Call me crazy . . . . .

[dcgrumpy]

I also like many of the World Showcase restaurants that are not included in the plan.

Which restaurants? I have the printout from Disney in front of me, the only one I notice missing is Bistro de Paris.

 

[kribit]

Which restaurants? I have the printout from Disney in front of me, the only one I notice missing is Bistro de Paris.

Really? Are there Disney restaurants not included? We've never eaten at Bistro, but would really like to try it.

 

[G's mommy]

We are AP holders and come out better with DDE.

 

[daisyduck123]

It's a value for my family because we (DH, me, DD12, & DS9) do a character meal almost every night. Those dinners run about $28.00 each. So for the price of $38.00/day we also get a counter service meal & a snack.

After including the tax & tip for the character meal, it's like getting the snack & CS meal for free.

 

[BroganMc]

We are AP holders and come out better with DDE.

For us too.

We tend to do a sit-down meal every other day and the rest as snacks. DDP would be way overpriced for us. But the DDE saves us our 20% and ends up paying for itself after a few meals. Then it's good for a year so we collect more bonuses for subsequent trips.

 

[TinkRBel_In_Training]

I agree with the OP, DDP or not, you're still spending massive amounts of money on food. When we are on vacation at WDW, we eat the hotel's free hot breakfast in the morning, take our own food into the parks, and maybe 3 or 4 times go out to dinner at say Olive Garden or TGIFridays. We make our own food the rest of the dinners. With the exception of a pretzel or turkey leg from a cart here or there, we do not usually spend money at the Disney restaurants because the prices for the meals are outrageous. My family of 3 ate at Mexico in EPCOT a few years ago and it cost us over $80! Now, it may be that we don't get to Disney everyday and we can't always eat at the WDW restaurants.....but we could eat out offsite and spend about $35 total for all three of us! Its not that we wouldn't like to eat at all the WDW restaurants, but we'd rather spend that $1150 on something else other than food. But thats just our family. If people want to eat out every single meal, then the DDP would definitely save them money.

 

[marivaid]

Question ... for the people who say they eat the free breakfast at their hotel. That means you're staying off site right ? I don't think any of the Disney hotels have a free breakfast.
Can you even purchase the DDP if you're not staying at a Disney resort ?

 

[kaytieeldr]

No, you cannot purchase the Disney Dining Plan if you are staying offsite. It is available to only:
Resort (hotel) Guests who book a package including the same pass for each person on the reservation and the DDP for all persons for all nights of the stay; and
Guests staying at a DVC property using DVC points, again for all persons on the reservation and for all nights of the stay - but with no ticket purchase requirement.

And, yes, the people who have free breakfast at their hotels are staying offsite.

 

[marivaid]

No, you cannot purchase the Disney Dining Plan if you are staying offsite. It is available to only:
Resort (hotel) Guests who book a package including the same pass for each person on the reservation and the DDP for all persons for all nights of the stay; and
Guests staying at a DVC property using DVC points, again for all persons on the reservation and for all nights of the stay - but with no ticket purchase requirement.

And, yes, the people who have free breakfast at their hotels are staying offsite.

That's what I thought.
Obviously if you're staying off-site, close to non-Disney restaurants, with the "perks" of off-site hotels like free breakfast, the DDP wouldn't be a good deal for you -and you couldn't get it even if you wanted to.

 

[kdkbrebel]

On vacation anywhere else I don't mind eating out of a cooler. Saving money by eating McDonalds etc. But at Disney I want the whole experience, including being able to eat whatever we want or where ever we want. Sure it takes some pre planning, but I love to plan so thats all right with me. I can't wait to use the DDP in July.

 

[PaulaSB12]

a typical day for me, I was solo with the free dining last year at Pop

Breakfast
Pop Century
Fruit bowl I think $2.99
total including tax $3.16
Lunch
Sunshine Seasons
Two Entree Items and Two Sides $9.69
Cheesecake $2.99?
large bottle water $2.49
total including tax $16.08
Dinner
Le Cellier
Shrimp Cocktail - wasabi slaw and horseradish chili sauce $9.99
Le Cellier Mushroom Filet Mignon - Baby Bella wild mushroom risotto, white truffle and herb butter sauce, topped with fried parsnips $27.99
Maple Creme Brulee - caramelized maple sugar and housemade cookie $5.99
Chocolate Raspberry Shake $3.99
total including tax and tip $59.47
total for day
$78.71

still makes sense to me.

