Does the Dining Plan save you money in the long run?

[GaryDis]

Some are going to overpay, some are going to underpay and when all is said and done, disney is a business and they make more money by having it than not.

Now you just need to figure out if your family is the one overpaying.

It's not just overpaying in the sense of paying more for the dining plan than the same exact food a la carte.

It's also overbuying, in the sense of eating more than you ordinarily would. If you don't usually order dessert, but you get one because you're on a dining plan, it may be a perfectly fair price but still more than you would have spent without the plan.

 

[Accident]

It's not just overpaying in the sense of paying more for the dining plan than the same exact food a la carte.

Good point and didn't mean to imply the same exact meals OOP would cost more or less, just your food costs in general will be higher or lower depending on your family, size and dining habits.

It's also overbuying, in the sense of eating more than you ordinarily would. If you don't usually order dessert, but you get one because you're on a dining plan, it may be a perfectly fair price but still more than you would have spent without the plan.

This is what makes it more for us, we aren't an appetizer and desert for everyone eaters normally. Add in the higher priced gratuity because we got more food than normal and it's a double hit on overspending with the meal plan for us.

 

[Annadesu]

It depends on many things, I think... How many people are in your party, where you choose to eat, what you eat, etc. For my husband and I, it's easy, it's affordable, and we have fun picking out where we want to eat in advance.

 

[danceintherain]

For us, it doesn't save money, but the gap is slowly closing, and the DP will likely come into favor for our next trip. Right now, there isn't a DP that matches our eating habits, and it isn't enough of a bargain for us to change our habits overmuch to accommodate it.

For example, we usually order water with meals, and would rather get our dessert later on, instead of immediately after our meal in most cases. DH needs 3 full meals every day, but we don't eat enough table service to justify the deluxe plan. For our upcoming trip, we only have 3 table service meals planned, and while we COULD add more and do the regular dining plan, we would be spending more than what we would spend on the meals we want to do just for the sake of making the dining plan a good value. The quick service plan is probably the closest to our habits, but we'll still be paying out of pocket for all our table service meals.

I expect that when DD is a bit older, we'll likely have at least one trip when the DP is a better value than paying OOP (those darn princess meals). However, our last trip and our next trip were planned less than 6 months out, so our ability to get into some of the restaurants we would want to do on the dining plan has been limited anyway.
It also helps that we don't particularly like character dining. For our upcoming trip, I have one character meal planned, but to some degree that's because we've been to every other table service meal in that park, so I figured it was as good a time as any to try it while we have kids the age to appreciate it.

 

[crisi]

Even when it was a much better value (appetizers, desserts, and tips included) and our kids were still Disney kids we discovered that it didn't work for us. It wasn't a money saving thing, it was an eating to the plan thing.

Personally, a single character meal is perfect in my vacation, two is too many - they take too much time and the food isn't very good. I'm not a buffet fan, so we don't do the expensive buffets.

 

[ThistleMae]

Does not save us money - no way! We don't eat desserts with our meals, nor do we want anything other than water to drink - much cheaper and enjoyable for us oop.

I've booked all our dining and looked at the menu's and priced out our breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinners. We do either a buffet or sit down dinner every night. For us, we are a couple, we save a bit on breakfast and lunches and at the restaurants where we might share a meal. We eat light but don't skimp on dinner or desserts. It works out pretty even....but we got a good room discount so we end up actually saving quite a bit. It really depends on what you enjoy eating and how many in your party. My daughter and her three children save "big time" with the free dining plan because it would just cost so much to feed them all....they are all in the adult age range. So do a proposed budget and figure it out. All the restaurants, with menus and prices are listed on Disney's All Ears website! Enjoy!

