Question regarding Dining Plan vs paying for food separately

Greenkai3000

Greenkai3000

Active Member
Original Poster
There's 6 of us going to the World next month. 4 adults, and two teenagers. We have ADRs for 4 breakfast buffets for all 6 of us, and we plan on snacking our way through the rest of each day, with the possibility of one, or maybe 2 counter service meals for all 6 of us.


My questions are ...Will purchasing the Deluxe Dining Plan be better for our budget, or should we just purchase each meal individually? Is there an link to all the menu prices for Summer 2013?

Thank y'all!
 
Disvillain63

Disvillain63

Well-Known Member
We've found that DDP isn't really a money-saver for us. It really depends on where you're buffets/table service meals are going to be and what you'll be eating. If you have members of your group that will be ordering the most expensive dishes (not just because they're on the DDP but because that is what they want to eat) and/or you'll be attending some of the higher priced buffets, then it might be the thing for your group. We tend to eat lighter and not at the more expensive meals (just the food we prefer), so it doesn't pay for us to use DDP. It is also not beneficial to us when they offer Free DDP, because we get discounts on rooms that are better.
 
Z

Zortek

Active Member
Greenkai3000 said:
There's 6 of us going to the World next month. 4 adults, and two teenagers. We have ADRs for 4 breakfast buffets for all 6 of us, and we plan on snacking our way through the rest of each day, with the possibility of one, or maybe 2 counter service meals for all 6 of us.


My questions are ...Will purchasing the Deluxe Dining Plan be better for our budget, or should we just purchase each meal individually? Is there an link to all the menu prices for Summer 2013?

Thank y'all!
Click to expand...

That doesn't look compatible with a Dining Plan at all. I'm pretty sure you would be better paying out of pocket. For the deluxe plan to have any chance of working, you would need to either do a sit down lunch AND dinner in addition to the buffet breakfast, or at least do a Signature dinner each day in addition to the breakfast. You would be free on the plan to substitute a quick service for one or both of those table service meals, but your value would go down and your chance of beating the out of pocket cost would go down.
With the regular dining plan, you are likely to have extra QS credits at the end and not enough snack credits to follow your plan.
 
djpoore94

djpoore94

Well-Known Member
I agree with all of the previous posts. On the deluxe dining plan, each person in the room gets 3 table service meals for every night of your stay. Assuming that all 6 of you are staying in one room, that's 18 table service meals per night of your stay (if you're staying 5 nights, that would be 90 meals to use). Since you only plan on eating breakfast, the dining plan would cost way to much for the amount of meals that you would leave unused. Even substituting counter service meals for table service brings the value of the plan down to far to make it worth the money. You could consider the regular dining plan in which each person gets 1 table service and 1 counter service meal per day, but even then, using the table service meal for breakfast would not be the best use of the plan and you would probably still spend less paying for everything out of pocket.
 
sxeensweet

sxeensweet

Love a little Disney every day!! ;)
If that's the only ressies your doing I would definately not do the DDP as it cost about 100 bucks a day per person! If you go with any I would do the regular plan or none at all. Deluxe is really only worth it if you do 2 table service per day or do all 2 credit/or signature meals each day. This is just my opinion from me and DH experience. For me and DH for 10 days the deluxe would have cost us $2000. We never eat that much worth of food and snacks. The regular dining plan eventhough we do some Signature etc is plenty. Regular plan gives each person 1 table service, 1 quick service, and 1 snack per day, and also a refillable drink mug for a little under $60 a day. :)
 
bethymouse

bethymouse

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't do it in your case. We only do the DDP, never deluxe nor beyond that.;) It's basically a prepaid plan. You don't save a whole lot really. But, it's nice to know that your vacation is basically "all inclusive" and you don't have to worry about it too much.;)
I did some number crunching for "free dining" versus "30% off room rates". The "free dining " actually came out cheaper!:eek:
 
splashingatkali

splashingatkali

Well-Known Member
This year we went for 11 days. Had the DDP for 3 adults. Went to dinner at Chef Mickey's, Ohana, Boma, 50's Prime Time, Tutto Italia, Be Our Guest, San Angel Inn, Japan Hibachi Grill and a breakfast at Crystal Palace. Our Table service tickets were used on those, then one night we went to DTD to splitsville.Then of course we used our counter services daily and our snacks as well. After doing the math when we got home, our spending which included breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinners... we saved about $960.00
We think the plan is worth it all the way.
 
righttrack

righttrack

Well-Known Member
Because you're paying for breakfast, pigging out, I assume with the odd counter service, you might be better off not being on the dining plan. Deluxe? Don't think so, regular dining plan (1 TS, 1CS, 1Snack per hotel night) might work, but since you're going for all breakfasts for your sit-down meals, you might be better off with what you're doing. Be prepared for sticker shock with those counter service meals, however.
 
jaklgreen

jaklgreen

Well-Known Member
If you were to do any dining plan the regular dining plan would work for what you described not the deluxe. The way we tour and eat even the regular dining plan is not a value anymore, it used to be but not in the last few years. It does not sound like it would be a value for you either. If you really like to eat a lot of food then the deluxe might be for you. For us it seems like all you would be doing is eating the whole trip and there is no way I could eat that much especially to feel like the deluxe dining plan would be a value.
 
scarr13311

scarr13311

Active Member
Greenkai3000 said:
There's 6 of us going to the World next month. 4 adults, and two teenagers. We have ADRs for 4 breakfast buffets for all 6 of us, and we plan on snacking our way through the rest of each day, with the possibility of one, or maybe 2 counter service meals for all 6 of us.


My questions are ...Will purchasing the Deluxe Dining Plan be better for our budget, or should we just purchase each meal individually? Is there an link to all the menu prices for Summer 2013?

Thank y'all!
Click to expand...


The dinning plans are good idea even though they are expensive. They do save some money instead of paying for meals on your own. The DP is designed for people who take the time to sitdown and eat regular meals everyday (lunch & dinner) instead of just picking up something quick to eat and are off to enjoy, then the dinning may be right for you. We take the dinning plan plus (one step up from quick service dine plan) everytime we go to WDW becasue it allows us to eat at the nice restaurants and order the overpriced meals that we would not order if we paid for them on our own...LOL.;) So when we are paying for the DP what we do is look at the menu and add up the cost of each meal we would consider ordering (quick service as well as sit down dinning, plus snacks) for each day of our stay and compare it to the cost of the dinning plan to see if we are saving money. But we usually go to WDW when Disney is offering the Free Dinning offer... :):D
 
Mukta

Mukta

Well-Known Member
ajrwdwgirl said:
Might not be worth it with what you described. When I try to decide on the dining plan I usually go on allears and price out meals. Then I can see what my savings might be.
Click to expand...
Yep. The only way to know if the dining plan works for you is to literally do the math.
 
dreamfinder

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Deluxe - definitely not. You get 3 meals a day under that plan, and you are planning on using 1, maybe 2 a day. The normal dining plan, possibly. But you would need to make one TS/buffet reservation a day and then also eat the CS meal as well to possibly break even. Both this site, as well as the restaurant pages directly on the WDW site have prices. Look at the prices of the places you want to eat, and see how much it would cost you. Then compare to the dining plan costs, and see which works out in your favor. But unless you eat to the plan, and exactly to the plan, you will most likely not save any money.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom