Dining plan question

[ShannonMB]

How would you know? You never attempted to see if it was true.

Notice I said the dining plan fit our needs, not that it was necessarily the most cost-effective way to dine at Disney. My needs include ease of plan, having meals paid for ahead of time, not counting every penny when my daughter wants a Mickey ice cream, etc.

I am a neonatal intensive care nurse. Making a mistake is giving a patient the wrong medication. NOT which dining plan my family chooses to utilize while vacationing in our happy place. But thanks for your concern!

 

[martinezmom3]

I am a neonatal intensive care nurse. Making a mistake is giving a patient the wrong medication. NOT which dining plan my family chooses to utilize while vacationing in our happy place. But thanks for your concern!

Love!!! Vacation how you want to vacation! Who books first class because the have too? They book it because they can, and they want to...if you love it, use it,,,if not don't

 

[rainynight]

Love!!! Vacation how you want to vacation! Who books first class because the have too? They book it because they can, and they want to...if you love it, use it,,,if not don't

Which is exactly why Disney will keep raising the price of the dining plan. People are willing to pay more for the "convenience" which makes absolutely no sense.

 

[martinezmom3]

Which is exactly why Disney will keep raising the price of the dining plan. People are willing to pay more for the "convenience" which makes absolutely no sense.

There are very few people who at some point throughout their day to day lives, don't pay more for convenience for something. Be it fast food, packaging for a certain product that you prefer, which gas station you choose, which gym you belong to...but every one of those is a decision that you make, no one forces you to. If you like the dining plan go for it, if you don't like it, thankfully, you have the option not to use it. It's really quite simple.

 

[Jonathan Swift]

Notice I said the dining plan fit our needs, not that it was necessarily the most cost-effective way to dine at Disney. My needs include ease of plan, having meals paid for ahead of time, not counting every penny when my daughter wants a Mickey ice cream, etc.

I'm not suggesting you count any pennies. You should be as carefree to spend OOP as you would on the plan. It will probably be just as expensive either way. I'm not telling you to eat less. I'm telling you that you're (probably) being overcharged for food with the DDP.

I am a neonatal intensive care nurse. Making a mistake is giving a patient the wrong medication. NOT which dining plan my family chooses to utilize while vacationing in our happy place. But thanks for your concern!

If you cash your paycheck out in singles, make a big pile of bills and burn it every week, that's your business. It doesn't matter to me. Just don't be surprised if others think it foolish. Also don't be surprised if your advice to others to do the same is met with resistance.

 

[bdklein]

. We usually have quite a few snacks left at the end of our stay.

Perhaps a waste of money to be on the Plan if you are paying for it?

 

[Masonmj84]

The way we've done the deluxe plan is to use it for two table service meals a day, one being a 2 TS meal (e.g., signature, CRT, or dinner show) and the other being a 1 TS meal (which includes most character meals).

The minute you start using it for CS meals, the value prop (if there is any to begin with) vanishes quickly.

And as others have stated, trying to use it for 3 TS a day is too much food and takes too much time.

The value prop is better for kids than it is for adults, especially if you plan to eat a lot of character meals. The flip side, as has been mentioned by PPs, is that kids often find the signatures meals to be too long (these can easily last 1.5 to 2 hours). It's also tough to spread lunches and dinners far enough apart with kids (i.e, picking an ADR time such that the adults are hungry enough for dinner without it being too late for the kids).

That being said, we've used the deluxe plan on two trips and have had good results using it for two TS meals a day, as described above.

On the first trip, we upgraded from free dining and our party was me, DW, DS8, DD2, and MIL.

On the second trip, our party was the same, except it was with my parents instead of my MIL (on that trip, we were treating them and sort of forced into the DxDP because my parents would never have agreed to pay those prices OOP - instead, I told my dad I got a "deal" like on the Seinfeld "tip calculator" episode).

On both trips, it helped that the adults outnumbered the kids as far as dining at the signatures went.

