Dining Plan changes, whats really up here?

[robinb]

Can someone link me to the calculator?

 

[mi*vida*loca]

http://distripplanner.com/

We priced it out for our 10 night trip. The DDP is $2011 and OOP I would have to pay about $500 on top of the price of the DDP.

Everything OOP is $1800. This is about 5 ADR's and the rest QS with no sharing.

I don't think we will hit $1800. I'm thinking more around $1600 because like a PP stated our eating habits change while on vacation. Everyone isn't hungry at the same time or everyone doesn't want a big meal at night. Sometimes a snack for lunch will be fine.

ETA: Also DD and I will most likely share a few things. I eat 5 small meals a day on a regular basis at home and see myself snacking more than eating big meals. DD likes grown up meals and I eat smaller portions. It works out for us.

 

[MikL99]

Are you a family that eats a lot on vacation? yes = DDP. Do you think you can spend less than 60.00 (19.00 for a kid under 10) a day to eat at Disney? yes = OOP. Its really that simple. My family enjoys eating on vacation and my son enjoys picking what ever he wants on the menu. Sure i could just do OOP and get all the same stuff and just pay off the credit card when I go home but i'm going to assume the way we order its going to be around the same as the dinning plan. Maybe when we hit our 5th or 6th trip to Disney i'll try the OOP way but for right now i'm still doing the Regular DDP.

Oh and it also goes by are you a family that does more Quick service meals and less sit down dinners. I like going to sit downs.

Also this thread seems to have strayed from the main topic.

 

[msb578]

Are you a family that eats a lot on vacation? yes = DDP. Do you think you can spend less than 60.00 (19.00 for a kid under 10) a day to eat at Disney? yes = OOP. Its really that simple. My family enjoys eating on vacation and my son enjoys picking what ever he wants on the menu. Sure i could just do OOP and get all the same stuff and just pay off the credit card when I go home but i'm going to assume the way we order its going to be around the same as the dinning plan. Maybe when we hit our 5th or 6th trip to Disney i'll try the OOP way but for right now i'm still doing the Regular DDP.

Oh and it also goes by are you a family that does more Quick service meals and less sit down dinners. I like going to sit downs.

Also this thread seems to have strayed from the main topic.

If you look at the dining calculator, you'll see you're usually losing money on the DDP, unless you book almost all character dinners. In that case, you'll save money. Also, having lots of kids on the plan helps you save.

These threads always end up like this. Just like anything pool related, or parking, or strollers

 

[Marionnette]

Are you a family that eats a lot on vacation? yes = DDP. Do you think you can spend less than 60.00 (19.00 for a kid under 10) a day to eat at Disney? yes = OOP. Its really that simple. My family enjoys eating on vacation and my son enjoys picking what ever he wants on the menu. Sure i could just do OOP and get all the same stuff and just pay off the credit card when I go home but i'm going to assume the way we order its going to be around the same as the dinning plan. Maybe when we hit our 5th or 6th trip to Disney i'll try the OOP way but for right now i'm still doing the Regular DDP.

Oh and it also goes by are you a family that does more Quick service meals and less sit down dinners. I like going to sit downs.

Also this thread seems to have strayed from the main topic.

Maybe for you, it's really that simple. For us, it's more complicated than just the dollar amount. It has more to do with how Disney decides those dollars get spent. I did my math. None of the dining plans is a good fit for us, although I have not attempted to re-evaluate it with these rumored changes. I'll wait until they actually put it into practice before I take the time to assess its new value.

 

[MikL99]

Maybe for you, it's really that simple. For us, it's more complicated than just the dollar amount. It has more to do with how Disney decides those dollars get spent. I did my math. None of the dining plans is a good fit for us, although I have not attempted to re-evaluate it with these rumored changes. I'll wait until they actually put it into practice before I take the time to assess its new value.

That was more of my point that each family is different so 1 person saying that it is better to go OOP isn't always true. I was just showing how DDP works for my family but might not work for others.

 

[Colleen27]

I'm in the minority here - I don't think this is a run-up to a big price increase. I think it is primarily a way of dramatically reducing guest/CM conflicts at point-of-sale over plan rules, while at the same time restoring some of the plan's potential savings (which have been all but lost over the last few years).

I expect to see free dining phased out soon and I think this is another step in that direction; they're looking at bringing the plan back to enough of a value that people will continue to buy it as FD is cut back/eliminated. A steep price hike would be contrary to that end. The brilliance of the dining plan remains getting people locked in to eating all their meals (and therefore spending all their time) on Disney property, which makes it the sort of product that produces maximum revenue via volume rather than on a per-unit basis.