 

[ThistleMae]

This is how I figured it out quickly, without the calculator.....$ 10.00 for breakfast....$ 15.00 for lunch.....$ 5.00 for snack....$ 50.00 for dinner with tip included(per person). Some of the dinners we chose are $59.00, some less, but I averaged it out. That's $ 80.00 a day. Seems like pretty simple math at first glance. Now the question becomes....will we spend $ 80.00 each day or not? I don't think we will....but this is the budget and we are not purchasing the dining plan. We will probably eat instant oatmeal with some fresh fruit for breakfast (which we will bring with us) . We will probably share many if not all our lunches. The snacks and dinners we will definitely eat every day. So....we shall see if we end up saving or not. We definitely will try and eat some healthier meals but we will splurge as well. I love bread pudding with sauce!

 

[Ginny Favers]

I used to be solidly into the dining plan, just for the convenience of it, until we went one year and my daughter contracted a stomach virus. Had we not been on the plan, the silver lining would've been all the money we saved on food (because we had to cancel numerous reservations and sometimes we didn't eat). But as it was, it ended up being a huge waste of money. Now, we find it much nicer to make reservations at places we want to eat (not places we feel compelled to eat at because it'll maximize a plan's value) and choose whatever we'd like from the menu (not the most expensive items to maximize the plan's value, or if we want just an appetizer, we can do that, too).

 

[pooh2001]

We normally eat breakfast in our room, unless we do a "brunch" on that day.
Our dinner is ether TS or CS
We are 4 adults - and only if we order the most expensive item on the menu would it be profitable.

 

[bbak30]

I do not think the dining plan saves money. However, we always get it. I like paying upfront and knowing we can have whatever we want on the menu without being worried about cost. I would seriously be sick if I had to pay the bill after every meal. Ick.

 

[Go Big Blue]

I have always gotten the DDP and for my upcoming trip in Nov. I have deceided not to add it in to compare. I do have a few ADRS but mostly we think this trip we are going to go with the flow on eating. We are not big eaters anyway. My DS and I can split a meal very easily. I have to admit i am a bit nervous by not having the plan but we will see.

 

[dsal2002]

It does work. We used it on our first 2 trips. But depending on your room. We stay in the Villas now that have a small kitchen. So we order stuff from Garden Grocers. We always get water, snacks and breakfast stuff. Then we do lunch and dinner either at resort, park or downtown. It has saved us money. Getting the cases of water and snacks alone are a big $$$$ saver.

 

[ericstac]

I do not think the dining plan saves money. However, we always get it. I like paying upfront and knowing we can have whatever we want on the menu without being worried about cost. I would seriously be sick if I had to pay the bill after every meal. Ick.

Lol sounds like my wife but to me I get sick thinking about over paying $500.00 for us to 'not have to worry about it' lol.. That's basically five more TS meals we could enjoy or two night stay at a moderate. Needless to say we pay oop on our trips unless it's free dining.

 

[Shadowcat70]

We priced out the QSDP this year compared to what we would actually purchase at our favorite places, and paying OOP was far cheaper. Minus the $5 for the snack, there's no way we spend $18.50 per person per meal at a counter service. We've noticed the increase in counter service food prices has not been increasing at the same rate the QS dining plan costs have. The regular dining plan looks like it still might be a value (at $27 per meal after subtracting out the snack), but Deluxe at $33 per meal after subtracting out 2 snacks doesn't seem that much of a bargain. I haven't factored in the mugs, because that would depend on length of stay, but even knocking off $2 per day still does turn the QSDP into a value at all.

 

[LovesTimone]

I really think its about what you see as value, pre-paying for meals, not having to worry about what each person orders, trying new a cuisine or dish that you might not have tried due to the price point. I sorta think of it as your wanting to try the steak its 50.00 verses the chicken that's only 29.00, but you really want the steak but you will settle for the chicken due to the price. DH and I think that dinning is part of the fun of vacation, so why not try the steak.

Character meals for us when DD was little was more than worth it, we had character meal each day, we looked at it like we get characters, air conditioning, and more of a selection of grown up food, and someone to wait on us... Priceless. Even now that we are empty nester we still head for character meals a couple of times during our trips.

