Please enlighten me on the if the current Dining Plan is worth it...

[aladams2]

What I do like about the CS desserts are that they are pre-packaged. We hardly ever ate our dessert right after our meal. We put it in our bag and saved it for a little later while standing in line or waiting for the parade. Then we would pull out the desserts and decide which one we wanted. No extra money out of our pocket and we had a great snack. For us this year we are going with the CS plan and paying OOP for our TS so we can share meals. Plus, we are staying at CSR and want to have breakfast buffet at Pepper Market each AM before heading to the park. So, I'm thinking it'll pay off at $15 a head there.

 

[dawgs1984]

New member here and am glad I found this thread. I will be heading down to DW in May and was offered a rate for my trip with the DP. Reading this thread it seems that it may not be worth it, but maybe someone can answer a few questions I have.

1. Are there any restrictions about what you can order off the menu? Can I get the most expensive thing at every stop?

2. I only have 3 people who will be on the plan but 1 of them is a 4 year old. he is not a big eater, but I was more interested in the DP to take advantage of the character dining options. With the price per person ranging from $36-60 a person for the character dinings, would it not be worth it?

I have gone through every menu for the places we are going to eat and if I break down every day with what I would spend it would be $100+. Thanks for anyone who can give me any info to help me make this decision.

 

[merbobear]

But the OP is NOT getting it free; they said they are paying for it.

OP, the best way to see if it is really a deal for you is to go online (here or allearsnet) and check the menus and prices for where you want to eat. It will take a little time, but at least you'll know if you can break even or save some money.

One PP said they liked using it for buffet breakfast and a QS dinner. With the price increase, you will have a hard time saving any money with that combo. Your TS needs to be $30-35 and your QS $15 to see a savings.

The other question to answer is does EVERYONE want their own dessert and soda at EVERY meal? That's where most of the savings comes in.

I did this a few weeks ago, and I was pleased with the result - our family of 3 (2 adults and 1 child age 4) will be saving over $200 on our 8 night stay w/ the DDP. In fact, it's up around $250 in savings! The savings will definitely be less for all adults, as the child cost saved us the most, and I noticed that you save more on buffets (typically) than other TS meals.

I didn't base our ADR's on what would save us the most, it just happened to happily work out that way!

 

[luvthemouse71]

Here is a nice tip. If people like the prepaid aspect of the dining plan,.they can just buy disney gift cards and use them when they buy food at the parks.

This is what I did last year and will do again this year.

I had initially had the QS plan but called to drop it today.My sister and I split meals frequently so I think no dining plan works well for us. I would use it if I could get it free, but am unlikely to pay for it ever again.

 

[StuckInKS]

As I posted here, the dining plans are still a good deal for our family, but some families may lose money with them. With 2 kids that are Disney Adults, it may not be worth it for you.

 

[keith-atl]

Ugh! I got just the $51.54 pricing for us (all 3 kids are now adults) and it will be a small fortune for the dining plan. We have always done the dining plan but now that all the kids are adults and assuming tip and appetizer have NOT been added, what is everyone doing? Still going for it? Thanks!

Yeah and appetizer and tips were taken away so its no longer included. It's a small fortune to feed a family at Disney these days.

On a side note you would think they could give you the option if to either have an appetizer or a desert. I mean seriously how many people really eat desert after a meal regularly?

 

[TACK]

Since the price increase, I cannot justify to myself the extra amount it costs for the TS Dining plan. If I get free dining, then I just make the reservations to the restaurants that we love to visit and pay out of pocket. With my annual pass, I divide the meal plans with no meal plan days, QS days and TS days. I have kept most of my reservations from the previous years just to compare year over year costs. It helps with my decision. It's too bad that it is getting to the point that there are no real savings.

 

[RI Disney Fan]

After using the dining plan for the last few years, i'm opting to go out of pocket this trip. The reason, it all comes down to the numbers.

Calculating out eating at 1 CS (food + drink) and 1 TS (most expensive food and most expensive desert) at our ADR's for 6 days with two adults i would pay the below amount. I also included one $4 snack per person per day as well as the resort mugs. The only thing missing from the DDP would be the lunch dessert which we never eat anyhow. I also included tips for both and tax for the out of pocket expenses. Please keep in mind that I included the cost of the TIW card which I will be buying

$734 out of pocket versus $711 DDP.

That means if I don't eat the most expensive snack and TS meals everyday I am losing money, hence why I dumped the DDP. If anyone wants to see all the numbers, i'd be glad to show how I got them.

 

[SmallWorld71]

New member here and am glad I found this thread. I will be heading down to DW in May and was offered a rate for my trip with the DP. Reading this thread it seems that it may not be worth it, but maybe someone can answer a few questions I have.

1. Are there any restrictions about what you can order off the menu? Can I get the most expensive thing at every stop?

2. I only have 3 people who will be on the plan but 1 of them is a 4 year old. he is not a big eater, but I was more interested in the DP to take advantage of the character dining options. With the price per person ranging from $36-60 a person for the character dinings, would it not be worth it?

I have gone through every menu for the places we are going to eat and if I break down every day with what I would spend it would be $100+. Thanks for anyone who can give me any info to help me make this decision.

In answer to #1, you can generally order what you want, but remember you will be tipping on your total cost. So, the more expensive the entree, the bigger the tip. Just something to keep in mind when budgeting. There may be a few exceptions to ordering, so hopefully someone else will chime in.

#2 Unlike the adult plan, which I think is overpriced, the kids plan is still a major bargain if you plan on doing character meals.

 

[SmallWorld71]

I know the OP got an answer, but just chiming in to see if anyone else has any opinions as we are looking at the same dilemma. I had really hoped for free dining, but alas we can only travel up to the day free dining starts and not after. Free dining is such a great deal for my family - far better than a room discount.

We are now 4 "adults" and only 1 child, so it is pretty pricey. And, while the DDP could save us $ if we were to eat that way, without it, we will probably eat differently. We will likely do a table service many days for lunch or dinner. But, since we would be driving down, we could easily pack breakfasts and snacks and even have the occasional lunch/ dinner meal in the room or offsite. I'm thinking about just booking TS for our family must-do's (Crystal Palace, Biergarten and 'Ohana) and then playing it by ear for the rest of the meals. The freedom sounds kind of nice! And, I love the idea of paying for it ahead of time by getting the gift cards.

 

[tina.tina]

I've calculated my costs for the DDP every which way I can.

I would definitely upgrade to the regular plan if I got the quick service for free. If I pay OOP for 2 TS meals, I've paid the difference in cost for the regular dining plan & I get even more TS which I prefer.

We didn't have any snacks or meals left over when we got the regular dining plan because I had everything budgeted/planned out. One issue I had was that we would have been happy with snacks rather than large meals (in the middle of the day but I didn't want to "waste" our CS credits on $5 Mickey waffle breakfast meals.

I've added everything up and compared and I can save money by not using the dining plan. I probably won't get it on our next trip.