To get Dining Plan or Not Oh BOY

[disneyfamilyforever]

Hello ALL,

Ok I have no prolems with booking where we are going to eat, picking what days we are going and to which park and even no problem deciding which FP's to get. BUT boy oh boy, I just don't know if I should get the Dining Plan or not. We have been many times and have never gotten it, with a fear we will waste money.

I would love any and all advice on this pretty please.

There are 4 total going including 14 year old boy and 4 year old (do we have to get her one?)

And here are a list of places I want to book us to eat at...

Ohana(Breakfast)
Sci-Fi Dine In(Dinner)
Be Our Guest (lunch)
T-Rex(Dinner)
Coral Reef(Lunch)
Rainforest Cafe

What do you awesome people think?:mickey:


Thank you in advance for all your help and advice,

Destiney:blush:

[MargaretMessler]

Whether or not the DDP is a value is the age old question, everyone has a different opinion. Personally, I think it is break even at best (again, for my use) so I never buy it. We did get it free last fall, and yes it was kind of nice not having to worry about forking over $ for food. So it really depends, I think the real value seems to be when you intend to do character meals and buffets which cost more.

As for the 4 year old, yes, you would have to get him one but child's is less.

[SBETigg]

Seeing your choices, I'm thinking you're probably going to spend less without the plan. But I would have to do the math to be sure.

If you typically get a quick service, a table service, and a snack per day, plus dessert with meals, then the plan might work out for you. But if your style is more to graze and not eat full meals, or you prefer to skip dessert, definitely not a good choice. Breakfasts and lunches are generally less expensive, and you have a few of those. So I'm thinking the DP is not a good deal for you. But if you like to pay in advance and not worry about it and if you think you'll get value out of it... maybe. Like previous poster said, everyone has a different opinion.

[faline]

Yes, you would need to get the dining plan for your 4 year old.

Granted, we are a family of 2; not 4 - but a few years ago, when we had "free dining", I did my own personal comparison. I figured out what the room would have cost had I just booked the room without the dining plan. I kept track of what the meals would have cost us had we needed to pay out of pocket instead of chalking them up to "free dining". In the end, I concluded that I would have made out better financially - eating exactly what I wanted and where I wanted - without using the dining plan. Others report they have had different results.

So, you would really need to be the one to do the math to figure out if it would be worthwhile for your family. Given your list of restaurants, I suspect it might not be.

[ANG]

Seeing your choices, I'm thinking you're probably going to spend less without the plan. But I would have to do the math to be sure.



Ditto!

We get the dining plan every time but we make it worth it. We book the more expensive sit downs. And while I won't order the most pricey menu item, I love being able to get a seafood or something really awesome for the same price as a sandwich. We also use our snack credits for more pricey things as well. If you know how to work it, it can be a great plan

[DizneyRox]

I bet 9 out of 10 people would be better off using whatever room only discounts and paying out of pocket for everything else than getting the dining plan.

Disney wouldn't have the dining plan if it wasn't a sizable revenue stream. Consideing all the process behind it, and it's still so heavily promoted, it's probably the money tree for the parks.

Packages have never been a value going way back.

[Janmac]

Destiney, you probably need to do the math. This is what I have done every Disney trip that we thought we might want the Dining Plan.

Like you, we pretty much know where we want to eat, and on what day. We like our sit down meals. So I look at the menus, figuring about what folks will get. I know my niece is going for beef, DH is going for pork, my sister might choose fish here or lamb there and I generally go for the fish. It's easy enough to get an estimate of what we'd spend.

I have also saved receipts to double check.

In recent years we got the Dining Plan in 2008, 2010 and 2012 but not in 2013. And probably won't the next trip. We were doing slightly better with the Dining Plan but there were a couple of things that edged us away from the plan.

One is desserts. Most of the time we're ok with the dessert but in a couple of restaurants we'd rather have an appetizer, and that's OOP. Recently, Disney has allowed a salad instead of a dessert for the counter service option and this is nice.

Another, and maybe bigger problem, was the lack of real food on the kids' menus. The kid in our group, even as a toddler, would rather not eat chicken nuggets or any kind of sandwich. She would eat Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, and especially seafood.

And a third problem is if someone gets sick. This happened in 2010 and 2012. For the first time we were leaving Disney with unused credits.

