Dining Plan - What's the big deal??

[blessedby3]

We have never gotten the DP. We have 2 of our 3 kids that would be "adults". For 4 adults and one child thats like $170 per day. YIKES!! We can eat much cheaper than that on our own. We dont eat that much table service anyway. It takes up a lot of time. I like that we dont have to be at a certain place at a certain time for a meal. We just get something when we are hungry. Our kids arent huge eaters and we split lots of meals. I usually budget $100 per day for food and many times we dont spend anywhere near that. We eat breakfast in our room and take snacks into the parks. By splitting meals we can easily eat for $30 or less at counter service for our family of 5. MY DD17 eats less than my DD8. I just cant see spending that much money for her.

 

[ribbot]

Like I said in my earlier post, I am not for or against the DDP---but I do have a few questions for people that say it's not for them.

When you say you snack in the parks or in your rooms. Where do you get the food that you are eating? Do you buy it in a grocery store before you get there, or do you buy it in the hotel gift shop, etc? Or do you pay to ship it down beforehand?

Also--the types of snacks you pack with you for the parks, don't you get tired of eating the same things over and over? or for breakfast, maybe you might wake up one morning and want a donut, bowl of cereal or an omelette versus those same Pop Tarts? How would you keep enough variety of things to keep everybody happy in the family, everyday? Isn't that costly?

These things add up too. Especially if you buy them at the local grocery store before going to the hotel, or in the gift shop. Are these prices included in your daily allotment that it doesn't add up to the cost of the DDP? Shipping a box can be costly also. Gardengrocer charges a delivery fee.

DH, DS (4 at the time) and myself ate at a CS and it was close to $30---how does a family of 4 adults and 1 child eat for under $30 at a CS, with splitting it?

We did not do DDP our last trip, but will be doing it this time around---it'll be interesting to find out what we think of it and if it ended up being worth it for us. But these are some of the questions I have for you all that say the plan is not for you--just out of curiosity.

 

[eliza61]

Our 5th trip to DW is June 15th for 10 days. We have never used the dining plan but have been reading a lot of posts about how great it is. Can someone help me because I just don't see the value for our family? When we are at Disney food is the least of our concerns. We usually eat things we packed from home for breakfast, snack through lunch and eat a decent dinner. We don't do character meals anymore since the kids are 15 and 12 and do not require upscale sit down dinners - particularly at Disney. We typically spend less per day than the cost of the plan. Is there something we are missing? Thanks for any help!

No you're not missing any thing. It's just a pre paid dining plan. Every situation is unique. We did the dining plan once but since you have to give up your room discounts to qualify, we save a lot more money with our AP pass and the DDE card. We also are disney veterans so we generally don't make a lot of ADR's so it bugged us to have to be at a certain place at a certain time. When we purchased it in June of 06 we ended up with a lot of TS and CS credits left over so we don't use it anymore.

 

[KirstenB]

Like I said in my earlier post, I am not for or against the DDP---but I do have a few questions for people that say it's not for them.

When you say you snack in the parks or in your rooms. Where do you get the food that you are eating? Do you buy it in a grocery store before you get there, or do you buy it in the hotel gift shop, etc? Or do you pay to ship it down beforehand?

Also--the types of snacks you pack with you for the parks, don't you get tired of eating the same things over and over? or for breakfast, maybe you might wake up one morning and want a donut, bowl of cereal or an omelette versus those same Pop Tarts? How would you keep enough variety of things to keep everybody happy in the family, everyday? Isn't that costly?

These things add up too. Especially if you buy them at the local grocery store before going to the hotel, or in the gift shop. Are these prices included in your daily allotment that it doesn't add up to the cost of the DDP? Shipping a box can be costly also. Gardengrocer charges a delivery fee.

DH, DS (4 at the time) and myself ate at a CS and it was close to $30---how does a family of 4 adults and 1 child eat for under $30 at a CS, with splitting it?

We did not do DDP our last trip, but will be doing it this time around---it'll be interesting to find out what we think of it and if it ended up being worth it for us. But these are some of the questions I have for you all that say the plan is not for you--just out of curiosity.

