Dining plan Trying to decide

[GusGus77]

If you rent DVC through RCI can you still purchase a dining plan? If so, we are debating if it is worth it or not...ordinarily I would say no, but I will have a 9yr old who will eat adult meals all the time making it a bargain for her. Would that offset enough (family of 4- 2 adults and 2 kids) to make the price worth it?

 

[sharonabe]

If you rent DVC through RCI can you still purchase a dining plan? If so, we are debating if it is worth it or not...ordinarily I would say no, but I will have a 9yr old who will eat adult meals all the time making it a bargain for her. Would that offset enough (family of 4- 2 adults and 2 kids) to make the price worth it?

You can add the plan, but you have to call the member and ask them to do it for you, and you pay them.

As to the bargain, that depends on which plan you are thinking of getting. With the regular plan, your 9 yr old will have to eat kid's meals at all TS places. If you're thinking of doing the QS only plan, then you might save some money. For right now, she would be able to get adult QS meals with her credits. The brochure still states that kids must order from the kid's menu, so that could change at any time.

Your best bet is to take a look at where you WANT to eat, "order" what you know you will WANT to eat and then do the math. Don't forget to add the 6.5% tax on your OOP math.

 

[GusGus77]

You can add the plan, but you have to call the member and ask them to do it for you, and you pay them.

As to the bargain, that depends on which plan you are thinking of getting. With the regular plan, your 9 yr old will have to eat kid's meals at all TS places. If you're thinking of doing the QS only plan, then you might save some money. For right now, she would be able to get adult QS meals with her credits. The brochure still states that kids must order from the kid's menu, so that could change at any time.

Your best bet is to take a look at where you WANT to eat, "order" what you know you will WANT to eat and then do the math. Don't forget to add the 6.5% tax on your OOP math.

I spent an hour and a half last night looking at menus and adding up prices for what we will probably order for our entire trip versus the dining plan. Looks like we will still save $300 not being on the dining plan.

 

[Accident]

I spent an hour and a half last night looking at menus and adding up prices for what we will probably order for our entire trip versus the dining plan. Looks like we will still save $300 not being on the dining plan.

That's about what I save. Did you also factor in gratuity because that's not included in the meal plan cost. Gratuity is where the meal plan really kills us.. We just don't order appetizers and deserts for everyone but that adds to the bill which makes the gratuity much higher also.

you can also get some prices down doing some simple things like using garden grocers or amazon prime pantry/prime now to get water/soda/breakfast items.. It can be almost another 300-600 off the price you'll spend in food if you can knock off some meals and not buy any drinks.

More info on that and some others like getting 5% off anything is in this recent disunplugged video:

Also the budget forum is tons of money saving items both at disney and at home to help trim down your life there to have more entertainment money.

 

[Beer Me]

I spent an hour and a half last night looking at menus and adding up prices for what we will probably order for our entire trip versus the dining plan. Looks like we will still save $300 not being on the dining plan.

What a coincidence. We are family of 4. I have crunched the numbers down to the penny. On our last two trips the dining plan would have been about $300 more than paying out of pocket.

 

[Ratzo]

Last time I calculated the "benefit" of the regular dining plan was back in 2013. You'd have to avoid every 2-point restaurant, always get an appetizer whether you want it or not, always get the most expensive item whether you want it or not, and use every point every day then MAYBE you could save around $50 for a family of three. Deviate just once and you lost money on the "deal." It's simply not worth it.