Dining plan or OOP

[jessp1021]

We currently have the dining plan for our trip this summer but I am thinking it would be cheaper for us to do out of pocket instead? Has anyone else found this to be true? Most of the places have far too much food and I could see it feasible for us to share a plate and still be full. Looking for advice on this one as we have had free dining included in the past so we haven't given much thought to pricing until now!

 

[worm761]

We currently have the dining plan for our trip this summer but I am thinking it would be cheaper for us to do out of pocket instead? Has anyone else found this to be true? Most of the places have far too much food and I could see it feasible for us to share a plate and still be full. Looking for advice on this one as we have had free dining included in the past so we haven't given much thought to pricing until now!

It really depends on your family. You have to run the numbers. I would not bank on sharing meals though. What happens when two people don't want the same thing? Do you force one to eat something they don't want? And how do you choose who gets their own way?

For my family, I find it cheaper to not have a dining plan. I have done the dining plan before. I even paid for it. We liked it. But at the prices today it is not the great deal it used to be. Personally, we prefer an appetizer to dessert. And never share/split a plate. It just wouldn't work for us for the above reasons.

 

[Momof1redhead]

I think it would depend on your family and your eating styles. We are a family of 3 (2 adults and an 11 year old) so all are considered adults by Disney. We usually eat breakfast in the room, pack lunch (sandwiches, fruit, chips, etc.) then eat either a table service or counter service meal for dinner. We always go in summer so it's HOT. Smaller, lighter meals work best for us. We usually get a snack sometime during each day in the parks. I've done the math and we can eat "our way" much better this way. We spend about half what we'd spend with the dining plan. I read a suggestion that you take whatever you think you'd spend (or the cost of the DDP) and put it on a gift card. You don't have to pull out money each time you eat or worry about what you're spending which is what many like about the DDP. That person said they came home with money left over and ate plenty. I guess only you can decide what's best for you and your family though.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

It was certianly true for DH and I this past October. Our bill ended up being around $150-200 less then we expected at the end of our trip and that included EVERYTHING we charged to the room.

There are a few dining plan calculators out there. Here is a link to one: http://www.distripplanner.com/

What DH and I do is just use the Dining Plan cost as our budget ball park. In my opinion the dining plan is more work than its worth. But then there are those that swear by it. I'd say if you are not ones to eat dessert at every meal and you like to split meals or not feel obligated to do a TS meal everyday, then the DDP is probably not for you.

Another thing to do is to look at menus for the places you are thinking about eating at and look at the prices and see what your oop expenses might look like.

 

[EMode]

For us OOP is cheaper, our last trip we ended up saving around $200 and that even included the drinks dh and I enjoyed at the pool every day
Now that our youngest is 10 its definitely a better savings to pay OOP.

 

[pigletto]

We've gone with the ddp on every trip. Only because it was free on almost every trip. We really liked it at first, but then the kids got older and stopped caring about pricey character meals, my dd went vegetarian a few years back and would rather make a meal of appetizers sometimes or snack more and eat less full meals, and none of us want dessert with every meal. The final nail in the DDP coffin was that ds turned 10. I would say 50% of the time he will eat an adult meal, and kids meals the rest of the time. So it pretty much doesn't make sense for us and the way we eat at all anymore.

This upcoming trip will most definitely be OOP and I am looking forward to it. I plan to budget $200 a day but I will be surprised if we spend it all on food. We plan to eat offsite a bit. But even if we didn't, we'll be eating breakfast in the room and at some of the less expensive table service places simply because we enjoy them more than the buffets. I'll put maybe half or three quarters of the food budget on a gift card just to still have the feeling of it being prepaid. I do enjoy that.

 

[wendybeth75]

I think a lot of it depends on where you want to eat. Sometimes we want 2 TS a day and not one of each. Other times we like having the DDP for the freedom of it. Places like Sci Fi, Plaza, Prime Time, Beaches and Cream, and others can be hard to get the full value from DDP. You literally need to crunch the numbers to find out. We vary from trip to trip. Recently we bought the Tables In Wonderland card and with that 20% off it makes it worth it to pay OOP unless we are getting FD.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

For or family of 4 , when I figured it out to add the dining plan was in the ballpark of $1700.00.

