Disney Dining Plan - Yes or No

[Mad-Jasper]

In October, we will be making or 6th trip since 2005. This trip, however, we decided to skip the DP, saving about $600 (2 adults, 1-8 yr old) over a 7 day trip.

The reason is not the money as much as we hate to be tied down to reservations and always tend to over eat. Aside from one evening at 1900 Park, we will eat at the resort dining area.

What are some of your thoughts concerning the DP?

 

[soccerchick]

To ME, it seems like a waste if you are truly planning to eat at the resort. Maybe if you are staying at GF it would be worth it. You also don't like being tied to reservations. why not just go CS then?

No one can tell you what to do. Plan your vacation the way that works for you, then make a decision about DP.

 

[caroline1851]

I chose to go with the ddp because even, for the most part, just eating cs meals and paying oop with a drink and snacks, it would 've cost almost as much as the ddp. This way, we can do some character meals and some other places that i would normally be too cheap to pay oop for. Also, i like the idea of it being pre-paid. I figured out for us where we wanted to eat and how much it would cost oop and we'll be saving about $200. For us, worth it.
If you don't think it's for you, then you're making the right decision not to do it.

 

[Kazzy1548]

I agree with Mad-Jasper. We tried the Dp last year and did not enjoy being tied down with reservations for table services. We really enjoy the freedom of going where we want to go when we fell like it. We are definately not a camando style family either. It was stressful planning every momnet of the day. You really have to plan by what your family needs are. Every family is different.....

 

[MomofKatie]

We've crunched the numbers, and we end up saving $$ by just paying OOP. The way we eat, the DP just doesn't fit with our needs. DD doesn't like "kid food", so we ended up wasting most of her TS credits (we usually share 1 appetizer and 2 entrees between the 3 of us). We also aren't big on dessert, so we felt like we either wasted part of our TS credit, or we were trying to stuff ourselves. We also don't do many buffets, so we save $$ vs the DP that way.

We find that we tend to like having a TS meal once every other day while at WDW- one a day was too much. We budgeted about $85/day for the 3 of us for food our way. The DP would have cost us more ($86/day+ tip). Yes, we would have gotten a TS each day instead of every other day, but we were fine with that.

And now that DD is about to turn 10, the DP would be an even bigger waste. There's no way she could eat $38 worth of food each day!!

 

[moonpie85]

I'm a true beleiver in the DDP! However I guess it really depends on how much your family eats and what they like to eat. We eat alot and we eat expensive so the DDP saves us a ton!

 

[czycropper]

We just got back and we were on the basic DDP while at Disney (we also went to Universal & their meal plan is another whole bone of contention). We had done the DDP when we went 4 years ago and absolutely loved it!

This is time we were not as happy with it. I guess it was that we didn't get the Deluxe DDP and it was hard for us picking out the CS meals since we're mostly TS type people.

Also, I spoke with a couple of CM at the restaurants and they mentioned that it's a lot more paper work for them as well especially if there is a table with two/three families on the DDP and the adults have drinks or appetizers. This happened to us on our first night - we had three families with a total of 4 adults, 5 teens/tweens & one child - so three checks. The adults had wine & beer with dinner; one of the families had appetizers; another family had a smoothie (which is not included in the plan - it used to be included in the older plan). We ended up have about 6 sheets of paper for the table.

Having said that I will say that yes, we did save lots of money on the TS meals (we ate at Shutters-CBR; California Grill & Coral Reef) and basically broke even on the CS meals (CBR food court; El Pirata; Flame Tree) since we really didn't have desserts with the CS meals.

Also, we didn't use all of our snack credits since eveytime we went to one of the places they said that the machine was not working so we ended up paying for the water, Mickey ears, etc - that was very disappointing and it wasn't just at one park but at all of the parks.

We will probably not use the dining plan when we go back in a couple of years and just budget for the meals unless they change it.

 

[megdscott]

We have done trips with it and without it. Last week was our first trip with it. We loved it. I felt like I ate healthier while we were there. Instead of fast food constanlty, we ate real food. Neither hubby nor I ordered any alcoholic drinks or apps. When we got dessert we always split it with the kids since our dessert looked better than their's. The biggest expense was tipping at table service meals as the tip was always more than 20 dollars. We loved eating at EPCOT. Very YUMMY!!! We did not enjoy the Garden Grill-food was like that in a TV dinner, but the characters were great. We did end up with a few snack credits left.
Without DDP, we tend to buy a hotdog and split it between 4 of us, etc. So for us we will do the DDP for now on.

