Meal plan vs. park hopper option

[writersblock42]

So we are going for a 7 day trip at the beginning of June. We currently have booked but can cancel and go with a package a stay at the Coronado Springs Resort. Originally, we were going to do the park hopper option and not do the Disney Dining plan. However, after looking at some of the prices and some of the meals that we want to do, we might want to do the Disney dining plan instead. The budget that we set would not allow us to do both. Which would be the better option. The only problem is that most of the meals that we want to eat are in Epcot. Either way it looks like we will only be able to pick two meals in Epcot with or without the dining plan.

 

[arihillfarm]

If you are sure you would eat 7 table service meals if you were not on the dining plan, I would swap the park hopping for the dining plan. If you get the hopper option, you'll still be paying OOP for meals. You can use two TS credits on one day, so you could use 4 TS credits over 2 days at Epcot and use your CS meals at the parks that don't have as interesting TS options.

-Astrid

 

[arihillfarm]

Oh, make sure you get the spring room offer good through June 14th (if your trip is before then) and add at least 4 day park tickets for even more savings. You can add the dining or not and/or ticket options or not. Neither will affect your room and ticket savings. The room discount is 25% at CSR!

-Astrid

 

[hollypoast]

I would go with dinning. We've never used the hopper option even when we've had it… takes to long to go from one park to another. (time waster) IMO

 

[North of Mouse]

We *always* get park hoppers and utilize them fully. We never have gotten the DDP as we don't eat that much food. But the way to tell if it's worth it to you is to decide where you will eat each day (TS, CS, snacks) from the ALLEars menu, then add up the costs both OOP and with the DDP.

 

[writersblock42]

With the DP, we would live it up and do character meals, eat at the most expensive restaurants allowable with one ts and have a good time doing it. However, without the DP, we would probably eat only one meal out each day and the rest with sandwiches, snacks and other lunch type items that we packed. Regardless, I already have ADR for Askershus and we will probably do a couple of fun places. Off the dining plan we would definitely save money but as a treat I am wondering which would be better park hopper or dining.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I would first look and see if there is availablity at the restraunts you want to eat at before deciding on the dinning plan.

 

[Colleen27]

Are you flying or driving? We always fly in and never rent a car, and I really don't find park hoppers to be worth the price because hopping via Disney transportation can be quite time consuming. So that would sway my choice, personally - time spent on character dining or nice dinners is enjoyable, time spent waiting for a bus to get from one park to another is not.

 

[Marionnette]

So we are going for a 7 day trip at the beginning of June. We currently have booked but can cancel and go with a package a stay at the Coronado Springs Resort. Originally, we were going to do the park hopper option and not do the Disney Dining plan. However, after looking at some of the prices and some of the meals that we want to do, we might want to do the Disney dining plan instead. The budget that we set would not allow us to do both. Which would be the better option. The only problem is that most of the meals that we want to eat are in Epcot. Either way it looks like we will only be able to pick two meals in Epcot with or without the dining plan.

This may or may not work for you but why not do a split stay? Hear me out.

1. The cost of hopping is about $61 per person. The cost of the dining plan is between $56-$57 per adult per night. The difference between the two is almost negligible.
2. Book the package, including both the MYW hoppers and the dining plan for all but the last night of your stay.
3. Then get a room-only reservation for the last night of your stay. It's possible that there will also be a room-only discount available that will save you a few bucks. You can still use your dining plan entitlements from the first part of your stay until midnight of that night.
4. When you check in, ask to have your reservations linked so that you don't have to change rooms. This isn't guaranteed but it can be done.
5. You will have to check out on the last day of your package and check back in for your room-only reservation.
6. You will be issued new room keys for the last night but the old room keys will still be active for charging purposes and for any remaining dining plan credits until midnight of that night.

There are some drawbacks.

1. If you have small children, their dining plan is only $17-$18/night. Dropping one night of the dining plan for them doesn't make up for the cost of hopping.
2. If you cannot keep the same room for your last night, you will have to pack up everything and move to the new room for just one night.
3. You will have to keep track of the room keys (or RFID bracelets) with the dining credits and tickets on them once you move over to your room-only reservation.

But it may be worth considering. Just trying to "think out of the box" so that you can get the best of both worlds.

