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

[Chuck S]

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.

That kind of makes sense, but I see that Olivia's has Prime Rib on the menu, again, so I'll get that even at the price. If it is something that really sounds good to me, I order it, and it still winds up less than the DDP. For my upcoming trip in June, I made my dining reservations, then went through the menus and picked what I would probably want to eat, and rounded up to include the tip, and it still came out cheaper than the DDP.

 

[Brian Noble]

Sure---and I think most people are like that. I'm talking about the hypothetical person who Just Can't Pay That Much. There might not be that many of those folks, but if someone reading this realizes I am describing them, then the DDP might useful. Useful is not the same as a good deal.

 

[Mle8308]

It's waayyy too much food for me. I've done boht plans a few times and won't again. With the TS DDP, it felt like we were always chasing reservations, having to leave a park when we were having a great tme to make a dining reservation. Or not do a certain attraction because it was time for a reservation. QS wasn't as bad, but we didn't want to eat QS all the time, so we ended up spending more money for TS. And I'm not a big drinker, most of the time I prefer a diet coke. I did like when they did the dining card right after the pandemic, we got a $1500 dining card and could use it anywhere for food, including Gideon's, the food carts in the parks, and many of the bakeries. You could order whatever you wanted, no limit - food or alcohol, and it could be used to pay the tip, too. We ate very well and on our last day, ended up paying for cookies for a bunch of kids at Roaring Forks to use up the credit (with the parent's permission). We brought home snacks, too!

 

[BuffaloJim]

I will occasionally use the DDP, especially now that not only are all my kids Disney adults, they’re actually adults over the age of 21 and they all drink. For instance, last year we did 6 nights with a split stay. First 3 were at BCV and then 3 more at VGF. We added the DDP for all 6 of us to the VGF portion. We then did…

3 character meals as my wife loves them. All included relatively expensive cocktails.

3 quick service meals, at least some of them that included beer or wine. The nice thing about this was that we could also get soft drinks from the hotel QS and save the alcohol for the evening.

Plus we had the drink cups and the multiple snack credits.

All in all, it definitely saved some money, plus everything was paid for before we vacationed. Of course, if we hadn’t gotten the DDP, we would not have done 3 character meals, nor would we have gotten expensive cocktail drinks (maybe we would have since dad was paying).

 

[jparilla]

Sure---and I think most people are like that. I'm talking about the hypothetical person who Just Can't Pay That Much. There might not be that many of those folks, but if someone reading this realizes I am describing them, then the DDP might useful. Useful is not the same as a good deal.

It reminds me of when my dad would take us out to dinner and let us know we could order what we wanted. It lifts that price anxiety, whether you are the one paying or not.

 

[PolyRob]

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.

Ahh maybe she said online and I misunderstood? Something changed with DGCs.

I still don't think I could get the DDP math to work for me personally though.

 

[PolyRob]

You would have to ask them.

Not a server, but I imagine a large number of guests don't tip on the value of what they ordered since it's "prepaid."

 

[PolyRob]

Also substitutions... Disney has seemed to crack down on a lot of them, but that doesn't mean guests won't still ask.

 

[Steelers0854]

Like others have said, our main issue is that it’s just too much food for us. Plus I like to have more flexibility in choosing where we eat and not have to worry about oh the next meal needs to be a QS because we have 2 credits there. I would take it if it were free (oh those were the days), but I wouldn’t pay for it.

 

[Girlstar30]

I have never done Disney Dining Plan as it makes zero sense for us. With the lack of flexibility, I would at least expect to save some $$$.

We do like character meals, but we generally do not like Disney QS food at all. I think charging two dining credits for one restaurant is ridiculous.

I also dont drink alcohol or even soda and I prefer water (I know so boring lol) I can only drink so much lemonade with the refillable mug

Most of the restaurants we like would require 2 meal credits so I feel we would run out of this fast and spend way more $.

We also dont do a bunch of snacking, certainly not every day. If anything its the occasional popcorn.

Bottom line, I just dont want to force myself to eat places I dont want to and eat more food than I want to. I dont see the appeal unless you have kids for the kids eat free plan. I am with @juliebee to just load up on gcs and put that aside as dining money and forget about it. I would like to load up and pay as much as a dining plan and compare my spending that would be a fun little challenge

 

[Skywalker3]

We sure used to get the dining plan when the kids were kids, 9 and under, but not at all since then. Also, we plan trips around Epcot Festivals, and much of our food comes from festival booths. Maybe if we did a split stay, just a couple of nights, we might consider, but we just dont' eat like that any more on Disney trips.

