Saving $750 by doing DxDDP?? Is that possible????

[CathieArms]

Okay, so I've been running numbers. I figured out the cost for our family of 4 to eat at the restaurants I've selected on the DxDP. I've gone through AllEars and the Disney restaurants menus to select what I think my family would order at my chosen restaurants. I didn't deliberately choose the most expensive items on the menu; rather, I chose what I thought my family would most likely order when presented with the menu.

Now, granted, if we were to go to Disney without the DDP, we likely wouldn't order appetizers and we absolutely wouldn't each order a dessert. But, we might order one dessert to share among the 4 of us.

But....this is what I figured:

Ordering what we'd be most likely to order off of the menu - and including appetizers and desserts AND buying 2 snacks/day/person at $3.50 each - we'd "save" $736 and change by buying the DxDP. That includes 3 meals/day on all days but 2 or 3 when I have signature restaurants or shows scheduled.

Is this really possible? Oh, and I'm including the cost of tax at 6.5% in the total cost that we'd be paying OOP.

I expected to see somewhat of a savings, but have I don'e something wrong? I can't imagine Disney would keep this program around if people were truly saving $700+ each.

Thoughts?

Editing to add that this is for a 10-day trip.

 

[No Wheat Pete]

Did you account for the OOP tip too?
I did the same investigation for our Fall 2008 trip. I was thinking about getting the DDP for our family- at the time would have been 2 adults, 1 child (age 6) and 1 free child under 2. My totals came up with us being just ahead of breaking even. But if we skipped any meals we would actually lose money. We are not huge eaters, but we do like a good meal! Due to food allergies, we also prefer TS meals where we can sit with a menu and talk to the chef. Ultimately we decided that it would just be more food than we would need.

We didn't do the dining plan on that trip, but did do 2 TS meals each day. Financially it didn't make much difference. I will say that in hindsight, I felt very tied down to our eating schedule each day. We had to eat when and where we had reservations even if we tired or not really hungry. We also found out that our kids are not fond of buffets and eat very little. Even though the youngest was free, the together they did not even come close to eating $30 worth of food!

On a return trip two years later we did a much more casual approach (kids now 4 and 7) and did more snacks and quick serve meals. We had a TS breakfast scheduled at the resort each morning of our trip and a few dinner ADRs. That worked well for us and we could be more flexible on where we wanted to go and what we wanted to go each day.

Now give me a free dining plan and that would change everything...

 

[Imagineer5]

Yep, we're in the same boat! For 9 nights on the DxDP, 2 adults, we *should* save around $700. Even removing some meals if we get too tired of eating so much, we still come out ahead. That's why I can't justify NOT doing it! Granted, we don't eat CS meals, and really like a mid-day break at a TS place. We also have a ton of signature restaurants, so most days are just 2 TS's - either bfast or lunch and then a sig. dinner. I also pared down what we'd normally order, though we are def. appetizer ppl, but rarely order dessert. Even taking that into consideration we still come out way ahead. So, DxDP for us in Oct!!

 

[Cafeen]

Okay, so I've been running numbers. I figured out the cost for our family of 4 to eat at the restaurants I've selected on the DxDP. I've gone through AllEars and the Disney restaurants menus to select what I think my family would order at my chosen restaurants. I didn't deliberately choose the most expensive items on the menu; rather, I chose what I thought my family would most likely order when presented with the menu.

Now, granted, if we were to go to Disney without the DDP, we likely wouldn't order appetizers and we absolutely wouldn't each order a dessert. But, we might order one dessert to share among the 4 of us.

But....this is what I figured:

Ordering what we'd be most likely to order off of the menu - and including appetizers and desserts AND buying 2 snacks/day/person at $3.50 each - we'd "save" $736 and change by buying the DxDP. That includes 3 meals/day on all days but 2 or 3 when I have signature restaurants or shows scheduled.

Is this really possible? Oh, and I'm including the cost of tax at 6.5% in the total cost that we'd be paying OOP.

I expected to see somewhat of a savings, but have I don'e something wrong? I can't imagine Disney would keep this program around if people were truly saving $700+ each.

Thoughts?

Editing to add that this is for a 10-day trip.

It's certainly possible. DxDDP offers the best savings of the 3 dining plans when used to it's fullest extent. Of course, both the time and money investments are much higher to achieve that savings.

As a comparison, for me when I did my math I came out roughly $180 ahead with DxDDP vs OOP using the same "apples to apples" comparison that you did (that means the same meals planned and food ordered). This is for 1 person over 9 nights with 3 credits left over (so the savings could jump even higher) and an average of $3 per snack (those $.50 could really add up to even higher savings too).

