To Dining Plan or Not to dining plan.. that is the question..

[sharonabe]

Good to know. Has this always been the case, or is it something new(ish)? I wish I'd known about it back when I was using up extra two-day tickets from past free dining trips!

It's at least two years old and maybe more. You won't find it ANYWHERE on Disney's site or in the literature. I'm not even sure how "we" became aware of the possibility, but someone came along and said they'd called and done it. As state you do have to call; you cannot do it online.

 

[Figmentmommy]

Good to know. Has this always been the case, or is it something new(ish)? I wish I'd known about it back when I was using up extra two-day tickets from past free dining trips!


And carrot cake cookies! I pack containers to bring a couple of those home every trip.

Yum!

I did the ticketless package last in Dec 2015 so not that new - and it wasn't that new then if I recall.
But for Free Dining you always need to get tickets from Disney as a package.

 

[mamamelody2]

We have only been to WDW twice. Both times with free DDP. There is no way we could even come close to breaking even if we had to pay for the plan. It was DH and I and our kids ages 16, 13, 10 and we were able to share meals so many times at QS places (we could have at TS places, too, we just didn't bother). Several meals we just got 3 meals for the 5 of us and had plenty of food. We ate at Le Cellier, which is a 2 credit meal, but we still ended up with 10 meals left over and 10 snacks. So, we ended up bringing home 40 bags of Goofy candy. This was an 8-night trip.
Also, with the sizes of the meals and all those TS desserts that we really didn't need, we wasted so much food. It was a bit nauseating.

 

[usmccobrawife]

last time we went to disney we stayed off property with no dining plan, had no adr, and we had a great time..this time we are splurging staying on site grand floridian (with the military rate) and booking several character meals...because we have 2 kids, I feel like the DDP was worth it, even though once they are all adult prices i probably will never do it again. i've now booked all 7 days a character meal, and those alone are kids prices of 25 or more and then you get an extra quick service CREDIT and 2 snacks.... my 7 year old has autism and will not eat hardly anything so I've planned on eating all 3 meals using our credits and sharing quick service platters, with all the snacks i'm sure we will have plenty....we are staying onsite and spending quite a bit more this time, but we know its a splurge, we've saved for it, and we won't go to disney for a few years at least....i love having everything already paid for already too!

 

[Roxyfire]

Most DDP pro people will say the tips don't factor in, because you pay them no matter if you have DDP or pay OOP, so I doubt they are including them in any savings. The savings are just on the cost of the meal itself.

I know for MY family the tip amount is a factor. We are a family of four Disney adults now, and we don't WANT four desserts on the table. We're happy with sharing just one. So that's $20-25 worth of food at each TS I'm tipping on if on DDP that I'm not tipping on if OOP. We also prefer water with perhaps a coffee here and there. So that's another $10-15 at each TS meal. Even on the low end, that's $5 or so MORE just on tips for one meal. That pays for a snack if paying OOP.

Exactly. Yes you tip either way but you're adding more money for the tip for the higher cost of the dining plan meal. Not to mention you pretty much have to have some "higher value" TS each day to keep yourself even if you have adults. I always end up thinking too big in the planning stage and come back to reality once we're on the vacation. I'll drop reservations without question off the dining plan. I'm just not willing to throw money away for the artificial peace of mind. I'd be more concerned about maximizing my value which is nearly impossible with a 10+ year old who eats like a bird.

Best choice in my mind, if you can, just pay as you go. Second best choice, buy gift cards that are your budget and eat what you want when you feel like it. Even if you don't spend it all, you can still use it on other stuff. Worst choice, again in my mind, is the dining plan. Just because those credits expire. If there was some mechanic to refund unused dining credits then it would be fine but they aren't going to do that. They fully expect people will use those credits on bags of candy.

 

[persimmondeb]

Now this is us, so this may not be so for everyone, but I can't imagine ordering whatever we wanted and being at less than the dining plan. We're big eaters, particularly my DS, and we like the expensive stuff. I've never not been ahead on the dining plan. We do order things on the dining plan we wouldn't if they weren't included, but it's because we don't want to pay for it, not that we don't want it or won't eat it. Yes, our tips are higher with it, but not enough to negate the value for us. We budget for the tips, just like we budget for extras like alcohol and OOP items.

I used to be able to get value out of even QSDP, but the current incarnation seems to have made that very difficult even for me, although that might not be true of next year's plan. We're going in December, and I ran numbers for DDP, and we were definitely ahead, so I booked it. I am going to upgrade to DxDP when I pay our balance, at least partly since we ended up with another ADR, and since we're only two nights resort stay, it made far more sense to me to just add it, rather than paying $100+ OOP. That DxDP will be whimpering for mercy by the time we're done with it.

