Did Anyone Actually Save Money Using the Dining Plan?

[DisneyFamily123]

I cannot see how the current dining plan prices saves anything at all. What am I missing? Are the dining prices higher than what I think?

If the regular dining plan (not quick service or deluxe plan) is about $61 per night for adults and $19 for kids per night, how is it possible to spend more than than? For adults, I'd think most table service meals (including fixed price buffets and character meals) range in price from $30 to $45. And a QS meal, maybe $12-15, and a snack $3. This doesn't seem like a deal to me.

And most of the time, we do not eat dessert.

Thanks.

 

[tdmoney7]

We went in July - 4 adults and a 2 year old. Got the DDP and paid 600$. I booked the most expensive restaurants, got all of our snacks and kept track of everything we ordered. We would have ended up spending $1137 out of pocket. So it was a better deal to do that way. Do we always eat like that? Absolutely not!! I had tums with me all the time and took plastic bags for to go (if they didn't have to go boxes). It was our splurge. My 15 dd said "so this is what it's like to be rich!" We usually do good on our own when we go and would come out probably spending 200$ but wanted to give me a break and just have fun!

 

[Mik2DW2007]

I agree, I did the math for my upcoming trip with just myself & 16 yo very picky daughter. She'd rather eat off the kids menu and she eats like a bird. There are very few meals she'll eat the whole thing... However, I enjoy steak & I chose to get the standard DP so I could indulge myself without having to think about it. In the end I expect to break about even, but it's convenience & for me that makes it worthwhile.

 

[jenninaustin]

I have this whole spreadsheet I did for our upcoming trip....

when we just had one prepay meal (HDDR) - I had us cheaper if we went OOP.

But once I added another (or maybe it was when I added two more...not sure) - it swapped. We are now saving a TON by having the dining plan.

If we were eating in REGULAR TS and not doing character meals or HDDR, it would be cheaper OOP (especially since we like to split meals sometimes) but for this trip, the dining plan helps us a lot.

 

[figment_jii]

I think it's possible to save money, but you have to maximize the plan. I tend to estimate a little higher on the cost of the QS and snack credits ($17.50 and $4, respectively), which leaves about $39 for the TS credit. Taking out tax, it means your pre-tax TS bill needs to be about $36.75. Assuming the average drink is about $3 and and a dessert is about $8, that leaves about $25.75 for the entree. Most restaurants have one or two higher priced entrees, so if you always ordered that, then you'd probably come out ahead or near even.

 

[Stephaniesue]

We absolutely saved money last time. But, that was in 2011.

We are taking MIL with us this time, I don't want her to worry about the price of what she's ordering. So we went with the basic dining plan, not QS but the next step up.

We do like dessert, and DH has to have his soda. So it works out for us even on lunches.

 

[disneynewbee]

I think if you are big eaters or like the fancier restaurants you could make out but it wouldn't be a deal for us. Even if I managed to get the highest price meals on the menu and hit the price mark I would only eat half of it so not really a deal, especially now that I have to pay tip oop. We are hoping to get free dining since that is the better discount for us and with that we do make out.

 

[Alicatt]

When I did the math for DDP, it looks like it will save my family some money. We are big eaters, we love dessert, we will be eating a lot of small breakfasts in our room and then having big early lunches and we're doing a number of character dining with 2 kids. I added up all of the restaurants using an average of the 3 most likely things we would order. We will be coming back to the resort for a break every day and planning a resort day, so the mug will have value for us. I factored in one drink @ $2.25 per person per day for that. I also factored $3 per snack. My total came to $1391 for 8 days and the DDP would be $1280 (although I signed up under the old plan so it was slightly cheaper). I am not claiming it is good for everyone. My parents do a tiny bit better than break even, and I advised them not to get it, but they like the convenience. But for my family and our eating style, it's good for us without us having to eat the most expensive thing at the most expensive places.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I would save money if I planned it, chose restaurants based on the monetary value of what I would order, and ordered based on the way the dining plan wants me to order. If I order just any old way I want, I wouldn't save money. Because I'm not a major fan of dessert, I would order dessert with very few meals, but you can bet that I'd order dessert with every single meal if I was on the dining plan.

 

[GWhitten98]

For us it saves money! But we have a couple of things in our favor 1) we have three small kids one is less then three so we feed her with a combo of food from the other 4 meals 2) we do a buffet, all you can eat charactar meals or dinner show each day which are expensive and add up quickly 3) We like to get eat a variety of things and generally get drinks(other then water) and deserts with meal meaning we eat the way the plan was set up.

Once we have 3 above 3 and the oldest is a disney "adult" we will have to reevlaute the plan's benefit. It may not make as much since for us then.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

There are a couple of DDP calculators out there. (I misplaced the links to them so I can't point you to where they are)

For DH and I we ended up saving quiet a bit of money by skipping the DDP in October.

