Dining plan cost OUTRAGEOUS for 2012

[daisyx3]

I just looked at the regular DDP for our spring break (peak) vacation. $53.54 per day, per person (4 people) equals $1499 and change.
The added mug is a wash--usually we get one or two mugs for the family, not one for everyone. We are a family of 5, but our oldest is in college and can't go this year--and the four of us would be paying per day what we paid for 5 of us, 3 years ago (when it was $40 per day)--approximately.
I have already booked our TS restaurants based on the fact that we will probably add the plan before we go (we are staying DVC). We are eating at:
Ohana
Chefs de France
Boma
Mama Melrose
Narcoosee's (2 credits)
Ragland Road

Tomorrow I am going to go through the menus (I am on vacation anyway, LOL) and see if we will really be saving or not, especially since we will be paying a tip on top of it. If we did NOT do the DDP, we would not get the desserts with lunches, and may even share more. Plus we will have to eat OOP one day to make up for Narcoosee's.
I dont' think I'll mind if we decide to pass on the DDP--we usually go home feeling like the fatted calf--but I will work it out tomorrow if it is worth it to us.
Daisyx3

 

[mommyrosa2]

So after reading this thread, we decided to take a look at our upcoming trip in August & here's my breakdown:
8 night/9 days = 2 adults/2 teens (Disney adults)
2012 DP cost for 8 nights= $1649.28

Our Ressies:
Cape May dinner: $175
O'hana dinner: $140
Teppan Edo: $144
Via Napoli: $162
Cape May breakfast: $120
Portobello dinner: $145
Yachtsman steakhouse (2 cr): $240

CS for 8 nights= $58 avg./day
snacks for 8 nights = $4 pp/pd = $128
Total ADR's + CS + snacks = $1718 for 8 nights

My totals above are based on 2011 menu prices & what our bill came to (without tip) when we visited in October (we ate at most of the above). The ones we didn't eat at, we looked at current menu prices & based it on what we'd order - & not always choosing the most expensive. I did include desserts at dinner as we do tend to order dessert at dinnertime when we vacation.
As for CS....I used $58 as an avg. as I subtracted dessert... Many of our CS bills came in around $65. As for snack credits, I may be under by one dollar...we use our snack credits for brkfst items & at times I know it was more like $5. Right now, the 2012 DP will still save us SOME money but the gap is getting smaller. If I included the mugs, the savings would be slightly higher but I didn't bother as we would never buy 4 mugs...we normally only get 2 & share. What we found most interesting when doing this exercise was this:
Could we eat for even less money? Absolutely. BUT as we explored that idea, we found that we would not get to experience some of the nicer restaurants & we would find ourselves purposely ordering the cheapest thing on the menu vs. ordering what we would really want to eat just to save a buck ( the exact opposite of what most people say they do when they do go with the DP). So for now, we will go with the DP, as it still makes sense for our family & there is still a savings, not huge but a savings nonetheless.

 

[mommyrosa2]

I just wanted to add that I'm so glad I'm on vacation this week b/c my analysis took forever & I'm exhausted now

 

[lugnut33]

I bet you could put 1200 on a pre-paid card and do just fine for that same time.

 

[angelmav]

I bet you could put 1200 on a pre-paid card and do just fine for that same time.

Disney has accomplished what they set out to do just based on this thread alone. Some people still think they are saving money based on past results and even last year that was a dubious claim, others view it as a way to avoid OOP expenses (ignoring the dining plan itself is an OOP expense), and still others don't care that it loses money due to the perceived convenience factor.

 

[MEK]

I bet you could put 1200 on a pre-paid card and do just fine for that same time.

I do this now. I put a certain amount of money on a card ahead of time and use it to pay for Disney meals.

I also agree that eating off site, even if its just for one quick FF stop saves money. I did a chik-fil-a stop on my last trip and I even went to target and bought some premade sandwiches that we took to the park and had for lunch one day.

I am also quite happy that I don't have the dining plan/ADR stress hanging over my head for June. I have a few isolated ADRs that will take the TIW card and I will couple that will CS and some off site food.