I'll try to answer for our family. We drive to WDW and are DVC members so we have use of a full kitchen. For breakfast, dh and dd1 do breakfast bars. I do cereal, as does the baby. However, even with just a mini-fridge, this is easily do-able.

I know we're weird, but we honestly rarely snack in the parks. The meal portions are huge, so we're usually pretty full. However, we don't bring snacks...we might buy a Coke a day to share, and 1 or 2 ice creams for the whole trip. We do snack in the evening back in the room. Sometimes I pack chips from home, sometimes buy them at the resort.

For us CS at say Columbia Harbour House would run us around $20. This is based on 3 chicken strip meals and a large Coke. This would be plenty of food, our 9 yr old shares her meal with her 20 mth old sister.

The DDP has never made sense for us. We don't like being on a schedule, there's too much food, and would spend too much time eating instead of playing.

It's not that we never have a TS meal. We do one character meal each trip, and will do 1 maybe 2 TS dinners. I can see the benefit for others...I have a good friend who swears by DDP, it just wouldn't work for us.

 

[KirstenB]

ooops, my bad. My estimate at Columbia Harbour House was off...I need to add in a milk for the baby. Last trip she was on formula, so she didn't need a drink. Anyway, it would still be under $30.

 

[F4disneyfan]

Our 5th trip to DW is June 15th for 10 days. We have never used the dining plan but have been reading a lot of posts about how great it is. Can someone help me because I just don't see the value for our family? When we are at Disney food is the least of our concerns. We usually eat things we packed from home for breakfast, snack through lunch and eat a decent dinner. We don't do character meals anymore since the kids are 15 and 12 and do not require upscale sit down dinners - particularly at Disney. We typically spend less per day than the cost of the plan. Is there something we are missing? Thanks for any help!

No idea what teh big deal is we only ever eat 2 meals a week out during our 2 week holiday the rest of our meals we cook in our room one of the greatest things about having a DVC membership is the full kitchen and washer and dryer in teh room with us.

 

[taximomfor4]

I can only speak for myself and my family, but for us the Dining Plan is a HUGE saver. Given the way that you tour the parks, it probably is not to your benefit to use the DP. We always have one sit down meal a day - ALWAYS. Sometimes it is a character meal, sometimes it's just a table service meal, like at 50's Prime Time or Sci Fi Drive In.

The price of a character meal is approximately $28.00 for adults, approximately $13.00 for children.

The DP costs $38.00 per day for adults. That's $10.00 more than the character meal, and I cannot purchase both snacks and lunch for under $10.00 at Disney.

For our family, it just makes sense. But, like I said, we always plan for one sit down meal a day.

When one is doing the Math to decide on the DDP, it's also important to factor in the difference between rack rate and a discounted room (for my family to get the ddp it would cost about $150/day. BUt then if the AP discount is $40 off a mod resort room, paying rack rate would cost us $80 more per day (we need 2 rooms)....so the DDP would be costing us $230/day. Oh, and by purchasing our tickets through ticketmania (except my AP), I saved ~$140. For a 7-night trip, divide that by 7: $20/day. So now the DDP would have cost me $250/day. To feed myself, dh, and 4 kids (one adult-pricing), we wouldn't spend $250/day, especially with DDE card!

So the math is much more complicated, really....making the DDP a good value for some, but not for others.

 

[Zoemakes5]

I think the DDP is a great deal IF:

You typically want to do a TS meal everyday or do some experiences during your trip that are "enhanced" and would typically use two TS.

and/or

If you do a couple of TS meals (particularly ones that aren't "all you can eat") during your trip.

and/or

If you want to splurge and try some "great eating" for not much more money than you'd typically spend.

