Dining Plan = Too Much Food!

[english rose 47]

Ilike it bevcause I don't have to worry about making sure I have saved enough money to eat and not blown it on souvenirs etc. I know that each day We will have 2 mealls and a snack. That's another reasdon We like buffets, you can take as much or as little as you want . Save room for dessert or not. Yes you have to get in the line butI don't mindthat

 

[Disney8704]

Same here. Its hard to look at the menus and figure out what you and ur party would order. Cuz you might decide on one thing now but change ur mind in the future. So I took the easy route. I took the most expensive items off the menu of what we would order, added our drinks and the most expensive deserts, threw in the tax and what we would leave as tips and we are saving money with the DDP but not much. Its hard to decide weither or not to do the DDP because it would cost more if we did pay OOP but if we decided not to eat lunch on certain days, we would actually save money by paying OOP. So its hard to decide.

Well said, and exactly why we decided to get the DDP. I think $$ should be the only real basis of the decision, IMO.

 

[momomonster]

I agree with the OP that it's simply too much for me (based on descriptions and photos on this board), even if meals were spread out as much as possible. If I were to sit down starving hungry I could not eat an app, bread, entree, and dessert + a glass of wine or whatever without feeling sick. I'm a size 4, though, so that might have something to do with it! I understand that I wouldn't HAVE to order everything covered by the plan and I don't have to clean every plate. Getting to a size 4 took WORK, so I am pretty good about willpower and all that (I began last year as a size 14).

After crunching the numbers I still come out ahead with the DDP w/o ordering apps and desserts at every meal simply because tax and tip are included. So that we don't eat ourselves sick we will be having two meals at signature restaurants in 5 days, so we'll only have three sit-down meals, share some CS meals, and bring breakfast items (cereal, energy bars, oj, etc.) for the six days. I think we will have plenty to eat and enjoy the plan on our terms.

I wish everyone a great vacation.

 

[bicker]

I disagree. ... For the last trip of just my mother and I financially it came out even to do the DDP versus Paying Cash. And I am sure that if I had paid cash, we would have skipped a few of the things I included and scaled down our costs while we were there.

Well, that's a little like changing the rules of the game mid-way through. Where you need to make assumptions, I like making the most conservative assumptions which are reasonable. In my case, I assumed that we wouldn't be ordering any appetizers or desserts, when in reality, at least two of us will always have a salad with each meal. I highly recommend that approach. That way, if you're inaccurate, you're inaccurate such that the Dining Plan ends up being an every greater value than you figured it was originally.

So given the most conservative assumptions which are reasonable, how does the Dining Plan stack up for you?

Having meals prepaid [knowing how much food will cost]

This is the #1 reason why our guests want to get the Dining Plan.

Compelling us to eat all of our meals "on property".

Some would view this as a negative -- a loss of flexibility. I view it as a neutral, since it has both positive and negative aspects.

Ease of Use and convenience.

Another consideration with positive and negative aspects.

 

[mefordis]

Well, that's a little like changing the rules of the game mid-way through. Where you need to make assumptions, I like making the most conservative assumptions which are reasonable. In my case, I assumed that we wouldn't be ordering any appetizers or desserts, when in reality, at least two of us will always have a salad with each meal. I highly recommend that approach. That way, if you're inaccurate, you're inaccurate such that the Dining Plan ends up being an every greater value than you figured it was originally.

So given the most conservative assumptions which are reasonable, how does the Dining Plan stack up for you?

This is the #1 reason why our guests want to get the Dining Plan.

Some would view this as a negative -- a loss of flexibility. I view it as a neutral, since it has both positive and negative aspects.

Another consideration with positive and negative aspects.

Do you work for Disney? I suspected both you and CSLEWIS do, since you post so much on these boards, especially about the DDP. Now since the above post you refer to "our guests" it looks like you do.

I didn't think employees of WDW posted here, I thought it was only vacationers.