We never would eat that much food paying OOP even with a 15 yo boy.
But run the numbers. Your family may feel differently,

 

[mum of two pirates]

Thats when it was $35 & $10 per person and included an apitizer, main dish, drink, and dessert. It was a good deal for two adults and two kids. Most of the time I ate the apt and my son had my main meal. Then we traded some of his t.s. meals for counter service and two snacks. Then we gave away all our left over counter services to people in line at the polly and got a few o.js and chocolate milks and mickey heads to go. Saved one lady over 50 bucks and a guy 75. The plan has changed a lot since then and this time my friend and I are doing it oop. I looked at all the menus and Ionly drink water and am usually to full for dessert if we eat T.S. besides I think table sevice takes to long. I think waiting an hour after ur ressies and then 20 min to send in an order and time to get it back. To much ride time gone.

 

[wendow]

Like others have said, it really depends on how your family eats. We have found paying OOP to be much, much cheaper for our family. We rarely share meals, maybe once the entire trip. What helps us tremendously is that my 11yo dd mostly orders off the kid's menu (unless it's a buffet). My 14yo dd orders off the kid's menu about half the time. And I will even order from the kid's menu depending on where we are eating. We'd rather eat a small lunch and then go get a Dole Whip or share a funnel cake. We tend to share snacks so we can try lots of different things. We don't drink sodas so we just carry our own water in the park or order water (which is free). We eat breakfast in our room. We only eat 2-3 TS meals over an 8-night stay. We are perfectly happy eating this way and works better for us than the DDP would.

 

[dpswift]

I would decide where I wanted to eat and the cost. On our last trip we did not get the plan and actually spent more than we would have if we bought the dining plan just because of the table service restaurants that we went to.


Also if it is paid for I can relax on vacation otherwise I just worry about how much food costs. We just got back from Disneyland where they do not have the dining plan. I had gift cards and was really bothered by the fact that I needed more than 1 $50 gift card for a QS meal. Also hearing my family talk about the food they were planning on buying stressed me out. With the dining plan you have an allotment of food that is in my opinion more than enough.


The year we went to Disney over the crowded spring break week. It was comforting to me to know that we had a meal each day where we could sit down and not worry about finding seats. I would never have scheduled that many meals without the DP.

However if food is not important to you not getting the DP can save a ton of money. If it was just me and DS we would not eat all that much. DH however loves eating and starts thinking about what he is going to eat next as soon as he finishes a meal.

 

[Marionnette]

We don't eat desserts often and certainly not twice a day. And we don't care about refillable mugs. So for us, the dining plan is not worth the cost.

Stop and think about how you will eat. Will you eat dessert with your meals twice a day? Would you buy the refillable mugs even if you were not on the plan? Are you the type who will order the most expensive item on the menu just to get your money's worth, even when you really want the cheaper meal? Will you use every credit or will you spend part of your last day trying to use up the last of your snack credits on stuff you can take home?

Some people will be able to use the dining plan and will get every dime they put into it and then some. It takes a little work and everyone in the family needs to be on board with your plan. Use one of the dining calculators to see if you will save money with the dining plan. Here's one that I like:
http://seeyareelsoon.wix.com/seeyareelsoon#!dining-plan-calculator/cxc0

 

[olwyngdh]

We have done trips both with and without the dining plan, and given the choice I will never go without the dining plan again whether it saves me money in the long run or not. My husband, younger daughter, and son in law all get Hangry and neither the hubby or the SiL will spend money on a full meal when they think they can get by with a baked potato. My younger daughter is a dancer with a high metabolism and must have constant fuel, and will empty her baggie of snack food by lunchtime. They will use dining credits though, and having full meals in their stomachs makes the trip much, much nicer for my older daughter and me. The dining plan is one of the reasons we will never stay at Shades of Green again--not dealing with the attitude I get from people when they won't spend the money to eat because it might mean they can't get a souvenir they suddenly have to have.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

We currently have the dining plan for our trip this summer but I am thinking it would be cheaper for us to do out of pocket instead? Has anyone else found this to be true? Most of the places have far too much food and I could see it feasible for us to share a plate and still be full. Looking for advice on this one as we have had free dining included in the past so we haven't given much thought to pricing until now!

When we first went to Disney as a family in 2010, the DDP saved us money. Now, it is a waste. The prices have increased, we don't use the refillable mug that much because we mostly drink water, and DH and I typically wouldn't order desserts and would rather share an appetizer. It is not worth it in my opinion. I love the idea of having everything prepaid though, so what we do is buy Disney gift cards to put towards food for while we are there.

