with everyone watching prices when they ordered.

So we decided to go with the plan! Sorry so long winded, hope this is helpful.

 

[drogerstn]

... however we did DP last time and found out we enjoyed our vacation so much more, to us because we are always budgeting at home it made our vacation seem extravigant and very much like a vacation. We also figured out that at last years prices we added the total of the plan compared to what we spent the previous year on 3 TS and split CS and food for our in room meals and only spent a few dollars more. This year it would be almost 100 more, but very worth it to us.

This is exactly why I'm seriously considering doing the DP during our next visit even though I keep preaching against it.

I know we can save money by not doing the DP. I'm trying to plan out my itinerary now and see if we will get close to enough TS meals in our plan. Maybe we'll skip making sandwiches in our room this trip.

 

[PoohHappens]

This is exactly why I'm seriously considering doing the DP during our next visit even though I keep preaching against it.

I know we can save money by not doing the DP. I'm trying to plan out my itinerary now and see if we will get close to enough TS meals in our plan. Maybe we'll skip making sandwiches in our room this trip.

Please know I was not knocking your plan, we have done it ourselves. We actually got the DP free last oct but we were buying it already. My husband says he will never go without it again. It really changed our vacation. We would never pay OOP for the things we did. One of our bills for the 3 of us was almost 150.00. Now we would not normally order that much food, but sharing gets old because you have to, not cause you want. It was fun to order our own food, not care so much about weather our toddler was going to eat his food we just paid $7 for. We would have done a couple character meals for our son and maybe fantasmic package and that would be it. The time prior we went to 2 character meals and the fantasmic. We prepaid for the Character meals with vouchers and had prepaid 10 CS vouchers (not avail anymore) and we got them at huge discounted prices. We split everything and paid cash at H&V for FDP and we still spent $400. We have now had experiences like Biergarten --which is now my husbands official favorite. And since we had already paid for all that ahead of time, we did splurge and orded beer for DH twice and wine for me once. It was fun to plan too It was kind of what I thought a cruise would be like.

 

[samijam]

WE ARE DOING THE DINNING PLAN FOR APRIL/MAY TRIP FOR THE FIRST TIME. I WAS LEARY AT FIRST ALSO, BUT MY DH THOUGHT IT WOULD BE NICE. WE ALWAYS EAT ONE SIT DOWN MEAL A DAY WHEN ON VACATION AND THIS ALONE IS COSTLY, BUT MY DH ALWAYS SAYS "I AM ON VACATION AND I WANT TO RELAXE AND EAT WELL" , SO AT LEAST HE WILL GET TO EAT WELL I KNOW LAST TIME AT DISNEY WE SPENT AT LEAST 35.00 EACH ON FOOD A DAY. SO MY THOUGHTS ARE I'M ON VACATION SO IT'S O.K. TO EAT A LITTLE MORE THAN USUAL AND I CAN ENJOY IT MORE KNOWING I DON'T HAVE TO EAT CRAKERS ON THE WAY HOME

 

[MDMOM]

dogernstr -- I agree we always ate breakfast in our room and split counter service and ate only 2 or three CS and we spent less, however we did DP last time and found out we enjoyed our vacation so much more, to us because we are always budgeting at home it made our vacation seem extravigant and very much like a vacation. We also figured out that at last years prices we added the total of the plan compared to what we spent the previous year on 3 TS and split CS and food for our in room meals and only spent a few dollars more. This year it would be almost 100 more, but very worth it to us.

Someone asked about the price 37.99/adult 11.99/3-9yrs per night of package reservation. Here is a link to the brochure
http://adisneyworld.disney.go.com/m...gespecific/eng/nontheme/tickets/MYWDining.pdf

Thanks for the dining plan information it was very helpful

 

[drogerstn]

Please know I was not knocking your plan, we have done it ourselves. .....It was fun to plan too It was kind of what I thought a cruise would be like.

Thanks PoohHappens; I didn't think you were knocking my plan. Your information was exactly what I wanted to hear (or didn't want to hear?) and maybe it helped out the OP as well.

For people who normally eat TS meals everyday and make dining a part of their Disney Experience, then choosing the DP is easy. I'm glad to read experiences from people who have thought of food as a place to cut costs during previous visits and have also used the DP.

I've also thought about the DP making the visit like a cruise. We'll have to eat some light meals if we eat 3 meals a day while doing the DP.

 

[Tinker*Shell*Bell]

I can see how this works for some and not for others. At home we are normallt entree and drink people, why spend more for food my butt does not need? BUT, this is our BIG vacation. We are also able to stretch our DP because we have two other adults traveling with us who are not on the plan. We will be splitting our 5 TS credits with 7 people. Sharing appies and desserts will make this a great value for our group, we will just pay oop for a kids meal for my 11 yo who would not want any of the adult meal choices anyway.

Check the menu's and do what seems right for you, I know my parents would never eat enough on their own to make this a good deal for them. Share and we all win.

(before anyone flames me we are using adult ts credits for adults, the 11yo and 12 yo paid adult and their grandparents will be using those credits, no child credit used for an adult)

 

[budbeerlady]

It was huge for us, we normally wouldnt eat apps or dessert. But even just getting a steak and pop for us broke us even. Plus the cs we had a breakfast (DD and I shared one) and then DD and I shared a cs lunch. And all the snack credits also. We ate $495 more than we paid for.

 

[curlz2tite]

I sat down when I got home after our trip to the world & figured out what the plan cost was compared to what we would have spent OOP for the same meals.
DH & I figured the difference was around the cost of what it would have been for all the apps & desserts.( over 300.00)
I was glad to have the DP. If you want to have a salad with your dinner you can order it as your app. A salad was never included with a meal like at a regular restaurant.
At most of the TS places when we ordered it was a piece of meat & a veg. nothing more. (rolls were included)
Dh got his chocolate cake to go many nights . I usually got a fruit cobbler or sorbet with the fresh fruit.
So I guess what I am trying to say is, The DP was worth every cent & made my trip. The app & dessert don't have to be things that might make your meal over the top, just really nice additions to the meals.