Is the Dining Pan worth it?

[kevin03]

Hey everyone. How's everyone doing? I have to say that I'm very lucky to be going to WDW 2 times this year. My first will be in 2 weeks and my second will be in October (24-31; 28th is my Birthday). When I made my reservations today, the DVC specialist made me think about doing Dining Plan. For the 2 of us, it would be $557. Now my question is do ya think its worth it to spend that much? I value everbodys opinion. Reason why, everyone has something in common, "We all love the Mouse"

Take care,


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[B&WMickey]

I’d recommend pricing things out a la carte (room, tickets, food, etc.). Take a hard look at how much you’d spend on dining. Are you guys’ big sit down restaurant people? If so then the dining plan would probably pay dividends for you. If not then ask yourself, would you really be going to all these restaurants in the first place if you didn’t buy the plan? If you aren’t really into all that dining then maybe you can find a room only deal, coupled with cheaper tickets bought through one of the broker sites and pay for food OOP for cheaper than the cost of the DP. You could probably eat at one or two sit down restaurants and still come out ahead.

 

[stepdisney]

Hi Kevin. Welcome to DIS. We love the Dining plan because it makes your vacation all inclusive. Once you arrive, all of the details have been taken care of. We save a lot of money because the dining plan is free when we travel. Looking at your dates, you are able to take advantage of the free dining offer also. That REALLY makes it worth you while because all of your food will be free!!!!! .

By the way, my DH is from Plainfield NJ.

 

[snykymom]

I know it's not exactly what you wanted to hear, but the answer is "It depends." It depends on how you eat and what you eat. If you didn't "get" dessert as part of your meals, would you always buy it anyway? Do you sometimes want appetizers instead? Do you "graze" or eat larger meals? Do you like the "prepaid" feeling, or would you rather not count credits?

For my family of 2 adults, the dining plan doesn't make sense. I don't have 2 desserts in a day. Sometimes I like an appetizer instead of a dessert, or even instead of an entree. Sometimes we may want to skip an ADR altogether. I'll often just "graze" especially at EPCOT - a salad here, a snack there, a dessert somewhere else.

I don't have to worry about "maximizing" the dining plan, or deciding whether a restaurant is "worth" 1 or 2 credits. It's worth exactly what I'm willing to pay, no more and no less.

If you have a DVC AP, you might consider the TiW card; I find that works better for us.

 

[snykymom]

Hi Kevin. Welcome to DIS. We love the Dining plan because it makes your vacation all inclusive. Once you arrive, all of the details have been taken care of. We save a lot of money because the dining plan is free when we travel. Looking at your dates, you are able to take advantage of the free dining offer also. That REALLY makes it worth you while because all of your food will be free!!!!! .

By the way, my DH is from Plainfield NJ.

Just one thing - if Kevin is staying on DVC points, he's not eligible for free dining. And depending on where you stay, a room-only discount may be more cost-efficient than "free" dining where you have to pay rack rate for a room.

 

[downontheBW]

We're going to be at AKV in early Nov. After all I've read, I'd like to try the dining plan but can't figure out where we'd save much money - maybe I'm missing something.

To get an estimate, I wrote down all restaurants we'll be eating at and what we'd normally order. Then I looked up the restaurant menus and added up the prices to get a total $$ that we'd spend for our trip. I even included a dessert for each of us that is included on the DDP even though normally skip dessert or just split one. Over 4 days, the total came out to within $10 of DDP price. I didn't add in the tax on cash meals so that would be the only real saving for us on DDP.

So it would be some savings but probably not worth losing our flexibility on where to eat since we have a few favorites at DTD that are not on DDP. We're still on the fence, though.

 

[Christyo72]

I would say for two people it probably wouldn't be worth it. Its a lot of food! We just took our two sons and got DDP. For us it was worth it, because trying to fill up a 19 yr old and 13 yr old boy can be a challenge. I probably gained 5 pounds from dessert twice a day, but the boys were thrilled and we all enjoyed our sit down meal every night. But I wouldn't have got DDP for just my husband and me; I think we could have had much cheaper meals.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

When we take advantage of the dining plan (as 2 adults) we eat places we normally wouldn't. On a normal no dining plan trip we would eat 1 maybe 2 TS meals, with dining plan we use all the credits we have at higher priced TS places. We also try new places w/ dining plan. BUT we have been to WDW many many times and tend to go at a slower pace thru the parks and are ok if we miss stuff. So for us, the dining plan is not a hassle and we dont feel like we are missing out on something else to eat. For others its not wort the trouble. Since you are doing 2 trips so close I would recommend doing dining plan on 1 and not on the other. If you are paying for it anyway (not 'free dining') then go for the October trip, Food & Wine Festival will be going on and you can use your snack credits in the booths, which can save you $3-6 on each snack. Snacking around the world is a great & unique way to experience dinner.

