Planning Ahead: Dining Plan, y/n?

[Smits]

I've been fiddling with trip pricing all day on the WDW site and I'm really torn about the dining plan. :/ I'm hoping that free dining will be available when we go next year, but until dates are released for that time frame, I won't know for sure.

Thing is... Is it worth it? Big fabulous breakfasts probably won't happen every morning and my sister and I are both notorious for forgetting about lunch. If I pay for a meal plan and we don't use it, I'll be quite fretted about it, honestly.

Bear with me, I'm a first-timer on this stuff. I can plan for conventions, but this is a whole different animal!

 

[candielips]

You will get a lot of varied responses.
I have always done the ddp, 4x free and paid for it twice. But now that the cost is so high it doesn't make sense for our family anymore.
We purchased it for 5 days last January and we ended up spending more on the ddp than it would have cost us to pay oop.
Go to allears.net and check out the menus and the pricing. One thing to compare as well is how often would you get things like dessert? Maybe you prefer appetizers, which the ddp does not include.

 

[figment_jii]

As the PP said, there is really no "yes" or "no" answer to the question because it really depends on the family and their eating style/preferences? Some questions to ask yourself:

1. Do you plan to eat at least one sit down meal per day?
2. Do you plan to eat at Signature (2 credit) venues?
3. Do you always order dessert with any sit down meal?
4. Which meal do you tend to eat as a sit down meal (e.g., dinner)?
5. Do you like to do buffets/fixed price meals?

In general, to get the "most" out of the DDP, you need to eat at least one sit down meal per day (ideally dinner or a character buffet) and you must order the more expensive items on the menu.

For some folks the DDP works out great (both financially and just in terms of not worry about the price of entrees) and for others it does not. So it really depends your family.

 

[hokie98]

We bought the plan for a trip in early 2009. I think we even pd 2008 prices for it from 1/1-1/5/09. They advertised you could save 40% at the time and I felt we really did save that much. We are going for our 2nd trip in 5 weeks. In my opinion, if you want to hit alot of character meals and/or just want to prepay for you meals and not worry about it, then do it. That being said we have free dining next month. If it wasn't free, I don't think I would have bought it. I have noticed quite a few TS restaurants won't be participating in 2013. Also, from reading the reviews, if you're a "foodie", the very best restaurants on property are not on the DP (Shula's, bluezoo, etc.). Just my 2 cents! Good luck.

 

[JavaQueen8]

We did DDP in June and thought it was worth it, but we did a lot of sit down dinners and lots of lunches. If you forget about lunch a lot, I would forgo and save your money.

 

[Jacket]

In my humble opinion it's almost definitely not worth it unless you already planned to eat exactly as the dining plan prescribes (one counter service meal and one table service meal per day, one entree and one dessert at the table service meal for each person) and even then you have to pick the most expensive items on the menu to justify it.

I almost always find that I would spend less out of pocket.

Free dining, however, is often worth it, but even then be sure to compare the savings on dining with the extra expense of having to pay rack rate for your room. Since I stay at values it is usually worth it for me.

 

[lovemy3girls]

We do the dining plan when free dining is offered. Otherwise paying OOP is better for us. I would look at the menus and decide if it's worth it for your family. It IS nice to hand your server your card and not have to pay a penny (well, just the tip)

 

[canopynut66]

we like the FD as it is always more thatn we would get on any discounts and if we stay at say a value and they offer just the QS then we upgrade. but is almost the same to stay at a moderate and jsut get the MYWD (FD) as to up grade we just happen to like POP

 

[ReluctantDisaholic]

For us it's worth it - we figured out the cost of what we ate vs. the cost of the plan, and we come out ahead on the plan. We did the same thing planning for our next trip - and again our meals will be more than the cost of the plan.

 

[Smits]

Thanks everyone for the input! Sorry I've been away. Real life plus planning for events, plus work.

I discussed this with my sister and we're thinking of going non-dining plan on this first trip. We just don't eat enough big sit-down meals to justify it. We may split a few meals since portions are so darned HUGE. Oh Backlot Express, your turkey panini is scrumptious overkill. So much food. YUM.

We still need to comb through the menus and get familiar with restaurants and their locations in and around the parks. Get some kind of game plan going.

It's about a year off, but I'm going crazy like it's tomorrow.

 

[lovin'fl]

No DP...it's not a good deal at all. We pay out of pocket and have the TIW card. We loved the DP when it was $37 pp and included apps and tips...now at $54(or whatever it is) and you still have to pay tips...it is just ridiculous.

 

[topmonkeygirl]

For DH and I it's worth it. We love breakfast so every morning it's a sit down breakfast for us. I've got 3 lunches that are sit down, 5 signature meals, 1 dinner show, and 2 room service meals. I figured out what it would cost OOP, OOP with TIW card, and w/ DDP. We end up saving about $400 on the dinning plan, and I think it was about $300 with the TIW card. It just depends on how much and where you eat.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

We felt like we made a big mistake not taking the DDP last year on our first trip when we got our food bill at the end of the week. We like to sit down at least once per day, because there is only so much "fast food" we can do. Plus, we have young kids so we do a lot of character meals. When we got home last year, we figured that we would have saved close to $200 if we would have had the DDP. But like the others said...it all depends on how you eat. It absolutely can be worth it depending on what dining choices you're going to make.

 

[TDC Nala]

I have noticed quite a few TS restaurants won't be participating in 2013.

That list is not complete. It will not contain the third party restaurants (those not operated by Disney) until they renew their contracts. That will probably happen in December. It does not mean the restaurants won't be participating in 2013.

