Convince Me the Dining Plan Is Worth It

[JohnneyB]

On all of our previous trips we have purchased the Dining Plan, and I believe that it has been a good value for us. However, with the recent changes (no appetizer, tips not included), I'm not so sure. My plan is to exchange 9 day no expiration tickets for APs when we go in July with the 4/3 deal. Since that's the plan, do you think it would be better to purchase a Tables in Wonderland Card instead of the dining plan? Part of my decision has to do with value - part of it has do with flexibility. I would really appreciate your thoughts.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

I love the DDP and will be using it for the 3rd time in September however, I honestly think using the AP and TIW discount will be much better for you. That is what I would go for if the DDP wasn't free.

 

[liftn]

I personally sat down and calculated my meals per my adr vs. cost of meal plan, and it was very close. So my choice was to not do meal plan. If you decide that you want to do something different one night and grab a quick meal, then it turns into a loss. I am not a big desert eater, I would much rather have appetizer included, then I would have done meal plan.

 

[pooh2001]

If you go when prices get hilked up - like Easter or Christmas - DDP may pay off. No increase to the price of DDP - but I know at Easter Chef Mickeys, 1900 park Faire, Crystal Palace and others costs and extra $4 or $5 per adult
meal.

I did the same pricing for what we would order per allears menu's and came to just about the same cost. But when we go, Easter - the cost of buffets and other main dishes go up. If we do 4 buffets per week, and we are 4 adults, at an extra $5/adult = $80 in cost. As long as we stay at a WDW resort the DDP will work for us.

 

[DizneeMommy]

For us, even more than the value of the DDP, it's about the convenience!! Having the meals prepaid is wonderful. If my 11 year old wishes to order the $36 steak, go right ahead!! We like not worrying about how much we can spend on food. . .we simply budget for the tips and occasional appy. And since we are going in June and will be doing several character buffets, not having to pay the holiday prices will make the DDP an even better value!

 

[ancestry]

Ultimately only you can decide if it is worth it or not. It depends on how your family eats. We are two adults and two children and from my calculations we will save almost $500 by using the DxDP.

However when I analyzed it by person the savings really comes from the two children and my husband. My husband tends to be a heavy meat/steak eater and frequently orders the most expensive things on the menu. The DxDP is really worth it for him.

I however, would be happy to be a vegetarian and when I do eat meat it is usually only chicken or turkey. My savings or benefit for being on the plan is significantly less than that of my husband.

 

[Amy&Dan]

If you eat full service each day, don't meal share, and always order dessert, its worth it. With the changes to the DDP that you mentioned, it is now not as much of a mega deal as it used to be, but if you would order all or at least most of what the plan gives you, it does add up to savings. I am doing a split stay in June so for the first portion we are doing the DDP, for the second leg, we aren't. Holiday pricing was what drove me to make the decision to do the DDP.

I have a love hate relationship with the DDP. Its hard to not remember the good old days! I also have a 12 yeard old, eats like a bird, "adult" and often we find ourselves wasting food. But given the time frame of our trip (holiday pricing) and the fact my son is 14 (and hard to fill up!), it makes sense. The second leg of our trip, we plan to do only one or two sit downs and my dd and I can share meals at the cs places. So we'll save money but we'll be eating a lot less all the way around as well.

I love the prepaying aspect of the DDP. Frankly, I wish they'd hike up the price to include the tip so I didn't have to worry about that once there.

All that said, I prefer the Tables in Wonderland discount. We made our money on that card and then some for about four years. This year, we are only doing one trip to WDW so AP's didnt' make sense. If you stay at a value or POFQ, getting the discount at the food court also adds up. My husband and I loved saving on our cocktails as well. And last but not least, it gives you a lot of flexibility. You can order appetizers, share meals, drink a grown up drink and save 20% all the way around. This is the first year in a long time we haven't had the card and I know I will miss it.

Good luck deciding!

 

[uncleleo]

The plan's value is pretty easy to quantify (though I must admit, the folks over at the Unofficial Guide actually did the math for me). In the $40/day adult DDP, you're paying $26 for a TS meal, $10 for a CS meal, and $4 per snack. So as long as you overspend those price points, you're getting good value.

The logical consequences are obvious. You shouldn't use the plan for low-cost TS places like Beaches & Cream or for most lunches. It's almost impossible to justify a Signature TS meal in terms of cost-effectiveness. Buffets are great, because you're essentially getting free appetizers. At the average CS restaurant, you have to order dessert to be sure you're coming out ahead.