For us, we'd typically do a couple of character meals and perhaps one sit down meal (generally at EPCOT) that's not a character meal. The "snack" credits would typically cover what we'd do for breakfast. We'd do CS for the rest of the meals. Perhaps go offsite if we had cars for one meal or DtD. Soooo, for us, for pretty much the same amount of money, we'd be able to "splurge" and do more sit downs, maybe another character meal, purchase things at the restaurants that maybe we wouldn't otherwise, try an appetizer that we may not have purchased but looks interesting. If we stay on site, I'd want to do the DDP. Could I do WDW without it? Yes. Have I? Yes. We could bring more food, eat lunch in the room or dinner in the room. We could eat all CS and share meals. All of which would be cheaper. But for us, I think the DDP would be a good deal and a great experience. Plus, even if it's a buffet or all you can eat, I LOVE the ability to "wind down" a bit, have seats to sit in, not have to fight for them with others, to be able to all sit at the table and either be served or go get our food quickly without having to have scout around for tables while a couple of us stand in line and wait for food. I also like that at TS meals (even not the super fancy ones) you have more of a non-fast food selection. I've never eaten at the "fancy" restaurants at WDW....Mexico, Japanese Steakhouse, Garden Grill, Alfredos, Chef Mickeys, Liberty and Tony's are pretty much it. But, those give the benefits we're looking for.

Bottom line is figure out a mock budget. Maybe even "three". One would be the cost of the DDP.....39 x amount of days x amount of people=total cost. One would be "this is what we typically would eat". Remember to include tax and whatever tips would apply, as they are included in the cost of the ddp. Remember to add in drinks and snacks, if you typically buy them. And, then, maybe a third of "this is what we would like to do" (maybe one of your DS's would like to have a nice steak dinner? maybe one would like to go to Coral Reef? or see Pooh? Maybe someone would like to go to Hoop de do review? Who knows, but the point here is to look at what people might like to do vs. what you typically do.) To find out if it would work FOR YOU, compare the charts and see what you come up with. I don't agree with others to compare what the DDP cost is vs. what all the items that you'd get on the plan would cost without the DDP. That will almost always be a better deal. The better question to ask is whether it will be less expensive for the type of eating you typically do or you'd like to do. You may not typically get 4 appetizers for four people, perhaps you wouldn't even want to. Maybe you typically would get salads for everyone, and it would make sense. Maybe you'd not typically get deserts, maybe you wouldn't want them.

When I've played with the numbers, I get pretty equal numbers from the "what do we typically do", so it's a good value for us. If I did the "what we would like to do", we're coming out way ahead with the DDP.

The other non-economic "issues" that pp have mentioned would still apply. If you're doing TS you have to plan more. Even on the DDP, you don't have to eat as much as you "could" get. Or, you can save deserts for later snacks, that type of thing.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

No idea what teh big deal is we only ever eat 2 meals a week out during our 2 week holiday the rest of our meals we cook in our room one of the greatest things about having a DVC membership is the full kitchen and washer and dryer in teh room with us.

We are DVC members too and while I love the convenience of having the kitchen there, we rarely use it. I like being on vacation from the normal mom duties of cooking-although I still do the laundry. Some stuff you just can't get away from!

 

[bzzymom]

We have done the DDP twice now and have liked it. We tried restaurants we have never been to. We did save money because it was during free dining, and you can't beat that at all. However, we probably won't do it this upcoming trip because DD (3) isn't sitting very well in restaurants now, and with the DDP there is a TS every day. I plan on only having 1 character meal, and 2 TS meals, the rest counter service and breakfast in the room.

It all depends on your park strategy and eating habits.

 

[TheBigQ]

Like I said in my earlier post, I am not for or against the DDP---but I do have a few questions for people that say it's not for them.

When you say you snack in the parks or in your rooms. Where do you get the food that you are eating? Do you buy it in a grocery store before you get there, or do you buy it in the hotel gift shop, etc? Or do you pay to ship it down beforehand?

Also--the types of snacks you pack with you for the parks, don't you get tired of eating the same things over and over? or for breakfast, maybe you might wake up one morning and want a donut, bowl of cereal or an omelette versus those same Pop Tarts? How would you keep enough variety of things to keep everybody happy in the family, everyday? Isn't that costly?

These things add up too. Especially if you buy them at the local grocery store before going to the hotel, or in the gift shop. Are these prices included in your daily allotment that it doesn't add up to the cost of the DDP? Shipping a box can be costly also. Gardengrocer charges a delivery fee.

DH, DS (4 at the time) and myself ate at a CS and it was close to $30---how does a family of 4 adults and 1 child eat for under $30 at a CS, with splitting it?

