thoughts on booking or not booking dp

[fireman1]

we leave monday week, the 22nd, but do not arrive in the world until the 23rd.
I have the rooms, tickets and dining reservations booked, but I have yet to pull the trigger on the DP.
we are a family of three. Myself, 45, wife, 38, stepson 12. I was told it would be $900 for the 3 of us.

we have 50's prime time booked,
Crystal palace,
T-rex,
mama melrose's,
breakfast at garden grill,
coral reef.

Not to mention the couple days we will be eating at our value resort, and snacks and what not.

I'm not sure if it wouldn't be cheaper to just pay out of pocket. we are pretty big eaters but not huge eaters. average I guess.
What say you. Get it or no? I do like the convenience of it but I like money more lol.

 

[Aliceacc]

We love it.

Food in WDW is expensive, no matter what you do. So if you're going to eat on site, you're going to pay a lot for it.

The one time we didn't book the DDP, it felt as though we were hemorrhaging money. It got to when we walked into a restaurant, I found myself looking at the prices before the entrees. Not exactly the way I want to vacation. When we got home, I did the math. It turns out that we would have pretty much broken even on the DDP, but my stress level would have been a lot lower with it.

I love the freedom of the DDP. It's all prepaid, so finances aren't a concern-- we order what we want and don't worry about the bottom line.

 

[Lisa F]

it will be very likely to be cheaper to just pay as you go rather than doing the dining plan. A lot of your choices are some of the less expensive table service restaurants.

 

[fireman1]

yeah that makes sense. we have always gotten it, well since 05 we have.

 

[Skullcrusher]

The dining plan just doesn't work out for us. We use the tables in wonderland card and even with the $50 dollar increase this year we still do better using it and paying OOP.

 

[JimmyV]

1. The one time we didn't book the DDP, it felt as though we were hemorrhaging money...When we got home, I did the math. It turns out that we would have pretty much broken even on the DDP...

2. I love the freedom of the DDP.

1. Some of your decision will come down to optics. As noted above, paying OOP seems expensive but it really is a break even proposition. Disney has not designed the Plan to save you money. Why would they? They designed the Plan to keep you on property. They don't want you going off site. Saving money is possible. But it often involves making targeted selections in both restaurant choices and food choices. If you lean heavily toward expensive character buffets you can come out ahead. But if you dine at less expensive restaurants you will come out behind.

2. "Freedom" is in the eye of the beholder. The way I see it, paying OOP maximizes freedom because you can put together a meal from any section of the menu. If you want to have two appetizers but no entree, you can. If you want an appetizer and an entree but no dessert, you can. On the plan, entire sections of the menu such as appetizers and side dishes are off limits so if you order them, you pay extra and you instantly lose the value of the plan. Some see "freedom" as prepaying. Others see freedom as being able to eat whatever you want. If the former describes you, get the plan. If the latter describes you, pay as you go. If prepaying is essential for you, buy $1,000 worth of Disney gift cards before you go. If you don't use up all the money, you can use the balance on other things or save the cards for a future trip.

 

[sharonabe]

Right off the bat you would have to make another decision. Based on your $900 quote, it looks like you're staying 5 nights, so one of the TS meals you have booked would have to be OOP since you only get 5 TS.

As Lisa F said, you have a mix of less expensive and just breaking even restaurants selected. If Crystal Palace is dinner, you'll be "saving" about $6 pp on the DDP, BUT your Garden Grill breakfast is "losing" about $6 pp on the DDP. Your F! pkg "saves" about $4. At all of your a la carte places, you'll need to order toward the most expensive entrees to break even AND you'll have THREE desserts on the table at each meal (except your F! pkg which only give you a dessert platter to share).

I think you will probably be right on the break even point IF you all drink something other than water, want desserts at every meal, and plan some of the better value QS places along the way, so if having it all paid for before you go adds value to you, you may want to go ahead and add it, but you need to do so soon. I believe it has to be added no later than 72 hrs before check in.

Oh, just so you know where my numbers are coming from, a TS meal is roughly "worth" $38, QS $18, snack $5.