 

[danceintherain]

If no Dining Plan meant very little dining, then I'd go for the dining plan and no hoppers.
If I could add some extra dining by just dropping the hoppers, I'd drop the hoppers and do neither the dining plan or hoppers.

The reasons why we're doing hoppers on our upcoming trip are that the AFS tickets come with either hoppers or WP&M, we're only getting 4 days in the parks, and we expect to spend a lot of time at the Magic Kingdom.
If we had the option of adding a few extra days to our tickets, I'd do that over hoppers, even if it just meant spending our first evening or last morning in a park.

Have you seen this calculator?
http://seeyareelsoon.wix.com/seeyareelsoon#!dining-plan-calculator/cxc0
It confirmed my suspicion that the dining plan wouldn't be a good deal for us considering the way we eat.
The only way it would be a better deal is if we changed our dining habits. ie. ate dessert at every meal and basically skipped a meal every day.
In short, you may actually save money by dropping the hoppers, but choosing an intermediate version of dining.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

This may or may not work for you but why not do a split stay? Hear me out.

1. The cost of hopping is about $61 per person. The cost of the dining plan is between $56-$57 per adult per night. The difference between the two is almost negligible.
2. Book the package, including both the MYW hoppers and the dining plan for all but the last night of your stay.
3. Then get a room-only reservation for the last night of your stay. It's possible that there will also be a room-only discount available that will save you a few bucks. You can still use your dining plan entitlements from the first part of your stay until midnight of that night.
4. When you check in, ask to have your reservations linked so that you don't have to change rooms. This isn't guaranteed but it can be done.
5. You will have to check out on the last day of your package and check back in for your room-only reservation.
6. You will be issued new room keys for the last night but the old room keys will still be active for charging purposes and for any remaining dining plan credits until midnight of that night.

There are some drawbacks.

1. If you have small children, their dining plan is only $17-$18/night. Dropping one night of the dining plan for them doesn't make up for the cost of hopping.
2. If you cannot keep the same room for your last night, you will have to pack up everything and move to the new room for just one night.
3. You will have to keep track of the room keys (or RFID bracelets) with the dining credits and tickets on them once you move over to your room-only reservation.

But it may be worth considering. Just trying to "think out of the box" so that you can get the best of both worlds.

I don't agree with your bolded statement above. The park-hopping option is a flat $61-ish over the length of the tickets, while the cost of the DDP is per day. The difference is not negligible.

OP, my informal rule-of-thumb is IF you have children 3-9 and plan for half your TS meals to be character meals THEN the DDP is likely to be a good deal for you. If you are all Disney adults, then the DDP is likely to not be a good deal for you. You really have to run the numbers and figure it out for your specific group and your dining habits.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

If the restaurants you want to eat at are in Epcot and you don't have park hoppers, you are going to be restricted to spending a lot of days at Epcot.

Is there any way you can save up the extra cash for the TS meals you want in Epcot and then for other meals use QS to save money?

 

[mickeymaker2003]

I don't agree with your bolded statement above. The park-hopping option is a flat $61-ish over the length of the tickets, while the cost of the DDP is per day. The difference is not negligible.

I think the point the poster was trying to make is you can take off one night of dining plan and use the savings to pay for hopper tickets. It seems like a good idea to me.

 

[North of Mouse]

I don't agree with your bolded statement above. The park-hopping option is a flat $61-ish over the length of the tickets, while the cost of the DDP is per day. The difference is not negligible.

OP, my informal rule-of-thumb is IF you have children 3-9 and plan for half your TS meals to be character meals THEN the DDP is likely to be a good deal for you. If you are all Disney adults, then the DDP is likely to not be a good deal for you. You really have to run the numbers and figure it out for your specific group and your dining habits.

I agree - in fact was about to mention the same thing
If PH prices were that much per day, no one would do them.

Having children under 10 really makes the DDP more feasible, that's why dh & I never get it.

 

[North of Mouse]

I think the point the poster was trying to make is you can take off one night of dining plan and use the savings to pay for hopper tickets. It seems like a good idea to me.

OK, after reading that post again, I can see better where she's coming from, but that would be far more hassle to go through than we would be willing for. All that changing around for ONE night. I'd rather pay.

 

[EagleScout]

I agree - in fact was about to mention the same thing
If PH prices were that much per day, no one would do them.

Having children under 10 really makes the DDP more feasible, that's why dh & I never get it.

