The "Cons" to the Dining Plan?

[lauralong81]

We have always done the dining plan, and stayed on site. To save money, and in order to go this year, we are doing some cost-savings (less fun) moves. We are staying off-site (using our in-laws timeshare) and going to have a kitchen so we will make a majority of our food. We will have to rent a car though, since we won't have ME and the buses to the park (we've always just used those exclusively). We will still purchase flights. Even though we're staying off site, with buying tickets and the rental car it doesn't' feel like we're saving much money... maybe $300-$500?

Anyway... that said... I'm starting to get super-bummed about not making dining reservations. Some of my best memories are at the character dining experiences with my kids. And it's so nice to not have to worry about the food. So - Convince me it's a better idea, please, to not use DDP. Tell me all the great money I'm going to save and the "PROs" / "Positives" to NOT doing the DDP. Help me out here, Dis-friends, you are my only hope to feel better about it.

Thank you in advance!!!

Ps...
<----My DS6, Tobias, wanted me to add these because it's supposed to be "him"... lol

 

[disneychic2]

We always do the dining plan and stay on property, but I do think you can save a lot of money staying off sight and getting food outside the park. I think it will be a different trip for you and your family, but not necessarily a less magical one. Here are some things that will be better:
1. you'll be able to have more healthy choices for food
2. you'll have more room
3. you can come and go as you wish and not wait for buses
4. you'll save money

Bottom line, you'll be at Disney. Always a good thing. If this is the only way you can get there this year, just go with it and focus on the good experiences instead of what you are missing or what is different. For your kids, it will be just as magical, so ENJOY! Who knows, you may even like it better!

 

[JKMJ441724]

Help me out here, Dis-friends, you are my only hope...

Made me laugh and think "Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope....

So, may the force be with you as you endeavor to save money. I would do whatever it takes just to be able to go to Disney. Your sacrifice will not be in vain.

 

[lauralong81]

Made me laugh and think "Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope....

That was what I was going for... I'm a star wars geek!!!! Can't wait to ride the new Star Tours!

 

[JKMJ441724]

That was what I was going for... I'm a star wars geek!!!! Can't wait to ride the new Star Tours!

Well that's awesome. I'm glad I "got" it.

 

[lauralong81]

Bottom line, you'll be at Disney. Always a good thing. If this is the only way you can get there this year, just go with it and focus on the good experiences instead of what you are missing or what is different. For your kids, it will be just as magical, so ENJOY! Who knows, you may even like it better!

THANK YOU!!!!! Another plus side is that I've been trying to convince Nani and Papa (my parents) to go with us for years but they always say it's too expensive.... but with me "paying" for the room, they are seriously considering going. I wouldn't be able to do that if we were staying on property. So thanks again for those reasons, I will add them to mine and hopefully start to feel great about it!!!

 

[maxiesmom]

To me, the biggest "pro" of not doing the dining plan is that you don't have to be tied down to ADRs. If you don't have them, you have more time to be flexible and do what you want to do when you want to do it. No thoughts of 'Well, we might be able to fit this ride in, but not if the line is over 15 minutes long. Maybe we should just skip it." Do what you want, when you want.

 

[havoc315]

Anyway... that said... I'm starting to get super-bummed about not making dining reservations. Some of my best memories are at the character dining experiences with my kids. And it's so nice to not have to worry about the food. So - Convince me it's a better idea, please, to not use DDP. Tell me all the great money I'm going to save and the "PROs" / "Positives" to NOT doing the DDP. Help me out here, Dis-friends, you are my only hope to feel better about it.

First off, you can still go ahead and make ADRs! You don't need to be on the dining plan to make ADRs.
You're trying to save money.... But you can eat in a manner somewhat similar to the DDP, for less money than the cost of the DDP!

So some of the pros -- Instead of being stuck with an exact allotment of TS and CS meals.... You can eat the exact number of TS and CS meals that you actually want to eat.
If you want to have an appetizer as your whole meal (whether for cost savings, or simple preference), you can now do that!
By skipping the DDP, you free yourself to eat at restaurants on and off-site, that don't accept the DDP! The Swan/Dolphin have some great restaurants, and you can even save money at that with restaurants.com certificates.

But overall..... You can save tons of money, while getting a dining experience that is personally tailored to your actual preferences.

