Considering adding disney dining plan - views please!

[mikki.young]

We have a 5 night stay and are booked in at jiko (2 credits) Monsieur Paul (2 credits) and Cinderella character dinner at 1900 Park Fayre (1 credit). So that would be the table meals dealt with and leave us the 5 counter service and the snacks. With those bookings is the plan likely to save any money? If it's not going to cost more money then it may be worth it for the convenience. We have never done it before so we are not sure whether it is a good idea or not!

 

[scoobydooby]

The plan is not generally a good deal for eating at two credit places. A no risk strategy is to load a pre paid credit card with the same amount of money as the plan would cost and just use that for your meals. You can eat what you want then and may come out ahead financially. I will only have the plan if it's 'free'. Otherwise I do as notes above and usually come out with left over money.

 

[willeve]

I agree with the pp, free it is fantastic, paying we wouldn't get good value. We wouldn't have a cs dessert and would probably share a large drink, and wouldn't bother with snacks. I would do a comparison with what you are likely to order using the menus, might see if it works for your party.

 

[zippy99]

We cancelled our DDP for October as we had paid OOP as it worked out as £1150 for the 7 days - that is around $1930.

We still have reservations planned for table service meals - but the counter service meals are just too much - what with a dessert and drink - we just don't need that much! 2 or 3 counters for $30 + a $3 drink is fine. We also happen to have 12 FREE counter service vouchers (main drink & entree) that were given to us by a friend.

 

[flortlebap]

I wouldn't buy it either. It's just not worth it. Even "free" dining is less value than it was before. For example, our 8 night yacht club trip in September cost £2,600 with tickets and free dining. Expedia had YC rooms available for closer to £1,500 less 12% Cashback which would have worked out at around £1,800 with our tickets added on, but no free dining. That would have left us with around £800 to put towards food, so we are only marginally better off with the free dining deal!

(My maths is very rough here as it's only from memory, but the principle is the same!)

I like the pre paid card idea though

 

[mikki.young]

I think you have persuaded me! Agree on the too much food front (which is why we thought the 2 credit restaurants might help) but I think it will be easier to pay our way. May spring for the Tables in Wonderland card because with another trip in December it wouldn't be hard to make that pay. Oh - and I've cancelled Monsieur Paul because looking at reivews / menus I wasn't suure it was worth it.

Thanks for all the input

 

[edinburghlass]

I think you have persuaded me! Agree on the too much food front (which is why we thought the 2 credit restaurants might help) but I think it will be easier to pay our way. May spring for the Tables in Wonderland card because with another trip in December it wouldn't be hard to make that pay. Oh - and I've cancelled Monsieur Paul because looking at reivews / menus I wasn't suure it was worth it. Thanks for all the input

Josh from easywdw just reviewed Monsieur Paul, gave it a good review you might like to read it.

 

[mikki.young]

Josh from easywdw just reviewed Monsieur Paul, gave it a good review you might like to read it.

Will do - thanks

 

[Disney Frenhines]

When it was free it was worth doing, but, I have done it both ways and OOP is definitely better.

 

[wayneg]

People do it for the convenience rather than getting value from it.

We did it 4 times free, did a spreadsheet each time best we would have done was break even but that was including loads of food we really could have done without, paying OOP we just wouldn't have ordered it.

I know the odd person has posted and said its worth paying for but nowhere near for me, great free but would never pay for it.

 

[penlanspice]

It's really not worth it any more and we even get it a little cheaper with a dvc rate, when the starter and tip were included it was really good value.

Our last few trips staying on site we have eaten at the places we would have on the DDP and also put the money onto a disney gift card before we went to ensure we ate at disney (otherwise we would off just gone of site). Last time we came out about $100 under but we didn't have desert with the CS or a snack each day so probably would of worked out about right if we'd had those. What we usually do is pick out what we're probably going to eat from the menus and work out the cost.