Morphing my own savings to a common family (2A 2C) would change the numbers (roughly) to:
(180 × 2) + ((180 / 3*) × 2)
-or-
360 + 120 = $480, it's a bit less than what you got, but my plans are likely different (the differences above, plus I don't know your family's make up) and I did quite a few signature restaurants where the savings is somewhat less than standard 1TS locations.

*The dividing the savings by 3 is a very rough guess on the average difference between adult meals and kids meals along with the difference in cost. It is by no means mathematically sound!

Now, granted, if we were to go to Disney without the DDP, we likely wouldn't order appetizers and we absolutely wouldn't each order a dessert. But, we might order one dessert to share among the 4 of us.

This is also a very important thing to consider. You can easily dine at Disney for far cheaper than you would by following your current itinerary. We all know this. The point is that if you determine that the experience you get by using the DxDDP is worth the extra cost, then the additional savings will be worth it. Using my example above, I could have dined for about $500 for my 9 days solo, but I'd be passing up several of the restaurants that I wanted to go to as well as several meal items (apps, some desserts, and even some lower cost entrees) if I were to do that. The additional cost was worth it to me for the extra experience.

In essence, picking up the DxDDP allowed me to "split the difference" in cost between my OOP itinerary and my ideal itinerary while allowing the full experience of the ideal.

Did you account for the OOP tip too?

Tip would (at least should!) be the same following the same itinerary whether dining plan or not. As such, it gets canceled out on both sides of the equation and does not need to be taken into consideration for this type of comparison.

 

[CathieArms]

Did you account for the OOP tip too?

No, but we would pay the tip OOP anyway, so - comparing apples to apples - what I'd have to pay OOP for the tip would be the same one way or the other.

The weird thing is that I'm still about 3 meals shy of using all of our available meals. That means, if we multiply that by all four of us, that's 12 meals. Conservatively, at a sit-down restaurant, that'd be about another $100/meal, so I conceivably could be saving another $200 (CS) to $400 (TS).

 

[Mom2micayla]

We were finding it to be a huge savings too. It's just DH and I for our anniversary trip, and I started pricing it out. I was including an app (shared) at some restaurants and just a few shared desserts. I only had 15 meals planned (essentially 2 a day) and was already over $900. DxDP will be $1100 for the 2 of us, and I still had like 6 meals I hadn't even accounted for.

That said, I'm still unsure if I want to do it or not. It's a LOT of food, even if you add several signature meals in there and only eat 2 meals a day.

 

[kifuller4]

I figured out that my family of 5 would save almost $600 with the DxDP. We are eating at a lot of buffets. We have to sit down and eat due to we are traveling with a family member with MS, and wears down and gets hot easily.

 

[sydneysmom]

I think you're calculations are not too far off from being correct. I also did the math for us when we were deciding which plan to do. I took all the restaurants we planned on eating at and priced the meals w/ "middle of the road" averages. ( not the most expensive items.) I came out w/ a savings of $ 650 for me, DH and DD4. (that included the price for snack and the refillable mugs). Now, even if I take out tip amounts, we're still WAY ahead. So, we also chose the deluxe plan. I think it's TOTALLY worth it !!

 

[Trinityloo]

I have driven myself crazy calculating and recalculating various scenarios of what we would save based on what we would `most likely order`while there, but I finally decided this: based on my family of 2 adults and 2 children under age 10, it would cost us a little under $550 more for our 7 nights. Now am I willing to pay this amount for the flexibility of eating anywhere I want and ordering (with some rare exceptions) anything I want? For us the answer is a definite yes. We don`t really like CS and enjoy the signatures, so the meal credits add up. But then again, if we decide to do CS, that`s OK too. Besides the extra food, we are also getting flexibility.

I think one very important tip is to not order everything you are entitled to just because you can. For example, if everyone is stuffed silly, don`t order everyone a dessert just because you are entitled to one. Some people think that this would be wasting money, but don`t forget, you would be paying tip on all the extra food that you didn`t want anyway. I think its easier to think of the deluxe plan as an all-inclusive plan.

And if you have extra credits left over at the end of your trip, have them converted to snack credits and stock up on snacks for the lunchbox or, better yet, with snack souvenirs (Disney-related candy from Goofy`s or Mickey rice crispies, etc.) for friends back home!

 

[mickeysgirl17]

The savings will be different for every family. I have also researched the menus and guessed what everyone would order. I used a spreadsheet that I found to be very helpful. The one I'm using added the tax and tips as well. You can download them here:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2188572&highlight=spreadsheet

Thanks RobinB and Tricia1972!

 

[WeRblam]

It's certainly possible. DxDDP offers the best savings of the 3 dining plans when used to it's fullest extent. Of course, both the time and money investments are much higher to achieve that savings.

