Should I take the Disney dining plan?

[Ana Klein]

Hey guys,
I would appreciate you helping me decide if the Disney dining plan is good for me or not.
I'm going to visit Disney on Xmas week and will stay at one of the resort's hotels for 5 nights.
The first day (Dec 22th) I'll arrive late at night, so I will not have any meals in Disney that day.
The next five days (I check out on Dec 27th) I have a reservation for one table-service restaurant each day
(T-REX lunch; La Hacienda de San Angel dinner; The Diamond Horseshoe dinner; Mama Melrose lunch).
The day I check out I have a reservation for Bon Voyage Adventure Breakfast with characters),
and in one of those days I'll have breakfast at Be Our Guest.
I've counted 7 more meals (quick service) that I will probably have those days (mostly breakfasts [not much of an eater in the mornings] and lunches).
The different in my package with or without the dining plan is 377 USD.
Should I take the dining plan?
I've tried the Disney calculator, but I'm not sure which restaurant is quick/table service, which one redeem more than 1 table service meal, etc...
Thank you for your help

 

[sunshinemelody]

Are you going by yourself?

If you've done a calculation with the calculator or attempted to, you're gonna have to look at the restaurants you want to go to and see if they're quick/table service and let it run the tally for you. You're already saying that you've got 6 table services, I'm guessing mainly for dinner since you stated that the others are 7 quick services during either breakfast or lunch. So, use the calculator, do some really quick digging around and the calculator tends to do its job.

Most times, ha.

If it's cheaper to do the dining plan, I'd go with that. If not, then pay out of pocket.

 

[DuskKodesh]

Every table service credit is worth a roundabouts of 42$ every quickservice is worth a roundabouts of 19$ and snack credits are worth about 5$ each I'm rounding up a bit to be extra safe.

You didn't say if you drink but that's a big factor as alcohol can be pricey. Also are you a big steak eater? lobster or seafood? Do you like to eat desserts?

I'd go through those places you have booked and pretend you're ordering a meal. Add all that up then just add on the other QS and credits at that value. Be Our Guest breakfast counts as a quickservice credit, not a table service so factor that in. You CAN get ahead on the dining plan but it's tough. Tougher if you don't do character meals. Almost impossible if you don't do character meals and don't drink.

 

[sunshinemelody]

Every table service credit is worth a roundabouts of 42$ every quickservice is worth a roundabouts of 19$ and snack credits are worth about 5$ each I'm rounding up a bit to be extra safe.

You didn't say if you drink but that's a big factor as alcohol can be pricey. Also are you a big steak eater? lobster or seafood? Do you like to eat desserts?

I'd go through those places you have booked and pretend you're ordering a meal. Add all that up then just add on the other QS and credits at that value. Be Our Guest breakfast counts as a quickservice credit, not a table service so factor that in. You CAN get ahead on the dining plan but it's tough. Tougher if you don't do character meals. Almost impossible if you don't do character meals and don't drink.

Exactly.

Literally just look at their menus, pick out what you'd feasibly eat and then go from there.

And my bad, you're doing 5 TS not 6. Boop. Didn't read "breakfast" for BoG.

 

[Ana Klein]

Thank you both!
Will look at menus and try to calculate.
For your questions-
I'm going with my family, but I've made a separate reservation for myself, and it's easier for me to calculate per person.
We don't drink a lot, but once a day would be lovely ;
Deserts are, of course, always welcome
We do enjoy a good steak once in a while;
Also we do have a character meal the day we check out, at Trattoria Al Forno.
So we'll be having 5 table-service meals (one of them with characters) and 8 quick-service meals.
Going to digg in at some menus.
Thanks again!

 

[Christine]

You may break even on it. Some of your meals are going to be tough to get to the $42-$45 value for the TS credit and some of your meals (BOG QS breakfast) will go over. In just looking at your plan, it seems like it will be a wash throughout the week even with the drink. If you were doing all character or some of the buffets, then I think you would beat the plan cost.

 

[Lovetherodent]

I typically break even, but like the plan for the prepaid aspect. No coming home to a bill. No messing with gift cards (that I can lose or deactivate by putting them too close to my phone!). For me, at the break even point, I vote plan.

 

[Ana Klein]

You may break even on it. Some of your meals are going to be tough to get to the $42-$45 value for the TS credit and some of your meals (BOG QS breakfast) will go over. In just looking at your plan, it seems like it will be a wash throughout the week even with the drink. If you were doing all character or some of the buffets, then I think you would beat the plan cost.

Oh, OK. Thanks!

