DVC and dining plan

[csmommy]

For anyone interested in doing more than 1 type of dining plan on their points stay I suggest you read this thread.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2651745

 

[Sandisw]

thank you! Is this something that can be done after the initial reservation is made? I've already made reservations for October and I don't want to re-book b/c I'm sure the availability is gone.

Yes, I segmented after the initial trip was booked. I asked for it via email but have read posts that they are not as willing to do it like this as they were when I requested it a few weeks ago.

Just give MS a call and tell them you want to segment but in no way risk your reservation so if you have to wait for a manager to help, you are willing to do that.

It should be done without a problem.

 

[bumbershoot]

I've heard that some people will get a Disney Gift card and load it with money about what they might spend on the dining plan (or less) and they find they don't spend as much.

This is what we do at DLR, and it works very well.

For WDW we had a rental car and knew we'd be out and about a bit more often, so I just made a line item in our budget for food and tips. Budgeted $100 per day for food (which is just over what the normal plan would have cost us) and $20 per day for tips (overbudgeted for food tips b/c we were only having one TS per day, but used the overage for Bell Services etc).

We did buy the TIW card.

Some days we went over that daily budget (Tusker House day, for instance), but many days we were WELL under it, and that includes ALL the groceries we bought on our two big Publix trips. Overall, we came in about $200 under our budget, which means using the plan would have cost us more (with nothing left for groceries).

We ate EXACTLY what we wanted. Nothing was wasted and we didn't overeat (a big issue with hubby, and the main reason he wanted us to avoid the dining plans) and it worked out very well for us.

So even just having money budgeted for food works, if you can keep track of it while you're on your trip!

Thank you so much for the explanation but we don't have AP's so it would not do us any good. My concern with doing the DDP is taking the time to eat all those meals that are included as we would generally have groceries and do at least breakfast in the room along with snacks. It would be a totally different dining experience for us but I guess we have to sit down with menus and a spreadsheet and crunch the numbers to be sure. Might be fund to do once...

If it sounds like fun to you, you could always try it for a trip! To us, we LIKED having food in the rooms for the mornings, and for evenings on the days that we had lunch ADRs instead of dinner. It was very enjoyable for us to make food in the villa when we wanted to. It did NOT sound enjoyable to us to HAVE TO have food that others prepared every single meal, every single day.

I think that we should find the most financially reasonable way to get what we WANT, to get what is fun...not to get a plan and maximize its use when it's not how we truly wish to eat. That's my opinion.

What is the TIW card and are you able to still make dining reservations in advance if you use this instead of the DDP?

You can always make ADRs, no matter how you plan to pay. Someone else described the TIW card earlier in this thread and did a very good job of it, so I won't repeat. But anyone can make ADRs.

 

[Kidanifan08]

If you have to pay for the dining plan...don't. You will spend less $$ and eat less by paying OOP. Many of the CS meals can be split between two people. The CS desserts that come with the the meal plan are not very good, but you have to take one. you can still plan to do some TS meals, but you may not need, or want, one for every day of your trip. I would only do the dining plan if it was free.

 

[Disneyx6]

Our last 2 trips to Disney have been w/FDP and both times we loved it! We are a family of 6, 4 children under 10 so we couldn't imagine paying for some of the TS meals we were able to have on the plan. We have done Cinderellas Royal Table, Chef Mickey and a few other popular kid friendly TS. With that said we are returning this fall and my DS will be considered an adult. I've started to research if paying for the dining plan would be worth it but we are considering just going OOP this trip and see what happens. I will say it was a lot of food w/plan too. Since we just did alot of the popular TS meals in the past 2 trips I think we could skip a few this trip to save some $$.

 

[suzy021372]

Thanks for the great insight!!!