So we are a family that really loves the dinning plan, It gives you a chance to try something new, and still feel good that its paid for up front DH really likes this. When we go for more than a night or two we do the DDXDP as we enjoy signature dinning.

So its really about what you feel is a good value, everyone is different. So I suggest you try it and see how you like it.

 

[Texans_loyal]

For us, we don't spend every day at Disney so it's not worth it.
we go to universal and explore Orlando so it would be a waste of money. If we stayed in the Disney bubble, we would save money with DDP. remember you are on vacation, eat dessert and have fun.

 

[tasha99]

We don't get it. I often cook breakfast (bacon and eggs or bagels) in the room. I make dinner about every third night, too--we just get sick of eating out. Then half the time, people want appetizers instead of entrees for their meal, etc. And alcohol isn't included, which we almost always get as our drinks. Plus, not all the restaurants are included (V&A most notably). I think it works for a lot of families, but not us.

 

[bpesch]

We have had the dining plan in the past but it's not likely for our next trip. We had 4 adults and it worked for us but now we're 3 adults and a small child. The child doesn't eat enough to justify the plan. She's content sharing with the rest of us (something her mother still hasn't figured out) so we wouldn't even order her a meal. So it really does depend on your circumstance and eating habits. For us, the next trip will be OOP.

 

[Nancyg56]

It's not just overpaying in the sense of paying more for the dining plan than the same exact food a la carte.

It's also overbuying, in the sense of eating more than you ordinarily would. If you don't usually order dessert, but you get one because you're on a dining plan, it may be a perfectly fair price but still more than you would have spent without the plan.

This is why I think that people need to be honest in regards to how they want to eat while on vacation. WE always have a beverage with meals, soem get a soft beverage and I always have coffee. So for us, the beverage is paid for. WE also enjoy dessert. Here is where I think honestly comes in. Do you fogs dessert or snacks because of the money or because you don't want one? Or, conversely, will you have them because you paid for them? I found out the hard way that when my DH joins us, we need the DxDDP, adn it will save us money. This man eats! Three meals a day. He says "Go cheap" and I thought that I did, FD at the BC, and booked CL so we could enjoy appetizers, a few snacks and breakfast. Mutiny after day 2. Never again. He wanted "real food" and the next this I know, 1/2 my group is buying "real food" and appetizers a dinner were a go.

When you plan you budget it is important to efuse to do what my DH did....say "cheap" but mean something entirely different when we arrived. The sad this is that I had costed out the upgade to DxDDP and compared it to what we had for OOP meals. Now I know, and I add some appetizers in no matter what.
Others would nee to be honest in regards to adding dessert and beverages. Does it sound good on the menu but when you arrive, should you rather chew glass and die than eat all that chocolate, butter and sugar? Don't add deserts in your planning sheet if you don't geneally order them when you dine out.

This is what makes it more for us, we aren't an appetizer and desert for everyone eaters normally. Add in the higher priced gratuity because we got more food than normal and it's a double hit on overspending with the meal plan for us.

All I can keep saying is that to be fair in your planning, add tax to you OOP sneak, CS meals costs and TS costs, and the gratuity on to that. When you factor DDP costs, remove the tax on all of those items. AND then add your gratuity. It may not be an even wash, but the taxes do negate some of these increased tips I keep hearing about.

 

[Marionnette]

Since this thread was posted a year ago, I've had to swallow my words. I have a *free* dining package booked for this fall. Why? Because no matter how I ran the numbers, I could not do the trip for myself, my sister and her two adult daughters for less. Even with an AP room discount, tickets from one of the discounters for the three of them, and a TiW card that has already more than paid for itself, I cannot feed 4 adults twice a day on the difference in price between that and the 3-night *free* dining package with 4-day park hoppers.

I still plan on eating only what I feel like ordering, without regard as to whether I'm getting the most for my money. And I'll probably get fresh fruit that I can pop in my bag instead of dessert most of the time. But for this trip, the dining plan works for us because it is *free*.