Dining Plan

MICKEYMOO42

Active Member
Original Poster
Is the dining plan worth it?
Were planning a trip August 4-11th and our travel agent made it seem like the dining plan was a waste. There are 5 adults in our party. Will it save us money or be the same amount as paying out of pocket

Thank you for your feedback!!
 

sxeensweet

Love a little Disney every day!! ;)
It's all on personal preference. Me and DH always pay for it because we like our food being pre paid for and we usually break even or come a little ahead. Again all on your eating habits and your whole parties eating habits and if you want everything paid ahead of time. (Except tips and alcohol is extra etc). :)
 

mishel635

Well-Known Member
If you know what meals you want and what ADR's you want, you can google "dining plan calculator". It's a tool that helps you figure out if it's worth it for you or not.
Personally, we will always do the dining plan, because I don't want to look at every entree, appetizer, dessert, and figure out the cost. It's worth every penny of the dining plan for me to have all my meals pre-paid so I'm not worried about the cost of each meal while we are enjoying our vacation, if that makes sense. ;)
Good luck!
 

Kate Alan

Well-Known Member
I never use the dining plan as I'd end up paying far more than if I paid out of pocket. Then again, there are people here who swear by it. It's all personal preference. I would definitely suggest looking at menus and using a Disney dining calculator to estimate if it's worth doing for your trip.
 

MICKEYMOO42

Active Member
Original Poster
Thanks guys i'll do that. It sounds like it depends on how much and what everybody likes to eat. The last time I went I don't recall us using the dining plan (it was back in 2008) and we got stuck dining at an expensive restaurant and nobody ate their meal.
I'll look into the dining calculator
 

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
Here is a link to a dining plan calculator.
http://www.distripplanner.com/

It is worth is is a little bit of a tricky question to answer.

If all you do is compare the price of the food you get to the price you would pay, the dining plan will almost always have you coming out ahead. Where it gets tricky is you don't always want everything you get and you only order it because you are in a use it or loose it situation. When you look at what you would normally order if you were paying cash, the savings tend to erode.

There are however a couple of things that to tend to tip the scales in favor of the dining plan.

The biggest one is character meals/buffets. These tend to be very overpriced and there is no "get the salad for $12 vs getting the steak for $25" option to lessen the sting of the bill. You are going to drop $35-$50 regardless of whether you have 2 chicken fingers and a blow of mac n cheese or if you fill your plate 7 times. If you plan on doing character meals, the dining plan is often the best way to lessen the financial burden.

The second thing is kind of an X factor that really does not show up on a spread sheet. That X factor is convenience. The dining plan can give a Disney vacation a bit of a cruise ship feel in regards to dining. On the occasions I use it, I find myself ordering what I want vs what is within my budget. I also like not having the sticker shock at the end of the meal. It is also nice to have nearly everything paid for (you are responsible for tips and alcohol) before you even arrive. The amount you spend on dining can really creep up on you by the end of the week.

Also since you are traveling with a group, splitting the bill is a no brainier if everyone is on the plan. If you have not taken part in any adult beverages you guys will simply scan your magic bands and divide the tip by your party size. Easy peasy.
 

englanddg

One Little Spark...
It's 60.64 for the basic DDP, and 109.53 for the DLX plan, per night.

So, for each adult, you'll spend 424.48 for the DDP, or 776.71 for the length of the trip, or 2122.40 total DDP, or 3883.55.

For the DDP, you'll each have 7 QS credits, 7 snacks and 7 TS credits.

For the DLX, you'll each have 21 TS credits and 21 snack credits.

It is a LOT of food.

DDP may be worth it, but DLX may be a bit much. With DLX, you'd get 5 apps, 5 entrees and 5 desserts.

But, a daily spend for an adult of 60.64 isn't unreasonable. 109.53 would be hard to do unless you ate at a TS restaurant pretty much every meal (which, as adults, you may wish to do that!)

In either case, you may come out ahead, you may come out a bit behind...or break even.

It's not a major savings, which is why a lot of people don't like it. That said, I enjoy it because there are things I probably wouldn't try (some of the signature meals, some of the appetizers and desserts) were it not already included with the plan.

I also enjoy when a big meal ticket does happen, I'm not immediately out of pocket for it, rather it's been paid for months in advance. So, the only money I have to bring to Disney is my gift/souvenir budget. Everything else is taken care of.

So, it's a personal choice.
 

MICKEYMOO42

Active Member
Original Poster
Okay, thanks for all the info! The dining plan seems like the way to go but I'll talk about it with my group. It sound more convient. I also heard it was quite confusing in regards to breakfast. We're staying at art of animation and I've heard it's a zoo in there especially in the morning at busy times. Someone said there are only certain items you can choose from and it's not clear as to what those Items are. But that's just something I read. We will obviously get up bright and early and eat breakfast. Hopefully it's not the nightmare I've heard it was considering people love to overreact about everything
 

englanddg

One Little Spark...
Okay, thanks for all the info! The dining plan seems like the way to go but I'll talk about it with my group. It sound more convient. I also heard it was quite confusing in regards to breakfast. We're staying at art of animation and I've heard it's a zoo in there especially in the morning at busy times. Someone said there are only certain items you can choose from and it's not clear as to what those Items are. But that's just something I read. We will obviously get up bright and early and eat breakfast. Hopefully it's not the nightmare I've heard it was considering people love to overreact about everything
I've never had a menu limitation during breakfasts, and I go in August. Not stayed at AoA, but I've stayed at the sister resort, Pop. It can be crowded, but they don't run out of food (that I've seen).

