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

Can you give an itemized description of what you are referring to? I just want to make sure I understand correctly. I always try to assume that with my family, that we would split a few meals, and then use a few 2 credit meals here and there, but I want to see where you are coming from with the way you use it. TIA. (and don't stress...I'm not holding my breath or anything - just whenever you have a minute.)
We would do basically that -- mix in some 2-credit things and then pay for the most expensive 1-point TS meals with points. Looking back on one trip, 7-nights, we had 8 sit-downs planned, but 2 of them were 2-pointers. That makes for 10 total points. So we paid for the 7 most expensive with points and the 3 cheapest with cash. And we'd split QS meals everywhere. Nowadays we're getting older and have APs so the value of the DDP is falling off for us.
Yes...of course. DDP *plus* OOP is very flexible. But, that's not the discussion anyone here other than you is having.
DDP is always DDP *plus* OOP. There are 3 levels of DDP... If you buy any of them would you say you're supposed to eat only that much? There's obviously options to pay for some, most, or all of your food based on the level you buy. I happen to like the middle best which does not cover all your food, but are you talking Deluxe DP? We have never bought that. Per the example above, regular DDP covered 5/8 sit-downs. But I got the choice to pay for the cheapest ones OOP and the most expensive ones with a point.
I'm talking about appetizers AS YOUR MEAL. We go to WDW several times a year, every year. We go some during hot months. Often, when we arrive at a restaurant, we may not be hungry enough to order an entire meal, so we order APPETIZERS instead of a full meal. Works perfect OOP...not so much when on DDP.
I think it still does. Say we go to Tiffins. You want an app, I want a meal. We'll spend a point on the meal and pay for the app. Great. Now say we go to Le Cellier. Same ordering pattern, you only want an app. We'll pay for mine with points. We've now eaten at two 2-point restaurants for 2 people and only spent 4 points! That's awesome.


Now if you are saying you might not want to order meals -- ever, well then that's back to the argument where if you're talking about a plan to prepay for meals but you don't actually want the meals then obviously it's bad for you. It's presumed that if you're considering buying the plan that you at least intend to eat the # of meals you're buying. Prepaying for something you don't want isn't inflexible, it's foolish.
We go to Via Napoli and we get a large pizza to split amongst the three of us. Perfect amount of food if we're hungry. Can't do that on the DDP.
I would used that as one of my OOP meals.
I have zero way of knowing weeks/months ahead of time how hungry I'll be when I arrive to a restaurant. Therefore, I'm not going to "lock" myself into paying up front for food that I may not even be able to eat.
Well ok, that's fair. But that planning part is fun to me, so this isn't a drawback. I have no problem picking out what I might eat 6 mo from now.
I enjoy you making my point that the OOP component adds true flexibility.
I think we can compromise on the combination being pretty decent, depending on circumstance and a lot of other things!​
 
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I think it still does. Say we go to Tiffins. You want an app, I want a meal. We'll spend a point on the meal and pay for the app. Great. Now say we go to Le Cellier. Same ordering pattern, you only want an app. We'll pay for mine with points. We've now eaten at two 2-point restaurants for 2 people and only spent 4 points! That's awesome.

And at both of those restaurants, even if you order the MOST expensive entrée and dessert, you're only spending about $73, but your TS credits are worth about $40 each, so you've just overpayed for two meals.

Now I am basing that on last year's DDP with no alcohol included. Add in the alcohol and order the most expensive entrée and dessert and you'll probably break even.
 
And at both of those restaurants, even if you order the MOST expensive entrée and dessert, you're only spending about $73, but your TS credits are worth about $40 each, so you've just overpayed for two meals.
Now I am basing that on last year's DDP with no alcohol included. Add in the alcohol and order the most expensive entrée and dessert and you'll probably break even.
Well I didn't pick it to optimize... 2-point menu service meals are among the least optimal ways to spend a point and these are 2 adults, the least optimal age combo. So you're saying break even with some pretty inefficient choices. I'll take that. If you throw in an alternative discount it's even worse. But a family of 5 with 2 adults and 3 kids 3-9 eating at Akershus, Ohana, Chef Mickeys, Biergarten, and Tusker House will clean up on the plan.

