Is the Dining Plan worth it for us?

[NEW-B]

My wife and I are planning another trip for the first week of december and we are trying to decide whether or not to pay for the DDP. We did not use it during our honeymoon and unfortunately I don't have all our reciepts so I can't compare. Here are some key points:
-We usually always drink water
-We rarely order dessert
-We don't eat alot for breakfast, usually a nutra-grain bar or similar brought from home.
-We do plan on eating at a different restaurant each night but no signature ones.
-We always eat counter service for lunch but always share a drink and again, never order dessert.

I'm thinking we'll come out ahead if we don't do it. Anybody have similar eating habits?

 

[Tricia1972]

Me Me Me!! I have very similar eating habits and we come out WAY ahead not doing the DDP.

Before you decide for yourself though, take a look at the menus of the restaurants you plan on going to in December. See what you'd think you'd order and then make your decision.

Not ordering dessert, and sharing a drink brings your average CS meal cost down to about $9.

See what you'd spend at the TS location for the night. If you'd usually spend more than $28.00 per person on your entree, then you'll be breaking even with the plan.

Also don't forget that when paying OOP you need to add 6.5% to the cost of the food for tax.

 

[agentpleakley]

We are opting out of the DDP this year (the first time in the past few years) -- I did formulate a cost chart on what it would cost us paying oop v. DDP. OOP plan included 1 CS lunch + drink per person, 1 snack per day per person up to $4, for dinners -- 8 day stay 3 TS, the rest CS -- no desserts. Actually, OOP only saves us $170 -- not really the cost saving that you would expect.

We opted out mainly because we felt that our touring was dictated by our ADRs. We also were way too full to enjoy the occasional glass of wine or drink while touring World Showcase. We left with almost all of our snack credits - which we cashed in for stuff to bring home (this changed for the 2008 plan -now limited as to what you can get).

The big perk of the DDP, IMHO, is the convenience of not carrying around cash. Now that you have to leave the tip, part of the convenience is gone, again, IMHO.

My suggestion: I would go to allears and look at the menus -- you can do a simulated plan for your stay -- this will give you a cost comparison. Then factor in other things -- like interruption in touring plans, etc.

Good luck.

 

[YoMickey]

Unless you plan to buy bigger pants and join a gym when you get home then NO, this plan is not for you. Don't get me wrong there are healthy items on the menus but it seems to me you'd be overwhelmed with the amount of eating, regardless of the caloric value.

We've done it both ways with the kids and seemed to have had good experiences both ways. On the dining plan we did find ourselves loading up on snacks for the trip home on the last day and also bought 3 counter service meals for a nice young family on our second to last day." We had our own little year of a million dreams giveaway"...it went like this..."hey buddy...you on the dining plan?...hmmm what's that...ummm. never mind order what you want and I'll treat....are you serious! .... yes." It was a good feeling to be able to do that for someone. almost worth getting the dining plan just to give away food while standing in line.

We leave in 5 days and have struggled with this once again, but have decided to go OOP for a few nice TS's and also ordered some basic groceries to be delivered on our arrival date.

The only way I think my wife and I would every consider the dining plan again is if they allowed us to bank the credits until our next visit. Or gave them a 1 year expiration.

We just can't eat that much and want the freedom to cancel our ADR if we're not hungry.

 

[LilGMom]

I second the suggestion of going to AllEars and looking at the menus for CS & TS. We did the DDP last year & liked it so we were on the fence about doing it again due to the new changes. We have our ADRs already set so we went through the menus to see what we'd order, hot much it would cost OOP and on the DDP would only save about $10 over the course of a 6 night stay. But we'd be stuck to sticking to those dining plans, more or les, and if we wanted to skip a TS one day we wouldn't if on the DDP. We found the DDP to be slightly restrictive and we felt our plans being dictated by food.

 

[Superspectral]

We usually always drink water
-We rarely order dessert
-We don't eat alot for breakfast, usually a nutra-grain bar or similar brought from home.
-We do plan on eating at a different restaurant each night but no signature ones.
-We always eat counter service for lunch but always share a drink and again, never order dessert.

The DDP may not save you very much money, but may be close to break-even. In which case you consider that you are getting soft-drinks and dessert as treats at the same cost as water and no dessert. You may be able to use your snack credits for a light breakfast. Since you do plan 1 TS dinner and 1 CS lunch a day anyway, you are unlikely to get less than break-even value.

 

[Stitch's Greatest Fa]

We did it last year and loved it. Since they took away the appetiser and tip for this year tho,we have checked and it really would not save us anything unless we ordered the most expensive menu items each time.