Good point, and because this is the budget board, just a quick friendly reminder of the "missing piece" of this whole thread- what will op be spending on food if not doing dining plan? Even if not doing ddp, family still has to eat, so how much actually saving? And whole point of budgeting is to be honest with yourself- if you are really just going to eat plain cereal and milk 3 times a day if not on plan, then budget for that, but if going to do spend more and have a more typical dining experience (moderate lunch, somewhat "fancy" dinner at least a few times, a few snacks, etc), then budget for that. If getting park hopper means you cannot afford dining plan, then sounds like maybe you cannot afford park hoppers at all- as others noted, park hoppers are one-time surcharge on total tickets, and unless you are doing truly spartan eating if not on plan, then difference in cost for plan vs. Out-of-pocket is minimal. Either way, good luck and enjoy trip.

 

[eliza61]

no brainer in my house. we hop all over the place and wouldnt get the ddp even if it's was free.

 

[eliza61]

Good point, and because this is the budget board, just a quick friendly reminder of the "missing piece" of this whole thread- what will op be spending on food if not doing dining plan? Even if not doing ddp, family still has to eat, so how much actually saving? And whole point of budgeting is to be honest with yourself- if you are really just going to eat plain cereal and milk 3 times a day if not on plan, then budget for that, but if going to do spend more and have a more typical dining experience (moderate lunch, somewhat "fancy" dinner at least a few times, a few snacks, etc), then budget for that. If getting park hopper means you cannot afford dining plan, then sounds like maybe you cannot afford park hoppers at all- as others noted, park hoppers are one-time surcharge on total tickets, and unless you are doing truly spartan eating if not on plan, then difference in cost for plan vs. Out-of-pocket is minimal. Either way, good luck and enjoy trip.

What do you call minimal? Last year we spent on average ~165 dollars a day on meals for 4 adults compared to the 200 bucks a day on the plan. that's average of 35 dollars a night. over 7 nights we're talking a couple hundred dollars off the plan.

Op be honest with yourself about how you really eat. You say if you do the ddp you'll eat at the most expensive restaurant. IMO that's one of the reasons why we stopped using the ddp. You are no longer picking places you want to eat at but picking them because they are expensive.
Will you eat dessert every night?. will you order what you really want to eat or force yourself to get the steak to maximize the credits (that's what I did, some nights I only wanted to eat light but literally gouged myself because god forbid I didn't get the most expensive entree in the house)?

 

[EagleScout]

What do you call minimal? Last year we spent on average ~165 dollars a day on meals for 4 adults compared to the 200 bucks a day on the plan. that's average of 35 dollars a night. over 7 nights we're talking a couple hundred dollars off the plan.

Op be honest with yourself about how you really eat. You say if you do the ddp you'll eat at the most expensive restaurant. IMO that's one of the reasons why we stopped using the ddp. You are no longer picking places you want to eat at but picking them because they are expensive.
Will you eat dessert every night?. will you order what you really want to eat or force yourself to get the steak to maximize the credits (that's what I did, some nights I only wanted to eat light but literally gouged myself because god forbid I didn't get the most expensive entree in the house)?

Eliza- to be clear, i agree with you completely. The point is, do an honest realistic budget of the family's eating, and just be sure that before making the extra expense of the park hoppers, the food budget would actually be cheaper if not on dining plan, and not just "appear" cheaper because not paying in one lump sum as part of buying package.

 

[rusty4]

We have never done the DDP. We have been to Disney 6 or 7 times 2 of those with PH. We will never go without PH's again. It makes it for a much more enjoyable trip.

Our last 2 trips we stayed Deluxe so that helps. You are closer to at least one of the parks anyway. We usually go back to our room at some point in the day. Maybe for a pool break or just to change clothes and shoes for the night. Then a different park for the evening. There has been days where have done 3 parks and had a blast. This started when our son was 6.

If you have real little ones it may not be worth it. Except you could change parks after nap time. The go to a different park for your dinner reservations.

If I had the DDP I would think that PH would be even more essential. Otherwise I would locked into my reservations and park for an entire day. What if that park ended up being super crowded that day? We had days like that and we would just switch up and hop over to another one that was less crowded and walk right onto rides. I hate to be locked into any plans like that. The reservations are one thing. But this is because we had 2 trips with Park Hoppers. Now we know how freeing they can be!

Either way you will have a great trip!