Dining plan cost OUTRAGEOUS for 2012

[cmurray234]

We've always done the DDP on our WDW trips. In fact, our first trip ever was the year they started the dining plan, when tip, appetizer, meal and dessert was included...ahh..those were the days....

Anyway, I just called to add the DDP to our trip in February. The CM told me that the 2012 dining plan cost was $55 per adult and junior and $19 per child!!! I've looked at these numbers for an hour and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how the DDP saves any money.

Yes, they're adding in a refillable mug, but even with that, I can't make the numbers work out. Somebody please help me out here. There is NO WAY my 9 year-old son is going to be able to eat $19 worth of food from the kids' menus. I just don't get it.


ETA - I was misquoted for the 2012 rates. Pardon my (that is to say Disney customer service's) error. The rates are the previously posted $51.44 and $15.00 for childrn.

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

The prices are very high. You can eat OOP way cheaper. Even if you ate at Cape May Cafe Buffet that is almost $40 per person and then had a very expensive CS meal $15 you are just breaking even.

The kid's meals are $5 or 6 and even if they went up to $7 or 8 then the kid's DDP is still more expensive than paying OOP. And considering it STILL does NOT include tip...your expenses for the DDP are extreme IMO.

The QSDP is still high in my opinion even though they didn't raise the price of it for 2012, they took one of the snacks away.

Unless you luck out and get a free dining PIN or there is a general public offer of free dining, I would definitely be paying OOP and saving a ton of money.

There will still be ppl who drink that Disney Kool Aid and think they will save money by paying $55 a day for 2 meals, or they just want to have everything pre-paid and don't really care that they can pay OOP cheaper. Some folks like to give away money. I see it every day.

If increasing the prices so much causes a serious drop in the dining plan purchases maybe they will rethink such a drastic increase from now on.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Yeah- with the new prices- not AS good a deal. But if you add the price of a character dinner for a child(Some are $18+), with the cost of a counter service for the day, and a snack- its still a good deal. Now the adult- I dont think is as good of a deal. I am not sure I will ever add it again if its not free!!

 

[wdwmom0f3]

Wow, that is a big increase, and no I just don't see the value in it for us anymore. Just think $55.00 x 5 of us is $275.00 a day for food, which $275.00 X 9 nights would be $2475. JUST FOR FOOD! I just don't think I can convince DH to do that anymore, so unless we get free dining like we have the past three times we will be own our own. I'll still make ADR's at our favorite places so everything will be just fine.

 

[candielips]

Next month will mark 2 things for us. Our 1st trip as DVC members and our 1st time paying OOP.
I, too, have been crunching the numbers and it is still significantly cheaper for us to pay oop with the TIW card. I have been a little nervous about not having the DDP, but I am also convinced that it will be much better.
I should also note that in 5 nights we are eating at Chef Mickeys dinner, Ohana dinner, Kona breakfast, 1900PF, and Tusker House lunch and it is still cheaper even while doing all the character meals.

 

[ancestry]

I have found that the adults usually don't save much money but the kids do on the dining plan. One character buffet meal is almost equal to the entire days dining plan cost.

Now that my kids are 9 we switched to using the TIW card. At 9 they often don't want to order from the kids menu anymore.

 

[havoc315]

We've always done the DDP on our WDW trips. In fact, our first trip ever was the year they started the dining plan, when tip, appetizer, meal and dessert was included...ahh..those were the days....

Anyway, I just called to add the DDP to our trip in February. The CM told me that the 2012 dining plan cost was $55 per adult and junior and $19 per child!!! I've looked at these numbers for an hour and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how the DDP saves any money.

Yes, they're adding in a refillable mug, but even with that, I can't make the numbers work out. Somebody please help me out here. There is NO WAY my 9 year-old son is going to be able to eat $19 worth of food from the kids' menus. I just don't get it.

I think your pricing is a bit off ---- I've seen $53 peak for adult, and $16 for a child.

I do agree --- a typical normal eating adult is unlikely to save much, if anything.
A child will get slight savings -- $6.50 CS lunch + $9 TS dinner + 3 snack, equals $2-3 in savings.

Where a child does still save significantly -- is with the overpriced character meals. If doing a character meal, a child can save $5-10.