 

[bicker]

Do you work for Disney? I suspected both you and CSLEWIS do, since you post so much on these boards, especially about the DDP.

I don't work for Disney, nor have ever. I was a management consultant in a previous career. (During that period I was pretty quiet, online, because I was under a gag-order.) I "retired" when I got fed up with the traveling, and am now, happily, a software developer.

Now since the above post you refer to "our guests" it looks like you do.

We're DVC members, and invite guests to come with us and share our villa each year. This year, our guests are my wife's cousin and her husband.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

Well, that's a little like changing the rules of the game mid-way through. Where you need to make assumptions, I like making the most conservative assumptions which are reasonable.

Actually it's not changing the "rules" at all - it is the realization that some of my assumptions were WRONG.

For the 3 days that we were not on the dining plan we ended up at 1 of the 4 restaurants I had planned - the others we cancelled because we didn't feel like eating at restaurants (twice we had room service and once we just didn't eat).

If we had been on the ddp at that point, we would have had an obligation to go to the restaurants to use the credits.

Again my point was that saving gobs of money is not the only reason to consider the dining plan.

 

[bicker]

Interesting! I'm just realizing the impact of having visited WDW for so many years. If it is one of your first visits, you perhaps wouldn't be in a good position to make any reasonable assumptions about where, when and/or how much you would eat.

 

[novdisneydreams]

Here was the great thing for us when we bought the DP last year -

1- it was already paid for before we got there and
2 - we got to eat at lots of great places that we probably wouldn't have tried otherwise.

Sure, we ordered desserts and appetizers that we wouldn't have normally ordered. We also had our kids out at ten 'o clock at night watching fireworks and we all took naps in the middle of some days. This is all stuff that we wouldn't normally do - But man, was it fun!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think they call it *vacation* (tee-hee)

The Dining Plan allowed us to relax more because our vacation was more like an all-inclusive. For people who are concerned about "wasting" food there are lots of wonderful buffets where you can take just as much as you'd like. And lots of places both CS and TS will let you take your dessert to go so you can save it for later Also - I'm not sure if they changed this but when we went in November you could use left over TS credits at the end for CS. Sure, not the most bang for your buck, but if you want to do some commando days and not take the time for a sit-down it does give you options. As far as the cost, I am certain that we could have eaten for less than the $100 a day it cost our family of four. But we would have had to figure more on a day to day basis and we prefereed to just pay for and make our ADRs ahead of time - made for a no-brainer each day while there. To us the DDP was worth it because it made our vacation a bit more special and definitely different from our regular life. Flashing that card at each meal was so great!

DDP = $100 a day for a family of four.
Fantastic restaurants, all of the fun of character meals, and not worrying a bit about the bill while on vacation = Priceless !

 

[mrs.elliott]

I agree the DDP is a lot of food, but you don't have to eat every single itty bitty bite to enjoy it and for it to be a great deal. We purchased the DDP for our honeymoon last year and really enjoyed being able to eat at all the places we ate at - it was part of our experience. When we returned home we had 0 TS, 0 CS, and 0 Snacks, with that being said, you probably are assuming we are little pigs, but that's not the case. We enjoyed all of our food but in small portions. Every TS meal we ordered an appetizer, drink, entree, and dessert, but we only at about 3-4 bites of everything (so there was about 3/4 to 1/2 left) - there was only 1 occasion that we finished all our food and that was at LeCellier (yum). We did the same thing for the CS meals too, we ate a little bit and went on our way.

 

[mefordis]

I don't work for Disney, nor have ever. I was a management consultant in a previous career. (During that period I was pretty quiet, online, because I was under a gag-order.) I "retired" when I got fed up with the traveling, and am now, happily, a software developer.

We're DVC members, and invite guests to come with us and share our villa each year. This year, our guests are my wife's cousin and her husband.

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity! Sorry, I know it was a bit OT.

