DDP vs. OOP Comparison

[mdoc]

I'm thinking seriously about the DP for our trip over T'giving week, even though I've never thought the dining plan made sense for us before. I'm contemplating it this time because of the holiday pricing on the buffets - that might tip the balance because we will definitely go to a couple of them. Anyway, I ran the numbers using the spreadsheets linked to this board and the restaurants I thought we'd go to if we were doing the DP. Turned out we'd save about $425 (for 5 adults and 1 child over 7 days) vs. doing those same restaurants OOP with DDE. However, I then calculated the cost for what we'd do if we weren't on the DP. Not surprisingly, if we were paying OOP we wouldn't necessarily be going to all of the same restaurants, we wouldn't be eating desserts at every meal, we'd share some CS, some of us would order water instead of a beverage at the TS restaurants, etc. That's the way we usually eat at WDW, and we're always satisfied. When I compared it that way, it turns out it'll cost us about $200 more to do the DP. I was not taking into consideration the likelihood that some of the kids will beg for appetizers and fancy drinks (and get them) at the TS restaurants on the DP, although I did take the sides (like fries) into account in calculating OOP CS costs. That means the DP would cost us even more over what we usually do. So I guess it comes down to whether we'd like to try out some of the nicer WDW restaurants that we've never been to. If we don't do DP, we'll probably visit those restaurants eventually, but it'll be more like 1 per trip over the next several years instead of all at once. We can afford it without a problem, but to do the DP we will definitely have to change our touring style and be more flexible. Food is not our focus on vacation, so does this make sense? Have any other families who are more ride than meal focused done the DP and thought it was a fantastic idea?

 

[TiggerDad3]

I think what you're saying makes perfect sense.

There have been times when we have made the same decision, our eating style for the trip didn't justify the expense, we were gonna be on the go and seeing everything(rides, rides, rides) and didn't want ADR's, wanted the freedom of spur of the moment thinking. Our upcoming trip will be more about the food and seeing some of the details of Disney that we have missed in the past when we have concentrated on getting to all the rides/attractions, so the plan works for us this time. DDP doesn't work for everyone all the time, I am sure there will be trips for us in the future when we won't use it.