Is the Dining Plan worth the price...

[MablePines24]

Hi Everyone!

I am planning a trip for myself, my father and my 11 year old son (aka no longer child price). This is our 2nd trip, and we're going from 11/26 - 12/2. Our first trip was a shorter trip that we managed to get free dining on, and we loved the convenience and not having to really budget that in. However, trying to be realistic, I don't think we'll be lucky enough to get free dining again.

So my first question is, if you have to pay out of pocket for the dining plan, is it worth it? Especially as my 11 year old, while considered adult in age for Disney, is still a fan of the kids menus.

My second question is, if I don't go with the dining plan, what money saving or dining tips do you have that you can share with me?

Thanks!!

 

[cedricandsophie]

We never get dining plan because it's way too much food and because we like to go to signature restaurants for dinner. Depending on how you like to eat you might consider a tables in wonderland card if you are dvc or Florida resident. It's 150 for 13 months and offers 20% discount on food and alcohol at most sit down restaurants. Also we often just get a couple of appetizers instead of an entree. Or we split an entree. And my adult daughter often orders off kid menu because she likes the food better.

Also we eat breakfast in room every day. We usually have a kitchen but it's easy to do cereal or yogurt even without.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

If your 11 year old will be eating off the child menu, unless you go to buffet or AYCTE meals where he will be charged as an adult no matter how much or what he eats, the DDP will not be worth it.

To save money with an 11-year-old who eats off kid menus, avoid buffets.

 

[Shooby doo]

Very hard to make it cost saving, I've tried multiple times to see if I can make it cost effective & fail every time! Short of being an AP holder, DVC Owner or TIW card holder I don't think there's really anyway to save, I have read posts where they have put the sum aside( cost of DDP) & used this purely for food purchases & always had a nice surprise at the end of their vacation.
SD

 

[Kingdome8]

I figure it depends on how many character meals you plan on doing. We're deciding now. With 5 people 3 as adults if we do a lot of character meals I feel it's worth it with snacks and all. But if we do just 2 or 3 maybe not since my girls can pretty much split quick service meals. Always tuff call

 

[pedinurse3]

For us, no. We've done the dining plan twice and both times wound up needing to use a ton of snack credits the last day which felt very wasteful. We would have saved a lot of money had we paid out of pocket. As far as ways to save, take your own snacks, eat breakfast in your room (cereal, yogurt, poptarts, whatever) and take your own snacks. I have an annual pass which offers discounts at some quick and table service restaurants- if anyone in your group is a passholder, that may be another opportunity to save as well. You could also purchase Disney gift cards to pay for your meals at Target with a Redcard and save 5%. It's only $5 per $100 but it's a savings, nonetheless.

 

[Faldred]

In general, regular DDP and QSDP are hard to justify, cost-wise, unless you have at least as many kids (3-9) as adults. Deluxe is a good deal, financially, across the board if it fits your dining style.

 

[Nancyg56]

When I decide worth, I look at my plans. I look at the restaurants I have booked. We have at least two meals a day, so I look at the CS restaurants in the parks we are going to visit as well. I know what my family tends to order, so I can get a rough idea what the cost of my meals will be. We order dessert and beverages with meals, so I factor that in. I add $5 per day per person, we like the snacks. If my little outline is close or over the cost of the DDP, I add it.


I suggest that you look at the restaurants you will be choosing and what the family is likely to order. Do the math. A simple spreadsheet can really help.

 

[Bete]

I would not pay for any plan. I will go when there's free dining. You have a chance your dates may qualify. You might have to go one day later to get it, but it might work for you.

 

[chris benton]

Hi Everyone!

I am planning a trip for myself, my father and my 11 year old son (aka no longer child price). This is our 2nd trip, and we're going from 11/26 - 12/2. Our first trip was a shorter trip that we managed to get free dining on, and we loved the convenience and not having to really budget that in. However, trying to be realistic, I don't think we'll be lucky enough to get free dining again.

So my first question is, if you have to pay out of pocket for the dining plan, is it worth it? Especially as my 11 year old, while considered adult in age for Disney, is still a fan of the kids menus.

My second question is, if I don't go with the dining plan, what money saving or dining tips do you have that you can share with me?

Thanks!!

From a $ standpoint, you can figure out if the DDP is worth it for your family. Just check menus, and compare prices of what you'd pay out of pocket for what you'd order vs what you'd pay for the dining plan. Include the character meals/fantasmic pkgs etc. Also, you need to consider that if you get "FREE" dining, you'll have to pay rack rate for the room, so you have to consider that into the cost of "FREE" dining as well vs a room discount and no free dining.

Don't be surprised if you have to tweak your meal plan to make free dining worth it from a $ standpoint. Don't be surprised if paying for the dining plan seems like a real waste of money, either. You do not get a discount by paying for the dining plan. You only lock in an average cost for all of the food that comes with it. If you do not use all of your credits, or if you order things that are below the average cost you've locked in, or if you throw away the food that you've pre-paid for, you lose money. Some ppl scramble to use up their credits on the last day and buy a bunch of overpriced rice krispy treats or other snacks that cost a crazy amount because they are in a theme park. I'd consider that bordering on losing money if you are buying things you really don't want.

Suggestions for saving money:
1. Eat a breakfast using groceries in your room. Don't waste prime morning touring time when crowds are light overpaying for a meal in a restaurant. Eat breakfast in your room, and pay for lunch in a restaurant while everyone else is waiting in the longer lines for an attraction you've already done.

2. Research your restaurant choices. You can just as easily pay 15.00 for a qs meal that you'll throw away, as you can pay 15.00 for a qs meal that you will LOVE. The quality of food at the qs places is a...roller coaster ride (tee hee)

3. Don't be surprised if two ppl can split a QS meal and be totally FULL.

4. Plan this stuff before you go. Make your vacation stress free.

5. Really, again, don't be surprised if the DDP is just not worth it for you at all. Disney doesn't offer it to lose money.

 

[loves to dive]

Others have offered advise on the plan so I'll just try the other ways to save money. It's a little harder with male types, ya'll tend to consume more than we female types but here is what I can think of. If your son isn't a big eater, he can still order off the kids menu and for that matter so can you and your dad. I always order a kids meal at QS and still have food left over but I'm a little woman and don't eat large meals,just lots of little meals. Some meals at TS places are easily shared, lots of them are so you could share a meal with son or dad and just order a salad or appetizer to supplement. We never snack between meals, we often do snack for meals though. If we are there during F&G or F&W almost all our meals except breakfast come from the booths (me and my grown son). There are also a lot of QS meals that can be shared, the burrito and nachos at Pecos Bills is big to start with and when you add on from the toppings bar, easy to share. The meals at Tangeriene Cafe in Morocco are big as well. We don't drink soft drinks, free water for me all day or a refreshing adult beverage. If you do snack between meals, lots of the snacks are also big and easily shared, the waffels at Sleepy Hollow come to mind and the nachos at Mexico in WS. Some of the snack items also make a meal, the fried rice at Yak and Yeti QS in AK is large and can easily be a meal. You can order a meal from QS and ask to hold the side, that will save you a dollar or so. Order one like this and share the side with the second one. I don't carry food into the park, I don't like carrying a bag of any kind but back in day when my son was smaller, I would carry a zip lock bag with things like trail mix or something that can be eaten by hand, saved on snacks or just when you were needing a little something to tide you over. There are a lot of breakfast items that aren't too expensive, the muffins in most of the parks and resorts are huge and not very expensive and the parfait cups are also pretty decent sized. A bounty platter for breakfast could easily be shared between two.

 

[Leelo]

We do not use a dining plan. Like others said, we have never been able to calculate it to be worth the money unless it is free. We got it for free on one trip and it was more food than we could eat anyway. We eat what we want and still come out cheaper paying for it ourselves. We link our card to our magic band so paying is really easy.

