Cost Savings on the DxDP

[ancestry]

I have seen a lot of posts on whether or not the dining plans are worth the money so I wanted to post what I have figured out for us. In our group there are two adults and two children (twins age 6 years old).

Now that the June schedule has been out for a few days I finally managed to finish our schedule and determine where we are going to eat (asusming we can get the ADR's that we want). After I figured out our plans I then calculated out the acutal cost of the meals if we were to pay out of pocket for them using the menus and pricing at allears.net.

We will be rotating days regarding the number of table services that we use in order to be able to take advantage of several 2 point meals. For example Sunday we will eat 2 TS meals, Monday we will eat 3 TS meals, Tuesday 2 TS meals, etc. On the day of our 3 meals we will pick up a snack item as we leave the park at night and will use the snack item for a light breakfast on the mornings of the 2 TS meal days.

It appears that by doing this we save about $500 by being on the deluxe dining plan.

Now to be fair that doesn't take into consideration the reality that if we weren't on the DxDP we probably wouldn't be ordering an appetizer, main course, and dessert at most meals. Although we also have a lot of buffet/family style meals chosen (Hoop De Doo Revue, Biergarten, Crystal Palace) that are all one set price.

On the other hand, meals and dining time are a big and important part of what we view as vacation time. So where some families don't want to spend all of that time in a sit down restuarant, we prefer to do that. It gives us some down time from the parks and allows us to have a quality conversation with each other.

So anyways, I just thought I would share how the DxDP is looking for us so far.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

I can believe it - I don't think I'm going with any dining plan for my June trip (shock! horror!) so I feel the need to eliminate any buffet meal since I just can't bring myself to pay the holiday surcharge.

With character breakfasts being $23 per adult and dinners being $35 per adult it doesn't take much to get your money's worth out of the deluxe plan (you only have to spend $10.23 for your 3rd meal, 2 snacks and refillable mug - this takes into consideration the tax on the other 2 meals).

 

[Faldred]

I ran a spreadsheet for our upcoming trip with myself, DW, and DS3 on the plan. Picking out reasonable choices from the menu (i.e., what I think we'd be likely to order) based on everyone using their full entitlements, I figured out that we'd save about 26-27% vs. OOP for the same food.

But that qualifier "for the same food" is the kicker. Would we have ordered the same things, and as much, if paying OOP? Not a chance.

So I re-ran the numbers dropping 1 adult appetizer and 1 adult dessert from each (non-buffet/AYCE) meal. The savings drops to about 3-4% over OOP.

Figure that we likely wouldn't get the resort mugs or buy as many snacks, and that we'd choose less expensive menu items overall if paying OOP... all said and done, we're more or less breaking even over OOP.

But there are non-cost benefits as well -- there's the peace of mind of having it pretty much all pre-paid (and since we're getting the $200 gift card special, that offsets the tips nicely). We also don't have to worry about the urge to "cheap out" on our selections to save money.

 

[mom_to_2]

meals and dining time are a big and important part of what we view as vacation time. So where some families don't want to spend all of that time in a sit down restuarant, we prefer to do that. It gives us some down time from the parks and allows us to have a quality conversation with each other.

I totally agree!

I figured it out for us, too, and although I don't remember the exact number the dining plan saves us a decent amount as well.

 

[Shagley]

You have probably already thought about this, but don't forget to calculate in the tips when you are figuring how much you will save by using or not using the deluxe dining plan. You will pay a lot more for tips if you are on the plan and take advantage of the appetizers and desserts than if you weren't on the plan and didn't order these "extras".

 

[An_Island_Girl]

Although we saved a bundle by using the DxDP on our last trip, tips did run us an additional $400 for the week (2 Adults, 1 child).

Would we do again... in a heartbeat! It was so nice having everything paid for up front, and we used our Gift Cards towards the tips.

 

[Faldred]

You have probably already thought about this, but don't forget to calculate in the tips when you are figuring how much you will save by using or not using the deluxe dining plan. You will pay a lot more for tips if you are on the plan and take advantage of the appetizers and desserts than if you weren't on the plan and didn't order these "extras".

Actually, the tips difference in my spreadsheets was only about $10 -- likely as a result of a higher than average number of fixed price meals (buffet/AYCE) over the course of the week.