 

[londonderrydisneyfan]

We stopped doing the DDP because we didn't think it was worth it, but we're trying it again next month because we were able to segment our reservation and are only doing it for two days out of ten. We're doing the QSDP when we check in because we're arriving at lunch time and would have to buy lunch somewhere anyways. We also wanted to go to a few TS dinners so on our fifth day we're doing the DDDP for one day. My only concern there is that we'll be doing TS for lunch and dinner on the same day which will be a lot of food, but we'll also be in Epcot so we'll be walking a lot that day and we have a late reservation for dinner.

 

[Pootle]

On my recent trip I ended up (not by choice, using points in holding was involved) with a 1-night followed by a 3-night booking at OKW (different contracts too). I decided to try the dining plan for the 1-night booking and because we could effectively use the plan for 2 days' worth of food, it worked out great. We used the QS for a meal at POR food court on the day we checked in and on the second day used the snacks for lunch (carrot cake ) and the CS at Captain's Grille in the evening. I found this to be a perfect way to use the DP but no way would I want to be bothered changing key cards daily to do this - once was quite enough

If they do ever allow us to book only the days we want without segmenting the reservation, then I would consider it, but otherwise, not a chance - too much food, too much temptation (I wouldn't normally have carrot cake for lunch ), too much planning required and too much hassle getting new keys.

I usually have a TiW card and am happy with that.

 

[tgropp]

We have always purchased the dining plan as we always get the restaurants that we want at the times that we want as we know that we are going during the Christmas season ( no holiday surcharges) and we book out at the 180 day mark. We also only visit the parks for 3-4 hours a day so its not like we are hurrying ourselves to meet a dinner reservation as we are usually by the pool all afternoon. We find it a good deal.....but I have to sit down someday and figure if I would save money using the TIW card as most people say that it is cheaper that way in the long run. I am a procastinator..

 

[Sandisw]

If you have to pay for the dining plan...don't. You will spend less $$ and eat less by paying OOP. Many of the CS meals can be split between two people. The CS desserts that come with the the meal plan are not very good, but you have to take one. you can still plan to do some TS meals, but you may not need, or want, one for every day of your trip. I would only do the dining plan if it was free.

It really depends on your family as to whether the dining plan will work. We have used it several times (only got it free once prior to owning DVC) and for most of the family it works.

One thing we have done the past few times is to take fruit as our "dessert" for CS meals. So far, there has never been any issue getting it and we saved it to eat at breakfast with the muffin or bagel we got with our "snack" credit.

With DVC allowing members to get different plans on different days of a stay by segmenting, there are ways to make things work out. We like the ease of the plan more than the "savings" as it helps me to budget ahead of time.

This year, I am getting QS for day 1, DxDDP for day 2, and DDP for day 3. I will then pay OOP for the last two days because the meals we chose are not very expensive.

I have run numbers every which way and to be honest, with the way we plan to eat, things have come out (including with TIW) with a $20 - $40 spread.

We are also bringing friends of the girls so because of that, we are doing more TS than we might do otherwise. The fact that I can get different plans for different days and no plans for others is what is making it work well.

If I had to get it for every night, then I would forgo it as that did come out to be the most expensive way!

 

[n2mm]

I've done all of the dining plans and yes the ddp was wonderful back in it's hey day. I've crunched the numbers and have compared it with my TiW discount. The TiW card is the way to go for us. I find it's easier to eat what I want and not feel like I must max out the benefits of the DDP. I too like to split appetizers. I've crunched the Delux ddp against the value of the TiW one week and I would've saved using just the TiW compared to the Delux ddp. Sometimes we still do one day of delux ddp just to get the mug and have a couple of nicer sit down meals. But one day is enough for us. We still eat at all of our favorite places and eat at least 2 TS meals most days. I find the ddp now is for folks who want a prepaid plan, but personally I get tire real fast crunching the credits in my head each day and trying to keep track of what I used or have to use. If the dining plan was still the way it was back in 2005 (w/tip and appetizers included) heck, I'd be using it because that was an excellent deal back then.