Would you do DP with these...

DisneyLvr12

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I have our rezzies booked for our trip, but we are still debating whether or not to do the DP. We've done it the past few times and it's ok, as long as we stick to 1 dining point restaurants. Otherwise, we end up paying something more, obviously. We, honestly, hate having to have dessert with our meal, but feel we need to b/c we already paid for it.
We're a family of 4 - 2 adults and 2 kids (6 & 3).

Here's what's planned for our week...
BOG dinner
Yak & Yeti lunch
Garden Grill dinner
California Grill dinner
O'Hana dinner
Mama Melrose's dinner
Hoop de Doo dinner
San Angel dinner

The rest of our lunches will be QS. Based on what we have reserved and our family, would you do the DP or just pay OOP?
 
Here's the approximate breakdown on the cost of the regular dining plan: TS=$32, QS=$15, S=$4. If you aren't going to spend at least these amounts on your meals, you won't save money using the DP. California Grill is 2TS and you will on have a beverage(non-alcoholic), entrée, and dessert. Check the menus on Allears.net to see what you would order. I usually get the DxDP when I go to WDW, but I make sure I make menu choices that ensure that I see a savings by having the plan.
 
Since you have two kids under 10 and you will be eating at least 1 ts per person and 1 cs per person and 1 snack (?)...it would probably save you money even if you don't order dessert.
 
Here's the approximate breakdown on the cost of the regular dining plan: TS=$32, QS=$15, S=$4. If you aren't going to spend at least these amounts on your meals, you won't save money using the DP. California Grill is 2TS and you will on have a beverage(non-alcoholic), entrée, and dessert. Check the menus on Allears.net to see what you would order. I usually get the DxDP when I go to WDW, but I make sure I make menu choices that ensure that I see a savings by having the plan.

Your breakdown is out of date. The price of DDP for adults is just under $59. Drink prices have gone up, so the breakdown is more like:

S=$4
QS=$17
TS=$38

OP, there is a spreadsheet around here somewhere (hopefully someone with the link will be here with it soon) that you can plug in your family, ADR choices, and how you like to eat. It breaks it down for you as to whether DDP or OOP will be better.

With two kiddos and lots of buffet dining, you're likely to do better with the DDP.
 

Since we do not want the desserts with each of our meals--that alone was about 70 per adult based on 5.00 choices twice..once with the TS and once with a cs.

I also want to eat at sleepy hallow which is not on the dining plan... how many times I read I wanted to try this but it wasn't on the plan.

It would cost us 770 to have the dining plan plus tips.
I put 750 on a gift card to pay for our dining which includes our tips.
 
Hoop de Doo is also 2 TS credits per person I think. So, even with the DDP and your current list of restaurants, you will need to pay out of pocket for some.

If you don't want desserts at both lunch and dinner, and don't always want to order the most expensive entree, then any dining plan is not likely to save you money.

You are almost always better off paying out of pocket for what you actually want. Definitely visit AllEars.net and view each menu and add up the cost of items your family might order (just for an idea), then add 6.5% tax. Certain places already include tax (usually the buffets I think) so look out for that so you're not adding tax on meals you shouldn't be.

We had "free" DDP on our last trip and hated it! We turned down almost all desserts at TS locations, and at CS places we subbed bottled water for our desserts. Too much food, way too much sugar everywhere. We used our snack credits for breakfast (yogurt parfait), ate an early CS lunch, and TS dinner. We felt like we were always eating and felt terrible wasting food.

Our next trip I will feel like I can order what I really want...whether it be a steak or a salad (I really wanted a salad a couple of times but knew it wasn't maximizing the DDP value so I didn't). I can skip lunch if I want, or not. We can share if we want. I don't always want soda with my meal either, so on the days I want water with dinner, I won't be missing out on DDP "value". We will save about $200 next trip from what DDP would cost us (not including tips, which weren't included in DDP anyway).
 

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