 

[noahdove]

Just wondering if you took into thought that the tax is included in the ddp and not oop...

 

[Faldred]

If that was addressed to me, then the answer is yes, I did include tax for OOP in my analysis.

 

[katieam1]

I have seen a lot of posts on whether or not the dining plans are worth the money so I wanted to post what I have figured out for us. In our group there are two adults and two children (twins age 6 years old).

Now that the June schedule has been out for a few days I finally managed to finish our schedule and determine where we are going to eat (asusming we can get the ADR's that we want). After I figured out our plans I then calculated out the acutal cost of the meals if we were to pay out of pocket for them using the menus and pricing at allears.net.

We will be rotating days regarding the number of table services that we use in order to be able to take advantage of several 2 point meals. For example Sunday we will eat 2 TS meals, Monday we will eat 3 TS meals, Tuesday 2 TS meals, etc. On the day of our 3 meals we will pick up a snack item as we leave the park at night and will use the snack item for a light breakfast on the mornings of the 2 TS meal days.

It appears that by doing this we save about $500 by being on the deluxe dining plan.

Now to be fair that doesn't take into consideration the reality that if we weren't on the DxDP we probably wouldn't be ordering an appetizer, main course, and dessert at most meals. Although we also have a lot of buffet/family style meals chosen (Hoop De Doo Revue, Biergarten, Crystal Palace) that are all one set price.

On the other hand, meals and dining time are a big and important part of what we view as vacation time. So where some families don't want to spend all of that time in a sit down restuarant, we prefer to do that. It gives us some down time from the parks and allows us to have a quality conversation with each other.

So anyways, I just thought I would share how the DxDP is looking for us so far.

We went in January and even with using the credits three times at a quick service we still saved $400, which is great I think. We are doing it again in August with out using CS credits hopefully so we save even more!

Have a great trip!!

 

[inkedupmomma]

I have seen a lot of posts on whether or not the dining plans are worth the money so I wanted to post what I have figured out for us. In our group there are two adults and two children (twins age 6 years old).

Now that the June schedule has been out for a few days I finally managed to finish our schedule and determine where we are going to eat (asusming we can get the ADR's that we want). After I figured out our plans I then calculated out the acutal cost of the meals if we were to pay out of pocket for them using the menus and pricing at allears.net.

We will be rotating days regarding the number of table services that we use in order to be able to take advantage of several 2 point meals. For example Sunday we will eat 2 TS meals, Monday we will eat 3 TS meals, Tuesday 2 TS meals, etc. On the day of our 3 meals we will pick up a snack item as we leave the park at night and will use the snack item for a light breakfast on the mornings of the 2 TS meal days.

It appears that by doing this we save about $500 by being on the deluxe dining plan.

Now to be fair that doesn't take into consideration the reality that if we weren't on the DxDP we probably wouldn't be ordering an appetizer, main course, and dessert at most meals. Although we also have a lot of buffet/family style meals chosen (Hoop De Doo Revue, Biergarten, Crystal Palace) that are all one set price.

On the other hand, meals and dining time are a big and important part of what we view as vacation time. So where some families don't want to spend all of that time in a sit down restuarant, we prefer to do that. It gives us some down time from the parks and allows us to have a quality conversation with each other.

So anyways, I just thought I would share how the DxDP is looking for us so far.

amen to all that!! I love the dxdp!!

 

[Colleen27]

It works out well for us too. I figured the way we'd normally eat for our next trip - appetizers all around, but only 1 or 2 desserts between the 5 of us - and we break even on our ADRs alone. Since we have 6 credits per person unplanned, plus 80 snacks and 5 mugs (though we'd probably only buy 3 if we were paying OOP), we will easily come out ahead by several hundred dollars.

Would we eat as well without the plan? Probably not, but only because we'd be thinking about the budget! With the deluxe plan, we eat the way we like to eat on vacation, not the way we think we should eat to save a little money here and there, and that alone would sell me on the plan even if it wasn't as great a deal.

 

[disneyfan2]

for us the value of the DDP would be good and having the extras we normally would not buy, but because we have left over park days left, if we want the DDP then we also need to get a 1 day park ticket in order to get the DDP, so i think we are going to skip DDP next trip and maybe do 1 sit down dinner OOP.

