DDP for Military??

[DisneyAFMom]

We are an Air Force/ Disney family and have never (shocking I know! lol) used the Disney Dining Plan. Need lots of help in explaining what it is and how it's used. We usually stay on property at a Moderate Resort using the wonderful military discounts. Thinking of staying at CBR or PORS (the resort that used to be called Dixie Landings??) we have an 8 yr old DS and a 4 yr old DD. thanks!!!! ;-)

 

[DisGirl819]

The ddp works the same and is priced the same for military or non military. Depending on the plan you choose you basically pre pay for your meals minus the tips. We always get the middle dining plan with one TS, one QS and two snacks (is it still two?). That way we can sit down for one meal a day and be on the go for the rest of the day. More info can be found if you go to the top of the dis and click on dining and click on dining plans.

 

[sharonabe]

PP is right in that you probably should do a little reading up on the plan itself to see if it will fit the way your family likes to eat. (They are incorrect about the snacks, though, it's only one snack)

Basically, if ALL of you want your own dessert at every meal and the adults ALWAYS drink soda/tea/coffee, you'll probably be able to see some discount value with a dining plan. But it will take some planning on your part to be sure you maximize the credits.

For our family, we prefer to drink water, which is free, and only two of us even eat desserts, so we do much better OOP. My two kiddos have also graduated in to the Disney adult category, so we lose the savings you will see with your two Disney kids.

 

[aaarcher86]

PP is right in that you probably should do a little reading up on the plan itself to see if it will fit the way your family likes to eat. (They are incorrect about the snacks, though, it's only one snack)

Basically, if ALL of you want your own dessert at every meal and the adults ALWAYS drink soda/tea/coffee, you'll probably be able to see some discount value with a dining plan. But it will take some planning on your part to be sure you maximize the credits.

For our family, we prefer to drink water, which is free, and only two of us even eat desserts, so we do much better OOP. My two kiddos have also graduated in to the Disney adult category, so we lose the savings you will see with your two Disney kids.

I wouldn't use these guidelines to be honest. We save on the DXDP and while trying desserts is nice, we definitely wouldn't order them OOP.

OP - after reading up on the DDP and the options, head over to allears.net and figure out what you'd likely pay OOP versus how much you'd pay for the DP and see which one works out best.

 

[sharonabe]

I wouldn't use these guidelines to be honest. We save on the DXDP and while trying desserts is nice, we definitely wouldn't order them OOP.

OP - after reading up on the DDP and the options, head over to allears.net and figure out what you'd likely pay OOP versus how much you'd pay for the DP and see which one works out best.

The reason I do use that as a guideline is because as soon as you start not using ANY entitlements, you start losing monetary value.

As I said, we are now 4 Disney adults and there's no way we could eat 4 apps, 4 entrees, and 4 desserts plus drink something other than water even twice a day (using DxDDP for one TS and one signature). We'd be sick!

If you move back to either the regular DDP or the QSDP, if the only thing we do is drink free water (which is what we WANT), we lose around $24/day. There's almost no way to make up that amount on either of these plans.

I can make any of the plans work, but I don't want to eat that way even on vacation, so we don't use them. We use the military discounts, and even "free" dining isn't a better deal for us.

 

[My2Cents]

We are also a military family and have never used the DDP. We just don't need the beverages, desserts, snacks, etc. so it is cheaper for us to go OOP.

 

[aaarcher86]

The reason I do use that as a guideline is because as soon as you start not using ANY entitlements, you start losing monetary value.

As I said, we are now 4 Disney adults and there's no way we could eat 4 apps, 4 entrees, and 4 desserts plus drink something other than water even twice a day (using DxDDP for one TS and one signature). We'd be sick!

If you move back to either the regular DDP or the QSDP, if the only thing we do is drink free water (which is what we WANT), we lose around $24/day. There's almost no way to make up that amount on either of these plans.

I can make any of the plans work, but I don't want to eat that way even on vacation, so we don't use them. We use the military discounts, and even "free" dining isn't a better deal for us.

Sure, but if you're already saving money on the nightly cost of the plan regardless of not ordering dessert or soda out of pocket, you aren't really losing value.

The easiest way to do it is just to compare the costs OOP versus DP.

 

[sharonabe]

Sure, but if you're already saving money on the nightly cost of the plan regardless of not ordering dessert or soda out of pocket, you aren't really losing value.

The easiest way to do it is just to compare the costs OOP versus DP.

The only way to save money on the nightly cost of the plan is if it's "free" dining.

Military have to buy the plan if using the other military discounts; there is no free dining with those. So what I actually compare is the cost of a "free dining" pkg with Disney to the military discounts and the military discounts are always better whether I pay for DDP or OOP. And for us OOP is always cheaper.

 

[CHIPSTER]

We found that using the military discount on the room and the discounted ticket prices is much better than paying for the dining plan or free dining plan as you have to pay rack rate for the room. I woud do some math before jumping into the dining plan.

 

[aaarcher86]

The only way to save money on the nightly cost of the plan is if it's "free" dining.

Military have to buy the plan if using the other military discounts; there is no free dining with those. So what I actually compare is the cost of a "free dining" pkg with Disney to the military discounts and the military discounts are always better whether I pay for DDP or OOP. And for us OOP is always cheaper.

What? That's not true at all. Plenty of people save on the DP even when paying for it.

I know how the military discount works - it's just a bit less than the CM discount and with the ticket discount they receive it's nearly impossible to beat. To find the least expensive way to go just becomes a question of whether the DP or OOP would save more - and since it's possible to save even when paying for the DP they should check the menus.

For you OOP is better - for someone else it might not be.

I won't keep arguing the reasoning behind anything - it's easy to run the numbers and find the least expensive route.

 

[TDC Nala]

In order to save on the DDP beyond its actual cost, you must use most if not all of the entitlements. If you are going to use them, fine. If you are going to decide during your trip that you don't want all those desserts and stop ordering them, or if you're going to skip meals because you either have to or want to, that is going to decrease your savings from the plan. How much depends on how many of the entitlements wind up going unused.

Military guests have the option of buying a ticketless package with a military room discount, so they can separately purchase discounted military tickets. They get a discount on both the room and the tickets, plus they can add the dining plan if they want it (no discounts on the dining plan itself). They also have the option of getting the room discount plus the ticket discount and paying out of pocket for meals if they'd rather do that.