One benefit to the plan was snacks. We would not normally get a snack in a park. We found that with the plan, we would get more snacks, sometimes only water. We were less dehydrated and maybe less cranky too.

Another benefit is at some of the counter service places that offer combo meals that are one credit on the dining plan. DH, the kid and I can share one of these, with a side order (sometimes obtained with a snack credit) and have counter service vouchers left over (see below for trip home).

I want to mention one thing about the plan and that is while you're allowed one table service, one counter service and one snack per day per person, you do not have to use them that way. If you're two adults at Disney for 7 days, you'll have 14 table service credits, which you could use for 3 signature dining meals.

We drive to Disney usually, and have stocked up on snacks at the end of our trip, for the car ride, along with some counter service sandwiches. Every few days I'd stop in at the front desk and ask for a printout of our Dining Plan to keep track.

As DisneyRox says, if the plan didn't make Disney money, they wouldn't still be offering it. Doesn't make it inherently bad, just makes it your job to figure out if/how it works for you.

Jan

[SBETigg]

How many nights are you staying? Your dining credits are assigned per nights of stay and your BOG is lunch, so it will be a counter service meal. If you do go with the plan, and if you're taking advantage of a free dining plan offer then it makes more sense, you might be able to add on another table service restaurant or more.

[disneyfamilyforever]

Thank you everyone. Some of you suggest I do the math, where is a good place to get accurate menu prices? So that I may do that.

Also we are staying 6 nights.


Thanks again,

Destiney

[yankeesfan123]

Thank you everyone. Some of you suggest I do the math, where is a good place to get accurate menu prices? So that I may do that.

Also we are staying 6 nights.


Thanks again,

Destiney

I'm just wrapping up a vacation and we have done all the math. 4 adults, 6 days.

We spent about $45 for lunch each day. $125 for dinner. $20 on snacks.

It was much cheaper than using the dining plan which would have cost about $1400.

[SBETigg]

The official Walt Disney World website has full descriptions of all restaurants including menus. If you Google Disney menus, you will get other sites that have up to date menus with prices, too. Staying six nights, if you do go with the dining plan, you will be able to add one more table service option (since BOG lunch is counted as a quick service).

[MrPeetrie]

DisneyFamilyForever, we tried the DDP back in 2011, and although we saved money, we found it didn't work well for us. I'll explain:

After having our AP-rate room-only package paid in full, we decided to add the DDP. This necessitated in Disney refunding us the entire previously paid package and re-billing us, this time adding in the DDP as a new package altogether. It added approximately $1,160 to our bill. I tried (as best as I could) to keep accurate records of our DDP purchases. Here's a copy of our trip.

Disney Dining Plan

$78.10 Corel Reef
$94.76 Cape May Cafe
$62.81 Chrystal Palace
$4.00 Mickey bar
$5.50 popcorn/coke
$8.70 Main Street Bakery
$16,80 pinocchio haus village
$20.87 Cosmic Rays
$16.85 Cosmic Rays
$13.85 Casey's Hot dog
$39.87 Pizzafari
$65.00 Yak & Yeti
$13.00 AK snacks
$36.00 Sassagoula
$22.21 Wolfgang Puck Express
$36.81 marketplace
$20.12 main street bakery
$15.47 Starring Rolls
$34.71 Fairfax Fare
$94.99 Kouzinna's
$78.10 Chef Mickey's
$7.50 Mickey bars.
$18.00 Seasons.
$7.95 Belgium
$4.25 Ireland
$5.50 Mexico
$54.81 Tutto Italiano
$26.04 Pizzafari
$21.50 Flame Tree
$16.49 Yak & Yeti fast food
$5.85 Yak & Yeti fast food
$77.85 Hollywood & Vine
$15.80 Harbour House
$99.88 Whispering Canyon Cafe
$65.04 Prime Time Cafe

$1,204.98

So, you can see we saved approximately $60 over a nine-night stay. But the thing is: we never would have eaten that way without the plan.

