dp or no dp. thats the ?

[kkolbusz1]

This has been asked a dozen times i realize & i probably already know its cheaper to go w/out because my kids would sometimes share a meal & maybe my husband & i would too. We're light eaters. Kids are 6.5 & 3.5. I eat paleo (meat & veggies, nuts, seeds & fruit. No wheat, gluten, dairy, legumes or most grains). My husband & kids dont eat like me, but husband will, so hes willing to share sometimes. Anyway, we wont always get dessert eithr. We already made reservations which were keeping. Will we save if we dont do the dining plan?

 

[happymommy]

I think you kind of answered your own question. If you're light eaters, I'd say no. We had it just one time (it was on a free DP with also a room discount, so how could I say no?). We're pretty light eaters, and my DD can most of the time share a meal and be totally full. We left with a few CS meal credits I think left over. It was SO MUCH FOOD to me. I am fine with coffee and maybe a cookie in the morning (we had ordered some breakfast food from garden grocer plus wine and beer, and soy milk, but it was too much - took some home). I just found the regular DP was a lot of food - a snack to me is breakfast, lunch and dinner I don't want dessert! We took so many cookies back to the room (DS has food allergies so we just took them, never ate them all).

 

[pepe of ohio]

Personally, we feel the dining plans are a rip off and joke... Saves nothing unless you are an overeater or waster ....

We've done the math, no savings for us... Most Disney meals are huge, too huge for one but easily shared by two...and saying guests like it cause its paid for up front... Either way it's money out of your pocket... If you can't manage your money, you do have a problem...it's easy to see WDW menus and prices before you go and realize a food budget....

Plus, we like traveling free spirits, no food schedules and times...we've done no dining plans our whole 49 trips....and we eat fine..!

 

[disneychic33]

Personally I like to get the dining plan. That way I know in advance that everything is paid for and I can relax without worrying about my budget. What we do is use our snack credit for a bagel and cream cheese or a Danish for breakfast. If you have the DP you always get the refillable mug so there is my coffee or orange juice or what ever. For lunch it is usually something quick service while in the park or while resting at the resort. Then at night you have a table service every day so we try out the different restaurants. DS 11, DD 12 and DD 7 love to try them especially the character meals which can get fairly expensive. It is a lot of fun and actually when you add up what it would actually cost for each person to eat a meal twice a day (with a character meal) and a snack it all seems to average out.

 

[Fivesacharm]

We loved the dining plan, but we are the type of family that loves trying new things and siting down together and eating. That's a huge part I out vacation at WDW. We definitely saved money.

Based on what you said, it sounds like the dining plan would not be a smart choice for you guys. You'd probably loose money...

 

[purple figment]

This has been asked a dozen times i realize & i probably already know its cheaper to go w/out

Will we save if we dont do the dining plan?

Based on your eating style I think you've answered your own question. The only way the dining plan might be practical is if you are doing almost all buffets, family style meals, and other fixed price meals where everyone gets charged regardless of how much or how little one eats. There's a sticky at the top of the Restaurants page that lists prices for the fixed cost meals. You can also look at the menus on allears to get an idea of what you would order at ala carte and counter service restaurants.

 

[ericstac]

i wouldnt do it unless you are a foodie..

which during vacation time I am a major foodie so i do it, but i also get free dining plan this year i actually upgraded to deluxe dining because of all the places we want to try but then after reserving everything we come out saving about a $1000.00 by just doing the free dining plan TS,QS,snack and then paying outright for any other meals we want. now the trick is to make sure we use the dining plan on the expensive spots


are you staying paleo during disney? that will be tough!

 

[wendybeth75]

Personally I like to get the dining plan. That way I know in advance that everything is paid for and I can relax without worrying about my budget.

