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Thoughts on Dining Plan??
- Thread starter Cvones
- Start date
corxxgold
Well-Known Member
I love the Dining plan, its one less thing I have to worry about,, I can keep my wallet back in the room,, I don't have to drive for 10 days, I don't have to buy dinner for everyone, I am relaxed inside the Disney Bubble,, and with 2 children there are always left overs to bring back to OKW
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CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
It's not, though. It's ten extra things to worry about. "Will I have enough snack credits to get through the week if I get a muffin for breakfast and want ice cream later? I really want to eat at a signature restaurant, but is that the best dollar-to-credit use of my plan? My kid wants to order an appetizer as his meal, but will he be allowed to use a credit for that?" The list goes on and on. Money is fungible, and dining credits are not.
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CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
Unless you try. You can "beat" the DDP if you try to beat the DDP, but you wouldn't be dining as any normal human being usually dines.
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Jahona
Well-Known Member
I've seen the math go both for and against. The biggest thing against the dining plan is the drink and desert. A lot of people are fine with water and an entree, and in which case you don't need the dining plan. You'll save roughly $20 a day paying out of pocket that way. My trip this year I used the Disney Dining Plan. After doing the math each day I came out to be just about even. Each table service meal was about $40-45 a person, add on $15 for quick service and $5 for a snack you get $60 a day. The dining plan was $62 a day per person. Some meals you get more value out of it others are just about breaking even.
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CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
In that case, "leaving your wallet behind" is no feature of the dining plan, since you can also "leave you wallet behind" and use your MagicBand when paying OOP.
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MickeyMomV
Well-Known Member
Depends on your calculator. Mine always works in favor or the DDP.
Again it all depends if like the plan or not. Those who don't will always say you spend more regardless if you actually do and those that are fans of it will always you save more. I never said it was. I just answered the question.
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HRHPrincessAriel
Well-Known Member
We weren't on DDP and didn't take cards with us to the park. Charged It on the room.
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Disnee4Me
Well-Known Member
I'm getting free dining with our trip this December ... except I did have to change from POR to Coronado Springs, at a cost of about $400 more ... so the free dining isn't exactly FREE (please don't tell my DH about that...LOL...he didn't want to switch resorts because he loves POR). Anyhow just the whole thought of planning your restaurants six months out was overwhelming and we still don't have a TS for Christmas Day because we are afraid to leave MK and eat at a resort!!
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MickeyMomV
Well-Known Member
It has been a few years since we were there for Christmas but Liberty Tree Tavern had a nice Christmas Dinner.
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sgtmgd
Well-Known Member
We are in favor of the DDP and will utilize the deluxe on our Week long trip in december. While pricey the DDP gives us a lot of flexibility as we generally eat at several signatures for dinner. Using one TS for a character breakfast and 2TS for a signature and snacks for lunch if needed. I don't worry about snack counts as I have yet to exhaust them all in one trip and end up stocking up the day we leave. We enjoy a nice sit down meal around 430 530 each evening to recharge the batteries before hitting the parks again the rest of the evening. ADRS already account for how many TS I have used each day so that is a non issue on the worry factor. I would encourage folks to account for the gratuity as that can get a bit expensive at a place like the Yachtsman for 6 people..lol. I have seen some shocked folks not prepared. It has nothing to do with money for us it is about convenience although my 11 and 14 year old enjoy being able to try anything they want. At home I have a strict you order it you eat it policy so they get a small reprieve in the bubble.
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Minnesota disney fan
Well-Known Member
We have always done the ddp, my husband and me, no kids. This next trip is going to be a Big change for us! We are paying out of pocket, because the ddp is not offered at our favorite resort. We could change to another resort and get it, but we decided to stay where we love and pay OOP. I am actually looking forward to Not having to book adr's 6 months out from our vacation in November!! I always had to coordinate our adrs with fp's, which was getting to be a pain! We found, for us, that we never used the adr's towards the end of our trip. We were either too tired to trek back to Epcot or another park/resort for our ts. So they went to waste. We also weren't hungry for whatever I had booked at the time 6 months out. I know you can change reservations, but we don't have a smart phone and didn't want to go to the concierge, etc. Our choice. I can't wait to actually eat when we want and where we want to each day. It will be freeing and I know we will enjoy it. I will post after our trip in November and let everyone know how it went for us without ddp.
It will be freeing and I know we will enjoy it. I will post after our trip in November and let everyone know how it went for us without ddp.
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EmmieSue
Well-Known Member
I can't wait to actually eat when we want and where we want to each day.
I wouldn't say it will be all that freeing unless you plan to do mostly QS meals considering how fast table service restaurants book up to a point where there is very little left day of and what is left will probably not be a time you want. No smart phone means you won't be able to make the ADRs during the day either, so you'll have to rely on guest services or getting a walk up. I might be wrong, but it seems like you think you can eat anywhere whenever you want without ADRs and that just doesn't happen very often. Not impossible though. I wish you the best of luck!
