I canceled the dining plan.....I have questions

[TinkerbellTris]

i can’t believe I did it. I canceled our dining plan. I have been a huge advocate for the Disney dining plan since I booked it in 2006. We’d gone before as a family in 2002 and did not know what we were doing and we spent so much money on food, after that the dining plan was the only way to go for us. Fast forward to 2016. We had the dining plan and just did not find as much value in it. Instead what I found was me, being a vegetarian.....forcing my 17 year old son and husband to order the most expensive appetizer or dessert plus entree at each place we ate at, since I was only ordering the veggie dish and a dessert. At the end of the trip we basically broke even. I felt like we all overate and most of the trip felt sick and miserable. We just don’t usually eat so much food in one sitting. Now we just had the regular ddp. 2 snacks, 1 QS and 1 TS. It was always rough because we’d want like a pastry and coffee for breakfast, a fast food type lunch and sit down meal. But the 2 snacks would chew up what we ordered for breakfast....it was just not working. Which brings us to 2018. We are going in October, package booked.....and i started searching menus for our ddp planning what my son and husband have to order to get our moneys worth to make up for my veggie dishes. And boom. No more value to be found. What I found is for 5 nights our dining is $1032.32. If I keep our dining reservations as is, and pay out of pocket including breakfast, fast food lunch and our reservation for dinner.....ordering what we normally would order my oop cost is $796. I can’t believe it. This is the very first time we are not doing the dpp, as I cannot find value in it for-my Family. I really thought I’d never ever say that. But I just did. My questions are these, for those of you paying oop for dining and staying at a Disney Resort on a package (room, tickets):
1. Is there’s anyway I can purchase the mugs at our resort for the unlimited drinks at our hotel that usually comes with the ddp? If so how much is the cost of the mugs?
2. Do we get a choice to pay with cash or credit at the restaurant or is it done solely by magic band?
Which leads me to a magic band question that is driving me crazy.....only once have we’d gotten magic bands which was our trip in 2016. Before that, we went in 2012 and there was no magic bands. Staying at Disney resorts I know we get the free ones, of course I want to buy us some limited edition ones now and have themsent to Me. Few questions:
1. Does this mean they will still send me the free ones that come with my package?
2. How do I get all of my fast passes, dining reservations, etc. Onto the limited edition magic bands I plan to buy?
Thank you all so much.

 

[TOBS2010]

The dining plan has never come out to be cost effective for our family either. It's just too much food and we actually find that we eat less with the florida heat. Plus we save money by eating breakfast in the room most of our trip. You can purchase the mugs separate from the dining plan for $18.99, I think.

If you are paying OOP anywhere---you can pay with cash, credit or charge it back to your room via magic band.

 

[Hopefully]

i
1. Is there’s anyway I can purchase the mugs at our resort for the unlimited drinks at our hotel that usually comes with the ddp? If so how much is the cost of the mugs?
2. Do we get a choice to pay with cash or credit at the restaurant or is it done solely by magic band?
Which leads me to a magic band question that is driving me crazy.....only once have we’d gotten magic bands which was our trip in 2016. Before that, we went in 2012 and there was no magic bands. Staying at Disney resorts I know we get the free ones, of course I want to buy us some limited edition ones now and have themsent to Me. Few questions:
1. Does this mean they will still send me the free ones that come with my package?
2. How do I get all of my fast passes, dining reservations, etc. Onto the limited edition magic bands I plan to buy?
Thank you all so much.

You can purchase mugs at the. resort Gift Shop for $18. They are good for 14 days
You can pay any way you choose
You can decline. your fre e Magic Bands in your MDE A count if you choose to
There will be days a code on the specialty Magic Bands tha t you e niter. In MDE. They are the n associated with you

 

[winnieofpooh]

1. As above, you can purchase the refillable mugs at your hotel
2. You can pay with cash, card, or magicband
3. You will still get the free ones if you booked a package, but you can decline if you wish not to receive them
4. You just have to 'link' the limited edition magic band to MDE, and all your fastpasses, tickets, etc. will be linked. There will be a code on the back of the magic band that you simply enter in MDE to "link a magic band"

 

[disneyseniors]

OP, I understand your reluctance to not use the DP anymore. My husband and I went thru this 2 years ago. Like you, we always used the DP and got it free when it was a good offering. The last few times we went to WDW, I didn't feel we got the value from it anymore. We always felt like we had to eat the most expensive thing at the TS meals, eat our QS (even tho we were full), and we also used up our snacks on breakfast items
We were always too full to even try a Mickey bar or another treat. We got tired of going to the TS restaurants for our adr's. Some times, we just didnt' want to trek to another sit down meal. We ended up cancelling a lot of TS meals.
So, 2 years ago I mentioned not getting free dp to my husband, and he was reluctant to do it, but he agreed.

