Would paying for disney dining plan be better then paying out of pocket

[wife&mom3]

Hi we are going to disney world in may and it will be the first time to go. we was trying to find out if the disney dining plan would be better then just paying for food when your there. I think that we will just be doing the fast dining when we are there.

[Jareds_mommy]

for us we cost out the difference from what we payed on the plan and what the receits would have been if we paid out of pocket and we saved over $600 we were there for 10 days the quick service would have gotten old fast

for one day for example for 2 adults and 2 kids we
had
wolfgang puck for lunch (counter service) it would have been $60
then teppen edo for dinner that would have been $120
then dole whips floats for snacks that would have been $16
thats just one day

[candielips]

Sometimes when you compare the cost of DDP to OOP they work out to being pretty close to the same. Especially when you consider you probably wouldn't order dessert every time you eat.
However, we always add the DDP as we like to have it already paid for and then the cost is already determined beforehand.

[magicaddict]

I think it depends on the ages of your kids as to whether it's as cost effective. Mine are both considered adults now so the price is quite a bit more than if they were 9 and under. If you have really picky eaters who are considered adults then it might not work for you. If you have good eaters, even if they are considered adults, then it could be worthwhile to get. My kids, even when under nine, ate more "adult" food so then we chose more buffets so they could eat whatever they wanted. Now that they are "adults" they love to be able to order whatever they want off the menu and not have mom or dad saying it's too expensive. You really have to figure out the costs and check out the menus over at allears.net to get an idea of how much you might spend. If you're kids are still considered kids then it's almost always better to go ahead and get the dining plan since one table service meal is more than twice the cost of the plan.

[wife&mom3]

Thanks for all the answers!! My girls are 6 (Twins) and my little one is 3
they are all very very picky eaters!! WDW is doing a special were you can get the $500 gift card and that is what I was going to use for food but I was not sure about the cost of food in there. we love the grab and eat food.
we was also going to be getting some snacks for the room that way we could go back and eat there also. where is the best place to get groceries?

[Creekermom]

I honestly think you will grow tired of the very limited quick service meal plan. A friend of mine went on Spring Break in 2009 and that was one of her biggest issues and the children's menu is even more limited.

[lllGurulll]

I have beaten the DDP doing OOP each time I have gone. We only do one or two TS meals and we rarely do desserts and snacks. We have to save however we can because scraping up the money to go to Disney is hard enough.

[lllGurulll]

Originally Posted by Creekermom

I honestly think you will grow tired of the very limited quick service meal plan. A friend of mine went on Spring Break in 2009 and that was one of her biggest issues and the children's menu is even more limited.

That is one of the reasons I don't do the DDP at all. They limit the children way too much.

[wife&mom3]

well my girls like to eat fries, chicken nuggets, mac and chesse, simple stuff like that. and me and my hubby like simple also. The girls dont eat saled or anything like that just not there thing. so does the quick service offer that stuff? we are planning on staying at the POR and we might get do a couple of table meals but That is what im going back and forth on I dont know what would be best with us staying 7 nights. How far is the hotel from a walmart or somewhere that would sell snacks ( the break time??)

[Kelrykengab]

We figured we save about $100 a day with DDP (1 counter, 1 sit down and 1 snack per person per day) for our family of 5 (one is too young for the DDP). We love it! We like the fact that all of our food is already paid for in advance. We found it to be plenty of food. We find the menus to be great as far as choices. However, if it has to be the counter service only DDP then I might not do it. That would get old.

[memster]

I don't do disney without the dinng plan, theres soo much to choose from and the savings is awesome!!!

[persimmondeb]

We're doing QSDP since we have the gift card, which we will use for our table service meals. Unless you don't really enjoy spending time in restaurants, Disney table service meals are a lot of fun, and often with very good food as well.

We would never not do a dining plan, since we will cheerfully eat every scrap, even if we might have been too cheap to order all that without the plan. You can eat at Disney for the cost of the dining plan, but not nearly as well as you will with, so in that sense it does save money, especially if you will use all your credits, and enjoy them. Now, we are a party of two very active adults and a teenage boy, and we eat a lot. Not everyone wants quite that much food, and you do hear a lot of complaints that the DDP is too much food (we found it not quite enough, which has led to the current strategy-we would have gone deluxe without the gift card).

[sunshine10]

I would go to the dining tab on this website and look at the restaurant menus as well as the costs....you can see what your family would likely eat and how much it would cost for you. FYI...I like DDP, especially considering the cost of character dining!