Dining plan cost OUTRAGEOUS for 2012

[chmurf]

we booked QSDP, but after a few weeks, and lots of reading forums, we decided to cancel QSDP and go for off property dining.
If I want a hamburger, I'd rather go to Mcdonalds than paying twice as much at Disney's, not to mention that the choice of burgers doesn't compare.

DDP is also a waste of time (in my opinion).
Managing ADRs is something I don't want to have to care about while on vacations. Also I have very bad memories of WDW table service.
Sometimes you'll sit for hours as service is soooooo slow, and sometimes you feel like you're being rushed. Add a restless kid (or several kids for that matter) and you'll get the perfect recipe for disaster.

Kids choice also seems very poor and lack diversity.

Related to cost, it seems to have gone way up.
To break even with the DDP, you need to eat a lot. All you can eat buffets everyday seems a poor idea, and the last thing I want is to come home with an extra 50 pounds.

We're a family of 3 ( me, DW and DS who's 4) and we did the maths.
QSDP would cost us $82 a day (roughly).
For breakfast, IHOP or even pastries off the store (we have a car, so shopping for food is not an issue), let's say $20 on average
but I'm not even including it in the calculation, since QSDP only includes 2 meals a day

Lunch will be settled at McDonalds, Denny's, BK or similar. $25 tops (here in france, we get away with a €18.5 tab for the 3 of us, that's under $15 and prices here are much higher)
A large pizza is enough for the 3 of us at night. that's around $15 tops
We'll buy a refillable mug for the resort. and since we're there for 18 days, each mug will cost us 83cents a day per person, $2.5 for the 3 of us.

so we're looking at a cost of $42.5 a day when QSDP would cost us $82

This means that on average, for the price of QSDP, we can eat all 3 meals a day, and still have $20 for extras, every day ... and with a much wider range of food to choose from. We can even choose to eat at table service in the World once in a while without breaking our budget.

And with DDP the difference is even bigger.

So definitely, in my opinion and in my experience, DDP is not worth it, unless you only travel with Disney's transportation system, or if you don't want to take your car out of the World, or you get it free

As per this thread's title, DDP's cost is outrageous, and only benefits those who can eat their weight's worth of food on every meal ...

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Lunch will be settled at McDonalds, Denny's, BK or similar. $25 tops (here in france, we get away with a €18.5 tab for the 3 of us, that's under $15 and prices here are much higher)
A large pizza is enough for the 3 of us at night. that's around $15 tops
We'll buy a refillable mug for the resort. and since we're there for 18 days, each mug will cost us 83cents a day per person, $2.5 for the 3 of us.

so we're looking at a cost of $42.5 a day when QSDP would cost us $82

Except that to get from say - the middle of Epcot or MK to the closest McDonalds takes a minimum of an hour each way. The closest Dennys or Burger King - as far as I recall - is even further and more time consuming - more like 90 minutes each way. You also need a rental car if you are going to eat offsite, plus gas and maybe tolls.

I can see going offsite for breakfast or dinner perhpas, but the time expense to eat lunch truly offsite seems like a crazy waste to me.

Do you really bring your refillable resort mug to lunch at MdD's to save two dollars?

I'm not trying to be rude, I just don't see how the time cost adds up to any kind of savings. We spend easily $25 per waking hour to be at WDW. By my way of thinking -going to McD's costs over $50 in lost time.

Wouldn't it be far 'cheaper' to eat a pizza on WDW property for lunch? Maybe share a WDW burger to tide you over until dinner?

 

[maxiesmom]

we booked QSDP, but after a few weeks, and lots of reading forums, we decided to cancel QSDP and go for off property dining.
If I want a hamburger, I'd rather go to Mcdonalds than paying twice as much at Disney's, not to mention that the choice of burgers doesn't compare.

DDP is also a waste of time (in my opinion).
Managing ADRs is something I don't want to have to care about while on vacations. Also I have very bad memories of WDW table service.
Sometimes you'll sit for hours as service is soooooo slow, and sometimes you feel like you're being rushed. Add a restless kid (or several kids for that matter) and you'll get the perfect recipe for disaster.

