Which dining plan should we choose?

[mkb3]

We did the dining plan our first trip (without signature dining) because we are heavy eaters on vacation. Every trip since we haven't signed up for it and have spent less money and even did signature dining. Dining plan not worth it for us.

 

[Blondie58]

We did the dining plan one time on a 14-day WDW trip. All other trips we have not purchased the dining plan. We find there is just too much food for us to eat. We ended up bringing lots of gingerbread snacks home. We even got a couple meals and gave to others we met in line who were paying. We just ordered what they wanted and handed to them. For sure that was kind of fun but we are good with one meal a day and a snack. Others may disagree.

 

[MomOTwins]

We did the dining plan one time on a 14-day WDW trip. All other trips we have not purchased the dining plan. We find there is just too much food for us to eat. We ended up bringing lots of gingerbread snacks home. We even got a couple meals and gave to others we met in line who were paying. We just ordered what they wanted and handed to them. For sure that was kind of fun but we are good with one meal a day and a snack. Others may disagree.

I hear this all the time but I really don’t get it. Why buy the plan if you know you don’t want to eat the meals? You wouldn’t pay for hopper tickets and then say they are a bad value because you only wanted to visit one park each day.

 

[blabadie]

We used the deluxe dining plan last time we visited and we loved it. We do a LOT of character meals and love the relaxation of sitting down for a table service lunch and dinner. We only used the breakfast credits when we could do a pre-park opening breakfast bc we like to do rope-drop touring. Still we used up all the meal credits bc we booked a few signature 2-credit restaurants.

We did order more desserts, drinks, etc. than we would have if it weren't included in the plan. However, I obsessively ran the numbers before purchasing and we still saved money using the deluxe package vs. buying our normal dining habits (less items) a la carte.

I can see where it doesn't save everyone money, but for our dining style it saved hundreds of $ on top of getting to enjoy extra dining indulgences.

 

[HMANSION LOVER]

(1) Because you have to pay the equivalent of 2-3 meals onsite every day of your trio when you might otherwise dine off property one day or buy groceries
(2) it discourages guests from going to universal/sea world/beach as a day trip because they are locked in to meals, so they pay for a longer disney park ticket
(3) keeps people at the parks or resort hotels where they may spend $ on other things like gift shops
(4) incentivizes Disney hotel stays for people who like an all inclusive feel (not available at Swolphin or good neighbor hotels)
(5) once you are at a disney restaurant you may buy extra stuff not included on the plan like a second alcoholic drink, appetizer (if not on deluxe plan) or souvenir tinkerbell/buzz lightyear cup for the kiddos (guilty of all these things)

Did you read the same article because you nailed it. When i read the post where someone wasn't quite sure how it was a big money maker in more ways than one , I could not remember what exactly how the article described it but you pretty much said exactly what the author said. Thank you for refreshing my memory.

 

[Blondie58]

I hear this all the time but I really don’t get it. Why buy the plan if you know you don’t want to eat the meals? You wouldn’t pay for hopper tickets and then say they are a bad value because you only wanted to visit one park each day.

We did not buy the dining plan the one time we had it. The plan was offered for "free" because of the time of year we were visiting WDW. None of our other trips have we purchased the dining plan as we know it is not best for us. BUT when free we are not going to turn it down.

However, I have heard others say they like the dining plan because they know exactly how much they will have to save per $$$ and will not have to keep track of out-of-pocket spending during their trip. I respect that decision if that is what they want to do.

Per park hopper: I have known people who have purchased and did not think it was worth the upcharge and have not purchased on subsequent trips. We have annual passes with park hopper and utilize this "extra" frequently. I think after a trip or two everyone decides what is best for their family. We like options.

 

[MomOTwins]

Did you read the same article because you nailed it. When i read the post where someone wasn't quite sure how it was a big money maker in more ways than one , I could not remember what exactly how the article described it but you pretty much said exactly what the author said. Thank you for refreshing my memory.

Haha, nope. Was just feeling bored and spent 10 minutes trying to think hard about it and that's what I came up with. I just had to think about how DDP affected our own behavior and I started to see how it could be a money maker for disney beyond just the obvious.

 

[The WDW 3]

I would think that it has to come back. Seems like it it is more profitable for them than paying out of pocket. They only stopped it because there’s a lack of restaurants to offer right now. It’s coming back...