If you are going to eat a table service meal every day of your trip, AND your party likes to each order their own dessert and prefers the most expensive entrees OR you choose a lot of character meals/family style places, the regular dining plan may save you a bit of money. Otherwise, you would need to look really closely at where you plan to eat and what you plan to order.

 

[rznhal]

this is our first non-DDP trip! Just can't justify the cost! Especially since we often split meals and our DD eats pretty much nothing. I'm very anxious to see how it goes. We were always huge DDP people, but when I started looking at the price for what we ate/wasted.....felt like it warrants a trip without to see if we can do without it!

If it's free, go for it (even though it's not really free bc you have to pay full price for your room and tickets.....?!?!)

Happy planning!

 

[tony67]

As others have said there is no answer - it depends on you and your family - review the menus and do the math

Personally I feel at this point unless you really work at it Disney has priced it so it is basically break even.

So you have to have dessert with every meal - if I was paying out of pocket I would skip a many of them – especially with the CS

I use the refillable mug to get filtered water since I don’t drink soda – so that is a waste for me.

You want to use the snacks on only the most expensive snacks and pay OOP for the less expensive - but be careful - you don't want to end up with unused snacks

You have to get a soft drink with every meal - for the TS meal I usually have alcohol - so the soft drink is not always something I will order and I never drink soda.

Avoid using the credits at most breakfasts as you "loose" the dessert and breakfast tends to be inexpensive other than the character meals.

Don't eat at the lower priced TS locations - for example GF cafe - the GF burger is only like $20

Always order the most expensive dessert, drink and meal - not the one you actually want.

Try to eat at a couple for the more expensive CS locations - like Wolfgang Puck express

Don't eat at the 2 TS signature dining locations – they tend to not be as good a “deal” since you use 2 credits you “loose” a drink and a dessert

Don't forget you also save the tax as that is part of the DDP

So you see – if you are trying to come out ahead on the DDP you can – but it may take a bit of effort - I don’t think it is worth it

Still – I do get the DDP every time I go – I just don’t stress about coming out ahead anymore
The only reason I buy the DDP is convenience - everything is paid for and I don’t have to think about it and I since it is in the package I can put it on my chase card and not pay for it for six months.

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

It is definitely a personal question but for us the DDP was not worth it especially that our kids are older now. We are a family of 6 and the dining plan would cost us about $330 plus tip a day. Our last three trips we didn't have the DDP and most days we saved about $50 a day.

I will give you one tip. If there was a TS restaurant that we wanted to try - we would do a late lunch. This could save anywhere from $10-$20 a person. Then have a snack or CS later that night. It worked great when we went in the summer - it was so hot during the day and then we would have an air conditioned restaurant to cool off in.

Enjoy!

 

[lovin'fl]

That list is not complete. It will not contain the third party restaurants (those not operated by Disney) until they renew their contracts. That will probably happen in December. It does not mean the restaurants won't be participating in 2013.

If you are going to eat a table service meal every day of your trip, AND your party likes to each order their own dessert and prefers the most expensive entrees OR you choose a lot of character meals/family style places, the regular dining plan may save you a bit of money. Otherwise, you would need to look really closely at where you plan to eat and what you plan to order.

Yup, so true..
...and if you have kids under 10, it may be good to get DP. Once our 3 kids aged out...that brought up the DP cost way up (5 adults on DP is crazy expensive).

 

[lovin'fl]

It is definitely a personal question but for us the DDP was not worth it especially that our kids are older now. We are a family of 6 and the dining plan would cost us about $330 plus tip a day. Our last three trips we didn't have the DDP and most days we saved about $50 a day.

I will give you one tip. If there was a TS restaurant that we wanted to try - we would do a late lunch. This could save anywhere from $10-$20 a person. Then have a snack or CS later that night. It worked great when we went in the summer - it was so hot during the day and then we would have an air conditioned restaurant to cool off in.

Enjoy!

Great tip. This is what I like to do too, but DH prefers to do TS dinners especially if we go to WDW when the parks close earlier (like our upcoming Jan trip...DH wants to do 8:30 dinners when we are done with the parks for the day).

 

[cajunprincess]

I've been fiddling with trip pricing all day on the WDW site and I'm really torn about the dining plan. :/ I'm hoping that free dining will be available when we go next year, but until dates are released for that time frame, I won't know for sure.

Thing is... Is it worth it? Big fabulous breakfasts probably won't happen every morning and my sister and I are both notorious for forgetting about lunch. If I pay for a meal plan and we don't use it, I'll be quite fretted about it, honestly.

Bear with me, I'm a first-timer on this stuff. I can plan for conventions, but this is a whole different animal!

Warning, I'm a little OCD when it comes to crunching numbers... explains why I'm an accountant.

With the dining plan, you get a CS, a TS, and a snack every day. What I have done this year since the price of the DDP has gone up is take Disney's menu prices for restaurants we want to go to and choose things I know my DH and I are *likely* to get if we go to this TS. I've even gone as far as to estimate CS prices and snack prices for the day...

Anyways, for my and my family, I've determined I'm not saving money with the DP, and I'm not really losing money either. So then it boils down to whether I want to just go for convenience of paying for it ahead of time... Or if I'd rather not feel like I have to get dessert at every restaurant or order a less expensive item.

However, if you are not concerned with having a sit down meal every day, then the DDP probably isn't a good value for you. If you do want to have a TS meal every day, you will need to make reservations ahead of time to make sure you can get into the restaurant the day you go.