Now, if your personal preference is super expensive entrees, the most expensive dinner buffets, and desserts at every meal.. then you won't save money. But, if you want to do a character breakfast buffet, followed by a mid-afternoon CS sandwich..... That will be significantly cheaper than doing the DDP.

 

[Bunnyfeather]

If you get a headache or sinus trouble or realize you left your kids' flipflops or sunscreen or whatever...you can go to a normal store and buy whatever you need at normal store prices.

Food will not only cost less, you will get exactly how much you want/need (no huge wasted portions, no hunger from too small portions), it will be healthier and to your precise preferences (slice your tomato how you like, pick the chips you like best, your fave brand of peanut butter, no need to accept "good enough")

You can go directly to wherever you want to go. Straight from MK to Downtown Disney, straight from Grand Floridian to Fort Wilderness, whatever! No stops, no switching from a monorail to a bus, no waiting. Also no worries about finding seats, and far less struggling to manhandle strollers and bags and such.

More important than MORE space, is the kind of space. A hotel room's inconvenience is partially that there is only one shared space for eating and sleeping and entertainment. Having a living room and several bedrooms and multiple bathrooms makes life easier in many ways. Adults and kids can have different sleep needs, different relaxation needs, different entertainment preferences. And getting ready in the morning and at night is always less of a chore in a more subdivided space!

 

[Cafeen]

We have always done the dining plan, and stayed on site. To save money, and in order to go this year, we are doing some cost-savings (less fun) moves. We are staying off-site (using our in-laws timeshare) and going to have a kitchen so we will make a majority of our food. We will have to rent a car though, since we won't have ME and the buses to the park (we've always just used those exclusively). We will still purchase flights. Even though we're staying off site, with buying tickets and the rental car it doesn't' feel like we're saving much money... maybe $300-$500?

Anyway... that said... I'm starting to get super-bummed about not making dining reservations. Some of my best memories are at the character dining experiences with my kids. And it's so nice to not have to worry about the food. So - Convince me it's a better idea, please, to not use DDP. Tell me all the great money I'm going to save and the "PROs" / "Positives" to NOT doing the DDP. Help me out here, Dis-friends, you are my only hope to feel better about it.

Thank you in advance!!!

Ps...
<----My DS6, Tobias, wanted me to add these because it's supposed to be "him"... lol

• From the sounds of it, the pure ability to go at all for you. If skipping on-site and DDP means you get to go, or get to go "better" then it's certainly a pro!
• Higher return on resort dollars spent (e.g. value per dollar on the resort choice)
• Opening up non-DDP and off-site restaurants (some of these are reportedly very good for far less money)
• Not tied to 1CS/1TS per night of stay
• Ability/Freedom to share and order "off plan" (eg Apps for meals) without cutting into the bottom line
• Kids can get adult meals if they'd rather, this opens up a huge amount of choices for the little ones (and they should be able to split an adult meal)

 

[cmwade77]

I hate to say this, I have done the math before and staying offsite can actually cost you more overall than staying onsite. Especially if you are going during a free dining promotion.

The first time I went, I stayed offsite, then I stayed onsite the second time and I have to say that the second time cost me about 25% less than offsite, due to rental car, gas, etc., the third time we went for our honeymoon and got free dining, so that cost even less (tips were still included at this point, so that was major savings). One time we took my family and got free dining for a total of 7 of us, with tips included. I can't imagine not doing the free dining, I would say that for that strip, we probably saved 60% over staying offsite.

Don't forget to include the insurance on the rental car into your costs. I you are counting on your insurance covering you, double and tripple check that:

1. They will cover all damage to a rental car.
2. They will cover you in a rental car.
   [*]They will cover you in a rental car out of state/country as applicable.

The last one gets a lot of people, many companies will cover you in a rental car within a certain distance of your home.

 

[Granfan]

I'm not getting dining plan this trip for greater choice and leaving off sodas and CS desserts. I still plan to eat at LeCellier for lunch, Cape May Buffet, and O'hana. Maybe Narcoosee's, getting just what I

want. I want to try appetizer trio AND Duck meatballs at Le Cellier. I believe I will spend less than dining plan and get better choices.
We'll see how it works out. I'll have money for food set aside so no decisions about about should I get this. I will have muffins, nuts,
cheese sticks, plenty
of water, etc in room to eat in mornings or carry. We always had a great time when the kids were small and there was no dining plan. We never had more than one or two table service meals and they were really special. The rest we ate turkey, roast beef, or ham po boys, grapes, cookies, chips brought from home. You will have to make a grocery run since you're flying but make it easy on youself and dont try to cook regular meals. Eat picnic style foods. More fun and you'll have a magical trip.

