Booked the dining plan - here's why it's "worth it"

[Shanti]

I run the numbers (I love spreadsheets), and the dollar amounts are always really close. I do not assume everyone orders the most expensive items. Part of this could be that the TS venues we select are pricier?

While we could probably save money sharing meals, in that scenario, somebody almost always has to compromise. I want everybody to order whatever they want. We don't go annually, so not like you can try something next time. Next time could be years away. Sometimes, we'll share a CS meal but then use the leftover credit for a breakfast we can share the next morning.

Everybody is legal, so order that wine.

We fly, so if we wanted to pack our own snacks or light breakfasts, we'd have to figure out a way to get it all in into the luggage, which is kind of a pain. Anyway, we will eat at the resort/in the parks for the duration of the trip.

Paying out of pocket has always been cheaper for us, even though we eat at the nicest TS restaurants & sometimes signatures, order whatever we want, and never share meals. I think the economics of it are affected a lot by whether or not your family has kids who qualify for the kids' price. We only have "Disney adults", so the plan is always a money-loser for us. Also, we always remember to add the unincluded gratuities to the dining plan price when comparing prices.

 

[ThistleMae]

I am my family's planner, and I plan our meals to get the most for our buck on the DDP, but we are also paying OOP for a couple of meals. My plan is to use the DDP for buffets/family meals: Boma, TuskerHouse, Liberty Tree, which maximizes the DDP, and then pay OOP for Candlelight at GG, and R&C, and then I have QS DDP at the expensive QS restaurants. That being said, this is only my family's second trip to Disney and I want everyone to have fun, and since I am paying for everything, money is not my focus, family time and experience is the goal. I have dropped a lot of $$$$ on this trip, and I figure, "This is only going to be a one-time trip, so I'd better make it AWESOME!"

I agree with you...I'm doing the same. We have two dinners to pay for OOP, so we doing Sci Fi Dinner Theater and Nine Dragons, the rest we are using the Dining Plan. It's my grandson's first trip, he's 8, and it is our first family vacation since the kids are grown and gone. We had to bribe the youngest, 33, because he said he'd rather spend money going surfing....so we had to sweeten the deal with a little discount for him....LOL. It is going to be so much fun! And yes, if I'm going alone, or just two of us, way cheaper to pay OOP...but we are also a lot more frugal. We bought the DDP and going all out on food. I'll probably gain like 100 pounds...LOL. I hope you and your family have the best trip ever!

 

[renessa]

Why does Disney push the DP so much? To “save” us money? So they can make less profit?

To get all of your dining dollars- you won’t venture offsite to spend your $$$. Disney wants it all

 

[KenHutch]

We always do the dining plan. I just like to have everything (everything but those overinflated buffets tips) paid for. I pay for everyone in my extended family when we go and my daughter has several relatives that do order the most expensive item on the menu as rule. I spreadsheet it once after one of our trips and freaked out as to what it would have cost me.

 

[nat8199]

Paying out of pocket has always been cheaper for us, even though we eat at the nicest TS restaurants & sometimes signatures, order whatever we want, and never share meals. I think the economics of it are affected a lot by whether or not your family has kids who qualify for the kids' price. We only have "Disney adults", so the plan is always a money-loser for us. Also, we always remember to add the unincluded gratuities to the dining plan price when comparing prices.

I agree. With three big-eating kids, the plan works for us for now. Once they are Disney adults, it probably will not.

 

[oldtink]

We are traveling in Jan with adult son and his wife ( separate rooms), so they got the QS plan and DH and I got the top plan. Son is splitting the difference in costs, so we can enjoy 4 TS for 4 people, plus other AS meals. We priced it out and we feel it's a good deal. For just two of us, DH and I get QS plan, but want to enjoy this time with kids.

 

[ThistleMae]

I agree. With three big-eating kids, the plan works for us for now. Once they are Disney adults, it probably will not.

When I went with my sweetie, no kids, it was much cheaper to pay out of pocket. For my daughter with a family of five, it saves her a ton of money. I do have to say however; that I am much more conservative with my orders when paying out of pocket, but do not give up my favorite restaurants either. I probably eat less snacks and I do look at the prices. With the dining plan, I tend to overdo and overeat but it can be fun not thinking about how much I can do both.

 

[gulliesmom]

We are headed to WDW in November of 2018 and will be getting the DP for the first time. I was hesitant because I feel like it is SO MUCH FOOD that we won;t eat, we are not big snackers, etc. but decided what the heck, let's try it and see. I like that we won't have to think about it, aside from making ADAs for our sit-down meals.

 

[christianweecare]

DH & I have always purchased the DP but last week we experimented dining without the plan. I had purchased Disney gift cards from Target for the 5% savings. We charged everything back to our room then paid with the gift card before check out. The basic dining plan would have cost us $942.62 not including tips. We ended up the week spending $612 for meals which included tips and snacks. We have AP's & are DVC so we had a number of discounts. We ended up sharing some meals as they were huge portions and should have shared more. We also split a water for lunch instead of soda. We didn't miss or need all the desserts. It worked well for us. We did one buffet for the Rivers of Light seating but wish we would not have done that. The buffets are so expensive.I know everyone's experience is different but this worked out well for us.

 

[ThistleMae]

Everyone values things differently. Sometimes it isn't about cost savings at all. It very well could be convenience or the idea that all the meals are paid for in advance. I'm doing it this year because every one in my party is on the dining plan, and it would be way too confusing to have me paying separate every time we eat out. So, I am spending more, but it makes me part of the gang...LOL!

 

[mco65]

I have never regretted getting the DDP.. but i do know we can save money not purchasing it. I have 2 picky eaters (kids).. one is a monster picky eater and other is just a salad person.. of the 3, only 1 eats enough to justify the DDP... We still do a sit down almost every day.... but due to the 2 light or picky eaters, we save money on just the tip alone.