 

[MEK]

It's something I'm torn between right now, because we would really like to do:
CRT
Mickey's Backyard BBQ
Cali Grill
and wouldn't mind doing:
Yachtsman
Flying Fish
Le Cellier

But like the PP said, the deluxe dining plan leaves you with just too much food, and too little time (we're going for 8 days.)

I don't know if it's worth upgrading to deluxe from free dining, or just choosing a few 2TS restaurants to pay for out of pocket.

I wish Disney offered a plan for 2 sit downs, and 1 counter service per day.

I agree that 8 days is a long time on the DxDP.

But let's say you have free dining for 8 nights and you upgrade to DxDP for 2 people. That's $480-$500 (approximately). That is the approximate cost that you would be paying OOP for 2 meals at a signature restaurant (say Yachtsman and Flying Fish), so essentially the rest of your meals are free and you can use them however you want.

I think the DxDP works best if you do a lot of evening signature meals and use your third daily entitlement for a buffett breakfast or TS lunch/late breakfast.

Don't forget that you could easily add Brown Derby in the mix as signature lunch. This is a fabulous meal. Another excellent meal is Artist Point, if you decide to go the DxDP option.

If you think 8 days is too much food (which it is) how about if you did 5 or 6 days on the deluxe dining plan then did a room only reservation for the rest of your stay, which would save you money because you would inevitably get some kind of discount on the room only which would be less than rack rate. It's very easy to spread 5 nights of the DxDP over 6 days.

I think you are considering enough signature meals (4 right now) to make the DxDP a definite consideration in your case. Remember, if you do the regular dining plan you will use 2 TS entitlements for a signature and you still have to pay for the appetizers OOP (unless that changed) and enjoying the apps is really part of enjoying a signature meal (IMHO)

Good luck with your decision.

 

[mommyrosa2]

Disney has accomplished what they set out to do just based on this thread alone. Some people still think they are saving money based on past results and even last year that was a dubious claim, others view it as a way to avoid OOP expenses (ignoring the dining plan itself is an OOP expense), and still others don't care that it loses money due to the perceived convenience factor.

I agree with you to a certain extent. The DP is not going to work for everyone & there are people out there who just want the convenience of a pre-paid plan & don't really care if there is a savings or not. Whether to go with the DP is a personal choice & really does depend on a family's dining habits. I have gone in the past with the DP & without and I can tell you that when we've gone without, we spent more $$ than what the plan would have cost and that included us having to drive offsite & eat offsite and we did have to share meals at times as well. Now, can folks eat cheaper without the
plan? ABSOLUTELY & I don't dispute that. Speaking for my family only, we most certainly could BUT again, we would NOT be able to dine at all the places we like to, or let me re-phrase "we could eat
at SOME of our favorites" BUT we'd be forced to split meals, choose cheaper meals which may not be
what we really would want to eat and we'd have to really alter our eating habits in order to save a
buck...not something MY FAMILY wants to do or HAS to do when we vacation. When we plan a
vacation anywhere, not just Disney, we plan & budget all aspects of our trip, food included and i
know exactly how much $$ my family will spend on dining out for a week. I can do math just fine &
don't need anyone to figure that out for me. Bottomline for US: If there's still a savings to go with
the DP, then we will, when it no longer makes sense, we won't...there really is nothing to debate
here....it's a personal choice each family has to make for themselves.

 

[cluvsdisney]

I agree with you to a certain extent. The DP is not going to work for everyone & there are people out there who just want the convenience of a pre-paid plan & don't really care if there is a savings or not. Whether to go with the DP is a personal choice & really does depend on a family's dining habits. I have gone in the past with the DP & without and I can tell you that when we've gone without, we spent more $$ than what the plan would have cost and that included us having to drive offsite & eat offsite and we did have to share meals at times as well. Now, can folks eat cheaper without the
plan? ABSOLUTELY & I don't dispute that. Speaking for my family only, we most certainly could BUT again, we would NOT be able to dine at all the places we like to, or let me re-phrase "we could eat
at SOME of our favorites" BUT we'd be forced to split meals, choose cheaper meals which may not be
what we really would want to eat and we'd have to really alter our eating habits in order to save a
buck...not something MY FAMILY wants to do or HAS to do when we vacation. When we plan a
vacation anywhere, not just Disney, we plan & budget all aspects of our trip, food included and i
know exactly how much $$ my family will spend on dining out for a week. I can do math just fine &
don't need anyone to figure that out for me. Bottomline for US: If there's still a savings to go with
the DP, then we will, when it no longer makes sense, we won't...there really is nothing to debate
here....it's a personal choice each family has to make for themselves.

