Dining plan...worth it??

[mom2aprincenprincess]

So, we went to WDW 7 yeas ago and were fortunate enough get the dining plan for free, and I absolutely loved the convenience of it. Has anyone ever done the math for the plan vs paying for each meal out of pocket while on vacation? Does the dining plan save you money, or is it just more for convenience? And which plan offers the best bang for the buck?

 

[Hikergirl]

I doesn't save us money, but it may for your family. There are many factors to consider and it really takes some research to see if it works for you. If you have young kids (non Disney adults) and do alot of character dining it can work in you favor to save money. Otherwise I think it is more for convenience, which I don't really get since it isn't inconvenient to just pay for your meals.

 

[loves to dive]

You are going to get a different answer from everyone, worth it is subjective. For us, no. We don't eat the way the plan is structured, I don't make ADRs until the afternoon while we are walking around. Some days we want formal meals and some days we just do snacky type things all day. When I eat QS I eat a kid's meal. More often than not, if we eat TS, I will eat a salad and an appetizer and we will share a dessert because I just don't eat large meals. You would need to do the math to see if it was worth it for you. Think about where you think you might want to eat, check out the menus and set up a spreadsheet with the costs. Be honest with yourself and don't put down the most expensive thing on the menu if that isn't really what you would want. I'm not a huge steak or beef fan so more often than not if I eat an entre it is chicken or fish. Do you always drink a soft drink or something with your meal or do you drink water? Do you always get dessert? Do you eat two snacks a day? We don't (or rarely) snack between meals. If we eat a dessert we often share. I don't drink anything except water, a cup of coffee in the morning and refreshing adult beverages. You just have to do the math and decide for yourself. And just for the record, free dining plan is not free. They charge you rack rates for the room and you have to buy tickets. Often you can get your room at a discount and get your tickets somewhere at a discount.

 

[Piglet]

I'm thinking of the same thing for our upcoming trip - I like the convenience of the dining plan (just scan the band and go on) and LOVE it when it's free dining. But I'm trying to figure out if it would be just as well to link a credit card to the band and still come in at less. Time for me to run some numbers off the menus. My decision will depend on any promotions for early 2019.

 

[dreamit]

For my family, if it's free dining it's worth it, otherwise it's not. To start with, we typically do not eat dessert with our meals. At Disney, I'd much prefer to select our own treat separate from what's offered at the TS restaurants. Additionally, we do not always have drinks, other than water, with our meals. Though, now that adult beverages are included in the plan, it may make it a little more "worth it". Also, every time we've done the dining plan, we're burning up snack credits on the last day buying packaged snacks we wouldn't have purchased had we not had the remaining credits. My suggestion is to do the "math". There are menus with prices online that can give you a pretty good idea of what you intend to spend on your meals. I've heard that the plan can start to be more "worth it" when you have a number of children qualifying for the child plan price.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

I like the dining plan whether its free or I'm paying for it.
I like the convenience and I find that it does save me money epsecially if I want to do a TS restaurant every day.
I feel that the DDP is the best dining plan option for me.

 

[cwoww]

We've done the dining plan once. I don't think I would purchase it again. We ended up with 20 snack credits to waste at the gift shop before our flight. Unless you are doing 2 credit meals, and a lot of them, i would just pay OOP unless you score the DDP for free on a promotion.

 

[Marionnette]

So, we went to WDW 7 yeas ago and were fortunate enough get the dining plan for free, and I absolutely loved the convenience of it. Has anyone ever done the math for the plan vs paying for each meal out of pocket while on vacation? Does the dining plan save you money, or is it just more for convenience? And which plan offers the best bang for the buck?

It's totally subjective. What works for you may not work for someone else. We each have to do the math for ourselves and then decide. If you qualify for other discounts (AP, DVC, Disney Visa), take those into account. If you qualify to purchase one, a Tables in Wonderland card may be a better investment. Or if you live outside of the U.S. and expect your currency to go down vs. $USD, then locking in the dining plan at current exchange rates is not a bad idea.

For us, it's not worth it for the way that we dine out, although there are times when I'm doing a split stay where I may purchase the DxDP for one night and spread the credits out over two days. One night seems to be a fair deal for us. More than that and it's a money-loser.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

There are lots of sites and a dining calculator to really dig into that data if you look at menus, etc.

I have a simple batch of questions I ask to determine if the plan will save you money, or just be more convenient...

1) Are you trying to get at least 1-2 Character Meals a day out of your trip?
2) Do you have at least ONE child guest that will want to eat off the adult menu? And do you have an adult guest that may want to order from the kids' menu?
3) Do you have party members who will just not survive without massive quantities of food?

