First timers needing help: should we get the dining plan?

[kyle3423]

We have a party of 4 adults going to WDW in Feb of 2016. All of us our first timers. We are two 60 year olds, a 50 year old, and me, a 30 year old. I have been handling all of the planning, booking, etc. because I'm the only tech savvy one of us. Our 180 day threshold has come and gone and I have booked a few ADR's. What I'm hoping you all can help me with is to take a look at my ADRs and our eating habits and let us know if we should get the dining plan or skip it. Here is our schedule:

Mon: Disney Springs T-Rex
Tues: EPCOT - I have both Via Napoli and Le Cellier booked. We will be canceling one of them.
Wed: Magic Kingdom - Whispering Canyon (Wilderness Lodge)
Thurs: no meal - going to Universal
Fri: Hollywood Studios - 50's Prime Time Café

As for our eating habits. We don't normally do breakfast. We will eat something quick each day for lunch and a sitdown for dinner. We don't normally do appetizers, but don't mind a desert every now and then (especially on vacation). We do like to have an alcoholic drink, but I already know they are not covered by the dining plan. So that's it. If you were us, would you get the dining plan, or just pay

 

[supersnoop]

should we get the dining plan?

No.

 

[sunshinemelody]

We have a party of 4 adults going to WDW in Feb of 2016. All of us our first timers. We are two 60 year olds, a 50 year old, and me, a 30 year old. I have been handling all of the planning, booking, etc. because I'm the only tech savvy one of us. Our 180 day threshold has come and gone and I have booked a few ADR's. What I'm hoping you all can help me with is to take a look at my ADRs and our eating habits and let us know if we should get the dining plan or skip it. Here is our schedule:

Mon: Disney Springs T-Rex
Tues: EPCOT - I have both Via Napoli and Le Cellier booked. We will be canceling one of them.
Wed: Magic Kingdom - Whispering Canyon (Wilderness Lodge)
Thurs: no meal - going to Universal
Fri: Hollywood Studios - 50's Prime Time Café

As for our eating habits. We don't normally do breakfast. We will eat something quick each day for lunch and a sitdown for dinner. We don't normally do appetizers, but don't mind a desert every now and then (especially on vacation). We do like to have an alcoholic drink, but I already know they are not covered by the dining plan. So that's it. If you were us, would you get the dining plan, or just pay

Have you figured out the estimate pricing for each meal? Do you think on average that you'll be spending more than $65 each day on a meal? If so, I'd go for it, but if you're only doing one restaurant every day then it's definitely not worth it.

That and you're going to Universal, which throws a wrench into your dining plan as you won't be using those credits that day. I'd definitely say no.

My BF and I will be going for the first time next September and the CM's I spoke with said that so long as we have a room booked at Disney, we'd be paying for every day that we're there on the DDP. Not worth it if we're not even going into Disney for the first three days of our journey. No need to give Disney anymore money than they've already taken.

 

[tabrizia]

Looking at your plans, I don't think the dining plan is the best choice for you. Where the dining plan really saves you money is when you are doing a ton of the character meals with smaller children. In general at the non-buffet restaurants and even the buffet non-character restaurants it is generally cheaper to just pay out of pocket. This is especially true when you don't want desert at every meal and where you will be buying appetizers and alcohol.

 

[GillianP1301]

I think you would probably be in around breaking even cost wise on the regular DDP (1xQS, 1xTS and 1xsnack per person per day), so it may come down to what you find more convenient - prepaying on a meal plan or paying OOP and having some flexibility (i.e. an appetizer instead of a dessert or maybe just an appetizer as the meal, etc...).

To find out for sure if it's worth it $ wise, I would suggest you look at menus and calculate based on what you would typically order and then compare.

 

[havoc315]

We have a party of 4 adults going to WDW in Feb of 2016. All of us our first timers. We are two 60 year olds, a 50 year old, and me, a 30 year old. I have been handling all of the planning, booking, etc. because I'm the only tech savvy one of us. Our 180 day threshold has come and gone and I have booked a few ADR's. What I'm hoping you all can help me with is to take a look at my ADRs and our eating habits and let us know if we should get the dining plan or skip it. Here is our schedule:

Mon: Disney Springs T-Rex
Tues: EPCOT - I have both Via Napoli and Le Cellier booked. We will be canceling one of them.
Wed: Magic Kingdom - Whispering Canyon (Wilderness Lodge)
Thurs: no meal - going to Universal
Fri: Hollywood Studios - 50's Prime Time Café

As for our eating habits. We don't normally do breakfast. We will eat something quick each day for lunch and a sitdown for dinner. We don't normally do appetizers, but don't mind a desert every now and then (especially on vacation). We do like to have an alcoholic drink, but I already know they are not covered by the dining plan. So that's it. If you were us, would you get the dining plan, or just pay

No....

It is very very hard for adults to save any money on the dining plan. Kids pricing saves a few dollars.
For adults, it is cheaper to just order what you want.
For example -- most meals at Via Napoli will be cheaper to just order without a dining plan. Sure, a large pizza is expensive at $40 -- But it will easily feed all 4 people. The dining plan, at $60 per adult... comes out to paying about $35 per person for the sit-down meals.
Even if you didn't share the large pizza... The individual pizzas are about $20 each. Throw in a soda and dessert, you are still at about $30.... less than the $35 for the dining plan.
Le Cellier costs 2 credits -- meaning, using the dining plan, you are spending around $70 on your meal. the steaks are $40-$50. Meaning, throw in soda and dessert.. It would only cost you $50-$60 paying out of pocket. (And less if you share dessert, or don't drink soda).

Same goes for the other restaurants, you will find that most meals will cost you less paying out of pocket. Not to mention, that the QS meals may also cost you less than the $18-$20 per credit that Disney is charging under the meal plan.