Disney Dining Plan - Little Upside............Massive Downside

[Mike_Gordon]

Hello,

Like many of you, I'm questioning getting the Disney Dining Plan for my family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids ages 6,6,6,8). We are staying for 8 days and I don't see the value in getting the dining plan. While it may work out that we save a small amount using the dining plan, how much are we really saving for the $2,000 price tag for the mid tier plan? Would we save $300 bucks by looking for most expensive items on the menu and making sure we use all credits?
My boys want cereal every morning, chicken nuggets/pizza/hot dogs for lunch & dinner, and routine servings of chips/goldfish/pretzels. I can accommodate a lot of that by having a service deliver these things to my room and then planning to eat 3 or 4 sit down meals and the rest quick service. I've done the math and that's way below $2,000. We don't plan to do more than one or two signature meals.

If I was going with only other adults, I'd do the dining plan and enjoy myself but with 3 kindergarteners and 1 second grader, its hard to enjoy a nice dinner.

Thoughts?

 

[Master Yoda]

You pretty much nailed it. If all you do is compare food to dollars, the DDP comes out ahead. When you start to look at what you would actually order, the savings begin to erode.

All it takes are a few instances of skipping dessert, not ordering the surf and turf or skipping out on the alcoholic drink at dinner and the DDP devolves to nothing more than a convenience that can cost you money.

 

[jgj123]

Seems like you already did the math and determined the plan won't work for you.

For some, it's about saving some money, others convenience. We generally do the DP (1QS, 1TS, 2S per day), but also tend to order some of the more expensive items, but not always. We generally break even or save a few $.

 

[Monty]

I comfortably save more using TiW. But that's primarily based on the way I eat and room-only discounts.

Your results may vary.

 

[Dave B]

If that's all your kids are going to eat, probably not worth it, in a few years when they are Disney Adults and eating more, then I would say go for it

 

[Roakor]

The dinning plan is a convenience not a savings. Most people do good to break even using it. It used to be a big savings but Disney has taken out all the good things that used to make it such a great deal.

Something else to keep in mind with the dinning plan. If you get the table service with the plan you are locking yourself into a sit down dinner every night you are there. not only do you have to block out time for the reservation but you have to schedule fasspass/shows and other things around this time block. Every night of your trip. This will quickly eat up a lot of time that could be used doing other things. Especially if the restaurant is not in the park you are at that day. With the quick service plan you just eat when and where every you want, far more flexible.

On our next trip we are looking at getting the quick service plan and just paying for 1 or 2 sit down restaurants out of pocket, if we decide to do any. Since we are going during food and wine any unused quick service meals will be converted into snacks to be used at kiosk. but you can also convert them to snacks to use else where too.

 

[Dave B]

I completely disagree that it is a convenience and not a savings, it saves us almost $750 or more every trip, we take advantage and order things we normally would not think of paying for, such a luxury!!!!

 

[Mike_Gordon]

But at the same time, even if your getting a surf & turf for $40 instead of $60, it still costs more than eating a $10 cheeseburger. I'm looking to cut down the cost of my trip as it is approaching $9-$10k for 8 days.

 

[Jedi Stitch]

Like you already said. you have done the math and it isn't worth it with a munchkin brigade.
As for me, I did the DDP. I have the option of a sit down meal 3 times, or just going QS. We loved the convenience, of pre-paying the meals and done. We also did Character breakfast and meals each day at each park. We hit the fun restaurants. My wife is a sit down meal type of person.

 

[DisneyJoe]

.If you get the table service with the plan you are locking yourself into a sit down dinner every night you are there.

It can be much more flexible than that, especially if you like to eat at the occasional signature restaurant, dinner show (Luau or Hoop Dee Doo Revue) or Cinderella's Royal Table, all are 2 credits.

You can also use a table service credit for breakfast, lunch or dinner on the same day as another table service meal as well. In other words, they don't all need to be dinners.

 

[Dave B]

But at the same time, even if your getting a surf & turf for $40 instead of $60, it still costs more than eating a $10 cheeseburger. I'm looking to cut down the cost of my trip as it is approaching $9-$10k for 8 days.

Well I have NEVER paid for it, we just plan the trip during the FREE DINING promo, that makes it even more valuable in my opinion

 

[correcaminos]

If that's all your kids are going to eat, probably not worth it, in a few years when they are Disney Adults and eating more, then I would say go for it

I'd wait until teen ages honestly. Once they hit 10 they might not justify the price either. A little older and more likely.

For us it hasn't ever made sense. I am not a big eater and pretty much by choice stick to poultry. That means that I won't ever have it be worth it for me. We'll have a 10yo who eats as much as I do but not as much as my husband, so not worth it for us there. I think with AP and DVC discounts it becomes less and less likely we'll ever use it.

 

[mj2v]

Well I have NEVER paid for it, we just plan the trip during the FREE DINING promo, that makes it even more valuable in my opinion

It’s disney. Nothing is truly free.

 

[Dave B]

The glass is Half FULL not Half Empty

 

[Daddy Skywalker]

It depends... I have done trips with and without sit down DP; with little ones around that age. It always seemed to be a wash between the two. I very much feel its a convenience thing. Having everything structured is nice...but also puts you on a schedule. Which could be what you are looking for.