 

[Jaime4004]

We did the "free" dining plan last year and it was fabulous, we loved it. Definitely worked in our favor with 5 of us in moderate one room, two of my kids being disney adults, over a room discount. We have a bounceback for it again this year and can't wait. That being said, I would not pay for it fully because my kids still also generally eat off the kids menu and we avoid character meals if paying OOP because it's a ridiculous price to pay for them to eat 3 corn dog nuggets.

 

[Ratzo]

Always first assume that you will lose money with the DDP. They only way you will know for sure is to figure out every restaurant and every meal in advance, add up the costs and compare with the DDP. It almost always does not yield a savings. Even when it does, it's hardly worth the "lock-in."

 

[eeyoreandtink]

It depends, on how your family eats, where they want to eat, and what they are likely to order. For my family, it's most often a savings. Sometimes not. We have a kid who was ordering off the adult menu at 9 because she was over kid's meals and wanted , in her words "real food" . With an 11 year old eating kid's meals, you likely won't come out ahead.

 

[maxiesmom]

http://www.distripplanner.com/

This is very helpful in figuring out if it will save you or cost you more.

 

[MrInfinity]

Once your kid becomes 10, the DDP gets expensive. With 3 Disney adults and no Disney kids, I would say it's probably going to be cheaper to pay out of pocket. I'm still a fan of the DDP, it's just not usually a money saver for an all-adult party.

Add it up. Go thru the restaurants you have booked... compare to the DDP. You have 6 nights right? So $68 x 3 ppl x 6 nts is $1224. How does your food approximation compare? I'm guessing you could eat for less than that.

Say... 3 $140 meals, 3 $100 meals, and then Quick Service - $15ea x 3 x 6 is $270, and snacks... $4 x 3 x 12 is $144.
That's $1134. $90 less. So it just depends where you'd eat or what you'd buy, and if the 8% difference is worth the convenience and fun of having the DDP and not worrying about the costs later.

It's having kids in your party who eat for around $20/day on the DDP that tend to make it a money-saver.

 

[Beer Me]

I've never used the dining plan but I have done the math based on real data and estimates. It never works out for me although it does work well for some
people.

Using the distripplanner.com calculator for a real upcoming trip. Six nights with 4 adults (two teen boys). I have actually overestimated to be on the safe side and to really try to make it work and I'm surprised at the results.

I entered 4 adults, one appetizer per meal (realistic), two snacks per person per day (overestimate), 4 mugs (overestimate - I won't actually buy these), 5 QS breakfast (overestimate - we spend very little on breakfast usually a muffin or bagel), 6 QS lunches, and 6 TS dinners (Beaches and Cream, Liberty Tree, Ohana, Via Napoli, Rose and Crown and Tusker House - overestimate - the first 5 are our real ADRs. Tusker is a slight maybe and will most likely be QS).

For DDP the calculator says I will pay $237 more than I would OOP.

In reality, based on our last two trips and looking at real data the savings have actually been around $300.

 

[Leelo]

http://www.distripplanner.com/

This is very helpful in figuring out if it will save you or cost you more.

Thanks for the info! It shows we will save at least $150 if we pay out of pocket. This matches up with my own calculations as well.

 

[eeyoreandtink]

Once your kid becomes 10, the DDP gets expensive. With 3 Disney adults and no Disney kids, I would say it's probably going to be cheaper to pay out of pocket. I'm still a fan of the DDP, it's just not usually a money saver for an all-adult party.

Add it up. Go thru the restaurants you have booked... compare to the DDP. You have 6 nights right? So $68 x 3 ppl x 6 nts is $1224. How does your food approximation compare? I'm guessing you could eat for less than that.

Say... 3 $140 meals, 3 $100 meals, and then Quick Service - $15ea x 3 x 6 is $270, and snacks... $4 x 3 x 12 is $144.
That's $1134. $90 less. So it just depends where you'd eat or what you'd buy, and if the 8% difference is worth the convenience and fun of having the DDP and not worrying about the costs later.

It's having kids in your party who eat for around $20/day on the DDP that tend to make it a money-saver.

The $100 TS meals for 3 will be hard to do unless you are sharing and/ or don't eat dessert or drink soda or tea. We are 3 Disney adults and our TS bill is always at least $120 or so, usually closer to $150.