Only outage is sometimes the coffee runs out, but it's not long before a CM brews more.
 

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
Okay, thanks for all the info! The dining plan seems like the way to go but I'll talk about it with my group. It sound more convient. I also heard it was quite confusing in regards to breakfast. We're staying at art of animation and I've heard it's a zoo in there especially in the morning at busy times. Someone said there are only certain items you can choose from and it's not clear as to what those Items are. But that's just something I read. We will obviously get up bright and early and eat breakfast. Hopefully it's not the nightmare I've heard it was considering people love to overreact about everything
Breakfast is not exactly the best use of the dining plan as breakfast tends to be the least expensive meal you will find in and outside of the parks.

The best way to do breakfast for both time and value is to use a combination of your snack credits and cash and just grab and go. You can often do that at one of the kiosks outside of the park entrances.

Ideally, you want to get to the parks before they open. That is hard to do with a drawn out, hour long breakfast.
 

bethymouse

Well-Known Member
It's just nice to know that everything is pre-paid I guess. You don't save money like you used to when they advertised you saved up to 20% on meal costs by booking the dining plan with your package.:(
 

Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
Breakfast is not exactly the best use of the dining plan as breakfast tends to be the least expensive meal you will find in and outside of the parks.

The best way to do breakfast for both time and value is to use a combination of your snack credits and cash and just grab and go. You can often do that at one of the kiosks outside of the park entrances.

Ideally, you want to get to the parks before they open. That is hard to do with a drawn out, hour long breakfast.

Ditto! If you're trying to get the most value out of your dining plan, the best possible use is for CS lunch and TS dinner (as dinner is the most expensive meal at almost all of the TS restaurants, except for those with an "all day" menu, like 50's PrimeTime and Sci-Fi -- then again, restaurants like that are terrible uses of a TS credit anyway, because they're relatively inexpensive any time of day). As for breakfast, use a snack credit if you like, although you may find that snack credit more useful for a nice frozen treat in the afternoon, between lunch and dinner.

In order to save time, money and effort, we typically bring our own breakfast foods from home and eat it in our hotel room. We've variously brought Pop Tarts, Emerald Breakfast on the Go trail mix packs, Fiber One bars, apples, and/or cold cereals, all packed in the nooks and crannies of our carryon luggage. We buy milk from the hotel store and keep it in the in-room fridge, and I bring disposable picnicware bowls and spoons, or cheap Dollar Store melamine dishes that can easily be rewashed in the sink. We bring "just enough" breakfast food so that there's nothing left over to take home, and the extra luggage space is open for souvenirs.
 

Livelovedisney

Active Member
Ditto! If you're trying to get the most value out of your dining plan, the best possible use is for CS lunch and TS dinner (as dinner is the most expensive meal at almost all of the TS restaurants, except for those with an "all day" menu, like 50's PrimeTime and Sci-Fi -- then again, restaurants like that are terrible uses of a TS credit anyway, because they're relatively inexpensive any time of day). As for breakfast, use a snack credit if you like, although you may find that snack credit more useful for a nice frozen treat in the afternoon, between lunch and dinner.

In order to save time, money and effort, we typically bring our own breakfast foods from home and eat it in our hotel room. We've variously brought Pop Tarts, Emerald Breakfast on the Go trail mix packs, Fiber One bars, apples, and/or cold cereals, all packed in the nooks and crannies of our carryon luggage. We buy milk from the hotel store and keep it in the in-room fridge, and I bring disposable picnicware bowls and spoons, or cheap Dollar Store melamine dishes that can easily be rewashed in the sink. We bring "just enough" breakfast food so that there's nothing left over to take home, and the extra luggage space is open for souvenirs.
Just wondering, but how much is milk at the hotel?
 

Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
Just wondering, but how much is milk at the hotel?

I don't recall. Like all things you purchase in the Disney gift shops, it's more expensive than it would be at home, but we're only buying a half gallon or two for the week (and we're bringing all the rest of our breakfast foods with us from home), so it was worth it to us for the convenience.
 

Livelovedisney

Active Member
I don't recall. Like all things you purchase in the Disney gift shops, it's more expensive than it would be at home, but we're only buying a half gallon or two for the week (and we're bringing all the rest of our breakfast foods with us from home), so it was worth it to us for the convenience.
thanks, i figure it would be. We probably will have to buy it when we get to the resort.
 

stevehousse

Well-Known Member
It really depends on where you want to eat. We like the dining plan. On our last trip eating out at all the restaurants we went to basically covered the entire price, and it was if we had gotten most of our quick service meals for free after 1-2 days. We were a family of 5 as well and eating out at just 2 of the restaurants we went to was about $700 total. Not to mention if we did quick service meals for everyone that's about 40-50 bucks for one meal! If u r really indecisive, use one of the many dining plan calculators available online.
 

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