 

[Lovetherodent]

Meal sharing is great, but only if you like the same things as the person you're sharing with! I'm not a fish eater. My traveling companions for this next trip (my adult children) LOVE seafood. One is gluten and dairy free and so has pretty limited options to begin with. Share with her and you're pretty much stuck with what she can eat.

 

[ThistleMae]

The DDP is definitely a bargain with a large family and if you can get Free Dining when it's offered, it's the way to go. But it's really hard to get in on that deal when it comes out, and you have to go during the dates it's offered. We've done it almost every year until this year when we've opted to go in February. I can't do the heat anymore, it's just way to taxing for me and cuts my enjoyment in half. So we paid for the dining plan this year but we got a good deal on the room so we're not complaining.

 

[Avery&Todd]

We're also a family that loves the DDP -our flavor of choice is the DxDP...we have "adult" boys being 19 and 16 and they LOVE all the food options on the DxDP - they'll start with the mussels and then onto the lobster, and end with a dessert of their choice!

They've actually learned to eat quite a few new foods that I would hesitate to let them order if we were at home, like mussels, but at Disney since it's included on the DxDP and we'll get 4 appetizers for the table, if they don't like it someone else will!!

For this upcoming trip we have 4 Signature dinners and 2 TS dinners, and mostly TS breakfasts, but we like to split lunches and/or we'll pay OOP for lunch since breakfast and dinner are so much...

I'm sure we could go cheaper if we paid OOP for food and chose cheaper options, but we like the convenience of having all of our meals and snacks prepaid for and not feeling like we need to limit what the boys (or us) want to eat simply because it's the most expensive item on the menu..

I know that the DDP is not for every family and especially not the DxDP but it works for our family!

 

[North of Mouse]

As several mentioned, it's as much, or more, the fact that it's paid in advance that makes it attractive to a lot of people. Also, it has to be the 'way' you eat. We don't eat desserts with any of our meals, nor do we drink the sodas. We eat what we want, when we want.

Wonder if everyone adds the high tips to the cost of the dining plans, as that is very much a large cost of dining? Also, paying oop for an additional meal or more - (although, how could you use 'more' food) is that added to the cost also?

We came back yesterday, and dh & I spent less than half of the dining plan and definitely had all the food we wanted - in fact, part of the time we ate too much.

 

[sharonabe]

As several mentioned, it's as much, or more, the fact that it's paid in advance that makes it attractive to a lot of people. Also, it has to be the 'way' you eat. We don't eat desserts with any of our meals, nor do we drink the sodas. We eat what we want, when we want.

Wonder if everyone adds the high tips to the cost of the dining plans, as that is very much a large cost of dining? Also, paying oop for an additional meal or more - (although, how could you use 'more' food) is that added to the cost also?

We came back yesterday, and dh & I spent less than half of the dining plan and definitely had all the food we wanted - in fact, part of the time we ate too much.

This is us too. On our recent 5-night trip, we had 3 TS meals and the rest QS, ate what we wanted when we wanted, never said no to a snack, had several snacks not included on the plan, and our average per person, per day was less than $40. I have two teenage boys too.

HOW you want to eat on vacation definitely plays into the equation.

 

[DrankTheKool-Aid]

As others have mentioned I think the makeup of your party and the restaurant choices make a huge difference. We have two Disney kids and do all character meals and dining packages (Fantasmic and ROL). The numbers work out for us and we save a ton of time not standing in line for as many traditional character meet and greets within the parks. Once our children are Disney adults and the character interactions are less important to them we will most likely drop the dining plan.

 

[LONES]

We are a family of 4, and loved the plan when our kids were Disney children. Once our oldest got to be 10, I really could not find a way that it made any financial sense for us. On our last trip, we took a 10% discount at POFQ instead of the Stay, Play and Dine deal at another moderate. We charged all of our food to the room, and added it up at the end. We came out a little over $200.00 ahead. I love food... and am not one to scrimp on a meal. If I want the most expensive steak on the menu, that's what I would get. I found we saved on drinks and desserts. DH and youngest daughter almost always order water in a restaurant. We also are not big dessert eaters. We would normally just order one or two for the 4 of us if we ordered anything at all.

Now that both of our kids are over 10, I don't see ever paying for the meal plan again. Even though DH and I are pretty big eaters, our kids are not. At some of the TS restaurants, there are some really good offerings on the kids menu. When there are not, they will often share an adult menu item.

 

[Allybaster]

We're a family of two adults and we're doing the dining plan, just the DDP, for the first time in about five days. When we went last January I was floored by how much we spent on food when we paid OOP. For two people over seven days it was about a grand. We're drinkers, too, so that was definitely part of it. I booked us with the Play, Stay, and Dine offer, so we paid like $650 for the dining plan and now that you get a booze with your TS and QS meals, it was a good deal for us. I wanted to try the dining plan no matter what, just to treat ourselves this time, but I was happy I could get it at a discount.

I was shocked last year at how hungry I was all the time, too. I inhailed all the food we bought and never felt full. I got snacks when I never really snack throughout the day.

I can definitely see for lighter eaters and nonbooze people the plans not being worth it. I'll definitely check with one of the calculators when I get home to see what we would have spent.

 

[sharonabe]

I can definitely see for lighter eaters and nonbooze people the plans not being worth it. I'll definitely check with one of the calculators when I get home to see what we would have spent.

Keeping your receipts and using your own calculator on your phone will be more accurate. The calculators people check are for BEFORE they decide to see if where they are eating will save them money, but those calculators use averages. You'll have actual prices you paid if you can hang on to your receipts.