Which to pay OOP?

[Colleen27]

For our upcoming free dining trip I have more ADRs than TS credits. I don't mind that situation one bit but I am sort of confused by the numbers in trying to figure out which to pay cash for. Conventional wisdom seems to be that two-credit meals are a poor use of basic DDP credits but when I do the math I keep coming up with our only one-credit meal as the lowest value per credit.

This is what I have:

Spirit of Aloha (2cr)
Rose & Crown Candlelight Processional Pkg (2cr)
50s Prime Time

We also have the Osbourne Lights dessert party on our Studios day, so it is rather unlikely that we'll each order our own dessert at 50s Prime Time. Two or three shakes to share among the five of us is more likely.

So is my math solid, or am I missing something? It has been so long since we've had a dining plan that I'm not sure if the old advice really is wrong in our case or if I'm overlooking something.

 

[sharonabe]

Do you have Cat 2 or Cat 3 seating at Spirit? How many kids 9 and under are included in your break down? Lunch or dinner at Rose & Crown?

I'm assuming you have a 4 night stay, so 4 TS credits. Is this correct? That, combined with the meals you have planned may be why that one TS credit is coming up your best bet, but I'd still like to do the math with the above information.

 

[Colleen27]

We have category 2 seating at the luau and dinner at Rose & Crown. We're 4 adults, 1 child, staying for 4 nights. And we have my 17yo son in our party so the "too much food" factor isn't likely to come into play in using up our quick service & snack credits.

 

[sharonabe]

Okay, the luau is $68 and $40 for adult/child. A TS credit is "worth" $38 for an adult, so you are losing $8 per adult for this meal. The child credit is probably breaking even

The R&C CP pk is $57 and $18. The adults are losing about $20 each for this meal, and even the children's credit is not a good use here.

Are you sure you want to keep the dining plan? I think you'll do better OOP. You not only have used all your credits with these two meals, it also means you'll need to pay OOP on some of your days for a meal. 50s Prime Time would be one, but what will you do for the other night?

Your total price for the luau and CP pkg is about $550. Let's say the adults somehow spend $20 each for QS meals, that's $320. If the child eats kid's meals, their 4 meals will be $25. The total for all this is $895. You have 20 snacks to use. Even with the generous $5/snack, your total is $995 which is $77 less than you'll pay for the DDP.

 

[Colleen27]

We have free dining, and when I did the comparison with the room only offer this was the better deal by a fairly wide margin because availability for the room-only offer at the Poly was so limited - we'd have had to upgrade to a more expensive room to get a discount at all. I don't remember the exact numbers now but the free dining package was in the neighborhood of $400-500 more expensive than room only + Undercover Tourist tickets, and I figured the plan will cover more than $500 worth of food.

I wouldn't pay for the dining plan. The value just isn't there at current prices, and my one child-aged kid isn't a big fan of Disney kids' meals. That's why we haven't had it in so long that I'm struggling with the math - we stopped paying for it when DD14 became a "Disney adult" and have only had it free once since then (in Jan. 2012).

This is what I have:

Luau - $311.95/2 credits = $155.97 per credit
Rose & Crown - $267.27/2 credits = $133.63 per credit
50s Prime Time - $127.57 (this one I'm not sure about, because that's projected menu choices and that's always iffy - we may skip dessert completely which would bring the cost/value down by about $20)

So my conundrum is this... Pay for 50s Prime Time out of pocket because it is the probable lowest value-per-credit, or pay for Rose & Crown OOP and have the extra TS credit to use on our Disney Springs day or on arrival night. The latter gets more value out of the dining plan, but the former gives us the flexibility of ordering what we want without thinking about what the plan includes at our only a la carte meal.

 

[sharonabe]

Ahhh....free dining does make a difference!

If you think you would/want to have another TS at Disney Spring, then I might go that way and pay for the CP pkg OOP. However, doing the dessert party on the same night as 50s Prime Time makes me lean more towards that one OOP. You might even want to share some meals or let your Disney adult child order off the kid's menu. Two sample platters and a couple apps should feed the five of you, and you're out of there for less than $100. You need to make sure you have lots of tummy room for those desserts that you're also paying a premium for.

 

[Colleen27]

Ahhh....free dining does make a difference!

If you think you would/want to have another TS at Disney Spring, then I might go that way and pay for the CP pkg OOP. However, doing the dessert party on the same night as 50s Prime Time makes me lean more towards that one OOP. You might even want to share some meals or let your Disney adult child order off the kid's menu. Two sample platters and a couple apps should feed the five of you, and you're out of there for less than $100. You need to make sure you have lots of tummy room for those desserts that you're also paying a premium for.

That's the way I'm leaning. In the real world, my girls usually share meals in restaurants. And with the current state of the kids' menu at 50s Prime Time I suspect DD7 would rather share with me or her sister than have baked chicken while we all enjoy golden-fried goodness or turkey meatloaf while we chow down on the pork-beef version she'd recognize from home! And if we want to sit down instead of grabbing quick service at Disney Springs on our last day, we can stop for a bite at Jock Lindsay's (I missed the opening by one day on my last trip!) rather than sticking to the dining plan eligible offerings.