For us it's a matter of convenience

[JoShan1719]

So just for clarity -- You say you are paying more than you would OOP. You mean, because you would get cheaper dishes OOP. Or do you mean that you pay $51 per night, but you only order $45 worth of food? In other words, for the EXACT same food, you'd rather pay $51 in advance, than pay $45 later?

I see a lot of people who claim that convenience is the sole reason for the dining plan. But I've yet to see people who willingly lose money on it. Who are willing to actually pay more, for the convenience of pre-payment. If you had the choice of pre-paying for Chef Mickey, prepaying $50 when you make the reservation, or $40 when you check in for the reservation, which would you pick?

Mostly because paying OOP I'd spend ten minutes looking through the menu to find the cheapest thing I'm willing to eat, or will get an appetizer to save money. On DDP I can just pick what I want and know that I've already paid for it so it doesn't matter. I just feel like on my vacation I shouldn't have to worry about money. I don't have kids right now so it's not a huge issue to pay more up front for convenience. I imagine someday when I have kids I may change my stance, but for now this is what works for me.

Personally, I find the plan inconvenient. I feel pressure to order the more expensive items, even though I prefer the cheaper items. I don't like being limited to the "covered snacks." So I'm willing to go with the plan if it will save me a pretty significant amount of money. But if it's at all close, I'd rather just skip the plan.

Different strokes, right? It doesn't work for everyone, and I'll be the first to tell someone to figure out what they may be spending both ways then decide what's more important to them. I have been on vacations where I had to watch every single penny and it sucked. Totally killed the feeling. I have to do that every day and I don't want to do it on vacation. It's a bigger issue for me than for most people. That's why the different options are there, to cover just about everyone.

 

[Bonniec]

Mostly because paying OOP I'd spend ten minutes looking through the menu to find the cheapest thing I'm willing to eat, or will get an appetizer to save money. On DDP I can just pick what I want and know that I've already paid for it so it doesn't matter. I just feel like on my vacation I shouldn't have to worry about money.

I thought I'd do the same but I didn't. We did OOP with a TIW card. I had to keep reminding DH and the kids not to worry or order the cheapest thing because I had budgeted the most exepnsive meals for everyone. It took a couple restaurants for them to get used to that, but they soon got VERY into it, lol. It was fun to just once, order anything they wanted.

DDP would never save us money. I don't really get how it could save anyone money. But I must admit, I'm jealous of those who don't have to worry about money. Must be nice!

 

[havoc315]

Mostly because paying OOP I'd spend ten minutes looking through the menu to find the cheapest thing I'm willing to eat, or will get an appetizer to save money. On DDP I can just pick what I want and know that I've already paid for it so it doesn't matter. I just feel like on my vacation I shouldn't have to worry about money. I don't have kids right now so it's not a huge issue to pay more up front for convenience. I imagine someday when I have kids I may change my stance, but for now this is what works for me.

Just out of curiousity, is there a dollar limit in terms of how much you would be willing to lose? If they raised the price to $65 per night, keeping the current allowances and menu prices, so you were basically guaranteed to lose money, would you still do it? $85 per night?

Personally, I don't count every penny. But I hate to feel ripped off. So it would infuriate and frustrate me to prepay $35 (what they basically charge for a TS credit), just so I can get the $15-$25 meal without "worrying" about price.
For people who don't want to think about the $25 entree price tag, I don't see how paying $35 in advance makes the price tag okay. I'd just be doubly upset --- upset with my initial high payment, and upset again when I found out it would be cheaper to wait!

 

[JoShan1719]

Just out of curiousity, is there a dollar limit in terms of how much you would be willing to lose? If they raised the price to $65 per night, keeping the current allowances and menu prices, so you were basically guaranteed to lose money, would you still do it? $85 per night?

Personally, I don't count every penny. But I hate to feel ripped off. So it would infuriate and frustrate me to prepay $35 (what they basically charge for a TS credit), just so I can get the $15-$25 meal without "worrying" about price.
For people who don't want to think about the $25 entree price tag, I don't see how paying $35 in advance makes the price tag okay. I'd just be doubly upset --- upset with my initial high payment, and upset again when I found out it would be cheaper to wait!

Once again, different strokes. I'm not trying to convince you to use any of the dining plans. They don't work for you, that's okay. Right now, having no kids, not being married, I can afford to spend more up front so I don't have to think about the price later. I have no problem admitting I lose money on this deal. But it protects my mind set during my trip. Handing the server my room key instead of a debit card knowing that I paid for this dinner months ago makes me feel like I'm on vacation, I'm not worrying about what I budgeted over what I spent.

 

[AdWayInc]

My DH and I always do DxDP. It is so worth it for us.... We do an early sit down lunch - 11:30 and then do a signature / dinner show every night. This works for us... Think signature and or dinner show with appy and desert is at least $65.00. Lunch about 35-40. Plus add the daily 2 snacks ($10) .... Resort refillable mug. (by the way... we usually take our dinners desert back to the resort for breakfast). Savings approx $30 / per person per day x 2 for 8 day stay saves us approx $480.00. It is so worth it for us.

 

[3pletprincesses]

To us, it's worth every penny to do Deluxe with 3 kids under the age of 9. We have saved tons last year and we find it very convenient as we have nothing else to pay OOP which is perfect other then our drinks and tips. That being said, once our girls turn 9yo and still eat like little birds, no way would I pay that much for the deluxe. Then we will probably do OOP for afew years but for now Deluxe it is and nothing else. the girls love their character meals and we like our signature which means Deluxe makes our entire party happy. Plus with a infants being added this year, It will be even better as we will have more food to share with her.

