Meal plan worth it?

[tink20]

The plan doesn't work for us, paying OOP is better.

 

[serene56]

2 adults 1 child. Dining plan would cost us over 1000.plus tips I went over the menus and calculated what I would need and got a gift card for 800.00. I came back with 6.36 on the gift card so the dining plan would have cost me 200 more then what I paid.
We had one TS. And 1 cs every day. We did not do desserts with meals which save me 15.00 per meal. We had a snack each day.


Some of our counter service would not have been worth the credit... sleepy hallow and earl of sandwich didn't even come to 10.00 pp

I didn't have to worry is a snack credit was covered. A cronut with ice cream is not covered. Not is a funnel cake with a topping.


My 800 covered all meals, taxes and tips plus snacks. Sometimes our child ate a kids meal. Most times she was able to get an adult meal...on the plan we would have been stcuk with the kids meals

 

[serene56]

This year will be our first trip with the plan. A friend gave us a pin code for free dining and since we are going are going for Christmas when the parks will be busy.

Normally, the dining plan just involves too much time in restaurants-away from attractions and things to do and too much food. We normally just snack most meals, then eat at a nice restaurant every other day.

Hownareyou able to use a friends pin code. My son could not use mine since I was not going

 

[jco_direwolf]

Hownareyou able to use a friends pin code. My son could not use mine since I was not going

Wasn't going to say anything about that. They are non-transferable.

 

[serene56]

Happy you've found what will work for you.

One tip: Somewhere in all of this, someone said they had a hard time keeping track of how much money was left on which gift card. The easy way to take care of that is to charge everything back to your room and then use the gift cards when you check out to pay for what's on your tab.

Disney has a gift card app. You fill in the gift card number and it fills out the amount

 

[NashBridges]

No, in no way. Disney wants you to think you save (you don't), they want you to think it's so easy to not worry about expenses (there's really no difference), and they want you to spend a couple of hundred dollars per day, every single day, for a family to eat. Wow.

Probably the best thing to do is not set up a spreadsheet, pore over menus, and all the other things people try to do to justify the plan. Instead, take the hundreds or even over a thousand dollars the meal plan would cost you, and put it in your pocket, and add say 15% or so for the tips since they are no longer in the DDP. Eat what you want, when you want. Don't scrimp, don't stress, don't skip a dessert, get snacks when you want, buy drinks as you go (the overpriced mugs tend to make you drink more than you normally would because it's "free").

At the end of the vacation look at all the money left over!

DDP was a brilliant marketing plan by Disney; it has increased their profits hugely, but the unfortunate downside is crowded restaurants, lower quality food offerings, and unreasonably high prices on buffets and character meals. But, that's done, and we have to live with what they offer now.

We eat royally at Disney, and love it, and never have come close to what we would have spent on the DDP. And we don't stress one iota.

This is one of the best posts I've seen regarding the dining plan. We don't skimp on meals either but when we do the math on what we would eat, we lose money on the DDP. Not to mention, we find it to be way too much food, neither me or my husband eat like that at home or on vacation. 2 desserts a day? No thanks. And those ridiculously overpriced buffets? No thanks. We can eat way cheaper paying out of pocket while still enjoying some of Disneys most popular restaurants.

 

[Aurora0427]

Sorry, but there are ways to save on the dining plan and come out ahead. Do you have to work hard to come out ahead? Yes. But the bottom line is that you can save money on the dining plan. I've done the math multiple times for our upcoming trip, and we do come out ahead for this particular trip. It all depends on where you're eating and the makeup of your party.

So to say that across the board, the ddp is a waste of money, is just not a correct statement.

 

[aaarcher86]

Sorry, but there are ways to save on the dining plan and come out ahead. Do you have to work hard to come out ahead? Yes. But the bottom line is that you can save money on the dining plan. I've done the math multiple times for our upcoming trip, and we do come out ahead for this particular trip. It all depends on where you're eating and the makeup of your party. So to say that across the board, the ddp is a waste of money, is just not a correct statement.

Totally true.

We've always had discounted dining (we upgrade to DXDP). The savings are high. It's really a no brainer. I'd be eating at the same restaurants and going OOP.

No one in my group feels like they need to lick their plates clean.

 

[Jenn55]

Sorry, but there are ways to save on the dining plan and come out ahead. Do you have to work hard to come out ahead? Yes. But the bottom line is that you can save money on the dining plan. I've done the math multiple times for our upcoming trip, and we do come out ahead for this particular trip. It all depends on where you're eating and the makeup of your party. So to say that across the board, the ddp is a waste of money, is just not a correct statement.

I totally agree, I think it's incorrect to say either way that it works every time for each person or that it's a waste of time and money. It depends on each individual family and what they eat and where they want to eat. For me, if I'm saving money, no matter how much, I think the piece of mind of having everything paid for ahead of time is a plus

 

[Aurora0427]

Totally true. We've always had discounted dining (we upgrade to DXDP). The savings are high. It's really a no brainer. I'd be eating at the same restaurants and going OOP. No one in my group feels like they need to lick their plates clean.

This is what my husband and I do when we travel sans kid. We do the deluxe plan and eat three amazing meals per day at all of the expensive restaurants, including signature. We saved a TON of money last time. I don't understand why everyone complains that it's too much food. To me that's the best part- you are able to try and appetizer, entree, and a dessert. No pressure to eat every bite. They'll also box up your dessert to eat later! Plus the portion sizes are huge with our without the DDP. I rarely finish every bite on my plate!

 

[Mommy2Corinne]

I just did very specific math for our upcoming trip. DDP is definitely NOT a good option for us. Based on our current ADRs, we would lose $268.05 if we would have chosen the DDP.

We are two adults, one 4 year old, and one 2.5 year old. Our trip is 9 days/8 nights. We like drinking water (and don't drink soda or juice at home), so my calculations include water for our meals that didn't already include a drink (we would pay for booze either way OOP, so I didn't include that at all ). I included desserts at a few TS dinner restaurants, but not at lunch except for BOG (we have found in the past that it is just too much for us). I didn't include snacks (honestly we always felt like we were eating then just to use up our credits), so if you want to be a stickler, I guess you could add $50 or so for snacks, which would bring our number down to around $220). At many of the TS restaurants we plan on ordering appetizers (and splitting a dessert), but the appetizers would all be OOP anyway. My 2.5 year old son will be plate sharing at the character meals/buffets, but I did order him lunches/dinners otherwise, which again would be OOP either way. We are planning on eating at the following restaurants:

Garden Grill Dinner
CS - BOG Lunch
Ohana Dinner
CS - Flame Tree Lunch
Narcoosees Dinner
Biergarten Lunch
1900 Park Fare Dinner
CS - CHH Lunch
CS - Pecos Bills Dinner
CS - Gasparillas Lunch
Brown Derby FP Dinner (Fantasmic)
Ohana Breakfast
BOG Dinner
TTDP (Special/Dessert)
Tusker House Lunch
CS - Gasparillas Dinner
1900 Park Fare Breakfast
Akershus Lunch

Narcoosees, Brown Derby (Fantasmic), TTDP, and 1900 Park Fare Breakfast would be OOP either way (based on credit use).

DDP = Fail (for us).