Is Dining Plan Worth It While At a DVC Resort?

[bpmorley]

dining plan is a little pricey for a party of 8 staying 10 + days.

You're right it's pricey. But I'm sure it'll be cheaper than paying cash for all you meals.

 

[SEC]

We are going in November and will renew DDE instead of the Dining Plan because it better suits our needs. I am not a big eater and don't want to eat 3-course dinners every night. We do usually eat at one TS every day, just smaller meals. We also like that the 20% discount applies to alocholic beverages!

 

[DVC Grandpa]

My wife and I stay for about three weeks each year and although we enjoy going to the full service restaurants, we can not eat that much on a daily basis. We do eat earlier in the day, normally the luncheon menu, and then find something light in the evening. We have found that the DDE plan works the best for us.

 

[bpmorley]

My wife and I stay for about three weeks each year and although we enjoy going to the full service restaurants, we can not eat that much on a daily basis. We do eat earlier in the day, normally the luncheon menu, and then find something light in the evening. We have found that the DDE plan works the best for us.

I guess for 3 weeks it would be a bit pricey. If we were staying that long I don't think I would get the DDP either. At the end of our last 9 days stay we had to force a couple meals and get the snacks for the plane home

 

[Mickey4me!]

I was questioning whether DDP was worth it for our party of 4 adults for our Nov trip so I added up what the cost would be for the ADRs I already had and subtracted that from the cost of DDP. Here's what it looked like for our group. Normally we eat one table service/day and then maybe 1 counter or just snack. My numbers were only based on the TS I had ADRs for already and one CS meal -

LTT Lunch - 2 Pilgrim's Feast, 2 sand, 4 desserts and 4 drinks,tax/tip = 91.00
CA Grill - 2 app, 2 filet, 2 roast pork, 2 desserts, 4 drinks, tax/tip = 232.00
1900 Park Fair B'fast - 4 buffet, tax/tip = 88.04
Garden Grill lunch - 4 buffet, tax/tip = 135.68
Le Celllier lunch - 2 soup, 4 sandwiches tax/tip = 70.48
Col. Harbor House - 4 baskets, 4 drinks, tax = 42.27

This totals $660.00 and since the cost of the DDP for 4 for 6 nights is 912.00 then that leaves 252.00 we would be paying out for DDP above what we had ADRs for. The 252.00 averages out to about 10.50/per person/per day that would be left for food expenditure. That means that other then the one dinner/lunch per day, everyone would spend at least 10.50 additionally on food. That sounds low to me so it leads me to believe that the plan would be good for us. Esp. when you consider that one of the meals is b'fst on the day we leave and one is CA Grill that requires 2 TS credits. I expect that we won't be ordering 4 apps and 4 desserts at each dinner, but that we can get them "to go" and stash in the fridge at the villa.

Anyway, that's how I figured out if it would be worth it for us. Would love to hear feedback if anyone sees any flaws in it.

 

[slp87]

I think that's the key to determining if it's "worth it" to you. I think most of us will order more (appetizer & dessert) if it's included in the dining plan than we might if we were ordering on our own. Instead of comparing what your bill would have been for the meal you got, compare what you would have spent if you hadn't been on DDP.

Sure, I agree that if we were ordering all of the food on the plan, then yes it would be "worth it" to do the DDP. However, I disagree in that you need to look at what you plan on eating to compare if it's "worth it" to you. We eat plenty on our WDW trips, but there is absolutely no way we each could consume appetizers, main courses & desserts at our meals, therefore it will never be cost effective for our family.

 

[DVC Grammy]

This Oct. is going to be an experiment for us: since we like to break up a lengthy stay by resort-hopping, we'll try the DDP for the first part (4 days) and the DDE for the next week. The daily CS's on the DDP will probably be enough to stretch through the first check-out day, plus, we'll be using the TS credits at Signature places (and bringing back doggie-bags for the following evening's meal each time).
We're planning on keeping a $ tally to see if DDP works for us, even for only a part of a trip.

 

[pbharris4]

Food is our biggest budgeted item. In the past for DH, Myself, and DD (then 9) for 6 days would be $1200-1300. DD is now 10 (an adult by WDW standards) and DD is now 3 (no longer free). FOr 10 days we paid about $1200 for the DDP. We did save, BUT DD(10) ate off the children's menu anyway and it was alot of food. We eat about average. Also, because it was hot we drank more and weren't as hungry.

I felt we were running around all the time to a restaurant. I just wanted to hang out and relax with a pizza on the balcony one night. You can get around that by going to a 2 credit TS place, but then you'd still have to pay OOP for the dinner the next night.

Disney Portions are so big that they can be shared (some of them anyway). I was also so sick of eating dessert.

I would only do it again if I were in a studio and for 5 days or less. But it really depends on how you eat and how much you have planned.

 

[Boas]

we loved the DDP and it worked well with the following schedule...
-- 4 nights in a 1BR
-- 1 night in a studio (downgraded rooms on Friday night to save points since we had an early Saturday AM flight).

... since it was 2 seperate reservations, we got the DDP for 4 nights, used the extra CS and Snack credits on day 5, and then paid for a Signature dinner the last night.

worked out well.

 

[buzz5985]

I just returned from a split stay and we had the Dining plan for the first leg 8/20 - 8/25, we changed resorts and ended up using the DDE card the rest of the trip.

The Dining Plan worked great for my DH and I, and DS. But we had my 75 yo Father with us - he disliked the plan. Too much food for him.

Janis

 

[thelobstershanty]

We had the dining plan in June and we loved it. We have it already booked for our Oct and Dec trips, we loved it so much.
But, I agree, it all depends on your family and your dining patterns. We never cook on vacation, other than an occasion breakfast. We eat at least 1/2 of our dinners at TS restaurants and we prefer WDW's top tier restaurants when we dine out. Days that we don't have a big TS meal we will have a hearty CS meal mid day either at a park or our resort's pool, then just eat a light dinner. So for us, the DDP is perfect. We use most of our TS credits for the signature restaurants so that gives us 1/2 nights with big meals and the other 1/2 with lighter eating. We used our snack credits to get breakfast items for a quick and easy breakfast in our villa.
We always order an appetizer and entree when we eat at a nice TS meal, so the only difference was we immediately got a dessert with the DDP. Many times we either took the dessert to go, or just had a bite or two to taste it. It was fun, since we are not big dessert eaters at home.
As others have said, it all depends on your family. For us and our dining preferences it is perfect. I hope Disney never gets rid of the DDP.
We also have the DDE and use that for items/discounts not covered by the DDP, so it is the best of both worlds, for us!

 

[Resqlt]

We had the DDP this summer before we joined DVC for three days before going on the Wonder. It worked for us because we used the TS for character dining at lunch one day and dinner one night and a dinner buffet one night. My DS is 4 and DD is only two so we didn't have to pay for her and she eats so little anyway she ate some of our food. When we did the math, we came out ahead, but we did eat bigger meals than if we paid OOP. We liked the convenience of it and I did book it for our return next summer when we stay at SSR for the first time. I plan on eating breakfast in the room but the rest of the meals out. I am sure I'll be adding it up again to see if it was worth it.

 

[Cinderella]

I really thought it would be worth it for us, as we always have at least one sit down meal a day - but it wasn't. We ate more counter service than we normally would have, just because we had the credits.

We save more with the Disney Dining Experience card, which gives us 20% off.

Now, if Disney Dining Experience did not exist, then we probably would save with the Dining Plan, but really it was way too many counter service meals for us.