Which Plan is the Best Plan

[OhanaCassidy]

I usually get the DDP but I haven't been to Disney since '08 and I know there has been some changes to the plans so I was wondering what is the best plan for a family of four, the children are 16 and 12. Thank you

 

[JoannaTN7]

I'm going to be going with the standard plan for a family of 4 myself (children 5 and 13). I want to do a lot of character dining and sit down restaurants, but not really any signature dining. I'm also doing a TON of research on the best way to maximize your points; especially in relation to the snack credits. It sounds as if it'll be pretty easy to feed my entire family on that plan each day and get in the restaurants we are most eager to go to.

Of course, what works for my family won't work for everyone's. Just review each plan and see which one has what you want the most!

 

[rwdavis2]

Sorry, but pay out of pocket. Unless you are doing a lot of character meals it probably won't save you money. It's not designed to.

 

[Quellman]

Depends on how much you eat, where you want to eat, and what type of meal it is. All of that can be read about at the Disney site. Then only you can detrermine which would best fit you families eating behavior.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Note that your children will pay adult rates on the Disney Dining Plans. How do they actually eat? Will they order off adult menus? Eat adult portions?

 

[TillyDe]

I used this link to figure it out. It does all the adding for you. All you have to do is enter where you plan on eating and it will tell you the costs of all plans and out of pocket costs.
http://www.distripplanner.com/

 

[loves to dive]

This is a hot topic on the boards and you are going to get many differing opinions. If you are set on a plan, I'd say the regular one, the deluxe plan is a lot of food and the quick service plan is a waste of money. There are so many factors to take into account, as others have said how does your family eat? Are they big supper eaters including soft drinks and a dessert or medium eaters. Are you going for saving money or just the ease of not having to worry about it? Personally, I don't think the plan is worth it but that is because #1, we don't do character meals or buffets, #2 we are not price lookers on menus, #3 people who do the plans tend to try to "maximize their plan" i.e. order the most expensive thing on the menu, sometimes you might not be in a steak mood but would rather have a grilled chicken. Some people prefer appetizers to desserts, those are not included on the plan so you have to factor that in. Some people just want to snack around World Showcase for a meal, unless you eat at a signature restaurant and use 2 credits, you are losing a credit that way. There are many things to factor in. I always recommend going and looking at the menus of the places you are interested in and honestly look at what looks good to you, prices aside. Then add it all up, would that fit into the cost of the dining plan and how you eat? Don't use the dining plan calculators, they are averages and don't really do a good job.

I have a grown son, we've used the plan in the past but have found it just isn't convenient for us, we don't always want a TS every day. I'm a very small person and don't eat alot, I rarely eat snacks and don't ever eat between meals. Normally I'll get a kids meals at a QS for both breakfast and lunch, not because I'm trying to save money but because even they sometimes have more food than I eat. For supper I tend to order an appetizer and a salad, maybe a dessert to share with my son. We both drink adult beverages which are not included on the plan and I don't drink anything other than water if I'm not drinking an adult beverage. He does tend to like his coke sometimes at meals. My son will order an entre at a TS but normally prefers and appetizer to a dessert. Again, he is not huge on snacking between meals either. We love to go around WS and just grab snacks here and there at the different countries for our meals, this will be out meals sometime for lunch, sometimes for supper. We don't make ADRs in advance, they really are a whim thing for us, we might be walking around and at about 1 decide we want a TS meal that night, we have PHs so any park and any time is fine, the meal plans don't tend to work with that.

 

[JoannaTN7]

See, my oldest is picky-picky, but my youngest eats like a grown man. I'm pretty confident we can work this right. We just don't want to have many extra expenses looming over us during our vacation. It will be a big help having it paid for in advance. It's honestly not a discounted rate, but it will be one less thing to worry about while we're there in terms of costs.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

You're all Disney adults, so you won't save much if anything by using a dining plan. Avoid one, unless what you really want is the ability to prepay. Then it is going to depend on what your requirements are for mealtimes. One table service a day, regular plan is OK. Want more TS than that per day, or prefer signature restaurants? Then look at the deluxe plan. Prefer not to attend TS restaurants and grab quick QS? Consider the quick service plan only if you want prepayment, because it's extremely unlikely you will save any money using it.

 

[pa. dad]

You're all Disney adults, so you won't save much if anything by using a dining plan. Avoid one, unless what you really want is the ability to prepay. Then it is going to depend on what your requirements are for mealtimes. One table service a day, regular plan is OK. Want more TS than that per day, or prefer signature restaurants? Then look at the deluxe plan. Prefer not to attend TS restaurants and grab quick QS? Consider the quick service plan only if you want prepayment, because it's extremely unlikely you will save any money using it.

I am also not a big fan of the Dining plans.
First, we have a few off site places that we like and the plan limits you to just on site. Second, I don;t think it saves any money. And lastly I don;t like giving anyone my money beforehand unless I have to. I'd rather have the money sitting in my account collecting interest and available for my use in case of emergency than sitting in Disney's coffers. I don;t like the idea of being locked in and having to eat somewhere so the freedom of being able to eat anywhere works best for us.

 

[Hopefully]

I am the exact opposite of pa dad.
I like the basic DDP. It fits the way we eat. Yes DH & DS eat dessert at meals. We do not have a car and have no interest in eating offsite. With over 100 TS Restaurants on property there are more choices we want to try. We like having it prepaid. I hate a big bill after vacation. We buy the DDP when it fits our budget.
We usually save a bit or come out about even.
You need to look at menus & decide for yourself. It does not work for everyone, but it does for us.