 

[JimmyV]

First off, you can still go ahead and make ADRs! You don't need to be on the dining plan to make ADRs.
You're trying to save money.... But you can eat in a manner somewhat similar to the DDP, for less money than the cost of the DDP!

So some of the pros -- Instead of being stuck with an exact allotment of TS and CS meals.... You can eat the exact number of TS and CS meals that you actually want to eat.
If you want to have an appetizer as your whole meal (whether for cost savings, or simple preference), you can now do that!
By skipping the DDP, you free yourself to eat at restaurants on and off-site, that don't accept the DDP! The Swan/Dolphin have some great restaurants, and you can even save money at that with restaurants.com certificates.

But overall..... You can save tons of money, while getting a dining experience that is personally tailored to your actual preferences.

This! This! 100 times THIS!

You have a car and a kitchen. Go to Publix and buy cereal, milk, OJ, pop tarts, muffins. Whatever you normally eat for breakfast. DO NOT STEP FOOT IN A RESTAURANT FOR BREAKFAST. EVER! Your total grocery bill for the whole vacation for breakfast will be under $50. And buy generic bottled water while you are there. Buy a couple bottles the size that you would want to carry around, and then buy a 5 gallon jug to keep in your condo. Refill the carry-around bottles every morning. (Or, if you don't mind the tap water, just refill with that.) Total water cost for the whole trip is less than $10.

When you eat a TS dinner, which you can, and still should do, buy one appetizer for every 2 people in the group to split. Same with desserts if you opt for that. And if an appetizer looks really good, have it as your entree. When you dine like this, you will still get plenty of food, but you will save a lot of money.

Assume the DP costs $50 per person. (Using round numbers here).
4 adults over 10 years old will cost $200 per day.
Can you beat $200 per day? Sure.
Assume you spend $100 at Publix for breakfast, water, snacks, soda. For a 6 day trip, this nets out to $17 per day.
Total so far=$17.

Assume 1 CS per day and 1 TS per day. You choose whether it will be lunch or dinner.

CS for 4 people will be 4 burgers/entree salads/wraps/ribs/chicken or equivalent. Average cost is $10 per person for $40. Get 2 orders of fries instead of fries for every person, and get 2 large sodas to split between 4 people. Total cost for those is $7 for fries and $5 for sodas. Total lunch cost is $52. Snacks and water are already paid for at Publix.

Total spent so far is $69.

You have $131 left over for a TS meal.
4 entrees at a non-Signature restaurants, average of $24 per entree, is $96.
You have $35 in savings per day to this point. Share a couple of desserts and you reduce the savings to about $20 per day after tax and have eaten basically the same way that the DDP provides for.

If you stop right there, you save around $20 per day and have had a full Disney experience, although this will not include any character meals. And this assumes that every person ordered their own meal at the CS and every person ordered their own entree for dinner. Split some meals for smaller eaters, or have appetizers instead of full entrees and the savings increase. So much so that you can probably toss in a character meal. And every single meal was a Disney meal. Eat at a family-style restaurant off-site a couple of times and those $24 entrees on average will fall to closer to $17. That's $7 per person, or $28 more in savings. The savings will really pile on and a character meal will easily fall within your budget.

Saving money off the plan is easy and not at all punishing. Just ask yourself. "Does every person in my group need a full CS meal including dessert every day, plus their own entree with dessert every day, plus a Disney snack every day, or will we be just as satisfied having dessert only with dinner, and then, only every other day. Or every day, but split among 2 people?" If you are willing to eat in-house for breakfast and eat less food than the DDP provides at each CS and TS meal, then cost savings are pretty much guaranteed.

Now....having said all this, the PP makes some good points. The rental car fee, gas and parking may devour your savings. You can do everything I suggest above and stay at a Value. You can have groceries delivered to your room. Bring a collapsable cooler with you and fill it with ice twice a day to keep milk and OJ cold. You won't be able to do off-site meals, but that might be OK since you aren't paying for the car.