Kids choice also seems very poor and lack diversity.

Related to cost, it seems to have gone way up.
To break even with the DDP, you need to eat a lot. All you can eat buffets everyday seems a poor idea, and the last thing I want is to come home with an extra 50 pounds.

We're a family of 3 ( me, DW and DS who's 4) and we did the maths.
QSDP would cost us $82 a day (roughly).
For breakfast, IHOP or even pastries off the store (we have a car, so shopping for food is not an issue), let's say $20 on average
but I'm not even including it in the calculation, since QSDP only includes 2 meals a day

Lunch will be settled at McDonalds, Denny's, BK or similar. $25 tops (here in france, we get away with a €18.5 tab for the 3 of us, that's under $15 and prices here are much higher)
A large pizza is enough for the 3 of us at night. that's around $15 tops
We'll buy a refillable mug for the resort. and since we're there for 18 days, each mug will cost us 83cents a day per person, $2.5 for the 3 of us.

so we're looking at a cost of $42.5 a day when QSDP would cost us $82

This means that on average, for the price of QSDP, we can eat all 3 meals a day, and still have $20 for extras, every day ... and with a much wider range of food to choose from. We can even choose to eat at table service in the World once in a while without breaking our budget.

And with DDP the difference is even bigger.

So definitely, in my opinion and in my experience, DDP is not worth it, unless you only travel with Disney's transportation system, or if you don't want to take your car out of the World, or you get it free

As per this thread's title, DDP's cost is outrageous, and only benefits those who can eat their weight's worth of food on every meal ...

The thing I see you have failed to factor in is the time wasted leaving the parks to go out and eat your meals. That is a lot of hassle, and a lot of wasted time, and therefore wasted money.

We have only used the dining plan twice, and it will be three times after our trip this coming March. That is 3 times out of more than a dozen trips to WDW. We can usually eat a lot cheaper on-site without the plan, however this next trip we are doing a lot of character meals, so the Dining Plan makes sense.

You don't have to eat your weight at every meal to come out ahead. You just have to eat something more than plain burgers and fries. A good steak or piece of seafood, and a character meal, and the plan more than pays for itself.

 

[lugnut33]

We have ate offsite a lot and it's really not that difficult. Matter of fact I'm pretty sure I can get from the center of Epcot to Sweet Tomatoes quicker than you can get from Epcot to a restaurant in the wilderness lodge.

The other thing is if their family takes an afternoon break then it's easy for them swing by an offsite restaurant and not lose any time. As I indicated earlier I saved over 800 eating offsite over 11 days which easily covered our 311 dollar rental car. The upside to a rental car is not having to use Disney transportation, which saves a lot of time if you think time is money.

 

[maxiesmom]

The other thing is if their family takes an afternoon break then it's easy for them swing by an offsite restaurant and not lose any time. As I indicated earlier I saved over 800 eating offsite over 11 days which easily covered our 311 dollar rental car. The upside to a rental car is not having to use Disney transportation, which saves a lot of time if you think time is money.

A car won't save you time if you have no sense of direction and would get lost driving out of a paper bag.

I do agree though that not so much time is lost if you tag your meal onto an afternoon break.

 

[eliza61]

We have ate offsite a lot and it's really not that difficult. Matter of fact I'm pretty sure I can get from the center of Epcot to Sweet Tomatoes quicker than you can get from Epcot to a restaurant in the wilderness lodge.

The other thing is if their family takes an afternoon break then it's easy for them swing by an offsite restaurant and not lose any time. As I indicated earlier I saved over 800 eating offsite over 11 days which easily covered our 311 dollar rental car. The upside to a rental car is not having to use Disney transportation, which saves a lot of time if you think time is money.

at the crossroads at disney which is less than 2 miles from dtd. Immediately there you have almost every type of chain restuarant.
Italian
Steak
mexican
bahama breeze
seafood
pizza
breakfast (Perkins/ihop).
buffet.

Sorry most disney restaurants taste the same as olive gardens so I might as well go to the olive garden and pay 1/3 the price.

