Mostly Buffets on Dining plan

[princess aurora]

Just the way it turned out this time but most of our choices for the dining plan are buffets or set price family style dinners. Do you think that is a good use of the dining plan (2 adults/2 kids - 7 night stay)?
We are planning to use the Planet Hollywood meal plan one night (included in our MYW package) for another meal. Leaving us only one dinner to pay OOP.

Ohana's - Dinner
Safari Celebration - Dinner *
Garden Grill - Dinner
CRT - Dinner *
50's Prime Time Cafe - Dinner

* 2 credit signature meals

 

[jann1033]

i think it totally is what you like...personally husband and i don't feel we ever get our money's worth at a buffet as we just don't eat that much but this trip since we are taking our 2 yr old gbaby and she can eat free at buffets ( and her dad who still eats like a teen age boy sometimes although he is past 30 ) we probably will do some. it would be hard imo not to spend at least $30 on a appe, entree and dessert at any dinnner place in wdw so i am sure you'll get your money's worth. and with disney some places are more about atmosphere than food so imo that is still worth the money

i was planning on one 2 ts meal since we'd get the hollywood meal( although their food was just ok... warning....if they have the thai shrimp still steer clear..it made me so sick)

many feel the crt is a rip off now but if you havent' eaten there i can see why you'd want to.

 

[kcashner]

Check the all ears site for current restaurant prices. In December, most character dinner buffets were $28 for an adult, not including tax and tip (that brought it to about $33). THe DDP costs $38 for an adult. A child was about $11, which is the cost of the DDP.

Basically, if you do this, you have $5 to spend on an adult counter service and snack during the day to "break even." Reality is that you can't get a counter service meal for $5 anywhere.

So....if these are the meals you want, they are a great use of DDP. You will save significant $. There are certainly more expensive options, but my goal is to eat where I choose at a discount...not to try to choose the most expensive place to get a good deal.

 

[estnh]

It really is a matter of personal preference--value is percieved by your own preferences. I think many of Disney's buffets are so much fun that the food is secondary, and we really go to Disney for fun, not culinary adventure.

Personally, though, I can only take one or two buffets per trip--when food is prepared in huge volumes, and set under heat lamps there is no way the quality can match a freshly prepared meal from a good restaurant. And there are some really good restaurants on the dining plan!

 

[bicker]

My math seemed to indicate that if we were doing mostly buffets, we would have been better off paying OOP instead of using the Dining Plan.

 

[DisneyFanatik]

We are planning to use the Planet Hollywood meal plan one night (included in our MYW package) for another meal.

I am pretty sure that you only get a voucher for one Planet Hollywood meal with your MYW package (not one per person). Just making sure that you are aware of that. Have a great trip!

 

[jann1033]

I am pretty sure that you only get a voucher for one Planet Hollywood meal with your MYW package (not one per person). Just making sure that you are aware of that. Have a great trip!

well that's a rip if true... another worthless piece of paper then

i don't know, i can't figure out how the buffets would be better oop as some suggest. you are paying over $30 with out the tax. you probably would pay more at someplace else but you still are getting your monies worth .i see garden grill is $27.99, plus the 18% tip =$32+ tax, a snack is around $3= $35+tax, so less than $4 for lunch?????? don't see how you can do that oop

 

[n2mm]

I OOP for all buffets. We plan to do Cape May and Trails End and will OOP for both of them. We plan to use our TS credits to take my daughter and husband out to eat while they are there. We are getting the DDP and they are not. We plan to take them to LeCellier, Coral Reef and Kona Cafe. We like getting our money's worth on the DDP, so that is our preference. We also have the DDE card, so get the 20% discount on the OOP meals. The DDP only really covers 2 meals a day and we eat 3 meals a day. So we will OOP breakfast (IMO--a waste of TS credits), use CS for lunch and TS for dinner. Face it, you have to pay OOP for some of your meals, you just need to do it for the least expensive. We won't use all of our CS credits either, so will let daugther and family use them too. We shared our DDP credits in September and it worked out well for all of us.