And you raise a good point that I haven't studied it thoroughly since the addition of alcohol. Did that change make the math better or worse? (for a group that would otherwise buy a drink at most seatings)
 
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DDP is always DDP *plus* OOP. There are 3 levels of DDP... If you buy any of them would you say you're supposed to eat only that much? There's obviously options to pay for some, most, or all of your food based on the level you buy. I happen to like the middle best which does not cover all your food, but are you talking Deluxe DP? We have never bought that. Per the example above, regular DDP covered 5/8 sit-downs. But I got the choice to pay for the cheapest ones OOP and the most expensive ones with a point.

The amount of food you get on the DDP (standard) is much more food than I need in a day. I really don't get how it's eating "only that much". By the end of a trip with no additional OOP food purchases (and a bunch of leftover snack credits to buy treats to bring home) I've stuffed myself so much I don't want to eat again for a good week. We usually do one 2 credit meal in there, too - still don't need to buy anything OOP because it's plenty of food.
 


And you raise a good point that I haven't studied it thoroughly since the addition of alcohol. Did that change make the math better or worse? (for a group that would otherwise buy a drink at most seatings)

Based on what we've seen offered at TS so far, the math is definitely more in favor of using DDP with the alcohol.
 
And you raise a good point that I haven't studied it thoroughly since the addition of alcohol. Did that change make the math better or worse? (for a group that would otherwise buy a drink at most seatings)

It is another of those "depends on your party" questions. It certainly didn't make it better for me - I'm the only 21+ member of our travel party, though we're all paying adult prices for the plan. But on an individual basis it does make the math better for adults who drink.

There are so many moving parts to whether or not one of the dining plans works for a particular traveler that it amazes me that there are still threads trying to establish a right/wrong answer more general than "do the math". We love the deluxe plan. Part of that is because we save with it - usually 15-20% compared to menu prices, ordering how we would like to order. We're all big seafood eaters with a couple of steak fans in the mix so ordering the more expensive menu items tends to be a pretty safe bet. I have literally never, in all our trips, passed up a cheaper menu item that sounded good in order to get more out of the plan, but I have occasionally, on OOP trips, passed up on a more expensive dish because of sticker shock. And I have teens who sometimes like to go their own way at WDW, so there's a certain non-monetary value to the all-inclusive aspect of the plan.

But a big part of the question is also the time of year and what discounts are available. Free dining or stay/play/dine are often the best deals out there for parties with lots of adults - for us, the difference between room only with no dining and the SPD package upgraded to DxDDP was just under $2000... which sounds like a lot until you try to feed 5 Disney-adults who like signature dining and seafood at Disney prices for 6 days/5 nights on it. Heck, California Grill brunch alone will be $425+ for the five of us.
 
. And I have teens who sometimes like to go their own way at WDW, so there's a certain non-monetary value to the all-inclusive aspect of the plan.

I was thinking about this today. Sure, I usually have a TIW and I always have an AP and my DVC card (for the 10%) but my guests and children (grown) do not. Unless we are together all of the time for every meal and 'snack*' charged to the room, we cannot be sure of having the discounts applied so applying the discount to all scenarios isn't always accurate. Just another thing to consider when pricing it all out. Also, one must add the cost of the TIW back into the numbers. I have seen 'math' that does not.

* snack can mean anything other than a TS. Could be a QS converted to 3 snacks. Or a mid day beverage and 'app' that is really a QS shared.

I waiver every now and again but I know the DDP is the way to go for our next trip.
 


