Dining plan vs oop

[minniesbiggiestfan]

Is there a deal with the DDP or is it just a way to have it all bundled together. Just curious as I am trying to decide what to do Just wondering what the savings is. We would be doing the one quick service one table and one snack plan.

Thx
JJ

 

[DisGirl1971]

Is there a deal with the DDP or is it just a way to have it all bundled together. Just curious as I am trying to decide what to do Just wondering what the savings is. We would be doing the one quick service one table and one snack plan.

Thx
JJ

We have gone to WDW many, many times and have been using the dining plan since they brought it out in 2005. It does not save as much money as when it first came out, but still saves us a couple of hundred dollars vs. out of pocket spending. Generally, if you are going to eat at least 1 sit down/character meal per day, then the regular plan will same you some money - and it is nice to have everything paid for ahead of time and not have to look a prices on the menus. We did the deluxe plan the year it came out and, for us, it was way too much food and it just took up too much time to do all of those sit down meals. I think the only way the deluxe plan can save you money is if you are doing mostly dinner shows and 2 credit meals.

What dates are you going? They seem to have a lot of free dining deals during "off season" weeks.

 

[minniesbiggiestfan]

We are planning to go in September. We week of the 16-22nd.

 

[solana131]

The last time I went to WDW was 20 years ago and we have never stayed on property. I struggled with this question too while planning. What I did was:
I had a general plan of which parks we would be at on which days. Then I made a spreadsheet (Excel or similar) with the days of the week and under each day I broke it out into breakfast, lunch, dinner then across I did each person in the family. Then I went to AllEars.net and figured out where we were most likely to eat and what we would most likely order. (Who knows if we will stick with this plan or not, it was just to give me an estimate.) I entered in what each person would get and added it all up. My figures came out almost $100 below the cost of the regular dining plan. And my parents are treating us to 3 days, so the first 3 days we don't have to pay for food. That made it much much cheaper than the dining plan.

I also think it depends on if you have kids and what their ages are. If they are over 9 and picky eaters, you are paying for the adult menu. With a 5 yr old it was better for us to just do OOP. Some meals he will just share with us, some meals he will get kids menu, some meals he can get adult if he wants. I wanted that flexibility with him.

But if you haven't already, look on AllEars and check out hte menus. Get a basic idea of how much it woul dcost OOP and compare that to the plan price.

 

[Mrs D]

As PP said, it pays to do the math to determine if a dining plan will help you save any money. I'm finding more often it's a break even but, there's still a value for having it all pre-paid, getting the dessert for lunch and not refusing the children a treat.

I have an old version of a dining comparison excel spreadsheet that I update each year. I did however find Cafeen's excel spreadsheet to share. http://www.allansanschagrin.com/disney-dining-plan-cost-analysis-spreadsheet/. You will need to update the dining plan prices and don't forget that magical seasonal upcharge!

HTH!

 

[minniesbiggiestfan]

Thank you. I'll try and work out some numbers

 

[JCornell]

Two ways to look at it:
- as other posts have said, look at the menus and decide what you'd most likely get and then compare to the price of the dining plan. This is a good thing to do.
- Go through the menus again and ask yourself, if price were no object might you order something different or like to. That's how you'll be ordering if you're on the dining plan, so it's another way to look at it. Also, would you pick different places to eat if price wasn't an issue? Caution: Don't forget that tip isn't included and ordering pricier food will mean a higher tip if you follow convention.

I think there's value in both approaches since off the plan I'd be lying if I said price wasn't a factor in what I choose. Likewise, price is a factor when I'm on the plan too and I'll find myself intentionally getting a pricier item just because I can.

Other considerations:
- Do you normally get dessert? If not, is it because you don't like to or because it's added expense? You'll all be able to get a dessert every night which is big for some people and nothing special for others. We dine out often and never order dessert at home. On the dining plan we order dessert almost out of obligation since it's "included" at least until later in our trip when we're sick of it.
- Do you normally have a soft drink or an alcoholic drink with dinner? I usually have a beer and my kids always drink water so the included beverage doesn't do anything for us.
- Do you normally get an appetizer and eat a lighter dinner? If so, the dining plan is probably not for you. The dining plan used to also include an appetizer (and tip, too) but that's been gone for a few years now.