 

[angel's momma]

well that's a rip if true... another worthless piece of paper then

i don't know, i can't figure out how the buffets would be better oop as some suggest. you are paying over $30 with out the tax. you probably would pay more at someplace else but you still are getting your monies worth .i see garden grill is $27.99, plus the 18% tip =$32+ tax, a snack is around $3= $35+tax, so less than $4 for lunch?????? don't see how you can do that oop

PH voucher is true - just one.

We did mostly buffets, and came out well ahead on cost. Sure, the value would have been even high if we hadn't done buffets, but we like buffets.

 

[angel's momma]

Face it, you have to pay OOP for some of your meals, you just need to do it for the least expensive. We won't use all of our CS credits either, so will let daugther and family use them too. We shared our DDP credits in September and it worked out well for all of us.

We didn't pay for any meals OOP, but we also used all our CS credits. We found that we could share CS for breakfast & lunch, then have TS dinner. It was more than enough food, and we're not light eaters.

 

[DBarber600]

My math seemed to indicate that if we were doing mostly buffets, we would have been better off paying OOP instead of using the Dining Plan.

I can't see how this would be possible. When you include meal, tax, and tip your cost is at least $30 at most buffets, the counter sevice meal with drink is going to come to around $10 at least, and you're already over the cost of the dining plan and you still have a snack coming. How could you be better paying OOP?

 

[princess aurora]

I can't see how this would be possible. When you include meal, tax, and tip your cost is at least $30 at most buffets, the counter sevice meal with drink is going to come to around $10 at least, and you're already over the cost of the dining plan and you still have a snack coming. How could you be better paying OOP?

You're right! I did my own calculations b/c I'm anal that way to ensure we were getting our "money's worth". In total we have 5 TS meals adding up to $517.81 (family of 4) from rate prices on the dining menu. If we were actually paying OOP we would then have to add txs AND tip on top of that. The DDP is $695.82 for 7 nights. So I subtracted the total (517) from the cost of DP to get $178.01. Divide that by 7 and we would need to spend less than $25.43/day to come out ahead of the dining plan.

Well I couldn't do it. My OOP expenses would included tx and this puts me well over $30/day for only 3 CS meals and snacks. So I'm FINALLY convinced the Dining plan works for us . We could make it stretch even more if we didn't do the signature dining twice but hey it IS Disney and that's what we like so I'm okay with that.

However I AM disappointed the Planet Hollywood coupon is really ONLY 1 entree. That really is a waste of paper. What does 1 entree do for a family that has booked a vacation package with Disney? Not much of an incentive to go to PH at all IMO. Even "kids eat free" is a better incentive, again IMO.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[bicker]

How could you be better paying OOP?

Our bill for Liberty Tree Tavern came to $130 for 4A, 1C, 1I. Our bill for Pinocchio Haus came to $35. That was our entire food bill for the day: $165. If we were on Dining Plan, it would have come to $163. So our costs OOP would be about the same, and we wouldn't have to be concerned about restrictions with the Dining Plan. Same price; less concern; that sounds "better" to me!

To be fair, though, it doesn't take much variance from mostly buffets to make the Dining Plan well worth it. We'll probably end up doing two buffets next year, out of six meals, and we'll be getting the Dining Plan.

 

[Lewisc]

Our bill for Liberty Tree Tavern came to $130 for 4A, 1C, 1I. Our bill for Pinocchio Haus came to $35. That was our entire food bill for the day: $165. If we were on Dining Plan, it would have come to $163. So our costs OOP would be about the same, and we wouldn't have to be concerned about restrictions with the Dining Plan. Same price; less concern; that sounds "better" to me!

To be fair, though, it doesn't take much variance from mostly buffets to make the Dining Plan well worth it. We'll probably end up doing two buffets next year, out of six meals, and we'll be getting the Dining Plan.

