OOP vs DDP - help!!!!!!! Any number crunchers?

[newbie2013]

Help!
So we are making our first trip to wdw in January. It is me, DH, and 2 DD's (at time of travel almost 5 and 8 months old). I can't figure out which is goin to cost less - paying OOP or DDP. As of now we have ADRs at be our guest, akershus, CRT, and chef mickeys. Everything is for breakfast except BoG. We have also tentatively booked for mama melrose and the fireworks thing. But not 100% sure re mama melrose and chef Mickey. Anyone out there who loves to crunch numbers or an easy to use program to figure it out????
We don't eat any meat. I guess that with be our guest we don't need 3 full meals so could save a table credit.
Ackh! What to do

 

[eliza61]

Welcome Newbie,
So the first thing I would do is go over to allears.net and look at the menu for all the places you'd like to eat.
then do mini mock ups and see what they come out to be. Remember if you add in the ddp to the oop side, do so on the ddp side.

So lets say for my family. at mama melrose our meal would look like this. ( I rounded up for ease of addition)

1 ceasar salad app for 8.00
2 chicken parmagina for 18.00 each = 36.00
1 chicken campagnallea at 20.00
1 flatbread pizza with chicken 13.00
4 drinks at 3.00 each = 12.00
7% tax on approximately 90 dollars= 6.30
and 18% gratuity=16.20
So total for our sit down=90+16.20+6.30=~112.00

Lunch we usually down counter service, so lets say 10 bucks a pop thats 40 dollars
breakfast is a wash on either plan
We rarely eat desserts but lets say we pick up ice cream cones for all 4 at the end of the night, that maybe another 20-25 dollars.

Total for the day ~160 bucks. the ddp for 4 adults is 204 plus tip. This is generally how we like to eat. We rarely do character meals as my kids are older. So the ddp would cost me any where from 30-40 dollars more per day.

while I like the notion of convenience I'm not going to pay an extra 210-300 bucks for it

Now once or twice at most, my dh and I will hit a signature restaurants. my kids are teens and they never want to eat with us. but on these days our bill is higher.
it will look some thing like this:
11.00 lobster bisque
14.00 scallops appertizer
40.00 rib eye
43.00 filet mignon
9.00 mac and chees
9.00 mushroom cap
20.00 for one wine and one beer
total ~127 dollars plus 10.22 tax.

Now I'm not sure if Yachtsman is a 2 ts credit place or not but this would be a day we spent over 204 dollars on our meals. this is a heavy meal for us so we do two at most.

So for us it's a no go. You have to do your own numbers.

 

[danceintherain]

Help!
So we are making our first trip to wdw in January. It is me, DH, and 2 DD's (at time of travel almost 5 and 8 months old). I can't figure out which is goin to cost less - paying OOP or DDP. As of now we have ADRs at be our guest, akershus, CRT, and chef mickeys. Everything is for breakfast except BoG. We have also tentatively booked for mama melrose and the fireworks thing. But not 100% sure re mama melrose and chef Mickey. Anyone out there who loves to crunch numbers or an easy to use program to figure it out????
We don't eat any meat. I guess that with be our guest we don't need 3 full meals so could save a table credit.
Ackh! What to do

We need a little more information. How many nights is your trip?

As of now, you have 6 credits worth booked, so you'll need a 6 night trip to even make the dining plan close to worthwhile.
The dining plan is going to cost your family $128.37/night.
We have no pricing information on Be Our Guest, but I imagine you'll do fine there, since it's a dinner. I'll leave it out of the calculations though, so we're dealing with 5 credits instead of 6.
Akershus = $105.41
CRT = $137.61
Chef Mickey's = $78.79
Mama Melrose (F! Package) = $77.97
Total =$399.78/5=$74.96 (average)

That leaves you with $48.41 to cover with your Quick Service meal and snack every day. Even Wolfgang Puck Express (the most expensive quick service on the property) maxes out at around $20/adult and $7/child (and that's for meaty dishes) so unless you're planning on eating your quick service in Downtown Disney EVERY day, the Dining Plan would not be a good deal for you. EDIT: You may "break even" but I doubt it will save you any money.

Pricing information from allears.net. Buffet and Dining Plan pricing are seasonal, so the values may vary slightly.

 

[tiggspring]

When I'm comparing DDP to out of pocket I to alllears.net. They have menues for all the food outlets complete with prices. I then can 1. decide if we will like the food and 2. plan my oop expenses so I can buy gift cards to earn fule perks in my area. He is the link http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm

I seem to remember someone on the resteraunt board had a chart system to help folks out. Also while over there check out the snack thread. This helped us find Fantastic often Huge snacks instead of the bottles of H2o and Mickey bars I think WDW would prefer we all buy

 

[kddisney502]

Help!
So we are making our first trip to wdw in January. It is me, DH, and 2 DD's (at time of travel almost 5 and 8 months old). I can't figure out which is goin to cost less - paying OOP or DDP. As of now we have ADRs at be our guest, akershus, CRT, and chef mickeys. Everything is for breakfast except BoG. We have also tentatively booked for mama melrose and the fireworks thing. But not 100% sure re mama melrose and chef Mickey. Anyone out there who loves to crunch numbers or an easy to use program to figure it out????
We don't eat any meat. I guess that with be our guest we don't need 3 full meals so could save a table credit.
Ackh! What to do

Since you don't eat meat and you're doing mostly breakfast TS, I would recommend against paying for the DDP. It's hard to save money on the DDP. Some of the best ways to save money on the DDP is to eat the most expensive menu items (which are usually meat), and have TS dinners.