Exactly!!! My teenagers are big eaters, when we have the meal plan they can order the $30 steak with dessert and I don't fixate on the cost. It is already paid for so in a way I EXPECT them to order the most expensive thing on the menu. This time we were going to do OOP but as we got closer and I kept saying well we can split meals etc etc. I realized that having to "manage" our meals was stealing some of my magic. Whether it really saves money or not it adds relaxation to my vacation, which is totally worth it for me!!! You can't really put a price on piece of mind!

 

[Srbright]

Personally, we feel the dining plans are a rip off and joke... Saves nothing unless you are an overeater or waster ....

We've done the math, no savings for us... Most Disney meals are huge, too huge for one but easily shared by two...and saying guests like it cause its paid for up front... Either way it's money out of your pocket... If you can't manage your money, you do have a problem

There are so many issues with your post so I will start at the top. We are neither overeaters or wasters and the dining plan works great for us. We had the DxDDP for 8 days (sitting in MCO to fly home).

We did:
Tusker House
Akershus
Garden Grill
CRT
Fulton's
California Grill
Be Our Guest

The buffets we took just what we wanted and didn't waste very much. But it did allow our children to try new things and we got to see the characters we wanted to. No over eating or wasting.

And I can manage my money. ( it kept correcting to Monet, I wish I had one of those to handle. ). I choose to manage it differently than you do which does not mean I cannot manage it.

Stacy

 

[PaulaVonSchweetz]

We enjoy the dp because we get to try restaurants that we wouldnt normally pay for out of pocket. Le cellier is a good example. We love that place but it could easy become $200 dinner which we would never just do.
We arent over eaters or wasters either. We generally have our snack credits left over but I use them to bring cute disney cookies or rice krispie treats for the girls I work with.
I am an extremely healthy eater and have no problems finding lighter fare food there.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

The dp was definitely worth it for us before. When my kids were under 10. And my XH was a big eater.

This trip I don't think it will be worth it. I've done a whole lifestyle change and eat clean. Now I will and do splurge on vacation but I can't over do it. Not because I'm watching my weight but because when I eat bad it messes up my stomach so badly!!!

My dd will be 8 and she's not a big kids meal person. Her and I will most likely share lots of meals at qs. She won't want kids meals often. She's more adventurous. My DS 14...it depends on the day on how he eats. He loves snacks more often also.

My SO isn't a big early eater and he will want to pick different things that won't exactly make a qs meal. I know how he is. If he knows we have a big dinner coming up he will want to share a qs to save room. He's also more of a snack person. He would do more snacks than qs meals.

I will crunch numbers on what I think we will get and go from there.

 

[brennicksmom]

In the past we felt like the DDP was the way to go. Our next trip we will be going for 14 nights. the DDP would cost us over $3000. We went onto the Dining App and added up what we though we would get at TS, added it $8-10 for CS, and $4 per snack each day. We would save about $1200 over the same time period by paying Out of Pocket instead of the DDP.

We often ask that we skip the deserts, so we didn't add those in, and we all prefer water, so we didn't add in soft drinks, but $1200 would more than cover it if we feel like adding on something extra. This will be our first trip without the DDP. That makes us a bit nervous, but we will be fine either way.

Good luck with deciding, I know it can be hard to do so.

In the past, when the plan was cheaper and it included the appetizer/tip it was an incredible deal in our opinion; but it doesn't seem that way anymore to us.

 

[ZoZo]

If you have the DP you always get the refillable mug so there is my coffee or orange juice or what ever.

FYI, the refillable mugs can't be used or things like orange juice or milk. They can only be used for fountain pop, coffee, tea, or hot chocolate (the items you can get from a beverage dispenser). "Bottled" products like juice and milk are not covered.

 

[Babsy]

I don't use the dining plan, however I do the math every time (and it always works that OOP is better with RO discount for me). I realize that the DDP works for some people, but I find it difficult to understand why people buy it when it costs more than OOP would. (it gives peace of mind?? really? when you know that you are paying more? Sorry, I just don't get it.)

