I don't think the dinner plan is good, suggestions?

[pepperderr]

grrrr! I thought I would go make the reservations today (for June). I got chatting with someone on the website and she of course says to go for the dinner plan. So that got me thinking about it again and I am holding off on the reservations yet again till I decide. This is what I am thinking...

We will be taking a cooler and driving down from PA.

We will eat breakfast out of the cooler and probably lunch out of the cooler or of left overs from the dinner the night before.

About 20 dollars a day will be enough for us all to get a snack at the park each day plus of course taking lots of snacks to the park with us. Plus one DS has over 400 and the other has close to 300 dollars to spend at WDW so if they are desparate for a snack, they can get it

We could eat at a resturant off site (IHOP or Cici's Pizza ect.) for about 40-50 dollars total.

We could do a character meal for about 80 dollars probably once. I haven't made any ADR's at all yet.

It will be DH, myself, our 3yo son(who is usually fine with chicken nuggets or pizza and salad), and our 8yo son (who likes to eat off the adult menu because of the varity, not for the portions of food) He would get tired of having to eat chicken nuggets or spaghetti every day because he had to eat off the kids menu.

I don't like the idea of having to keep track of credits and also making sure we use them all up before we leave, but then I never used it before so I might love it if we tried it.

I think there will not be that big of a difference between getting the dinner plan and not getting it as far as price for us. If we get it, we will want to eat at Disney all the time and not go to IHOP or Cici's though.

Help me decide please!

 

[JimMIA]

The math changes from family to family, but I think you are using the only correct approach in evaluating DDP. You are comparing how you would ACTUALLY eat without DDP to the cost of DDP.

Too often, we see people comparing the cost of DDP to the menu prices of the food, but that's a bogus comparison. That's the comparison the Disney marketing kids want you to make, because the plan is structured for that comparison to always show a savings. But it's not a real savings - it's really an inflated estimate of the value you will receive with DDP, not a cost comparison.

Another cost of DDP which is often forgotten is the increased room price you may have to pay to become eliglble. If DDP makes you ineligible for deep discounts on room rates, that premium you are paying is actually a cost of DDP, not a lodging cost. Many people forget that. Sometimes you can combine decent room discounts with DDP, but sometimes you can't.

For many families - especially families with multiple kids under 10, who fly into WDW and are therefore a captive audience - DDP will still provide value, even with the drastic changes this year.

But your family is not in that group. You have a car, and therefore are able to go offsite easily to eat...which I personally think is going to give you better food and a cost savings - whether you do fine dining offsite, or eat inexpensively.

I would say if you are all happy with your current plans, they would probably work better for you than DDP.

 

[JimMIA]

Two additional quick comments about DDP and your family.

One, your older child will find the kids selections are better and more varied than they were a couple of years ago. It's really not just chicken nuggets any more. You may want to check the menus to get a better idea.

And secondly - with a car, you need to use up all your TS credits, but not the snack and CS credits. We drive to WDW too, and when we used DDP, our last stops were at the resort store to stock up on snacks, and Earl of Sandwich in DTD to pick up sandwiches for the road. So we rarely wasted any of those credits.

 

[pepperderr]

Good point about the snacks! That is why I wanted to get an opinion from others that have used it in the past. I haven't, so I don't know exactally how it works even after looking at the website. Thanks.

 

[patsal]

Well, it is easy to use fuzzy disney math to come up with a deal, but in reality each person has to figure out exactly how their family really eats. I'm not one to order things just to take a bite--to me that is wasteful and why would I want to tip on food that I didn't really want (many a TS arguement nowadays with some saying I love the DXDDP because I can order things take a bite and it was covered so I didn't care). In addition with only one character meal desired by your group, I'd say skip it and you'll save money.
The plan is no longer so much a one size fits all and it is best to do what you are doing for your family.

 

[bolo]

i'm not an expert as we haven't been to disney in a long time nor have we ever used a dining plan, however, for our up-coming trip i did a lot of math and looking over menus. basically what a pp said is exactly right...it depends on the family. as a family of 8, it would cost us about $230 for ddp, plus another $25 (at least) tip per day...we figured we can def eat for less than $250/day. we are happy with CS and have made an extensive CS list after looking thru the menus. we aren't planning on eating off-site at all (and will have breakfast in the room) and still expect to save money. besides, we really want to try lots of dif foods and this way we can get plenty of snacks/treats/cs meals and share!! we even made a couple adr's and we'll still come under $250/day.
i'd suggest sitting down with the family and reading thru the menus...that really helped us!

 

[NJDisney]

Is there one place that lists all of the menus for restaurants in 1 park?

 

[minniekissedme]

check out allears.net

 

[kaytieeldr]

Is there one place that lists all of the menus for restaurants in 1 park?

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/disneydining.cfm

 

[Cherinva]

Is there one place that lists all of the menus for restaurants in 1 park?

On the DIS Website you can find them listed by park or resort. Also on the Disney Web Site you can find them there also.

 

[Cherinva]

Good point about the snacks! That is why I wanted to get an opinion from others that have used it in the past. I haven't, so I don't know exactally how it works even after looking at the website. Thanks.

We were there last year, and we purchased the DDP and were thrilled with it. It was a lot of food, but we found it to be of good value for us. The benefit, was that we didn't have to worry about having money for lunch or dinner. We are getting it again this year.

 

[JimMIA]

We were there last year, and we purchased the DDP and were thrilled with it. It was a lot of food, but we found it to be of good value for us. The benefit, was that we didn't have to worry about having money for lunch or dinner. We are getting it again this year.

Hopefully you realize the MAJOR changes in DDP for 2008...

