Worth if for a family of four?

[fairyqueentati]

Since we are allowed to bring in our own food into the park, is the Dining Pass worth it? I'm thinking that that with a family of four, the numbers start adding up. I understand that the trip is not going to be cheap, but is having this covered a great benefit?

 

[Aliceacc]

The consensus seems to be that it varies widely from one family to the next. You need to crunch the numbers to see.

Here is our experience:
For our 2012 trip, we skipped the DDP. We got YES park tickets, which saved us a lot on park tickets. But it meant we couldn't have a package, so no DDP.

I HATED it!!!!!!

I felt as though we were hemorraghing money. It got to where we would get to our ADR and the first thing I would look at was the price of the entrée, not what was actually on the menu. I ate a lot of chicken that week. Not because we couldn't afford more, but because the money seemed to be flying out of our hands.

Not ever again. We work too hard, save too hard, for that to happen again.

When we got home from the trip, I ran the numbers. The money we had saved from the YES tickets had essentially been eaten up by the lack of a dining plan.

Again, your experiences will probably be different. For us, the convenience of having a prepaid dining plan is a significant thing. Food at WDW, like any theme park, is EXPENSIVE.

Bringing your food in works well for some. To be honest, I hate the idea. I do that 51 weeks a year. That one week I'm away, I don't want to worry about menu planning or lunch bags.

Also, if your kids are young enough that it matters (mine still are), the character meals offer a great chance to interact with the characters without waiting on line or using a fastpass.

 

[chartle]

It depends on what and where you want to eat and then you have to do the math.

 

[sharonabe]

It also depends on your party of 4. Are you all Disney adults (10 and up)? Are two of you Disney kids? Do you want to do character dinners? Do you enjoy soda/tea/coffee with your meals or are you water drinkers?

There really is a middle ground between bringing in all your food and the DDP. My family of four are all Disney adults and we can eat VERY well (not just chicken), including more TS than the DDP allows for less money than the DDP costs. I am the opposite of the PP. When we've used the DDP, I want to make sure we get the full value out of it, so I'm looking at the prices for the most expensive meal and ordering that even if all I really wanted was a salad or a pasta dish. I like the freedom of OOP to order what I want and to not feel like I need to eat, eat, eat in order to not lose money.

Best advice is for you to go look at the menus of places you think you want to eat and "order" your families meals. Order what you WANT to eat regardless of the price, high or low. Pretend money is absolutely no object. Tally it up, add the 6.5% tax and see what you have. If you're over the cost of DDP, get the DDP, if you're under or right at the cost, I would say forego the DDP.

 

[Nancyg56]

I agree that value is subjective, and when it comes to a DDP, it really comes down to how you will react to WDW prices, if you want to bring your food into the parks, if your kids will want to go to character meals, and if you tend to check prices before you order.

I went one time without the plan and I hated it. I ordered what I wanted, but I did look at the prices before I did. And it was just me! With my family, no way! We get the plan, and we do not look back. I don't care if everyone wants their own dessert. I will book whatever meals the family wants, knowing that I am not going to cringe when we get the bill.

We do tend to stretch our CS credits, but it is more to ensure that I am not wallowing around the parks, overfull. Two of us may split a breakfast at teh resort, and then again a meal at lunch. We both can share the entree, and will split dessert. I love dessert! The we go wherever we want for dinner, and order without thinking about it.

The DDP is not for every family, and I will not suggest that it is for you, but I will say that before you decide the value, you need to determine what you will want to eat once you arrive, and you should be realistic. I thought my family would be fine with a very light breakfast and ended up with a mutiny by husband. Check out the menus and think about when you are going and if you really will bring lunch or dinner n with you.

 

[sbeets]

I agree that value is subjective, and when it comes to a DDP, it really comes down to how you will react to WDW prices, if you want to bring your food into the parks, if your kids will want to go to character meals, and if you tend to check prices before you order.

I went one time without the plan and I hated it. I ordered what I wanted, but I did look at the prices before I did. And it was just me! With my family, no way! We get the plan, and we do not look back. I don't care if everyone wants their own dessert. I will book whatever meals the family wants, knowing that I am not going to cringe when we get the bill.