Anyway, the best way to decide to do the DP or not is to get the cost of the DP and compare to how much you would pay OOP. Go to allears.net and you will see the menus with prices for all the restaurants in WDW. You can literally see how much you will spend in advance. Add in a few extra $$$ for the occasional 'extra' and voila! a dining 'plan' that you know is the best value for you (with or without the Disney plan). It's easy!

Good luck! Enjoy your trip (and meals) however you decide to pay for them!

 

[MrsNesbet]

We love the DP. We only go when it's "free" though. I like to order what ever I want on vacation and my kids are great (and adventurous) eaters. Dining is part of our disney magic and I wan't skimp on that because it would be ME who was having to skimp. We don't always eat dessert so we ask for extra fruit or something which is nice. Otherwise we will try it and share.

For your family I am not sure it would be worth it if you aren't going during a free dining period.

 

[WIDisneyFan]

We have been to Disney many times and for the last 2 trips have paid for the dinning plan because it works for us. We are a family of 5 with 3 kids that all enjoy character meals (and as a result tend to do lots of them). Once our oldest counts as an adult I will have to take another look at the math, but for now it makes sense for us.

That being said from what you have written I would tend to agree with most of the other posts that the DDP is probably not the right choice for you.

 

[AJ1983]

I don't use the dining plan, however I do the math every time (and it always works that OOP is better with RO discount for me). I realize that the DDP works for some people, but I find it difficult to understand why people buy it when it costs more than OOP would. (it gives peace of mind?? really? when you know that you are paying more? Sorry, I just don't get it.)

Anyway, the best way to decide to do the DP or not is to get the cost of the DP and compare to how much you would pay OOP. Go to allears.net and you will see the menus with prices for all the restaurants in WDW. You can literally see how much you will spend in advance. Add in a few extra $$$ for the occasional 'extra' and voila! a dining 'plan' that you know is the best value for you (with or without the Disney plan). It's easy!

Good luck! Enjoy your trip (and meals) however you decide to pay for them!

This is exactly what we did for our trip. Our eating habits change on vacation, especially in the heat. We are more inclined to snack or share meals rather than sit down a couple of times per day for a full meal. So for us, DDP was not worth it once I did the potential OOP costs based on actual prices. For example, we would usually buy a couple of containers of fresh fruit and a muffin each and eat that throughout the morning (cost about $15.00), then maybe have a hot dog each and share a sides of fries for lunch ($15.00) could pick up a Pizza for $15.00 at the Pop food court and that would do us for dinner and breakfast the next morning. If we add in an afternoon treat, our total food costs per day were approximately the cost of one person on a day of the DDP.

 

[wallskm]

We have done it both ways. DH prefers TS meals and wants to do more than just one a day.

Our first visit we did the Deluxe Dining Plan (it was just the 2 of us). This was in 2008 when Appetizers and Tip were included. We loved it but felt way overfull the whole time. Even skipped meals because we were not hungry!

Our second trip was this past April. DH still wanted to do mostly sit down restaurants so the Deluxe Dining plan is what we were going to have to do. It was going to add $2000 to our trip, and that didn't include tips or appetizers anymore. With 20% added for tips, we estimated the plan would have cost about $2400 when it was said and done. We decided to pay OOP. We ate how we wanted without worry about cost (as many TS or QS as we wanted, dessert or no dessert-usually no dessert). We ended up spending about $1600 for our family of 4 on food that week, saving us around $800. We did 13 TS Meals in a 9 night stay as well as breakfast every day and CS lunches on 4 days.

For us it was cheaper to pay OOP and we didn't feel like we were overeating like we did on the deluxe dining plan.

 

[starsweeper]

Personally, we have young kids and can save by splitting 2 adults meals among 4 kids. At BOG lunch alone, we're saving $12 doing this versus buying 4 kid meals next week. Also, we are not big eaters and don't feel as hungry in the Florida heat, but do buy more drinks. The dining plan just doesn't make any sense for us.