Now generally we don't leave for afternoon lunch but my take on dinner is different.
Dinner is important to us, we love taking our time talking about our day over good food. There is nothing worse imo that sitting down getting ready for a great meal and having it be mediocre. then to top it off its way overpriced.


So yeah, I'll take the time to get a great meal then eat that nastiness they serve at Tonys town square. It has been years since we have left a wdw restaurant saying "wow that was a great meal". Now when we leave 9/10 when some one says how was the meal we say "it was ok, nothing special"

 

[Colleen27]

I find that so funny because I find simply from the post on the dis, people on the plan think about price waay more than without. this is just my unscientific observation but I find that most people spend time making sure they get the most expensive item whether they want it or not simply because they feel they must maximize the plan.

When the ddp first changed over (no tips and no apps) I would see post where people wanted to know where they could get the most expensive steak or if they could get lobster tail so they could maximize their credits.

Also I've personally witness quite a number of times people in the hotel quick and go's trying to load up on snacks so they don't waste the credits. So I really don't buy the "prepay and never think about what you order" argument.
People on the ddp OBSESS over what to order and how to use their points.

It is very personality specific. Some people will worry about the money either way. Some will worry more about getting "ripped off"/not getting their money's worth, while others will worry more over menu prices in the moment. I know I'm in the latter group so I still like the plan, particularly the DxDDP. Disney prices are just such massive sticker shock for me that I don't believe I could relax and order what I want without that pre-pay factor. I don't even mind the child/adult cutoff; my two oldest are Disney adults and both have adult enough tastes that they'd be ordering from the adult menus regardless of how we pay.

We ordered out tonight for NYE; Chinese from a good local place cost us ~$50 for our family of 5 including appetizers/soup. Even the nice seafood place we go to on my birthday runs us $100-125. So it is very hard for me to wrap my mind around $200+ dinners every night when we're at Disney. Heck, I'm stressing out over scaling back to basic dining for our next trip (oh, the sacrifices we make to travel with extended family...) because I know that's going to mean OOP extras and that I'm going to be weighing the "Is it really worth $xx?" factor every time.

The wild card now is the new ADR policy. We've had enough trips marred by illness that I'm not comfortable making ADRs for signature restaurants every night any more because of the chance of getting hit with a $50 fee if I end up with a migraine or one of the kids wakes up puking. So our next trip will likely be on the DIY dining plan - loading a gift card with our dining budget, making a couple must-do ADRs, and rolling the dice on last-minute availability for the rest knowing that if we can't get walk-ups/same-day ADRs that appeal to use we can just use the gift card balance for spending money or towards the next trip.

 

[padawans]

We have always done the dxdp at wdw. Yes its expensive, but we eat at a lot of the signature restaurants. We always get seated promptly and have had a great service. The only bad meal I can recall having was at 50's prime time, and that was so bad we still joke about it. Relaxing and eating out is a big part of our vacation. We are not park commandos by any means so it works for us. What I like is not having to ever look at prices or paying for anything oop. I have never sat down and figured out if saves us money or not. Its the convienence that I like.

 

[padawans]

It is very personality specific. Some people will worry about the money either way. Some will worry more about getting "ripped off"/not getting their money's worth, while others will worry more over menu prices in the moment. I know I'm in the latter group so I still like the plan, particularly the DxDDP. Disney prices are just such massive sticker shock for me that I don't believe I could relax and order what I want without that pre-pay factor. I don't even mind the child/adult cutoff; my two oldest are Disney adults and both have adult enough tastes that they'd be ordering from the adult menus regardless of how we pay.

We ordered out tonight for NYE; Chinese from a good local place cost us ~$50 for our family of 5 including appetizers/soup. Even the nice seafood place we go to on my birthday runs us $100-125. So it is very hard for me to wrap my mind around $200+ dinners every night when we're at Disney. Heck, I'm stressing out over scaling back to basic dining for our next trip (oh, the sacrifices we make to travel with extended family...) because I know that's going to mean OOP extras and that I'm going to be weighing the "Is it really worth $xx?" factor every time.