As to an adult -- the only way to save, is to really get above-average use out of every entitlement, and you must get value out of the mugs.

We don't spend much time drinking soda at the resort food court, so the mugs are useless to us.

Typical CS entree is $9ish for lunch. (less for breakfast). To get value out of the plan, you MUST get beverage and dessert--- pushing the price up to around $15-16 with tax.

TS typical entrees range anywhere from $12-28ish.
So let's say you go on the fairly high side -- $25 -- add in beverage and dessert and tax, you are at about $37 ( about the same as the dinner character buffets)

Add in a $3 snack...

And getting above-average use out of the entitlements, this adult has achieved savings of about $2-3.... Or about 5%.
Skip the qs dessert, and this adult has barely broken even.

Now, it is theoretically possible to get $40 in TS value at a couple places (not many), and theoretically possible to get about $20 in qs value, and $5 in snack value.
So for someone going to the extremes, $10-$12 --- 20% savings, is theoretically possible. Even bigger if you utilize the mug.
But you'd really have to go crazy to get this kind of value.

 

[aubriee]

Wow, that is a big increase, and no I just don't see the value in it for us anymore. Just think $55.00 x 5 of us is $275.00 a day for food, which $275.00 X 9 nights would be $2475. JUST FOR FOOD!

Next month will mark 2 things for us. Our 1st trip as DVC members and our 1st time paying OOP.
I, too, have been crunching the numbers and it is still significantly cheaper for us to pay oop with the TIW card. I have been a little nervous about not having the DDP, but I am also convinced that it will be much better.
I should also note that in 5 nights we are eating at Chef Mickeys dinner, Ohana dinner, Kona breakfast, 1900PF, and Tusker House lunch and it is still cheaper even while doing all the character meals.

I too have the TiW card and used it for my Sept and Nov/Dec trips. I will be using it again for my upcoming May, Sept, and Oct/Nov trips. However, for our upcoming Feb trip my husband and I will be taking our 3 y/o GS down there for his very first trip (parents are not fans of WDW). Even though we go frequently, we are so excited about this trip and want to give him the perfect WDW experience. We decided to book every character meal that we could, plus a few of our favorites that we think he might enjoy. We have never been fans of CS and usually do an early TS lunch and a later Signature restaurant, avoiding most CS restaurants. For the Feb trip we have three TS meals/day scattered out early morning, noon, and dinners around 7:30pm. We'll use the meals as a time to relax and unwind. I ran the numbers all different ways (using the DxDDP, using the DDP and then paying for the extra TS meals OOP with TiW, paying completely OOP using TiW, etc). For this particular trip the DxDDP came out cheaper. We even talked about eliminating some of the character meals and doing a few CS, but my husband said no, he'd rather keep what we've got and give our GS the perfect trip. For 2012 the DxDDP went from $78.99 for adults and $21.99 for kids to $85.52 for adults and $23.79 for kids. That's a big jump. It means we'll be paying $1363.81 for meals for the three of us, plus a little over $400.00 in gratuities for the week. Some may see it as a waste of money and say he'd be just as happy with CS meals, but we want to give him the perfect trip. We have every intention of spoiling him rotten this trip and want everything prepaid, so even though it's expensive, the DxDDP works for this particular trip. I seriously doubt if I'll ever use it again though. We have Disney gift cards to cover gratutities and souvineers, so the trip is completly prepaid and we like not having to worry about looking at prices. In fact, we should have money left on the gift cards.

 

[cmurray234]

havoc -- it wasn't my pricing. That's the amount the CM on the phone told me. Either way, it's such a big jump, I can't believe it.

Even if we eat at all of the places we have ADRs for, we would still save a couple hundred dollars for the week because my son doesn't care for character meals. Add to the fact that we SURELY wouldn't purchase dessert at every meal, and it's a bit of a ripoff.

Wow, I'm just so disappointed.

 

[Bonniec]

Are the actual restaurants increasing?

 

[cmurray234]

Are the actual restaurants increasing?

Good question. I called back this morning and asked a lot more questions.

First, the dining plan is indeed $55 for adults and $19 for kids in 2012. And there is no scheduled menu price jump that she saw...though obviously that could change in January.

