OOP vs. DDP with food allergies

[disney fan4]

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post but I figured you guys would know more about the extra expense of allergy free food at Disney.
We have been to Disney once and had the DDP then. We are hoping to go back but this trip will be on a tighter budget. I have compared menu prices to the DDP but have no clue how much extra we would be spending on allergy free chicken tenders, GF buns etc. for my son(9) and I. And is there an upcharge for GF cookies, enjoy life chocolate bars, dairy free ice cream? Have you ever compared prices? I just assumed with two in our family with food allergies the DDP was cheaper but thought I would check to see what everyone thought?

 

[clanmcculloch]

Allergy friendly chicken tenders and pizzas and other fully premade frozen meals will cost on average $2 more per meal than for their regular counterparts. To get a burger or hot dog on an allergy friendly bun is the same price as their regular counterparts. Dairy free ice cream I believe is the same price as the regular but it only seems to come in one size. The packaged allergy cookies are generally much smaller than their regular counterparts but don't seem to be more expensive or at least the prices I pay seem to be what I would expect of a packaged food in a theme park so I never really thought about it.

Using the dining plan you don't pay any extra for the allergy safe products that would normally be more expensive.

One thing I don't like about the dining plan with allergies is that the allergy desserts get boring since most places have the same thing but with the dining plan you can't just choose to wait until you leave the location you're at and choose something different from elsewhere unless you want to give up the dessert option that you've already paid for via the plan and then use a snack credit elsewhere. Paying OOP gives that flexibility.

We used to always using dining plans and with our allergies it gave me peace of mind knowing that it didn't matter how our customized meals were rang into the computer and I didn't have to worry about any kinds of up charges for allergy food. We now only use dining plans if we're taking advantage of free dining because for a family that's all Disney Adults it's really hard to break even using dining plans unless you're always ordering the most expensive items on menus and always ordering desserts, which we're not wanting to do. We hardly ever pay upcharges and we definitely don't skimp. A family with 2 kids under 10 though can do very well financially using the dining plan since the kids plans are so cheap. This has nothing to do with allergies though. I no longer think that allergies are much of a deciding factor in whether it's financially worthwhile or not. If you're planning several fixed price meals with kids the ages I'm seeing in your signature then you can do really well financially with the dining plans.

 

[mistysue]

Clan says a lot of smart things. That summed up what people said when I asked not too long ago.

I want to agree with that assessment of the costs too- DDP just pays off more with kids and especially if you do fixed cost meals. We are big buffet people- to the point where we've saved money on deluxe dining eating all 1 credit meals, and that was when we only had to pay for one of the kids.

 

[disney fan4]

Thanks so much. This is exactly the kind of input I was looking for. What you both said definitely makes sense. I like having meals already paid for just so I feel free to order anything I want, cheap or expensive. Glad to see at least for one more trip, while DS is still on the kids DDP, it's a good deal for us.