We did not do DDP our last trip, but will be doing it this time around---it'll be interesting to find out what we think of it and if it ended up being worth it for us. But these are some of the questions I have for you all that say the plan is not for you--just out of curiosity.

I can only speak for our family and our situation but here it goes. For our family convenience, flexibility and options are more important to us then saving $50 which is appoximately the savings we would have by my estimates. So for us its not a matter of $.

We are bringing some snacks and having some groceries delivered (we're staying DVC as well w/full kitchen so storage is not an issue). After adding up the expense of grocery delivery and figuring cost per person its much cheaper to bring snacks to the parks. Everyone knows Disney jacks up prices on everything...they have a captive audience...its good business. Our snacks may not be as exciting as Disney's snacks but whose to say we can't buy snacks at the parks. I fully intend on having Mickey bars/popcorn etc. Again for us its about convenience, flexibility and options. And w/young kids who may not understand why we have to wait in line for a drink or snack having one immediately in my backpack is priceless. My DS7 eats constantly so instead of running to the foodcourt or a vendor everytime he wants something to eat saves me a lot of time and energy.

I'm glad the DDP works for some but for us right now it doesn't work. Maybe someday when our kids are older we'll try it. I think to figure out if the DDP works, its a money issue but its also about knowing family habits and what the family priorities are. If its having a table service meal then great if its swimming at the pool or going to the parks after a meal in the room or CS then great. To each their own.

Have fun!

 

[Andrea from PA]

My family of 5 (3 kids, 2adults) used the Plan 12/2005 and will be using it again 12/2007.

For us it was great -- My DH needs a "break" more then the kids do, so having a Table service meal built into our day was great. And remember, the DDP includes gratuity (although we tipped more for some service).

My DD (will be 6 for 12/2007 trip) loves the princesses and wanted a Princess MEal. My DS (will be 11 for 12/2007 trip) heard a lot about Hoop Dee Doo before our 12/2005 & wanted to do that -- so the DDP really helped cover these expenses we would have had.

Also, we fly in & use Magical Express, so no grocery stops or anything. The DDP worked out well for us this way without me having to lug snacks in suitcases or get a transport to a grocery store.

 

[taximomfor4]

DH, DS (4 at the time) and myself ate at a CS and it was close to $30---how does a family of 4 adults and 1 child eat for under $30 at a CS, with splitting it?

We did not do DDP our last trip, but will be doing it this time around---it'll be interesting to find out what we think of it and if it ended up being worth it for us. But these are some of the questions I have for you all that say the plan is not for you--just out of curiosity.

Example....we usually have about a meal per day in our resort's food court.
DH: Very Sloppy Joe - $6.09
me + dd13: Parmesan Crusted Chicken $7.99
3 kids meals @ $3.99 each $11.97
--------
$26.05
20% DDE discount - $5.20
---------
$20.85

Even if dd13 or I were really hungry that day, so got a separate meal, after discount that only costs about $7. So 6 people eating CS for under $30.

 

[design_mom]

Example....we usually have about a meal per day in our resort's food court.

--------
$26.05
20% DDE discount - $5.20
---------
$20.85

Does DDE discount apply to counter-service meals? My mom just got an annual pass (her first year) and has been trying to decide whether to sign up for DDE. She thought that the discount only applied to "select" table service restaurants. If it counts on CS, too, that's a whole new ballgame!

 

[taximomfor4]

Does DDE discount apply to counter-service meals? My mom just got an annual pass (her first year) and has been trying to decide whether to sign up for DDE. She thought that the discount only applied to "select" table service restaurants. If it counts on CS, too, that's a whole new ballgame!

It counts at SOME counter service locations. The resorts that don't have full-service restaurants accept DDE at their food courts. Since we need 2 rooms, we only do value resorts (no TS restaurants)-- and if we do splurge for a moderate resort, we'd do POFQ (also doesn't have any TS restaurant). Their food courts accept DDE. Also, since AK doesn't have the TS restaurants the other parks have, both Tusker House and Flame Tree BBQ accept DDE. We tend to be back at our resort to wind down, so we eat at the food court with the discount!! And don't have to buy drinks, either, because we get refillable mugs!