When we would go to a counter-service location, say Pecos Bill's, the plan forced us to order a meal, a drink, and a dessert. But that's not how we eat. I always purchase a bottle of Coke from a kiosk prior to entering a restaurant because I enjoy bottled cola more than fountain drinks. And we NEVER have a dessert because one of our favorite things about a Disney vacation is the snacking around the park. I prefer either a Mickey Bar, Frozen Banana, or popcorn to a brownie. Moreover, my wife is a small eater, who prefers just a side or salad to a whole meal. So the plan made us eat more, or at the very least, order food that we did not wish to have.

Another downside was my DD (then 8) had to order off the kids' menu, which many times upset her. She's a "foodie," and wanted to eat off the adult menu.

Keeping track of what meals vouchers were left was also annoying.

So while we were able to acquire slightly more than $1,200 worth of food for only $1,160, if left to our own devices we never would have ordered that $1,200 worth of food. We would have ordered less.

The ensuing year, we used the Tables in Wonderland card and found that much more to our liking. It allowed us to eat what we wanted without placing the rigid guidelines the DDP had placed on us. I hope this helps.

[gerald72]

The fact that there is a debate as to whether or not the dining plan is a good deal just proves that it is not a good deal.

[joonyer]

The fact that there is a debate as to whether or not the dining plan is a good deal just proves that it is not a good deal.

Good point. Purchasing the DDP is a good deal for Disney. Paying rack rates for rooms to get the Free DP is a good deal for DIsney.

It's kinda the casino operators in Vegas. The potential payoffs there are very tempting, and you can squeeze some discounts out of rooms and food in return, and yes, a few customers occasionally come out as winners, but in the big picture, the house wins. They always come out ahead.

For the DDP, you generally have to eat more than 98% of what most people would normally eat/spend in order to come out ahead. We spend less $$ when paying OOP for food at Disney over purchasing the DP. We do eat less food that way, but it is still all that we choose to eat.

[TheDuckRocks]

IF...you eat the most expensive things on the menus, go to the restaurants with higher prices (non-signature) and make absolute sure you use every dining credit available to you. You will save money hands down. But those ifs are huge.
The official Disney website now has menus with prices for most locations. If that does not give you enough info do a Google search for Disney World menus with prices. If you are still stumped send me a private message and I will be happy to share the 2 sites I have used for years.

[ANG]

Perhaps it's what you expect for a Disney vacation. DH and I LOVE experiencing new foods and restaurants.

Out of all our trips, I don't think I've EVER had to eat a burger or subpar fried food at a quick service. I never order the fountain soda with the QS dining and opt for the PowerAde or other bottle beverage to enjoy later in the day.

I'm not the type of person to order dessert. But at WDW, it's a must for me! Depending where you eat, it's a fantastic plus! Because of WDW I've been able to try many types of fish, beef, veal, duck, etc that I never would be able to afford elsewhere. If you eat sit downs every day at 50's Prime time for example, then no, how could you possibly do better with the plan than out of pocket?

And the snack credit lets me try all sorts of fun things! Sure, I enjoy popcorn and Mickey bars. But you can be more creative with your credits if you are concerned about the best deal.

I micromanage our food budget all year long. If I go out to dinner at a local place, I am always worried about ordering something too pricey and it definitely sways what I order. We save everything we can and choose the dining plan so that when it comes time to WDW vacation, I can relax! We've tried preloading gift cards and it honestly isn't the same.

As for the someone getting sick, been there. We don't use the TS meals for breakfast, except the last day at Chef Mickey's. But because my son and DH got sick on our last trip, we were able to try 1900 Park Fare for breakfast later in the trip to use those credits and LOVED it!

The kids' meals can be disappointing but they don't have to be. My kids don't eat chicken nuggets or the similar. Most places, they could get something they liked and was decent for them.

[VacationDisney]

We use the Dining Plan when it is free only. It is for us, anyway, a good deal.

When we go and there is no free dining offered we pay out of pocket. We are not dessert people so paying out of pocket works for us and saves us money:cloud9:

[#1donaldfan]

We stayed 6 nights and had 7 TS meals and not factoring in the tip we saved $ 35 !! I kept every single receipt even for snacks n drinks and that was at least savings. We ate normal, didn't starve or do withou, we ate what and where we wanted.....So, for us the dinning plan was NOT worth it, nor has it really been worth it for years. Free dinning is a toss up depending on how you look at it. :thumbsup:

[Goes4FastPass]

Do NOT buy the dining plan.