The exception to this is if you get free dinning. Since you're going in Jan. you'll probably have a choice between a free dinning discount and room only. Once discounts are announced, you can price out which would be better for you.

 

[Jenny3]

Based on just the info given (your family size, most of your ADRs are breakfast (which are usually buffet) and no meat eaters), I would say no to the DDP. Your baby will obviously be free and if your 5 y/o is anything like any of my kids, she will barely finish a kids meal.

However, I will add that a lot depends on how much/what you eat to figure it all out and how you like to vacation. For us, the DDP was worth it as we had DH and myself, DD16, DD8 and DD2 at the time. We are a family that rarely eats out, so it was a treat for us to have a full sit-down meal (with appetizers and desserts) every day. We took full advantage and it was wonderful! It was also very nice for us to not worry about price and budget, since our meals were included and paid for. Lastly, we liked having a break to sit and eat a good meal every day; some families prefer to not waste valuable park time. Lots to consider!

 

[LSchrow]

the best ways to save money on the DDP is to eat the most expensive menu items (which are usually meat)

exactly
we have saved money in the past on the DDP. sample non-peak day: dinner at coral reef including strip steak $32, chocolate wave $8, soda $3(?), approx $46 with tax (note i didn't include tip, as gratuities are not included either way). tangierine cafe (morrocco) for lunch would be chicken/lamb combo platter $14, baklava $2.50, and lemonade $3, approx $21 with tax.
add in a $3 snack, and total OOP would be $60. cost of basic DDP is $51.54, and includes one refillable mug.
obviously, the savings can be there, but are not that substantial. in addition, we found that we can't take more than a few days of the DDP (too much food for us - 1 day on the DDP covers all the food we eat in 2 days), and as pp said, most of the expensive menu items are meat.

with the current DDP price, i can't see adding it unless it part of "free dining", one's family eats at least 2 decent sized meals a day, and prefers steak on a daily basis.
hth

 

[kaytieeldr]

When I'm comparing DDP to out of pocket I to alllears.net. They have menues for all the food outlets complete with prices

The DIS host site, wdwinfo.com, provides easily-accessible, frequently updated mines with pricing: http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/disneydining.cfm
This link is near the top of every page, at least on the Trip Planning boards. No need to send anyone to another site .

 

[newbie2013]

Thanks everyone!

We planned on going for only 5 nights.
I hear what you are saying.
Still debating though as 1. Might have a coronary paying for CRT and akershus OOP 2. Might do 1900 park fare for dinner bumping costs up 3. Hate having to think about what we r spending on snacks etc ....

Where can one don the info on good qs places and snack credits (someone mentioned good snack credit vs water or Mickey bar)

Also does wdw let you bring in water and snacks into the parks?

 

[luvsJack]

You will really need to look at the menus and figure out what your family will probably order. Also, unless you plan to say "no you can't order that, its too expensive", be realistic. Don't price it out with the cheapest things on the menu if you really don't think that is what your family will order.

Folks will tell you that you can share meals. That's great for them if that is what they do, but it won't work for our family. We have different tastes so someone would be sharing something that they don't really want or like.

For us, every time I have priced it out, we come out money ahead using the DDP. We went for a quick weekend trip in April and didn't have the ddp. That quick trip made up our minds for us, never again without ddp.

Really and truly, you can listen to everyone here, but look at those menus and prices and be realistic about what you will be ordering/paying, will share meals, etc.

Also, a lot of folks want to come up with a savings, but if you break even using the ddp, the convenience is great.

 

[gladdiola]

Also does wdw let you bring in water and snacks into the parks?

Yes, I've had no problems bringing water and snacks through the bag check, definitely helps to cut down on snack cost.

 

[BubMunkeyBles]

If you have only 5 nights and have those places planned, the 2 TS will kill your budget. I'd consider deluxe if you really want to do dining plan (packages and CRT are horrible uses of 2 TS in my opinion usually). Snacks range from $3-4 usually. I'd just put all the money you'd pay for dining on a giftcard maybe, maybe then the sticker shock won't be so bad. But you're going to end up paying more it looks like with DDP.

 

[LJSquishy]

For most groups, any of the dining plans are not actually worth paying for. If your family doesn't typically eat desserts at both lunch and dinner (which the different dining plans include) and/or you don't each order a non-alcoholic beverage with each meal, it is definitely not going to save you money.

I don't get why people say it is more convenient...it is in fact more time consuming figuring out how many credits you have left to spend and making sure you use them wisely so you don't run out or have extra at the end of your trip.

