DDP

[johnkrusinski]

Hi do any of you guys use the dining plan and which one. How do you figure it saves money over tables in wonderland. Am I missing something . Do you all get the plan . Is there a trick or loophole I’m missing . How about on split stay does plan run out after first stay .im confused and been to Disney over 20x. Thanks

 

[Matty B13]

One of the loopholes that Disney just closed, was that on the regular Dining Plan, all the quick service credits could be used for either a kids meal or an adult. This loophole allowed people to use their kids quick service credits for adult ones, which save a lot of money if you several kids on the meal plan. Just recently they started differentiating on the meal plans between the adult & kids quick service credits. Since this change we are really rethinking if we will purchase the meal plan.

Also, our eating habits have also changed over the past couple of years and we are eating much less, so the large amount of food you get with the meal plan doesn't really fit our family anymore.

 

[MonkeyKnifeFight]

We used it on our last trip and plan to use it on the next. Its a great value if most of your dining is at buffets or character meals and you get alcohol with every meal. Its a bad deal if you typically get a $30 entrée at most restaurants and don't drink. Really the only way to know if it makes sense is to crunch the numbers. If you are doing a split stay you have to get a separate dining plan for each stay or only do it on one of the stays. We are considering a split stay and doing the deluxe plan for the first 2 nights and no plan for the remainder. But that is still in rough draft phase of planning for us.

 

[Brian Noble]

I've never, not once, spent more just eating what, when, and where I wanted vs. the "right" dining plan for the mix of meals I end up eating. That's usually because I don't eat exactly the "right" number of sit-down meals. Even when I do, I inevitably sprinkle in some less expensive meals (breakfast) or lighter entrees, and that drags down the effective value of using the plan. I also don't eat dessert at every meal; for me that is overkill.

In short, I'm convinced that for most families, the dining plans are an upsell in disguise.

Note that this doesn't account for alcohol. I went and got sober before Disney added alcoholic beverages to the plan so I don't know how that changes things. If everyone in your travel group is likely to order an alcoholic drink for most meals that might tip the balance, but only because the prices of those drinks have skyrocketed in the past year or so. (Again, I think this is just an upsell in disguise.)

 

[minthorne]

If you have an AP, DVC, or DIsney Visa the 10% discount at many sit down locations makes paying out of pocket usually a better deal than either the DDP or TiW.

TiW may be a better deal if you have a large group and several people drink alcohol or if you are planning several trips.

I've found DDP is very hard to make a better deal without changing my normal eating habits.

 

[aoconnor]

In general 90%+ of the time you won't save money. If you go to the most expensive restaurants and order the most expensive things *maybe* you will have a modest savings. Especially when you can use DVC/AP/TIW discounts- it just doesn't make sense for the majority of people.

 

[AnnaS]

I have never purchased any of the Dining Plans. I would consider it - maybe - for a short stay. I don't want my stay to revolve around my meals. Hubby and I would also like/rather have an appetizer rather than dessert. We will split dessert many times.

We use the TIW a lot. If the TIW card does not make sense sometimes (#of trips/duration/#of people in my family going), our DVC discount will do.

 

[NoTime42]

The math hasn’t worked in our favor to get a TIW or DDP for several years. With the higher price of TIW minus AP/DVC discounts the TIW break-even is $1500 vs back in the day when it was closer to $400.

I’ve read of some multi-room party’s getting the DDxP on one room with children and using the credits for both rooms, but in 2020, child credits remain child credits.
DDP credits expire midnight of that stay’s checkout. The refilliable mugs would remain valid for 14 days regardless of stay length so that might help a tiny bit.

 

[Matty B13]

Note that this doesn't account for alcohol. I went and got sober before Disney added alcoholic beverages to the plan so I don't know how that changes things. If everyone in your travel group is likely to order an alcoholic drink for most meals that might tip the balance, but only because the prices of those drinks have skyrocketed in the past year or so. (Again, I think this is just an upsell in disguise.)

If you like a drink with your meal and does add a little more value to the DDP's

Once our oldest becomes a Disney Adult we will probably stop buying the DDP.

 

[Shellyred8]

We just got back from a split stay where we were the first resort for only one night. So we did the quick service DP for just that one night. We definitely made that work in our favor! Also, we got the resort mug and it was good for the rest of our trip (which was 6 more nights - BLT and BWV).