 

[sdchickie]

We have done it both ways and there are pros and cons to both. One thing we liked to do when staying off site was to call ahead and order Olive Garden (or your favorite place) when we were leaving the park and do curbside pick up and take it back to our room. No having to go back and make dinner after a day in the parks. Getting the meals to go saves so much time and money! We still plan at least one meal on property at our favorite place so we don't feel totally left out of the Disney meal magic. After renting a car you might never want to go back to the Disney busses again!

 

[shalom]

FInstead of being stuck with an exact allotment of TS and CS meals.... You can eat the exact number of TS and CS meals that you actually want to eat.

You could also "put yourself on" the DDP for a few days of the trip, using the suggestions on this thread, where the idea is to spend what you would on the dining plan (actually less, because it includes tips), only with out being limited to the DDP restaurants or choices:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2684936

Personally, in a condo we do breakfast at home, lunch and some snacks onsite, and then dinner off site (either in the condo or pick something up), but some of the suggested menus on that thread tempt me.

 

[Faldred]

I'm going to reply without reading the thread, so I apologize for any duplication...

The general drawbacks to the dining plan are:

1) Cost. If you're willing to economize, you can save a lot of money compared to what you'd pay for the dining plan. DDP can save you money, yes, but only if it matches well with what you would have done without it.

2) Flexibility. Without a dining plan, you can choose where you go, when you go, and what you order when you get there (except fixed-price meals, of course). If you feel like an appetizer instead of a dessert, you can do that.

3) Commitment. When you sign up for a dining plan, you have to start with the baseline assumption that you're going to use all of the credits. But what if you simply don't want that meal you booked 6 months ago when its time to actually go? What if one or more members of your party get sick?​

And I say all of this as a general proponent of the dining plans -- but note that they simply don't work for every situation and they're not without their risks.

 

[lauralong81]

Thanks everyone, this really helps. Especially the math!!! That's great. However, if we get a deal as good as free dining, it will actually be cheaper to stay at a value and get free dining b/c of the rental car costs.

I think most of it is that I'm just going to miss the convenience of it all the most, but that's ok. So many things in life aren't necessary but we pay for because they're easier and don't really need them.


I'd rather go than not go, and if going means sacrifice, so be it. I'll do the math again when deals start showing up for november to see if it's worth it.

Thanks again everyone.... y'all rock!!!

 

[Diegosmom]

Ok this would be my reason...you mentioned staying in a value well by staying offsite you will have way more room...how nice will it be to put the kids to bed and relax in the living room...or on some downtime watch a different tv as the kids...Also you will probably have more then 1 bathroom that will be real nice...and a fridge you dont have to pay for

You will be driving to the parks...more then likely driving by many eating places...it will be super easy to pick up food on the way back to the timeshare...you will have a table there so you can eat there. I know my DS4 does pretty good going out to eat but 3 meals a day for a week will be a bit much for him. Being able to just come back to the room and chill with a pizza sounds good to me (and much cheaper).

People can eat when they want...while everyone is getting ready in the morning you can be eating...1 person in the shower another person having a bagel...it will make mornings go quicker...

Not sure if you are bringing a cooler but if you have a stroller it will be easy to throw one under there...waters and soda will save money if you are eating CS...and you can bring whatever you want for drinks not stuck with only coke products...Also you can have fruit without spend almost $1.50 on 1 piece...

 

[JessiLynn015]

Last month DH and I did a Disney trip with his family. For the first time since I can remember, we didn't do the DDP. I felt the same way you did, but we were able to save LOTS of $$$. We too stayed in a timeshare so we had most of our meals there.

We ate before we left the park and packed a lunch with us. There were 14 of us so we were able to bring a variey of things. Everyone had their own sandwich and a small bag of chips or granola bar. Remember that iced water is FREE!!!! That really helped us.

The timeshare we stayed at was close to the parks so we took a break when everyone started to get hungry. Some would go back and eat and some would stay and have something at the parks. We did both throughout our stay.

Although we did not have the pleasure of eating at any TS restaurants, we still had an AWESOME time and saved lots of $$$$

 

[SunnieRN]

All of our previous trips have been on site, with the QS or DP.

We are going in August and were going to stay offsite for the first time. I know this sounds crazy, but I was actually excited about it.

Well, we were lucky enough to trade our timeshare reservation off site, for a 2 bedroom at Saratoga Springs. I'm excited, yet disappointed at the same time.

Check the thread about 'the other Orlando." There are some great suggestions there!!

Have a wonderful time!!!!!