I don't understand why you wouldn't eat at these places if you didn't have the dining plan. Based on your cost analysis you are spending just about the same amount of money on the plan as you would to pay out of pocket.

 

[lugnut33]

I'm sorry mommyrosa2, but I don't see how it's possible to spend more money off the DDP, especially if eating off-site.

One great example I can give is eating at Sweet Tomatoes, which is an all you can eat salad and soup buffet with two locations within 5 minutes of Disney property (one is located in the SuperTarget shopping center and the other at the Crossroads shopping area). We utilized some coupons we got on-line from the Sweet Tomatoes website and were able to eat dinner for all 4 of us (2 adults and two children ages 14 & 11) for under $40. That is less than the cost of one buffet at any Disney sitdown restaurant. Heck, if we had ate at Crystal Palace our cost would have been almost $210 with tip. That right there is a savings of $170.

Couple of things that make it an easy decision for us to eat off-site or back in our villa, we always rent a car and we always take an afternoon break.

I also need to add, in no way am I saying your decision to partake in the DDP is bad or anything. You do what makes you happy.

 

[TDC Nala]

I don't understand why you wouldn't eat at these places if you didn't have the dining plan. Based on your cost analysis you are spending just about the same amount of money on the plan as you would to pay out of pocket.

Unless they're all buffets or fixed price meals, you can, if you wish, order appetizers and skip desserts. If it comes out even, I am going to come down on the side of being able to order what I want and not what I've prepaid Disney to order.

And I'm not talking offsite, because I don't rent a car.

 

[cluvsdisney]

Unless they're all buffets or fixed price meals, you can, if you wish, order appetizers and skip desserts. If it comes out even, I am going to come down on the side of being able to order what I want and not what I've prepaid Disney to order.

And I'm not talking offsite, because I don't rent a car.

Oh I know there are many many ways to pay less out of pocket.

I just thought it was curious the list price of the meals were just a tad higher then the cost of the dining plan yet paying out of pocket would mean mommyrosa2 would have to drastically alter the what & where they eat. Of course free dining would make this a moot point if that is the case.

 

[daisyx3]

I haven't analyzed ours yet but I can bet it will be close. Offsite is not an option for us--renting a car on spring break time would really break the dining budget!
We have two buffets with our choices and they would have a surcharge over our travel time (Boma and Ohana) whether we do DDP or not--that's why DDP cost an extra $2 a person per day (roughly).
My kids will be almost 17 (she turns the day after we return) and 13 1/2. My sweet little cheerleader will almost always want a steak. My son is on a perpetual growth spurt and is an eating machine. Thanks to the previous DDP trips, he has a taste for scallops, salmon, and steak. No grilled cheese for him.
I'll work out the details later, but for us in the past it has seemed to work out very well. It's just the price hike....I have to sit down and do the numbers.
Daisyx3

 

[mommyrosa2]

I don't understand why you wouldn't eat at these places if you didn't have the dining plan. Based on your cost analysis you are spending just about the same amount of money on the plan as you would to pay out of pocket.

If I was trying to stick to a 1200 limit as another person suggested then no way would we be able to eat at all of these places and we would not have the luxury of choosing what we really would want to eat. Also my cost analysis was based on this year's prices and I purposely chose some less expensive menu items & not necessarily what we would order just for the exercise. I also said that the savings was small but still a savings. Of course should the prices go up in 2012 like most think will then my savings would be a little higher.

 

[mommyrosa2]

I'm sorry mommyrosa2, but I don't see how it's possible to spend more money off the DDP, especially if eating off-site.

