I can't decide on dining plan...

[rance]

Maybe someone could offer some advice. It will be my wife and I and our 5 and 2 1/2 year old..so dining plan will cost about $ 96/daynfor 6 nights.$576.

We are staying at AKV and have plans for:

Boma dinner
Tusker house breakfast
Fantasmic package

I figured quick meals would be $30 per meal * 6 = 180
Boma $90
Tusker $60
Fantasmic $ 90
Order in pizza one night $30

The rest is up in the air.

What else am I missing..any insight would be appreciated.We also don't really eat dessert.

Thanks

 

[Pongo23]

Just something to keep in mind - don't forget that the dining plan cost does not include tip. That will be an out of pocket expense for you at the table service restaurants. I believe we spent about $150 on tips our last trip. Also, dessert is everywhere on the dining plan. That part was great for me, but sounds like it would not work for you. My suggestion, keep doing what you're doing as far as figuring out where you would like to eat and keep a tally of the anticipated cost. Once you have all your table service restaurants picked out, you should be able to compare the costs pretty easily. Good Luck!

 

[TDC Nala]

If you are planning on ordering in pizza for dining credits at a deluxe resort you may want to check on that - in-room dining may count a pizza as an in-room dining meal for two, which means it will cost you four TS credits (adult ones) for one pizza.

If you don't eat dessert, dessert comes with every dining plan meal except breakfast, including CS. However, you have three TS scheduled, two are buffets and one is a package, they'd include dessert anyway, not that you would have to eat it.

 

[SGMCO]

You are going to Love--Donald Safari Breakfast--It is one of best
character Breakfast. If you're not on the DDP--bring more money than you've planned for
because things always end up cost more than you think. If you're on the DDP you won't have to
worry about cost of CS meals because that is included with the DDP.
Have a fun trip!

 

[bangzoom6877]

If you are planning on ordering in pizza for dining credits at a deluxe resort you may want to check on that - in-room dining may count a pizza as an in-room dining meal for two, which means it will cost you four TS credits (adult ones) for one pizza.

If you don't eat dessert, dessert comes with every dining plan meal except breakfast, including CS. However, you have three TS scheduled, two are buffets and one is a package, they'd include dessert anyway, not that you would have to eat it.

TDCNala brings up some very good points. CS meals also include dessert on the DDP, but at many places you can get either fruit or yogurt as your dessert. A friend of mine was at WDW last July and was able to get a bottle of water instead of dessert at CS. I have read other reports of getting a side in place of dessert at CS, but I don't know how consistent this is.

 

[TDC Nala]

They probably won't let you have a CS side in place of dessert. Fruit is usually ok as a substitute, maybe a bottle of water, depends on which cashier you ask. At TS you can never substitute an appetizer for a dessert.

 

[rance]

Thanks for the replies.I think we'll go with the dining plan and add a few more character meals.
I know this sounds weird to say, but I find after a few days I kind of get sick of eating big meals.
Thanks again

 

[Cafeen]

Sounds like I'm needed here!

For starters, a dining plan is really only a savings if you plan to eat as it is designed. If you typically will split/share meals, not eat dessert, order inexpensive items only, eat breakfast only, etc, then there's a much smaller chance you will come away with any savings.

Take a gander at the following:

• If you plan to dine at 2 or 3 TS locations per night, then the DxDDP is a good bet. The break even point for deluxe is right around 2/3 of credits spent at TS locations. On DxDDP you receive 3 meal credits and 2 snack per person per night, plus a refillable mug for each of you.
• If you plan to dine at an average of 1 TS location per night, then the DDP may be a good choice. Further homework would be needed to determine if it actually will be a savings or not (a lot will depend on your use of the credits and where/when you go). The DDP you receive 1 TS, 1 QS, and 1 Snack credit per person per night.
• If you plan to eat a mostly (or all) QS, then the QSDP may be right for your. On the QSDP you will receive 2 QS and 2 Snack credits per person per night, along with a refillable mug.
• If you plan to eat at non-DDP participating restaurants, will not typically use all of your entitlements, are prone (or happy with) sharing meals, prefer appetizers but not desserts, or just, in general, won't eat as the 3 options above suggest, then OOP will likely be the best bet.

From what you've listed, if you don't plan any other TS meals, either QS or out of pocket will be the best bet. 2 buffets + 1 other TS and 6 QS meals over 6 nights (the 3 meals you've planned, and the 6 allotted QS meals available on the DDP) will not likely cost you an average of $96 per night (especially since the little one gets to eat free at the buffets and kids meals at non-buffet TS places are relatively cheap). Your $30 per QS meal is a pretty good estimate, most average around $12 per adult and $5-7 per child. Add some sharing in there (with some of the combo meals it's a definite possibility) and you got quite a bit of savings.

And yes, in-room pizza is a horrible use of DDP credits (from a value per credit perspective, not necessarily from a "I want to do it" perspective ). In fact, most 2 TS locations/experiences aren't as good value credit-wise on the DDP. This is purely due to the way that the DDP is set up, and it inflates the estimated cost of each TS credit. This isn't a problem on the DxDDP as much, since the estimated cost of each meal credit is quite a bit lower, plus you get 3 times the number of credits to use at TS locations. It's usually (though, not always) recommended to pay OOP when dining at 2TS locations on the DDP. (More detailed analysis of a full DDP plan would find out the best use of credits vs oop, and sometimes it does make sense to pay for a 2TS on credits).

