No Dining Plan -4 Disney Adults - our $$ results.

[chocovrdmicears]

We are now the proud owners of 2 *Disney Adults*. We have always been big fans of the Regular Dining Plan - but I got serious sticker shock when I looked at the price for our family of 4 for our 8 night stay - over $1800... We have been fortunate enough to have visited the World many times and have eaten at 50+ TS places. So to be fair, TS are no longer a huge deal for us when it comes to a WDW vacation. So I decided to toss the Dining Plan out the window, go where we want and eat what we want when we wanted it. I booked 2 TS meals - Via Napoli (our favorite) and Yak and Yeti ( haven't been in many years). We stayed at POP Century. Our kids are 12 and 10 and are big eaters (no sharing meals typically) and they much prefer to be riding things rather than eating things....so here is the official breakdown of what we spent:

5/20
lunch at POP
Dole Whip snack
CHH dinner
Desert at AOA
$107.19

5/21
Pastries at POP for breakfast.
Didn't fill us - so we checked out CBR - breakfast there.
Sweet Tomatoes for lunch (love)
Tangerine Café for dinner.
Beer cart (twice )
Caramel Cart for Illuminations sugar fix
$167.55

5/22
Gastons for breakfast
Contempo Café for lunch
Pizza Planet for dinner
$145.62

5/23
Pop breakfast
Sunshine Season for lunch
Via Napoli for dinner (which was awesome)
$201.38

5/24
skipped breakfast (our bad - we were tired)
early lunch at WPE
Cosmic Rays for dinner
$112.60


5/25
slept in again ()
early lunch at POP
back to POP for dinner
huge desserts at POP
$93.49


5/26
POP for breakfast
AK snacks (jalapeno pretzels, pineapple spear and Dole Whips)
Yak N Yeti (biggest waste of $121)
WPE for dinner
$240.00


5/27
Sunshine Seasons breakfast
China snacks (2 plates to share)
Japan snack
POP dinner
Boardwalk Bakery - 4 treats to share
$133.19


5/28
Roaring Forks breakfast
$30.62


So we spent $1231.64

Despite my husbands best accounting I still think we had a few more snacks and drinks - so I am going to add another $50
And we bought 4 refillable mugs - which are totally worth it for us - so another $80 or so.

That puts us at $1361


The good: We LOVED not having to be somewhere for a meal every day. Our kids are way past that. We also loved being able to order whatever it was that we wanted - no pre-packaged sweets... We got to experience a lot of interesting resorts (CR, CBR, BW and WL). Other than Cosmic Rays (when we were all in the mood for one), we never ate a burger. We found plenty of *not your typical fast food* stuff all over the World.
The bad: I am a budget kind of gal - so I definitely found myself ordering a less expensive option or sharing. Didn't take away from my trip - but I spent waaaay too much time worrying about the cost of food.

The moral of our story - The regular dining plan is no longer a good fit for us - but I missed having the pre-paid option. Based on our experience I will be getting the QS plan next year.
HTH some that are running those endless numbers.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

In the spirit of full disclosure - we did have $50 in Starbucks gift cards which my husband happily used throughout the week - so I guess +$50 to our total.

 

[ibela]

Our first year we did OOP and I really regretted it. Now we still do DDP while both kids are under 10, then I may have to reconsider. I've run the numbers a million times and if we pay OOP, assuming some sharing between the kids, it works out to about even with the DDP - and with the plan we have extra credits. I won't say the extras are "free" but it's at the same cost as OOP would be for us so we're getting the plan again this time as well.

And thanks for your feedback on Yak & Yeti , I keep toying with this one but think I'll leave it alone. We have Tusker House scheduled for lunch so I think we'll just go to DTD for dinner that night.

Thanks for the feedback and sharing your results!

 

[Alesia]

When we went in 2009 we chose not to buy a dining plan. I kept track of what we spent OOP and it ended up being over $600 less than what the DDP would have cost.

 

[GillianP1301]

We did DDP 2 years ago on the free dining plan and came out ahead by a couple hundred dollars. Last year, we skipped the plan and we're doing things on the cheap (including a few offsite meals to save $) and when I calculated it all at the end of the day, we only saved about $25 not being on the plan. This year, I'm going to try the DxDP, but my goal is not money savings this time, my goal is to experience a lot of different dining options they have to offer.

I really think the tipping point, like for most people, will be when my son is considered a Disney dining adult. We do a lot of character meals, so the dining plan really helps us out on that front.

 

[ibela]

This year, I'm going to try the DxDP, but my goal is not money savings this time, my goal is to experience a lot of different dining options they have to offer.

I really think the tipping point, like for most people, will be when my son is considered a Disney dining adult. We do a lot of character meals, so the dining plan really helps us out on that front.

I think that's the key point to deciding DDP vs OOP. If you're on a budget, you can definitely eat cheaper by paying OOP. We just want to have a great experience and time, and dining and character meals is a part of that, so that minimizes potential savings by paying OOP and makes DDP "worth it" for us. Of course, I do have 2 kids under 9...it's definitely much more when the child turns 10 but if you're still interested in doing a lot of character meals, the 10yr old would be charged adult price if paying OOP too so it's always worth doing the math.