Neither the appetizer nor the gratuity is included with TS meals in 2008. That's a big change, effectively a price increase of about $10 per adult, per day. The snacks have also been radically reduced from previous years.

 

[patsal]

We were there last year, and we purchased the DDP and were thrilled with it. It was a lot of food, but we found it to be of good value for us. The benefit, was that we didn't have to worry about having money for lunch or dinner. We are getting it again this year.

Last year it was a good deal, not so much universally anymore.

 

[Krmrr]

Don't ignore the time it takes to get off Disney Property and back. Leaving the Magic Kingdom to go out to Burger King and back can take a couple of hours. In a hurry, do not use the MONORAIL, it has an anxiety detector. We arrived at parking lot at 7:30 for a Keys to the Kingdom Tour at 8:15. We saw a train leave as we walked through the gate. The next train arrived at the park at 8:40.
When my kids were young, we would stay off site. Go in the park in the morning, leave at noon or so, eat, go to the motel or to a mall or movie, then go back in after eating at about 5. I bought annual passes (much cheaper then) so we could drive down for 3 or 4 day Weekend trips.

Best Wishes for you Trip.

 

[MinnieMommy]

I am holding off on the reservations yet again till I decide.

Which reservations are you talking about... resort or dining?

If you are holding off on resort reservations while you are trying to decide about the dining plan... don't! Make your reservations.. and if you decide to add the dining plan... you can call and add it to your reservation.

If you are holding off on dining reservations.. again, you could call and make your reservations.. as long as you are considerate and call back and cancel those that you decide not to keep if you decide not to get the dining plan.

 

[Tiger926]

Don't ignore the time it takes to get off Disney Property and back. Leaving the Magic Kingdom to go out to Burger King and back can take a couple of hours. In a hurry, do not use the MONORAIL, it has an anxiety detector. We arrived at parking lot at 7:30 for a Keys to the Kingdom Tour at 8:15. We saw a train leave as we walked through the gate. The next train arrived at the park at 8:40.
When my kids were young, we would stay off site. Go in the park in the morning, leave at noon or so, eat, go to the motel or to a mall or movie, then go back in after eating at about 5. I bought annual passes (much cheaper then) so we could drive down for 3 or 4 day Weekend trips.

Best Wishes for you Trip.

Not to mention, gas, parking off site, etc. I think people think that eating off-site is much easier than it really is. Leaving and arriving back at Disney to save a few dollars on meals, doesn't make much sense to us, then again we only stay on-site as we are DVC members and never leave property except to go to a grocery store or Target for medicine or something that the resorts don't carry.

I guess if you normally eat this way, then eating off-site might not be an issue for you, but in your totals, you have really high amounts set aside for snacks - $20.00/day is high in our household, perhaps not in yours, but that money could be used for actual food, whether at Disney or off-site.

I wish you luck in this decision, but with small children, I would never want to leave Disney and come back each day as that would tucker me out, but most especially those kids.

Good luck and happy eating, wherever it is that you choose to eat! Tiger

 

[Cherinva]

Hopefully you realize the MAJOR changes in DDP for 2008...

Neither the appetizer nor the gratuity is included with TS meals in 2008. That's a big change, effectively a price increase of about $10 per adult, per day. The snacks have also been radically reduced from previous years.

I've done my research and yes I am aware of the changes. It's still worth it to me.

 

[fey_spirit]

Personally I think the best way to decide something like this is a combination of the below mentioned approaches. Would you eat cheaper if you didn't have the plan? Well yeah... you can bring PB&J to the park and eat at CiCi's every night... or you can sit down and figure out how you would actually WANT to eat if the sky was the limit and then use that as a guide to find your best option.

Don't get the plan just because you can save money if you always go to the most expensive places and eat the most expensive foods, but don't decide you could eat cheaper - even if you don't have the kind of foods you want just because it's cheaper then the plan.

The math changes from family to family, but I think you are using the only correct approach in evaluating DDP. You are comparing how you would ACTUALLY eat without DDP to the cost of DDP.

Too often, we see people comparing the cost of DDP to the menu prices of the food, but that's a bogus comparison. That's the comparison the Disney marketing kids want you to make, because the plan is structured for that comparison to always show a savings. But it's not a real savings - it's really an inflated estimate of the value you will receive with DDP, not a cost comparison.

Another cost of DDP which is often forgotten is the increased room price you may have to pay to become eliglble. If DDP makes you ineligible for deep discounts on room rates, that premium you are paying is actually a cost of DDP, not a lodging cost. Many people forget that. Sometimes you can combine decent room discounts with DDP, but sometimes you can't.

For many families - especially families with multiple kids under 10, who fly into WDW and are therefore a captive audience - DDP will still provide value, even with the drastic changes this year.

But your family is not in that group. You have a car, and therefore are able to go offsite easily to eat...which I personally think is going to give you better food and a cost savings - whether you do fine dining offsite, or eat inexpensively.

I would say if you are all happy with your current plans, they would probably work better for you than DDP.

 

[gail8]

We have done the dining plan twice and loved the experience. This time we are going for a different type of vacation. Less park time and more relaxing so are trying no dining plan to see how that goes. We did find that previous trips were spent planning around our meals. No doubt the value for the food you can get was great. Not sure anymore. No matter what any day in Disney is a great day!!!

 

[libinatorsmom]

The dining plan works great for some and not for others... you need to crunch the numbers... decide what the convince of the DD means... you need to remember there are 2 different dinning plans... you need to thinkabout where you want to eat.... Signature meals? Other meals? etc... there really is a lot to look into... We looked into it.. and for us the dulx dinning plan is prefect and saves us money as well as gives us the opportunity to eat EVERYWHERE we want...