What this calculus doesn't take into account is the fact that being on the plan "forces" you away from cost-saving opportunities like cooking your own meals or going off-property to less expensive resturants of equal quality. I haven't done the math, but I suspect these opportuntity costs mean that the DDP is a bad value if you're paying extra for a room with a kitchen or for a car rental.

 

[liftn]

Buffets are great, because you're essentially getting free appetizers.

So buffet would have to be above $26 to benefit.

 

[MomsOf2boys]

It is also a nice plan to do a split stay, doing a DxDP for one stay and not the other... Then you can get some of the nicer restaurants out of the way while on the plan and save a little on the other half. We do a 3 night stay with the plan followed by a 2 or 3 night stay without. We usually use up our last TS on the last day/which is the 1st day of the without part. We are normally tired of food by then and have stocked up on snacks as well.

 

[uncleleo]

So buffet would have to be above $26 to benefit.

No, I think buffets throw a monkey wrench into the math. And I should have specified DINNER buffets. Its much harder to justify the cost of a breakfast buffet under the DDP, given how unusual it is to spend more than $20pp on a non-buffet breakfast at WDW.

On the other hand, it's hard NOT to get a great DDP value with a buffet dinner. If you always order an appetizer (or salad or soup) at a TS dinner, then a buffet is saving you money by giving you those things at no additional OOP cost.

 

[JohnneyB]

I really appreciate everyone's help and input. I am leaning toward no DDP and purchasing a TIW card. Part of our MO is to do breakfast buffets, and I think if we do at least two breakfast buffets for a seven night stay, it would be tough to "catch up" cost wise. Does this make sense? Also, particularly on this stay, we will have our own car, so stocking up on snacks wouldn't be a problem. So the question is, how many buffets will it take to knock you out of the DDP?

 

[Steelersfan]

My opinion, and I share it all the time when this comes up, is that the dining plan has everything to do with one thing... CHARACTER MEALS.

My wife and I went to WDW three times w/o any kids and basically paid for the Crystal Palace breakfast and WCC as our only sitdowns all three times and were just fine. We just ate at the counter service places when we were hungry. This was much, much, much cheaper than the dining plan for sure. Plus, I really do think the counter service places are underrated and offer much more than just burgers. And just as a side note... I LOVE TO EAT!

Then we took a few years off after our daughter came along and went in 2007. We also went with my parents, brother and niece. I was going to do the usual, but my mom really wanted to try the dining plan so we did. To say our daughter LOVED the character meals is an understatement.

We are going in June and booked the plan mainly for this reason. We have Chef Mickey's Din , 1900 Park Fare Din, Play-N-Dine B'Fast, Tusker B'Fast, Crystal Palace lunch and Akershaus B'fast character meals, plus Biergarten Din for us.. (plus she liked the show there last time.)

That's alot of characters, but if you think about it we 1. like the food at all those places so there really isn't much of a sacrifice and 2. get to see... Cinderalla, Prince Charming, the step sisters, Mickey, Donald, Pluto, Goofy, Belle, Mulan, Jasmine, Pooh, Tigger, Daisy, Jo Jo, etc, etc, etc. That would take a looooooonnnnnnnggggggg time to track all those guys and gals down in the parks for autographs, which are not really an option if you know what I mean!

So for us this does actually save time, especially with late breakfasts, early lunches and strategically placed dinners. You can really make out just doing breakfasts and lunches if you can, but for us we couldn't (Cinderella is a dinner only at 1900 Park Fare for instance).

Now, if she was a little older we would probably skip the dining plan and eat on the fly and a select few sit-downs because they do take up time and (especially dinners) can impact your day.

There is no way we'll get tired of the character meals just because she loves them and is the kind of kid who stalks characters at home. Critters like Chuck E. Cheese, the Pirate Parrot, Steeley McBeem, Ricky Racoon and Kenny Kangaroo (Pittsburgh folks know all these guys) have to hide from her. She literally tip-toes behind them giggling. She's in her element BIG TIME at the meals so like I said, it saves us time.

Just my personal thoughts.

 

[bear74]

For us, even more than the value of the DDP, it's about the convenience!! Having the meals prepaid is wonderful. If my 11 year old wishes to order the $36 steak, go right ahead!! We like not worrying about how much we can spend on food. . .we simply budget for the tips and occasional appy. And since we are going in June and will be doing several character buffets, not having to pay the holiday prices will make the DDP an even better value!

When do Holiday prices go into effect? I am also trying to decide if we should do the DP.
Thanks

 

[Tiger926]

We have done it all at WDW in terms of eating (we normally eat 2 TS meals each day), so we just re-did our dining spreadsheets as we always do each trip and for us, we found that a combination DxDP and regular DP is better for us than TIW card. We did a direct comparison of what we would order and our TIW price was higher and it was only ordering minimal amounts with no beverages (we only drink water, and occasionally juice), no dessert or no appetizers, so once we added a few of these in, the cost went up quite a bit as we also had to add in snacks, which we get with the Dining Plans.

We then contemplated eating breakfast each morning in our villa (we are DVC and go for 2 week summer trips) and a few dinners in our room, and this dropped our cost by a few hundred dollars, but again, it was still more than our cost of the dining plans. Plus, with dining plans, especially deluxe, we have more food such as appetizers and extra snacks in which to feed our hungry toddler. We also looked at just doing the regular DP, but we needed to buy more food out of pocket for our toddler, so the cost went up for that as well.

It was a very interesting cost comparison for us. We have used the TIW/DDE card 2x now, and know that the savings are there (we don't drink alcohol) and we are pretty sure we can use it for next year's trip (although we will have a black out date, and will be subject to holiday surcharges, so we would only be able to use it for part of trip), but despite this, we still enjoy a bigger savings, as well as more food with the combination of both dining plans. We've already done the DxDP and so we know how to spread our meals out, but the biggest thing for us is that we need to eat in due to the sweltering July heat. We are also lucky because we are doing AK Concierge for 3 days, so we spread our DxDP out over 6 days and our regular for the following 4 for a total of 13 days.

Hope this helps - happy eating to you, Tiger

 

[uncleleo]

I really appreciate everyone's help and input. I am leaning toward no DDP and purchasing a TIW card. Part of our MO is to do breakfast buffets, and I think if we do at least two breakfast buffets for a seven night stay, it would be tough to "catch up" cost wise. Does this make sense? Also, particularly on this stay, we will have our own car, so stocking up on snacks wouldn't be a problem. So the question is, how many buffets will it take to knock you out of the DDP?

If the numbers matter, you can still make the plan work with breakfast buffets. Let's assume you pick the least expensive breakfast buffet: $17 at Boma. If TS meals on the DDP cost $26, that means you've overpaid $9. You can make up that $9 by, for example, ordering the $33 steak and any dessert at Les Chefs de France or Le Cellier.

 

[JohnneyB]

You guys are great! Now I am considering the DxDP as well. We will be using our APs during holiday periods, so that may work out better. I'm going to do a little more homework, sleep on it, and let everyone know tomorrow. I need to make a decision so I can obsess about the rest of our trip.

 

[weHEARTmickey]

It is also a nice plan to do a split stay, doing a DxDP for one stay and not the other... Then you can get some of the nicer restaurants out of the way while on the plan and save a little on the other half. We do a 3 night stay with the plan followed by a 2 or 3 night stay without. We usually use up our last TS on the last day/which is the 1st day of the without part. We are normally tired of food by then and have stocked up on snacks as well.

Totally OT...sorry! Is this why people do the split stays? That is brilliant!

 

[Tiger926]

Totally OT...sorry! Is this why people do the split stays? That is brilliant!

Yup, this is why we do split stays! I thought I mentioned that in my previous post, but I may not have. We are split stay experts, and this is the reason as we have more flexibility with our dining, plus we love all of the resorts. This coming trip, we have 9 nights @ Boardwalk Villas (5 in a 1 bed and 4 in a studio) and then 3 nights @ Animal Kingdom Villas Concierge (1 bed). We are doing Deluxe for first 5 nights, and spread out over 6 with a Signature in there for hubby's birthday, followed by 4 nights on Regular DP, again spread out over 5 days (as we have an OOP RFC in there) and then finished up by 3 nights in Concierge. This will be our cheapest scenario and allow for lots of food to feed kids, eat at Signature and have lots of snacks/water. We actually have 3 different ressies, even though we are at Boardwalk for 9 nights, so we are doing a combination Deluxe and Regular. We've done it before, and it works out well!

Doing split stays allows us to really work out dining - if you go during a holiday period, you are then subject to surcharges, so we do Dining Plan for part of it, and then TIW or DVC or AP discounts for remaining part. Or, we like to throw in Concierge as this gives us breakfast, snacks, light dinner, desserts and beverages.

There really are lots of choices for dining at Disney, and that is great! Tiger