OOP vs. DDP, live report . final totals

[DoingDisney]

Right, for this trip coming up we have 5 in the room and while the DP might not suit how we would normally eat and we wont be eating a lot of the desserts and such and we will be ordering appetizers from off the DP in addition, we are still going to save much more money with freedining than with a room only.

 

[queenofthehive]

Eliza61- thank you for posting this!! I absolutely love the real life comparison. I do the same thing - as keeping a running total for each day. The dining plan would never work for us and I feel is just not a good value. Each family is different of course...

 

[figment41]

I was just wondering if you are going to add in the cancellation fees. Or are restaurants you are canceling at the last minute not adr.

I am not critisizing just trying to figure out how much all of this costs. We want to make the adr but afraid of the fees adding up especially if weather is bad.

 

[angierae]

To those who say they gained six pounds at Disney - I bet within a week you lost most of that. The high sodium from restaurant food probably had you retaining water.

 

[eliza61]

I was just wondering if you are going to add in the cancellation fees. Or are restaurants you are canceling at the last minute not adr.

I am not critisizing just trying to figure out how much all of this costs. We want to make the adr but afraid of the fees adding up especially if weather is bad.

Luckily we only got zapped once. Disney gave us a free pass on Sunday (I think it was sunday). that was the day Hurricane Erika was supposed to hit and we did get socked with a thunderstorm.

I will add in the one day cancellation fees though, excellent suggestion. thanks.

We're back home (booo) so I'll tally up. rough guess is I spent 350 bucks less.

 

[queenbetsey]

we are big fans of the qs plan. hubby likes that everthing is paid up front before we leave. there are a few table service places we would like to try so last trip we did chef mickeys for breakfast (had the dd,sil, and granddaughter with us) figure next time we will pick another table service to try unless we snag free dining planning that is. we like the qs plan and there is enough food, and you go where you want when you want.

 

[JimmyV]

Luckily we only got zapped once. Disney gave us a free pass on Sunday (I think it was sunday). that was the day Hurricane Erika was supposed to hit and we did get socked with a thunderstorm.

I will add in the one day cancellation fees though, excellent suggestion. thanks.

No need, really. The penalty was not a function of paying OOP. If you had been on the DP and made the same ADR, you would have incurred the same fee and would have had to add the fee on to your $180 per day. Since the penalty is a constant, you can leave it out.

 

[Stinky_Pete]

We are a family of 5 (2 adults, 2 Disney adults and 1 child). Free dining is a bargain for us. We are staying at CBR and I believe paying around $180/night. The ddp would cost around $260/night for our family to purchase the ddp, plus we love a nice sit down dinner every night and a CS everyday plus snacks plus mugs. It's a "bargain".

See, I don't think you're really doing an honest comparison when you are thinking about what the ddp would "cost" if you were to purchase it. What you really need to think about is "what would we really spend on food that the DDP covers?"

If you go to your sit down meal and order an appetizer, an entree, a cocktail or glass of wine...well the only thing the DDP would cover from that meal is your entree. But if you go to that same meal and order what's covered by the DDP, because you have the DDP, to me that's a false economy. You may not have ordered that dessert or non-alcoholic drink if you weren't on the DDP.

I'm not a dessert person myself. I just don't want something sweet right after a meal. I'd rather have a sweet snack mid afternoon or late at night. So the DDP isn't really something I would ever purchase.

However, for this next trip I am taking "free" dining. I'm staying solo at All Star Music and when I did the math I realized that the best room discount I could get might be $20/night. I know that I would spend more than $20/night on food that the DDP would cover even if I didn't have it. So I took "free dining" because it would save me money.

 

[disnut1149]

The dining plan is never "free" They are just including it when they charge you an inflated room price. It can still be a better deal than a room only discount if you are staying in a value resort room with 4 adults.

It is free. Our neighbors in the room next to us paid the same inflated rate that we did, 99.00 per night at All Star Sports, but we got the QS dining plan for free and they had to pay for their meals. They paid and we didn't have to, so it was free for us.

 

[Angie789]

The OP is not arguing that free dining is a bad deal - she is comparing their OOP costs with what the DDP would cost. These threads always baffle me - whenever anyone attempts to make these kinds of comparisons, people always get defensive and rush to say how free dining is a great deal for their family. That is very likely true. It also is totally irrelevant to the conversation - if you are PAYING for DDP, it is much, much harder to come out ahead.