 

[madisonsmommy7704]

what is the tax rate off hand do you know? I am crunching my numbers now-

 

[Tricia1972]

what is the tax rate off hand do you know? I am crunching my numbers now-

The tax rate is 6.5%

 

[madisonsmommy7704]

The tax rate is 6.5%

thanks!
okay looks like we will be saving about $530 FOR 7 nights w/ 2 adults & 1 child- and that is with 1/2 buffets and 2 (2 credit) meals-and a low est avg of snack costs ($3 ea) I just kind-of wanted to see out of curiosity - we really like doing the plan just so everything is prepaid LOL

 

[jcjohns91107]

Wow, I'm an accountant and I can't get to that level of savings but more power to you! Here's an example I tried -

50's Prime Time Cafe - TS dinner
Meatloaf - 14.99
Ice cream sundae - 4.99
Soda - 2.09 Total dinner with tax - 23.50

Backlot Express - CS lunch
Dbl Cheeseburger - 6.89
soda - 2.09
desert - 3.59 Total lunch with tax - 13.38

Snack - 4.00 max - probably for bfast w/tax 4.26

Total for day 41.14
cost for day 39.99
Savings 1.15
Savings for week 8.05
Savings for party of 4 32.20

Given, if you always eat at the nicer restaurants this number will go up but to get to $500? I don't see it. And if you eat ay Jiko and use 2 credits when the menu prices are less that le cellier, I'd loose.

Where am I going wrong?

 

[MarieA]

Wow, I'm an accountant and I can't get to that level of savings but more power to you! Here's an example I tried -

50's Prime Time Cafe - TS dinner
Meatloaf - 14.99
Ice cream sundae - 4.99
Soda - 2.09 Total dinner with tax - 23.50

Backlot Express - CS lunch
Dbl Cheeseburger - 6.89
soda - 2.09
desert - 3.59 Total lunch with tax - 13.38

Snack - 4.00 max - probably for bfast w/tax 4.26

Total for day 41.14
cost for day 39.99
Savings 1.15
Savings for week 8.05
Savings for party of 4 32.20

Given, if you always eat at the nicer restaurants this number will go up but to get to $500? I don't see it. And if you eat ay Jiko and use 2 credits when the menu prices are less that le cellier, I'd loose.

Where am I going wrong?

I don't see a tip added in for the TS meal at Prime Time - you have to figure at least 15% (we usually tip 20%). That would bring your savings up slightly.

For my family neither dining plan is worth it anymore. We have purchased the Tables in Wonderland card which entitles us to 20% off our meals. After going over menus and adding up what we would order, I found little to no savings on the DDP.

 

[madisonsmommy7704]

Wow, I'm an accountant and I can't get to that level of savings but more power to you! Here's an example I tried -

50's Prime Time Cafe - TS dinner
Meatloaf - 14.99
Ice cream sundae - 4.99
Soda - 2.09 Total dinner with tax - 23.50

Backlot Express - CS lunch
Dbl Cheeseburger - 6.89
soda - 2.09
desert - 3.59 Total lunch with tax - 13.38

Snack - 4.00 max - probably for bfast w/tax 4.26

Total for day 41.14
cost for day 39.99
Savings 1.15
Savings for week 8.05
Savings for party of 4 32.20

Given, if you always eat at the nicer restaurants this number will go up but to get to $500? I don't see it. And if you eat ay Jiko and use 2 credits when the menu prices are less that le cellier, I'd loose.

Where am I going wrong?

I am doing the DXDDP- so 3 TS meals some days, and 2 other days when doing a 2 credit meal (for us CRT & Narcosse)
the DXDDP includes 3 TS meals w/ apps & desert (or CS if you want) plus 2 snacks & the resort mug

 

[madisonsmommy7704]

I don't see a tip added in for the TS meal at Prime Time - you have to figure at least 15% (we usually tip 20%). That would bring your savings up slightly.

For my family neither dining plan is worth it anymore. We have purchased the Tables in Wonderland card which entitles us to 20% off our meals. After going over menus and adding up what we would order, I found little to no savings on the DDP.

tips are not included in the dinning plan