But... A)We enjoy eating that way. B)We also appreciate the challenge. C)For the way we budget, pre-paying is a major advantage. This is a stretch for us, and in order to make it a successful one, we need to work every angle. We took a trip without it once, and of course it coincided with a couple of unexpected expenses. The results have been dubbed "the cranky mommy dining plan". We are not doing that again, even if we could probably technically not starve on less than the cost of the dining plan.

It very, very much depends on your family and your eating habits. None of us drink plain tap water as our primary beverage with meals. DS and I might have mineral water instead of soda or wine. I'll occasionally order an appetizer as a meal to save money, particularly if I want dessert, but it's to keep the bill down. If one of us decided they'd rather have the vegetable pasta than steak or fish or seafood, the rest of the party would start suspecting an alien invasion. Yes, we want the snacks. And dessert too. So it's not particularly onerous to maximise the plan, and often doesn't really require a lot of thought.

But that's for my family. It doesn't work that way for everyone. If it's a good match for the way you eat, it might be for you.

 

[hllb]

In my analysis of the value, I wasn't including any desserts or drinks. Paying out of pocket ended up being a few hundred less for my family of 5. But, if we added drinks at 1 meal a day and even 2 desserts a day, it would be a wash money wise. Yes, we could probably save money out of pocket by being careful what we ordered and where we ate, but I don't see if saving more than a couple hundred dollars for our trip. I'll still compare the rate rate discount to the play/stay/dine once it's released (hopefully later this month?), but I'm leaning toward the dining plan right now.

 

[sharonabe]

Yes, we could probably save money out of pocket by being careful what we ordered and where we ate, but I don't see if saving more than a couple hundred dollars for our trip

See, it's that "being careful" that rubs us OOPs the wrong way. We don't have to be careful to save money by paying OOP; the dining plans just don't fit the way we WANT and LIKE to eat. It sounds like they do fit YOUR family, and that's the difference. Someone posted last week with their list of ADRs and they were only adults. Without even asking and knowing how/what they like to eat/drink with their meals, out of the restaurants they had chosen only ONE was even at break even status. All the other TS meals had them losing $8-10 pp/per day. They were happy with the restaurants they chose, so OOP was the best choice for them. They didn't have to "be careful;" they just chose where they WANTED to eat.

 

[hllb]

See, it's that "being careful" that rubs us OOPs the wrong way. We don't have to be careful to save money by paying OOP; the dining plans just don't fit the way we WANT and LIKE to eat. It sounds like they do fit YOUR family, and that's the difference. Someone posted last week with their list of ADRs and they were only adults. Without even asking and knowing how/what they like to eat/drink with their meals, out of the restaurants they had chosen only ONE was even at break even status. All the other TS meals had them losing $8-10 pp/per day. They were happy with the restaurants they chose, so OOP was the best choice for them. They didn't have to "be careful;" they just chose where they WANTED to eat.

"us OOPs"? Who do you mean? Like ME who has gone there and done OOP most of the time? My post was entirely about MY FAMILY. I mapped out all the restaurants we planned to eat at. I added up the items my family would be likely to order. Going OOP won't save my family more than a couple hundred dollars and that is being careful what we order by NOT ordering drinks that cost money (water only) and NOT ordering desserts. Yes, that is being careful as my kids would prefer to order a pop or milk and definitely would sometimes want dessert.

I added my reply because people had asked about my cost comparisons using the tools vs. my by hand method. You sound very angry - I have no idea how my post offended you.

 

[sharonabe]

"us OOPs"? Who do you mean? Like ME who has gone there and done OOP most of the time? My post was entirely about MY FAMILY. I mapped out all the restaurants we planned to eat at. I added up the items my family would be likely to order. Going OOP won't save my family more than a couple hundred dollars and that is being careful what we order by NOT ordering drinks that cost money (water only) and NOT ordering desserts. Yes, that is being careful as my kids would prefer to order a pop or milk and definitely would sometimes want dessert.

I added my reply because people had asked about my cost comparisons using the tools vs. my by hand method. You sound very angry - I have no idea how my post offended you.

Sorry, I'm not angry, and you didn't offend me. You're right, DDP is going to be the right choice for your family, because you would have to be careful what you ordered otherwise.

I'm just posing another view that says not everyone has to be careful to still make OOP the best choice. It all depends on how you WANT to eat. It does sometimes feel like some DDP users think those of us who pay OOP are making dining sacrifices to do so. I'm not saying YOU are in that camp.

As I said, it was that "being careful" that brought out the "everyone is different" in how they eat and how they pay. That's all.

 

[hllb]

Sorry, I'm not angry, and you didn't offend me. You're right, DDP is going to be the right choice for your family, because you would have to be careful what you ordered otherwise.

I'm just posing another view that says not everyone has to be careful to still make OOP the best choice. It all depends on how you WANT to eat. It does sometimes feel like some DDP users think those of us who pay OOP are making dining sacrifices to do so. I'm not saying YOU are in that camp.

As I said, it was that "being careful" that brought out the "everyone is different" in how they eat and how they pay. That's all.

