Meal plan worth it?

[rainwatter]

Another thing to pay attention to is the appetizers. Some of the most interesting options are on this part of the menu, and not included in the DDP. We would order an assortment of apps, entrées, and sides for our family of three to share. Even with eating at several signature restaurants and often ordering wine, our most expensive meal was Akershus.

 

[Jenn55]

It's always based on nights - depending on which plan you purchase you will receive credits based on 8 nights. On the regular plan each person is allotted 8 QS, 8 TS and 8 snacks.

Thanx, appreciate the clarification!

 

[Aurora0427]

There's only one answer for this, it depends. It depends on several things. What do you want it for? Do you think you will save money on it, or do you just want to feel like you don't need to look at prices on menus or whip out your wallet to pay for meals? For some, even if it's unlikely they will save money, they want it for the freedom they believe it gives them. As for saving money there are a couple of questions to ask yourself about your Do you have children under 10 years old? Do you intend to have at least one table service meal every day of your trip, and make that meal lunch or dinner (not breakfast)? Do you concentrate on buffets, character meals, family style or fixed price dining? Do you vastlyl prefer the signature (2 credit) restaurants? If you do, you might look into the deluxe plan. If you can answer the first 3 questions "yes" then you might as well get the plan because you will at least break even. Here's another set of questions: Are you happier just stopping off at counter service restaurants when you get hungry rather than trying to stick to a mealtime schedule? Does your party tend to share meals, skip desserts or order free (not bottled) water as your beverage? Do you have picky or very light eaters? If you say yes to the these questions, it's unlikely the plan will save you money, so get it only if you want that all-inclusive feeling. It's always based on nights - depending on which plan you purchase you will receive credits based on 8 nights. On the regular plan each person is allotted 8 QS, 8 TS and 8 snacks.

This is the most helpful post I've seen about the DDP. Thank you!

 

[Aurora0427]

I think what Mickeylover means is if you use your QS at breakfast, have a cheaper snack and choose unwisely at an a la carte TS for dinner, you will only "spend" about $42 for that day's DDP which actually cost you $60.

Thank you!

 

[mickeyluv'r]

90% of KIDS QS meals are chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, PB&J, or cheeseburger. Yes, you can find a few other things here and there, but you have to RESEARCH and plan for that.

I would love to know where you found salad, BBQ sandwich, or fish on a KID's menu.

It used to be that's kid meals were lots of fries and nuggets. A few years back they started more healthy options.

The first menu I look at, Sci-Fi has grilled chicken, grilled salmon w/ancient grains, and whole wheat penne w/chicken. All are served with green beans, carrots, apples.

Second menu- Tokyo Dining says: All kids' meals include (steamed mixed) vegetables, Sukiyaki beef rice, two pieces of crab roll and fruit cup.

Third menu, Gasparilla Grill (QS at GF) has a vegetable wrap with carrots, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and ranch with grapes and carrot sticks.

Sannaa has fish of the day, grilled chicken, and pan seared shrimp all served with veggies.

AoA lets kids do a make-your-own salad (w/grilled checken, or shrimp, or not). They also can get tandoori grilled fish w/multigrain rice and a veggie of their choice (baked acorn squash is one)

The new norm is that every place offers healthy kids' meal options.

 

[Jenn55]

For us were looking at a savings of 41.75 on the DDP. Not a whole lot, but it gives piece of mind and I can order whatever I want and not worry about the price tag of each dish

Looking at meals for our trip:
Arrival day - packed lunch, dinner at the resort QS restuarant
Hollywood studios - pizza planet at lunch, Hollywood and vine for dinner
Epcot - sunshine seasons for lunch, candlelight processional package for dinner
Animal kingdom - 1900 park fare for breakfast, pizzafari for dinner
Off day - O'hana for breakfast, QS dinner in resort
Animal kingdom - tusker house breakfast, restaurantasours for dinner
Magic kingdom - chef mickeys for breakfast, tomorrow land terrace for dinner
Magic kingdom - tomorrow land terrace for lunch, BOG for dinner
Epcot - akershus for dinner

 

[jco_direwolf]

For us were looking at a savings of 41.75 on the DDP. Not a whole lot, but it gives piece of mind and I can order whatever I want and not worry about the price tag of each dish

Sure don't understand this. But Okay.

As others have said if you are close and 41$ over all those meals is VERY close. One change in plans or one Wow I feel like just a salad meal, and your savings goes poof. Just a thought. that is why most poeple feel you have to "win" by atleast 10-15% before it's a win.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Sure don't understand this. But Okay.

As others have said if you are close and 41$ over all those meals is VERY close. One change in plans or one Wow I feel like just a salad meal, and your savings goes poof. Just a thought. that is why most poeple feel you have to "win" by atleast 10-15% before it's a win.