Add the tip and 5 bottles of water and you still get a modest savings. That's "worse" case scenario. Add some more expensive, 1 credit TS meals, and you'll get more savings.

Be a smart or greedy consumer (I haven't decided which applies),pay OPP for the child's meals and use those credits to purchase adult meals and your savings will be dramatic. I don't travel with a child so I'm not sure what I'd do. I don't think I'd feel right planning to pay OPP for all a child's meals. Assume we ate all our meals together and used MYW meal credits. The last night we paid to put 2C in one of the kids clubs and went to a signature restaurant. The server would debit our account the remaining 4TS credits in our account. Do I tell the server I only have 2 adult TS credits left (even though there is no such thing) and offer to pay for one meal? I can't accept a "solution" that requires the guest keep better records than Disney. I suspect but can't prove that is the type of flexibility Disney envisioned when they set the plan up the way they did.

 

[bicker]

Add some more expensive, 1 credit TS meals, and you'll get more savings.

Without a doubt. Just a few regular, non-buffet TS meals, and the Dining Plan is a no-brainer, AFAIC.

 

[drogerstn]

I can't see how this would be possible. When you include meal, tax, and tip your cost is at least $30 at most buffets, the counter sevice meal with drink is going to come to around $10 at least, and you're already over the cost of the dining plan and you still have a snack coming. How could you be better paying OOP?

Depends on where you eat. Some restaurant's buffets cost much less than $30 for dinner. Breakfast and lunch buffets are much less than $30 at most, if not all, restaurants.

In the plan listed by the OP, it looks like the Dining Plan will save money since all meals listed are "high dollar" except for dinner at the 50's Prime Time Cafe.

 

[magicmouse2]

We like buffets too but for better value using the dining plan we are planning on eating at higher priced 1 ts credit restaurants like Alfredos, LeCellier , Teppenyaki, Kona, Concourse steakhouse. If you get a steak or a filet mignon at some of these you are looking at +$50 for a meal. But FYI I am greedy, and not picky and could easy manage 3 courses.

 

[formernyer]

However I AM disappointed the Planet Hollywood coupon is really ONLY 1 entree. That really is a waste of paper. What does 1 entree do for a family that has booked a vacation package with Disney? Not much of an incentive to go to PH at all IMO. Even "kids eat free" is a better incentive, again IMO.

I couldn't agree with you more...I'm leaving for Disney at 4am tomorrow morning and we will NOT be using the PH voucher unless they'll let me use it for takeout on my way home. I think those vouchers are brilliant marketing on the part of PH though. Most people who have the DDP won't choose PH as one of their restaurants (because there are just so many better places to eat), but my guess is that most people who don't purchase the DDP will use the voucher. PH also offers lots of 10% and 20% discounts (they are easy to find). When you combine those discounts with the free meal voucher it adds up to a lot of savings for a couple or small family. Almost nobody will use that voucher alone, so virtually every time PH accepts one of those vouchers they'll also be selling meals that they otherwise wouldn't have sold (because the customers probably would have chosen a different restaurant). The vouchers are a great moneymaker for PH.

 

[bicker]

Depends on where you eat. Some restaurant's buffets cost much less than $30 for dinner.

I knew I had figured that somehow... I couldn't understand why our Liberty Tree Tavern meal only worked out to be the same OOP versus Dining Plan.

Hollywood and Vine is $22.99 + $1.84 tax + $3.50 tip = $28.33 not $30; so if we had eaten there instead of Liberty Tree Tavern, our total would have been $125, plus $35 for lunch, that's $160 for the day OOP versus $163 on Dining Plan.

So while Liberty Tree Tavern isn't a better deal OOP than with the Dining Plan, Hollywood and Vine is. Either way, though, it's pretty close.

 

[5disneyfreaks]

Throwing my 2 cents in on this one.
For us, I like not worrying about having to pay for our meals. They are already paid for. That is such a big plus for us. There are many different places to go and try, it is crazy for us not to use the Dining Plan.
But then again, that is us.