Tone is fun to interpret on the internet LOL, sorry. This will be my 4th time going. I've only had the dining plan once (when it was "free"). The first time we went, I was surprised how much we spent on food when we only had 2 kids and they were 5 and 6 at the time. I'm still on the fence for our next trip, but given the desserts and drinks, unless the room only discount is fantastic (which historically for our hotel it hasn't been), we'll probably do the play/stay/dine discount.

 

[bbangel]

I revisited whether the dining plan would be worth it for me since I have a 2 night stay for part of my vacation in March and TS meals for both days. With the addition of the alcohol and resulting rise in the cost per day of the dining plan I could not make it come close to breaking even, even when ordering the most expensive options! Good to know I never have to ask again whether the dining plan will be worth it for me and will fondly remember when it was under $40 a night and included the tip - sigh.

 

[Rich M]

This debate definitely makes me think more about this and makes me want to try it without the dining plan to see if I actually do come ahead without it. This trip is free dining for us and if I take off dining completely I owe them $350 so I will keep it this trip but might try the next one without it just to see.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We have never had dining plan and never will. We wT at TS.m every night snd sometimes for lunch. Like a bottle of wine every night and maybe cocktail before. Often get apps and share entree. The TIw card is muuch better value with its 20% discount on everything including liquor.

 

[awalker1015]

Did DDP first trip. Omitted it next trip to see what happened. We came out ahead by a lot and that was ordering whatever we wanted. Like others have said, the plan itself just doesn't fit for us. We are not big breakfast people and like to eat in the room before rope drop to maximize park time. We also don't like to be tied to ADRs and are more likely to play lunch and dinner by ear. In fact our favorite dinner plan is to visit a resort lounge and have appetizers and skip the entree. Disney food is ok but nothing any of us plan our trip around. But I get why others do.

I've never felt paying OOP was a hassle. Months before a trip I will watch for 4x the fuel points at Kroger and buy Disney gift cards. I combine them all to one or two cards before the trip and use the gift card app to track the balance. We use our magic bands to pay everywhere and just use the gift cards to pay the balance at the hotel front desk. May sound like work but it really isn't. Last trip the fuel points paid for much of the gas to make the drive down and that was worth it to me.

 

[Best_Vacation_EVER!]

We did 2 trips with DDxDP and found it way too much food but we really enjoyed our foodie trips as we tried things/restaurants we wouldn't normally try. When I think about the amount of food we wasted I shutter a bit... We also really had to keep track of the credits used.

We found having to track credits was a bit of a pain (just one example, Teppan Edo double charged us for our meal and we wasted at least an hour having the front desk fix it) and there were certain restaurants that processed things a bit differently (so that complicated things for us) figuring out if the 18% was already added for tip or not was sometimes a challenge (a number of places did even though we were a party of 3) and they would give you 2 or 3 versions of the bill as I don't think every server has the same grasp of the DDP. Most restaurants weren't an issue but there were a few which complicated things and we found ourselves checking at the front desk to see what was actually processed. With DDXDP there were some wait staff where they pressured us to add appetizers or dessert where we specifically said we didn't want them ...

I don't think we saved money with the Dining plan at all but for at least one of the trips it mitigated some exchange rate issues we might have experienced since when we booked and paid the currency was more in our favour .... and I was able to tell DH to not worry about prices.

Our next trip we're not doing DDP and we've only booked 6 "must-do for us" meals over a 10 night trip so we'll indulge on those but we will leave everything else to decide based on mood/park level/etc.. at the time. We have booked a couple of events also but I'm looking forward to a trip where we're not tied to getting to that next ADRs and we get to go with the flow...

 

[rosiebean]

I've priced it out, and the DDP just doesn't work for my family.

Just last month, we stayed for eight nights and ate wherever and whenever we wanted. We had some pre-planned ADRs and some spur-of-the-moment ones. Had snack and breakfast food in our room as well as wine. I had adult drinks in the parks/by the pool/at dinner, and we snacked at counter services places several times. At some table service places, we each had a huge entree, some we had apps or split a meal. Some days, my kids weren't that hungry, so they ordered from the kid's menu. Some meals, I ordered from the kid's menu!

Even with alcohol added, even with a 2 dining credit character meal and a 1 credit character buffet, I saved a ton compared to the DDP for three Disney adults. We just do not average $200 plus in food a day.

I save ahead of time to pay for meals while at WDW too (instead of paying Disney for the DDP, I pay myself in my savings account). I don't feel like I have to be careful when dining out either, though I do keep an eye on all costs while we're on vacation (the room charge feature on the MDE app is great!). Sure, there were times when I told my kids they couldn't order an appetizer each plus an adult entree each plus dessert each...but not because I was being cautious with money, but because I knew they weren't going to eat everything and we go boxes wouldn't work (and I hate wasting food). And the few times I said 'well, why don't you split an app and split the steak,' they still left food on the plate because they were full. For us, OOP has always made sense.