Is the dining plan worth it?

[dcrippin15]

So my wife and I are trying to figure out if the Regular DDP is worth it for us this time around and need some help. So usually we get the DDP but now that my son is of the age where Disney is requiring us to pay for him now is where it gets into the grey area.

In the past it’s been perfect for us because my daughter doesn’t eat a whole lot and my kids usually just split the meal. We never leave a credit unused and we LOVE to snack.

With the current increase in pricing, which my wife and aren’t huge drinkers anyways, it’s getting to point where is paying out of pocket and using our AP discount better off for us rather than paying for the DDP? Our trip is planned for May of 2018 and we are also going in December of 2018 as well so this would apply for pretty much all trips going forward. We usually go twice a year

We usually try to do places like ‘Ohana, Be Our Guest, Akershus, coupled with new places around WDW property that we haven’t tried.

Any insight is greatly and much appreciated


-Derek

 

[Dakota731]

We did the math and since we are doing a pricey character meal every day we actually come out ahead in the plan.

 

[supersnoop]

How old are you children? From you description, I can’t tell how many you have. Kids make the plan worthwhile. The low child price subsidizes the adult value.

The website www.distripplanner.com can be useful to get a rough idea, but I’m not sure how up to date it is anymore.

 

[moesy4]

We are doing an adults only trip for a few days and no matter how I slice it, we come out ahead paying OOP. Kids would probably make a difference.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Since you have an AP discount, you will almost certainly come out ahead using that...whenever you have to pay for the plan, you rarely come out ahead even if you have no discounts. Since you do, it's a no brainer to skip DDP, especially since you aren't planning an alcoholic drink at every allowed meal...

 

[manning]

Gee 3 big meals a day. If I did that the plane would have a longer run down the runway. Come on captain we are getting close to the end of the runway

 

[holden]

FWIW, we never do the dining plan. We find we come out ahead with the AP discount or Tables In Wonderland.

 

[pershing]

My adult son and I are doing the quick service dining plan next spring and yes I am a drinker.

But I am planning on how to maximize our snacks and quick service meals.

We plan on doing BR guest breakfast which would be a whopping 24 bucks per person without the quick service plan. We also plan on having a meal at Port Orleans French quarter which has a very good meal for for the price .

We also plan on eating at ABC Commissary which is a good value for the quick service plan with its higher end meals.

I’ve also got a list of snacks going to but you get my drift – it’s basically putting it together a plan to have snacks that are around six dollars each and a meal that heads towards 20.

I don’t think the regular dining plan is a great deal at all. I think you lose money or you have to do a heck of a lot of planning and let’s face it, are you there to eat or are you there to experience the parks? If the answer is both then maybe the dining plan is for you.

We bring cereal and milkman dried milk for breakfast. And we also split quick service meals like at Flametree barbecue.

There’s a bunch of threads on the dining forum that go into dining plan versus no dining plan that might help.

I need to disclose that we normally end our trip with the Disney cruise of some kind so we get our fill of good food and ambience there.

Good luck with your decision

 

[BeerMe]

It used to be a great deal, but since we eat much less now, and they've changed the program and the price several times, it's not worth it for us anymore.

 

[WDWFan0813]

Take a look at Tables in Wonderland, it is $150 up front, but the discounts tend to apply / are more than AP. This could pay for itself, especially if you have multiple trips planned.

 

[LovesTimone]

This is a on going debate with so many opinions on the topic. At the end of the day... Your really are the only one that can decided what is right for your family.

But since you asked here's my 2 cents worth.

We are a pro dinning plan family... It has worked out for us over the years. We are now empty nester, so we have used it a lot.

We tried to focus on Free dinning, when our family was young, it gave us more bang for our buck.

For DH and I having it paid for upfront is important, this way we did not worry about who was ordering what, which was and is nice. We are those people that the trip is paid for and paid off well before we think of starting to pack, nothing worse than coming home to a mailbox full of vacation bills, on top of the extras that you spent while on vacation... Kinda ruin's the vacation buzz.

When the kids were little we loved the DDP it was just right, It allowed us to be able to go the character meals and enjoy moments and special experiences and some TS that we normally would not just due to the cost, over 100.00 bucks for breakfast, 300.00 for dinner... is not something that we would have been able to do when the kids were younger. But paying all along worked great for us.

As the kids got older, we moved to the DDXDP, but we still wanted to enjoy character meals, and the kids were more interested in grown up choices and getting dressed up a bit for dinner, and it gave us a opportunity to teach them how to act, order, and behave in more refined dinning experiences. Which they did not realize we were teaching them, but these are life skills that need to be taught. Plus DH and I worked really hard and deserved some really nice grown up meals.