I really think I'm going to be canceling it off my reservation.

 

[FreeTime]

Are the actual restaurants increasing?

Does anyone know? I think this is a good question. To date, I haven't seen much of an increase, but perhaps there are plans to increase the meal cost with the costs of the dining plans going up. Then we will be back on here saying there is value in it...

Anyways...we just came back and didn't use any dining plan for the first time in awhile and we saved money. We ate at table services and counter services.

 

[angelmav]

Does anyone know? I think this is a good question. To date, I haven't seen much of an increase, but perhaps there are plans to increase the meal cost with the costs of the dining plans going up. Then we will be back on here saying there is value in it...

Anyways...we just came back and didn't use any dining plan for the first time in awhile and we saved money. We ate at table services and counter services.

They have to be careful with the menu prices as well, if they push the envelope too far, sticker shock will just chase people offsite. I think they are approaching this with the dining plans. It became such a given to add the dining plan and a reason to stay on site and pay inflated rates, that was the original business strategy, seems maybe they are forgetting why it worked to begin with.

 

[skater]

I would never purchase the DDP at those prices. Without free dining, we would go back to eating every breakfast in the room and possibly a few other meals as well. The only benefit I can see anymore is the convenience of paying ahead of time.

 

[candielips]

Are the actual restaurants increasing?

The prices at the restaurants have significantly increased in the last 2 years. I have seen a lot of the buffets go up about $10 per person in the last 2 yrs.

 

[cmurray234]

The prices at the restaurants have significantly increased in the last 2 years. I have seen a lot of the buffets go up about $10 per person in the last 2 yrs.

A valid point, but unless Disney intends to raise the menu prices by $10 per person in the next 2 months, the price increase of the dining plan will have far out-stripped the price if one were to pay OOP.

At those prices, my days of staying on site might just be at an end.

 

[nkereina]

I don't think the dining plan is meant to save money. I think it's meant to be convenient for families, which is why we do it. Disney has the pricing figured so that they come out about even, maybe even a little ahead - not so they are losing money consistently. If you take the average price of an entree at each meal and the average price of a dessert, I bet you'll come out to a similar price for a day. Of course, it does not mean this is how you eat - it's just what you're offered. If you don't eat that way, you will lose money.

 

[nooneshome]

the prices are very high. You can eat oop way cheaper. Even if you ate at cape may cafe buffet that is almost $40 per person and then had a very expensive cs meal $15 you are just breaking even.

The kid's meals are $5 or 6 and even if they went up to $7 or 8 then the kid's ddp is still more expensive than paying oop. And considering it still does not include tip...your expenses for the ddp are extreme imo.

The qsdp is still high in my opinion even though they didn't raise the price of it for 2012, they took one of the snacks away.

Unless you luck out and get a free dining pin or there is a general public offer of free dining, i would definitely be paying oop and saving a ton of money.

There will still be ppl who drink that disney kool aid and think they will save money by paying $55 a day for 2 meals, or they just want to have everything pre-paid and don't really care that they can pay oop cheaper. Some folks like to give away money. I see it every day.

If increasing the prices so much causes a serious drop in the dining plan purchases maybe they will rethink such a drastic increase from now on.

ita

 

[Joan1]

It also depends on the resturants. If you dine at the more expensive restaurants, still 1TS, then the dining plan does make sense. For example some of the entree options at the Epcot restaurants are on the higher price scale sot he dining plan is still the better option

for example some of the entrees at Tutto Italia are $36

 

[cmurray234]

I don't think the dining plan is meant to save money. I think it's meant to be convenient for families, which is why we do it. Disney has the pricing figured so that they come out about even, maybe even a little ahead - not so they are losing money consistently. If you take the average price of an entree at each meal and the average price of a dessert, I bet you'll come out to a similar price for a day. Of course, it does not mean this is how you eat - it's just what you're offered. If you don't eat that way, you will lose money.

Interestingly, it has ALWAYS been marketed that way. For years, they advertised that getting the dining plan would save you 25% or more. I doubt we would even save 5% this year.

I can tell you this much, there isn't much of an incentive to buy it if you aren't even going to save money. Very odd to me.