Dining Costs

[fritz1215]

I am trying to decide if it will be worth our while to purchase a dining plan, and I see ranges of cost for the meals at each restaurant, but those that are buffet do not break down lunch vs dinner. Is there a good place for me to find that info?
Right off the bat, I'm looking at Akerhus and the Crystal Palace but I know there will be several more.

 

[sharonabe]

There's a sticky at the top of this forum: "Current Buffet/AYCTE prices." That will give you exactly what you're looking for.

 

[fritz1215]

Awesome! Thank you so much

 

[supersnoop]

Www.distripplanner.com should help, too.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

I am trying to decide if it will be worth our while to purchase a dining plan

1) There have been MANY studies.
2) Including by this website.
3) Sure, SOME people come out financially ahead.
4) The majority of people LOSE money when calculating OOP versus DDP.
. . . who REALLY believes Disney would give money away to guests?
. . . it is to THEIR financial benefit to have people buy DDP

 

[fritz1215]

4) The majority of people LOSE money when calculating OOP versus DDP.

Actually, when I run the numbers, it seems we will break about even. Hubs and I are foodies, and like to eat well. Also, we would not visit two parks if we did not get the plan, so factoring in that as well, I think we are leaning towards purchasing it.
Thank you for the information!

 

[Clifton Tesh]

As rusty said, some make out better, some don't.

My wife and I made out better. Our average qs would be about $35 a day and our dinners were always close to $100 if not over. You throw in the $5 times 2 snack and that put us eating around $145 a day. The 2016 plan is a little over $61 a day per adult, so we will round up to $62 times 2 for a total of $124 a day.

Where we made our mistake was using 2 credits at Le Cellier instead of paying OOP. It was only $14 more than our most expensive single credit TS. But even with that mistake we still ended up saving around $80 on food.

 

[Hopefully]

We too find we either break even or come out a bit ahead.
It works for us and I like having it paid in advance.

 

[mkla2015]

It's a numbers game. I played with numbers lots to figure out what I think would work best for my family. We almost always come out ahead by paying OOP but I also have two young kids who eat close to nothing. I also add in gratuity when I'm doing calculations- remember DDP does not include tips.

 

[amy1981]

It usually pays off if you eat at the most expensive restaurants such as character meals, order steak often and really like dessert! This works out great for some. We like the DDP and cost wise it works out well, but it is a lot of food. So, on our last trip, we did a split stay with DDP the first 3 nights only, since they don't expire until midnight of the day you check out, we got 4 days to use the credits. We made our ADRs at the most expensive restaurants on our list for those first 4 days. On the second half we were okay with eating a bit lighter since we got in our "must do's" already. Plus, it is kind of liberating not having all those ADRs all of the time. Also, you get your refillable mug this way which we could still use on the second half of our trip.