Has anybody done the math on savings?

[Mary L]

I'm really beginning to wonder if the dining plan might not be a viable option. Could you still dine out for breakfast and dinners but lunch in the room for less? With the dining plan...how much do you also spend on drinks, snacks et al? Is sharing meal points realistic? Can 4 people dine in a restaurant and share 3 meals? Other ideas?

 

[madonna31]

I did the math for our trip back in May. It saved us 40% on food.

Could you still dine out for breakfast and dinners but lunch in the room for less?

You will not eat 3 meals a day, it's FAR too much food. We didn't purchase a single thing outside of the plan except for alcohol. In fact, we had food vouchers left over!

 

[bicker]

Here's my computations:

Assuming NO appetizers and NO desserts

http://brianandrobbie.com/DiningPlanEstimatedCostsNoAppyNoDessert.htm

$142 savings

Assuming appetizers and desserts:

http://brianandrobbie.com/DiningPlanEstimatedCosts.htm

$515 savings

 

[wacampbell]

With 2 adults and 2 children 6 and 10 at the time we saved over 600 dollars and the only thing we purchased was alcohol or special drink for the kiddies. Not to mention I should say that also my parents were with us and numerous times we had so much appetizers that even they were able to eat some and we had to take food back to the room. (Typically we took home dessert and had it after a midnight swim)

(I saved all the receipts and added it up once I got home) and actually were at the store the day before we left using up snack credts.. we took home 4 juices 5 rice crispy treats and also had 2 milks for the next morning. We also had left over food in the room. We got the uncrustables pb and j kids meals some days and most of them time the kids did not eat everything because they got full. So we took the cheese cracker mickeys and any un eat sandwich (4 in total) on the plan and that helped make the flight and icky food go by so much easier.

 

[BlindTyldak]

Yep, we did the math by looking at the menus on allears and counting buffets and ordering what we like (not the most expensive thing) the DDP would pay for itself in half of our trip. Remember, snack credits cover a lot more than just a snack, you could also get a huge breakfast muffin or a bagel for example.

 

[DiszyDeanette]

Last year we paid $750 for 6 nights w/ 3 Adults and 1 child. By the 4th day, our receipts totaled almost $800. We stopped counting after that, obviously it had been worth the money!

 

[Amyrlin]

We use DDE usually, and only usually do TS, so paid for it is not better for us, but free, it was better than the discounts for a mod or value.

When we go the a delux we are not having free dinning ans the discount is better.

 

[beth_cam]

We actually figure it costs us an extra 100-200 over a bare bones no extras share everything no ice creams etc all cs meals 2x a day (eating on 2-3 meals for the four of us and not buying an extra drink to make up the difference) and then going to 2 character meals. And you know I wouldnt be able to hold us to that although maybe we'd carry in more lower cost grocery store stuff. So for that extra 100-200 we get to eat at nice restaurants every day. I do not compare the savings to what my receipts totalled because we may not have ordered that way. But it was nice to know that if i'm going to end up spending 600 on food that just gets me through the day, for another 100 we can really enjoy it...and not have to worry about it. We bought very little oop - a couple of drinks when we shared and some Mcdonald's nuggets, and about $20 in sodas and cereal.

 

[patsal]

I did the math for my family and came up witha 37% savings. We did not attempt to "max" the program and many times used water as snack credit. It was a good balance between $2 and $4 snack options. OOP expenses for Alcohol and a snack in France--nothing was signed with DDP so DH just paid for the pasteries, and I think I may have paid for one bottle of water --the computer system was down at AK on a 95 degree day so cash was the only option. Total OOP was about $147 for 14 days.

 

[llqool]

bicker, I couldn't access your analysis...

I'm just interested to know if any of you are factoring in the "extra" cost of the room b/c you are paying rack rates. I'm not so worried about whether I would have ordered an appetizer or not (i probably wouldn't have!), I just need to "recoup" the extra $200 I'm forking over for our room!

 

[Lewisc]

bicker, I couldn't access your analysis...

I'm just interested to know if any of you are factoring in the "extra" cost of the room b/c you are paying rack rates. I'm not so worried about whether I would have ordered an appetizer or not (i probably wouldn't have!), I just need to "recoup" the extra $200 I'm forking over for our room!

You can get AAA rates if you book through a AAA TA and you can use the current code rates.

 

[bicker]

bicker, I couldn't access your analysis...

