Disney dining plan vs pay as you go

[dpswift]

My whole preference for the DDP was that I like not paying as I go. The ability to pay $200 more ahead of time to not deal with my menu price anxiety is so worth it.

I do understand why people without my anxiety find OOP better.

This I understand. I enjoy myself knowing that meals are taken care of. Without the dining plan I start pinching pennies and insted of endulging myself I start ordering based on price.

On our trip to Disneyland last May. We stopped at a Target in San Diego and bought water, soda and beer for the hotel room. I had brought snacks with us on the plane. I however found myself stressing over meals. We ate at cheaper restaurants.

I prefer to go to charactor meals and order foods that I would normally consider too expensive. So for me it is worth it to do the DP.

 

[dpswift]

Another thing about the dining plan is the refillable cup. To me it is a part of Disney that I enjoy. I love walking to the Food court when everyone else is getting ready and getting coffee in my mug. I drink a good deal of coffee and we stay value so there is no coffee maker in the room.

Despite the fact that DH drinks primarily soda the refillable mug is the first thing that he cuts. We paid out of pocket when we stayed at AoA in the LM room for a weekend. We drove so we had soda in the room. I would not have gotten my monies worth out of the mug that trip but I still missed it.

 

[abmitch01]

I thought about it for the refillable mug but then you either have to carry it all day in the parks or take it back to your room after you use it and before you head out to the parks. More time wasted. We drank water at our resort and were fine.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

That's one reason we DON'T do the DDP.

We charge to the room - and we don't really worry about price (which was not the OPs case, thus, different advice). But we want what we want when we want it....not "do we have snack credits?" Tracking credits was more hassle than just paying a bill at the end

If we skip a meal in favor of three snacks, or my son decides to eat two counter service lunches, or snack becomes an order of fish and chips in Epcot, we don't worry about it - it all goes to the room and the bill gets paid at the end.

We just returned this past Saturday and I totally agree.

Sometimes we had ice cream for lunch or sometimes we had a larger QS lunch and mommy drank her dinner. while DH and the kids ate something light for dinner.

On vacation there are no eating rules for our family.

Only downfall we did cancel a Chef Mickey dinner reservation. It was hard to justify $140 for dinner. DD was a little disappointed. Last time we ate there was years ago when we still used the DDP. I didnt realize how pricey it was.

 

[dpswift]

I thought about it for the refillable mug but then you either have to carry it all day in the parks or take it back to your room after you use it and before you head out to the parks. More time wasted. We drank water at our resort and were fine.

I NEED my morning coffee but that is me. Since we have four in our room and I am an early riser it did not waste time in our case. I enjoy being up and walking around early.

I can only drink water if it is very cold so I would have to get dressed to get ice anyhow. When we stayed at AoA LM it would have wasted time so we did not get them.

 

[wishesuponastar]

The only time we stayed onsite we did the DDP when tips were included. We have talked that we would do the DDP again next time but now some of you have me thinking that we might be paying $200 more than OOP. That's a lot of money.

I really need to go over the menus and estimate what we would pay OOP.
Having said that, it was really nice to have the DDP and not have to pay for any food on our 6 days.

 

[Marionnette]

I NEED my morning coffee but that is me. Since we have four in our room and I am an early riser it did not waste time in our case. I enjoy being up and walking around early.

I can only drink water if it is very cold so I would have to get dressed to get ice anyhow. When we stayed at AoA LM it would have wasted time so we did not get them.

You can purchase the refillable mugs without having the dining plan. The cost is:

• $8.99 for one day
• $11.99 for two days
• $14.99 for three days
• $17.99 for Length of Stay

I was never a big fan of the mugs because I always found it too inconvenient to go to the refill stations at the resorts I stayed at. However, if you really like them and you would get good use from them, then you might want to rethink the dining plans and just purchase one mug for yourself on the next trip.

Oh, and you do not have to purchase the mug for your entire length of stay. You can get a 3-day mug even if you are staying 2 weeks. However, the 3 days would be consecutive, not cumulative.

 

[monorailsilver]

I NEED my morning coffee but that is me. Since we have four in our room and I am an early riser it did not waste time in our case. I enjoy being up and walking around early.

