Dining Plan Prices: Too Much???

[momtwoboys]

the boat stopped running and we were at DHS....just the walk to the boat dock from the gates of the park was raining so so so hard that you could see through our clothes.... by the time I realized we would not get there and if we did we would be so wet that we would feel uncomfortable and inappropriate! So I canceled it by phone on disney dining and they had nothing open later on in the night Boma saved the night. Didn't want anyone to think that they refused to seat us just bad timing and bad transportation fluke. I am just trying to price out where we want to go with ordering water for TS and CS and skipping desserts at all CS and maybe sharing 1-2 desserts at TS.....by the time we factor in taxes (they are included already in the DP prices) would we be ahead? Or save alot?

 

[TDC Nala]

If Disney gave people something because it rained, they'd be bankrupt.

I missed Flying Fish once last year (before it had a no-show fee) because it rained buckets at DHS and the boats weren't running because of the lightning and it took them awhile to get buses scheduled. I guess I would ask for them to waive the no show fee had that occurred more recently, but not compensation.

 

[mcever4]

I for one think the DP isn't worth it for my family this time. I have crunched the numbers till my fingers hurt from punching the calculator, and I just can't justify the price. I had planned on a TS for each day, and once I priced those along with a QS (approximate) for each day, and our snacks, the price still came out to about $50 less than the DP.

I have decided on 4 TS that I let my kids pick. They are:

Tusker House
Crystal Palace
Chef Mickey
1900 Park Fare.

I have budgeted $1000 for our food which I will get on Gift Cards. The DP was going to cost us $1457. DD can always share what ever me, DH, and DS get, so that saves some money right there.

My plan is to just use our KTTW card and charge our meals back to our room and just use the GC to pay the balance at the end of our trip. If we have extra money on the cards once I have paid my bill, well, I guess we can get some treats to take home!!!

I am sure the DP at the increased price might work for some families, it just doesn't for our family this trip. Of course if I happen to get FREE DINING, well I will just have to take it!

Robin

 

[momtwoboys]

mcever4 that is what I am thinking...getting a Disney GC to put the amount onto. Not sure yet? I am basing it on 7TS and CS each day for lunch or dinner...but getting 4 CS meals just not the extras. Sounds like it might work for your family, if it saves 50.00!


I hope no one thinks I meant Kouzzina wouldn't seat us wet. Or that I was looking for something. I just meant we couldn't get there on time and dry. I tried to get a later ADR but couldn't, so meaning we want to try it out next time

 

[floridagirl61]

I have to agree that I can do better without the plan. The very first time I used the DP, I purchased it. It was around $35 per adult (can't remember the exact amount). This included an appetizer at dinner and the tip!!!
Since then, every time we have gone to Disney we purchase this plan and the price has gone up, but we still felt it was worth it even with the changes. BUT next year we are not going to purchase the plan because of the pricing. I have worked on several plans for my family and we will be saving money by using the TIW card and not having the DP. We will probably not get a dessert at every counter service meal, but that is our choice and then we may actually be able to eat a snack. We never seemed to use our snacks credits when on the plan. I have estimated a savings of $800 for our family and we are eating at TS restaurants every day, sometimes even twice.
I say everyone should figure out what they think they would eat, price it out and go with whatever saves your family money, DP or no DP.

 

[mcever4]

Several reasons I don't think the plan will work for us:

1. DD will be 4 when we travel and doesn't eat a whole kids meal herself (unless it is ChikfilA!). She can eat a little off of all of our plates and be happy.

2. We don't eat a dessert at every meal, so that is a waste for us. We can always buy 2 and share if we wanted it.

3. Drinks with our meal: DS and I were on the plan in 2010 and neither of us ever finished our drinks. We can get 2 for the 4 of us and share. Or NONE and drink the water we will bring with us. If they want flavor, we carry the little packets to pour in the bottle.

4. Snacks we can always share too, depending on what we get. DS and I always got a smoothie last trip and just shared it.

Again, every family is different and it really depends on how your family eats!

Robin

 

[mcever4]

One more thing, does anyone know if you can charge meals at T-Rex on the KTTW card? That was one meal we were considering...

 

[sharonabe]

following along here! We have always got the dining plan and always used all our credits, never really had to pay OOP for anything as we eat breakfast in the room, or we would use 3 CS credits at lunch and save 1 to get a large breakfast to split up in the room with our other goodies. Trying to figure out if it is worth it for us from now on??? Both kids are adults now, and they like to eat at the various restaurants. We do not drink soda though and could pass on the cake in a cup at lunch. Most times we would try to ask for an extra bottle of water or grapes or apples instead....leaning towards putting 200.00 on 7 disney gift cards one for each night, and seeing if we could still make 1 TS ADR per day and eat 1 counter service per day and come out a little better?? BUT I am wondering if by the time we pay tax on the meals at TS would it negate any savings? for our April 2013 trip the places we are interested in are:

Tusker House dinner
Biergarten dinner
Ohana dinner
Cape May breakfast
Via Napoli dinner
Liberty tree lunch

for counter service:
POR food court 2x
columbia harbor 1x
epcot ws 1x
wolfgang express 1x
backlot dhs 1x
1 other????

