Dining plan VS. No Dining Plan

[brianheather]

We are DVC member and thus have to pay for our dining plan. We tend to do the regular dining plan that had 1 snack, 1 quick service and 1 table service...
We are debating on not getting it and paying out of pocket... we don't eat breakfast because we have cereal delivered with our grocery order. Do you think it will be a savings, or will we spend more then the dining plans? Has anyone ever done this test to see?
Any info will help

Thanks

 

[disneynutz]

You need to do the numbers yourself using the food that you like.

For us the DDP is too much food, is now too expensive for what you get and to be honest with you, causes you to worry more about eating your next meal, than enjoying yourself.

I can eat at home and for the most part, Disney doesn't offer anything special in the way of eating.

Bill

 

[twinklebug]

Don't forget a third calculation: the TIW card gives you 20% off many TS meals (a few places are not on the list), as well as a small handfull of CS places. TIW automatically adds on an 18% tip for TS locations, so I consider as: tip covered.

It's $100 for DVC members, $75 for AP holders and is good for 13 months from date of purchase. Includes drinks or all variety. If I recall my calcs right, the breakeven point is somewhere around $400 spent to cover the $75 cost with an AP.

I prefer the TIW discount. With it I don't feel pressured into using up credits and keeping track of them. I also know we'll easily beak even in 13 months of use.

 

[brianheather]

Don't forget a third calculation: the TIW card gives you 20% off many TS meals (a few places are not on the list), as well as at least 1 CS place, maybe 2. TIW automatically adds on an 18% tip for TS locations, so I consider it the tip covered.

It's $100 for DVC members, $75 for AP holders and is good for 13 months from date of purchase. Includes drinks. If I recall my calcs right, the breakeven point is somewhere around $400 spent to cover the $75 cost.

I prefer the TIW. With it I don't feel pressured into using up credits and keeping track of them. I also know we'll easily beak even in 13 months of use.

Where can I buy the TIW card, and where can I find the list of Places that accept it?

 

[dsneygirl]

You need to do the numbers yourself using the food that you like.

For us the DDP is too much food, is now too expensive for what you get and to be honest with you, causes you to worry more about eating your next meal, than enjoying yourself.

I can eat at home and for the most part, Disney doesn't offer anything special in the way of eating.

Bill

Agreed. We also prefer to do breakfast buffets rather than dinner and TS at lunch which are usually cheaper to begin with. I would never order a dessert at a QS when they are so many yummy snacks to be had. But a lot of people just like the convienence of having it pre paid even though it may not really save them any money.

 

[rentayenta]

I just did a personal comparison in my pre trip report but will spare you the gory details aside from the major one that we'll save nearly $1,000 by paying OOP for meals. That's including the cost of groceries and the TiW card too. Depending on your dining style the DDP may not be right for you. It's not for us.

 

[hakepb]

TIW can be purchased at any theme park or DTD guest relations.

This has a restaurant list:
http://www.wdwinfo.com/disneydiningexperience.htm

Fwiw you are not limited to DDP it TIW. You could use both (meal on DDP and appetizer and wine on TIW. But that would mean a large drink bill to be worthwhile)

 

[permavac]

If you scroll down on page 2 of this forum there is a thread titled "meal plan" that has a lot of responses to your question. Sorry - I don't know how to do a link...

Terri

 

[brianheather]

We tend to eat at places like Whispering Canyon, Coral Reef, Captains grill, 50's Prime time cafe, Sci-FI etc. We tend not to eat the dessert at lunch either

 

[disney212]

We found we come out about the same once we include drinks and tie if it is just DH and I. If kiddies come (college age) then the DDP saves us since they eat each meal as if it is their last one. They even eat all the snacks and the desserts at lunch.

 

[twinklebug]

We tend to eat at places like Whispering Canyon, Coral Reef, Captains grill, 50's Prime time cafe, Sci-FI etc. We tend not to eat the dessert at lunch either

Those you listed accept the TIW card. I suggest you still take a careful look at the TIW list. I don't know all the excluded restaurants, but know Teppan Eddo and another popular one are not included in those that will give the discount.

 

[TandyR]

It's $100 for DVC members, $75 for AP holders and is good for 13 months from date of purchase. Includes drinks. If I recall my calcs right, the breakeven point is somewhere around $400 spent to cover the $75 cost.

Can you get TIW when you are DVC member but not an AP holder?

 

[twinklebug]

Can you get TIW when you are DVC member but not an AP holder?

Yup! This is new for us within the last year.

 

[TandyR]

Yup! This is new for us within the last year.

Woot! That is good news I need to do a better job keeping up with these sort of things.

 

[Mtnman44]

In agreement with previous posters, my humble opinion is that for our needs, the DDP is too expensive and provides more food that we would otherwise have needed or wanted.