 

[MinnieMousse]

Can you add on the DP when you get to the resort? DH and I already have Florida resident passes and AAA Magic Your Way 3-day tix with PH option. I looked on the Disney website and they seemed to be saying that Florida residents were not eligible, but I don't know what the rule is here.
Also, does anyone know anything about pricing and who to call in advance about this?
Thx.

 

[bicker]

Can you add on the DP when you get to the resort?

Sorry, no. The Dining Plan must be added in advance. If you're staying on DVC points, the DVC member needs to make these arrangements through Member Services prior to check-in. If you're a regular hotel guest, the Dining Plan must be added to a qualifying vacation package, again, prior to check-in, and the package must include park admission purchase (even if you already have admission passes), and may be capacity-limited. The vacation package cannot be discounted (except under certain specific circumstances, including certain, but not all, AAA packages, but those only through AAA, not through Disney directly) but rather must be "rack rate" (full price).

With regard to how long in advance, I've heard various numbers ranging from three days and up. However, remember, for regular hotel guests, it may require a change to a different reservation to get onto a qualifying package (with a corresponding change in room rate) and also may be unavailable due to capacity limitations.

 

[MinnieMousse]

Okay, great thanks . You just answered a HUGE question for me, and I think helped determine that we should NOT do the plan. I also figured that the DDE would not pay for us unless we had kids or were sure to return to Disney this year, both of which are a negative for us. Although...after this trip you never know...we might get hooked and want to come back ASAP Anyways, thanks for the help, I guess we will just have to try to eat on the cheap. Shouldn't be too much of a problem because I can eat ice cream for at least one meal a day !

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Dh just read this and he is soo excited now! haha!! the skinny guy that can eat alot and not gain a pound

 

[nluvwithmickey]

I have been on the ddp twice already and I do agree that it is alot of food. The first time we chose the most expensive items on the menu and had to eat EVERYTHING because we had paid for the DDP and wanted to maximize it. (Honnest mistake, I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this!)


The second time using it, we remembered summer of 2005 so we opted to go another way and not look at the prices so much. We opted for a CS breakfast. I know, not very wise to do when using the DDP. Especially with no dessert. But heck, I don't have dessert when I have breakfast at home so what'S the big deal.

We then had a snack during the day, and finished off with a TS early meal. I think that spacing your meals out and not trying to get as much out of the DDP as you can get works more for us. This time it will be free(even better!), so we will probably do it the same way.

 

[shelwoj]

We had the DDP last year and loved it. We take our camper and stay at FW. After trial and error we figured out how to use the plan to our best advantage. When we ordered app and desert, we tried to order what would hold up to being put in the fridge and eaten for breakfast! I'm sure the die hard breakfast food people are cringing! We did not use all the snack credits but we just hadn't figured out how to maximize our use of those, but we will next year! We have two adult sized teenage boys and wow was this worth the money to us. This plan probably isn't for everyone but it sure gives you options. We almost felt like it was an all inclusive vacation because we never had to drive anywhere and the only time we used our money was for souveniers. Can't wait til next year's trip.

 

[MinnieMousse]

Kudos on the camper thing! That must have been really cool
As we are only the two of us and no kids though, I don't think we'll be DDPing or DDEing this time.

 

[shelwoj]

Kudos on the camper thing! That must have been really cool
As we are only the two of us and no kids though, I don't think we'll be DDPing or DDEing this time.

Ahhh, no kids, a girl can dream right?!!

 

[Sammie]

Instead of it being too much, I think some are trying to eat too many food items they don't normally eat to max out the cost savings and therefore are out of their comfort zone.

If at each TS you get the most expensive appetizer, the largest entree and the most elaborate dessert, then yes you are going to be sick of it.

However if you get some TS with only the salad or soup, smaller, less expensive entree and fruit or sorbet for dessert, it is not bad at all.

Also same with CS, many are going to places simply to get the most bang for the buck and yes that is too much food.

Basically we ate what we would eat off the plan, used our snacks for water and fruit and breakfast danish and managed very well.

We also did one signature meal and that helped with the TS situation.