Dining Plan.... worth it for our 1st DVC stay?

[GBPackers]

We are new DVC members, and will be arriving Wednesday next week through the following Tuesday. 6 nights, but we arrive late afternoon on Wednesday, and check out early on Tuesday. I feel those 2 days would be pointless.

I was quoted for a family of 2 adults and 2 kids at $873.

Yes, we have made our reservations for character dining, but wondering if its worth it to pay $873 for 5 days, not including any gratuity? $175 average per full day?

Off the bat, I'm thinking no. Thoughts? A good rule of thumb to go by?

Thanks

 

[rlovew]

It depends on where you are eating and what meals- we don't use the dining plan because it is not set up to help the way we eat. We rarely eat a full counter service mea, we like to order appetizers at meals, I only drink water, we tend to eat more sit down meals at lunch, sometimes for dinner we want flatbreads in the lounge- none of these things help make the dining plan a good choice for me. There are calculators available on the dining board that allow you to plug in reservations and check to see if you would save money. No one can tell you if it makes the besr sense for you without knowing what you plan on ordering.

 

[GBPackers]

Main ones we are doing are:
- Chef Mickey for Breakfast
- Princess at Epcot for breakfast
- Winnie the Pooh breakfast
- Hollywood and Vine breakfast


Have a few smaller ones in there for dinner.

I'm thinking it won't be worth it.

 

[gray52]

Main ones we are doing are:
- Chef Mickey for Breakfast
- Princess at Epcot for breakfast
- Winnie the Pooh breakfast
- Hollywood and Vine breakfast

Have a few smaller ones in there for dinner.

I'm thinking it won't be worth it.

It all depends on your families eating habits. Everyones different. If you typically eat sit downs every day, with dessert and beverages... And you each eat a full counter service once per day, and you typically buy snacks each day, you (might) come out ahead. Doubtful... but it is possible. We never eat breakfast at the parks... We have a big breakfast in the villa, eat lunch at the park, head back to our villa around dinner, eat something small, then park hop to a different park for the nightcap. It's part of the reason why we went DVC (to have the kitchen/washer & dryer). The dining plan was just way too much food (and we are not shy about eating) for us. The more often we visit, the more we eat in our villa.

 

[disneynutz]

Some people eat steak at $38 per person, others use the same credit to by a $9 hamburger. The value all depends on how you use the plan.

Like most things Disney, the plan is there to make Disney money, not to save you money. Over the years Disney has adjusted the plans to make them more profitable to a point where they have little value.

Check out the menu prices for yourself and see how the plan will work for you.

Bill

 

[Annielkd22222]

Main ones we are doing are:
- Chef Mickey for Breakfast
- Princess at Epcot for breakfast
- Winnie the Pooh breakfast
- Hollywood and Vine breakfast


Have a few smaller ones in there for dinner.

I'm thinking it won't be worth it.

If you are just doing breakfast...then no. I usually eat lightly at supper and go to Epcot. It might be worth it if you are doing suppers.....but, I don't think breakfast is a good value.

 

[BillPA]

If you plan another trip in the 12-13 months after this trip, you might look into the TIW card.

 

[robinb]

How old are your kids?

Personally, I would not waste prime touring time eating breakfast at a bunch of character meals. I you moved some of those breakfasts to lunch or dinner how much do they cost? Pricing can be found here on the DIS.

 

[Dean]

Main ones we are doing are:
- Chef Mickey for Breakfast
- Princess at Epcot for breakfast
- Winnie the Pooh breakfast
- Hollywood and Vine breakfast


Have a few smaller ones in there for dinner.

I'm thinking it won't be worth it.

I think it really depends on what you end up with for dinner and for the basic plan, how you use the QS options. I'd suggest you take what you have and fill in the blanks then go through the menu's and compare prices. It sounds like tips would be around the same either way so that won't be much of a factor in the DP discussion. I bet it ends up being worth it in this exact situation but you need to go through the specifics to be sure. If it's about break even, don't do it due to the risk involved.

 

[Donna M]

The advantage of being DVC is that you can prepare meals in your unit if you have the 1 bd, even the studio though more limited. You would need to be eating all your meals out and purchasing the most expensive items to make the meal plan work. Some people think that's the best for them since they are on vacation and don't want to cook. For them the meal plan is for convenience and it works. It doesn't work for us because we eat breakfasts in and a couple of dinners too. I just can't justify the expense now with the price increase. Plus, it bothers me that I would be spending in one week what I would normally spend for over 2 months for groceries.

 

[davedmaine]

You're correct in your thinking; don't do it. You will not save money. If you want the convenience, take that $873 and either put it on a gift card or pay your credit card in advance. You'll come out ahead, trust me.