I am going to crunch some more numbers!!! thanks for listening

The three dinner buffets are probably going to be your deciding factor, but not sure if they swing it to DDP's favor altogether. Tusker is a little under $31 pp for dinner (lunch is about $3 less, so you could save a little there and you get characters at lunch). Biergarten and Ohana are $35, but Biergarten is only $23.42 for lunch, so you could save a bundle there.

If you change those two to lunch and do as you plan for QS, I think you'll come out much cheaper OOP. At Via Napoli, you can share some apps/dessert and a large pizza for less than $100. When you couple that with around $50 for QS, you're way under the 2013 $220 DDP per night cost for your family.

 

[Tinetine]

What I'm thinking is that if the dining plan has increased that much, restaurant prices are bound to follow ! It would be more accurate compare the 2013 DDP with 2013 restaurant pricing, no ?

 

[sharonabe]

What I'm thinking is that if the dining plan has increased that much, restaurant prices are bound to follow ! It would be more accurate compare the 2013 DDP with 2013 restaurant pricing, no ?

In theory, yes, but those prices don't all come out at one time. You might see an increase here and there, but it's not like the DDP where all of a sudden the prices are higher. So the only way to compare is with what we have now. The places you are likely to see increases first are the character buffets. Some of the TS entrees didn't have any increase this year, and there is no way of knowing if they will next year.

 

[Cafeen]

What I'm thinking is that if the dining plan has increased that much, restaurant prices are bound to follow ! It would be more accurate compare the 2013 DDP with 2013 restaurant pricing, no ?

Yes and no.

A few factors come in to play:

• History - Historically, menu prices have not risen as much as DDP prices. According to another poster (who I trust with this stuff, I just don't feel like doing it myself ) there have been roughly 3-5% increases on menu items from year to year. The increases of the dining plans have been roughly 7-15% year to year.
• Advertising - While we know how Disney likes to overinflate their potential savings, they have dropped the advertised savings of the plans down for 2013. DDP went from "Save up to 20%" to "Save up to 15%", while far from scientific, this at least suggests smaller than DDP price increases for 2013
• Schedule - Menu prices are not released like DDP prices are and they don't change on a schedule like DDP does (outside of the seasonal pricing on the all you can eats).
• Variance - Even when menu prices do go up, they do not ALL go up at the same time or for the same amount. Even further, not even ALL the items on a menu go up (or for the same amount/same time).

(I like lists today...)

So, yes, ideally we'd compare next year's menu prices to next year's DDP prices, but due to the factors above, that's simply not possible. We can assume some menu price increases, but based on historic information, we can also assume that the increases will be far less (percentage-wise) than the DDP ones. Now, we can add a small modifier (the 3-5% historic changes) and come out a bit better, but that's still far less overall than the DDP prices have been increasing (which for 2012-2013 is roughly 8% adult, 14% child for normal season, DxDDP was roughly 17%/13%)

 

[momtwoboys]

thanks sharonabe! Maybe we will switch tusker and biergarten to lunch...at Via napoli we were going to get pizza and 1-2 desserts to share, no apps. Hmmm. lots to think about. I love everyone's input!

 

[momtwoboys]

Cafeen you are awesome!!!! WOW! so cool

 

[Tinetine]

Thanks for your answers. I'm really torn about wether the DDDp is a good idea. We do eat 3 meals a day, and 1 (sometimes 2) snacks. I like to do 2 sit down meals, including 1 character meal a day. But when I look at it as 1775.24$ for a week, i'm speechless !

 

[momtwoboys]

tell me about it! for my family of 4 it is 1,554. Sheesh

 

[mcever4]

Momtwoboys, another option for you would be to do Tusker House for breakfast to save some more money. That was DS's favorite meal we had in 2010. He said they had the best ham and the special juice they have there is wonderful! You could always schedule a later breakfast (closer to when they start serving lunch) and may be able to get some lunch offerings in addition to breakfast once they start switching over. I have read other of others who have had a late breakfast and once the lunch food started coming out they tried that as well! Worth a shot!

Robin

 

[momtwoboys]

thanks!!! Good tip! But the lunch/ dinner items are what we LOVE at Tusker House, and wouldn't want to miss them. We tried Yak n Yeti last year and were so disappointed. It was bad. So the first thing my DH said as we were heading out of AK was "next year we go back to tusker!" We know we love the food

 

[OThopeful35]

i was already on the fence about getting the DDP but after seeing these new prices I am sure we are not going to purchase it now, plus my 9 yr old will be a disney adult next year. I went over some of the menus with him and he was still choosing items on the kids menu so it would be fair to say I would definitely loose money because he is not adventurous when it comes to eating. Plus we do not like dessert with every meal, we were just eating it because it was included in the plan. The mug would be useless especially when you get soda with every meal, by the time I get back to the resort to use the mug...I only want to drink water

 

[cah5525]

Not worth it for us, we're a family of 5 (4 Disney adults) I wont even take the free dining...keeping my room discount, though!
We will be putting our budgeted food money on gift cards. I was debating back and forth what to do and then I found this thread..
If I only had $50 a day to spend on food at Disney
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2878168
These examples would be too much food for me..so, I know there is no way I would spend that much eating.

 

[GreenCntryGirl]

I was going to do DxDP next year because we like to try new food and it looked like fun. Then I saw the price increase and it didn't make sense.