Are the dining plans cost effective?

[Greg H]

For us, we think there is value in paying for the DDP as long as we have kids (9 and under) especially if we are doing a lot of character buffets. Those are expensive even for kids but the cost of the DDP for kids is only around $25 a day. Some of those meals are close to this cost for just the one meal... Some people also find value in using the QS children credits for adult meals. Disney seems to let people do this. They are now including alcohol for anyone over 21 so if you would order alcohol with your meals there is added value there now as well. I don't personally think it is a great deal for adults at $75 a day. If you are just eating at regular table service restaurants and not really actively seeking value from menus IMO you would most likely lose money. I think it is pretty poor value for kids 10+ in a lot of cases as well. I am sure there are exceptions, but that is a lot of money for a tween or teen... When we pay for it we tend to get pretty good value out of it, but we definitely end up eating more than we otherwise would. The other side of this is if you pay for it, once you get there, you are committed to it, even if you get sick, don't feel like eating a big meal one day, get sick of snacking, etc., etc.

 

[JillC LI]

We are 2 adults and 2 teens (adults per Disney) and the free dining plan is going to be a big savings for us later this year. Even when it's not free, it is cost-effective for the way our family eats.

 

[Ted Daggett]

If you know where you want to eat, this website calculates the actual price of the restaurants with and without the dining plan: www.distripplanner.com

The problem with the dining plan, is that in order to benefit the most, you need to eat at the most expensive restaurants and get the most expensive items. Sometimes my kids only want to split a pizza. Therefore, you need to consider what you would actually want to eat, with and without the dining plan. Plus, the more expensive restaurants will require you to leave a bigger tip, which needs to be paid in addition to the dining plan cost.

In August I am going for a quick 2 night 3 day visit to SSR with my son. We are eating at T-Rex, Crystal palace, Artist's palette, and the Sci Fi Dine in Theater. Purchasing a dining plan, this would cost $265 (with tip and cost of dining plan). Without the dining plan, it would cost me $254. However, with the dining plan, I would get 2 free refillable mugs (which I probably wouldn't fill, and they would go on the shelf at home with the 50 other refillable mugs).

 

[brifraz]

Kids under 9 help with the value dramatically - especially if you plan well. When our daughter was younger than 9, we bought DDP just about every visit (we are DVC and AP, so free dining was out). Now that she is older, it just doesn't tend to work out for us as a savings.

When it was a value and we did the standard plan, we did a lot of sharing of Counter Service meals and it helped us spread out the credits so that we had a pretty decent three meals a day. Since we always drive, the last day of our visit, we would use our remaining snack credits on cookies and crackers and continue at least a small amount of Disney magic at home for the next month or so.

 

[gibmom]

I appreciate the responses! I never even considered that free dinning might not be a good deal! Much to think about...

 

[SAV]

On 2 of our recent trips my wife kept every receipt and tally'd up what we spent and we would have lost money on the DDP. Definitely not for our family.

 

[DarthVader]

Even when it's not free, it is cost-effective for the way our family eats.

I have to disagree - at least for my situation.
First when its free, you're foregoing a resort discount, so you're paying full price for the resort. You need to do your homework and see which option saves you the most money. For instance, the free meal plan for moderates was only for QS, so I think a resort discount works out better.

As for the non-free meal program, I've run the numbers for my family and for almost all trips, I'm saving myself significant amounts of money by paying for our meals instead of the meal plan. Don't forget with the dining plan, you still have pay the tip and that adds up real quick. Also kids 10 and older are adults and so you're paying the more expensive meal plan.

I found sites like
https://www.distripplanner.com/
https://www.dvcrequest.com/dining-plan-calculator.asp

To be a great tool to help estimate the costs and then determine if the meal plan works for you.

 

[pax_65]

Another related factor... when you have the TS dining plan you want to get the value from it, so that means a LOT of time spent in sit-down restaurants. As much as we love food, our family generally prefers time in the parks doing attractions, etc. So even if it was a financial win (and I don't think it is), we'd lose some of the value of our park pass because we wouldn't be able to do as much in the parks.

Obviously it's different if food is your priority or you enjoy taking a break from the parks, etc.

 

[Dave B]

I have to disagree - at least for my situation.
First when its free, you're foregoing a resort discount, so you're paying full price for the resort. You need to do your homework and see which option saves you the most money. For instance, the free meal plan for moderates was only for QS, so I think a resort discount works out better.

As for the non-free meal program, I've run the numbers for my family and for almost all trips, I'm saving myself significant amounts of money by paying for our meals instead of the meal plan. Don't forget with the dining plan, you still have pay the tip and that adds up real quick. Also kids 10 and older are adults and so you're paying the more expensive meal plan.

I found sites like
https://www.distripplanner.com/
https://www.dvcrequest.com/dining-plan-calculator.asp

To be a great tool to help estimate the costs and then determine if the meal plan works for you.

How can you disagree, when they stated it was good FOR THEIR SITUATION, you cant disagree with what works for them , they weren't making a blanket statement, they were referring to their situation

 

[JillC LI]

I have to disagree - at least for my situation.
First when its free, you're foregoing a resort discount, so you're paying full price for the resort. You need to do your homework and see which option saves you the most money. For instance, the free meal plan for moderates was only for QS, so I think a resort discount works out better.

As for the non-free meal program, I've run the numbers for my family and for almost all trips, I'm saving myself significant amounts of money by paying for our meals instead of the meal plan. Don't forget with the dining plan, you still have pay the tip and that adds up real quick. Also kids 10 and older are adults and so you're paying the more expensive meal plan.

I found sites like
https://www.distripplanner.com/
https://www.dvcrequest.com/dining-plan-calculator.asp

To be a great tool to help estimate the costs and then determine if the meal plan works for you.

It's still worked to our advantage in the past. I do always run the numbers. Just saved quite a bit on our upcoming December trip with free dining. But I'm waiting for the resort discounts to be released for that time period so I can compare. If that's better, I'll switch discounts of course.

 

[Kristopher Rannells]

After 17 trips mostly not using the DDP we have found it works for us and use it all the time. What we found is 1st with our kids and now our grandkids we spend a ton of time meeting characters. This takes a ton of time. We get the TS dining plan when taking the little ones that will want to meet all the characters and the regular plan when we took our kids when they out-grew this. When taking the littles we almost always do a character breakfast (this trip will be 6 out of 8 breakfasts), a quick lunch, and a table dinner. Yes it takes time doing 2 table meals a day, but I can promise you we spent way more time in line waiting to meet characters and with this there are very few we don't meet at various breakfasts, and they all see to be at EP or HS where we have plenty of time.
So time savings has been a key for us. I always do the math too, and we always seem to save a few hundred $ using either plan, although we would not order 4 appetizers and 4 desserts per meal if we were paying out of pocket. Time is money, especially at Disney where you are spending a lot of money no matter how you go about it.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

My issue is always that none of the plans offer enough of what we want to make it worth it. In the past, we've done a lot of TS dining, but whenever we've done any of the plans...1. we end up paying OOP for a number of things the plans fail to include 2. we end up leaving a lot of credits on the table for things we don't need 3. we end up using some credits on things we'd never buy if we weren't on the plan. So, unless free dining is the only discount we can get for our full trip, we skip the plan and go OOP.

 

[slappy magoo]

For us, we think there is value in paying for the DDP as long as we have kids (9 and under) especially if we are doing a lot of character buffets. Those are expensive even for kids but the cost of the DDP for kids is only around $25 a day. Some of those meals are close to this cost for just the one meal... Some people also find value in using the QS children credits for adult meals. Disney seems to let people do this.

Kids under 9 help with the value dramatically - especially if you plan well. When our daughter was younger than 9, we bought DDP just about every visit (we are DVC and AP, so free dining was out). Now that she is older, it just doesn't tend to work out for us as a savings.

I'll back this up. Past few trips, we splurged on Deluxe Dining Plans because it was at first 2 adults and one child (our youngest not being 3 yet), then when it was 2 adults and 2 kids it still seemed to work out for us; we tended to do sit down breakfasts (often character meals) and sit down dinners (sometimes character meals). A few Signature meals like Cali Grill or Hoop De Doo. And any left over credits we'd get the highest end snacks that could travel and keep (like the Trail Mix) as well as some stuff to eat on the drive home (like Main Street Confectionary fudge we'd store in our cooler). For my wife and I, we'd be close to break-even, 25-50 bucks one way or the other. But for the kids? It was easily crazy savings, hundreds of dollars...bear in mind of course "savings" is a relative term, we could have eaten less, forgone pay-one-price meals, paid out of pocket and saved more, but then we wouldn't have gone to the places we love so much...

This year, we're getting there a month after my oldest turns 10. I've been crunching numbers and honestly no meal plan seems to be saving us any money compared to getting the Tables in Wonderland card (we're DVC so eligible). I've spread-sheeted the hell out of it, figuring out where and what we'd eat, what we'd have to add on top in tips (versus the relative "wash" of getting TiW so what you pay in tips is often balanced out in savings). I think we're done with the dining plans barring, potentially, a time where maybe we pay cash for the trip and get free dining. And once our youngest is over 10, we'll probably scale back on the sheer volume of sit-down meals we have when we're there.

 

[Dutch Inn '76]

I appreciate the responses! I never even considered that free dinning might not be a good deal! Much to think about...

Yeah this is one of "those" questions...

 

[Dutch Inn '76]

I think that if you're getting it for free, then maybe you'll save some cash. ...but if you'r paying for the DP, it ain't worth it. The idea of worrying all week long about whether or not you got your "value" at every meal is such a drag. Just pay for your food. That way, if you feel like eating a Mickey Premium for lunch - it's no big deal.

 

[HwdStudio]

I don't think she's asking whether Free Dine is worth it over a room discount, I think she's asking whether paying for the dining plan is worth it over paying cash for your food. But you're right with regard to the former.

In terms of dining plan versus cash, it's roughly break even if you eat all of the food. I dislike the lack of flexibility. We like to be able to share meals, add or remove TS dining on a whim, order two appetizers for dinner, skip desert, order inexpensive entrees, etc.

Same thing for us.

 

[Raineman]

I think that part of the appeal of the DDP, at least for our family, is that it is kind of like an automatic budget for meals at WDW-we pay it months in advance, and there are no issues with going over budget during the trip, at least where food is concerned. All of us, including my 12 yo DD, definitely get our $60-$70 worth/day on the DDP-we do not each lunch at WDW, just a QS breakfast and a TS dinner, so there is no wasted food or unused credits at the end of our stay. The only variable food cost is snacks and drinks, but that is fairly minimal, no more than $15-$20/day total for the three of us. Now, if we got the Deluxe DDP-that would be a waste, for the reasons described above.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I think that part of the appeal of the DDP, at least for our family, is that it is kind of like an automatic budget for meals at WDW-we pay it months in advance, and there are no issues with going over budget during the trip, at least where food is concerned. All of us, including my 12 yo DD, definitely get our $60-$70 worth/day on the DDP-we do not each lunch at WDW, just a QS breakfast and a TS dinner, so there is no wasted food or unused credits at the end of our stay. The only variable food cost is snacks and drinks, but that is fairly minimal, no more than $15-$20/day total for the three of us. Now, if we got the Deluxe DDP-that would be a waste, for the reasons described above.

If you're regularly eating breakfast as part of the DDP, whether QS or TS, there's next to zero chance that you're getting your money's worth. The imputed price per credit requires you to be buying expensive entrees to get value, which isn't offered at breakfast outside of Be Our Guest. Especially with the latest price increase and the inclusion of alcohol. You're likely wasting a couple hundred dollars a week.

If you like the prepaid aspect, buy a big gift card however far in advance you like. Put the exact same amount on it that you'd otherwise pay for the dining plan. Then eat exactly the same as you normally would. I bet you anything you'll save money.

 

[dreamfinder]

Run the numbers, run the numbers, run the numbers. As pointed out, the scenarios will vary for everyone.
Small party? Room discount will probably be better. Large party? Free dining might be better than discount.
Dining plan overall? If you eat to the plan, very consciously and don't deviate, yes you can still come out slightly ahead. But this typically means you need to choose restaurants where you can get steak every time, and carefully order your snacks. Using a snack credit on a bottle of water? No bueno. Using a snack credit on an expensive option at a festival kiosk? Bueno. If you don't want fries with your CS meals, split a single soda or drink tap water etc the dining plan usually won't save you money.

 

[ppet]

Its a rare set of circumstances where you save money buying the Disney dining plan of any variation. There is something to be said for its convenience.

I have kept my receipts from trips using the dining plan and when I total them after the trip, I've always saved money. with that being said my family likes to eat and try new places at WDW.