 

[cmwade77]

Ok, here is the math (assuming one person, one table service, one counter service and one snack per day):
Snack - $5.00 (There are plenty of snacks that cost $5 each and I wouldn't use a snack credit for anything less. We are going during food and wine and there will be higher priced items available as snack credits)
Counter Service Meal -
Sunshine Seasons -
Slow-roasted Pork Chop - $12.49
Dessert - Varies, but usually about $3.59
Drink - $2.79

Table Service Meal -
Chefs de France -
Prix Fixe Meal - $39.99
Drink - Orangina (French orange soda) $5.50

Daily cost of refillable travel mug (Based on a 7 day stay) - $2.57

This comes out to 71.93 for a single person for a day, which in this example works out to about a 15% discount. Could you eat for less than this? Absolutely, but you are not going to get much lower than $60 if you include a sit down each day, unless you are going to get some other discount.

 

[MSLRAC]

The DxDP always saves us quite a bit of money. It would take a significant price increase for us to hit a break even point. We don't pick the most expensive restaurants or meals. We eat what we want and where we want. But I can say that the DDP would not be smart for our family and would probably end up costing us money.

 

[figment_jii]

It's funny, everyone uses slightly different numbers to determine the "value" of the QS and snack credits.

I went through and looked at the menus on Allears.net. and if you just took the average price of a entree, the average price of a dessert, and the price of a large drink at the in-park QS locations, I got an average QS price of $17.50 (with tax).

In terms of the snacks, I went through the list on the Disboards of the confirmed snacks and the average value was $3.50. I agree that there are a number snacks above $4 and $5, so this one has a lot of room for flexibility (i.e., if you use it buy a bottle of soda, it's probably not a good use of the credit).

Table Service Meal -
Chefs de France -
Prix Fixe Meal - $39.99
Drink - Orangina (French orange soda) $5.50

I know you can order the Prix Fixe meal at Les Chefs when on the DDP, but I'm not sure about the Orangina. I thought the drinks were limited to the fountain drinks (Coke products), tea, and coffee. While not a big deal ($3 versus $5.50), I was just curious if you were able to order the Orangina consistently at Les Chefs?

 

[kaybird]

Can we eat cheaper OOP? Yes. Can we eat better and cheaper OOP? No. We are DDP fans, especially when it is free. Our last couple of trips have been last minute, so no DDP. Much cheaper, but we certainly watched what we ate and spent much closer. DH even remarked on how much better he liked to eat not worrying about the individual cost. Most of the online menus do not include tax, so that would need to be figured in.

 

[aaarcher86]

We'd break even on the DXDP, but since we've always gotten it on a deal we've saved a large amount.

We have lots of character meals (buffets) but when we order a la carte no one worries about getting the most expensive things. We just order what we want and it ends up working out.

We will be trying the TIW card in September for the first time. I'm sure that will be the better deal for us.

 

[Kevenswife2]

I've often wondered if the dining plan is meant as more of a convenience than a money saver.

 

[ABCastillo]

We've done both OOP and DDP and found that it was about the same. We did buy different things in each situation though. On DDP we bought expensive snacks and great meals, but on OOP we bought more snacks at a cheaper price and still got the same meals. No refillable mugs on OOP because we used Brita waterbottles - taking that into account we saved money going OOP.

We wasted a lot of food on DDP. It's just so much and my kids aren't big enough to eat that much food. I sort of felt guilty.

The one reason I think we will continue with OOP is because we like the flexibility of ordering dessert here, an appetizer there or even just soup. Plus we usually stay an extra day than the DDP allows for so have to still pay OOP for 3-4 meals anyway.

Both are good though, and I'm glad I've tried both methods. When my kids are big enough to actually eat full meals I might even look into DDP again.

 

[sharonabe]

As usual when this topic comes up, there are a lot of blanket statements being laid down.

Can you save money on DDP? Of course you can, and you can do so on all three. The parameters for doing so are having kids on the plan, wanting drinks and desserts at every meal, mostly eating the higher priced entrees or dinner buffets.

Can you eat cheaper and still have good food? Of course you can, but you do give up some drinks and some desserts and do breakfast or lunch buffets.

One person said you can't eat a TS every day for less than $60, but that is untrue. I've posted the following sample before, but will do again here (and yes, tax is already figured in and the only thing I'm drinking is water):

AK
Boma (TS, BUFFET)--breakfast
Pizzafari--Cheese Pizza w/salad
Flame Tree BBQ--Smoked Turkey sand w/fruit
$39.80

HS
Cape May (TS, CHARACTER BUFFET)--breakfast
Min & Bill's Dockside--Pretzel Dog
Fairfax Fare--Salad
$43.21

EP
Sunshine Seasons--Croissant Berry Pudding, Greek Yogurt, Fruit Cup
Patissierie--Quiche Florentine
Italy--2 scoops Gelato
Spice Table (TS)--Lamb Slider, Baklava
$38.89

MK
Kona Cafe (TS)--Tonga Toast, Coffee
Liberty Tree Tavern (TS)--Colony Salad, Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake
Columbia Harbour House--Chili
$45.33

 

[misskari]

The DDP made us take more food than we normally would have, so we'd eat it and feel like a glutton or not eat it and have it go to waste. This time we're doing TIW and I think this will by far be the best choice for us (party of 2 adults).