I love the Disney Dining plan!
We are in the throes of planning our 2017 WDW trip. I, too, have been looking at the DDP. This will be our 5th trip to WDW and we have never done the DDP. We will have 4 adults (me, DH, DS17.5 and DS14) at the parks for 5 days. I looked up numerous restaurants that we are thinking about trying and did a mock meals for one table service meal and one quick service meal per day. I did not include a dessert for us during our TS meals even though they come with one on the DDP, because we wouldn't eat it if we were paying out of pocket. For the new 2017 DDP, the dessert is taken away from the QS meal and replaced with a second snack credit. For our snacks, I added in the price of an ice cream bar each day and a breakfast item that would be considered a snack credit. Here is what I came up with:
No Plan:$1045
DDP: $1346.60
No Plan:$1045
DDP: $1346.60
The difference would have to be in my favor for me to do the DDP. I would not pay more for the all inclusiveness. With a 1:1 kiddo ratio it is in my favor (by a lot, paying $577 for the plan for $820 worth of planned food). Even if I do not maximize the plan I will still come out ahead. If I were not I'd just pay OOP and not worry about it.Thanks for sharing those numbers and how you got them @manlscott! When I look at those numbers, I see that the difference is nearly MVMCP for us. I'll be crunching mine another time or two (or 20 lol), but I simply do not see where it is in our best financial interests to utilize any of the dining plan options for this particular trip. It could all definitely look different for a future trip though, so maybe next time. Thanks again!
I love the Disney Dining plan!
We are in the throes of planning our 2017 WDW trip. I, too, have been looking at the DDP. This will be our 5th trip to WDW and we have never done the DDP. We will have 4 adults (me, DH, DS17.5 and DS14) at the parks for 5 days. I looked up numerous restaurants that we are thinking about trying and did a mock meals for one table service meal and one quick service meal per day. I did not include a dessert for us during our TS meals even though they come with one on the DDP, because we wouldn't eat it if we were paying out of pocket. For the new 2017 DDP, the dessert is taken away from the QS meal and replaced with a second snack credit. For our snacks, I added in the price of an ice cream bar each day and a breakfast item that would be considered a snack credit. Here is what I came up with:
No Plan:$1045
DDP: $1346.60
Well, we are back from our trip. I kept all our receipts and made a spreadsheet when I got home.
Regular DDP-$1387 plus alcohol and gratuities
We spent a total of $1365.02. That included all our meals (1TS & 1QS per person per day), snacks, alcohol, and gratuities.
Looks like we chose wisely!!
Food-$1070
Alcohol-$135
Gratuities-$160