Help- Does this pay off?

[Freyja]

O.k Let´s say my family of 6 (4 count as adults on the DDP and 2 as kids) will dine at the following restaurants during our 7 night stay:

TS:
Coral Reef (dinner)
Crystal Palace (breakfast)
Sci Fi (lunch)
Tusker house (breakfast)
CRT (lunch)
Bomas (dinner)

CS:
Morocco
Peco Bills
ASMO food court x 2
Somewhere in the Studios
Somewhere in AK
?

Do you think the DDP will pay off?

 

[centurythree]

If it were me (and it actually was me last night trying to figure out if Free Dining was worth it for me and my party), I would have a look at the menus on WDWinfo.com and try to project what menu items each person would be having at those restaurants. I came out cheaper staying off-site even with free dining and "expensive" restaurant choices, but you might find a different result depending on your plans.

 

[Tricia1972]

If you always order dessert, and stick with the most expensive items on the menu, you stand to save about $350 with the plan vs without it.

Figuring the most expensive items OOP you're spending $135.52 on desserts, $810.96 on Entree's, $67.68 on Beverages and $204.68 on children's meals. Averaging $3.00 per snack (which for our trip was high we only averaged $2.88/snack), your snack value is about $126.00.

If you don't always order the most expensive items your costs will come down considerably.

Like the PP suggested, take a look at the menus on allearsnet.com and you can put your own numbers into this spreadsheet to determine how much/if you'll save with the plan. http://personalpages.tds.net/~rb/DIS/MYW Dining/DisneyDining Template.xls

 

[SuzieN]

I know that for my family, if we were strictly paying out of pocket the TS prices would scare us into eating only CS meals. Figuring the DDP into the cost of our trip and paying for it before hand allows us to eat at TS restaurants which we really enjoy. It kinda makes your vacation seem all-inclusive [especially before they took the tip out]. It is a good savings but more importantly for us, it allows us to relax about restaurant pricing!

 

[ntsammy5]

I've always figured it was just about break even. The DDE is a better deal for us now, but DDP is still great for lots of reasons.