One great example I can give is eating at Sweet Tomatoes, which is an all you can eat salad and soup buffet with two locations within 5 minutes of Disney property (one is located in the SuperTarget shopping center and the other at the Crossroads shopping area). We utilized some coupons we got on-line from the Sweet Tomatoes website and were able to eat dinner for all 4 of us (2 adults and two children ages 14 & 11) for under $40. That is less than the cost of one buffet at any Disney sitdown restaurant. Heck, if we had ate at Crystal Palace our cost would have been almost $210 with tip. That right there is a savings of $170.

Couple of things that make it an easy decision for us to eat off-site or back in our villa, we always rent a car and we always take an afternoon break.

I also need to add, in no way am I saying your decision to partake in the DDP is bad or anything. You do what makes you happy.

Believe me, it's true, we have gone twice and paid OOP and we did pay more than the DP cost. As for your example of Sweet Tomatoes - if that's how your family likes to dine that's great but I can tell you that there is no way in heck my family would want to eat soup and salad buffets while we are away on vacation, in fact, they won't even go for soup and salad at our local Olive Garden back at home - well they would eat the soup and salad as their appetizer but would then want their own entree after that . All I'm trying to say, is what I've said all along, the DP is not for everyone. Can a person dine for less, absolutely, but in our case, I do not want to make, prepare or eat any meals in my room. I do not want to have to go offsite to look for someplace cheaper to eat just to save a buck and I don't want to have to tell one of my teens that they can't order a higher priced steak if that's what they so choose to eat. And honestly, I did not take offense by your suggestions, I'm merely stating what works for us.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

For the last few months I have been working on an economic/business project based around Disney dining prices & the Dining Plan.

When all the data is analysed in 2011 the average family (2 adults/2 kids) did save money based around the 2011 prices although best estimates were only putting the saving at around 7-10% certainly not the 25% advertised. However, it WAS possible to save around 25% if everything is maxed out. The interesting concept was that all the savings came from the kids plans, not the adults. Really as an adult in 2011 you were coming off even & it was simply a way to pre-pay for food rather than otherwise. As others have said it was purely convenience to the average guest.

In 2012 things just go out of whack. I haven't spent too much time looking at data for 2012 but early indications are that really those using the dining plan are losing money. Although I haven't worked on all possible permutations.

As a real world example, using my actual plans for my family's 2012 trip (4 adults, 21 nights) we are estimated to be at a $800 loss. Then to put on top an approximate $350 in tips not covered in the plan. Fortunately for us we get free dining.

At 2012 prices it's hard to see how an adult even comes out even & children look like probably coming out about even. 2012 sees the year when OOP is the better value.

Except that it's not possible to price it out for 2012 yet. It's not 2012. You must be using 2011 menu prices in your calculations.

We have no way yet to see what is going to happen to menu prices on 2012 yet. Disney does not widely advertise menu price increases or surcharges, yet they have been imposing them for years.

If ou are going to WDW during Easter week - it may well be that WDW adds a $5 surcharge person per TS meal/buffet for theNTIRE week! thay have done so numerous times in the past. Sometimes they add the surcharge for more or less the whole spring break period.

Disney also changtes the buffet offerings frequently. The remove expensive items like prime roast - and replace it with lesser cuts of beef. they cut back on expensive fresh fruit, they offer lesser quality ice cream, they offer only small milk boxes over the larger milk pint bottles with kids' meals. these changes are not visible unless you know WDW well. Most guests have no idea of these cuts unless they are obvious - like when they stopped allowing full sized potato chip bags as 'snack' items. These quality cut backs - I hate to say - were especially prevalent during 'free dining.'

I've been there. I've done this myself, and found DDP was abetter deal than I had thought in advance.

For us it can bea toss up. DDP saves us money over oop- and it's about even with TiW discount. But then, the only buffet we tend to do is 1900 PF, which in recent calculations - been one of the more expensive buffets. We also made a point to dine at Tutto - where we came out quite a bit ahead on DDP vs. simple oop. We also watch how we use our snack credits.