As a comparison, for me when I did my math I came out roughly $180 ahead with DxDDP vs OOP using the same "apples to apples" comparison that you did (that means the same meals planned and food ordered). This is for 1 person over 9 nights with 3 credits left over (so the savings could jump even higher) and an average of $3 per snack (those $.50 could really add up to even higher savings too).

Morphing my own savings to a common family (2A 2C) would change the numbers (roughly) to:
(180 × 2) + ((180 / 3*) × 2)
-or-
360 + 120 = $480, it's a bit less than what you got, but my plans are likely different (the differences above, plus I don't know your family's make up) and I did quite a few signature restaurants where the savings is somewhat less than standard 1TS locations.

*The dividing the savings by 3 is a very rough guess on the average difference between adult meals and kids meals along with the difference in cost. It is by no means mathematically sound!


This is also a very important thing to consider. You can easily dine at Disney for far cheaper than you would by following your current itinerary. We all know this. The point is that if you determine that the experience you get by using the DxDDP is worth the extra cost, then the additional savings will be worth it. Using my example above, I could have dined for about $500 for my 9 days solo, but I'd be passing up several of the restaurants that I wanted to go to as well as several meal items (apps, some desserts, and even some lower cost entrees) if I were to do that. The additional cost was worth it to me for the extra experience.

In essence, picking up the DxDDP allowed me to "split the difference" in cost between my OOP itinerary and my ideal itinerary while allowing the full experience of the ideal.


Tip would (at least should!) be the same following the same itinerary whether dining plan or not. As such, it gets canceled out on both sides of the equation and does not need to be taken into consideration for this type of comparison.

No, but we would pay the tip OOP anyway, so - comparing apples to apples - what I'd have to pay OOP for the tip would be the same one way or the other.

The weird thing is that I'm still about 3 meals shy of using all of our available meals. That means, if we multiply that by all four of us, that's 12 meals. Conservatively, at a sit-down restaurant, that'd be about another $100/meal, so I conceivably could be saving another $200 (CS) to $400 (TS).

Just one important note about the tip it is not apples to apples - you now must tip on a LARGER dollar amount (lets say signature restaurants) that you normally would not go to or order that amount of food. So if the bill comes to $200, your tip should be around $40.00. When you add up these to your equations, it makes a huge difference. If you went to a non signature restaurant and the bill came to $80.00, your tip would only be $16.00 - see the difference? Just saying to make sure you are really comparing apples to apples....

 

[mefordis]

This is a good point and it's making me rethink the ddp. I only have 2 before my vacation. When is it too late to cancel?

Just one important note about the tip it is not apples to apples - you now must tip on a LARGER dollar amount (lets say signature restaurants) that you normally would not go to or order that amount of food. So if the bill comes to $200, your tip should be around $40.00. When you add up these to your equations, it makes a huge difference. If you went to a non signature restaurant and the bill came to $80.00, your tip would only be $16.00 - see the difference? Just saying to make sure you are really comparing apples to apples....

 

[crashbb]

Just one important note about the tip it is not apples to apples - you now must tip on a LARGER dollar amount (lets say signature restaurants) that you normally would not go to or order that amount of food. So if the bill comes to $200, your tip should be around $40.00. When you add up these to your equations, it makes a huge difference. If you went to a non signature restaurant and the bill came to $80.00, your tip would only be $16.00 - see the difference? Just saying to make sure you are really comparing apples to apples....

See, I am ignoring the tip. We planned the restaurants we'd like to go to and I choose the food I'd like to eat. Then I worked out costs based on OOP or a DDP. I'd be ordering the same food either way - thus paying the same tip, either way.

Now, there are some places were I didn't choose an appetizer or didn't choose a dessert. Since we are on the Deluxe plan, I may end up choosing one and thus having to pay a bit more on the tip. However, there aren't many places like that (we are mainly doing signature restaurants).

I compared based on how I'd LIKE to eat. Not how I'd eat if I was trying to save money while paying OOP.

 

[mefordis]

The thing I'm struggling with is 1) I have a 2 yr old and I don't know what her mood will be like from one meal to the next and 2) it will be HOT when we go and I'm not sure what our appetites will be like. If I eat how I want to now, I would save money but not sure once I get there how we will feel.

We would still go to the restaurants just not order as much if we are not feeling it.

See, I am ignoring the tip. We planned the restaurants we'd like to go to and I choose the food I'd like to eat. Then I worked out costs based on OOP or a DDP. I'd be ordering the same food either way - thus paying the same tip, either way.

Now, there are some places were I didn't choose an appetizer or didn't choose a dessert. Since we are on the Deluxe plan, I may end up choosing one and thus having to pay a bit more on the tip. However, there aren't many places like that (we are mainly doing signature restaurants).

I compared based on how I'd LIKE to eat. Not how I'd eat if I was trying to save money while paying OOP.