 

[eliza61]

Just a few thoughts.

I didn't mean to infer that free dining is not a valuable option. The reason I never compare to free dining is that as a DVC member free dining is not a realistic option for me. why would I pay rack rates on lodging when I get them virtually no cost, I broke even on my investment a few years ago.

Nor do I say that the DDP is not valuable. this was strictly to maybe help folks who post whether or not they come out cheaper using the ddp or oop.

As many say, everyone MUST crunch the numbers themselves. This was solely to give some real time experiences of eating at the world. I do this almost every trip to then decide for the next trip which way to go.

Summary:

We were at the world for 9 nights 10 days. We ate table service restaurants for 7 nights, in the villa once and at the food court in the Soarin building once. We missed one ADR and cancelled another (BOG lunch)

Big River Grille
Via Naplio
Sci fi diner
Portabellas
Bahama Breeze (off site)
Tutto Italia
Paradiso 57
Steak, mashed potatoes and broccoli in the villa.

Breakfast:

Whew, we may have single handedly kept the Boardwalk Bakery afloat for the time we were there. 7 out of the 10 mornings we picked up pastries.

We also had two sit down breakfast's
Ihop
BOG

Snacks
Our main snack cost came in the guise of drinks. soda's and slurpee like drinks were the order of the day. we only had "dessert" twice. chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches once and dole whip floats.


Total spending on food: 1,440.57
DDP 1911.60 (1620 cost plus the 291 I would have paid in tips)


1) The weather was really weird this trip due to Hurricane Erika. While we did do a ts every day most of them were late lunches/early dinners. this was totally new for us.

2) We also got a 15% discount on many of the ts meals because of my dvc membership.

3) the big advantage for us using oop was not so much the savings but the fact that at every ts meal we ordered 2 appetizers. we could not have done that on the ddp. also the days where we ate in the room and the food court would have been two days wasted ts credits.

 

[OhMari]

What resorts did you stay at? We found outThe Boardwalk Bakery had the exact same food as The Beach Club Market place, but hey sold out of their bakery fast in the morning.


I know we saved on money not getting the Dini Plan, I was just shocked how expensive food really is at Disney. That is why I got it last February. I wanted it all paid, iI was a wreck thinking I had to use all my credits and eat dessert. It made me crazy and I over ate. Me and my dh both agreed, no more dining plan, we will make ADR's, but we will eat what we want, when we want. We are at a point in our lives where a quick service cheeseburger split between us is plenty for us vs both of us having a cheeseburger, dessert and a drink. That meal would of been a bottle of water and one cheeseburger.

 

[chris31997]

Thank you. Seeing the breakdown and knowing how we eat now.....I think going OOP would be the best for us. Although, having everything paid for up front was nice the one time we did it but the stress of using all the credits, hmmmm.

Each trip it is something you have to think about and decide for yourself.

Thanks again

 

[cjnix29]

Great live report, and thanks for taking the time to figure it all out! We don't do the dining plan because it doesn't make sense for our family. ds is 12, and I seriously can't justify spending adult dining plan rates for him when he doesn't eat that much food! And there are only three of us, and we normally stay at deluxe resorts. So room discount for us is almost always better. Generally, we don't eat the way you would need to on the plan. But that's US. For others, it may make sense. Definitely not a one size fits all kind of thing!! What I don't like about the dining plan is that I really think it has dumbed down the food, and raised the prices at restaurants to get people to buy it thinking it was a good value. It used to be a better plan with tips and appetizers included. I have taken the cost of the dining plan for us and put that on Disney gift cards, then we use that for all meals. I ALWAYS have hundreds left over, even after using it for souvenirs too! But people have to run the numbers for themselves.

Again, thanks for taking the time to do the comparisons!!!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I did this same experiment once and for our family we came out about $700 ahead by not doing the DDP. Add to that the fact that we were able to eat how we wanted and where we wanted without the DDP restrictions. We haven't done the DDP since.

My DH, however, always says during the trips that we should have the plan so we don't have to pay those large bills at the TS meals. I have to then remind him that it doesn't matter if we are paying as we eat because we are still coming out way ahead. It is a psychological thing for him to see that bill I guess. When we did the DDP he wasn't involved in trip planning so had no idea what we paid for our package.