Yes, DDP is a matter of convenience. especially in large group. It isn't so much that I get the MOST expensive food on DDP - as we tend to get the LEAST expensive food without DDP. We also sometimes end up sharing TS meals. (one person gets an entree, the other an appetizer and they split both.)

 

[cluvsdisney]

If I was trying to stick to a 1200 limit as another person suggested then no way would we be able to eat at all of these places and we would not have the luxury of choosing what we really would want to eat. Also my cost analysis was based on this year's prices and I purposely chose some less expensive menu items & not necessarily what we would order just for the exercise. I also said that the savings was small but still a savings. Of course should the prices go up in 2012 like most think will then my savings would be a little higher.

Gotcha! I was obviously thinking about your cost analysis compared to the price of the meal plan. In my head I was thinking if someone would pay $1650 for the meal plan why would $1720 in OOP expenses be out of reach since a few minor adjustments OOP would line up the prices. I didn't realize you were talking about $1200 budget. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[cmurray234]

Unless they're all buffets or fixed price meals, you can, if you wish, order appetizers and skip desserts. If it comes out even, I am going to come down on the side of being able to order what I want and not what I've prepaid Disney to order.

And I'm not talking offsite, because I don't rent a car.

THis was the decider for me (I canceled the dining plan and took the $50 reservation change hit). I would MUCH rather have an appetizer and then get dessert a couple of hours later at the Main St. bakery.

Also, my family isn't big on buffets and my son positively DETESTS character meals. He was proposed to by one of the Tremaines at 1900 Park Fare when he was 8 years old. She dumped him off his chair (LOL!) and kissed him on the cheek in front of everyone. Traumatized the poor kid for life I think.

Anyway, he categorically refuses to eat with characters again, so there is little way for us to save $$.

 

[TDC Nala]

it may well be that WDW adds a $5 surcharge person per TS meal/buffet for theNTIRE week!

The current Disney surcharge is $4 per adult and $2 per child on all fixed price restaurants. It does not apply to all TS meals, just Disney-operated fixed price restaurants.

If they follow the same dates as the dining plan peak periods (they did that this year) the surcharge will be in effect March 9 - April 14, 2012.

 

[MarkF0wle]

Except that it's not possible to price it out for 2012 yet. It's not 2012. You must be using 2011 menu prices in your calculations.

We have no way yet to see what is going to happen to menu prices on 2012 yet. Disney does not widely advertise menu price increases or surcharges, yet they have been imposing them for years.

If ou are going to WDW during Easter week - it may well be that WDW adds a $5 surcharge person per TS meal/buffet for theNTIRE week! thay have done so numerous times in the past. Sometimes they add the surcharge for more or less the whole spring break period.

Disney also changtes the buffet offerings frequently. The remove expensive items like prime roast - and replace it with lesser cuts of beef. they cut back on expensive fresh fruit, they offer lesser quality ice cream, they offer only small milk boxes over the larger milk pint bottles with kids' meals. these changes are not visible unless you know WDW well. Most guests have no idea of these cuts unless they are obvious - like when they stopped allowing full sized potato chip bags as 'snack' items. These quality cut backs - I hate to say - were especially prevalent during 'free dining.'

It's true yes I am analysing figures based on the menus that are available now & the costs of DDP for 2012. Like you I am expecting there to be menu prices increases in 2012 but it's likely that they will be phased in gradually. I think for Disney to just overnight raise prices by 10% would be irresponsible from a business perspective. As such I can only work with the data that is available & whenever there are changes then revisions are made. The DDP may be better value for those booking for December than those travelling in January.

It's quite valid however as when planning a holiday from booking to when the trip occurs prices can fluctuate - especially for those oversees like myself who generally book holidays a minimum of 1 year in advance.

As for the $5/week surcharge. It's one of those things that may or may not happen, if it is announced far enough out it can be planned for & factored in. If it's announced late then it's purely blind luck & you win/lose depending on previous choices. I'm not trying to predict the future, purely present a situation based around what is known for fact now.

As with everything, facts & figures are only half of the story. Everything is circumstantial. Everybody will value it differently. Personally, so long as it's not grossly unbalanced (I doubt it will ever be) then I am totally in favour of the plan for the convenience factor.