 

[Rustysmom]

I like the dining plan because if it's paid ahead of time, I feel like we're able to splurge a little and enjoy our trip better. If there was no dining plan, I'd be eating hambugers at CS every night because it would kill me to pull out my wallet for an expensive meal. Even if we did do a TS, I wouldn't get an appetizer or dessert. We're living on one salary right now and never go out to a restaurant at home. Once a week we get takeout Chinese. Yipee! LOL

With the dining plan, I can enjoy the meal and try different and expensive things because it was already paid for. I've been saving for this trip and as soon as I put the balance of the trip on my charge, it gets paid off when I get the bill. My DS will have to order off the adult menu and he likes steak and shrimp. It will be great to tell him to get whatever he wants.

I'll be REALLY happy if they come out with the free dining though!

 

[Katiebell]

How much does your family eat? From the amount the OP quoted, 194.95/day, every member of the family is being charged the adult price. The DDP is a lot of food, and that alone may be worth it for some families. If you are all big eaters, or DH and two teenage sons can pack it away, even if mom and DD14 eat salads and want to share an appetizer for their main course (sorry, I know that's a stereotype, but it's just an example), it can still be a great savings. I have three boys, and they all went through a stage where they ate like horses (the youngest is just now entering that stage ) If you are all light eaters, or your 11 and 14 year old DD are barely in the "adult" price category and would still prefer the kids' menu selections and portions, then it could be a huge waste of money. A dinner table groaning under the weight of 5 appetizers, 5 entrees, and 5 desserts would just be ridiculous for your family.

Does your family prefer to share, especially appetizers and large entrees? That can work well and save money, but does everyone have similar tastes? If one person loves seafood, another loves steak, one kid is super picky, and another is a vegetarian...sharing probably won't be all that successful. If everyone likes the same thing, it can work beautifully.

Do you have a fridge in your room, or are you willing to keep a cooler for snacks and breakfast foods? And are you willing to serve and clean up breakfast every morning (even just bowls of cold cereal or muffins and juice)? It saves money, and we certainly have done that when the boys were younger and the budget was tight. But now, I just don't wanna do it -- too much like I'm not on vacation.

Does your family normally eat only CS on vacation, and wants to go, go, go at the parks? If you don't like to sit down for a TS meal every day, the DDP is a bust.

Do you like buffets and/or character meals? No matter how much or how little your family members eat, every buffet or CM is the exact same price for each person 10 and over. The cost of one buffet per day can be almost worth the price of the plan.

When you do order TS, do you typically order the cheapest menu items, even if it's not what you really want? Or would you really rather have a nice steak or seafood entree? If you order one $25 entree, $3 drink, with tax and tip it's about $35 -- that's not including appetizer, dessert, the CS meal (which is worth another $8-$15), and the snack credit. If we are paying OOP we tend to compromise and look for cheaper menu items to make our food budget go further, but it's not always what we really want to order.

As others have mentioned -- do you want to go offsite for food? You can...but you will have to drive there, which takes away from park time. We won't have a car and don't know Orlando, so it's much more convenient to eat at the Disney restaurants anyway.

Is "theme dining" an important part of your vacation experience? Again, as others have mentioned, I can eat at Chili's or McDonald's any day. I can't always have breakfast with Stitch, or Snow White and Ariel. I can't always slurp a shake in a vintage car under the stars at a drive-in, watching a cheesy Sci Fi movie. I can't always attend a luau or a hoedown. And where else can I eat a snack in Morocco, France, Germany, Japan, and Norway all in the same day? For many guests, Disney dining is part of the "entertainment" budget on their vacation.

The DDP certainly doesn't work for every family, but for others, it really is a very good deal

 

[december]

I live in a rural area, and we don't eat out much. As others have said, the dining experiences are a part of our vacation. We have a fun sit down meal every day. I know alot of people love places like Le Cellier, but for us it is all about character meals and themed meals. The plan is well worth it!

