Disney Dining Plan..Help Me Decide

[GOOFY4DONALD]

My question is both dining plan and budget related so I thought I would post here first. Last December we used the dining plan. We had no problems with it and it did really help with our budget. Not that we saved so much but that everything was paid for ahead of time and that made it ver easy. But I am ashamed to say that we did waste food. Not because we wanted to "get our money's worth" but we would go to a counter location and all get our own meal and many of the meals were big (I thought I was going to burst after Pizza Planet).

My DH and I have decided that we wanted to do a few things different. We would like to do more breakfasts as a TS and then snack around the parks for lunch and dinner. After I did a quick calculation I figured that we want to do 3 TS breakfasts, 1 TS lunch and 1 TS dinner (all but the lunch will be buffet or family style). We are a family of 5 (kiddos then 12, 9 &6) and we are planning 7 nights.

I am trying to figure out if we will save money by not getting the dining plan. With all of the new changes and I am sure a price increase I just cannot figure this out for myself. The reason I am asking so early is so I can budget for it either way.

Thank so much for your help.

 

[septbaby]

It will cost you $38 per day for each Adult (3) and $10 for each child (2). That's $134 per day plus any tips and appetizers you order.

You've planned 5 TS meals for what is likely a 6 night trip. So your DP cost would be $804, which includes all taxes.

You have to look at the menus and decide if spend $800 on the plan or paying OOP is the better value for your family.

As for wasting food, that's your call. TS credits are generally per person, but CS meals are very sharable and you should likely plan to share. Also the appetitie of the 12yo (son?) is probably a bit different than last trip so buffets and DP may be just the ticket.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

It will cost you $38 per day for each Adult (3) and $10 for each child (2). That's $134 per day plus any tips and appetizers you order.

You've planned 5 TS meals for what is likely a 6 night trip. So your DP cost would be $804, which includes all taxes.

You have to look at the menus and decide if spend $800 on the plan or paying OOP is the better value for your family.

As for wasting food, that's your call. TS credits are generally per person, but CS meals are very sharable and you should likely plan to share. Also the appetitie of the 12yo (son?) is probably a bit different than last trip so buffets and DP may be just the ticket.

We are actually planning on 7night 8 day trip. We really only want 5 TS meals but if we go with the dining plan we will go ahead with the 7 Ts meals. My 12 yo is a girl but she is hard to tell. When she was there last time she barely ate but sometimes at home she eats a ton.

 

[Jubilee]

You are going to the F&W festival? Sounds like you love food... I would probably go ahead and get the DP

 

[irunnoft]

I think you will do well with the DDP, also.

 

[irunnoft]

I think you will do well with the DDP, also.

 

[Tricia1972]

I am going to be the voice of dissent here, but you sound a lot like us. We're snackers by nature, and we did not do well with the DDP in October 2007. We wasted a lot and always felt very full.

We went again in March 2008 (gotta use up those AP's you know) and we went without a dining plan.

We did much better without the plan.

One concern we didn't have in March was "Is this snack covered by the plan" Quite frequently what I wanted weren't snacks covered by the plan. I could have found a snack that was covered by the plan, but it wasn't what I wanted. For this I was glad we were paying OOP.

We occasionally split and shared meals. Not because we had to, but because we wanted to. We never left a restaurant so stuffed that we didn't want to move, and we rarely left much food on the plate. If we got hungry later, we grabbed a snack.


For your group, without knowing the specifics of where you're eating, it'll break down kind of like this:

Buffet Breakfast $20.00 A / $12.00 C (Including Tax)

Buffet Lunch $22.00 A / $13.00 C (Including Tax)

Buffet Dinner $32.00 A / $16.00 C (Including Tax)

Breakfasts $252.00 (3 Breakfasts)
Lunch $92.00
Dinner $128.00
Total OOP for TS $472

The DDP cost for you is $938. You would get two more TS Meals, but as you already calculated you aren't sure you want them.

Certainly anyone can make the DDP work out for them value wise. The question is do you want to eat that way? If you do - then I say go for it. If you want to eat the way you outlined with the 5TS meals, I would guess that you can do so much cheaper than paying for the DDP.

 

[goofygirl7]

I have never used the DP, but we talked to people who did last time we were there, and like you said, they complained that they always felt so lethargic because instead of more little snacks, they sat down to huge meals and then didn't feel like moving in the heat afterwards. Unless you're used to eating lots of heavy meals, I would avoid and just do the snacking thing. That's what we do, and to be honest, with the heat and excitement of the parks, we end up eating way less (and drinking more water) than we do at a typical day at home.

 

[skier_pete]

DW and I love the dining plan, but we love to eat as sit-down restaurants and I like the fact that we don't have to "watch our pennies" throughout the trip...which I would be doing if we were paying OOP. Plus it gives us an excuse to eat dessert.

But...if you don't care about many TS restaurants you definitely can eat cheaper without the DDP....my previous calculations were 4 Table Service meals over a 7 day trip would be the point beyond which the DDP would be cheaper, but if you do 3 of 5 for breakfast you will probably be OK.

In particular, you have a 12 year-old which forces you to pay for a third adult in your party, making her cost $38 per day and she might rather eat off the children's menu at CS.

Let's put it this way...you probably won't save much money being off the DDP, but it won't cost you much and you might enjoy it more.

SkierPete

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Thanks to everyone..esp for breaking it down for me. When we were on the dining plan it seemed like we were always eating or rushing off to eat. I really wanted to get a little bit of everything in Epcot WS but since I knew we had a dining res. we just didn't get to. And in most counter service locations my kids, esp because they were so excited, could have shared one meal.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

I have never used the DP, but we talked to people who did last time we were there, and like you said, they complained that they always felt so lethargic because instead of more little snacks, they sat down to huge meals and then didn't feel like moving in the heat afterwards. Unless you're used to eating lots of heavy meals, I would avoid and just do the snacking thing. That's what we do, and to be honest, with the heat and excitement of the parks, we end up eating way less (and drinking more water) than we do at a typical day at home.

What they said was true. MGM was the worst day. We skipped breakfast and ate at Pizza Planet around 11. We left totally stuffed (and I didn't even finish mine) then we had ADR's at 50's PT at 4:15.

 

[Tricia1972]

What they said was true. MGM was the worst day. We skipped breakfast and ate at Pizza Planet around 11. We left totally stuffed (and I didn't even finish mine) then we had ADR's at 50's PT at 4:15.

You bring up more good points about Epcot and about your MGM day. Without the DDP, if you just aren't in the mood for dinner (or are in the mood for something light) you can just cancel your ADR and do your own thing.

 

[choirfarm]

My sil decided not to do the dining plan because they did not want to live life around food and could care less about TS. You mentioned that it helped you to budget. What they did is that they bought gift cards and then used them to pay for their meals. That way you can have a budget and have it already paid for.

Christine

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

My sil decided not to do the dining plan because they did not want to live life around food and could care less about TS. You mentioned that it helped you to budget. What they did is that they bought gift cards and then used them to pay for their meals. That way you can have a budget and have it already paid for.

Christine

This is what I was thinking. We do want to make a few ADR's but we also want to be a little flexible. With a gift card we can add things that are not on the dining plan and they could be paid for in advance as well. Our family really enjoyed Trail's End (we stay in the cabins at FW) and we discovered that we don't need to make reservations months in advance to get in there either (according to my calculations Trail's End esp breakfast is not a good deal if you use the dining plan)