Is it a good idea to get the Dining Plan?

[Miss Marie]

Whenever we're at Disney, we normally do counter service at every park we do. We've never considered the DDP, and we aren't sure if it's worth it.

How much is it per person per day?

What restaurants are accepted?

Is it worth it to pay more to do TS restaurants?

Can you reedeem SC at Snack carts in the parks?

Is it really worth it to do it? Worth one try?

Thanks for your help. If any more questions come up I will defintely post them here.

 

[summermac]

Whenever we're at Disney, we normally do counter service at every park we do. We've never considered the DDP, and we aren't sure if it's worth it.

How much is it per person per day?
2012 prices are $52 pp adult and $15 pp child (it's actually some kind of number and some change but those are close enough)

What restaurants are accepted?
The majority of them.


Is it worth it to pay more to do TS restaurants?
Depends on your family. In 2009, we very much enjoyed the TS but needed the break with a 2 year old and a 5 year old.

Can you reedeem SC at Snack carts in the parks?
Yes as long as they show the DDP banner/sign thing which most do.

Is it really worth it to do it? Worth one try?
It depends on how your family eats. We got our money's worth BUT tried to do so. Honestly it was a LOT of food. We wasted a lot. Ordered dessert just b/c we could and then ate 2-3 bits many times.

Thanks for your help. If any more questions come up I will defintely post them here.

 

[sharonabe]

Maybe a good transition would be to try one or two TS restaurants OOP on your next trip to see how your family likes it. The TS meals do take a little more time out of your park touring than a QS and it takes a little more planning since you need ADRs and need to be where they are when they are.

Whether it's worth it is very subjective. With the DDP you get an entree, dessert, and drink with EVERY meal. If that's the way your family regularly eats, then it's worth it. If that's the way you'd like to be able to eat, then it's worth it.

 

[TDC Nala]

Take a look at the sticky threads at the top of the forum. There is a thread for 2011 and a thread for 2012. These threads have prices and a link to the official DDP brochure with restaurant lists and rules.

(Note that the 2012 restaurant list is not yet complete as the non-Disney restaurants aren't included yet, so at this point you may want to look at the 2011 list to get a better idea of the restaurants you can access with the plan.)

 

[havoc315]

Whole volumes can be written on whether the plans are "worth it." It really depends on how you usually eat, and how you would ideally eat. For some people, it saves money. For others, it doesn't. For some, they like the "pre-payment" convenience, even if it doesn't save them money. For others, they dislike the structure and restraints, even if it does save a few dollars.

It is always possible to eat well, for less money than the cost of the dining plan.

But the very very basics ---
As of 2012 -- All dining plans come with a refillable mug, which can only be used to soft drink refills at your resort QS location. Some people find these mugs very valuable, other people find them totally worthless.
So if you completely put aside the value of the mugs:

QSDP -- Very rarely a significant money saver. While in theory, if you hunt down the most expensive meals on property (the most expensive 4 meals, out of 1,000), then you could save $10 in a day. But more realistically, even getting above-average priced meals, best case scenario -- you may save $2-$3 per day. Skip any desserts, or get breakfast instead of lunch, or order cheaper meals, and the savings disappear almost immediately. It is very very easy to lose $5-$10 per day using the QSDP.

DDP -- A slightly better value, but still requires eating in a set way. If you use all your credits for lunch and dinner, if you do a lot or character meals and/or get above-average priced entrees, and if you never skip dessert -- Then you can easily save $5-$10 per person, per day. But if you substitute a breakfast for a lunch/dinner... If you skip some of your desserts, if you get a sandwich at the Plaza instead of steak at Kona Cafe -- the savings can quickly evaporate, and you lose money. You also will only save money if you use all your TS credits at ++ priced restaurants, meaning you really need to make ADRs pretty far in advance.

The DxDP-- The most expensive plan. It is very easy to eat "deluxe style" for less than the cost of the plan --- But if you want 2+ TS meals per day, if you want lots of signature restaurants, if you want lots of expensive entrees, if you want lots of desserts and appetizers -- This plan *potentially* can offer the biggest savings... $20+ per day, if you really use up all the credits for TS meals, and don't waste any of your entitlement.

 

[Miss Marie]

Maybe a good transition would be to try one or two TS restaurants OOP on your next trip to see how your family likes it. The TS meals do take a little more time out of your park touring than a QS and it takes a little more planning since you need ADRs and need to be where they are when they are.

Whether it's worth it is very subjective. With the DDP you get an entree, dessert, and drink with EVERY meal. If that's the way your family regularly eats, then it's worth it. If that's the way you'd like to be able to eat, then it's worth it.

We don't normally get desserts with our meals (We normally get ice cream bars or something later on) last trip, however, at CHH, we got free chocolate cakes because of how long we had to wait for our food. I'd say the dessert was worth it, but it was free, so that was an exception. I'm not sure if Mom and Dad would want the desserts with their meals.

 

[makthompson]

We thought the same thing and I did a price comparison. We normally do all QS meals when we are there + 1 character meal + 1 TS meal. It is cheaper for us to do it that way then use the DDP.

This summer we tried the DDP, because of it being a special occasion. My husband graduated from RN school and it was both the kids B-day's. There was a savings because we ate a TS everyday and got desserts, however it was just too much food. the kids 8 and 12, ended up sharing meals because they couldnt eat it all.

