Which dining plan or none?

[Wood Nymph]

The DDP will be a good deal for our daughter, son-in-law and two kids age 5 and 3 because of the price of the plan for the kids. I think it will be a break even deal for us. We have either buffets, character buffets or all you can eat meals for 4 of the 6 table services. The costs for the kids meals OOP versus DDP make it a bargain for her family. I think for just my husband and I we will probably break even, since I think on the 2 days we are doing a normal table service restaurant, we won't get our value out of the plan. It is our first time doing the dining plan and it will be interesting to see if we come out ahead or not.

 

[MrRomance]

I think it's very difficult to make the DDP cost effective. I couldn't eat 3 big meals a day and to break even you'll need to do that. The regular DP would probably work better for you. You could still get your character meals (paying OOP for any extras that weren't covered). I would say that the Dinner Shows are better if you pay OOP anyway, because DP reservations you can only get Cat 2 or 3 and it's not a good use of credits.

 

[ses1230]

We're going in May and I have been fighting with myself on "to dinning plan or to not dining plan". I am a DVC member so we get a 10% discount at a lot of restaurants but still not sure which way is more economical. 5 people going....ages 43, 34, 19, 16 and 12. I just wish there was a clear answer! Ugh.

It might be better for you to price out dining with the TIW card.

 

[Daphne W]

I definitely agree that the dining plans used to be a better deal economically -- but we still get the deluxe plan.

In addition to what we feel is the benefit of having the trip paid for in advance, I admit that having the plan allows me to enjoy my meals in a way that I don't when we're paying OOP. I get kind of frazzled about trying to save money/trying to cut back ("really? are we that hungry? do we really need lunch or would some snacks do it?") and it's really, really hard for me to look at a menu and order what I really want instead of ordering something that's the less expensive options, skip appetizer and dessert, etc.

So while I don't, on the other hand, always order the MOST expensive thing just to get "value" out of the plan, I do enjoy meals more and love not feeling any pressure to go cheap on myself. We do tend to do signature meals for most dinners, and then TS for lunch or breakfast.

Finally, I also really love the special freedom the plan allows me to just say "sure!" when DS asks for popcorn, or ice cream, etc. We usually end up in the resort gift shop using up snack credits our last day, but in the meantime it's great to be on vacation and say "yes!" to special treats without a second thought.

This is exactly how we look at the Dining Plan. We love the Dining Plan and cannot imagine going to Disney without it. We do the Deluxe Dining Plan now and get to eat at places we would never pay OOP for.