 

[Singinglizzie]

just be careful of your OOP dining estimates. We opted to go OOP since I thought I could save a few dollars by going this route. In hind-sight I should have just booked the dinning plan, since we went to the F&W festival and they accepted snack credits at many of the booths - which I didn't know about. In short, we ended up spending much more than I had budgeted for, plus the hassle of watching my $$ instead of just ordering and enjoying. I think if we had gone on the DDP - it would have worked out better since we could have used the snacks credits. I think you can save about 20% if you use the table credit for your dinner, the counter service for lunch and the snack for breakfast.

 

[momH2the4th]

As others have said, I like having all my food paid for before we go. It's so nice not having to worry about how much meals cost while we are there or what the kids are getting for snacks. We always end up having to use up our snack points on our last day.

We do a lot of character meals, so for us (a family of 6 with 2 of our kids counted as adults) I think we come out ahead. I don't know by how much. I tried to keep track of all of it last year, but got overwhelmed with all the receipts. My goal is to figure it out this year while we are there.

For me, it's peace of mind of not having to keep to a budget!

 

[allboyhouse]

For my family we definitely come out ahead by getting the dining plan. We are a family of 5 with 3 boys 11, 14, and now 17. They eat like it's their job! This past May we had free dining and upgraded to the deluxe plan and it was wonderful. The boys never complained of being hungry, we did 2 dinner shows and several character meals. We didn't spend a penny in the parks on food. But if you have younger children who are not big eaters it may not benefit you. I agree with going go allears.net to look at the menus.

 

[mjp12831]

DDP is not necessarily a savings tool.

It will save you money if your plan is to do higher priced (usually buffets and character meals) places, but it will not save you alot of money anymore because over the last few years DDP prices have gone up alot.

You can also eat significanlty cheaper OOP if you want/need to do that to stay within budget.

There are plenty of threads on the boards that go back and forth with opinions - but essentially both people are right. So far this thread has given you the reasonable answer - figure out where you are eating and do the math.

I still like it for piece of mind - all of my meals are prepaid, and I don't have to scrimp if the kids want an ice cream or if someone wants to order a more expensive menu item. If I was paying oop I would be concerned about controlling spending which for me detracts from the enjoyment.

 

[pamkat1820]

I personally think the DDP is the way to go. With our family; me, DH, D5& ds2 it is less stressful. I don't have to worry about having enough cash on me for our meals. This year because my son will not b on the DDP, I am loading a GC with enough $$ for the week to pay for his meals. I also checked the prices and estimated the cost of our tips I going to load the card also with that figure. Less cash to carry the better.
Personally I think if u are planning character meals u get the most 4 your $$ this way.

 

[lsulindy]

I saved receipts from our two trips and we came out way ahead by paying OOP. For 1st trip, we did 1 TS and 1 Character Meal and the rest quick service. We spent 50% of my food budget. (I had made my budget based on the DDP price for us.) Last trip we did 3 character meals, and the rest quick service and it was 75%. The way we tour, it just isn't worth it. For others however, it is. This site has a really good analysis:
http://www.easywdw.com/worth-2/figu...isney-dining-plans-make-sense-for-your-group/

 

[Mrs D]

DDP is not necessarily a savings tool.

It will save you money if your plan is to do higher priced (usually buffets and character meals) places, but it will not save you alot of money anymore because over the last few years DDP prices have gone up alot.

You can also eat significanlty cheaper OOP if you want/need to do that to stay within budget.

There are plenty of threads on the boards that go back and forth with opinions - but essentially both people are right. So far this thread has given you the reasonable answer - figure out where you are eating and do the math.

I still like it for piece of mind - all of my meals are prepaid, and I don't have to scrimp if the kids want an ice cream or if someone wants to order a more expensive menu item. If I was paying oop I would be concerned about controlling spending which for me detracts from the enjoyment.

This really sums it up! There is no wrong answer, what works for each family and for each trip won't necessarily work for everyone.
Whatever you decide have a magical trip!