 

[valerie160]

Thanks for doing this! So interesting to actually "see" the savings!
We just got back from DL where there is no Dining Plan and we spent a whole lot less OOP than I was expecting and had budgeted for. I think we just ate less than I thought we would (maybe it was the heat? maybe over snacking?). We ended up splitting meals about 85% of the time. Because I have 4 young ones, I noticed we spent a lot more money on snacks (churros, pretzels, popcorn) and sugary things like funnel cake, cotton candy, icecream and frozen drinks for them than I would have liked but we still came out under!

 

[Praying Colonel]

Thanks to OP for tracking this & reporting. I think it shows first-hand why DDP may not make financial sense for many.

The last time we did DDP was in 2013 for "free" dining. The time before that, 2009, again a "free" promotion. So we're not big DDP enthusiasts.

With that in mind, I read this article several months ago and thought it provided an answer for why many like DDP even if it's not a money-saver.

To Enjoy An Experience More, Pay In Advance

From the article:

To combat overspending, many personal finance experts recommend paying for stuff with cash. The consumption is more direct with cash; you feel it more. And it works, according to research from MIT. Researchers found that subjects were willing to spend twice as much on something when they paid with a credit card compared to paying with cash. Other researchers call it coupling: the degree to which paying is linked to consumption. Credit cards weaken coupling; cash tightens it.
But psychologist Hal E. Hershfield brings up an interesting point about this phenomenon. The flip side of coupling is that we’re also less likely to enjoy our purchase when we’re closely linked to it. It’s more painful. The awareness of dropping $150 cash for a hotel can take away from the fun of traveling, for example. So Hershfield offers a solution:
If you want to derive more enjoyment out of what you consume (think about going on vacation but being stressed about how much various things cost) then pay for the experience in advance. Doing so decouples the pain of paying from the consumption of the experience. Prelec and Loewenstein, in fact, mention a concept known as prospective accounting, in which consuming something that has already been paid for can be enjoyed as if it was free. This is akin to prepaying for a hotel room, and then having the pleasant feeling that the room was free upon receipt of the zero-balance bill.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

Much has to do with how you eat, of course. Most of my family is vegan, and the vegan options tend to be the cheapest items on the menu (even if they make us something special that's usually what they charge us). Plus while we can often eat the appetizers (salads, etc.), we can rarely eat the desserts (although we often get a bowl of fruit or sometimes some vegan ice cream) so that doesn't work out well for us either. It just works out better for us to pay OOP.

 

[eliza61]

Thanks to OP for tracking this & reporting. I think it shows first-hand why DDP may not make financial sense for many.

The last time we did DDP was in 2013 for "free" dining. The time before that, 2009, again a "free" promotion. So we're not big DDP enthusiasts.

With that in mind, I read this article several months ago and thought it provided an answer for why many like DDP even if it's not a money-saver.

To Enjoy An Experience More, Pay In Advance

From the article:

Oh I totally agree with this article. I think one advantage us "Dissers" have is that we are repeat customers. This article hits a point though, one of the reasons we first did the ddp was because we didn't have to think about "cost" when eating. for many first timers and visitors who only go sparingly the prices at disney can be an absolute shock. So if you and the kiddies all want chocolate chip cookies ice cream snacks and you've never been, forking over 25 bucks for a treat can break you out whereas if you have the credits, it softens the blow.

Interestingly enough though my experience the second time around on the DDP was the opposite. The second year we did it, my experience was lessened because I than became obsessed with "maximizing" the credits. I turned into a lunatic, once we had dinner reservations at CP and because it was hot and we hadn't taken a break everyone was really tired. We sat down and everyone got a salad. my youngest didn't even get food, he just hit the ice cream machine. I remember going ballistic because all I kept thinking was we wasted 4 TS credits.

I wonder if I would do the ddp I could get it free?

 

[Teresa Pitman]

I think that's what I like about cruising - everything included! Mid-morning snack? It's included. Mid-afternoon snack? It's included. Soft rinks by the pool? Included. Late-night snacks? Included. Along with your three meals a day at some pretty nice restaurants. (Yes, you can pay extra for some things, but you can have a great time without paying another penny if you want.)