Will I regret NOT having the DDP?

[rznhal]

We did last trip without DDP…..we missed it! I don't think we will go without it again

 

[serene56]

dining plan would have cost me almost 1000 for 2 adults 1 child. i put 800 on a gift card and came back with 6.36 so my meals were already prepaid

some of my counter services were very cheap-- Earl of Sandwich, Sleepy Hallow. and we did not get a dessert with every meal. Most times we were full with just the food. We had a snack every day. but some snacks were like 1.99 and others were 3.99

We ate our sit down meals at Momma Melrose, Ciderellas castle, 1900 Park Fare, Ohana for breakfast Ohana for dinner, Kona for a breakfast, Tepen Edo, to name a few. We did not worry about what to order to make sure we got our moneys worth etc.

By not getting a dessert with our meals we saved 15.00 each meal. (5.00 times 3- which is what they give you for a dessert on the meal plan)

 

[MillauFr]

I would skip the dining plan. I guess I don't understand why they include deserts, soda pop, and unhealthy snacks. Disney should be a leader in encouraging healthy eating habits. Seems to me the dining plan encourages just the opposite.

 

[mermaids1960]

Good idea to put the cash on a gift card, we shall be havering a few character meals and eating in CRT so think I will cost it up! DDP did seem a cheaper option when I first thought of it

 

[Colleen27]

If it is a peace of mind thing I wouldn't drop the dining plan.

I've run the numbers every which way for the adults-only trip I'm planning right now and the dining plan isn't our best choice financially, but I know my husband... He would not enjoy the trip as well without it. Even using the gift card trick, he'd be thinking about prices knowing that anything leftover on those cards could be applied to the next trip. The DxDDP works out to about $50 more than our money-is-no-object likely restaurant and menu choices but that $50 buys a lot of piece of mind.

 

[Susan C]

I like the convience of it, especially when traveling with another family. It cuts down on the "she had this, you had that" stress. On a recent trip my brother was OK with his 12 year old ordering a steak, because it was prepaid.
My son is a character, he sometimes gets caught SNEAKING an extra counter meal when he runs off with his teenage cousins. I love the freedom it gives the kids.

 

[GigiDisneyfreak]

Maybe free dining will help! Last year, Disney offered Free Dining in November. Then you could keep the suite (LM is usually excluded, I think).

Per mousesavers, the release date for November dates last year was 8/1.

Isn't AoA limited to the quick service plan on free dining. If it is it won't help them.

 

[KaLyn]

Isn't AoA limited to the quick service plan on free dining. If it is it won't help them.

You can always pay to upgrade the dining plan to another level.

 

[North of Mouse]

It's an 'expensive' convenience to have the DDP if that is the main reason you want it IMO. We have never wanted it, still eat everything we want and when - still after several trips saving our receipts - we don't come close to spending the same amount of the DDP.

It is definitely a personal decision and only you can make that call!

 

[North of Mouse]

I would skip the dining plan. I guess I don't understand why they include deserts, soda pop, and unhealthy snacks. Disney should be a leader in encouraging healthy eating habits. Seems to me the dining plan encourages just the opposite.

Why should Disney be the leader in encouraging healthy eating habits?? That's not their concern to police us. We're each responsible for our own eating habits.

Anyway, on vacation we leave the 'rules' at home and enjoy whatever we want for that 1-2 week period. It's all part of our relaxation and enjoyment!

 

[wallskm]

We have gone both with and without the dining plan. In the end we preferred going with no dining plan. When we did it the first time, it was back when you got an app, entree, and dessert with every meal, and tips were included. We loved the idea of everything being fully paid for before going and did the deluxe plan allowing us to eat at least 2 TS meals each day (no interest in TS breakfast!). BUT we found ourselves to be stuffed and never able to eat all that food! We ended up skipping meals (before there was a penalty for doing so) because we simply weren't hungry. We kept all our receipts and in the end broke even.

The second trip was with our 2 kids, but only one was over 3 and would be on the dining plan. DH loves the TS restaurants and we planned 2 TS for nearly every day. We looked into the deluxe dining plan, but it was going to be $2000 for the 3 of us and no longer included tips. So we figured about $400 for tips. We looked at menus and priced out what we thought we would eat and thought at worst we would break even paying OOP and at best we would save money. We decided to go out of pocket. We didn't worry about prices, just ordered as much food as we wanted (we are rarely hungry enough for an app or dessert), and totaled it all up at the end. We ended up spending about $1600 on food including tips, which meant we saved $800 over what we would have spent on the dining plan. We enjoyed the freedom of eating as many TS meals as we wanted without feeling like we had to suck every penny out of the dining plan. And we also didn't order food we didn't actually want. We just went into it knowing we would have a big CC bill at the end and budgeted for that.

