Dining plan or no dining plan?

[Military mom]

I usually do the DDP, but I would like to try to not use it this go around. Any suggestions?

 

[Stefecatzz]

I've used the DDP twice when I was lucky enough to have a CM friend give me her discount for it. That was the only reason I personally found it worth it as far as value went for me. I am not a dessert person really & prefer water with my meals. I especially found the QSDDP to be a waste of money even with her discount.

What I usually do is eat bigger (TS) meals for breakfast or lunch. It's less $$ OOP & for lunch it's nice to get out of the heat for a bit during the hottest part of the day. For dinner, I either go QS or get an app & a side as a meal at a TS if I want to sit down & rest inside somewhere. I am more of a person who prefers to eat on the lighter side when I'm walking around all day & night in the heat. If you're hungry later, you can always grab a snack which can serve as a small meal in itself.

My biggest tip for OOP would be to split meals if you're going with others. My friend & I have found even some QS meals are big enough to split between two people & then we will split a snack later on which worked out well. We also found that making meals out of apps at lounges worked well & saved some money.

 

[minnie mum]

Our family has only used the DDP twice. We found that for the way we prefer to eat, paying OOP saved us more money, and we were able to eat whatever we wanted, wherever we wanted, without having to follow "the rules". Really, the only way to save money on the DDP is to eat at all the character buffets or to order the most expensive items on every menu. And the old excuse of how convenient the plan is doesn't wash either. Paying OOP by swiping your MB is no harder than swiping your MB to use the plan.

We aren't big breakfast eaters, so we eat in our room while we get ready for the day. We make a grocery stop just before checking in.

We do one CS and one TS per day. Since many restaurants now have all day menus, there's no real cost savings of doing a TS lunch over dinner any more. The exception are the buffets and AYCTE restaurants. But I suspect this is going to change to the same price for lunch and dinner, too. CP has just implemented this.

We will often share a CS meal, with an extra side, since the portions are so large. At TS meals, we will usually share an appetizer and dessert, but each get an entree. Or, if I'm not very hungry, I might only order a couple of appetizers. My sister often orders a kids CS meal, since she has a small appetite and is quite a picky eater.

 

[happymommy]

We had the regular dining plan once (free also with a room discount - that is rare) and the free QSDP once as well.

Both were way too much food for us! I personally prefer QS meals, as I don't like to have to be somewhere at a specific time. I also don't like the no show charge, but understand that Disney TS meals are so popular that they need to know they won't have many no shows.

The portion sizes are so large that my DD and I share many meals.

Both times we had left over CS credits. This past time, we used them in the gift shop right before leaving for 14 snack items - candy and treats to take home.

I don't find that it saves any money at all. I also drink ice water often, and don't drink a lot of sodas. I almost never order desserts, and the first time we had the plan we ended up throwing away way too much food and desserts.

I would take the QSDP again if it were offered free, but otherwise would advise to just pay out of pocket for your meals. I agree swiping your magic band is so convenient for paying.

 

[Tara1988]

I did the math, and based on what my family is most likely to order, we will only save $40 by buying the dining plan if there is no free dining promotion when we go. I didn't even factor in the refillable mugs because we only used them once or twice on our last visit. But we went ahead and bought it with our package for a couple reasons, 1- we don't have to worry about the cost between now and the trip because everything is already paid for. We tend to second guess big ticket purchases every so often, so having it paid in full makes us less likely to back out. 2- we don't have to continue budgeting up to and throughout our vacation. I hate thinking about how much my food cost when I just want to enjoy it. 3- if by chance we can get a free dining promotion, the extra money can be used for an upgrade or extra day(s)

 

[LovePug]

I really struggled with this decision myself because I originally booked the summer QS free meal deal and to upgrade to DDP, was "only" $500 more. I did initially do the upgrade, but then the summer offers came out and I switched to that 20% discount and dropped DDP. At this point, if we really tried to order the most expensive TS and QS, we could probably break even with the cost of DDP. Instead, I was thinking of buying the Disney gift cards through Target and use them (save 5% with the Redcard), as I've seen people suggest, so that our meals can still be "prepaid" in a way. I figure it'll take the pressure off to eat all we can to "get our money's worth" out of DDP. I'm sure we won't eat that amount of food now that we don't feel we need to.

 

[keepswimming76]

I have been going crazy over the same decision for over a year! I realized that with the dining plan I would be booking more TS meals than we typically may want to enjoy. And all my cost analysis always ended with paying out of pocket being cheaper. An issue with our family is that it is too much food. I know on our next trip there will be times that we may want to just order a cup of soup and share an appetizer for lunch because that's what we want. With the dining plan we would be getting much more food than that.

My strategy to deal with the worries of the food costs has been to purchase Disney gift cards. I have a stash that I will use on our trip to pay for our food purchases. I also have set aside extra money to pay for credit card bill after our Disney trip in case the gift cards are not enough. I've been saving over a year because I don't want to worry about penny pinching while we are there.

I will say we are staying at a DVC studio and plan to make some small meals in the room - some oatmeal for breakfast on some days and maybe a mac n'cheese lunch on one day. But we do plan to eat primarily at Disney restaurants.

 

[brinkley07]

We did the math on it recently as we became AP's and had the ability to get TIW. Most trips we got the deluxe plan, but we don't normally eat that much food. On our last big trip it was worth it in quantity because we have a 2yo that could share. Looking at how we normally eat, sharing with the child, and what we would spend out of pocket with TIW we chose to go that route. I'm not sure if you are eligible to buy TIW, but that is one option. Have fun!

