DDP Numbers Don't Add Up

[NashBridges]

You are 100% right. I have been saying this for years. We did the DDP once. After that every other trip, I kept track of all the money we spend on food (with tax and tip) and every year since then we saved a minimum of $150 to a max of $400. We are a family of 6 and it still doesn't pay. It is good that you are eating priced fixed meals - if you were choosing your meal and it was one of the cheapest items - you really would be losing money. We also would not eat dessert at every meal - so we end up wasting food.

I really would love to see how Disney does the math to show us that we are saving 20%. Not once for our family.

I have 2 issues with the dining plan:

1>it's never really "free"
2>it's way way way too much food

We tried it once, on our very first trip. For the first few days we were pumped about all the yummy food, all prepaid, no big bill at the end of our meals, desserts, etc. By the end of day 3, we felt like big fat sausages. My skin felt too tight for my body? Who the hell can eat like that for a week at a time? Then, since you paid for it, you don't want to miss a meal, or you lose money. When we are on holidays, we eat like we do at home. If we eat out at home, hubby and I share meals. Not because we are cheap, but because nobody really needs to eat those huge portions of food Quite typically I will order off the appy meal, hubby orders the entree and we share. More than enough for us both.

I read all these posts about people going in July/august with the dining plan. Good luck to them trying to scarf all that food down in that heat. Thinking about it makes me gag lol

 

[aaarcher86]

We can eat like that all week. I think it's so subjective. I always kind of Shake my head at the 'too much food' stuff, personally. I just wonder how people eat at home sometimes if 2 meals and a snack is too much food. We are an physically active family, so it's not as if we're some gluttonous group looking to swell up a pant size.

We usually go with DXDP. We do mostly character meals. Since those are buffets, it's really up to us how much we eat. We do a QS lunch which I'd agree is a large portion, but we wouldn't share regardless since we all eat more than half just not all of our meal. Dinner is either character or some other TS later in the evening. No matter what it is, I'm not trying to eat every piece of food on my plate.

Everyone is different. We will be trying the TIW card in September instead of the DXDP.

 

[SydneyFalco]

We can eat like that all week. I think it's so subjective. I always kind of Shake my head at the 'too much food' stuff, personally. I just wonder how people eat at home sometimes if 2 meals and a snack is too much food. We are an physically active family, so it's not as if we're some gluttonous group looking to swell up a pant size.

I'm the same; the "too much food" thing is a tad perplexing to me. We've gone twice with the deluxe plan and both times came back at the same weight or even a little under (me, once). While I'm six foot five, the wife is five two, so together we're average size, right?

Also, as a canuck it's especially surprising to hear the remark from US folks. A lot of articles get written up here comparing your large restaurant serving sizes to ours (although we apparently salt our food past all rationality, so I doubt we're going to live any longer).

Having no kids, we usually eat a regular TS lunch and a signature meal. This is the first time we're doing the regular plan. My wife agreed to it as long as we could still do a couple of signatures and add appetizers OOP to our TS meals. I've tried to figure out the difference between this and upgrading and we'll come in a couple hundred under the upgrade, albeit with QS lunches -- that's the part we're not sure we'll like.

 

[dkrauss]

We can eat like that all week. I think it's so subjective. I always kind of Shake my head at the 'too much food' stuff, personally. I just wonder how people eat at home sometimes if 2 meals and a snack is too much food. We are an physically active family, so it's not as if we're some gluttonous group looking to swell up a pant size.

We usually go with DXDP. We do mostly character meals. Since those are buffets, it's really up to us how much we eat. We do a QS lunch which I'd agree is a large portion, but we wouldn't share regardless since we all eat more than half just not all of our meal. Dinner is either character or some other TS later in the evening. No matter what it is, I'm not trying to eat every piece of food on my plate.

Everyone is different. We will be trying the TIW card in September instead of the DXDP.

This Sept will be our first trip using the DDP. Our original thought was the DXDP (as you wrote it ). But after some discussion and questioning we decided to go down to the Reg DDP so as to not have TS meals for each 3 meals of the day. Thats our choice. As for the being to much food.........maybe, but we're steak eaters so our meals can be pricey . As for is it worth it...........totally subjective. Totally dependent on your family and how you eat.............AND MOST OF ALL.........WHERE YOU EAT!

If you have children you should consider they're eating habits based on their age (as the OP stated). While I haven't proved it.......yet.........I can see the best value of the dining plan at a restaurant with the $50 Steak or Lobster as an entree..........buffets are iffy but some of them can be pricey so don't rule them out (we didn't )

One other thing I made sure I did was research research research before I bought the plan............ It can be very confusing and you're better off not rushing the thought process................I did finally buy the Reg DDP last week (I've had reservation since Oct 2013).......but after much review.

Can't wait to report back on how it worked out.........

Doug

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

Any Disney Math gurus want to help me decide? We have always got the dining plan in the past and pay for it up front, but am debating this is actually a savings?? Not sure...so here goes. April 18-26th family of 4 2 teen boys. We eat a small breakfast in room every day, lunch is always a counter service no sharing... we usually get bottled water or ice tea with lunch and of course the dessert that comes with it..but we have been known to ask for an extra water here and there. Dinner is always a TS and we plan to eat at the following:
Sanaa
Boma Dinner $40.46
Trails End dinner $24.49
Biergarten Dinner $40.46
Garden grill dinner $40.46
Ohana dinner $40.46
Cape May dinner $40.46
Crystal Palace dinner $40.46
we tend to use the mugs only if we are staying somewhere that is convenient, for coffee or ice tea...last year they were a waste at BWV we never used them. We are staying at AKV this time so may be better use. We get a snack every day, for instance Dole whip floats or Sundaes in MK. So yeah or nay? Do we pay for it, or go OOP for once??