 

[Sleeping Becca]

We have done the DDP in the past but have decided not to use it for our upcoming trips.

1. DD turned 10, so she is considered an adult, so a huge chunk of the savings went out of the window.

2. We are appetizer people, and appetizers are no longer included.

3. The tip is no longer included.

4. We have AP's and the DDE card will save us just as much or more money than the DDP.

I still think the DDP can save folks money on their dining, just not as much as before.

For folks that don't eat at a lot of sit down restaurants on the their trips the DDP makes no sense.

If dining is a big part of your WDW vacation, then I think the DDP is workable, and could result in saving your family money. Just be smart about it and make sure your ADRs are good choices that will get the most of your dining credits.

If you aren't a big planner and will not make ADRs then, the DDP is not for you.

Caution: If you want to eat at a sit down restaurant at WDW, please make sure you get a reservation. The restaurants are very popular, esp since the advent of the dining plan. This is NOT an exaggeration, esp if you visit during the summer months or other busy periods. Even during "slower" times many restarants are full.

 

[ReneeA]

I think it depends on the family.

We do really well with it. If we didn't have the DDP, then we would typically eat 2 CS/food court meals a day (no dessert, just entrees and shared drinks), 1 or 2 TS meals during the week, and one snack per person per day I came up with a cost of about $85.00.

The DDP costs our family $94.00 per day. It makes sense for us to just purchase it because we are guaranteed a TS meal per day for about the same price. I made our ADRs a month or so ago and we are fairly flexible - if we decide we don't want to eat that then we'll call that morning and find out what is available.

 

[scoolover]

---no---

 

[pepe of ohio]

Do not like schedules or waiting around in a restaurant for 90 minutes. We're good to go, grab and eat people. The meals on property or huge and wife and I mostly share a meal, this way we get to try more places and aren't stuffed to the gills. We've never been dessert and appetizer people and from all our past 40 trips, I know what our food bill will run and the DDP won't save us a dime. We never know when we'll be hungry, know what we want and booking ADR's 2 months before leaving doesn't work. Some days we eat very little, CS does us fine, some nights we like a pizza from Crocketts Tavern and a pitcher of beer and if we run across someplace with something that catches our eye, we eat. DDP works for some but not for us.

 

[mizzouHHR]

It's a no for us also. We like to go on the fly without plans, or planning our entire trip around advance reservations. On the few places we eat, like character breakfast, we will make advance res., but other than that we just go with what sounds good at the time. Besides, we always go in may before memorial day, and it's not terribly busy during that time, and we eat at mostly CS. DDP just does not work for us.

 

[lustergirl]

I do the dining plan when it is the 4 of us, including my 2 teenage boys because hey they are teenagers and can eat you out of house and home. Because of our busy home lives we hardly get the chance to sit down and enjoy a meal together. Using the TS's on a good meal at disney is part of our vacation time together. Now I just experienced my first wonderful solo trip the first week of May and didn't utilize the DP because it was just me and I flew by the seat of my pants-. So long story short when all of the family goes We use the DP because it actually saves me money.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

We only get it on the "free dining" promotion. Our kids love the character meals but I'm too cheap to pay for them OOP most of the time. Right now, the DDP is a good value for us because we have a 2-yr-old so he eats free at the buffets so we made the effort to go during free dining. We don't normally eat that way, but I like being able to choose from lots of fresh fruits and veggies for my kids and for them to have something besides chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers and hot dogs.

For quick trips, we don't bother with the DDP because we go with a faster pace.

 

[Teacher510]

The first year we got it in 2005 it saved us lots of $$ since we had already planned enough TS meals anyway, that adding it on was a great way to go. We used it this past December since it was the same "old" plan with tip and appetizer included but I don't think we will again with the new plan since I don't think that we'll be planning that many TS again. We're doing the Land/Sea in August and since there will be lots of included food onboard and we'll be wearing bathing suits DD and I will probably share QS meals most of the time except for our breakfast at Ohana and dinner at Boma.

 

[boxer]

We have done the DDP in the past but have decided not to use it for our upcoming trips.