With all that being said, My husband wants to continue with the DDP for future trips because of the convenience of it. I made all the ressies 6 mo ahead so we knew where we were eating and just had to show up. Didnt have to wait around to find or race to an empty table to sit down and eat.

 

[mountdew1]

The only way to properly answer this is to do the math. Look at the menus online, and guess what your group would eat. And then compare the costs of those meals, to the various dining plans.

For some people, they will either break even or come out ahead. Others, will always lose money on the plan. For instance, by DW and I never order deserts with our CS meals, normally share 1 drink or tap water, and only do entrees with TS meals. So we would lose money each and every day we do any of the dining plans.

Some people don't mind losing a few bucks on the plan as they can pre pay it, and not have to worry about figuring out costs during the trip. Personally, we always come out much better with the Tables in Wonderland discount card.

 

[Lumiere Lover]

Many times we kept the dessert for snacks later. At the end of our trip, we had a lot of snack credits left. We purchased candy/treats to bring home (which I normally purchase).

We had the regular dining plan. One TS and one QS with one snack. There was plenty of food. We never were hungry, and the CM's at the restaurants wanted to make sure you got every benefit of each meal do you.

After doing the dining plan once, we loved it. It was nice to know all meals were already paid for. Since I am a crazy over-planner, we already knew where we were going to eat and when. We loved the dining plan, and will probably never go back to WDW without out. If we don't get free dining December 2012, we are still going, and we will purchase the dining plan.

The hard thing is to determine what is best for you and your family. Good luck!!

 

[tina.tina]

One benefit of the DDP is that almost everything is pre-paid and you don't have to worry about the cost of your entree. Some people have stated that their family members might grumble about price which decreases the overall enjoyment of the meal. If everything is pretty much pre-paid, you don't have to be thinking about your budget on the trip either. We COULD eat cheaper than the cost of the DDP. I think the dining plan is pretty much break-even for us (with maybe the snacks and refillable mugs as a bonus) but we would probably get the DDP again because of the convenience.

I think the QSDP and DxDP aren't worth it for us.

 

[heatherbabydoll1]

It all depends on how you want to eat. I hate trying to find a table so I am not much for CS meals. Every year I have taken our recipts and compared and some days there is savings and sometimes there is not but not by much. Over all we save on the dinning plan no matter if it is the deluxe or not by at least 100 or more over all.

 

[myladyisatramp]

I like the DP because we do not like to eat a lot of CS meals I like to sit and enjoy a dinner, relax. I feel we get our moneys worth for sure.. but we like to eat DH usually will order dessert. Whats good for some isn't good for others..

 

[MAGICFOR2]

We enjoy the DDP, DH likes the convenience and knowing our budget for meals without having to keep track of spending. We liked it more when we could get an appy, and we skipped dessert alot. We find that we pretty much break even for what we order. However, we would'nt eat that expensively if it were OOP, so we probably spend more but enjoy it more also.

We do find that we spend alot more time leaving the parks early to get ready for ADR's and found that we had to leave our resort an hour before our ADR time if we were riding the bus system. Making ressies 6 mos in advance and then finding you're not really in the mood to eat a sit down meal when you are there is a downfall.

For our next trip we're planning with the kids and grandkids, we are not going to do DDP as it will just be too much hassle for that many people and asking alot of young kids to sit still for so long. We are saving up to go OOP and I think we will share alot more meals and still have plenty to eat.

 

[Jaly]

Both times we have gotten the DDP it was free. If we had options for room discounts, then I would have needed to break out the calculator to figure out if it was worth it.

For us, the DDP is just about the right amount of food. They did offer to upgrade our Free DDP (11/17-11/24) to a DxDP for the difference in the cost. Doing that math and the DxDP did not make sense - really far too much food. Instead, we are supplementing the DDP with a $100 order from garden grocer (mostly breakfast items and water).

 

[UndercoverMama]

We did the DDP in 09 and felt a little rushed sometimes when trying to make ADRs but after not having the DDP our last trip, DH and I decided we really liked the DDP and will do it again next time. In real life I am a penny pincher, but on vacation it is nice to have desserts, and not worry about prices.

Not to mention there are some really great TS restaurants and going to many our last trip made me miss them.

 

[m&m's mom]

Many times we kept the dessert for snacks later. At the end of our trip, we had a lot of snack credits left. We purchased candy/treats to bring home (which I normally purchase).

We had the regular dining plan. One TS and one QS with one snack. There was plenty of food. We never were hungry, and the CM's at the restaurants wanted to make sure you got every benefit of each meal do you.

After doing the dining plan once, we loved it. It was nice to know all meals were already paid for. Since I am a crazy over-planner, we already knew where we were going to eat and when. We loved the dining plan, and will probably never go back to WDW without out. If we don't get free dining December 2012, we are still going, and we will purchase the dining plan.

The hard thing is to determine what is best for you and your family. Good luck!!

You mean you carried around your desserts when you left a CS or TS?
My issues is we are just not big eaters. We always have eaten one CS and one TS per day so I thought this would be great. We did not like it cause 1)- too much food 2)- food at the wrong time.
We might want dessert an hour later but not right after the meal and during the summer I was not going to carry my dessert around until I left like eating it. If you could trade a dessert for a snack credit, that would be worth it.
We also have a 12 and 15 year old DD's - no way they can eat that much food and DH and I shouldn't.
Another thing I just thought of, I am so competitive and cheap, I was spending so much time trying to figure out how to get the most $, it was not enjoyable.