If you are planning a WDW stay during a period when the DDP is 'free' if you pay full room rack rate and but park tickets then you should get it and enjoy it.

BUT

The DDP is only a savings if you REALLY want a fountain drink and the most expensive entree and a dessert at every meal. (Ai, how many times have we carried a cookie away from a CS meal)? If not, Pay As You Go. Also PAYG means you can purchase an appetizer and skip dessert... or buy just an entree and save money... PAYG means more flexibility.

DDP fans if you've never found youself the last day or two of a WDW vacation saying, "I still have 1 TS and 2 CS and 6 snack credits I need to use." then you bought the right thing.

Finally, money is the best currency. With DDP, good luck at places where a cast member explains (probably for the 87th time today) "for 1 snack credit you can get 1 of this or 2 of that but none of this or this." There's no treat in Mickey's World that an Amex card or hard currency can't buy.

[Capt_redshirt]

To get or not to get is always the big question and the members here are very polarized as you can plainly see. The real question you have to ask yourself is will it be a value to you.

I use it cause its earmarked into my budget i don't have to worry about having enough money for the week (especially if i get into a restaurant last minute). I never have to worry about what to eat because i can choose what i want. where as if i went OOP i might choose the less expensive option to maximize my merchandise budget.

What i would recommend is not look at the most expensive options at the restaurants that you planing on visiting but looking at what you want to eat. Getting an idea of how much it would cost to go OOP.

Also look at when you are going If going during food and wine fest those snack credits can be put to better use there. Ive heard more people spend far more money then they ever wanted to because they just were not paying attention to their cash or credit card.

The choice is up to you in reality and how you want to budget it in. I know in my experience ive gone deluxe dinning plan each time. And each time my choices went to where it would have cost me more then if i went OOP or based on the price of the plan.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

Our family of 5, with one of 3 kids deemed "adult" it works out great for us when free.

We stay at POR, a moderate. Usual RO discount for this resort would be about 20%, so even at $200 a night on the high end, that is only $40 a night savings or $400 for our 10 night package. Free dining saves us over $1700, even if I factor in that we would spend a lot less per day, and back out tips, our savings would still be $1000. In this situation, for us, its a great bargain.

There are so many variables that it is impossible to state emphatically whether its a good deal or not, that criteria has to be applied to each individual.

After having the free dining on our last two trips, while I certainly liked the savings, I got little pleasure in having to map out our entire stay 6 months in advance, just so that we could get good dining reservations.

[azcavalier]

Our family of 5, with one of 3 kids deemed "adult" it works out great for us when free.

We stay at POR, a moderate. Usual RO discount for this resort would be about 20%, so even at $200 a night on the high end, that is only $40 a night savings or $400 for our 10 night package. Free dining saves us over $1700, even if I factor in that we would spend a lot less per day, and back out tips, our savings would still be $1000. In this situation, for us, its a great bargain.

Yes, this exactly. It depends on a lot of factors. It *can* be a great savings.

Honestly, we usually get it. We are a family of five, but four of us are "adults" on the DDP. And our youngest is about to turn ten, so in the future there will be five of us "adults". We'll double-check the math at that point.

One time we went without it, paying out of pocket, but we still followed our usual routine of eating at a TS restaurant every day. Yes, we did go off-site once or twice (which we never do when we have the DDP). We found that we spent more money on meals than the DDP would have cost us. So, for us, it is a good deal.

I would also point out that you do not have to do a TS meal *every* day. You could certainly save up and book a couple of signature restaurants that require two credits, such as California Grill or Le Cellier, and then do something different on the days you no longer have credits for a TS meal. We've done that in the past for our character meals.

[Mrs Bus Driver]

One more thing to consider, do you want adult drinks with dinner? You pay out of pocket for adult drinks and apps. Because this is how we eat sometimes making a meal of apps. I have looked into TIW and for us it would be better you get 20% off the entire meal including Adult drinks. In other words it covers the tip. But if you do a meal with apps and adult drinks that can be quite a savings. The only draw back is the card costs $100, more if you don't have an AP or DVC member so once again you have to do the math.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

Yes, this exactly. It depends on a lot of factors. It *can* be a great savings.

Honestly, we usually get it. We are a family of five, but four of us are "adults" on the DDP. And our youngest is about to turn ten, so in the future there will be five of us "adults". We'll double-check the math at that point.