 

[Lisa F]

I've discovered I'm a both/and girl, lol. I'm doing a split stay with the DxDDP my first 3 nights and will save about $150 over those 3 nights (not tooso shabby) and get most of my expensive character meals and 2TS meals in and honestly would be able to order exactly the way I'd want to order (would most likely do an appetizer at signature where portions are smaller and choices are more appealing than the standards), but the math is different - I value each meal at $33 if you are doing all TS, which I am (but which is also not a pace I could keep up for a whole week).

Then the rest of the time I will go OOP and do some of the really bad values on the DDP - hoop dee doo tier 1 seating at a normal time, CP package, Sci Fi dine in. So I kind of get both sides. If I were not guaranteed to save some money even in a worst case scenario I'd totally go for paying OOP, but I'm not really into paying more for the luxury of being able to pretend I'm not paying what I'm paying. That would drive me bonkers. But I have like 3 scenarios with 3 spreadsheets right now, lol, and that might be someone else's idea of hell. With the target red card you can buy disney gift cards at 5% off so I am using those to pretty much pay for my trip and planning to have $1000 or so budgeted for the last half of my dining and all incidentals (mama likes a grownup drink every so often, plus tips, plus souvenirs)

 

[fireman1]

correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the DP run until midnite the day of checkout? we check in the 23rd, out the 28th.

 

[Lisa F]

correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the DP run until midnite the day of checkout? we check in the 23rd, out the 28th.

I think that is the case, but the number of entitlements you get are based on the number of nights you spend and then your entitlements are good until midnight the day of checkout. Just because you're around til then doesn't mean you get an additional TS to use.

 

[loves to dive]

You really need to think about how you want to eat as Jimmy V said. Are you going to want a dessert every time you eat? Are you going to want an entre, dessert and drink other than water or alcohol every time you eat? It doesn't work for us because if we are eating TS we are going to want at least one appy, that is OOP, if we eat dessert we are probably going to share because we are going to be too full. I drink water never drink anything else except wine, which is OOP. Most TS meals I eat an appy and a salad, so dining plan doesn't make sense for us. We also just don't always eat full meals every day, I may eat a kids meal for breakfast, grab a sandwich for lunch and eat an appy and salad for supper. I rarely snack between meals and neither does my son, he tends to eat one big meal a day and if at WDW grabs something from one of the QS locations in WS at Epcot for lunch, not a meal but something like nachos or sushi. We don't like being tied down to a certain style of eating, some people also think they need to check the most expensive thing on the menu when comparing prices when that might not really be what they really would have eaten. The first time we paid OOP instead of dining package, I blocked out the prices on the menus, just ordered what I wanted, saved all my receipts and added it up when we got home. I took out any drinks and tip since that would have been OOP anyway, and I came out half of what the dining plan would have been

 

[lovesdumbo]

The DDP doesn't work for me. I prefer to eat what I want rather than the dictates of the plan. I don't want to have to keep track of QS or snack points. When I have done DDP early in the trip I wouldn't want to use DDP points for "cheap" QS or snacks thinking I would use them later for more value but then I would end up having extra points at the end of the trip.

If you want it prepaid have you considered getting gift cards? Then you'll know if DDP would have cost you more or not.

 

[caliope]

The DP doesn't work for us for many of the reasons others have cited. We like to order appetizers but rarely get dessert, and if we do it's shared. We also sometimes have just a mix of appetizers, sides, and salads in lieu of an entree. Being locked into a set part of the menu for my food selection would frustrate me. Plus, we only drink water or beer/wine, never soda or juice, so we'd get no benefit from an "included" drink with the DP (this is also why we don't get the refillable mugs). And, we rarely if ever snack. I think a lot of times, people focus on the cost or the amount of food with the DP, but for us the deciding factor has always been the type of food and beverages we want to order.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

For those that go the "get the most of your dining plan" route- Do you tip based on that?

For instance, if paying OOP, I would pay attention to prices (and my waistline), so I likely won't order an appetizer or dessert. Maybe I order the $15 entree and a glass of water, so I tip based on a $15 tab.