 

[monorailsilver]

The dining plan wasn't worth it for us either.

We are a family if 5 and when we went in August our 12 yo was a Disney adult and doesn't always eat like that.

We had 2 sit downs and I don't do any more then that so if we were to do the dining plan it would be quick service and I would pay OOP for the 2 sit downs.

I will say we saved so much more last year then on previous trips. We all had water bottles with bottled water that we drank when we were in the parks. So there was no soda buying and I didn't buy the water at Disney so I spent $10-15 on water for the 10 days. Each soda is what..$2???

We don't normally do dessert plus my ds has multiple food allergies so dessert would be a problem for him as he doesn't eat what they could offer him-cookies, cakes, etc...

I want to say dh and I split a meal at Wolfgang pucks just because it was huge!

For the 5 of us, we averaged $40-$45/meal. That did not include dessert which we sometimes had and sometimes didn't. Dessert was more like a snack which my kids require from sometimes it was a pretzel from Germany and other times it was an icee of some sort.

I did get the refillable mugs because we had 3 1/2 pool days and I told my kids and dh they could have all the soda they wanted on those days.

 

[Happyjen27]

Not worth it for us.

The kids and I don't drink soda, we never in "real life" eat dessert once a day, much less twice!

Even with the sit down meals and character meals we had last trip, we spent about $300 less OOP than we would have if we purchased the DDP.

We just don't eat the sheer volume of food offered. My kids like real food, not just pizzanuggetsburgers, so often they would share an adult entree, or order their own adult entree, not an option for DDP.

I also enjoyed the freedom of not having the DDP this second trip. We didn't make sure we booked enough ADRs for our credits to make sure we weren't wasting money. We booked some ahead (BOG, HDDR, Chef Mickey), but we also left some free nights. I do enjoy a daily sit down meal (QS only can leave my belly unhappy) and I was always able to snag a last minute reservation somewhere. Obvs. not BOG, but, somewhere. I prefer not having to rush to reservations, but rather just calling the concierge to see what they had available if we felt like a sit down meal.

 

[Disneychick75]

http://seeyareelsoon.wix.com/seeyareelsoon#!dining-plan-calculator/cxc0

I've used the calculator in the link and realized that the DDP costs us a few hundred dollars more than out of pocket.

 

[puffkin]

We never do the Dining Plan. We are DVC and AP holders so we can get the Tables in Wonderland card. We usually eat 5-6 table service meals a trip plus at least that many counter service. We usually do breakfast in the room. We aren't huge snackers, but we might buy 2-3 snacks a day and share amongst ourselves. We carry our own water into the parks so the purchasing of beverages is limited to just a few through the week.

Back a few years ago, we usually ended up saving about $200 vs the Dining Plan. Our rationale for not doing the dining plan was it was too much food and too restrictive. Going OOP with the TiW discount gave us so much more freedom and still saved some money.

Now with the current dining plan, we save closer to $500-$600 a trip. The dining plan is that outrageous, I can't believe people still buy it. We also put the money we think we will spend on food on a gift card so it doesn't feel like we are constantly whipping out cash and we aren't surprised by a huge bill at the end. I usually buy them at my local grocery store when they are on triple gas point rewards plus I buy them with my Southwest VISA to get the airline points too. So basically double dipping on rewards

 

[Mrs. Bradbury]

We love the dining plan, because we want to eat steak or seafood every night, but normally are on a hamburger and fish sticks budget, so vacation is our chance! And we love having dessert twice a day - it's part of being on vacation!

We are also a family of eaters - and find that our appetites are enormous at WDW, maybe due to the increased activity. We also don't really snack between meals, or drink alcohol.

I will say, though, that I would be willing to banish the dining plan altogether if Disney would go back to the clever, unusual, and unique foods that were offered before the dining plan came along. Lots of homogenization since then. The difference between then and now is like eating at a local fine dining restaurant, or an Applebee's.

 

[pryncess527]

We love the dining plan, because we want to eat steak or seafood every night, but normally are on a hamburger and fish sticks budget, so vacation is our chance! And we love having dessert twice a day - it's part of being on vacation!

Ditto! I haven't actually been to try it out, but based on the calculators I'm planning on the DDP for our next trip. We love to splurge on food on vacation, and I love the idea of being able to order appetizers and desserts