On our next planned trip, DS will be 10 and there's no way I'm paying $100 a day for him to eat. So we'll likely pay OOP with TIW (mostly letting DS order off the kids' menu - which at most signatures is still a very substantial meal for a 10 YO).

 

[martinezmom3]

Lol, apologies OP, did you ever get an answer to your actual question! Three TS (app, entree, dessert, non alcoholic drink) per day, can also be used as a QS (but wouldn't seem to be as good of a deal), and two snacks, per person, per day. We chose this for our upcoming stay and were able to schedule lots of character meals, and handful of signature meals, and some interesting looking TS meals in Epcot and BOG. We basically planned an early breakfast and a later dinner, and plan to use the snack credits to fill the gaps at lunchtime when we need them. We ran numbers and it saves us money, while allowing us to splurge on a few things that we may be hesitant to try, if we were on a stricter budget this trip. So, add it up, see what you think, and have a blast!!!

 

[3pletprincesses]

The signature restaurants usually count two TS points on the regular plan. I understand why you are thinking about the deluxe plan, but please, run the numbers first. The deluxe is almost always WORSE than the regular dining plan, which is almost always WORSE than OOP.

We have done the deluxe 4 times so far in the past 3 years and we always come out ahead with the plan. We have 4 kids under the age of 9 and do 1 character meal a day and 1 signature a day and we have saved around $400 after paying tips after each stay. It all depends where you eat and how you plan things. The Deluxe plan work for us and we love it. It's the best of both world IMO.

 

[thisismyusername]

I know two year olds vary widely in what they eat, how much they eat, etc., but when we traveled to Disney with our two year old, we found the fixed price buffets/family style all-you-can-eat meals to be of good value to our family since our two year old could get his own plate of food and not be charged. Otherwise, if we went to a counter-service location or a non-buffet table service restaurant, we had to pay for a separate meal for him, or he was expected to share off of my or my husband's plate (which was fine, but affected what meal we chose to order for ourselves).

In your case, assuming you would like your two year olds to have meals rather than share off of your plates, I would think that the buffets/family-style options would work out well for you since you wouldn't need to buy your toddlers separate meals. Additionally, these meals often are quicker than most table-service, non-buffet locations since you simply get seated, grab a plate, and can begin your meal. (The only thing that's a pain is working your way through a buffet line with young kids.)

If you think the buffets/family-style meals are how you'd like to eat, the dining plan generally saves you money over buying the same meals OOP.

 

[maxiesmom]

If you think the buffets/family-style meals are how you'd like to eat, the dining plan generally saves you money over buying the same meals OOP.

You are right! Out of our many trip to WDW we have used the Dining Plan 3 times. Each time I pick what restaurants we want to eat at, estimate how much a meal would cost, and then figure out if we would save money on the plan or not. If we do a trip that is heavy on character meals, then the Dining Plan saves us money.

For our next trip, I am right on the edge. If we don't order dessert, we are right at the break even point. So I am still giving it some thought, and want to talk it over some more with the rest of the family.

I will never understand why some posters see things one way, and think others should too. Not everything is always good or always bad. Lots of shades of grey.

 

[TDC Nala]

There's a very heavy psychological affect to having the dining plan that goes way beyond the price of the plan, not looking at the prices when you order, not pulling out a credit card, just handing over your KTTW and having the meals "magically" deducted from your account. No battles with the family over what to order or where to eat, etc. I've seen posters with the deluxe plan who left lots of the credits unused and were happy as clams with the plan, even though they probably lost quite a bit of money on it. Disney knows that there are guests who will pay whatever they have to pay just to get an "all-inclusive" feeling.

The buffets/alll you can eat places are still a massive deal on the regular DDP for kids under 10. It's rather like getting their CS and snacks free, once you spring for one character meal a day. Not so much for adults, but if you like the way the plan works, no reason you shouldn't get it even if it winds up costing you some in the long run (which is one reason Disney likes it too and apparently plugs it to guests booking room reservations whenever they get the chance.)