We are taking our 1st trip to Disney World the week after Thanksgiving!! It will be me, my husband & our 2 children, ages 4 & 8. None of us have ever been! Everyone says to get the dining plan, but I can't help but wonder if it will work for us. My husband eats no sweets & I eat very little. We would prefer to get appetizers with our meals & I know we'll have the occasional alcoholic drink. The kids don't eat a lot & could probably share some meals. We drink mostly water. However, we do plan to try to reserve some character meals such as Cinderella's Royal Table & Chef Mickey's. I would love some input as to whether or not you think we will save money with the DDP. Thanks so much!!
Given the parameters you mentioned, I don't think the DDP will work for you. It used to be a money-saver, but even its most devoted users generally admit that nowadays, the only purpose the DDP serves is to give the "convenience" of prepayment and not having to look at menu prices. It's tough to save money on it.
My family tried it last time, and made ADRs at the most "expensive" 1-credit places we could, to maximize value. However, the DDP gave us way more food than we wanted, or could eat. DH and I simply don't want a huge fountain drink with every meal - we prefer water. I like to sometimes order a salad or appetizer instead of an entree (and my kids, given the lack of variety in the childrens' menus, would have preferred to order an adult entree and split it sometimes), but those weren't an option on the DDP, since substitutions aren't allowed, appetizers aren't included, and kids are restricted to ordering from the limited kids' menus. We rarely eat dessert except for sometimes after dinner, so at lunch, we found ourselves taking one or two bites of our desserts and throwing the rest away. My husband enjoys a hamburger as much as a steak, and didn't like that he felt compelled to order the most expensive thing on the menu just to maximize value on the dining plan so we wouldn't feel like we'd wasted money.
I ran the numbers when we got home, and in the end, even with the most expensive food at the most expensive counter service and 1-credit table service restaurants, we just about broke even, paying only slightly less for the DDP as we'd have paid for the same items at the same restaurants, out of pocket. But since all that food was way more than what we'd have ordered if we'd simply ordered food that we wanted and could eat (instead of what we "had to get because we're on the DDP"), we'd have saved about 15% (from what we spent on the DDP) if we'd skipped the DDP altogether. (Also, places like Cinderella's Royal Table, which you mentioned, cost
two table service dining plan "credits," and 2-credit restaurants are generally
not a good deal on the DDP. Although they're crazy expensive out of pocket, they rarely cost twice as much as a 1-credit restaurant, plus you end up having to pay for an extra meal to make up for the extra DDP credit you spent...)
As others have said, the best thing to do is just to run the math on the restaurants you want to try. (All the menus are available here on wdwmagic in the dining section. Just pick the places you want to dine and for each day, add up what you'd likely spend on one TS meal, one CS meal, and a snack for everybody, and see how that compares to the daily cost of the DDP.)