 

[EasternShoreGal]

Being DVC members we don't book rooms with free dining plans, so our analysis is based on a full priced dining plan. We just don't eat that way. We typically have bagels or some such in room for breakfast and often have light lunches poolside. sometimes we feel like a sit down dinner and some nights it is grab and go. Because we visit often, early on we decided to take a trip,without the plan and see how are spending went. We added up all the receipts at the end of the trip and were nowhere near what the cost of the dining plan was. At this point we have been to most of the Disney restaurants and on any given trip only choose a few to visit. We will go off property for other meals and prepare quick meals in our villa. We have even used the grills. But every family is different. If you plan to eat every meal on property and like to eat lots of food it could be a good choice.

 

[Thiago Acquaviva]

Both times I went to WDW I had the free dining plan and I love it!
If the next time I don't get this as a free promotion, I would consider to buy it cause I think it's easier than keep paying separated for each meal as an international visitor I already have a lot of things to plan about money and paying for everything.

 

[DisCatGirl]

It's great for financial pre-planning. You don't have to worry or even think about food costs once you arrive (as long as you strictly stick to the DDP). We never eat all the food on the plan though. For us, it's generally cheaper to pay OOP (plus we aren't limited by the plan rules).

 

[JaimeK]

We had free dining our first two trips but no dining plan this last trip. I vastly preferred it without. A few days in I am SO sick of the constant drinks and desserts - that's not how we eat normally. And no matter what we ended up with a huge amount of snack credits leftover. Because who needs popcorn when you're still uncomfortably stuffed from your overly large QS meal an hour ago and you have a TS booked later. But when you're on the DP you get in the mindset that you need to maximize the value.

This trip, we ate what we wanted. We had a sit down meal most days and found that when we got QS we did better to share a few items. The portions are often enormous.

 

[Sydney2977]

We had done the regular dining plan the last probably five trips, and it always worked out well to share some meals, like ordering 2 or three meals instead of four, except on the buffets. We were able to make good use of it with lots of planning on my part. The best uses of the snack credits were at the F&W festival. The last trip we took though I think all of us were tired of the restrictions. So this past trip with just DH, younger DS, and myself, we decided to try oop. I looked at menus, guessing on what would be ordered and budgeted the same as what we would have paid with the ddp. We loved being able to still have ts meals, including buffets, we still got the mugs, and we ate when and what we wanted, including appetizers as meals sometimes and trying lots of things at the F&G Festival. For our week long trip, we ended up saving almost $400 over the ddp, and we were never hungry!

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

OP, any chance you're doing a split stay? If so, you could add the plan to only that portion of the visit, and do all of your expensive dining then.

For our family, we tend to eat at character meals, Ohana, Boma, etc, and so it's worth it.

By nature, I'm built to look at menu prices, and often get just a side or small salad, while the rest of the family gets whatever they want. The DDP allows me to just get what I want, and that's nice on vacation.

 

[5kidsmommy]

We had free dining last trip. It just wasn't for us, it's not how we eat. We tend to not order drinks and we rarely do desserts. You can share meals but both people would need to want the same thing and that became problematic. For us we would just spend less paying OOP.

 

[msdroz]

We try to stay club level instead for snacks.... just haven't found that many delicious restaurants at Disney to justify eating most meals on property. We would rather spend our time on rides than relaxing in a restaurant, and with that said we take a nap/break midday at the pool or our room so it probably all evens out.

 

[Anesthesia Fine]

I do like the DDP for convenience (whether other people think it "doesn't wash" or not; it's been convenient for my family, on some trips) and don't actually find it to be "too much food"... but I also find being able to order a la carte when paying OOP is also convenient. If I want to order all small plates at a TS place, or feed my kids something off the adult menu (a rare occurrence, haha), or mix and match at QS, OOP is nice.

Mostly I find that different things work at different times, for different trips. I hate doing stuff a certain way just because we've always done it that way. I really liked scheduling minimal ADRs and just booking stuff day-of, this last time around. For the next one, it's just me and the kiddo, and she has a specific list of must-trys...so I'll do the "getting up early to book" thing and probably get the regular dining plan, depending on the packages available!

 

[lubob]

Dinning plan !!

 

[Linleedo]

I usually do the DDP, but I would like to try to not use it this go around. Any suggestions?

Add up what you think you will eat and compare the price to the cost of the Disney dining plan. We just did our calculations. Even though we will be eating at some of the Signature restaurants, we will still save $400.00 by paying out of pocket. My best advice is to look on Allears at the menus, choose your selections, add them up and compare to the price for dining. I hope this helps. We have used the dining plan on all of our other trips. But, this year it is more economical to pay out of pocket.

 

[bbak30]

We have always had the DDP, but next trip we will go without it. I'm already having anxiety over it though. I really like having everything pain for ahead of time though, the prices make me want to vomit! I'm also the kind of person who will choose the cheapest thing on the menu and I don't want to have to do that on vacation. It's so relaxing not to have to worry about prices. And I'm find with not even coming out ahead.

However, my DD is now 10. There is NO way I can justify the adult prices for buffets and character meals. Even for meals like 'Ohana! Especially when she will eat off the kids menu when she is able to. If she would eat an adult entree, then I would consider. So we decided to forego the DDP next trip and pay OOP. My plan is to get a gift card and put like $1000 on it and just use that. Hopefully I won't freak out over the prices and still have a good time. We are also staying in a villa and may do some meals in the room. Especially breakfast. And (gasp) we may go off site for some meals as well.

I think it's just a choice you have to make. I have sat down and ran the numbers and while we don't necessarily come out ahead on the DDP, we weren't off by much so I thought it was worth it.