Now I have always done the dining plan, but I don't really like it that much. (My sister sets up the trip and they do it for convenience) I enjoy the convenience of it too, but I feel restricted and I feel compelled to get my money's worth of things because I know how expensive it is. I find myself trying to get the best value snacks when I could easily share a cupcake with my sister (Three of us ate one butterfinger cupcake from starring rolls and we couldn't finish it.) or would be happy with one of the little bags of cotton candy. Some days I don't even want a snack and then I have a bunch of unused credits that I spend on candy and fudge at the end of the trip. We found we can easily split QS meals and a lot of the time I would happily split a meal or order off the kids menu at table service places. That or one buffet planned between two meals and a snack for the third meal is more than enough food. Plus at some places you may just want an appetizer instead of an entree. I also rarely ever finished any of the desserts that came with the meals. Usually if it was the chocolate cake we took it back to the room to have if we wanted a snack at some point, but then I used that instead of using my snack credits. For our next trip we are putting aside the cost of the dining plan for our party, but instead of buying the dining plan, we are paying out of pocket with it and any extra can be put toward other things. When we did the dining plan calculator we were well under the cost of the dining plan and that doesn't even take into account sharing meals and such. So really it comes down to flexibility vs convenience, where you eat, how much you eat, and if you are willing to pay extra to have it be convenient if you don't meet or exceed the cost of the plan.
When I was calculating for a smaller trip for a friend and I the dining plan only ended up costing $10 more than what we would pay out of pocket. When I did it for my family we were like... $600 under the cost because of sharing meals and where we wanted to eat and the fact that we only do dessert once or twice.
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CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
Gift cards are a good option for anyone who likes the dining plan specifically for the psychological benefit of prepaying and not getting that sticker shock at each meal. Take exactly your budgeted spending money in gift cards and cash and you don't have to fear what your credit card bill will look like when you get home. I think a lot of people visit WDW with a mentality of "we're on vacation... let's live it up and figure out how much it cost us once we get home." There's much more peace of mind when you know for sure that your budget is 100% covered.
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Coaster Lover
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
My wife and I, when we typically go amusement park hopping, usually do meals on the cheap. We will try to find a hotel that offers a free breakfast, have a snack for lunch, and do a larger dinner. LOTS of water throughout the day. It's pretty easy for us to spend $100 or less per day for the both of us on food (and that's if we go to a reasonably nice place for dinner). On my wife's first trip to Disney, we realized that the Standard Dining Plan fit our dining style quite nicely and, even if we just broke even, it was convenient and nice not to think about how much we were spending on a meal-by-meal basis. However, we also realized that part of going to Disney is the dining experiences.
If we got the Standard Dining plan, we would almost certainly skip out on table service breakfasts which would mean missing Kona, Boma, and Whispering Canyon's for breakfast (and those ended up being three of our favorite dining experiences of the trip). So, we sprung for the Deluxe Dining Plan. Having the option of eating just about anywhere we wanted was nice (REALLY nice). And since we spent a day at Universal, we had a few "extra" dining points that we were able to pair up for a couple Signature Meals (Cinderella's Royal Table and California Grill).
However, in the end, I feel like we ate WAY more than we usually would have and probable could have done a few more quick serves instead of table serves (but the only reason we did table serve was to try to break even financially and because we had already made the reservations). We even found that at some meals, getting an appetizer (which was included in the Deluxe pass) was just going to be too much food. The two snacks a day thing on the Deluxe was SO much as well and we ended up using about 14 credits on the last day (between the two of us) to get a bunch of cookies and rice crispy treats to take home.
Like a lot of people have said, I don't think it's possible to save a LOT of money (maybe some, but not a lot) on the dining plan, in fact, you may only break even, but it is convenient. When we go next, we'll probably still get the Standard Dining plan, but pay for a couple more table service/signature meals out of pocket. I really think that's the best way to go, but I guess it really depends on your typical eating habits when you're at an amusement park.
If we got the Standard Dining plan, we would almost certainly skip out on table service breakfasts which would mean missing Kona, Boma, and Whispering Canyon's for breakfast (and those ended up being three of our favorite dining experiences of the trip). So, we sprung for the Deluxe Dining Plan. Having the option of eating just about anywhere we wanted was nice (REALLY nice). And since we spent a day at Universal, we had a few "extra" dining points that we were able to pair up for a couple Signature Meals (Cinderella's Royal Table and California Grill).
However, in the end, I feel like we ate WAY more than we usually would have and probable could have done a few more quick serves instead of table serves (but the only reason we did table serve was to try to break even financially and because we had already made the reservations). We even found that at some meals, getting an appetizer (which was included in the Deluxe pass) was just going to be too much food. The two snacks a day thing on the Deluxe was SO much as well and we ended up using about 14 credits on the last day (between the two of us) to get a bunch of cookies and rice crispy treats to take home.
Like a lot of people have said, I don't think it's possible to save a LOT of money (maybe some, but not a lot) on the dining plan, in fact, you may only break even, but it is convenient. When we go next, we'll probably still get the Standard Dining plan, but pay for a couple more table service/signature meals out of pocket. I really think that's the best way to go, but I guess it really depends on your typical eating habits when you're at an amusement park.
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Minnesota disney fan
Well-Known Member
I guess I wasn't clear. We are doing qs most of the time. I have actually booked 3 adr's, one for arrival day, the next day at MK, and our last day at BOG. Those are the only ones we want and will pay OOP for them. We are looking forward to eating what we want and when we want. On our last trip we had 10 QS left the day before we left!! 10 unused. So we let our daughter's family of 5 (3 hungry teens) use these up. We have found we didn't use all our adrs at all each trip and only used a few of the qs. I think it is an individual thing, and we will be quite happy doing it this way. It will be great to say,"hey I'm hungry, let's eat here at AK", instead of saying,"we have to get to Epcot to make our Biergarten adr, even though we aren't hungry or are too tired or in too much pain(me) to make the trek. So, I know it works for a lot of people, us being 2 of them. It did work for a few times. But honestly, I think this will be great. We love the food at the Mill at POR where we are staying. Love their make your own salad bar and make your own pasta dish. My husband gets one and I get the other and we share these huge portions. There are really a lot of healthy options. But, like I said, we might change back after experiencing it and will report how it went this November!
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