Ok, all of that above was my typical super-verbose way of saying that it looks like you'd be better served, with that plan, to either pick up the QSDP or simply pay out of pocket .

EDIT:
Doh, and in that super wordy post, you posted about adding a couple more meals and picking up the DDP , that would work too.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

We do pizza at least once per trip on the dining plan. Key thing is to pick it up yourself and either eat it there in your resort CS area or take it back to the room.

For 2 CS you get the pizza, 2 drinks and 2 desserts - IF you pick it up yourself.

IF they deliver the pizza - as I recall - you are looking at 2 TS and what a waste that is of TS!

We love the dining plan and use it creatively. For the 3 of us (DD is 10) - we order 2 CS meals at a time and split them between us - plenty of food for everyone. That way we manage to spread the credits out for the whole trip (eating breakfast in the room once or twice) and don't end up paying anything OOP.

Good luck and have fun on your trip!

 

[SuzieN]

We love the dining plan! I've actually never tried to figure out how much, if anything, we save with the DDP. We like it because it makes our vacation nearly all-inclusive. My husband does not deal well with sticker shock when paying for something so it's a lot more pleasant to have the dining costs (minus tip - no big deal) taken care of ahead of time.

 

[Melodious]

It sounds like you're going with the DDP and having more TS meals. However, it doesn't sound like you really want to eat that much. If you decide you don't want to eat more TS meals but still would like the 'inclusive', prepaid feel of the DDP, I would suggest buying gift cards. Since you're already figuring out the costs of your meals, simply add in the costs of tips at TS restaurants and buy that amount on gift cards (Disneystores.com will ship them for free). You can put the gift cards on your room keycard at the resort, use it anywhere you can use the keycard, and the money will come off in a debit kinda way. That way no worrying if you're getting a 'deal' out of the DDP and no worrying about spending too much while you're there. And if you end up with a little extra on the gift card at the end, you can always buy a souvenir with it or save it for your next trip!

 

[TDC Nala]

We do pizza at least once per trip on the dining plan. Key thing is to pick it up yourself and either eat it there in your resort CS area or take it back to the room.

For 2 CS you get the pizza, 2 drinks and 2 desserts - IF you pick it up yourself.

The OP is staying at AKV; there is no counter service restaurant at AKV. There is one at AKL but you'd have to take the whole family down there to eat the pizza rather than carry it back to AKV, because it's not a really long walk but it may be if you are carrying a pizza, drinks and desserts. On top of that, I don't believe the Mara at AKL even serves a large pizza.

A large pizza at a deluxe resort on DDP is a different animal than it would be at a value or moderate. Deluxes don't have the same pizza delivery as a value or moderate. At a value or moderate they will charge 2 TS for one pizza. Through deluxe in-room dining, because in-room dining costs 2 TS per person and they consider a large pizza a meal for two persons, they may end up charging 4 TS for one pizza. You have to be very careful with deluxe resorts, because a pizza delivery might end up costing more credits than you though it would.

 

[Cafeen]

We do pizza at least once per trip on the dining plan. Key thing is to pick it up yourself and either eat it there in your resort CS area or take it back to the room.

For 2 CS you get the pizza, 2 drinks and 2 desserts - IF you pick it up yourself.

IF they deliver the pizza - as I recall - you are looking at 2 TS and what a waste that is of TS!

Yep, as Nala mentioned (somewhat ) if at a Value or Mod and you're able to pick up the pizza, thus spending 2 CS credits per, then it's not a bad deal at all. Especially considering a large pizza typically can feed a family of 4. It's almost a better deal than normal cs places!

For 2TS per pizza delivery, it's not such a great deal (on the DDP) as mentioned. It's plausible, especially if you're doing more higher end 1TS credits for the rest of your meals. At a possible 4TS per pizza delivery, it's throwing credits (and thus, money) away.

But, in other news, adding 3 more TS to that list should suit you just fine (and I'd look into paying OOP for that in-room pizza if you really want it.)

 

[rance]

Thanks again everyone for the time you took to post. It can get a bit overwhelming planning adr...which parks which days etc.

In reference to pizza I had originally meant ordering pizza in from a place outside the resort. Thinking of having a resort day and just relaxing in the room one night. I wasn't aware you could have it on the dining plan.

Thanks again

 

[Cafeen]

Thanks again everyone for the time you took to post. It can get a bit overwhelming planning adr...which parks which days etc.

In reference to pizza I had originally meant ordering pizza in from a place outside the resort. Thinking of having a resort day and just relaxing in the room one night. I wasn't aware you could have it on the dining plan.

Thanks again

You're one step ahead of me at every turn aren't you!

The initial sorting of which days where and figuring out how to split up the ADRs is relatively difficult, but rest assured, it gets easier . Hope you have a great trip.

 

[TxRabbit]

Just to add 2 cents...

One thing to keep in mind when traveling with your children is that having the break that TS meals can provide can be really wonderful. It's lovely to be SERVED rather than have to deal with your food (CS or buffet). I know that the buffets are so tempting because of your under 3 years old, but buffets can be a real hassle with children, you should definitely try to plan for at least some family style or regular TS restaurants.

When we first used the DDP, the easiest meal for me to plan for was lunch. It generally isn't the greatest bang for your buck on the DDP, but the fact is that traveling with the kid, I knew where I was going to be in the morning, so lunch was the easiest thing to plan for. Then we had our evenings generally free to go swimming, rest at the resort, whatever. The lunch break was so nice. We were so ready for it after a busy morning.