I just posted this in another thread, but I think it belongs here!
We just recently returned from a six night stay at WDW. We were there because our daughter had a gymnastics competition. We were going to buy the discounted hotel and tickets through Disney Sports, and then my
travel agent advised me of the Stay Play and Dine offer. When I crunched the numbers, if I added the discounted price of the hotel Disney Sports was offering, and the discounted ticket prices and compared that to the SPD offer, the difference was around 21-22 dollars per person per day. So I took it that was the amount the QS-DP was costing us, for our particular situation. Because there was no price difference between children and adults, we listed our 7 year old as 10 so she could have better eating options. Only on a few occasions did we order off of the kids menu for her. Here are the numbers:
If we had paid for
DDP with our daughter as a child 3-9 the cost would have been ~763.00
If we had paid for the DDP with our daughter as 10 or over the cost of the DDP would have been ~902.00
Amount of money the food we got with the DP would have cost us if we paid OOP, ~825.00
Amount of money from the package that paid for the dining part: ~528.00 (keep in mind this is in addition to discounted room and ticket prices.
And we ended up with a bunch of desserts and snacks (some we bought at the MS Confectionary to use up the credits) in our fridge at home, which we still have not finished eating.
So in our case, savings would have only come if our daughter had paid for the child plan, and in that case we would have been in trouble because of the limited options.
We shared meals, desserts and snacks, not to be cheap, but because we did not want to waste food! We all ate very well.
Unless its a special offer (like SPD or
free dining) then we would not pay for the DDP. We would save money by going out of pocket, even more than I calculated here, because we would not have ordered all of those desserts!
In 2010, we took our kids to WDW for the first time. At the time, our daughter was 5 and our son was 8. We had the regular plan, and did 4 character meals, as well as two additional buffets. The cost of the DP was lower then, and the savings was significant, even though we ended up with a bunch of snacks as well. At that time we had breakfast in the room.
For this trip we paid OOP for two breakfasts, one at 1900 Park Fare, and one at the hotel (All Star Sports). We also paid for lunch at
Legoland. The rest of the meals were covered with the food we got through the plan. This trip did not allow for the regular DP since we had to attend competitions, plus did not have too much time in the parks.
On our previous trip my daughter did not like the Mac and Cheese, she really doesn't do PB J and she didn't like the kids nuggets either. She survived because we had lots of TS, and by sharing with other people. That is the reason we decided to pay for her as an adult for DP purposes. We were lucky that with the SPD offer the price was the same for kids and adults. On the last day I ordered a kids meal at Pizzafari for her, and three adult meals for the rest of us (me, husband and 10 year old). She was pissed when she saw the size of the pizza! Now it might have been enough for her (she is very light) on any other day, but on this day she was hungry! I ended up giving her 3/4 of my pizza, and eating hers instead, along with my salad!