The #1 question is really the most important one. Near as I can tell, Disney's restaurants/credits and the Dining Plan system are supposed to work in conjunction to provide Guests with more themed experiences. If you don't care about Character Meals, and you order breakfast food for your hotel room and you eat Snacks and Quick Service only, yeah please do not try to "save money" by using the Dining Plan. If you're eating appetizer-sized portions at Table Service, and you cannot or do not want to bag up the rest in take-away boxes and nibble on it for the next three hours, don't do Dining Plan. Assuredly, if the situation for your family LOOKS complicated in conjunction with the Dining Plan, really, don't get it! Just manage yourself on giftcards or the room account, or OOP.

edit: and now there is alcohol to consider in the value of the plan. if you DON'T drink alcohol then Dining Plan will be even more difficult to get more value from.

 

[dmiller882]

Seeing WDW decided to change the quick service dining plan we will not be purchasing it. For years Disney had two table service plans one without alcohol and the other with. We don't drink alcohol and don't care to drink a milkshake ever time plus we have a family member that can not drink milk. So Disney we will be saving money thanks to your money hungry dining plan.

 

[FCDub]

Yep, YOU need to look at menus and do the math here. Other people have, but because everyone likes to eat different things, what might be a value for some is not one for others.

 

[Jose V.]

My 2 cents. If you have the time to plan way ahead of time and you want to do some character meals. I think its worth it.

 

[MillauFr]

The point of the Disney Dining Plan is not to save money.

 

[TexasBee]

Dining plan for us works out to $300 / day (ballpark.) Some trips that works for, this one it does not, so we'll be doing gift cards for meals instead.

 

[KelNChrisKYDis]

As others have already said, it's very subjective and impossible to answer. For us, it's absolutely not worth it. There are days we eat strictly QS and small bites, and days where we will eat TS including signature dining. We are not TS every day people, and we don't do much character dining, either. I don't find it more convenient personally, we pay with our MB and it's just as easy in my opinion. I know people love the DP and swear by it but it's just not for our family. Your mileage my vary.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

The point of the Disney Dining Plan is not to save money.

10000% this. SO many people get caught up on "saving money" with the dining plan. It is VERY hard to come out ahead or even break even on the DDP, unless you are doing a ton of character meals. However, that doesn't necessarily mean it's not "worth it". It really depends on your definition of worth. For my family we find value in the convenience of having everything pre-paid. We like feeling free to order anything on the menu (even if it's the most expensive dish). We like allowing the kids to order whatever snacks they want. We like the option to have an alcoholic drink with our meals. All of those things make it worth it to spend a little more than we may spend OOP.

 

[dmaxphil]

We've done split stays before and did a Deluxe plan in the first portion of split - 3-4 days. It was worth it then because we scheduled all our character meals for those days and were able to spread it out an extra day on check-out/check-in at next resort. Ended up saving quite a bit of $$$. As has been said, character meals and or buffets with multiple kids can turn it into a value.

 

[clutter]

I like the convenience. Usually we about break even, even though we don't usually do desserts or soft drinks. However, this year I'm heading down with my newly minted 21yo dd. Another newly minted 21yo is joining us for the first part of the trip, then my 26yo niece is coming for the second part because she never got to do drinks around the world like her friends did when she turned 21. I'm sure those alcohol credits will put us into the 'saved money' category this trip!

 

[Darcy03231]

Unless you're planning on doing a character meal every day, I don't find the dining plan is worth it. There's a good calculator here:

https://www.distripplanner.com/

A lot depends on how you eat as well. I typically don't eat the most expensive things on the menu, don't eat dessert and drink mostly water. If it's my mom and I we're both light eaters and tend to have share meals or have soup/salad and an appetizer. I also don't drink much alcohol. For us the dining plan is a waste of money.

For our upcoming trip it will be two adults and a child. We're going heavy on the character meals (one a day). When I used the calculator I save $200 by buying the dining plan. There's also the convenience of having most (if not all) of our food paid for up front.

 

[kymom99]

Unless you're planning on doing a character meal every day, I don't find the dining plan is worth it. There's a good calculator here:

https://www.distripplanner.com/

A lot depends on how you eat as well. I typically don't eat the most expensive things on the menu, don't eat dessert and drink mostly water. If it's my mom and I we're both light eaters and tend to have share meals or have soup/salad and an appetizer. I also don't drink much alcohol. For us the dining plan is a waste of money.

For our upcoming trip it will be two adults and a child. We're going heavy on the character meals (one a day). When I used the calculator I save $200 by buying the dining plan. There's also the convenience of having most (if not all) of our food paid for up front.

The good part about having a child, the quick service credits aren't differentiated. By that I mean they are all the same so you don't have to get kids meals with any of them. You could stretch things out by getting adult meals with those.