 

[gracie1]

I calculated the dining plan so many times that I basically have the menus memorized in my head
When we first decided we were going we were going to do the ddp. Then we decided on the deluxe. I calculate the deluxe plan and then sat down with the menus. I picked many signature restaurants, and picked the highest items..and in the end there was a savings of less than $100. We wouldn't even eat all of that so we decided not to do the dining plan at all.
I have reservations every other day on our trip for breakfast as well as a couple of lunched. For what we have picked it will probably be $500 and then we are doing the rest cs. So yes, we may come out more than the dining plan but I just don't want to hassle with the dining plan.

I think it also makes a factor as to what things cost in your area. I know that some people on here believe the prices are really high at wdw. I live at a resort area and the prices at wdw are the normal for me....so it doesn't seem like the food is that outrageous!

 

[Disneydreamer5]

I have to agree with another poster who stated it really does depend on your eating style as well as the amount of people in your group.
We lucked out with the free dinning and although we have paid out of pocket for the dinning plan in the past it is an awesome deal for us this time around. Last trip tips were included so we were just adding more to whatever was given to the severs this time around the tip is not part of the plan so I needed to do the math to see how much cash we need to have on hand to pay for tipping. Well to my wonderment and delight through doing this I discovered that we are having $1,500.00 with free dinning.
That is how much our meals would have cost without free dinning and including tips. That amount does not reflect counter service meals either that is only what our meals would cost including tip. With the Free dinning offer we will only be putting out around $300. Big difference and for our family the dinning plan is a no brainer.
Go luck with your choice. If you opp for the DDP, you will get to go to some of the nicer places in the world that you otherwise may not do so that is something to consider as well.
Happy dinning whatever you decide.

 

[Rockmtn]

You cannot figure the value on the listed price of the plan. You need to figure out how much the plan will cost you. Here is why:
I recently booked a room only reservation at POR for 9 nights. My cost with a steep discount was $1014. Tickets would cost me about $700. Total for that $1715. This is for 2 adults and a 6 yr old child.

Now I found that they are offering free dining for Dec. My brain goes into overdrive and I check how much it will cost.
Be aware that the free dining negates any room discounts ( here is where free dining is not free dining).
Paying rack room rate and my tickets and my "free table service dining plan" my total came to $2247

The difference between the two was $542. That is the real cost of the dining plan. If you were to purchase the dp at face value for the time listed it would have cost me $919 (would never do this).

So I am paying $60 ($542/9 nights) a day for a table service, counter service and a snack for 2 adults and a child. If you were to do the table service each day without the DP you would spend more then $60 a day. So figuring sit down dinners or lunch each day along with the table service and snack, I am getting a bargain.

Would I do table service without the dining plan. No way, too much $$$. During recent trips to wdw I can honestly say that we could easily spend $60 a day on food with no problems. Eating outside the park at a local chain restaurant would run about $30 to $50.
This allows my family to try some dining options that we would not ordinarily try at wdw and all for the same amount we would probably spend without the plan.


I checked how much the same package would have cost me at a value resort came out to $1575. Keep in mind that this is with the quick service dining plan. That is cheap. Figuring the difference between rack rate and steep room only discount, the plan only costs $355 for 9 nights/10 days. That is under $40 a day.
I would have done this deal but we had our mind set on the POR.

 

[tink_lover]

On one of our trips last year, we did the DDP and I kept every single receipt to check the value. It saved us hundreds of dollars. However, with the price increase and kids getting older and having to pay more, I'm seriously thinking about just booking club level for the next trip and eating lighter dinners.

 

[ROEDISNEY]

Put it this way I would never go with out it. Well worth it.

 

[RllngRckBrw]

A few simple questions will help you decide:

Will you at least eat one table service meal a day without the plan?

Are the items you usually eat on a table service menu on the top half of the price list for that respective resturant?

Will you use all of your CS and TS credits in the time frame given?

Do you eat dessert at most meals and would be willing to pay for it out of pocket if you are not on the meal plan?

If you answer to all of these is yes it is a definite that the dining plan is worth it. If any is no, maybe you should evaluate your optionsa little more.

 

[Laura]

It isn't for me and my family, partly because I'm a vegetarian. Entrees are usually much cheaper at TS restaurants. For example, I can eat dinner for 2TS but the vegetarian entree's price is cheaper than many meat dishes at a 1TS restaurant. Also we don't usually order dessert (or if we do, we share) and prefer to have appetizers. Add to that, we like to eat big breakfasts, which are cheaper than lunches and dinners. So it makes no sense for us.

 

[francie57]

For our group of four - "kids" are 23/26 - we would not go without it. For us we save a lot of money since we always have one TS meal. We used to pay for the TS meals before the DDP and now we don't have to carry any money with us, except for the tip. Our dinner alone at Tappan Edo last year was well over $200 so add a counter service lunch for each of us and water through out the day we ate more than the price of the DDP for the day. We keep our receipt and have figured out the price of the DDP and paying for each meal and we definitely save money.