Dining Plan vs. Out of Pocket

[Farro]

I think that if you are going to worry about wasting credits, not spending enough to justify the plan, trying to make sure you order high priced items and generally just being stressed out that you might be losing money on the dining plan - the dining plan is not for you! Which is perfectly fine.

We purchase the dining plan and don't look back. I don't concern myself with what I order, etc. - it's paid for. I don't bother to try to figure out if we are losing money, saving money, whatever. We tend to order the more expensive items anyways no matter where we eat, but there are times I just want a burger. I figure it all evens out in the end!

 

[LoopyDoopy]

I think that if you are going to worry about wasting credits, not spending enough to justify the plan, trying to make sure you order high priced items and generally just being stressed out that you might be losing money on the dining plan - the dining plan is not for you! Which is perfectly fine.

We purchase the dining plan and don't look back. I don't concern myself with what I order, etc. - it's paid for. I don't bother to try to figure out if we are losing money, saving money, whatever. We tend to order the more expensive items anyways no matter where we eat, but there are times I just want a burger. I figure it all evens out in the end!

You probably ought to be paying OOP and "don't look back" since based on what you describe, you're probably spending more than you should.

 

[Farro]

You probably ought to be paying OOP and "don't look back" since based on what you describe, you're probably spending more than you should.

c'est la vie!

 

[dclpluto]

I never got the dining plan looked into it a few times and couldn't make it work where I save money. For dvc members and annual pass holders it's harder to make it work.
You can make it work the Norway dining if you eat there that day you will be saving money. On rol or fantasmic packages them days you will be saving money. A lot of other days it's hard to make it work. Wife is a vegetarian which is even harder to make the dining plan work.

 

[Nancyg56]

You probably ought to be paying OOP and "don't look back" since based on what you describe, you're probably spending more than you should.

Maybe yes, many not. If this family tends to order more expensive items on teh menu, as does my family, the few times that someone orders less expensive meals will even it out. I hate looking at the cost of the menu items, and I will do so without the plan. I don't with the plan.

The bottom line is that the choice needs to include the dining habits and the menu preferences of each family. That is why we have all suggested that the OP look at menus, plan meals think about what the family normally wants on vacation, and then make the decision. For my own family, I know that once it's paid for, I never look back and concern myself with the individual meals. I've done the legwork upfront, so unless I really miscalculated, we will come out ahead. My DD likes to keep track and so far she has concluded we do better than if we paid OOP. I woudl be not only looking back...I woudl be looking ahead, and that is not one bit of fin for me.

 

[TheGecko]

For my family of five we tried the DDP once and that was it. It was too much food and too much wasted for our tastes at each meal. At the end we ended up buying a bunch of candy to use up our snack credits.

I don't think you save any money, and I like flexibility in my dining such as sharing a couple of appetizers or desserts instead of everyone getting something.

When we paid out of pockets, still eating one sit down a day, we made out better than the cost of the DDP for a week and we were never hungry.

 

[jsternad]

we like to eat well when we're on vacation, so the dining plan has worked out for us well our last 2 trips. did it save us hundreds of dollars? no, of course not, but from doing the math we either broke even or saved a hundred or so. to me, even breaking even is worth not having to worry about it.

 

[amberpi]

I don't eat the way the plan is set-up so it'll never work for me. I think you need to consider - do you WANT to eat that way, vs. can you save money if you did. Being shackled to such a prescribed dining plan would make vacation very not so vacationy to me. We got it once WAY back in the day, when apps and all was included and it was far too much food without restaurants we wanted. It sucked really, but it was free randomly and we were staying at the CR so, whatever, but I honestly hated the whole thinking about credits business. Never again.

 

[kranzaldua]

We've been to Disney 5 times now, and have just now used the dining plan on our most recent trip. After all of the negative chatter throughout the restaurant threads, I thought that I was going to hate it--but I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't. My boys are young, so we did a Tusker House-ROL package, a Hollywood & Vine-Fantasmic Package, and a Be Our Guest dinner as some of our meals. We used probably at least 10 snack credits @ the kiosks the day we walked around Epcot at the Flower & Garden Festival. Most things were between $4-$7, so I felt like it was an excellent use of snack credits, and that was our lunch for the day. Having the refillable mugs was nice, especially since the boys drug me to the pool every. dang. day. The last day, we did have a few snack credits left, but is it really that bad to pack a few Mickey rice krispie treats (or in my boys' case- Goofy pixie sticks) for the road? As I said, we've always paid OOP and that was fine, but I did enjoy the "cashless" ways of being on the DDP. I really thought I would feel "tied down" by the credits, but it really was a non-issue--especially since you pretty much book your TS meals at the 6 month mark anyways. It wasn't nearly as bad as I had always anticipated. It was actually a good experience. I tried to be diligent about keeping up with prices and such, and I'm pretty sure we came out ahead this time compared to if we had done it OOP. So there's the perspective of someone who has done it both ways. If you do decide to go for it, definitely do your research (especially about snack credit options), and may the odds be ever in your favor.