The wild card now is the new ADR policy. We've had enough trips marred by illness that I'm not comfortable making ADRs for signature restaurants every night any more because of the chance of getting hit with a $50 fee if I end up with a migraine or one of the kids wakes up puking. So our next trip will likely be on the DIY dining plan - loading a gift card with our dining budget, making a couple must-do ADRs, and rolling the dice on last-minute availability for the rest knowing that if we can't get walk-ups/same-day ADRs that appeal to use we can just use the gift card balance for spending money or towards the next trip.

I have to agree with you about the cx charges. My dh was not feeling so hot after eating at Citricos. I tried to cx are res at Flying Fish and I was told it would cost us 40.00. Then she asked me if I wanted to cancel. I said no I'll wait and see how he feels. It was going to cost me 40.00 either way. I thought about complaining to a manager, but let it go. We ended up going to Flying Fish, but he really did not enjoy it that much. I have thought about writing a letter. I could see maybe a having a 2 or 4 hour window to cancel with a penalty, but 24 hours is a little ridiculous. They have to realize that people that buy the Dxdp are going to be making a lot of Adrs, and may need a little more flexiblity.

 

[angelmav]

I have to agree with you about the cx charges. My dh was not feeling so hot after eating at Citricos. I tried to cx are res at Flying Fish and I was told it would cost us 40.00. Then she asked me if I wanted to cancel. I said no I'll wait and see how he feels. It was going to cost me 40.00 either way. I thought about complaining to a manager, but let it go. We ended up going to Flying Fish, but he really did not enjoy it that much. I have thought about writing a letter. I could see maybe a having a 2 or 4 hour window to cancel with a penalty, but 24 hours is a little ridiculous. They have to realize that people that buy the Dxdp are going to be making a lot of Adrs, and may need a little more flexiblity.

This. Many, many reports are from people who book b,l,d adr's without realizing that it is too much. Paying a premium for dining then getting hot with all the cancellation fee's makes what should be a pleasure a real headache.

I also love the fearmongering. Oh no, 90 minutes from Epcot to an offsite restaurant..LOL We stayed at a house less than 15 min from Epcot and past multiple restaurants on the way or the Oh no, You will get lost! Ummmm GPS???

 

[eliza61]

I have to agree with you about the cx charges. My dh was not feeling so hot after eating at Citricos. I tried to cx are res at Flying Fish and I was told it would cost us 40.00. Then she asked me if I wanted to cancel. I said no I'll wait and see how he feels. It was going to cost me 40.00 either way. I thought about complaining to a manager, but let it go. We ended up going to Flying Fish, but he really did not enjoy it that much. I have thought about writing a letter. I could see maybe a having a 2 or 4 hour window to cancel with a penalty, but 24 hours is a little ridiculous. They have to realize that people that buy the Dxdp are going to be making a lot of Adrs, and may need a little more flexiblity.

Please right a letter or email. I for one do not think complaining is an evil thing. Many complaints are legitimate and you always right very nice post so I can't imagine you would write a nasty email.

Disney is not always right and I think this is one instance that maybe a policy is not well thought out. IMO, this new policy does nothing but punish people. It does not stop folks from making multiple adr's, nor does it prevent tables for going empty.

 

[sammyjo1871]

Just got off the phone with a CM to modify our reservation. I asked her about the DDP while on there and asked if they had access to per day prices on the plan. She said oh yes, for the basic dining it is $55 for adults and $19 for children. So, I think its all luck of the draw; the knowledge and willingness to help by the CM you get.

 

[havoc315]

You don't have to eat your weight at every meal to come out ahead. You just have to eat something more than plain burgers and fries. A good steak or piece of seafood, and a character meal, and the plan more than pays for itself.

Actually, under current pricing -- that's how you need to eat every meal -- steak or character meal, to come out ahead.
We prefer a balanced diet -- steak maybe once in a a week. Chicken for a couple of meals. Pasta, vegetarian, for a couple meals. An occasional salad lunch.
Under the ddp, you are paying about $35 per TS credit. So you lose money for any TS meal under $35--
Basically every TS breakfast, most TS lunches, and any TS lunch/dinner that isn't steak or character meal, is a loser. any time you skip dessert, its a loser.
Even most seafood is a loser.
For example -- Dinner at Tony's Town Square. Shrimp scampi --$19.99.
Even with beverage $3- dessert $6, and tax -- total is $31. A loser under the plan.
Basically, any entree under approximately $23 is going to be a loser at a 1 credit restaurant.