Even if you were only breaking even, the convenience of having it prepaid is wonderful. And don't forget that tax and tip are included.

Last trip we got to eat at CRT, Crystal Palace, Donald's Breakfast, Garden Grill, and Rainforest Cafe (oop). Even though these aren't the high end restaurants, we came out ahead.

Next trip I'm planning 'Ohana breakfast and dinner, SciFi, Coral Reef, 1900 Park Fare, WCC, HoopDeeDoo, Boma to check out AKL. Planning the ADRs if one of the highlights of the trip!

 

[pezpam]

The DDP doens't make sense for us on every trip, but when it does, it's great. When I go OOP, even with DDE, my penny-pinching family training comes out. However, since I'm vegetarian and DD isn't, sharing is out for most meals, and a CS meal can hit $20 for the two of us surprisingly quickly once you add in tax. When the DDP came out, I sat down and did the math. For us (1A, 1C at the time), the DDP meant that for what I normally spent for 3 CS per day (very few snacks, brought water bottles to refill for free, etc), we could get to try out the TS places, plus have a CS meal and a snack. It's not *necessary* by any stretch, but it is really nice. We've tried a lot of nice restaurants, we've done a lot of character meals, and I usually wind up with plenty of Disney themed snacks to take home and enjoy after the trip is over. When I time things right, the TS and CS meals cover us for the whole day and we don't need a 3rd meal.

I don't want to drive around - I have no sense of direction and the traffic around WDW can be nuts. I don't want to pay for a car rental. I prefer staying onsite to off by a wide margin. I don't want to leave the park, get out to the (hot) car, drive offsite, eat, drive back, park, and go back to the park - too much downtime for me. I don't travel to vacation spots just to eat at the Olive Garden or TGIF I can get at home - trying different places is part of the fun. I'll wash out my coffee and milk cups, but it's a nice luxury not to have to cook or clean pots and pans on vacation. When I want a fun vacation that's a bunch of work, I'll go tent-camping, not fly to a nice resort.

That said, my vacation isn't your vacation. Different families like different things. The DDP isn't for every vacation style and it isn't meant to be - it doesn't even work for *every* WDW vacation I take. For some it's a value, for some it isn't. No biggie either way.

 

[MTstitch]

For us the dining plan is a waste of money, we would be spending more money by getting the plan. That said, the reason is we only do 2 or 3 table service meals and the rest is counter service. If we did alot of table service meals it would probably be a value to us.

 

[eva]

In the past when our girls went with us to WDW the plan probably would have been a good value. Back then we normally ate at places like Biergarten, 50's Prime Time, etc. But now that it is only DH and me we eat at the restaurants that usually cost two meals on the plan. Plus, we are DVC members and have an entire kitchen to make breakfast and grab a quick lunch in. Don't get me wrong, I rarely cook. But we are not big eaters and usually just have a bagel and juice or cereal for breakfast. For lunch we might pick up a counter service meal in a park or we might come back to the room to have a quick bit and go for a swim (50-50). Dinner is usually at California Grill, Artist Point, Jiko, etc. Now in a couple years we will be bringing the girls and grand kids with us. If they still have the plan, we may have to look into then. I think that everyone has to look at the way that they tour and eat at WDW to decide if it makes sense for them. Right now it just doesn't make sense for us.

 

[Luv'sTink]

OK, your crazy...LOL you said! It was good for us but it is not for everyone.

 

[snomofinn]

We never get the DDP (don't know ) anyways, I allow 200.00 a day on food/snacks for a family of 4 but my girls are 13 and 20, so that would be adults. Sometimes we are way under sometimes, were over. I guess it depends how hungry we are or thirsty for that matter. We always have our refillable mugs fo the resort, but when you go to the parks, the drinks are killers. My kids love to snack as well. I probably should look into the DDP???

 

[jodifla]

I always get a good laugh at the concept that people are saving a lot of money with the DDP. We spend WAY less money on food, including groceries and meals out, than the DDP would cost us.

We use the DDE, and our DVC kitchen.