If I have the dining plan, to get my money's worth, I get an $8 appetizer, a more expensive $23 entree, and a $7 dessert (totally guesstimated prices based on previous trips). So now I should tip based on a $38 tab, over twice as much. If everyone in your party does this, suddenly your tip amount for the trip eats up a big part of the "savings" of the dining plan.

We are not big eaters. We typically drink water, and rarely get an appetizer or dessert (certainly never both in the same meal). We do tend to select entrees based on what sounds good, regardless of price. For us, the dining plan would be a huge waste of several hundred dollars. And then you still end up paying OOP for at least one meal per day.

 

[Lisa F]

yeah of course you do, but it doesn't make sense to pay more to eat more than you want to eat regardless of the tip. If you're of the mind of "I will get a $15 entree and drink water" then it doesn't make sense at ALL to get the DDP. If you would like to splurge on vacation (and DDP does not include appetizer, just deluxe DDP does) then you can start doing the math. But if you are not going to splurge AT ALL then it is crazy to get the DDP.

I am honestly not a HUGE eater but I do like restaurants and am a bit of a foodie. The only non-buffet restaurants we are planning are CA Grill and another signature, probably Tiffin, hoping it is good and hoping there is a RoL package with it. The DxDDP does come with appetizers but the portions at signatures tend to be petite and beautifully presented and these are the places I'd more likely order appetizers... in fact when I paid entirely OOP on my last trip I got a sushi, entree, dessert and grown up beverage at ca grill... and I did not leave stuffed (in fact I posted pics of the food on fb and most of my friends were like "that would not fill me up!")

The remainder of my meals are buffets/aycte family style where the price is what it is and you eat what you want. I said on another thread that I could not possibly eat $40 worth of food at one of those places and if I wanted to eat $40 worth of food I'd go to a signature and order $80 worth of stuff You are definitely paying for the experience at those and I never sit down and try to stuff my face to get my money's worth. I like buffets for variety not volume of food, and characters and ease of feeding my kid. And those I'd be doing anyway, I just can splurge a bit more than I was planning to now.

If I was traveling just me and another adult I would probably NOT do the DDP. It is a MUCH better value for kids at buffets where the cost of the buffet alone exceeds the cost of the plan than it is for adults. I would do a lot of sharing (as I used to do when I was still married), fewer buffets, more signatures etc. My style would be totally different. I would not order the cheapest thing on the menu because it is cheap and I would not deny myself the $23 item when there is a $15 item if the $23 item is what I want. It is more often than not the steak that is the big ticket item and I would not order many if any of those... I like filet and might order one of those.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

Based on your current scenario, you'd be better off paying OOP. Like others have said, if you want to prepay for food - put $$$ on a Disney gift card. A convoluted system of credits is never easier than just paying for what you order. And by paying OOP you can actually order what you want, not what will fit into the dining plan.

 

[BalooFan]

I haven't used the DDP for my past few trips. First, this is more food than I normally eat, so I had a lot of unused credits (and I don't consider myself a light eater). It also doesn't allow me the flexibility in terms of what and where I eat that I get paying OOP.

 

[sharonabe]

correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the DP run until midnite the day of checkout? we check in the 23rd, out the 28th.

If you're checking in on the 23rd and out on the 28th, you only have 5 nights, so you get 5 TS, 5QS, 5 snacks per person. You can start using them on the 23rd and can continue to use them until midnight of the 28th, but once you've used all 5, you're done.

 

[mkla2015]

I would run the numbers... For my family, we come out ahead by paying OOP. Last year we got the dining plan without really thinking about it or looking into it and we left with 22 unused QS credits and like 10 snack credits. My kids aren't big eaters and can easily share a kids meal, DH doesn't eat dessert so we threw away more food than we could eat on the dining plan.

That being said, I know many people who love the dining plan and save money with it. It really just depends on your family and your eating habits.

 

[eastendlights]

We have never used the dining plan. We have declined it when it was included for "free" and picked a different package. I don't want something else to keep track of while I am on vacation. We want to eat what we want to eat without having to worry about whether we are maximizing or wasting money.