Also, the only TS we ALWAYS ALWAYS do is CP at MK on our last day, before driving home. Sometimes we'll book TS lunch to get out of the heat during the hottest part of day. Breakfasts and lunches are cheaper, and nobody in my family is ever very hungry at the end of a long, hot day at WDW in August! So TS Dinners, we can definitely live without, and not miss them.

Beth

HTH!
Beth

 

[Dianewes]

Well, I have never had the DP until this year, Can't wait until August!!! I think it is going to be great for me, and here is why.

#1 We do look forward to the meals at Disney, MGM just would not be the same without Sci-Fi or 50's Prime Time and there could never be a trip to EPCOT without a dinner at Japan.

#2 I love the idea of not having to worry about paying for my meals once I am there.... all paid for before I arrive.

#3 The tip is included!! When doing the math I find that it is a savings to use the DP

Of course I have not yet tried it, I am getting it free in August ... lets see how I feel after using it!!

 

[deedeetoo]

Is it worth it for your family, you need to do the math.

Since we just went last year for a week it was easy to see what it would cost us without the plan. This is how we traveled - brought some breakfast stuff with us in checked luggage, used Garden Grocer for other breakfast items, snack items, fresh fruit, and water. With the exception of one character breakfast, we ate all our other breakfasts in the room. Several days we skipped lunch and had Mickey Bars instead. Only ate a regular CS lunch two days. We had 4 TS dinners and the rest were CS. Total cost (3 adults, 2 kids) was $932.

The meal plan is going to cost us $973. Now that is $40 more, but we will get to eat 7 TS, and we don't need to worry about what we order. If someone wants the most expensive item on the menu, no problem. If someone wants to order a dessert just to try it and they aren't really hungry, no problem. We can order appetizers even though we don't normally do that and it doesn't matter if we don't eat them all.

The one thing I do worry about is making all our ADRs. Last year we ended up not making 2 planned dinners - once because everyone was just too tired, and once because it was pouring rain (and I mean buckets) and we decided not to venture out.

 

[F4disneyfan]

We are DVC members too and while I love the convenience of having the kitchen there, we rarely use it. I like being on vacation from the normal mom duties of cooking-although I still do the laundry. Some stuff you just can't get away from!

We prefer having the kitchen and maing our own meals especially with kids that can tend to be picky especially with some of the meals offered at Disney LOL. Plus we drive and bring the crock pot and do a nice raost and veggies etc in that along with a nice lasagna and such. The wife also doesn't do all the cooking I do quite a bit of it to. I just never saw the point of the DDP I can't be tied to a meal schedule to make time to stop for a table service dinner or a lunch meal etc. We also just pack our lunches to bring with us and eat breakfast in the room before we leave for teh parks.

 

[JMLBrats]

I'll probably get flamed for this but DH and I think that the DDP is just ruining table service at WDW. The menus are now all very similar and the quality of both food and service in certain restaurants (Le Cellier and California Grill come quickly to mind) has declined IMO. We have never used the dining plan because we just don't eat that much in a day. We do use the 20% DDE card since we are AP holders.

I don't necessarily think that the quality of the food or the menus have changed much but I will say that even though we DO the plan because it is a great value for people who like to have sit down meals, I do miss the days when you could just pick up the phone at your resort and make a reservation at whatever (within reason and time of year of course) restaurant on property you were in the mood for that evening. I do have a hard time dealing w/ the whole ADR's six months in advance thing. Kind of takes the fun out of it but bottom line is you have to do it if you're on the plan or even if you're not on the plan now-a-days just so you can get a decent sit down meal....

 

[jodifla]

I'll probably get flamed for this but DH and I think that the DDP is just ruining table service at WDW. The menus are now all very similar and the quality of both food and service in certain restaurants (Le Cellier and California Grill come quickly to mind) has declined IMO. We have never used the dining plan because we just don't eat that much in a day. We do use the 20% DDE card since we are AP holders.

ITA! The DDP is RUINING Disney Dining, and those who participate are speeding along its decline.

We use the DDE, that way, we can pick among the dining experiences at WDW that are still worth it. We use our DVC kitchen for the rest. We eat a lot better, drink a lot better, and spend less money than on the dining plan.