 

[mrzrich]

Use the dining calculator the previous poster gave you to do a few "test days". Most times I have calculated, the dining plans are not a good deal for 4 adults. (your kids are adults in Disney's eyes)

If you want the pre paid feeling, without the constrictions of having to eat how the plan wants you to eat, consider buying gift cards. According to your ticker, you have over 18 months until your trip. If you buy one gift card a month or one every payday, you can go on vacation with your meals covered. Deals can be found on Disney gift cards at places like BJ's and Sam's Club. (I got $150 card for $142) Other people purchase the cards with their Target Red Cards for 5% off. See the budget board for other ways to save on gift cards.

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

We calculated it each time we went and saved 100s paying OOP - No plans - and we eat at some character meals. It doesn't same money since we are a family of 6 and all Disney adults. Now we are APs and we purchase the TIW and now we save way more.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Sorry, but pay out of pocket.

1) Yes.
2) Yes.
3) Yes.
4) There have been LOTS of studies that show DDP is not FINANCIALLY justified.
5) Sure, some say, "But it is convenient".
6) However, so is using a single charge card or simply charging to the room.

 

[strat68]

I like the buy gift cards suggestion above.

 

[serene56]

We put the money on a gift card too-- so those are prepaid meals in my mind We charge to the room and pay with the gift card
My gift card pays for everything dining from meals to tips and extra waters or sodas.
We are not dessert with meal people-- so that alone saves me 10. per day per person. We do do snacks every day. We do one table service and one counter service every day. But some of my counter services are on the cheap side-- like Earl of Sandwich on our arrival day. Or Sleepy Hallow Some times we like a snack that is not included on the dining plan-- kitchen sink mickey pants from the Plaza or Waffles and fruit from sleepy hallow. A snack credit is worth 5 bucks. some times our snack is only 2.99 ( I don't want to put a lot of time thinking that I cant get this because its not a good value for a credit-- paying out of pocket I don't have to think- I just get what I want.
Sometimes I want an appetizer from my sit down instead of the entrée. In Epcot we just get a pizza and sodas-- which the total bill is like 70 bucks)(a Table service is worth 40.00 a counter service is 20 and a snack is worth 5.00 = just to break even)

 

[mindeola]

I think it may make financial sense in some situations, but I have firmly switched to the No Dining plan camp. It does not make sense for our all adult family. We do eat a TS every day and still come out ahead! I am looking to save $500 this trip and that is with telling everyone not to worry about price and order what they want.

4 of the 5 us prefer water with meals
None of us get dessert with meals. We would rather have something sweet later on for a snack.
I have one picky eater that will get apps, salads or kids meals if possible.
I have one grazer that never makes a dent in a meal and eats the leftovers later. That obviously does not work at Disney so she will share meals or get an app for a meal.

In general you have to have a table service meal valued at $37 just to break even! A QS is around $17.

I still pre-pay my meals by saving exactly what the DDP costs. I will use that to pay the end of trip bill. It is all still pre-paid and no hassle AND I am saving money. Win-Win for me.

Tom has a good article on Dining plans over at his blog. http://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-dining-plan-costs-info-tips/

 

[YawningDodo]

I still pre-pay my meals by saving exactly what the DDP costs. I will use that to pay the end of trip bill. It is all still pre-paid and no hassle AND I am saving money. Win-Win for me.

I really like this idea! It's hard to budget for food and worry about the bill looming over me after the trip, so I've considered the DDP off and on despite knowing it'd lose me money if I didn't manage to snag a free dining offer. My online bank lets me set money aside in/spend from "goals," so it'd be easy to set the money aside specifically for dining and just tell it to pull all the food charges from that fund.

 

[Nancyg56]

I am the exact opposite of pa dad.
I like the basic DDP. It fits the way we eat. Yes DH & DS eat dessert at meals. We do not have a car and have no interest in eating offsite. With over 100 TS Restaurants on property there are more choices we want to try. We like having it prepaid. I hate a big bill after vacation. We buy the DDP when it fits our budget.
We usually save a bit or come out about even.
You need to look at menus & decide for yourself. It does not work for everyone, but it does for us.

We use the DDP as well as the dxddp. You need to know how your family eats and his they order. It works for us, but I do a lot of planning ahead, and sn pretty good at guessing whst everyone will order.

 

[Lisa F]

It works financially in some situations. I am doing a split stay and first 4 nights on plan - cost of plan: $331, value of food planned: $480. savings of $150 is not so bad (that is assuming $4/snack so may even come out a few $$ ahead). In particular if you have disney kids and do a lot of character meals it works out very well and I think the longer you are on the plan the harder it is to make it a great value as you exhaust the great value options and frankly just get sick of all of that eating.

that said, you are 4 disney adults so you are looking at something like $260 a night for DDP. You can probably do better than that OOP if you care to. If you are ok with just paying that and not worrying about another thing... then go for it. Different people have different personalities and prioirites.

I'm not sure why people care SO MUCH about what other people do. Sounds like you are going into it with eyes wide open about what you are paying for and what you're going to get.

I think the standard DDP is the most popular and if you're not going to eat 2 meals a day with one being a signature or 3 ts meals a day, the best bet by far. I agree that the QS plan is not worth it to pay for, you will quickly exhaust the good value stuff and eat a lot of mediocre desserts... you can do better OOP as there are some very very good choices that are not so expensive at Qs places.