We are going again (in 62 days!) and once again are not planning to do the dining plan.

 

[Disney Diva Mom]

It totally depends in your family eating habits. If you do a lot of TS meals and don't have another discount option (TIW, AP or DVC) then the meal plan may be best. But don't forget - if you drop it, you are not saving $1,400. You are just paying for it when you arrive rather than advance.

I way over do it when it comes to planning. I methodically calculate the costs of dinning then compare OOP vs DDP. We have TIW so for us, that is more economical then the meal plan. (By a few hundred dollars for an 11 day trip.) each family is different.

 

[KARm123]

You wouldn't "save" $1400 by not getting the DDP, you would just spend it while in the parks instead of in advance. You may spend a little less, ie not getting a dessert at every meal "just because it's already paid for", or having an app as your entrée... I don't really think you can spend more than the DDP, but I guess it's possible.

We are planning on doing what I'm calling "the Gift Card Dining Plan" I'm (currently) planning on putting $50 per day/per "adult" ($20 for the then 4yr old) on a dedicated FOOD GC. I'm fairly confident this will work out well for us, and keep us ahead of the cost of the DDP. My family doesn't eat the way the DDP dictates, so I know if we paid for the DDP we would still end up paying for food (my oldest prefers to eat apps as his meal more often than not!), and most of the time we'd rather eat our dessert about an hour after a meal, not right away. Also, we are all water drinkers, so we'd be "wasting" the drink at all those meals.

Part of my reasoning for not using the DDP is we probably won't eat at a TS every day of our vacation & I don't want to feel that our vacation is being dictated by dining.

I guess what it comes down to is if it's "savings" you're looking for, I don't think dining is where you are really going to find it... You are going to end up paying for food, one way or the other. Good Luck!!!

 

[jenninaustin]

Originally - we were going to pay OOP - but once I started adding certain meals that wouldn't allow us to "share" (Boma, Hoop de Doo, Fantasmic dining plan, and Garden Grill) I realized it was CHEAPER to do the regular Dining Plan. So the people that talk about really pricing it out based on your exact plan are exactly right. If my TS plans were at places where we could share - the answer might have been different.

The bonus is that now that I'm going to go to go DDP - I was able to add another character meal (1900 Park Fare dinner) and we're spending less than we would OOP without that meal. Cool beans. BUT - that's just our specifics based on those types of meals we wanted (where each person pays a particular price).

 

[ibela]

Originally - we were going to pay OOP - but once I started adding certain meals that wouldn't allow us to "share" (Boma, Hoop de Doo, Fantasmic dining plan, and Garden Grill) I realized it was CHEAPER to do the regular Dining Plan. So the people that talk about really pricing it out based on your exact plan are exactly right. If my TS plans were at places where we could share - the answer might have been different.

The bonus is that now that I'm going to go to go DDP - I was able to add another character meal (1900 Park Fare dinner) and we're spending less than we would OOP without that meal. Cool beans. BUT - that's just our specifics based on those types of meals we wanted (where each person pays a particular price).

Same thing here. Usually get DDP, considered not getting it for my upcoming trip. Made my ADRs, started adding it up, added in snacks (which in August, we need that ice cream), and estimated QS based on what we'd order (sometimes shared meals, no dessert, 1 soda out of 4 people) and it was even. If it's not a cost savings, might as well get the DDP and then not worry about going for the cheaper item at an a la carte restaurant, have the refillable mugs for our pool days, etc. For us though, we have 2 children under 9 and most TS are character meals so are a fixed price.

 

[MrInfinity]

I guess what it comes down to is if it's "savings" you're looking for, I don't think dining is where you are really going to find it... You are going to end up paying for food, one way or the other. Good Luck!!!

Yep. The DDP is not so much about savings. It's about committing to and prepaying for food. For most ppl, the DDP is going to be approximately a wash, plus or minus 10%. You're not going to get rich off of over-eating the DDP, nor off of pinching pennies OOP. The biggest benefit to Disney, I think, is that it gets a family to plan, and pay, for their food in advance. Then while at the restaurant, the same family is more likely to buy that extra $10 specialty drink or appetizer because the human instinct is to think, This meal is already paid for so we can splurge and get this. Whereas if you were looking at the cost of your entrée and thinking These expensive entrees are going to cost us $150 so maybe we should just get water your frugal instinct would tend to kick in and lead to less incremental spending.

I still like the DDP. We've gotten it every trip, and have it again on our May trip. We also have 5/6 days of character meals and several kids on the plan, which makes it a more attractive value, given our plans.