In my experience, Two scenarios which may make DDP "worth it":

-If your schedule includes eating mostly at the more expensive buffets/character meals, you may find that DDP gets you to break-even or saves a couple bucks each day.

-If you have children and all of them are under 10, the DDP does save money this way, assuming you are going to eat lunch in the parks and a TS dinner every day anyway.

 

[jrtoastyman]

You need to do the numbers yourself using the food that you like.

For us the DDP is too much food, is now too expensive for what you get and to be honest with you, causes you to worry more about eating your next meal, than enjoying yourself.

I can eat at home and for the most part, Disney doesn't offer anything special in the way of eating.

Bill

This, exactly.

It's ultimately a personal decision and you just have to crunch the numbers, but it is unquestionably based upon what and how you eat, and if doing DDP requires you to eat a different way than you normally eat to realize a cost savings over paying OOP, you're not really saving money.

We did a trip that our relatives organized last June that included DDP. We got a ton of food, but it was frankly way too much food, and I felt like I was constantly planning around dining reservations to make sure that we didn't waste a credit, including eating an enormous plate of pasta at Tutto Italia at 2:45 in the afternoon because, you know, who doesn't want a heavy Italian meal right before heading back out into 95 degree heat?

Went back in January, and decided to go without the dining plan, eat whatever we wanted and see what happened. What happened was that we spent less on food -- significantly less, in fact -- and felt much less constrained from a time standpoint because we weren't always beholden to a dining reservation.

Full disclosure, though, we didn't eat as much as we did on DDP, which was actually a good thing. Probably ate more counter service meals than we did on DDP, but the table service meals we did eat were much better -- mostly Signatures -- and I enjoyed them more because it seemed a bit more special and I was eating there because I wanted to, not because I had to use a TS credit. Also in the interest of disclosure, I'm a bit of a food snob, and generally speaking, I don't think the food at most regular TS places is good enough to warrant the cost or the time, so I'd rather just get something to sustain me and spend that time doing other things.

To each their own, though -- it definitely works well for some people, but for us, we'll likely never do it again. Good luck!

 

[Dean]

IMO it's difficult to make the reg DP work from a numbers standpoint. You basically have to focus on the higher cost single credit options with the more expensive meals and the higher cost CS options as well, again with the higher cost meals. For CS the best options from a $$ standpoint are WP Express (DD location) and the Pepper Market. I'd suggest you work through the places you're likely to visit allotting the credits as if you'd be using them. Go through the menus and see what you'd order (both with and without the DDP) and then compare. IMO you need at least a 20% savings over what you would have paid for the same and a price that's no more than you would paid OOP without any plan based on what you would have ordered. Remember if someone gets ill or you have to leave, you lose the entire plan. The TIW card has a cost and basically only works for TS options but does cover ETOH as well.

 

[Kidanifan08]

This is our second year using TIW and we are spending and eating less. One thing we never liked about DDP was the forced dessert. This is especially true about the CS meals -- we get sick of chocolate cake and carrot cake! I also tend to enjoy an adult beverage at my table service meals, which is included in the TIW discount. TIW has allowed us to get some appetizers when we want and we can choose to skip dessert entirely. Although, after a couple of years on DDP, we did find desserts that we simply cannot pass up (fried won-tons at Y&Y), but we can split an order now.

Here is a link to the TIW website for the list of participating restaurants:

www.tablesinwonderland.com

One thing that we really like is that some of the CS restaurants at AK participate with the plan, which is great since that park only has Y&Y, Tusker House and Rainforest Cafe.

We have a 6yo and do about 3 character meals per weekly stay, but we still save money using TIW over the DDP.

Have a great trip!!

 

[fmer55]

We are DVC member and thus have to pay for our dining plan. We tend to do the regular dining plan that had 1 snack, 1 quick service and 1 table service...
We are debating on not getting it and paying out of pocket... we don't eat breakfast because we have cereal delivered with our grocery order. Do you think it will be a savings, or will we spend more then the dining plans? Has anyone ever done this test to see?
Any info will help

Thanks

Here is my math.....6 drinks per day x $6 per drink x 12 vacation days in the year=$432. With TIW i save $86.40. Cost of card is $75 with AP. I haven't eaten a thing and i am in the good!!

Take that mickey!!!

 

[Gowahoowa]

It seems as if I am in the minority, but our family loves the DDP. It saves us a considerable amount of money. I have created spreadsheets comparing DDP to Cash and TIW and every time, come out ahead. We enjoy having one TS and 1 CS per day. It gives us a break from the heat since we go in August.

We are on vacation and love eating at our favorite WDW restaurants so it works for us.

This August, we are trying the DxDDP so we are excited. We have ADR's at several Signature restaurants that we haven't dined at in many years!

I am considering purchasing a TIW card to help with alcoholic purchases. Does anyone have any experience combining the TIW with DxDDP? We are also traveling with a large group. How many people does the TIW card cover?