Strange. I just checked the links; they're still working fine.

I'm just interested to know if any of you are factoring in the "extra" cost of the room b/c you are paying rack rates.

I'm a DVC member, so that didn't apply to me.

 

[beth_cam]

I didnt count the differences in room rates because I still got the lowest rate available to me at the time. I can not book far enough in advance to take advantage of the better deals usually.

 

[patsal]

Didn't count the difference in room rate, last year in December I got the discounted package and was able to add dining--my room was not rack rate.
This was a one time thing when we went with extended family.
We have DVC so we don't factor in the room at all.

 

[llqool]

bicker -- now I got the links to work! thanks for all the detail!

and I guess I am talking about apples vs. oranges -- we are booked w/the free dining. Because of that, we could not take advantage of any discounts on the room (either the AAA or the other codes that have come out more recently). So the $200 that I figured I need to "recoup" is the total discount I could've gotten on the room ($40/nite for 5 days at POFQ) if I hadn't bought the pkg.

Lewisc -- I was told by our local AAA TA that they couldn't discount anything if one was getting the package w/free dining. i hope she wasn't wrong -- I'd be pretty steamed if I thought that was the case!!!

 

[LoriNSC]

We went for 5 nights in July & paid $624 for the DDP. We added just the receipts for our TS meals alone & it was $770.91. We estimated that the TS, CS & snacks were well over $1,000. It was a great value for us and a ton of food.!!! We're doing the DDP again in June 2007.

 

[DavidOH]

We went in June/July for 9 nights. 2 Adults, 2 Children. The cost was $90/day. I totaled the reciepts and they came to over $1500 and I was missing a few. Granted if we were OOP we couldn't have ordered appetizers and desert every night and we wouldn't have had TS either. We did find ourselves using our snacks for a bagel or danish in the AM, but we stilled paid for most of our breakfasts OOP.

Several years ago we went and spent an average of 100-120 per day on food. So I figured that the meal plan was a pretty good deal.

Also we went with another family so it made it much easier to control expenses and know up front the cost of things thereby avoiding conflict and stress that might have otherwise presented itself.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Last October we saved just under $300 (2 adults, 1 child).
This time (Aug. 3-12) we saved roughly $400.

There are a couple of factors we have to consider going forward. 1) The CS desserts were either truly gross or just not necessary. I enjoyed the cheesecake but I could have lived without it. If we were paying OOP there is NO WAY we would be getting dessert every day at lunch. 2) Our DS is turning 10, so the plan will now cost us about $27 more each day. Unfortunately he eats almost NOTHING, so paying for an adult dining plan for him would be stupid.

We bought a DDE card and we figure we will come out better paying OOP and just ordering the amount of food we truly want.

I think a large part of the savings from DDP come from giving folks way more food than they would typically order. Yes, it is great to get a dinner that costs $140 covered by plan credits that only cost $87 AND get a CS meal and a snack on top of it, but if we were paying OOP we wouldn't have ordered $140 worth of food.

For us, the jump in price for DS to go to an "adult" wipes out a large part of our savings, and the rest of our savings can easily be offset by skipping things like those vile pre-packaged brownies at CS places.

 

[DiszyDeanette]

bicker, I couldn't access your analysis...

I'm just interested to know if any of you are factoring in the "extra" cost of the room b/c you are paying rack rates. I'm not so worried about whether I would have ordered an appetizer or not (i probably wouldn't have!), I just need to "recoup" the extra $200 I'm forking over for our room!

I believe rack rates only apply to free dining. (although some report gettnig a discount even then, but not many!) You can still add the DDP to a discounted package if you're paying for it.

 

[PoohHappens]

I am a little confused, if you are getting the free DP promo, yes you had to pay rack rate which you said was $200 more than with a discount. There is no way you could eat for $200 and your OOP expenses beyond the plan will be very small if any. I think we maybe spent $200 OOP the whole week we were there last year during the free dinning including suvies and candy and one extra TS.

Even when paying for the DP for us it ends up a good deal. Mostly because it maximizes our enjoyment of the trip. Prior we have always scrimped and shared CS meals and only did two TS character breakfasts. Even doing that and eating breakfast in our room we only would spend $100-200 less than purchasing the plan.

Also Bicker--great run down. It is so nice to see one without the apps and desserts as many worry about the amount of food. Still a good deal even not ordering everything you are entitled to.