We do tend to stretch our CS credits, but it is more to ensure that I am not wallowing around the parks, overfull. Two of us may split a breakfast at teh resort, and then again a meal at lunch. We both can share the entree, and will split dessert. I love dessert! The we go wherever we want for dinner, and order without thinking about it.

The DDP is not for every family, and I will not suggest that it is for you, but I will say that before you decide the value, you need to determine what you will want to eat once you arrive, and you should be realistic. I thought my family would be fine with a very light breakfast and ended up with a mutiny by husband. Check out the menus and think about when you are going and if you really will bring lunch or dinner n with you.

Haven't been to WDW for 6 years so help me out. 6 years ago we always split CS meals because they were so large. I still remember ordering pizza and it was huge! Two of us couldn't finish it. Are the serving sizes still that large? That may help determine whether or not DDP is cost effective. We're on free dining so we have it again.

 

[Minniesgal]

The answer is it depends on how you want to eat.

We hate it. First of all you still have tips and other stuff to pay so for me it isn't all that great on a practicality level. Second we hate eating in the parks and rarely do it. We tend to eat at near resorts or go back to the room. Thirdly we don't eat 1QS and 1TS per day it is just too much food. We never ever spend what the DDP costs.

 

[Nancyg56]

Haven't been to WDW for 6 years so help me out. 6 years ago we always split CS meals because they were so large. I still remember ordering pizza and it was huge! Two of us couldn't finish it. Are the serving sizes still that large? That may help determine whether or not DDP is cost effective. We're on free dining so we have it again.

Some places serve large entrees, some so not. COsmic Rays and Pecos bill in the MK have plenty to share. COlumbia Harbor House, maybe, depending on what you order. I always get a sandwich, and I could shae that with my daughter in law.

I wished we had shared the pork in BOG in MK, It was delicious and I hated to waste it, but it was too much for me.

In Epcot the are several places to share entrees, Tangerine Cafe comes to mind, as does Sunshine Seasons. I know that there are more as well.

DHS, we like Backlot Express. My DSIl and I shared burgers there. But I read a lot of people share meals so thee has to be other things.

AK- I am not sure, WE alwyas eat at Flame Tree, but stuck with salads.

Every resort CS had plenty on their coices that were large enough to share. DD and I always share the Muffelletta at POFQ even though I would eat a whole one on my own. I would be sorry after, I soldiered on, so I graciously agree to share one, LOL!

Go to allears.net and look at the menus and the prices.

One thing to remember is that value is subjective. I kow that as much as I love a sweet at the end of a meal, I would not pay $5 for a cupcake. I just would not. I would tell my family to get the dessert, I tell them to get whatever they want, but I know I cannot help looking at those prices. Someone said they felt like they were hemorraging money, and I sure do understand that. If I am sharing a meal I want to do that because I WANT to share, not because I see $10 for a sandwich, $3 for my coffee and then $5 for a cupcake, and decide that is a lot when I am feeding a family. So I end up with no cupcake! LOL! and I skip the chicken and ribs even though I love that $15 meal.

One nice thing about the CS restaurants is that they are fast. If you are still hungry it only takes a moment to get something else, but we found that at lucntime anyway, for th most part, we did not want more, and we were more comfortable after lunch. WHen my DSIL, who is a human garbage disposal and will finish anyone of our leftovers, wants to share his sandwich, there is plenty! LOL!

My daughter is an accountant and cannot help herself when we are on vacation. We track our food spending, right down to snacks. The receipts at the CS registers did not have the total printed, so she asked us to write it down for us. Even though we often have a slacker (my DH) so we do nto have every receipt, we always co out agead of our purchase price. Now it is not such a profound savings as it was years ago, but even if we break even it is fine with me.

 

[chartle]

Haven't been to WDW for 6 years so help me out. 6 years ago we always split CS meals because they were so large. I still remember ordering pizza and it was huge! Two of us couldn't finish it. Are the serving sizes still that large? That may help determine whether or not DDP is cost effective. We're on free dining so we have it again.

It depends on what you mean by huge.

I have had the CS pizza maybe 6 times over those 6 years and its been about the same size about 8 to 9 inches. I guess you have very small appetites since I wouldn't call it shareable and not finish-able for two.

Maybe you are talking about a Via Napoli pizza like this.