You will definitely save money with your family if you pay out of pocket. There will probably be days where you want to do a big breakfast, have just a little snack for lunch, and have a decent dinner. My husband and I had the DDP ("free" with our package) and used our snack credit for breakfast, had a counter service lunch, and a table service dinner. We turned away most desserts, and at counter service places we just wanted water. Portion sizes at sit down restaurants are huge and food will be wasted.

Usually if you order the most expensive items at each restaurant while on the DDP, you will "save" money, but the reality is that you aren't going to be eating steaks every day. Since you don't eat meat, there is no way any of the dining plans would be worth it for you. I would count on bringing in a bunch of snacks such as nuts for protein because I think at a lot of the counter service places you will struggle to find items to make a balanced vegetarian meal.

 

[ahilly]

We just returned from a 6 day stay and didn't do the DDP. We are a family of 4, DS is 7 and DD is 11. We spent just over 400.00 on food for the week. Now keep in mind that we only did one sit down meal which was lunch, all the rest of our lunches and dinners were counter service. My kids are not big breakfast eaters as a bowl of cereal is sufficient in the morning. For 50.00 from Walmart I shipped 2 cases of water, crackers, cookies, granola bars, cereal and sun screen, which was waiting for me at check in. As we were unpacking the order I first thought I over ordered but it ended up being just enough snacks for the week. We would take 4 bottles of water and various snacks into the parks daily and were never bothered.
Hope that helps.

 

[tiggspring]

Yes, I've had no problems bringing water and snacks through the bag check, definitely helps to cut down on snack cost.

Our family did this and it saved us more than $200 We took that money and rented a private boat for illuminations one year and took a pirates cruise for the fireworks another plus we got great snacks instead of a bottle of water.

 

[tiggspring]

Thanks everyone!

We planned on going for only 5 nights.
I hear what you are saying.
Still debating though as 1. Might have a coronary paying for CRT and akershus OOP 2. Might do 1900 park fare for dinner bumping costs up 3. Hate having to think about what we r spending on snacks etc ....

Where can one don the info on good qs places and snack credits (someone mentioned good snack credit vs water or Mickey bar)

Also does wdw let you bring in water and snacks into the parks?

Here it is. LOVED it for both our trips!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2853528

 

[eliza61]

Thanks everyone!

We planned on going for only 5 nights.
I hear what you are saying.
Still debating though as 1. Might have a coronary paying for CRT and akershus OOP 2. Might do 1900 park fare for dinner bumping costs up 3. Hate having to think about what we r spending on snacks etc ....
Where can one don the info on good qs places and snack credits (someone mentioned good snack credit vs water or Mickey bar)

Also does wdw let you bring in water and snacks into the parks?

You know what's interesting about that is that I spent way more time "
thinking" about what I ordered when I was on the ddp. It was like I had to get the "most" expensive thing on the menu because I wanted to maximize my credits. I remember one time we went in August and it was blistering hot and all I really wanted was a light chicken ceasar salad yet I ended up forcing myself to stuff down pork chops 'cause God forbid I didn't use my credits fully.

Same thing with appertizers, whether we wanted them or not we forced ourselves to get them.

then at the end of the trip, Me and about 4 other moms were furiously running around the BC market place trying to use up all the leftover snack credits. Couldn't get on the plane without every credit spent.

I am way less food conscious now that I eat they way I feel.

 

[danceintherain]

The DIS host site, wdwinfo.com, provides easily-accessible, frequently updated mines with pricing: http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/disneydining.cfm
This link is near the top of every page, at least on the Trip Planning boards. No need to send anyone to another site .

The issue I have with wdwinfo.com for menus (I LOVE other aspects of the site) is that for buffets, they post the full range $36-$59 from the Walt Disney website. When trying to come up with a cost comparison, this isn't as accurate as other options. I'd rather have a couple dollar margin of error, rather than 10 or 20.

As for the OP, from my calculations, you'd be pretty close to breaking even with the dining plan, so you could do it for convenience sake. You could pay out of pocket for Be Our Guest, and use my calculations exactly.
Personally, I found the dining plan more stressful, because I wanted to get my "money's worth." Sometimes this is easy - ice cream cookie sandwich! Other times it's hard - I'm thirsty, but sick of the Florida tap water, so I want bottled water.
My brilliant plan of saving my Counter Service desserts for breakfast the next morning didn't work either. The famous zebra domes are too rich a breakfast for me and I eat cupcakes for breakfast on a regular basis!

 

[denise5374]

If you are a spreadsheet kind of person, there is a great one posted over on the Dining board by DISuser Cafeen, which allows you to plug in numbers and it will give you the numbers on different option, DDP, DxDDP, OOP, etc.

Here's the thread:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2957235&highlight=cafeen

 

[kpadalik]

If I were you, instead of getting the DDP, I would put the cost of the DDP onto a Disney gift card or a VISA gift card. Use that gift card for all of your food, snacks, and drinks. If you have any $$ left over, you can use it for extra souvenirs or (if it is a VISA) anything, really. This way, you don't feel tied down to the DDP and you won't worry about using all of your credits. I've heard of people doing this and a lot of people actually have quite a bit of money left over.