Dining plan or disney dining experience??

[threeh]

Just curious if anyone has every crunched the numbers for which is a better option. I am getting AP for next visit. We just became DVC members, we are a family of 5,(2 adults, 3 kids) my son counts as an adult. We usually try to do 1 sit down meal a day and then usually 1 counter service. I am hoping to do breakfast in the room.
I know dvc'ers can get the dining plan but AP holders can get DDE.:confused:
Any info is appreciated. :thumbsup:

[wendy*darling]

We have actually had both on a couple of visits. :blush:
That's not necessarily recommended but we enjoying Dining at WDW!

If you typically have 1CS and 1TS every day, that's exactly what the DDP is built for. I would stick with that.
The DDE will not give you CS discounts (there are a couple of exceptions, but not enough to make a difference), So CS would largely be full price, OOP.
It will help with the TS. And if you enjoy adult beverages- there can be a big savings there too.

We typically do 2TS each day (breakfast and dinner), so the regular DDP and the DDE together actually made sense. This time we are getting the Deluxe DP and doing breakfast and a Signature Dinner every day.

But for what you described as your average dining- I would probably stick with the DDP.

[Flower]

For us, it made more sense to go with the DDE.

We were there last fall and when I booked the room ressie we would have been able to book the free dining - I did not take the free dining, the CM thought I was nuts when I booked the room!

Because I was an existing AP holder that already had the DDE card, I felt the AP room discount was a better value for us in conjunction to the DDE.

Had I taken advantage of the free dining, I would have paid full price for the room, PLUS had to purchase 3 one-day passes - it just did not add up to a good enough savings to take advantage of the free dining.

Sadly, we are not DVC'ers though :crying:(DH's choice....)

[Crow]

i will have both in Sept.
since I dont eat a lot, it doesnt always make sense to me to have DDP. & i drink so DDE helps. Im going to combine them.
i have 4 nights at POP booked free dining. the points above almost are making me think of cancelling the free dining to get discount w AP, since I also had to buy a 1 day pass I dont need.
but i will use the dining credits & use DDE for:beer::marg:.
then the other nights Ill use DDE

[mrsgaribaldi]

We have the DDE and APs too. We found that the DDE was better for us. It paid for itself after just a couple meals. I like to drink so it was good to use it for that. We also had half price admission to PI which we used. We would also get a room with an AP rate. We don't eat alot of sit down meals and you could use the card at alot of places too.

[Aggie97]

I think it really just depends on how you like to eat at WDW. I've done the math before every trip for the past several years, and the DDP has yet to offer any savings for my husband and me. We often kind of snack our way around WDW. We never eat dessert at the same time we eat CS meals. We don't like to eat at TS restaurants every day. Our TS meals tend to be at Signature restaurants, we prefer to each get a starter and then split or skip dessert, and we like to get cocktails and/or a bottle of wine. So, we got the DDE card in November and will use it on four WDW trips before it expires -- it definitely has been a great value for us! But I truly think whether or not the DDP or DDE is a better option really varies based on your family's specific eating habits. :mickey:

[Janmac]

I think that the main selling point for DDE is that the discount is on all your food/beverages, etc.

As several posters said, if you're having a beer or 3, this is included. Or if you prefer an appetizer instead of a dessert.

One point that I'm wondering about - the percent discount is almost the same as a tip, isn't it?

Jan

[KylesMom]

One point that I'm wondering about - the percent discount is almost the same as a tip, isn't it?
DDE discount is 20% - tip/gratuity which is now tacked onto the bill is 18%.

[Seasonscraps]

I preferred the DDE especially now with the changes to the DDP. We usually split an appy and have a couple of beers or something else with alcohol at dinner and it's discounted with the DDE. The break even point for the card was 2 or 3 meals so it was well worth it when we had an annual pass and made a couple of trips to WDW.

I don't mind the tip being added in since that's about what we would tip anyway. We have never had such terrible service that we wold tip less. People were probably tipping on the discounted amount and inadvertantly stiffing the servers.