2-credit restaurants can be even worse. Paying about $70 for dinner. My wife likes to get the sashimi as her meal --$21. She gets a soda, but skips dessert.
So in total, the meal is a $45 loser under the meal plan.

 

[cmurray234]

Just got off the phone with a CM to modify our reservation. I asked her about the DDP while on there and asked if they had access to per day prices on the plan. She said oh yes, for the basic dining it is $55 for adults and $19 for children. So, I think its all luck of the draw; the knowledge and willingness to help by the CM you get.

Lol. And that is the third time someone was quoted $55. That is the price they gave me too for our February trip, but when I did the math it actually WASNT. It was 51.54.

I have no idea where the CMs are getting that number.

 

[DjdBrit]

Wanted to share my thoughts on this, I haven't read this whole thread so excuse me if my points are mute.

I have used the DP 4 times over the past 4 years, one of those those times I rented DVC so I paid for it at check in. One other time I recieved FD. I have 3 kids and last year one of those kids became an adult...Anyhow...

I have always felt that the DP worked for our family, that its great to pay up front, have everything taken care of, snack when we want and eat what we want. However a few things I have noticed, I really don't want dessert everytime, and it ends up being a waste, not that I am sure having a appitizer everytime either would be good but you get the point. Most of the time we don't really use our snack credit as wisely as some, if I want water I get it using the credits, I don't save them for "expensive" snacks.

Our family stays on site and does not rent a car, when we do Disney we do EVERYTHING Disney. I am very aware that dining at WDW isn't like eating anywhere else, its expensive no matter how you cut it. And eating off site is much more affordable.

My point.... oh yes, with the recent price incease of the DP,with the only addition being a refillable mug (we do buy these every year for the kids only). I have been starting to wondering if the DP will work for our family anymore. I currently have a 9 day trip booked for August 2012 and the DP alone is $1,800. I am wondering if I am better off buying a GC for that much and just eating what we want when we want, and using the extra for tips etc.. I really feel that its too much.

I know that over the next few weeks I am going to do some serious number crunching and try and figure out if we are better off without it, I have a real feeling that we are.

 

[Sandy321]

DJdBrit - I hear that - I have gone back and forth as we have ALWAYS gotten the DP - dh is so not sure I'm sane for not getting it this time!!

I went and planned places that didnt take the DP (at the time) Bistro de Paris, Big River Grille, and Beaches and Cream are on our list. Then I started buying gift cards - so our trip is in a few days, and I have my fingers crossed it all works out for us!

 

[momof2cutegirls]

But your still assuming that you will always come out ahead, which was possible in 2010 (going by your past trip ticker), not so easy unless everything goes perfectly in 2012, and even then the savings is minimal if your paying full price for the plan.

Yep, will definitely be double-checking the math before committing to the dining plan for our next trip!

 

[MotherofLandon]

I did the math and the ddp would actually cost us more then paying oop.

 

[padawans]

Actually, under current pricing -- that's how you need to eat every meal -- steak or character meal, to come out ahead.
We prefer a balanced diet -- steak maybe once in a a week. Chicken for a couple of meals. Pasta, vegetarian, for a couple meals. An occasional salad lunch.
Under the ddp, you are paying about $35 per TS credit. So you lose money for any TS meal under $35--
Basically every TS breakfast, most TS lunches, and any TS lunch/dinner that isn't steak or character meal, is a loser. any time you skip dessert, its a loser.
Even most seafood is a loser.
For example -- Dinner at Tony's Town Square. Shrimp scampi --$19.99.
Even with beverage $3- dessert $6, and tax -- total is $31. A loser under the plan.
Basically, any entree under approximately $23 is going to be a loser at a 1 credit restaurant.

2-credit restaurants can be even worse. Paying about $70 for dinner. My wife likes to get the sashimi as her meal --$21. She gets a soda, but skips dessert.
So in total, the meal is a $45 loser under the meal plan.

