One point I want to make is I don't see how the
DDP is too much food for people? (Do you not eat three meals per day when you're at home- we do....and we would like to on vacation!)! For us, it's honestly not enough. We always have to buy extra things. For example, we may have breakfast at Crystal Palace, a snack around 3:00 pm, and then Columbia Harbour House for dinner. When DS decided he wants popcorn for his snack, we have to buy a soda or bottled water for him to wash it down with). When we use TS for dinner, CS for lunch, and a snack credit for breakfast, we have to buy milk OOP at breakfast. I don't see how people have extra snack credits when we always have to buy stuff OOP every trip. Maybe other people have snack credits left over because they bring groceries, such as granola bars, so that they don't have to buy breakfasts???? By the way, none of us are overweight (we just have metabolisms to where we need to eat every 4-6 hours), plus we generally open and close the parks each day so we work up an appetite with all our walking.
Anyway, I did the math myself and figured out that we would come out ahead by over $300 paying OOP with a TIW card (and that's including the cost of buying a TIW card). I included the exact same restaurants for each calculation and the exact same things ordered.
I way overestimated what we would purchase when I did my calculations. So in my calculations for both DDP, OOP, and OOP with TIW, I included the fact that we generally need to buy an extra soda for everyone each day (unless maybe someone has a Mickey bar and doesn't need an extra drink that day) and I included everybody wanting to get a chocolate cake, for example, at Cosmic Ray's (which not everybody is going to want everyday, but I wanted to go on the high side of estimating OOP, so that nobody has to feel like they have to skimp on what they want if we go OOP).
On our next trip, it will be me, DH, DD (16), and DS (who will be 10 then), so four adults on the plan for nine nights, which is $2049.84 just on the cost of the DDP alone. Then when I add in extra sodas that we will more than likely purchase, it becomes $2125.29 (including tax on our extra sodas). Then when I figure in 20% tips, our grand total for DDP, extras, and tips becomes $2280.39. We don't really ever drink alcohol, so none of that is figured in.
For OOP without TIW, our costs for everything (including the four of us each getting a premade CS dessert at every CS, which we may not all want) including tax is $1806.24. When I add in tips, it becomes $1961.24. So it is less money than just the cost of the DDP credits of $2049.84! However, there could be inflation, which I did not figure in to my OOP costs.
When I figured in buying a TIW card, our costs for all food with the discount, tax, and tip is $1781. For the most part, I subtracted a 20% TIW discount (where applicable) and added in 20% tip, but tips are included at Cinderella's Castle, so I didn't figure in a tip there. Plus a discount at Flametree and no tip there, so even adding in the tip for the whole trip, the TIW was still lower (it's like the discount more than pays for a 20% tip so that is GREAT!!) Then I added in $90 assuming a 5% inflation rate, which may be high and $100 for the TIW card and my total would be $1971! I think I'll get a gift card for an even $2000, since somebody will undoubtedly want a souvenir mug from Pizza Planet or a popcorn souvenir bucket at Hollywood Studios. Even with a $2000 gift card, it's still less than the cost of the DDP plan of just the $56.94 per night which again would be $2049.84 for 4 "adults."
However, we DO eat a lot of character BREAKFASTS, which I know is a poor use of the plan. But we love breakfast at Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace. And we're also having breakfast at Cinderella's Castle which would require two credits on the p;lan. And we're eating lunch at Sci-Fi one day- and on another day, we'll have dinner at 50's PTC, so I know that we aren't eating steak at Kona Cafe or anything else which would have maximized the plan. However, this is how my family likes to eat.
I'm glad that everyone has posted so much good information to consider. We have just always gotten the DDP, so never really put pencil to paper. Glad that everyone brought up so many good points so that I finally decided to spend time to calculate everything.
I did not figure in mugs. We stayed at Kidani on our last trip and so many times, we did not make it back to the hotel by 11:00 to be able to refill our mugs anyway. There was really no point in having them. Plus when we were actually able to use them, I was annoyed since I had to wash them. I really don't want to wash any dishes while on vacation, lol.
...but because we had dessert every meal, I forgot about it and remembered when I got home
