Poll: Do you use the DIning Plan when staying DVC?

[Tumnus]

People who whip out a spreadsheet always make me laugh—it’s such a waste of time and effort. Just ballpark it! If you’re forcing yourself to order the most expensive meal on the menu just to beat the system, then the dining plan isn’t for you. To each is own but I couldn't fathom eating a steak(not much of a seafood person) every meal, I would feel like John Candy in the great outdoors after eater the old 96er.

For me, it is and always be just a convenience to prepay your meals, that's it.

As an actuary, this is offensive! Don't you dare question my spreadsheets!

 

[thanxfornoticin]

We've never gotten close to finding financial sense for doing the DDP for us on a DVC stay.

 

[Add-On-Itis]

I distinctly remember the look of relief on our server’s faces whenever we tell them that we are not on the dining plan….

Why is that the case?

 

[kilik64]

A friend was recently telling me that DVC can no longer use a Disney GC to purchase the dining plan.

That is not accurate. You can't use a Disney GC to pay on the website, but if you call MS to add it, you can use a GC to pay.

 

[Brian Noble]

I have never, not once, spent as much just ordering what I wanted as the equivalent dining plan would have cost. And this goes back to the very earliest days of the plan. Usually, that's becuase I have the "wrong number" of sit-down meals, and almost never average exactly one or two per day.

But, even then, we don't order the way the plan wants me to order. For example, sometimes one of us isn't that hungry, and wants to make a meal out of a salad and an app. Or I want an entree (or a restaurant) that is a bad value on the Plan. Or we want apps but not dessert. Or we want dessert, but later. Or, or, or...

Could I make the plan work for me? Yes, if I ordered with that as a goal. But then I'm ordering to make the plan price out, and not ordering what I actually want to eat.

 

[Tumnus]

We typically do a sit down every day. Kids eat free with the sit down, plus snack credits for pretzels and coffee, the math works. Plus I get bonus drinks I don't normally get. However, once kids eat free is gone, no way I do it again.

 

[Mr_Woodchuck]

Could I make the plan work for me? Yes, if I ordered with that as a goal. But then I'm ordering to make the plan price out, and not ordering what I actually want to eat.

having the plan stresses me out because I want to maximize the value. So I do the same thing, eat and drink things I don't really want.

 

[Pens Fan]

It definitely isn't worth it for us (all adults). We eat at lounges as much if not more than we do table service restaurants. And the value at a lounge is terrible as they take a table service credit. And when we do eat at a table service place we usually have left overs we bring back to the room for another day so there's another credit we wouldn't need. I've also never cared for the make up of a TS meal. We rarely get dessert but almost always get appetizers (sometime we only get appetizers). We also never do character meals and only occasionally eat at the super expensive places. The math just doesn't work for us.

 

[TheThousandthSoul]

In general I don't... but this time yes we'll use the Dining Plan as Kids Eat Free.
We'll use it to do more Character meals than what we would usually do...

 

[juliebee]

For those trying to do everything as "prepaid", my recommendation is to purchase a Disney gift card (at a discount like using the Target Red Card) and just use that for the meals. Unless you are getting Free Dining, the gift card method is much cheaper and more flexible.

 

[jparilla]

We will be trying it for the first time this summer. 2 adults and 2 (free) kids. We will also have my in-laws with us that won't have the plan. I just made our dining reservations the other days. Its a 4 night trip with 2 park days and 1 resort day.

The setup will be Steakhouse 71 arrival night. Park day. Then for our resort day we will do Whispering Canyon breakfast and 1900 Park Fare dinner. Another park day. And finally we will hit up Topolinos breakfast on our check out day.

We can share the quick service credits at the parks with my in-laws, and give them 2 of the mugs, too. And they'll just order as normal at the table service. I think we'll come out ahead considering we typically do this same setup as far as the sit down restaurants are concerned (though, not typically that many character/buffet spots).

