Disney Dining Plan - 2 Adults for 7 day park pass

[piinksharpiie]

Hello everyone!

Just a question. I'm new to all this Disney planning and have researched the Disney dining plan. My question is, is it worth the money to purchase the dining plan over paying out of pocket for every meal?

Hubbie and I won't be eating breakfast with the dining plan (if we go to breakfast we'll pay out of pocket as we rarely eat breakfast). Hubbie can eat quite a bit, and I eat moderate amounts. Most meals that we get at a restaurant tend to cost between $18-$30 here where we live (if that helps with portion size or what we like to eat on a regular basis).

Have looked at both the Quick Service (the one with 2 quick service meals per day per person) as well as the regular Dining Plan (the one with 1 quick service and 1 table service meal per day per person) and I think we would prefer the regular dining plan, as it would be nice to go to a sit down restaurant at the end of the day for dinner.

Any input? I know going with the dining plan it would be a piece of mind and not have to budget each day for food. I should also state that we are planning to be in Orlando for 8 full days, and spending 1 day at the waterpark and 1 day at universal studios.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[aaarcher86]

You have to do the math for yourself based on where you want to eat. It's different for everyone. For two adults, with one day not on property, it'd probably be better to go OOP.

You'll be charged per person based on the number of nights you're at the resort.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

If you are just looking at the strict monetary value then you'd need to look at menus and decide where you'd be likely to eat and how much you'd be likely to spend, factoring in the one day you will not be around to eat at a Disney restaurant and your water park day which you might end up restricting to counter service since there are no TS restaurants in the waterparks. Your park pass isn't relevant, it's how many nights you stay at the resort. Not sure what 8 full days works out to, but if it's 9 nights at a Disney resort you have to get the dining plan based on all 9 nights.

If you are mostly interested in the peace of mind that you feel might come from having your meals prepaid, then the actual cost of the food might not matter all that much to you.

 

[MrInfinity]

My question is, is it worth the money to purchase the dining plan over paying out of pocket for every meal?

Hi,

With 2 adults, you will be hard pressed to cherry-pick restaurants and entrees that would add up to the amount the DDP will cost. This is cuz you have no kids in your party, and kids are the most valuable to get the plan for. Particularly when you have kids and want to do the expensive character meals with them.

Since you're just 2 adults, you would most likely be better off OOP. The DDP includes prepaying for a soda, entrée and dessert for each of you at every meal! Whereas paying cash, you might split a soda, split a dessert, or want a beer or appetizer or something else that isn't on the plan.

As others have said, add up a typical day and you'll probly find that it comes out cheaper to pay cash when you're talking about 2 adults in your party. Pull up the menus on allears or disneyworld.com and see for yourself what your days might look like.

Any input? I know going with the dining plan it would be a piece of mind and not have to budget each day for food.

There is this, but the peace of mind alone would not be cause for us to get the DDP unless it was worth it too. (or at least close to break-even)

 

[piinksharpiie]

Thank you for the input! Hubbie and I will definitely just do the OOP rather than the DDP