 

[DanenRox]

I have to go with the easy answer of "No, the dining plan is not worth the money". That's not to say there aren't good reasons to use the dining plan. Many folks enjoy going to other resorts for dinner...using the dining plan does tend to take you to locations in WDW you wouldn't otherwise go. The dining plan also allows for character meals which are ridiculously priced out of pocket. And if you don't have a car and are destined to eat all of your meals inside Disney, then you really do want to look into a meal plan. But, the dining plan is never a good financial move....it's a splurge, it's an indulgence and if that's where you want to invest your dollars, by all means, enjoy!!!!

 

[gray52]

I'm thinking that our family of 4 (me, DW, DS8, DD5) spent about $600 between buying groceries and eating at the parks (I realize every families eating habits are different... Just threw it out as an example). Even though we went back to our villa for dinners, it was still much less restrictive than having to be in a certain park on a pre-determined day.. And hungry at a pre-determined time.
And that $600 included BEER!

 

[Dean]

The advantage of being DVC is that you can prepare meals in your unit if you have the 1 bd, even the studio though more limited. You would need to be eating all your meals out and purchasing the most expensive items to make the meal plan work. Some people think that's the best for them since they are on vacation and don't want to cook. For them the meal plan is for convenience and it works. It doesn't work for us because we eat breakfasts in and a couple of dinners too. I just can't justify the expense now with the price increase. Plus, it bothers me that I would be spending in one week what I would normally spend for over 2 months for groceries.

I'm not convinced that members save much money (overall) related to the kitchen usage even in the full kitchen. I know some do buy think most don't.

 

[rowlands57]

We are new DVC members, and will be arriving Wednesday next week through the following Tuesday. 6 nights, but we arrive late afternoon on Wednesday, and check out early on Tuesday. I feel those 2 days would be pointless.

I was quoted for a family of 2 adults and 2 kids at $873.

Yes, we have made our reservations for character dining, but wondering if its worth it to pay $873 for 5 days, not including any gratuity? $175 average per full day?

Off the bat, I'm thinking no. Thoughts? A good rule of thumb to go by?

Thanks

From all I hear you need to eat a lot and tie up time at sit downs for this to work. For myself and my girls it never made sense and I think we come out ahead in the long run. We bring some breakfast bars with us to start the day and usually have an early counter service lunch where we often share 2 meals. Dinner typically at the various spots in EPCOT like the cafe in France and Norway. If sit down is important to you maybe the plan "could" make sense. But still it's a lot of up front money that you may not get full value for.

 

[Docmom]

We only do the meal plan if it makes sense for where we plan on eating. Have done the deluxe meal plan once but that was WAY too much food and it seemed like we were eating all the time. We usually have breakfast in the villa then if paying OOP have a table service lunch and then either a snack in the parks or a lighter meal (sandwiches, pizza, etc) in the villa. If we get the meal plan then we have counter service for lunch and table service for dinner. I usually figure out where we want to eat and if not a buffet what we'd probably order. You can find menus with prices at a variety of websites. Then you can see if it's worth it or not for your family to do the meal plan. I do admit I'll order a more expensive meal more often when on the meal plan than when paying OOP. Another thought to consider is the psychological one. I have a friend who always does the meal plan because it stresses her husband out to see the Disney prices once all added up. They get their money's worth because they do a lot of character meals and buffets and it doesn't stress him during their vacation.

 

[geraghty]

We are new DVC members, and will be arriving Wednesday next week through the following Tuesday. 6 nights, but we arrive late afternoon on Wednesday, and check out early on Tuesday. I feel those 2 days would be pointless.

I was quoted for a family of 2 adults and 2 kids at $873.

Yes, we have made our reservations for character dining, but wondering if its worth it to pay $873 for 5 days, not including any gratuity? $175 average per full day?

Off the bat, I'm thinking no. Thoughts? A good rule of thumb to go by?

Thanks

How old are your kids?

 

[mb_uh]

We love the ddp, but it has to make sense four family.

 

[RipperSB]

There are some nice spreadsheets out there where you can compare OOP with Disney DP and TIW. Plug in your restaurants, meals you would order, tip you would leave and then the results page adds it all up. For our next trip (12 nights in Dec) TIW would only save us $38 compared to $150 or so with DP vs OOP. The biggest strike against TIW was that a large number of the restaurants we selected do not participate in the TIW program, along with the fact that we're not big drinkers (OK, we'll be having some beers at Biergarten).

 

[Antonius215]

Our family of five did the dining plan once. Once.

It was too much food for us (we ended up with snacks that we picked up because we could, and then brought them home), and with the price we found that we really didn't save any money, we spent more. Now we make a grocery trip when we arrive, we do breakfast in our room and (being local with a minivan) we bring along our crockpot and make a dinner or two while we are there as well. This allows us to not feel so guilty about enjoying the sit-down dinners at some of the nicer restaurants.

Also, the TIW card really works for us. We recouped the cost of the card after our 3rd day.