 

[Genie+]

That kind of makes sense, but I see that Olivia's has Prime Rib on the menu, again, so I'll get that even at the price. If it is something that really sounds good to me, I order it, and it still winds up less than the DDP. For my upcoming trip in June, I made my dining reservations, then went through the menus and picked what I would probably want to eat, and rounded up to include the tip, and it still came out cheaper than the DDP.

Yeah it really depends on what places the family would choose to eat.

Example, we like going to Grand Flo Cafe for a convenient casual table service, usually earlier in the day for late breakfast or lunch. Our bill is typically low. We don’t drink alcohol that early and at least some of us are opting for food under $20.

Doing 3 meals like that vs 3 character meal with some cocktails… makes a huge difference in daily average food spending.

I might add it 1 night for $100pp x3 of us and we’ll each get:

mug - I value about $12 because usually 1 or 2 of us buy it regardless,

snack - $8

QS - $20 each as that is what we’d likely spend after tax at Docking Bay 7 regardless

TS - $80 each on our Crystal Palace ADR ($64 + $10 beer x .07 tax)

Around $120 value for what we’d be paying out of pocket anyway, but now we can also:

Upgrade to the $16 beer we all really like at Docking Bay instead of our more typical soda or coffee, and try the $20 mimosa at Crystal Palace. One night of DDP gets us a happy drink on Day 1 and Day 2. These are like the ‘bonus’ of going this route.

————

These choices fully out of pocket would cost (after tax) : $25 mug, F&G Seafood bake $9, Docking Bay $37, CP $90

^That equals $161 each More importantly we’ll have fun doing it and it’s not putting us out of our way.

Our first day is BWV/HS, next day we’ll do Epcot before moving to VGF and doing MK that night.

If we skipped this 1 night DDP? No biggie. We’d likely skip some of the alcohol and at least 1 mug if not having DDP.

 

[Cfabar1]

We did a 2 night MK only stay earlier this year... our meals included over those days:

First Day/Night: Dinner at Ohana
Second Day/Night: Breakfast in Room, Lunch at Columbia Harbor House, Dinner at Narcoose's (Paid Cash for that one)
Third Day (checkout day): Breakfast in Room, Lunch at Contempo Cafe, Dinner at 1900 Park Fare

Between the Dining Plan and the Kids Eat Free, this was a great way to do it... very cost effective...

A couple of things we noticed - our 1.5 year old still required us to buy him food if he wasn't eating the food on our plate... Easier at Ohana and Park Fare... but might have been different had we chosen to eat at say, BOG, and certainly the Quick Serves...

I found myself ordering wine out of obligation rather than a desire to have it... We also didn't have to bring any soda because we had the mugs...

We have a 5 night stay (BLT) and a 6 night stay (AoA Family Suite) planned for this summer... My gut tells me the dining plan will be much less attractive for those trips --- especially with AP 40% off... I may spreadsheet it all out at some point, but that seems like a lot of work... plus the dining plan immediately takes away a lot of flexibility...

My gut tells me, it works best for a short stay if you know what you're doing...

 

[Genie+]

We did a 2 night MK only stay earlier this year... our meals included over those days:

First Day/Night: Dinner at Ohana
Second Day/Night: Breakfast in Room, Lunch at Columbia Harbor House, Dinner at Narcoose's (Paid Cash for that one)
Third Day (checkout day): Breakfast in Room, Lunch at Contempo Cafe, Dinner at 1900 Park Fare

Between the Dining Plan and the Kids Eat Free, this was a great way to do it... very cost effective...

A couple of things we noticed - our 1.5 year old still required us to buy him food if he wasn't eating the food on our plate... Easier at Ohana and Park Fare... but might have been different had we chosen to eat at say, BOG, and certainly the Quick Serves...

I found myself ordering wine out of obligation rather than a desire to have it... We also didn't have to bring any soda because we had the mugs...

We have a 5 night stay (BLT) and a 6 night stay (AoA Family Suite) planned for this summer... My gut tells me the dining plan will be much less attractive for those trips --- especially with AP 40% off... I may spreadsheet it all out at some point, but that seems like a lot of work... plus the dining plan immediately takes away a lot of flexibility...

My gut tells me, it works best for a short stay if you know what you're doing...

Yeah my gut must have the same impulses as yours.

It immediately responded no for a 5 night stay when 40% off is happening Sometimes we like to order 2 appetizers and 1 entree. Works very well with the discount, not with DDP.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

I’ve never considered DDP because trying to plan our days at Disney with LLs and operational curveballs is hard enough, I don’t want to add in an additional set of obligations that I have to work around if the day isn’t going according to plan, or having to map out the trip by how many credits I have at what tier of restaurant.

I am a very capable planner, but I’m not willing to do the work, lose the flexibility, and add the stress to (maybe) save 10-20% max. I’m not sure if anybody thinks they are saving more than 10% unless they are having adult beverages with dinner?