Trying to decide if we should do the dining plan??

[NJDisneymom]

I know this is the most asked question but maybe some experts can take a look and tell me if we are good "candidates" for the meal plan????

We are doing an 8 night stay - 3 adults, 2 kids (one "adult" is an 11 year old girl who eats like a bird but her 8 year old brother can eat an adult meal on occassion). Comes to $1300 for the dining plan.

I have booked 7 table service ADRs so far.... Crystal Palace, Mama Melrose/Fantasmic, Coral Reef, Tony's, Tusker, Ohana, SciFi and am trying to get Chef Mickey as my 8th. I might even need another TS meal in there, so maybe a cheaper one we'd cancel or pay OOP. Then we'd use our 8 counter services I'm sure. I am not sure if we'd need more meals than that during our stay (might be some days we need a 3rd meal??).

Would we save money by doing the dining plan?? I love the idea of prepaying but not if its going to cost us more in the long run. I don't want to skimp on meals and my kids still enjoy a few characters but if we went OOP we wouldn't need desert with every meal, etc. so I can't figure out if the dining plan will save us money or cost us more in the long run.

 

[Faldred]

Given the number of fixed-price meals and lower-end options like Sci-Fi, I'd really suggest running the numbers with menu prices (plus 6.5% tax!) to see if you'd come out ahead.

 

[hannahdrewmom]

I'd run the numbers too... but with 5 fixed price meals and coral reef... you will be close. At first I was thinking with your 11 year old ddp wouldn't be the way to go... but with that many buffets it might be. Which meal is Crystal Palace, Ohana, Chef Mickey and Tusker House? Depending on breakfast/dinner it might make a difference too!

 

[amy-momofthree]

Last time, we did not do the dining plan and it worked out ok for us. However, I like the idea of ordering whatever entree you want on the DP. For our upcoming trip, I did the numbers for our family. We have 2 adults, 2 kids and 1 baby.

It came out about $10 cheaper to do the dining before adding in the snacks with it. So, 4 snacks a day (figure each snack is $3) adds up to $84 for our trip (7 days) that is a pretty big savings depending on how many days you stay. When we weren't on the dining plan, we still got snacks each day. In the end, I really think you do save on the dining plan. Just make sure to pick restaurants that get the most out of your table service credit. For us, we do lots of character meals so it is worth it.

 

[TDC Nala]

If you do get the dining plan, at the a la carte places have the 11 year old order an adult meal, the 8 year old order a child meal, and have them eat each other's meal. Obviously this doesn't work at any buffets or family style places.

 

[VAN]

When factoring the costs, don't forget what is NOT included in the Dining Plan ... alcoholic beverages, appetizers/salads, and GRATUITY. I don't think the dining plan would pay for us and the way we eat on vacations.

If you plan to eat at a lot of buffets and TS restaurants anyway, it might end up being worth it.

We've been at WDW during "Free" dining ... we did enjoy it; however, our whole way of touring and vactioning was centered around those darn TS reservations. If we were eating at 6:00 pm, we needed to be sure to eat our other meals early enough so we would be hungry. Normally on vacation, we only eat two meals a day with a snack. With the dining, my DH and I would split a CS breakfast and a CS lunch. In many cases (especially near the end of the trip), we just were NOT hungry, but went to our TS anyway!!!

We used almost all of our snack credits at the Food & Wine Festival kiosks! Otherwise, we would have had, like, 15 of those left at the end of the trip!!!

Crunch the numbers remembering that you still need to add gratuity to the cost of the DP.

 

[NJDisneymom]

If you do get the dining plan, at the a la carte places have the 11 year old order an adult meal, the 8 year old order a child meal, and have them eat each other's meal. Obviously this doesn't work at any buffets or family style places.

this is the plan if we do the dining plan!

Another question.... if we DO NOT do the dining plan, my 11 year old still has to order off the adult menu, correct?? For instance, we can't go somewhere and get 3 kids meals w/ our 2 adult meals??

ETA: alcohol is not an issue, we do not drink. Last time we did the dining plan gratuity WAS included - now that plan was sooo worth it. Just not sure this new plan is.

 

[Faldred]

You could order a kid's meal OOP for the 11-year-old just fine, by all accounts.

As for going DDP, if you had more kids (and DP kids), it might make sense, because you'll save big on the buffets. I just worry that the "adults" on plan won't get enough value based on your restaurant choices to make the plan worthwhile.

 

[TDC Nala]

You could order a kids meal at most a la carte places for an 11 year old. There's always some reports of a server saying "no" but it tends to depend on what server you get, there doesn't seem to be any hard and fast rule that "this restaurant will never allow anyone over 9 to order from a kids menu."

You could order the kids meal for the 11 year old, pay cash for it, and use the credits for other adults in the party to go to more restaurants. This would probably get more value out of DDP than using a credit for which you paid an "adult" price to order off the child's menu.

Only place this won't work is the buffets/fixed price places where they charge "per person." They will always charge an 11 year old as an adult, no matter how much they eat.

 

[DisneyWorldPlanner]

Hmmm this is a tough choice. To DDP or not. I would say go for it. I think you are going to come out close and it is so nice to be able to order what you want from the menu without feeling the prices are all you can stare at. It's Vacation!