I believe you will come out cheaper without the DDP. Each of the buffets include tax but not tip - just like the DDP.

Let's say the DDP is about $60 per person. If the dinner is $40.46 and the snack is at most $5 with the Dole Whip being $4. so far you are up to $45-$46.00. Then you have $14-$15.00 to spend on lunch. To me that is more than we would spend on lunch.

What I find is that when you have the DDP you end up eating in places or eating food that justifies the cost. We have gone for years and never went over what the DDP would cost us and eating in most of the restaurants that you are eating in.

The day you eat in Trails End you will be behind about $20 per person so for the 4 of you that is $80.

At most the other days you will break even but I believe you will save about $4 per person per day - with the Trails End day you saving about $20 per person.

Even if you break even why give Disney all that money up front. One time our daughter got sick and didn't eat much for two days (and she was a Disney adult - 10 years old) - if we had paid for the DDP we would have lost all that money.

I hope this helps.

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

I have 2 issues with the dining plan:

1>it's never really "free"
2>it's way way way too much food

We tried it once, on our very first trip. For the first few days we were pumped about all the yummy food, all prepaid, no big bill at the end of our meals, desserts, etc. By the end of day 3, we felt like big fat sausages. My skin felt too tight for my body? Who the hell can eat like that for a week at a time? Then, since you paid for it, you don't want to miss a meal, or you lose money. When we are on holidays, we eat like we do at home. If we eat out at home, hubby and I share meals. Not because we are cheap, but because nobody really needs to eat those huge portions of food Quite typically I will order off the appy meal, hubby orders the entree and we share. More than enough for us both.

I read all these posts about people going in July/august with the dining plan. Good luck to them trying to scarf all that food down in that heat. Thinking about it makes me gag lol

I agree with you. The one time we did the DDP we were there for 9 days. On the last day we had about 6 QS points and about 10 snacks left. We are a family of 6 and by the 5th day we were sharing QS because of all the food. We brought bottles of water with us so we never bought any. We ended up bringing back so many Mickey Rice Crispie treats that it wasn't funny.

 

[Dean]

Even if you only save $60, wouldn't it still be worth it? That's $60 for Frozen merchandise, or whatever you want. Maybe the Family Magic Tour.
You could eat what you want when you want.
Yes, I think you are right to skip the DDP and pay OOP.
There is no reason to do it, and you will discover great freedom.
Have a great trip.

To use your post to make a few points. While we often do the DP, usually deluxe occasionally others, we don't get 5% but more in the 20-30% range as a rule. If we're not getting at least 20% either in reduced cost or added DESIRED value then we don't do it. I feel that way both because there is risk of getting the DP such as missing the trip or becoming ill and because there are other discount options including TIW, DVC, AP & Chase CC. 5-10% "savings" is simply not worth the risk and it's certainly not reasonable to do it just to have prepaid for simplicity without much or any savings.

If you go strictly by the numbers, it's difficult to realize a lot of value with any of the dining plans (except possibly the deluxe for those who prefer signature dinners nightly) if you have a party of all dining adults. Especially if your preferred TS meal is breakfast, and you can get by without each of you ordering dessert at every meal that isn't breakfast.

The QS is the most difficult to get value from and the Deluxe the easiest. One really must either be in a specialty situation such as with kids 3-9 being a significant portion of the group, very short stays OR make choices of high cost options at every turn. There are ways to get a higher dollar value than others, the question is whether that adds value to a given family or not. For QS things like the combo meals (normally only available dinner), PM & WPE are ways to increase the value. A couple of places have desserts that could also be appy's, like fruit or a cheese plate and some more will do this if you ask case by case. Often one can get a smoothie as the drink instead, no refill. Many of the snacks are north of $5 per. The mugs are of variable benefit. We rarely do QS if it's just us. An in between with only 2 credits would by far be better for us or some type of points system where you used a proportionate number of points say 2 for QS, 3 for TS and 4 for signatures.

I have 2 issues with the dining plan:

1>it's never really "free"
2>it's way way way too much food

We tried it once, on our very first trip. For the first few days we were pumped about all the yummy food, all prepaid, no big bill at the end of our meals, desserts, etc. By the end of day 3, we felt like big fat sausages. My skin felt too tight for my body? Who the hell can eat like that for a week at a time? Then, since you paid for it, you don't want to miss a meal, or you lose money. When we are on holidays, we eat like we do at home. If we eat out at home, hubby and I share meals. Not because we are cheap, but because nobody really needs to eat those huge portions of food Quite typically I will order off the appy meal, hubby orders the entree and we share. More than enough for us both.

I read all these posts about people going in July/august with the dining plan. Good luck to them trying to scarf all that food down in that heat. Thinking about it makes me gag lol

For some that's true but we don't eat that way even on the DP. We're often sharing meals, getting apply type of desserts, etc. But we arrive early, plan well and stay late on departure day so we can use up more credits than we would otherwise. We also often have multiple rooms so we can group those that would eat more and not get the plan for those that it wouldn't work for. Even Free Dining isn't free but it can be cost effective for some, not for others.

 

[momtwoboys]

thanks for the help! It is something to think about.... there would be a chance that our trails end would be switched out for a second Boma so that would change the numbers a bit. We will eat at those places whether on the plan or not, we know we love those places MMMM!!

 

[Meerkatx]

Seems to me the costs are roughly the same regardless of which way someone chooses. My conclusion is if looking at menu prices stresses you out ddp is the way to go. For me the concern over optimizing my ddp plan vs being flexible makes the ddp not worth it.