Play, Stay and Dine VS Room only w/AP discount

[mmps108]

We're a family of 3 (me, DH and DD6). We're going in January 2019 (POP) and December 2019 (DVC parents points). We go a lot and the last 6 trips we have had the dining plan because I like having our vacation pre-paid). I also save each month to pay for these trips in cash/Target gift cards VS putting the vacation on credit.

For January, we have Pop w/ a room only discount booked. Prior to the ticket increase info and now the snack increases, I was planning to get 8 day PH tickets and upgrade them to AP once we arrived.
Now I'm wondering if a Play, Stay and Dine package would be better to lock in the Dining Plan and not have to worry about our food prices.

I've done the math and I think it does make sense but here is my question.
Since I save each month for our trips, and our final payment would be due right before Christmas, can I book a Play, Stay and Dine package with only 2 Day non-PH tickets to cut down on the final package payment cost? I know our AP will be a lot more money when we arrive, but I can keep saving the next month for that cost and we can upgrade when we get there. OR do we need to put the 8 PH tickets into the package from the beginning?

 

[mmps108]

I answered my own silly question after re-reading my post. We have to have at least as many ticket days as we want FP+ reservations for so we have to get 8 day PH with our package.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I'm a little confused. You can add a dining plan to your Pop, AP discounted room. I would just do the math and see which is most cost effective.

 

[unrequited23]

For our family of 4 (2 kids, 2 adults) we went with the room only discount, pay for meals OOP and bought tickets from undercover tourist. Using UT saved us $200 total for 7 day base tickets. I ran the numbers for the cost of the meals we would eat OOP vs the dining plan with 40% off (PSD discount) and there was a difference of $150 in favor of OOP. I originally thought hmm, maybe we should try it just to see, but then I remembered to check on the ticket price difference.