Disney Dining Plan help

[Anthony]

We are planning a trip in February and I have been reading all I can find on the dining plan and frankly I do not see any advantage to it. Am I missing something? Since I would have to use 2 credits to eat dinner almost anywhere I would want to eat, how is this saving me any money?

Thanks,
Anthony

[Bri]

Ok, I hope I can explain my point the way it's sounding in my head! The DDP is about $40 per day for 1TS, 1CS and 1 snack per person. Trust me, you don't want a TS everynight, you would be scheduling all your time around where you have to be for dinner. I feel that you do save money, even if you wanted to use it for a 2TS restaurant. For example, we did Cali Grill a few years ago. For 2 of us it was about $120 and it was a 2TS place. So lets say that the $40 per day is split like this: $4-5 for a snack credit, $10 for a CS credit and $25 for 1TS credit. So for 2 of us, our 4 TS credits cost about $100 but our meal cost $120 so we saved money.

The best thing to do, if you haven't already, it to look at the menus and see what you might like to eat and just do the math. If you going to pick the most expensive thing on the menu, then I think the DDP will certainly save you money.

I hope this sounds as logical to you as it does in my head!

[SBETigg]

For some people, the dining plan is a savings and for others, it makes no sense. It depends on your dining style. There's nothing wrong with skipping it if you don't see it as a value for you.

If you generally eat at a quick service place and a regular table service (not Signature or two credit meals, not price fixe or buffets) dinner per day, then you might make out on the plan. If not, you have to work it out hypothetically and do a little math. If you do a lot of two credit dining, you might also price out the Deluxe Dining plan and see if that works any better for you. But you could be one of those cases in which the dining plan isn't going to be a help.

[jerrywilborn]

In other parts of the country, people eat to live. In the south, we live to eat.

The dining plan is a great tool for planning, but it does take some work to figure out if it's right for you.

[Mitzie]

We did the reg. plan last year and loved it! DH liked that other than tips...everything was paid for before we even got there. He was also concerned if it was a good deal or not so he saved all of our bills and added them up. We saved $600.00 for the 5 of us during a 7 night stay. 3 of us were considered adults, the twins were 8 then and we paid for the child portions. At times the kids portions were small or limited for my DS but there was always so much food he would end up finishing mine. I think it is all in the planning.

[doombuggygal]

You may want to look into doing the Deluxe Dining Plan which will give you 3 table service and 2 snack credits per day. Also when on the deluxe plan an appetizer is included with your meal.

[Aggie97]

As previous posters indicated, it really just depends on how you like to dine at WDW.

We do not use the DDP, for a number of reasons: we don't like to eat a TS meal every day; sometimes we kind of graze and snack at different spots instead of eating a full CS meal; we never get dessert at the same time/location as our CS meals; the TS meals that we have are primarily at signature (2 DDP credit) restaurants; and we prefer appetizers or salads over desserts.

I've done the math, and the DDP would not offer any savings for us based on the way we like to dine at WDW. :mickey:

[momof3+twins]

It probably isn't saving money unless you go during free dining!:mickey:

[JPL]

It probably isn't saving money unless you go during free dining!:mickey:

Even Free Dining isn't always a big savings considering you are paying the Full Rack Rate for your room.

[HoosierDisneyFan]

I love the DDP for several reasons:

1) Meals are prepaid! No worrying what cost is (it already paid for!!).
2) I can order anything on the menu without cost consideration. If I want steak, I can order it with thinking; "the pasta would be $$ less".
3) Prior to DDP I would only eat at CS resturants. I thought the TS were too expensive and did not make reseravations. Buying the DDP, I made reservation and opened a whole new Disney expirence for us.
4) Money savings. This is always tricky because you can look at the savings from many different prospectives but I know that if I ate at the same resturants and ordered the same meals I would have paid much more. It is true that I probably would not have done this w/o DDP but thats my point, DDP allowed me to expirence something I would not have done otherwise.

There are many folks that have strong opinions about the DDP. I love it.