One time we went without it, paying out of pocket, but we still followed our usual routine of eating at a TS restaurant every day. Yes, we did go off-site once or twice (which we never do when we have the DDP). We found that we spent more money on meals than the DDP would have cost us. So, for us, it is a good deal.

I would also point out that you do not have to do a TS meal *every* day. You could certainly save up and book a couple of signature restaurants that require two credits, such as California Grill or Le Cellier, and then do something different on the days you no longer have credits for a TS meal. We've done that in the past for our character meals.

If you are a larger family, of 4 or 5, with at least two or more being adults, and you stay at a moderate level resort, its hard to imagine that any room only discount would be a better bargain than free dining. I've crunched the numbers so many times and so many ways, but the end result is the same, "free" dining is the better deal and it's hard to walk away from when offered.

If that same family is staying at a Deluxe resort, then its a whole new ball game, but at the moderate level its much easier for the free dining to be a better deal.

Living in Minnesota, generally any flight we take gets us into MCO late afternoon. So by the time we take ME to the resort, get checked in, its often early evening. Instead of using a TS entitlement that first night we always just eat at the resort food court, which gives us the extra TS to do a signature restaurant or CP package. We usually try to do this twice. More than likely, without the DDP we wouldn't try signature restaurants, just not in our budget.

[joonyer]

Using the free dining promotion, when offered, can be a good choice. For instance, we are going during Christmas week this year. There are no room discounts offered during the time we will be traveling. But if we check in by December 23, we can take advantage of the free dining promotion. It costs us nothing additional over a room/ticket package for the same time period to get the free dining offer. So that's a no-brainer for us or anyone else.

But whether to use the free dining offer vs. room discounts (when available) and then buying food OOP is an entirely different question than whether purchasing the dining plan will save you $$. We tried it both ways, for us, it always costs us less $$ for food when we paid OOP than purchasing the dining plan, and that was back when apps and tips were included in the plan. Buying the DDP is less of a value now.

[hauntedmansiongirl]

We usually travel just 2 of us, but twice we have taken our Godson- he was 12 one year (2012) and 13 the next (2013). In 2012 we got free dining. It worked out to be a good deal. But the big issue that we had was that our Godson rarely liked anything off of the adult menu. So he would order off the kids menu. I kept all of our receipts and we would have made out badly! In 2013, there was no free dining, so we booked a room only discount and paid our own way. It ended up being $450 cheaper than had we bought the dining plan.

The thing I really love about the dining plan is having it all paid for well ahead of time. To fix that problem I figured out roughly what we would spend at each restaurant and made up little envelopes with cash for each one. I paid ahead without the dining plan! If we lived in the US, I would have bought disney gift cards to work the same way. I overestimated what we would need and at the end we had a lot of cash leftover that we used for our September trip. It worked out perfectly! We ate dessert when there was something we wanted, but certainly didn't eat it with every meal.

At first you are really excited about all the dessert, but believe me- by day 3 you are tired of the counter service lunch desserts. It seems to be the same chocolate cake everywhere. Unless you are at a resort and can get ice cream or a Rice Krispie square etc.

Really try to estimate what your family will eat at each place. And if you do decide to go with the DDP, upgrade some of your restaurants to the pricier ones or the character buffets.

Have a wonderful vacation! :mickey:

[Katzateer]

We have never gotten a dining plan. If I don't find a room discount we just pick another time to go to WDW. We eat at a signature dining location once a day, a counter service and a snack. When I have priced out all the options, even with "free" dining, it doesn't work out cheaper for us.

But having everything already paid for would be nice. My parents always got a package with dining. The only time I have vacationed like that was a Disney cruise.

[MouseHouser]

We like the dining plan. I never kept track, but I'm sure we spend more with the plan than we would otherwise. We're generally frugal. But we find the plan to be a splurge that's worth it. Pay a bit more, but get a lot more.

We're huge fans of the Disney restaurants, but there is no way normally we would spring for fancy dining at normal Disney prices. Enter the dining plan. I can't even count how many memorable meals we have experienced that never would have happened absent the plan.

With over 100 restaurants to choose from, the dining plan ensures plenty of new things to experience, despite having visited Disney for years.