We both found out that we were much happier without all that food that we really didn't want. We ate when we wanted, where we want, and what we wanted. It was so freeing! Sometimes we just grabbed snacks and piled into bed and watched movies at our resort. We also saved a lot of money this way. I ate kids meals, or we split meals at times. We were never too full to try a delicious snack, something we never did before.
So we will never go back to the dp again.

We are on the package deal too, and we just put our charge card on the magic bands, and that works just like the dining plan. Just tap the band and go on. We used the band for everything at WDW, no problems.

So, I think you will really like the no dining plan way. Let us know what you think when you get back.

 

[disneyvoice]

Totally agree with you on the dining plan. We did it once and lost a bunch of money. We just can't eat that much food (and wouldn't want to). I also much prefer the freedom of being able to eat whatever I want, whenever I want and not having to make sure we are breaking even by ordering the most expensive thing on the menu. We order whatever sounds good to us when we get to the restaurant. If that's an expensive steak, I get that but if I only want a small salad and a water I'll order that. We also aren't big snackers so the one time we did the dining plan we had almost every single snack credit left over. We are big snackers at home either so bringing home a bunch of unhealthy junk food doesn't work for our family. There are also times we have a TS meal scheduled but decide we aren't hungry and end up modifying and then cancelling it. We use our Magic Bands to pay for food just like everyone on the dining plan so we have the same level of convenience - I'm not sure why so many people list that as a reason for doing the dining plan. Have fun on your trip!!

 

[Fangorn]

...

2. How do I get all of my fast passes, dining reservations, etc. Onto the limited edition magic bands I plan to buy?
Thank you all so much.

Nothing is ever "on" a magic band of any type - regular, or special edition. Bands are merely access keys to your MDE account. All you're FPs, ADRs, tickets, etc are kept in your MDE account. The bands just access that information.

Bands are interchangeable just like multiple keys to your front door are interchangeable.

Steve

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We haven't paid for for the DDP for 6 years. Got it free with our bounceback. We have never felt we had to eat like a pig. We eat, we share, we plan. When we have leftover credits and snacks we pack out spare bag full and give them out to family and friends when we get back. When it is no longer free we will stop getting it.

 

[mekay1012]

We skipped the dining plan in our last trip and put the money we would have spent on the dining plan on a gift card. That way, we still felt like the food was prepaid for.

 

[Dean Marino]

i can’t believe I did it. I canceled our dining plan. I have been a huge advocate for the Disney dining plan since I booked it in 2006. We’d gone before as a family in 2002 and did not know what we were doing and we spent so much money on food, after that the dining plan was the only way to go for us. Fast forward to 2016. We had the dining plan and just did not find as much value in it. Instead what I found was me, being a vegetarian.....forcing my 17 year old son and husband to order the most expensive appetizer or dessert plus entree at each place we ate at, since I was only ordering the veggie dish and a dessert. At the end of the trip we basically broke even. I felt like we all overate and most of the trip felt sick and miserable. We just don’t usually eat so much food in one sitting. Now we just had the regular ddp. 2 snacks, 1 QS and 1 TS. It was always rough because we’d want like a pastry and coffee for breakfast, a fast food type lunch and sit down meal. But the 2 snacks would chew up what we ordered for breakfast....it was just not working. Which brings us to 2018. We are going in October, package booked.....and i started searching menus for our ddp planning what my son and husband have to order to get our moneys worth to make up for my veggie dishes. And boom. No more value to be found. What I found is for 5 nights our dining is $1032.32. If I keep our dining reservations as is, and pay out of pocket including breakfast, fast food lunch and our reservation for dinner.....ordering what we normally would order my oop cost is $796. I can’t believe it. This is the very first time we are not doing the dpp, as I cannot find value in it for-my Family. I really thought I’d never ever say that. But I just did. My questions are these, for those of you paying oop for dining and staying at a Disney Resort on a package (room, tickets):
1. Is there’s anyway I can purchase the mugs at our resort for the unlimited drinks at our hotel that usually comes with the ddp? If so how much is the cost of the mugs?
2. Do we get a choice to pay with cash or credit at the restaurant or is it done solely by magic band?
Which leads me to a magic band question that is driving me crazy.....only once have we’d gotten magic bands which was our trip in 2016. Before that, we went in 2012 and there was no magic bands. Staying at Disney resorts I know we get the free ones, of course I want to buy us some limited edition ones now and have themsent to Me. Few questions:
1. Does this mean they will still send me the free ones that come with my package?
2. How do I get all of my fast passes, dining reservations, etc. Onto the limited edition magic bands I plan to buy?
Thank you all so much.