For some people they don't consider dinning part of the vacation experience which is okay its more about the action for them. Some people like us consider it a very important part of vacation. When our kids were younger it was so nice to sit at the table and listen to them chatter on and on, as they got older sitting at the table they would talk about things that they found really interesting, something that they learned or share something going on at school or on their team. In January DH and I were sitting at Chef Mickeys with our oldest DD, SIL and SWEET little grandson for his first trip and second birthday. It was so wonderful, we were talking about the first time she ate here, and telling stories of other times and visit... Watching a whole new generation of Disney kids start, watching him see the character was priceless... more memories for our book of life.

I find when paying out of pocket you tend to look at the price's column, instead of getting the steak you really want to try, you will go for the chicken not because you want it, but its a okay option and a lot less than the steak. But if you have paid for it ahead and can order what you want... most people will get the steak...

Also when using TIW or AP discounts, you need to check and see when the discounts are useable ( meal times). We did not renew our TIW this year due to the fact of how we dine now, verse in the past. We are AP holders so we do use this when we it's allowed.

 

[tvguy]

We are doing an adults only trip for a few days and no matter how I slice it, we come out ahead paying OOP. Kids would probably make a difference.

Yeah. We didn't have a dining plan for our first WDW trip in June but no kids. The look of relief on our server's faces when we said we were not on the dinign plan that interesting. As one server put it "everything on the menu is available to you". And overhearing the negotiations those on a dining plan had with servers, and that many of the items that are excluded are the only items my children (when they were still kids) would eat, it can be a money saver, if you can deal with the restrictions.

 

[4HOLIDAYS]

We have only done it when free. We always come out ahead paying OOp, with ap and TIW some years. If you do a lot of character meals and like desrt with everything than it may go the other way. Take a look at allears.net and look at the menus to get an idea of pricing and selection and calculate it out. We always prefer apps to desert as well.

 

[BigredNole]

It is only worth it if you can plan the 3-4 meals that get to the break even point and eat those options only. Otherwise paying out of pocket will be cheaper. There was a site that was constantly updated with price information to show exactly what snacks, which meals, and which desserts had to be ordered in order to break even or come out ahead. The last time I looked at it (about a year ago), you only had an extremely select few items and would have to be at those specific restaurants 2-3x on a 1-week trip. Far too much work and forcing you to a specific meal.

 

[NY Pirate Princess]

As others have said, it is a personal decision. Paying OOP was cheaper and less stressful for us, and we will be doing that going forward unless there is a positive change to the plan. I am a vegetarian, so it is always a stretch to make the plan "worth it" for me. That said, we are taking our last trip with the dining plan in two weeks. I was pleased with the plan change for 2017 that eliminated lunch dessert and gave us two snacks instead. We will take full advantage of those snacks at food and wine! The price increase for next year, combined with the alcoholic drink subsidy we'd have to fork over for our child that will be a Disney Adult in 2018 is just too much. The planning required to find, secure, arrive at, and eat a full table service each day, plus the time suck from the parks, also factors into our decision. Not to mention all those tips that add to the cost of the plan on the back end.

 

[therapistalexandra]

It really depends on how the math breaks down for you and yours.....

Because of our jobs (which involves working with very violent individuals), my husband and I only get to really get away on a vacation every two years or so. When we go, we tend to go absolutely all out (what if we get seriously injured or killed in our job?), so the dining plan works for us because it is one less thing to think about when we get down there giving us more time to shut off our brains, turn off our hyper-awareness (slightly lol) and just relax and have fun! My best friend, however, swears her husband and she always comes out ahead OOP, but they are much more conservative about their vacations.

Not to be a buzzkill, but the best thing to do is sit down and do the math for your family and you and compare & contrast.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

For some people, yes. For other people, no. You really need to do the math for yourself, taking into account available discounts you already get (e.g., AP, DVC, DisneyVISA, TIW).

For us, it's not worthwhile.

 

[holden]

We are a family of 4 Disney adults. On our last trip (5 nights/4 days) we took $1500 in discounted Disney GC (purchased from BJs) with us. We spent about $1250 of it exclusively on food and alcohol (CS, TS, and FWF booths). We ate with wild abandon, not paying attention to how much we were spending.

When I did the math, it came out to $62.50 per person per night. That’s cheaper than the dining plan.

The dining plan has never made sense for us.

 

[Shanti]

Paying out of pocket has always been much cheaper and more convenient for us than using the dining plan, even though we regularly do character meals.

 

[cjnix29]

as previous posters have said, it depends on your situation. We found that once our kid was considered a Disney Adult, there was no way we came out ahead. Plus, we don't eat that much food. What I started doing, was putting the amount of the dining plan on a Disney gift card, and used that to pay for all our food, and then eat as we would normally eat, rather than try to maximize the plan. I always end up with several hundred dollars left on the card after paying for all our meals for a week.