 

[Mango7100]

When we did the dining plan for 3 days in summer we booked a ton of character meals—much easier to come out ahead. For example, we did 1900 Park Fare for dinner and Storybook Dining with Snow White—each of those meals is over 60 a person not including alcohol. We also did BOG lunch so that was a good QS credit. The Bon Voyage breakfast I think is around 40 a person, so it is a less expensive character meal compared to some. I did find that sometimes I ordered alcohol just because it was included already and not because I really felt like drinking after walking around in 100 degree weather. We also had to buy a ton of Rice Krispie treats to take home to burn through some of our snack credits,

I agree character meals (expensive meals but only count 1 credit) and drinking adult beverages are key to making it worth it...

 

[sharonabe]

So we'll be having 5 table-service meals (one of them with characters) and 8 quick-service meals.

You only get 5 TS credits and 5 QS credits, so you're really going to have to plan out your QS meals and be sure to use your credits at the more expensive ones. Breakfast is usually not a good use of a QS credit, except at BoG.

 

[DisneyRobin]

I don’t think you should get the dining plan. At best, you may break even but you’ll never end up ahead and it’s so much work to use the dining plan - so much thought has to go into it. Every time you buy a snack you wonder if the snack is worth using a credit or paying cash. A soda is not worth it but a more expensive snack is...

Then when you’re at a restaurant, you may be in the mood for the pasta but feel like you need to order the steak so you’re not losing money on the plan. Or maybe you want a couple of appetizers instead of an entree but appetizers aren’t covered.

You may not be in the mood for lunch at the qs place since you had a big breakfast or lunch but you need to use those credits...

You may decide that you want to cancel a reservation later in your trip to do something else but now you need to stick with your plan because you already paid for the dining plan credits.

You may be too full for dessert at the moment and prefer to get a treat later but it’s included... so you get it and eat it and feel overly full and too full to get what you really want later...

Etc etc etc

For the past 10+ years, I’d do the math... figure out where we were eating, figure out what my family was likely to order and then decide whether or not to get the plan. When it was close, we’d often get it and usually regret it. Always feeling like we were losing money while not using our credits on the food items with the greatest value.

At the end of every trip when we had the plan, we’d always have so many left over snack credits that I’d have to go into the gift shop and buy a bunch of prepackaged treats to take home.

It was never a good deal for us even when the calculations ahead of time had us breaking even...

It’s so easy to use your magic band to charge whatever you want. The dining plan doesn’t help with anything except causing stress. IMO - of course!

 

[Ana Klein]

Thank you all for your advices!
Very helpful

 

[Mazz519]

Dining Plan is great but we often find ourselves getting snacks the 2 days of our trip that we would never get. Were going this Dec and gonna try dining without the Plan and see what the difference is

 

[_19disnA]

Every discussion on this topic gets the same input. If the dining plan matches the way you eat, you want to get an alcoholic beverage with meals and plan to do some character meals, then it makes financial sense. Works for some, not for others. We had the regular dining plan during our trip earlier this year and worked out great for us. We used up all of our credits and had none left over at the end of our vacation.

 

[KenHutch]

The dining plan can be hard to figure but in my families case we do save money but with the exception of Santuli we have pretty much stopped eating at CS and the girls love to dress up and eat at Signature. The deluxe plan actually works for us because we also eat a lot and I mean a lot (usually 1 day) of character meals.

 

[Lovetherodent]

Another way to make the plan work is to be in WDW an "extra" day (4 night stay on property = 4 days worth of credits but 5 days of eating). We've got one "meal" of snack credits planned for F&G booths, so we won't be stocking up on crispy treats to take home.

 

[Ana Klein]

Thank you all

 

[DrunkJam]

Personally I have a goal to take rice krispie treats home, so, I don't mind having snacks left over in the slightest. I like the DDP. but, it doesn't work for some people.

 

[meower13]

I think it depends on what kind of person you are-
if you are ONLY wanting to know what makes financial sense- and you don't like planning- it probably isn't for you.

If you love to coupon and work out a good deal and enjoying putting in the work I think it can not only make sense but can be fun and satisfying for you!

If you want to go on vacation and aren't so worried about if it makes financial sense but want to treat yourself without worrying about the bill it might make sense for you to relax and enjoy!

 

[Ana Klein]

I think it depends on what kind of person you are-
if you are ONLY wanting to know what makes financial sense- and you don't like planning- it probably isn't for you.

If you love to coupon and work out a good deal and enjoying putting in the work I think it can not only make sense but can be fun and satisfying for you!

If you want to go on vacation and aren't so worried about if it makes financial sense but want to treat yourself without worrying about the bill it might make sense for you to relax and enjoy!

Thank you!