The dxdp will save you money if you eat at a lot of signatures and have kids under 10. At a signature restaurant a kids meal will run between 25-35 dollars. I have 2 skinny as rails grade school boys that are great eaters. My dh and I are both runners with high metabolisms so we have pretty good appetites. . After a 6 mile run in the afternoon I have no problem downing the app, entree and dessert. I drop 5 pds everytime I go to wdw with dxdp so I really love it. I also hate fast food so it works for us. We have also been to wdw enough that we do not spend a lot of time in parks. I think you really have to evaluate your eating style to see if its worth it. It may not work for your family, but it works for mine, and I am sure their are others that it works for.

 

[chmurf]

Except that to get from say - the middle of Epcot or MK to the closest McDonalds takes a minimum of an hour each way. The closest Dennys or Burger King - as far as I recall - is even further and more time consuming - more like 90 minutes each way. You also need a rental car if you are going to eat offsite, plus gas and maybe tolls.

nearest restaurants to Epcot are on the DTD area, some 4 or 5 miles away. And every other restaurants chains may be found in a 8 miles radius.
So unless you chose to drive at rush hours times, it don't see how you'd end up spending 90 minutes each way to restaurants. I've done it several times ...
Of course we have a rental car. Actually renting in advance from europe gets us our car at a third of the best price we would get renting from US websites (same company, same car)

I'm not trying to be rude, I just don't see how the time cost adds up to any kind of savings. We spend easily $25 per waking hour to be at WDW. By my way of thinking -going to McD's costs over $50 in lost time.

That's not the way we calcultate the value of one day. I'm not trying to get rude either, but we're on vacations, we do not put a price tag on everything we do. We don't feel the need to plan everything depending on how much it has cost us to get there ... But basically, in my experience, I've almost never spent more time eating offsite than sitting down at table service on property

let me tell you of a little story.
Not that long ago, we were with friends at WDW's. They had ADRs and we didn't. So we decided to part, they went to their restaurants in World Showcase, and we headed back towards the parking lot.
We went down to Denny's, had lunch, and went back to Epcot. We then called them on the phone, and they said they had just been served their dessert. We had time to enjoy the park for another half hour until they finally joined us.
And the saddest part is that we actually enjoyed our food more than they did, and for almost half of the price (gaz included) ...

And this one was not an isolated incident.
It's true that most of the time ADRs will get you a table on time scheduled, but it's no guarantee. And service is often too slow, or too fast.

And if I were to make calculations as to how much it costs us per waking hour. Plane (from europe), car rental and estimated gaz, stay 18 nights at a value resort (POP), 14 days tickets+hopper to WDW, and granted we are awake 14 hours a day (big sleepers here), each waking hour will amount to $12.5 thats a little over $4 per person and per hour.
Saving $20 or $40 a day on meals only (for the 3 of us) is definitely worth spending a few minutes to get off the parks. Especially since we find a much wider variety of food off property, and it often has a better taste. By the end of the stay, savings are up to an average of $400 ... guess what, this gets us to IoA virtually free ...

And the time spend on meals even on DDP will depend on which restaurant you have ADRs at. You need to plan much more and have more risk for a tantrum thrown by the kid who does not want to go to the park you planned on that day just to meet your ADRs
Let's say you planned to go to Ohana's or any resort restaurants, you also need to consider the transportation time. Or get a quite limited choice of restaurants inside the parks when the advantage of DDP is to be able to enjoy restaurants all over the World.

Also, eating off property offers more flexibility. We can do one park in the morning, benefit from EMHs, then go out for lunch, then go to another park.
It permits more flexibility in your planning, while DDP and ADR basically pins you down at a specified location for the day.

Of course if you're on a Disney only trip and want to be inside Disney's bubble the whole time, then DDP is a solution. But it also gets you to miss out on a lot of what florida has to offer.

Wouldn't it be far 'cheaper' to eat a pizza on WDW property for lunch? Maybe share a WDW burger to tide you over until dinner?

maybe it would be cheaper, but pizza on property ... no thanks ... pizzas and burgers are already bad enough (health wise) so I'd rather they tasted good ... so pizzas and burgers on property ... thanks but no thanks