First? CONGRATULATIONS on dumping DDP . You have already done an OOP calculation - you did your homework .

Now - questions? Are you a FL resident, AP holder, or DVC member? If you are? Look into Tables in Wonderland (TIW). MIGHT be good for you, might NOT be good for you....

Now let's go through your questions.... .

1) YES - see http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/disney-refillable-mugs/ . $18.99 for length of resort stay, no DDP needed.

2) OOP or TIW? You may pay as you wish... Cash, CC, MB, even Gift Cards. Oh - given that you have a ROOM RES - Yes, you may get free MBs, and customize according to name & color. If you BUY an MB? No issues - it just becomes "Yet Another Token" (YAT) for everything.

Magic Bands may be new to you.... think of these as House Keys. No actual DATA is stored on a Magic band.... it's just a "Key" that links to everything you have already set up.... Room Reservations, Park Tickets, Dining Reservations - even Magical Express. You may have MANY "keys" - multiple Magic Bands, or AP cards....

 

[k5xs]

Tink,

You have come to the same conclusion DW and I did many years ago. For us the big factors were:

1) Financially the DDP was almost invariably a wash (except when it was free, of course).

2) We are generally light eaters (and now in our 60s are some of those "share an entree" people), and the DDP encouraged us to just eat more than we want to, with the price of sluggishness the rest of the day.

3) With ADRs, we found we lost a lot of spontaneity, and that's a lot of what we enjoy in our visits now. With the DDP we felt obligated to eat TS meals, and we found that drove us to a "spreadsheet schedule" mentality, and we just don't like that. We like to go with the flow.

We're not ones to make fun of other people, but I will admit we are amused nowadays as we see people checking out at a counter-serve eatery and discussing "How in the world are we going to use all these snacks!" as the CM tells them (on their last day) "And you've got 487 snack entitlements remaining."

 

[pooh2001]

We never do the dining plan
We like to eat where ever, when ever

As said above - we do a quick breakfast in our resort room.
We sometimes do a brunch if we do an early AM entry into the park.

We make some ADR's - but most of the time we just go with the flow.
Lots of places to eat at resorts - most times with little wait.

 

[Huff]

It's always worked out in our favor on the DDP. It really depends on where you enjoy dining and what you enjoy eating. Many of the favorite restaurants at Disney are not ours. Places like 50's Prime Time, Sci-Fi etc. are loved by many but are among the lower priced menus. We enjoy some of the more expensive 1TS restaurants and has nothing to do with trying to order the most expensive items just for the value. I love a good steak, my wife loves seafood! Not much for meatloaf, fried chicken, burgers etc.

That said, DDP is not the value it once was. Our first trip with DDP was when appetizer, entree, dessert, tax and tip were included. Was easy for many to get a good value.

 

[bumbershoot]

1. Is there’s anyway I can purchase the mugs at our resort for the unlimited drinks at our hotel that usually comes with the ddp? If so how much is the cost of the mugs?

Yes and there’s a lovely “sticky” thread all about the mugs on the Resorts forum (because they are only usable at the resorts, not the restaurants in general)

2. Do we get a choice to pay with cash or credit at the restaurant

Of course, as others have said.

I often don’t set up room charging at all.

We have never felt we had to eat like a pig.

It might feel different because you’re your trips are being planned for or falling during free dining.

If you traveled during times without that promo, and had to pay for the plan, you might feel a need to get the monetary value of what you purchased, which might mean ordering more than you can comfortably eat.

 

[MinnieMSue]

We are just finishing a 15 night trip. We spent 1300 on food for 2 people for 16 days. Dining plan would have been 2,250 or so. We ate what we wanted when we wanted. I got steak if I wanted. My daughter got seafood when she wanted. We got kids meals sometimes because we didn’t want a big meal. We got breakfast and some snack stuff from Amazon Prime Now. We usually paid table service meals on my debit card and quick service and snacks charged to the room. It seemed easier for restaurants for us to use our bank card (or more often a Disney gift card that we had most of our spending money on). We usually drink water but got a lot of frozen drinks during the hot afternoons.