Please HELP! Dining plan????

[DisneyMom2Boyz]

Hi guys, can really use your thoughts on dining plan vs oop. We've been to Disney the past few years and always did the dining plan. We're planning another visit for May 2013 and my oldest son is considered an adult and eats hardly anything and very small quanity. Do I do the plan or pay oop? We'll do a few buffets but, he'll choose a kids meal choice most of the time (not at the buffets). And I know the qs adult meals for him and us are wasted with desserts not needed and not the best choices. Also our last trip we had aloft of extra snacks to use. Any suggestions? Do you think out oop would be too much more money or we can do about the same if not save a little money? Thanks!

 

[Cafeen]

The plans work best when you dine within the pre-defined structure. Since you're not particularly interested in the desserts (at least, the CS ones), and your son isn't likely to use up his adult entitlements, and you're likely going to walk away with unspent (or hastily spent) snack credits, it's probably not going to be the best value for your group.

I'd still say do the math on what you think you all might order and compare it to the cost of the plan vs what you'd order if you were paying OOP, but I don't see you saving all that much (if any) at a quick glance.

 

[DisneyMom2Boyz]

The thing is my husband and I can use and make out well on the plan but, my son no. But with being charged adult buffet prices would it make more sense do to the plan?

 

[sharonabe]

The thing is my husband and I can use and make out well on the plan but, my son no. But with being charged adult buffet prices would it make more sense do to the plan?

That would still depend on how many buffets and which meal they are. Breakfast buffets are all around $25, and even dinner buffets are approx $30-35. You'll be paying $51.50 per night for DS.

PP has the right idea, but I'll give it a different twist. Take that $150 per night for all three of you and see what you can get for that amount of money and average it over your stay. If DS orders kids' meals, you'll probably come out ahead over the course of your stay even with adult buffet prices. You may even find you can get some extras like apps at a la carte places if you pay OOP.

 

[greeneggs1082]

We're planning on getting the DxDP for our upcoming trip (would be NICE if Disney would release the next round of AP discounts...), only because we want to make this a "food" trip instead of a park trip (we have AP's and live in Orlando, so can go to the parks and ride/see things pretty much any time). But, I wanted to make sure that it was still "worth it" (ie possibly save some money), so I picked the places we want to eat at, went to allears and looked at the menus and picked the most expensive thing that everyone in my group would possibly eat (and most of the time it was the steak, which is usually what we all pick, lol) and added up what it would cost (including all applicable items like appetizer, drink, and dessert). When I got through with that, it appears as the the DxDP will actually save us a few hundred dollars (not including the snacks, so it is actually more than that). But, if it appeared that we would be spending a few hundred extra to get the DxDP, we would just pay OOP.
And in my long-winded-ness, what I'm saying is, if you have the time, go look at the menus and price out your meals of what you would actually get (if you don't want desserts, don't include them....we pretty much always WANT dessert, but don't get it because of price) and see which would be cheaper. If you want dining to be "pre-paid", you could always put the money on Disney GC's and use those to pay for meals (right? You can use a GC for food?).

 

[havoc315]

The thing is my husband and I can use and make out well on the plan but, my son no. But with being charged adult buffet prices would it make more sense do to the plan?

Now with the 2013 pricing, it's very hard for adults to make out well on the plan. You would need to order steak OR do a character buffet for dinner, every night. To make out well.

You may want to look at breakfast or lunch buffets, if the goal is character meetings. They are cheaper than using a dining plan.

If you plan on doing LOTS of character buffets dinners.. almost every night.... then the plan could still make sense for you.