You also have 8 TS credits for an 8 night stay and you will need 9 credits to cover everything (the Candlelight package is 2 credits) so you'd need to pay out of pocket for one of those TS meals.

Of course the only restaurant where you would have to worry about menu prices is BOG because every other TS you booked is fixed price and would cost the same no matter what you ordered or ate. However, most fixed price meals are worthwhile on DDP especially if you have children under 10.

 

[shepd]

I think you need to consider what your goal is with the holiday. If it's saving money, then no, it isn't going to do that. Saving money means having free breakfast at the hotel (well... probably not free at a Disney hotel) bringing packed lunches and either eating dinner in your hotel room.

If you're looking at spending a little extra to make that stuff easier, but only enough that you're not having to eat suppers in the hotel room, you'll want to eat off property.

If you're considering eating all meals in a restaurant, the dining plan will probably break even for you and save you hassle.

Just my opinion when I worked it all out. Overall, the cheapest way to visit Disney is to stay off-site and eat off-site and bringing packed lunches (whether at a restaurant or in your room--I personally got a condo with a kitchen, as it's cheaper than renting a hotel room, and significantly cheaper than any Disney property). From others who make regular trips there, they also find this is the cheapest method if you're pinching pennies.

 

[ghtx]

Have two young boys and we will be heading to Disney the first of August. Is the dining plan worth the extra expense?

No.

Wow - you'll get a million very different, very passionate answers on this one.

But the correct answer is still "no".

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Of course it's absolutely cheaper to stay offsite, cook and pack your own food and carry everything in with you. (note that Disney is one of the few theme park companies that allows guests to bring in their own food!) But you can still eat at WDW restaurants for much cheaper than the dining plan would cost you, especially if you aren't interested in desserts with every meal. If you want a character lunch or dinner every day then the plan is something you should look at money-wise, otherwise you may only want a dining plan if you just like the idea, or if you can grab a free dining package in certain circumstances.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

There are typically two schools of thought about Disney Dining Plan (DDP):

1.) People who like to prepay for their vacation and/or prefer not being hassled about food money when their children explore on their own.
2.) People who are hoping for discounted food costs.
But as mentioned, your value may be in the convenience.

There's a third school of thought, too. Those who have used DDP, and concluded it is too much hassle! It is NEVER as simple as just ordering what we want, one ALWAYS has to devote effort to making sure make sure your order fits the rules, and charges are applied correctly. DDP often adds more hassle than convenience, especially with extended family in multiple resort rooms.

My dad gets quickly annoyed, "I just want a burger and a coffee. Tell me again why I can't just order the food I want?"

At menu TS, 15 paper charge slips come to our table! FIVE per room! My dad is right to point out how ridiculous that is!

With a large party, TS DDP mistakes are very common: kids' charged as adults, wrong room, or over-charging DDP. We've lost hours waiting for mistakes to be corrected. We've had many evening plans ruined - missing the fireworks, due to DDP. Rarely is any compensation offered for all the lost time waiting. Half an hour is the norm to get a slip corrected. "A manger has to fix it" and "our computers are down" are common excuses.

Some servers and cashiers do try to be nice and helpful. I don't mean to criticize all CM's. DDP has way too many rules. I thoroughly understand them.

Comparatively speaking- concierge floor is just vastly easier. It is what prepaid breakfasts should be. Any time between 7am and 10am, any member of my family can help themselves to any food they want. As much or as little as they want. I shouldn't be selling it so hard, but it is just worlds easier than DDP.

 

[mikeyg1479]

Truthfully, in terms of dollars and cents, I don't think it does. You would really have to plan pricier restaurants and make a point of ordering the most expensive entrees to really make it be worth it.

That said, the dining plan can be a boon as it basically ensures you will be eating good, and those accomodations will already be paid for, which there is something to be said for that. Sometimes its easier to spend the money when you are sitting with the travel agent booking the trip, rather than paying for all of those checks at each restaurant during the trip.

But, keep in mind the dining plan has restrictions- You must get one entree, one non alcoholic drink, one desert- too bad if you really want an appetiser instead of an entree- you are paying for that. You are still paying for soup/salads that don't come with entree, still paying for alcoholic beverages, and still paying for tips. And kids must order from the kids meals, which means lots of hot dogs, mac and cheese, and chicken nuggets. So this can be an issue too if you would like your kid to have somethinb better to eat at these nice places.

Everyone will have their own opinion, for me I find I'm happier off of it, just getting what I want, and I found in the end, I really didn't spend more than what I would have paid for the dining plan anyway.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

There's only one answer for this, it depends.

If you can answer the first 3 questions "yes" then you might as well get the plan because you will at least break even.

If you say yes to the these questions, it's unlikely the plan will save you money, so get it only if you want that all-inclusive feeling.