1. DD turned 10, so she is considered an adult, so a huge chunk of the savings went out of the window.

2. We are appetizer people, and appetizers are no longer included.

3. The tip is no longer included.

4. We have AP's and the DDE card will save us just as much or more money than the DDP.

I still think the DDP can save folks money on their dining, just not as much as before.

For folks that don't eat at a lot of sit down restaurants on the their trips the DDP makes no sense.

If dining is a big part of your WDW vacation, then I think the DDP is workable, and could result in saving your family money. Just be smart about it and make sure your ADRs are good choices that will get the most of your dining credits.

If you aren't a big planner and will not make ADRs then, the DDP is not for you.

Caution: If you want to eat at a sit down restaurant at WDW, please make sure you get a reservation. The restaurants are very popular, esp since the advent of the dining plan. This is NOT an exaggeration, esp if you visit during the summer months or other busy periods. Even during "slower" times many restarants are full.

Ok, I'm completely 'new' to the AP thing, but I never understand the contention that the DDE would end up being cheaper than the DDP? I'm not trying to be arrogant about it, but I would truly like someone to explain to me how it is cheaper (because I will get a DDE card for our next visit).

I have myself, wife, daughter (12), son (7) and son (1). Our average sit down buffet for our last trip was $130.00 (places like Coral Reef were closer to $200), not including the tip. So with DDE, that is savings of only around $26. Our average lunch bills were around $60, so again that is around a $12 savings. This doesn't include the snack credits available each day either.

If we had the DDE we wouldn't order desserts, BUT we probably would order appitizers, so that is a 'wash'.

 

[Sleeping Becca]

I did a cost benefit analysis of DDE vs DDP.

I made a list of our ADRs: CRT, Le Cellier, Boma, Chef Mickey's, California Grill, Crystal Palace, and I made a list of Counter Service Locations.

For each restaurant I priced out what we would order at each place and took a 2% discount (20% discount minus 18% automatic gratuity).. For counter service I priced out what we would order. For snacks I budgeted $4 per person per day. I also added the cost of the DDE card.

I compared that to the cost of the dining plan plus 18% gratuity, plus cost of the appetizers. Plus the meals we would have to pay OOP.

For a 6 night stay we would get 6 table service credits, two of our choices are signature restaurants, so we would have to pay OOP for CRT (not worth 2 credits).


For us, we came out ahead going with DDE, by $100. I did not include tax, I'm sure with tax, the margin would narrow but still come out slightly ahead with DDE. Add to that I got a huge room only discount that I would lose if I went with a package.

But our situation is unique to us and will not be the same for everyone. Go ahead and price it out for your family, you may be surprised.

If we did not have the DDE then the dining plan would look more attractive.

 

[DeblovesPoohbear]

Here's my 2 cents...
We used the DDP last year and loved it
So many times when we vacaion, especially at WDW, you find yourself trying to cut corners moneywise and we find ourselves eating lots of burgers,
hotdogs.
We found with the dining plan, we ate at really nice places, places
that would have cost us a ton of $$, and it really worked out well.

 

[boxer]

I did a cost benefit analysis of DDE vs DDP.

I made a list of our ADRs: CRT, Le Cellier, Boma, Chef Mickey's, California Grill, Crystal Palace, and I made a list of Counter Service Locations.

For each restaurant I priced out what we would order at each place and took a 2% discount (20% discount minus 18% automatic gratuity).. For counter service I priced out what we would order. For snacks I budgeted $4 per person per day. I also added the cost of the DDE card.

I compared that to the cost of the dining plan plus 18% gratuity, plus cost of the appetizers. Plus the meals we would have to pay OOP.

For a 6 night stay we would get 6 table service credits, two of our choices are signature restaurants, so we would have to pay OOP for CRT (not worth 2 credits).


For us, we came out ahead going with DDE, by $100. I did not include tax, I'm sure with tax, the margin would narrow but still come out slightly ahead with DDE. Add to that I got a huge room only discount that I would lose if I went with a package.

But our situation is unique to us and will not be the same for everyone. Go ahead and price it out for your family, you may be surprised.

If we did not have the DDE then the dining plan would look more attractive.

I just got my AP, but I think I STILL get the room discount even though I book the DDP? At least that was the way it was explained to me for our trip in May (I think we paid $180/night for WL with the AP discount).

Regardless, thanks for the explanation----it seems it will at least be a 'wash' between the DDE and DDP.