Help me with my DDP math!

[olliesmom]

We will be a Disney in April with three kids ages 1, 4 and 8 at the time of travel. We have not used the dining plan in years, but the free dining for kids promotion has us leaning toward adding it.

We will be at Disney for 5 nights and have a DVC reservation that is currently split into 4 night + 1 additional night, so we would be paying for a 4 night dining plan (we would not add the extra night as we are flying out early on our day of departure).

I have done the math estimating the OOP cost for the following restaurants:

CS:

Captain Cook's
Columbia Harbour House
Connections Eatery
Gasparilla Island Grill

TS:

Chef Mickey's
Crystal Palace
1900 Park Fare
Akershus (breakfast)

Snacks: mostly estimating things like dole whips and Mickey bars, we aren't likely to have time to scope out the highest value snacks daily and the kids really just love ice cream.

We do not drink alcohol, but even accounting for sodas instead of expensive drinks, I am coming up with an estimated cost of approx. 1100.00 OOP vs. the 788.00 of the dining plan for four nights.

Even if we ate counter service the entire trip (our usual eating pattern without the DDP, sharing things and occasionally ordering kids meals for adults) we spend roughly 50.00 per CS meal plus approx. 20/day in snacks which would be an OOP cost of 480.00. Adding in a single character meal would put us over the dining plan cost and then it seems we might as well go for it.

Before I go ahead and add it to our reservation, I wanted to make sure there isn't anything I'm missing! I keep reading about how difficult it is to beat the DDP, especially without ordering alcoholic drinks. But maybe the free kids dining really does change the math?

Thanks!!

 

[Kerr84]

You know your 1 year old won’t get a dining plan, right?

I’m sure your math is right. If you have kids under 9 and do character dining, you can usually break even. With kids getting free dining, you’ll come out way ahead since you are eating at expensive character meals.

 

[Mirabell Rose]

Be sure you add the cost of the tips for your table service meals onto your costs with the DDP

 

[Kerr84]

Be sure you add the cost of the tips for your table service meals onto your costs with the DDP

True, but you would be paying those if you were eating OOP too.

 

[eticketplease]

True, but you would be paying those if you were eating OOP too.

The DP is made out to be a solution where you don’t have to think about forking any more money for snacks or meals and most people are not aware that the DP doesn’t cover tips on those TS restaurants.

It is true that you would be paying it if dining OOP but from the first post the OP wouldn’t as they plan and eat at QS establishments.

 

[bakerr6]

We are making the same decision. Only suggestion I would make is to save the snack credits for epcot. You can get some great food from various booths, such as the filet mignon from canada.

 

[Add-On-Itis]

True, but you would be paying those if you were eating OOP too.

If paying OOP, you might have AP, DVC, VISA discount. So the total might be lower.

 

[olliesmom]

You know your 1 year old won’t get a dining plan, right?

I’m sure your math is right. If you have kids under 9 and do character dining, you can usually break even. With kids getting free dining, you’ll come out way ahead since you are eating at expensive character meals.

Yes, she will turn 1 the week before we travel and will happily gum some things off our plates as she doesn’t yet have a single tooth.

 

[eticketplease]

If paying OOP, you might have AP, DVC, VISA discount. So the total might be lower.

I don’t think so being that they are getting 2 kids meals and a snack for each of their two children ESP if doing the QS DP as those aren’t discounted except for a couple in Disney Springs like Polite Pig.