I agree whole heartedly with your first sentence and most of the last, but I disagree with the assessment that folks are likely to break even under current DDP pricing.

That's why I posted numbers. There's a small chance for someone to "save" a little using DDP, if they order just the right food in just the right places, all goes well, and they pay close attention to maxxing value instead of getting what they want.

In practice, non DDP is often better or even. It's hard to explain why that's the case.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

If you have young children and you want to concentrate on fixed price like character meals you'll probably do better than break even.

That's pretty much because under those circumstances you are getting the children's CS and snacks basically for no extra cost - and the more children you have the better the deal.

It's a pretty narrow set of circumstances though. Once those children turn 10 the deal goes downhill.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

You'll get "your money's worth" if your children are under 10, you do tons of character buffets, you get soda and dessert with every single QS and TS meal.

I used to get it when my kids were under 10. We did plenty of buffets. I used to drink soda at every meal. And desserts at some meals. My XH loved it for convenience. He liked that he had an all inclusive feel.

We don't do the DDP anymore. Now my kids are 14 and 8. We do two MAYBE three character meals. I don't drink soda. I'm a water drinker 99% of the time. We don't get dessert at QS places. They'd rather have their dessert as a snack later on in the parks. My SO rarely gets dessert. He does not have a sweet tooth at all. We share desserts at TS if we get them. We prefer appetizers as a meal at times. SO and I will share apps as our dinner. Sometimes DD wants an adult meal and I'll share with her.

It just doesn't make sense and whenever I use a DDP calculator I'm always under by $400-500 by paying OOP and that's with alcoholic beverages and tip. Also this is with eating where we want and getting WHAT we want. Not us eating according to the plan.

Sure if we each got a dessert at every QS and TS place, soda for all 4 at every meal, got the most expensive entree and the most expensive snack in the park it would make my $400-500 difference shrink. But that's not how we like to eat.

 

[ibela]

I just went through a whole analysis for myself. I'm not trying to eat at Disney for as cheap as possible, there are definitely cheaper ways to eat OOP than the DDP. I just wanted to determine if it'd cost me less to eat how we want by paying OOP or by getting the plan. We're 2 adults and 2 children under 9.

1. I made a list of our TS restaurants ADRs and the list of CS places.
2. For CS and a la carte TS, I wrote down the price of the items we would likely order. Add 7% tax. The key is to determine your order if paying OOP and not what you'd order if you had the DDP. This way you're determining if the DDP works for you and saves you money based on how you eat rather than trying to maximize the DDP if you don't even really need it which is false savings.
3. If you want to buy any resort mugs (19.25 with tax for a week stay), take that into account. We'd buy 3 resort mugs, the 4th is primarily a water drinker.
4. How many snacks do you think you will use? To be conservative, I averaged mine at $5 each although some will be less.

When I went through the calculation, DDP was $40 more than paying OOP. For that $40 we get an additional mug (even if fill it up with ice water it saves multiple trips for water cups), 2 snacks more than I allotted for, and an additional 8 CS meals which we can use for a few breakfasts so that we're not always eating cereal in the room or a granola bar on the go. And now we also get additional drinks and desserts (if OOP, we'd share some desserts).

If the above is too many steps, there's a spreadsheet you can use. It takes the average cost of items based on your selected CS and TS and will tell you what your OOP would be vs what DDP would cost and what your savings are (if any). www.distripplanner.com

 

[lustergirl]

The real cost is if there is a room only discount that you are missing because of it. 20% or so off room may be better.

I am waiting to see if that room discount comes out for my trip time. I was playing around with number and seen what a room would cost at a 20% discount and I would only be saving something like 88 dollars. I figured I can eat more food than that in a week's time so maybe the free dining plan for me.

We will see. I know I will be doing a couple of ADR's for places like Boma or Coral Reef as I don't want to eat quick service all week.

Just wanted to add: in years gone bye my two sons actually went to disney with me and the hubby. Then the free dining promo was a better deal because some of our meals cost over 300 dollars each time.

 

[lustergirl]

No.



But the correct answer is still "no".

Consider other peoples' opinion much? What necessarily is right for you might not right for them

 

[mickeyluv'r]

No.



But the correct answer is still "no".

Very eloquent!
************

We've been going to WDW since '73. I feel like we've tried just about every money saving method out there.

Bottom line there are pros and cons to every gimmick/method out there.
The whole reason I started on the DIS was saving $, way before DDP or MYW, when the DIS Budget Board meant budget-WDW.

What I've learned is that most money saving ideas = lost vacation time. Only a few really come out in our favor- like getting a rental car.

OP, if you want to buy in-park time, a rental car (assuming a decent rate) is one of the best WDW bargains going! (Unless you hate to drive.)