 

[CathieArms]

And if you have extra credits left over at the end of your trip, have them converted to snack credits and stock up on snacks for the lunchbox or, better yet, with snack souvenirs (Disney-related candy from Goofy`s or Mickey rice crispies, etc.) for friends back home!

WAIT! STOP THE PRESSES! You can do this??? HOW do you do this???

 

[mickeysgirl17]

WAIT! STOP THE PRESSES! You can do this??? HOW do you do this???

I have never heard of this being done. I don't think this is possible at all.

 

[ElizabethB]

I ran the numbers, using our current 7 night trip with ADRs we have planned. It came out about the same whether we added the DDP with one TS per day or ate where we wanted and what we wanted using Tables in Wonderland discount.

But, all this talk about the tremendous savings on the Deluxe DDP had me intrigued. So, I just ran the numbers using that plan, which is $72 per person per night (we have two adults and two teenagers going). I don't know if tax is charged on the $72. I assumed no tax is charged.

Using $72 per person per night for 7 nights, I come up with $2016. Using our planned dining, but substituting signature dinners for those dinners that are now 1TS dinners, I came up with a total of $2600 (using $60 per person for a signature dinner, excluding tip) (using every dining credit available, mostly for table service restaurants with two quick service meals thrown in during the week).

(TiW paid for itself some time ago or I would have to calculate the cost of TiW and amount of dining expenditures to recoup the cost, in my calculations.)

But, wait a minute . . . I have to deduct $520 from my Deluxe DDP OOP cost estimates, which represents the 20% TiW discount. So, now I'm at $2080 for an OOP total excluding tips, a negligible difference over 7 nights from $2016 (about $9 per day).

And, in order to make the deluxe DDP work, I needed to re-think our reservations to add in more signature dining in order to use the available credits. I also had to delete our planned dinners at Bistro de Paris, V&A and Il Mulino, substituting signature restaurants that take the DDP. Even though they don't take DDP, Bistro, V&A and Il Mulino all take TiW.

I have to say, I'm a bargain hunter at heart, so I've calculated the regular DDP several different ways and couldn't get it to make much difference for us, given our planned meals.

Re-calculating using Deluxe DDP, it still didn't make much difference, so long as we use TiW. Without TiW, it would save about $85 per day, but we would need to eliminate our dinners that are not on DDP. Since free dining is going on while we're there, we're trying to stay away from places that take DDP for our nicest meals. Buying DDP would put us right back into the fray!

So, we'll be eating where we want, paying OOP and using TiW.

 

[Cafeen]

Just one important note about the tip it is not apples to apples - you now must tip on a LARGER dollar amount (lets say signature restaurants) that you normally would not go to or order that amount of food. So if the bill comes to $200, your tip should be around $40.00. When you add up these to your equations, it makes a huge difference. If you went to a non signature restaurant and the bill came to $80.00, your tip would only be $16.00 - see the difference? Just saying to make sure you are really comparing apples to apples....

For the type of comparisons we were both running, you can. We were both comparing the same dining itinerary and food orders when paying OOP vs DxDDP. Those are the apples we're comparing. The only variable changed in this comparison was the purchase of the dining plan vs no purchase of the dining plan.

Now, if we were comparing our ideal plans (e.g. the ones we chose for DxDDP) against what we'd likely do paying OOP, then yes, certainly tips and other expenses are essential to the calculation. It's a very valid comparison to make as well, as you will nearly always come out cheaper paying OOP as your choices will likely differ (either restaurants, entrees, apps/desserts, etc). This comparison is used to see how much more those extra experiences can cost and then used as a tool to decide if it's worth it for you.

Regarding TiW:
If you have it available, it's typically a better deal than a dining plan, especially if you're not using the plan as designed (skipping entitlements, off plan restaurants, not covered extras, etc). If you don't have it though, the cost of the AP plus the cost of the card plus 80% of the cost of the food could would easily end up costing more than just going straight OOP. It's very valid for those who have it available, not so much for those that do not.

 

[KathyK]

We just got home from 13 nts on DxDP (5 nts 1 Adult/2 kids, 8 nts 2 adults/2 kids), and we saved a total of $1200 over the course of 2 weeks.

 

[inkedupmomma]

WAIT! STOP THE PRESSES! You can do this??? HOW do you do this???

I have never heard of this being done. I don't think this is possible at all.

It is very possible. I did this myself last year. I know the resort will give you a voucher if you ask for it. You HAVE TO ASK though. They won't just do this on their own. For us last year, we got the voucher and still had left over credits. EoS was kind enough to just give us the extra snacks without a voucher. We got 3 snacks per credit. Not a great value, but it was better than leaving them, and we got those yummy chips with those credits lol