I can only drink water if it is very cold so I would have to get dressed to get ice anyhow. When we stayed at AoA LM it would have wasted time so we did not get them.

My kids used the insulated thermos containers last August. We kept our water bottles in the fridge, and I would get ice from the ice machine and fill up their containers at 7am ish. We'd come back for a mid day break and I'd refill them before we headed back out and their water still had ice in it. They always had cold water.

Dh and I used our double insulated bike bottles and our water stayed cool.

 

[wishesuponastar]

The only time we stayed onsite we did the DDP when tips were included. We have talked that we would do the DDP again next time but now some of you have me thinking that we might be paying $200 more than OOP. That's a lot of money.

I really need to go over the menus and estimate what we would pay OOP.
Having said that, it was really nice to have the DDP and not have to pay for any food on our 6 days.

I ran the numbers and it would not be good for us to pay OOP. We like the character meals and buffets. There are 4 of us all adult pricing

 

[Marionnette]

I ran the numbers and it would not be good for us to pay OOP. We like the character meals and buffets. There are 4 of us all adult pricing

And this is why there is no correct answer to the question "Is the Dining Plan worth it?". Everyone has different preferences and priorities. We don't like buffets (too many grubby fingers on the food) and won't pay for character interaction. We love the signature restaurants but not enough to spend 2 TS credits for dinner at them. So, we pay OOP and manage better that way. You've discovered the best option for yourself and we have discovered ours.

 

[monorailsilver]

So far the dining plan has not been worth it for us.

We are a family if 5 and I scour the menus if the places we like to eat at before we go and do an average price comparison of what I think we'd eat.

I budgeted $40/meal for the 5 of us and other then spending $50 at cosmic rays and the 2 planned sit downs at chef mickeys and WCC we were pretty much spot on!

We had cereal, pop tarts, bagels, muffins thAt I made at home, etc... For breakfast and I just had to buy milk. I had bowls and cups for breakfast as well.

I even bought 5 mugs and I was still under budget from the dining plan.

I am not opposed to soda but I know buying soda adds $$$$. So I told the kids, dh included, that we were only drinking water in the parks. Back at the poly they could drink all the soda they wanted and boy did they ever!

We don't do dessert at home for every meal so I don't need to do it while in vacation for every meal. Plus I want some sort of ice cream if I am going to have dessert not cookies, cake/pie.

Time will tell when we go back in 4 years...actually 3 years and 50ish weeks from now....if the dining plan will be a better option.

But one more thing is that I do rewards sites and get Disney gift cards that we use so even though I am paying $42 for lunch one day, in reality I am paying nothing since it was free money other then my time.

 

[abmitch01]

as for drinks, ordering diet coke and water from Amazon pantry was great. I got my daily diet coke fix. Also, we ordered pizza in the room a few times and got a 2l bottle at not so bad of a price, mate a few bucks?

 

[dpswift]

You can purchase the refillable mugs without having the dining plan. The cost is:

• $8.99 for one day
• $11.99 for two days
• $14.99 for three days
• $17.99 for Length of Stay

I was never a big fan of the mugs because I always found it too inconvenient to go to the refill stations at the resorts I stayed at. However, if you really like them and you would get good use from them, then you might want to rethink the dining plans and just purchase one mug for yourself on the next trip.

Oh, and you do not have to purchase the mug for your entire length of stay. You can get a 3-day mug even if you are staying 2 weeks. However, the 3 days would be consecutive, not cumulative.

Thank you. I would have considered it but it was before the tier system and I could not bring myself to pay for 2 days what I could get for 10 days.

As everyone has said it is a very personal choice.

 

[StitchBuddy]

We just got back a couple of weeks ago. We were there for 8 days and 7 nights. We had 3 "Disney" adults in our group. We spent $925.00. That incuded food we delivered tor our room. We ate one meal in the room each day, 4 table service/buffet character meals, and 10 counter service meals, plus numerous snacks. This amount also included tips and some souvenirs. The Disney dining plan would have cost us $1680 plus tips. It was a big saving for us to pay of pocket. When our DD was little and DDP included everything I think we broke about even.