We’re wrapping up day 6 of a 10 day (9 night) Trip. Excluding day 1 (the day we flew in so we only bought dinner) we’re averaging $179 per day of food consumed before taxes and tips. We have 3 Disney adults and one Disney child. We are losing money every day, with no end in sight. We’re on track to have 7 CS and 1 TS left over, Plus tons of snacks. :worried:

I was sure that with alcohol added in we’d come out at least break even if not ahead. The issue is that we just don’t eat this much food and end up sharing 2-3 meals between the four of us and it’s more than enough...
 
We’re wrapping up day 6 of a 10 day (9 night) Trip. Excluding day 1 (the day we flew in so we only bought dinner) we’re averaging $179 per day of food consumed before taxes and tips. We have 3 Disney adults and one Disney child. We are losing money every day, with no end in sight. We’re on track to have 7 CS and 1 TS left over, Plus tons of snacks. :worried:

I was sure that with alcohol added in we’d come out at least break even if not ahead. The issue is that we just don’t eat this much food and end up sharing 2-3 meals between the four of us and it’s more than enough...

This is my concern for an upcoming trip. The idea of DDP is so inviting, but the calculations just never seem to add up no matter what factors I throw in there. Being able to match what we want to eat to what we order ends up not only being less stressful, it's cheaper. At least it is for us.
 
We’re wrapping up day 6 of a 10 day (9 night) Trip. Excluding day 1 (the day we flew in so we only bought dinner) we’re averaging $179 per day of food consumed before taxes and tips. We have 3 Disney adults and one Disney child. We are losing money every day, with no end in sight. We’re on track to have 7 CS and 1 TS left over, Plus tons of snacks. :worried:

I was sure that with alcohol added in we’d come out at least break even if not ahead. The issue is that we just don’t eat this much food and end up sharing 2-3 meals between the four of us and it’s more than enough...

That is how we eat, too. There's no way we'd get our $$ out of a dining plan if we had to pay for it.
 
That is how we eat, too. There's no way we'd get our $$ out of a dining plan if we had to pay for it.
Not sure what the ages are but I feel like the more adults on the plan the worse value it seems to be (especially if the disney "adults" are still kids). Unless they drink expensive drinks a lot and eat steaks lol.

I have one infant I don't pay for and 1 child. I feel like that definitely helps with value. The time of arrival and departure plays a factor too I think (whether you can have two meals a day on arrival and departure day on the plan or just one.

Either way, I'm sorry you're losing money and don't feel it was valuable.
 
I'm going to suggest that length of trip may also make a difference in whether you get your money's worth out of the DDP. Snack credit for breakfast, QS lunch, TS dinner, 1 snack later. Doesn't feel like a huge amount of food when I'm walking from RD to evening fireworks for 4 days or so. On a longer trip, with a less commando touring plan? Well, that may very well be another story.
 
Not sure what the ages are but I feel like the more adults on the plan the worse value it seems to be (especially if the disney "adults" are still kids). Unless they drink expensive drinks a lot and eat steaks lol.

I have one infant I don't pay for and 1 child. I feel like that definitely helps with value. The time of arrival and departure plays a factor too I think (whether you can have two meals a day on arrival and departure day on the plan or just one.

Either way, I'm sorry you're losing money and don't feel it was valuable.
I agree with this. I have 2 kids who like to order steak, seafood, milkshakes etc at every meal. They rarely choose nuggets, burgers or typical kid food. They have expensive tastes lol. When they were both kids prices it was a decent value to be on the DP, especially since they could off the adult menu at QS locations. Now that i have one Disney adult I'll have to rerun some numbers and see if it still makes sense for us.
 
It is a lot of food. We used ours to treat family to many TS they wouldn't have been able to afford. We are a family of 3, but treated extended family (9 more) to lunch and dinner at places like Boma, Tusker House, BOG, etc. If it was just us 3 and we weren't upgrading from a free plan, then I would consider just the regular Dining plan. My wife planned out all the credits, but having extra people threw that into a mess and we ended up with extra snacks. We do love ice cream though.