 

[bookwormde]

I have not used it since drinks were added, but used to do deluxe for 1 or 2 day split studio stays before moving into a 1 or 2 br villa where we cook

By avoiding sit down breakfasts due to spreading it out over an extra day and using it on character meals, higher cost buffets or high cost menu costs it was good value saving about 30%

 

[MICKIMINI]

If you don't drink alcohol and aren't a big eater, it's likely you'll pay more with DDP. It is convenient, but at a cost...

We've been many times and now know where we can buy a QS meal and split or get a larger snack in place of a meal. We always have breakfast at our villa and bring a snack and water with us to the parks. We do use our Disney Visa to save 10% for the occasional sit down meal at a few favorite restaurants, otherwise, we buy gift cards with cash back to save a bit.

 

[BillPA]

If the DDP saved you money, do you really think Disney would offer it?

 

[Sandisw]

I typically only use it when I’m taking guests who want to plan out price and don’t go enough to know their habits. So, in that case it works out better for them...not for me, since I have to get it too.

The other time is when I have a split stay. Sometimes I do it then, because I get the mug, and we use the snack credits from the first nights to buy things that we use for the second set of nights for breakfast as we stock up on things like muffins, bagels, and danishes.

More often than not, I find its better to put the amount on gift cards and just see how it goes, I have had any of my guests, or myself not have the amount cover the way I like to eat and drink. Last time, we even covered all our drinks too because we didnt Want a second TS.

 

[CanadaDisney05]

My upcoming trip may be the one and only time we are even entertaining the dining plan. We will be a party of 4 adults, 1 child, and 2 babies, split up over two studios. We are contemplating buying the deluxe plan for the members in the room with 2 adults and the child. We would then split the adult credits over the 4 adults, and use the extra "child" credits to split some quick service meals.

Outside of some specific creative "loopholes", I don't think the DDP is worth it. I basically look at it the same way I look at an extended warranty (except the reward is actually way worst). It essentially puts a fixed cost on your dining budget, but your paying a premium for that insurance.

At an all inclusive resort/cruise, they've run the numbers and charge more for the all inclusive package than the average person will eat. The house wins on average, but an individual can still personally "beat" the house if they are large eaters. With the dining plan, this is not possible. They cap out how much value you can extract. So while it is still possible to "save" money using the dining plan, your not going to beat it by a large dollar figure even in the best case scenarios. However, the possibility of losing to the house is much more likely (see all of the blog posts about having left over quick service and snack credits at the end of the trip). Given that, paying a premium to eliminate the minor risk that the dining plan would have been cheaper than paying out of pocket seems silly to me. If I'm spending all of this money on a Disney vacation, I have the extra funds to cover the slight possibility of spending an extra $50-100 per person on dining.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I have never used it. Would hate to feel restricted on exactly what I can get, or where I can eat while on vacation.

 

[JerryWS98]

I have used the DDP, but probably won't in the future. I don't believe that I saved any money, and at the end of my trip I had a TON of snack credits that we didn't use. We ended up using almost all of our snack credits at the gift shop as we were leaving just so that they didn't go to waste (but the reality is that we still ended up throwing most of them out - so much for not wasting..).

 

[Matty B13]

I have used the DDP, but probably won't in the future. I don't believe that I saved any money, and at the end of my trip I had a TON of snack credits that we didn't use. We ended up using almost all of our snack credits at the gift shop as we were leaving just so that they didn't go to waste (but the reality is that we still ended up throwing most of them out - so much for not wasting..).

Using snacks wisely for expensive snacks is really the only way to come out ahead with the DDP. Of course it takes a lot of research to figure this out, thankfully I love dole whips (which are counted as a snack) and I usually buy at least one every 2 days while at WDW.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

I used to get DDP. I used to swear by it.
I liked it because I used to like feeling that everything was paid for already and I got a sense of financial security - no more cost for airlines, food, rooms, tickets (AP). My budget was whatever I wanted for gifts or souvenirs.

I stopped years ago.It was too confining. I like to eat where I like, when I like. I don't do a sit down every day. I don't do quick service every day. I might do 4 sit downs in a 7 day visit. Or I might hit the parks very little and do a lot of world dining one trip. Or I might do a dinner show. Often snacks would go to waste and I would come home with 5,000 things of popcorn in my bag. In other words, I had to plan my activities to meet the DDP - and that was not fun. The DDP needs to work for my activities, not the other way around. Until they change that, I find it better to just pay in cash and happily take my DVC, AP, or Visa discounts.

 

[heynowirv]

Agree with most everyone. We used to swear by TIW and probably will again as our family grows.But with most restaurants giving 10% for DVC including alcohol it's the way we go. Now after we retire next year and our stays become longer /more often we will revisit our habits.