Then again I wouldn't blame you for not getting the DDP and saving some Money if it worked out that way!

 

[Cafeen]

Just to echo others, do a quick write up of what you'd likely order at the a la carte places, add them up with the buffet/fixed prices places and see what you come out to.

My gut tells me that you should be alright, assuming that most of those buffets are for dinner. (Ohana and CP). CM is pricey enough any time of day to not matter so much, and Tusker breakfast is cheap enough to bring it down a little bit (for the adults at least).

A la carte meals always make the math slightly tougher though, since they're variable (and I'm lazy!). Though, if both of those are dinner, you should be fine. Even if one is lunch and the other is dinner, the fixed prices (other than Tusker) and Coral Reef (a more pricey TS) should help to balance it out.

 

[mom2randj]

We are in the same boat....3 adults and 1 kid (with the 3rd adult being a skinny 10 year old). After going over this over and over, we have settled on doing the Dining Plan....b/c on vacation we don't want to be worried about meal prices and really want to try some nice restaurants (which I know we wouldn't do if we didn't do the plan). I am a budgeter by nature and am always price comparing, bargain shopping, etc, but as this will be our first trip to WDW...and probably last for at least a while, I really want to relax and not let $$ rule my decisions on vacation. Now, don't get me wrong...WDW is not cheap and we have to budget our pennies beforehand planning this trip, but while on vacation I want to relax and enjoy myself. Plus, everyone keeps telling me how expensive food is there anyway.

Finally, I have read tons of reviews myself and MOST say they come out about even when comparing DDP to OOP. Sure, you wouldn't eat as much with snacks and desserts if paying oop, but like I said, the fact that I am not looking at menu prices when ordering is pricesless imo.

 

[Aristocath]

The great thing about the DP is you've already paid for it before your trip. When you are on vacation your budget conscious husband won't freak out when the 10 year old orders steak every night.

Seriously, I love the dining plan with our three boys because two of them are "Disney Adults" and while it costs more, they get what they want to eat and they get dessert. Now our youngest son got terribly bored with the kids meal choices and he was 7 on our last trip. If we go back before he turns ten, I'd upgrade him to the adult plan even though that means I'd pay more for his ticket.

 

[bjmzl]

I agree with having every thing paid for, that makes it worth it for me. We have always done the DDP but this time we are doing the quick service for the first time, because we like be able to enjoy vacation instead of having to worry about time for a dinner at a certain time.

 

[NJDisneymom]

thanks for the input... I did a detailed list of our 8 likely table service meals and just an average for our 8 counter service and it came to about $1100 - that didn't include the drinks, snacks or desserts (reasoning on the desserts is we wouldn't order them if not on the dining plan) - so averaging those costs in there it would probably be over $1400 making the dining plan cost of $1300 worth it. Now, we probably COULD eat for less than $1,300 but I like the convenience of having it paid for in advance and not worrying about ordering a $28 meal instead of the $18 meal to save a few bucks.

 

[kifuller4]

When my family went in August 2010, we did the DxDP... which included the app and desert at EVERY meal. I must stay it was a lot of food, but WELL worth it. I loved the idea of not having to worry about what to order... it was all paid for. There were 3 adults and 2 kids... and we saved almost $500 dollars. We did leave 5 credits (1 for each of us) because we were just WAY too stuffed to eat one evening.
It did kind of suck having to make sure we were at our resturant at a certain time, but I seemed to plan it pretty good, with the kids being hot and needing a break.
I don't think I'll ever go w/o some kind of dining plan... even if it's just the quick service.

 

[SonjaLeigh]

I love the DDP, however, we always have left over CS and we still gain weight. I like the whole prepaying idea so I don't have that headache. That said, I prefer to not have the DDP in the summers when it's just too hot to eat.

 

[Faldred]

Now, we probably COULD eat for less than $1,300 but I like the convenience of having it paid for in advance and not worrying about ordering a $28 meal instead of the $18 meal to save a few bucks.

This is a point I try to make when discussing the dining plans. In many cases, going with a dining plan will cost more than if you went out-of-pocket, if simply because you would order less or less expensive selections when paying item by item.

However, you then have to look at what you're getting for that extra money, and decide whether or not that makes an improvement in your total vacation experience that's worth it to you to spend that much more.

 

[Cafeen]

This is a point I try to make when discussing the dining plans. In many cases, going with a dining plan will cost more than if you went out-of-pocket, if simply because you would order less or less expensive selections when paying item by item.

However, you then have to look at what you're getting for that extra money, and decide whether or not that makes an improvement in your total vacation experience that's worth it to you to spend that much more.

This x 100,000. This is where experience trumps the raw savings.

Another example of this is my upcoming trip (yes, I use this example a lot ), if I went OOP, I'd only be spending about $660, with DxDDP, I'm spending just over $1,000 (estimated at $1,002 actually) That extra $340 "enables" me to dine at more signatures and more TS overall, which I enjoy more than CS. I also enjoy apps and desserts, but typically would skip them if they weren't included.

So, by spending that extra $340 in getting DxDDP, my vacation is enhanced with better restaurants and more entitlements. At the same time, I'm still saving close to $200 compared to if I had done that plan OOP (I'm essentially getting $1,172 worth of food, drink, tips for that $1002 amount).