One could also treat strangers to meals, help make some magic.

We had a trip where we ended up doing this-we had about 9 credits left from the DxDP and on the morning we checked out we took turns standing at the register paying for breakfast for other guests, it was a lot of fun. We were at CSR and this being a convention resort it's is sometimes a bit less "magical" than others. There was a large group of college kids there and they very much appreciated the magic we were able to share with them.

That being said we have since learned how to make it work to our advantage and not have the left over credits, barring of course illness that a PP mentioned. We spread the credits out, just 2 meals a day, spread out with 8-12 hours between. We usually book our trip as a split stay with the last night being RO and that days meals are covered by the leftover credits from the first part. So we pay for 6 nights of dining and use it for 7. We also enjoy character meals, signature dining, and HDDR is a must do. Our biggest issue is getting the snack credits used- but the Goofy candy bags are welcome treats to co-workers and family.
 
We're doing a split stay this trip and I'm in the midst of number crunching to see what if any dining plan will give us the best "bang to buck" for our starting 2 night stay where we'll be eating dinner at HDDR and 'Ohana. Already know that the longer 4 night stay needs the deluxe plan for the 2 table credit dinners we enjoy as well as snacking around the world as opposed to drinking, LOL.
 
My problem with it isn't the numbers it's the quantity of food. We would never eat a QS and a TS same day.

also I really don't like a QS breakfast. If there was a plan where we could buy 2 TS per day then maybe we could do a TS breakfast and a TS dinner. But for noe for us the plan means a QS lunch and a TS dinner and we end up over eating.

We also fly but we by in Walmart food for breakfast and snacks
 
My problem with it isn't the numbers it's the quantity of food. We would never eat a QS and a TS same day.

also I really don't like a QS breakfast. If there was a plan where we could buy 2 TS per day then maybe we could do a TS breakfast and a TS dinner. But for noe for us the plan means a QS lunch and a TS dinner and we end up over eating.

We also fly but we by in Walmart food for breakfast and snacks

The DxDDP allows for that if you do a lot of signature dining, however you really need to run numbers with that plan. My family does eat at least two meals a day, and my daughter likes breakfast, even if it is a light meal. We will sometimes get that one, and share some of the meals by booking a few lunches that we share, as well as some nice character breakfasts. I do not like to waddle around, so we do some planning to make sure that we have managed to make sure that all of our crew has enough to eat but that we are not rolling down Main Street like a snowball out of control.
 
The DxDDP allows for that if you do a lot of signature dining, however you really need to run numbers with that plan. My family does eat at least two meals a day, and my daughter likes breakfast, even if it is a light meal. We will sometimes get that one, and share some of the meals by booking a few lunches that we share, as well as some nice character breakfasts. I do not like to waddle around, so we do some planning to make sure that we have managed to make sure that all of our crew has enough to eat but that we are not rolling down Main Street like a snowball out of control.

Not for me it is too many credits. The options are 1 TS per day or 3 for the way we eat we would need 2 so we always land in the middle.
 
Not for me it is too many credits. The options are 1 TS per day or 3 for the way we eat we would need 2 so we always land in the middle.

The plans are not for everyone. I think we do best when we consider the entire family dynamic. My husband joins us? DxDDP. WE tried it without and it cost us a fortune! LOL!

This next trip we have 2 rooms, with 5 folks on one reservation and two on the other. I am not sure what we will end up booking, but if FD is offered I will upgrade the room with 5 to DxDDP, and perhaps no plan for the other. I will know more once we plan meals for the week. My crew is supposed to be adding their dining wish list so I can rough it out.
 
Ive been debating whether to upgrade our 'free' regular dining to deluxe for a while..
I thought I'd decided-then flipped back to $$ on a gift card.

Well-I've finally done it & upgraded to d ddp.
Im not that good at math :sad2:
But I'm sure it more than covers our costs & im delighted it's all taken care of in an advance. :flower1:
 

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