 

[ryant55]

We have done the dining plan the last two trips and plan on continuing to do so. 2 adults plus a 6 year old and a 1 year old. The kids love the character meals so we always do chef mickeys , topolinos and 1900 park fare. Plus mix in other character meals depending on park visits, resort days and how long the stay is. We like to indulge in adult beverage with meal and we save our snacks for Epcot day which we usually schedule for our last day. My wife is the meal planner and it seems she pretty good at it bc kids are fed and entertained plus I don’t get Hangry . Everything is planned out well in advance and reservations are made on the app. I think the dining plan is worth it for us bc the character meals are a minimum of $50 and go as high as $70. Add in the adult beverage of $15, quick service , snack and a mug. Added bonus kids are free for our thanksgiving trip this year.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Why is that the case?

You would have to ask them.

 

[J-Dog]

Did it once for 2 adults and 2 kids. Never again.

2 issues:

1) You can make the DDP work-out cost-wise, but it requires the afore-mentioned spreatsheets and calculus-level calculations and a strict schedule, otherwise you're losing money. That doens't necessarily mean that it's not worth it, as the convenience of pre-paying for food is important to some people (i.e. us)....however...

2) Because we mostly used it for convenience and not for financially-sound/strict scheduling reasons, we ended-up using all our TS credits early and were left with a few extra snack credits and a bunch of extra QS credits at the end of our vacation that ended-up being worthless.

Maybe there is some kind of happy medium between being strict and being willy-nilly that makes sense, but we couldn't find it, and I personally don't think it's worth taking the risk of trying again.

 

[PoppyJ]

having the plan stresses me out because I want to maximize the value. So I do the same thing, eat and drink things I don't really want.

I agree, I would be too stressed keeping track and trying to get the most out of the plan. I'm happy using our DVC discount when we can and discounted gift cards.

 

[Road_Dog]

We did DDP with a recent DVC Poly stay. 2 adults, 2 kids, but it was a 4 year old and a 2 year old.

The 4 year old barely eats as-is, so I justified it as just getting the dining plan for my wife and I, and feeling good about not having to waste money on meals for kids (that they wouldn't eat/finish). If I had to pay for the 4 year old everytime, I'd be so annoyed. In fact, we used all out table-service credits and still did a sit-down at Akershus on our last day and I paid cash for that. Decent breakfast but damn that bill hit hard for essentially food only my wife and I ate and my kids picked at here and there, even with 10% off.

We had done DDP before and left a lot of stuff unused, so we were motivated to use them all. We were amatuers last time and didn't realize you could use snack credits in the parks, lol. So this time around, we really pushed the snack credits, and used a lot of them on drinks like cold brew, which helped burn through them.

 

[Simba's Mom]

We're definitely not DDP people for 3 reasons-first, we like the flexibility to order whatever we want, that is maybe I feel like an appetizer and a dessert at TS and the DDP is just too restrictive.
Second,DH and I both lost 30 lbs recently via very hard work, and I don't want to gain it back. DDP seems to emphasize eating a lot, including buffets, and it just scares me.
Third, DH and I don't drink, and the DDP doesn't seem financially worthwhile for non-drinkers.

 

[Brian Noble]

I think there are two cases for the DDP vs. either gift cards or pay-as-you go:

1: You have one (or more) Disney Children, and plan several character meals.
2: You can't bring yourself to pay menu prices.

 

[Chuck S]

I think there are two cases for the DDP vs. either gift cards or pay-as-you go:

1: You have one (or more) Disney Children, and plan several character meals.
2: You can't bring yourself to pay menu prices.

I think your second point is odd, as for me, paying "menu prices" for what I want to eat (and I normally do a table service daily) is still cheaper than the DDP. The DDP would work if I always ordered the most expensive item and ordered an adult beverage with every meal, but I don't. For instance, at Brown Derby, I generally order the Cobb Salad, dessert if one catches my eye, and a Hollywood Lights adult beverage, but that would be wasting two DDP credits for that meal. It doesn't add up. Plus there are times I want an appetizer and no dessert, and I often just drink water, so even one credit meals just don't add up. And Menu Prices, with DVC or AP discounts, really make the DDP not worth it for me.

But with Children, yes, I can see it being worth it under the kids eat free promotion.

Or if the convenience of pre-paid/All-inclusive is important to someone.

 

[Brian Noble]

What I mean is this: I want the steak. But I can't bring myself to pay $X for the steak. So I order the chicken instead, even though I don't want the chicken.

Everyone does this once in a while, but if it happens a lot, the DDP is permission to ignore the prices. You still might end up paying more, but you don't have crippling price anxiety at every meal.