 

[zavandor]

you can save money on the DDP if you plan to eat a lot at characters buffets, like Chef Mickey or Chrystal palace.
You can break even if you would eat the way the plan is built, so if you never take appetizer, take the most expensive items (ie: you like steaks a lot) and always take desserts.
You would loose money in any other case and expecially if you use it for signature dining. Signatures are priced 1.5X than other table service restaurants, but cost twice on the DDP.
Unless it's free, I'd say go for paying OOP.

 

[weebabes]

I agree that it's fantastic if it's free. Even then you have to take advantage of the more expensive meals and snacks to make up the difference between the inflated package cost and the price you could get if booked separately.

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

It was worth paying for back in the day when an appetiser and gratuity was included!
I wouldn't pay for it now, but if it's "free" ( I use that term loosely) then I love it!

 

[bluedisneygill]

Like the idea of puting money on card, we are planning trip for next year and debating about dining plan used to be good value but not sure how much now. We do enjoy the freedom of not worrying about cost when eating out though

 

[scoobydooby]

Like the idea of puting money on card, we are planning trip for next year and debating about dining plan used to be good value but not sure how much now. We do enjoy the freedom of not worrying about cost when eating out though

You can still book free dining for 2015 at the moment. A pre paid credit card can make it feel like a pre paid plan so long as you are strict with yourself and only use it for food. I did this in May with DD and because we underspent a lot on food we had a spending spree on our last day

 

[hsc3boys]

We would not want the dessert and would rather have a starter or even share a starter. Last October I looked at the menus before we went and thought it would be cheaper OOP. Booked all the restaurants we wanted, also ordered from garder grocer, so had drinks and snacks to take into the park everyday and breakfast in the room most mornings. We saved a lot of money as a family of five. I made a note of all the food and snack costs, so glad I didn't buy the dining plan. Also one of my children would have been charged an adult price but I knew he would eat off the kids menu, so that would have been a huge waste of money.
All in all for two weeks, two adults plus kids, 18,11 and 9 came to about£1300 including the garden grocer shop, and now the exchange rate is better as well.

 

[bluedisneygill]

You can still book free dining for 2015 at the moment. A pre paid credit card can make it feel like a pre paid plan so long as you are strict with yourself and only use it for food. I did this in May with DD and because we underspent a lot on food we had a spending spree on our last day

We are using our dvc so wouldn't get free dining. Like the idea of shopping spree good motivation to be drift with only buying food.

 

[disneyholic family]

People do it for the convenience rather than getting value from it.

We did it 4 times free, did a spreadsheet each time best we would have done was break even but that was including loads of food we really could have done without, paying OOP we just wouldn't have ordered it.

I know the odd person has posted and said its worth paying for but nowhere near for me, great free but would never pay for it.

we paid for the dining plan to avoid sticker shock inside the parks..
the trip before i paid for the dining plan, i was there on my own and paid for everything out of pocket.
Paying $4 for a tiny little frozen coke very nearly ruined my entire trip....really.....it was that irritating to me...
and that happened with everything....each item was so overpriced, i just couldn't bear it.
I was upset throughout the trip just because of the stupid pricing....of course, had i added it all up, it probably came to a few hundred dollars...nothing to be so upset about, but i couldn't help how upset each purchase of a diet coke or frozen coke made me...

so when all 6 of us went the following year, i paid for the dining plan ..
since i crunched out the numbers comparing what everything would cost us out of pocket vs on the dining plan, i KNEW that the dining plan was costing us MORE money not less.
but i also knew that not having to look at the prices at all, and just pay with "credit" would keep me sane during the trip...
and you know what? It worked....all that ridiculously high pricing didn't bother me at all because everything was just a credit...

so yes, i would pay for the dining plan again ....but that's me....
if you're like me, pay for the dining plan, if you're not, then pay out of pocket, you'll save money!!

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

That's a good point, at home I usually go for the cheapest thing on the menu, but at Disney if I want lobster or filet I'll have them. Not looking at the prices opens the whole menu up to you.