 

[Raegansmommy]

I think this all depends on you and your family. As you already did, I sat down and made a spreadsheet with what it would cost to pay out of pocket verses the dining plan. My family likes the character meals, so for us, that is mostly all we do. The Dining Plan saves us money, because those are experiences that we want to do, for others it is not and the dining plan wouldn't save them any money. We also like the convenience of having everything prepaid.

 

[Minnie Mum]

Well I have NEVER paid for it, we just plan the trip during the FREE DINING promo, that makes it even more valuable in my opinion

Does it? If you go for free dining, then you're paying full rack rate for your room and are required to add PH to your park ticket. If you go for the room discount instead, you pay less for the room, are not required to have a PH ticket, and can eat the way your family prefers to eat.

It's all a matter of family preferences. If you stay at a value resort, room discounts don't amount to much. You might come out ahead by taking FD ( but you'd have to pay extra to upgrade from QSDP to DDP). And if you use the PH option, then you aren't wasting that extra money either. Room only discounts at mod or deluxe resorts are more substantial. This is where you really need to do the math. You need to look at the sum total of both rooms (rack rate or discounted price), tickets (PHs or not), and food (DDP vs the cost of food if you ate where you want and how you normally would- not necessarily opting for the most expensive items just to maximize your dining credits).

There are families that manage to save money on the DDP by maximizing use of each credit. I doubt that they are in the majority of users, though. Not with the way it is currently constructed. I've tracked our food costs at WDW for our last few trips. We buy a few groceries and have breakfast in our room most days - it's just more efficient time use, as we get ready for the day. We eat a CS lunch - and sometimes split one entree and get an extra side, since portions are so big. We rarely eat dessert at lunch. We might get one snack in the afternoon, but not every day, and never 2. We do a TS dinner every night - a couple will be signatures. An appetizer and entree, with wine, but only occasionally ordering a shared dessert. And our costs come out well under the cost of the DDP. Oh, and we don't have to eat more just to come out even. We save money on the discounted room. And we don't park hop, so no need to spend extra for that.

As for those who say they do it for the convenience - what convenience? How is using DDP credits via your MB any more convenient than using your MB to charge to your resort account? Answer - it's not.

If you want to be fiscally responsible, there's no simple answer for everyone. You have to hunker down and do the math. The DDP simply doesn't work for every family.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Hello,

Like many of you, I'm questioning getting the Disney Dining Plan for my family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids ages 6,6,6,8). We are staying for 8 days and I don't see the value in getting the dining plan. While it may work out that we save a small amount using the dining plan, how much are we really saving for the $2,000 price tag for the mid tier plan? Would we save $300 bucks by looking for most expensive items on the menu and making sure we use all credits?
My boys want cereal every morning, chicken nuggets/pizza/hot dogs for lunch & dinner, and routine servings of chips/goldfish/pretzels. I can accommodate a lot of that by having a service deliver these things to my room and then planning to eat 3 or 4 sit down meals and the rest quick service. I've done the math and that's way below $2,000. We don't plan to do more than one or two signature meals.

If I was going with only other adults, I'd do the dining plan and enjoy myself but with 3 kindergarteners and 1 second grader, its hard to enjoy a nice dinner.

Thoughts?

When your 3 boys are teens, the Dining Plan will save you money. Teens are food vacuums.

 

[Weather_Lady]

The dinning plan is a convenience not a savings. Most people do good to break even using it. It used to be a big savings but Disney has taken out all the good things that used to make it such a great deal.

Something else to keep in mind with the dinning plan. If you get the table service with the plan you are locking yourself into a sit down dinner every night you are there. not only do you have to block out time for the reservation but you have to schedule fasspass/shows and other things around this time block. Every night of your trip. This will quickly eat up a lot of time that could be used doing other things. Especially if the restaurant is not in the park you are at that day. With the quick service plan you just eat when and where every you want, far more flexible.

On our next trip we are looking at getting the quick service plan and just paying for 1 or 2 sit down restaurants out of pocket, if we decide to do any. Since we are going during food and wine any unused quick service meals will be converted into snacks to be used at kiosk. but you can also convert them to snacks to use else where too.

Your points are well-taken. Our beefs with the DDP in the past (we paid full price for it the first time, and visited during "free" dining the second) have been: (1) it forces us to order things we don't want so we don't feel like we're "wasting" money, meaning we just end up wasting food instead; and (2) the time all those TS meals (which tend to be dinner rather than lunch, because again, dinners cost more OOP and we're trying to "save money" with the DDP) ties us down and makes it tough to park-hop if you finish a given park mid-day, but need to stay for dinner... not only that, but we've done the math, and going without the DDP will save us over 20% on our dining costs, even having the equivalent of 1TS, 1CS and 1 snack per person per day, and even if a couple of those TS are the more expensive "2-credit" restaurants. This is because we tend to order less food than the DDP offers if left to our own devices, and my 11-year-old still prefers to order from the kids' menu at many CS places.

 

[JIMINYCR]

When DS was young he was extremely fussy about what he would eat, even the texture of certain things would make him refuse a bite. and it was a battle getting him to eat even at Disney. Most things would end up getting trashed, so the DDP was foolish for us to add into our plan. Later on, as a teen we couldnt get enough into him to satisfy his appetite. So save yourself the money since you know your kids wont be utilizing the plan enough to make it worth the cost and start saving up for the DDP when they are older and have more substantial appetites.