Little side note, We had no plan for 5 days last year and the girls wanted to eat QS, once everyone ordered 2 adult hamburger meals, 1 drink for us to share, 2 kids meals shared between 3 or then and no dessert fof dh and I, we spent over $40. you should have seen our face and we swore to always have a dining plan LOL I prefer to not look at prices and have the food that I want then to look at prices and worry.

 

[kdawg8762]

Typical Havoc.

She stated I like it, here is why. Why can't you accept it? All you have done is try and poke holes in it with things like "to clarify....?" Some people do like the convenience. Our trip this coming year, with our 2 kids, we were going to stay off site, pay OOP for 5 meals, and buy groceries for the rest. When we priced everything out, we found that off-site (bigger place granted) would be the same price as a mod and DDP, and that was before we dropped a dime on groceries, so in reality, we save some money. Even with a loss, we would have done it, to some extent because we wanted to stay on-site (girls first trip, want magic all the time) and it'll be super nice and convenient to know every ounce of food is already paid for, in advance.

 

[Mikey'swife]

I like both convenience and opportunity. You can eat cheaper if you want but not if you multiple kids under 10 and want character meals and snacks, desserts and soft drinks. For us dxdp is $216 a night which is a lot but HDDR is about that and we can still have a character breakfast which is about $85 plus 8 snacks and mugs it works out to be a good deal plus I can say yes a lot more without having to think about price.

 

[PaulaSB12]

Typical Havoc.

She stated I like it, here is why. Why can't you accept it? All you have done is try and poke holes in it with things like "to clarify....?" Some people do like the convenience. Our trip this coming year, with our 2 kids, we were going to stay off site, pay OOP for 5 meals, and buy groceries for the rest. When we priced everything out, we found that off-site (bigger place granted) would be the same price as a mod and DDP, and that was before we dropped a dime on groceries, so in reality, we save some money. Even with a loss, we would have done it, to some extent because we wanted to stay on-site (girls first trip, want magic all the time) and it'll be super nice and convenient to know every ounce of food is already paid for, in advance.

Here is another one who like it, we have been offered the dining plan free for another year, and for these who talk about 40% discounts the free dining is usually the only discount offered to the UK (and the first time I used it I had to buy it in USA because its only been since 2007 that we even got that) I go for 2 weeks because its convenient for me to do that and this year you also get $150 spending not a lot but better than nothing. I will be upgrading to the deluxe dining plan again because I like it.

 

[KEPE]

On our last trip we did the DXDP. We had free dinning and upgraded so obviously, to upgrade cost us much less than what we would have spent had we paid OOP for those additional meals. We did a TS breakfast (roughly $70-$80 per meal) and a TS dinner every day (always over $100 sometimes just over and sometimes way over). For the most part DD and I didn't eat lunch since that was more than enough food. DH is a big eater and often ate lunch and a late night snack. As for the snacks? On the last day I went into the candy store and just orered a bunch of stuff to bring home to friends because we had about 11 credits left. So now this trip, no FD since it's a holiday week and discounts are never offered. I said lets either pay OOP or get the DDP and pay OOP for anything extra. I thought we would do CS breakfasts and TS dinners and again, probably an occasional lunch here and there OOP. DH said no, he wants the DXDP. He feels even if we break even it's worth the convenience. It will cost us about $200 a day for the DXDP and if we are paying about $70/80 for breakfast and $100+ for dinner. Plus a CS for DH and a snack or two per day, will we save much maybe on some days and others probably not. Will we have credits left at the end, probably. But paying up front and knowing it's all taken care of is nice!! I book the places I want to eat, I don't try to get the biggest bang for my buck. I don't by any means feel I am paying MORE so... why not

 

[2DisPrincesses]

I do the DDP for convenience/piece of mind too. I have priced out what we would pay OOP, without desserts, numerous times and it always comes out close for us.

At home, I coupon a LOT. I am always crunching numbers, watching our grocery budget, etc.. That being said, I do not want to do the same on vacation. The only way for me to not watch prices is to do the dining plan. The ability for me to relax and not check prices on the menu is worth every penny we might be over what we would pay OOP.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I'm one who loves the DDP just for the pre-pay convience of it. I wouldn't do it if I were losing money, but I would do it if it were just a break even deal. Even if I put money on a gift card to "pre-pay" I would still find myself ordering the cheapest stuff to save that gift card for a souviner or something.

When we went with my in-laws to Disney a couple years ago, my MIL lost money on the dining plan because she eats like a little bird, but was still pleased as punch with the plan because it was so easy to deal with.

 

[jennyf2]

I do the DDP for convenience/piece of mind too. I have priced out what we would pay OOP, without desserts, numerous times and it always comes out close for us.

At home, I coupon a LOT. I am always crunching numbers, watching our grocery budget, etc.. That being said, I do not want to do the same on vacation. The only way for me to not watch prices is to do the dining plan. The ability for me to relax and not check prices on the menu is worth every penny we might be over what we would pay OOP.

Agree 100% with your post! We've done the dining plan for many years & for the most part came out ahead. Last year we upgraded to the Deluxe & do to a few mistakes on my part we left credits/snacks behind. I LOVED that we ordered whatever we wanted & I didn't need to worry about the cost at the time!