First time going without a dining plan

[btk2333]

I am a little bit nervous about this. I kind of liked having everything prepaid and all I had to worry about was our tips. But after doing the math I just don't think we're going to save any money. Plus this time we will be staying in a moderate (always stayed in the values before) so I dont see us using the mugs often, if ever. I already ordered our groceries from Garden Grocers so we will have drinks in the room this time too. Even though financially it makes no sense for us to do the dining plan this time I guess the comfort of knowing our meals are prepaid can't really be valued by dollar amount. I still have a few weeks to make a final decision about the dining plan.


Without the dining plan we would most likely not eat a TS every day. Maybe 3 total for the 5 days we are there. We definitely wouldn't be ordering desert or appetizers, and would not buy the refillable mugs. I went through the menus and figured about a $200 savings if we don't use the dining plan. Not sure if that is enough for me to not want to buy though. Help

Don't buy it- if you want to feel like you have everything paid in advance buy a giftcard (Disney or Visa) for the amount the DDP would have been and use it when you eat and you'll be surprised at how much is left at the end.

 

[stitch34]

We did the DDP for many years... for us, one adult and 3 kids... was SO worth it. We usually did deluxe. Ate great, dined at every buffet there was. It was worth the money... because the cost of kids was cheap on it at the time. We saved SOOO much. Would be $135 for the 4 of us for Deluxe dining, going back to around 2009, 2010.

Flash forward to now is myself and 3 "adult" children according to Disney....

ok. Basic DDP I googled... showed as $60.64. Multiply by 4 of us is $242.56.
So my figurings here, are all based on us dining as 4 adults on regular DDP.

And if any numbers off a little bit... well, then they are, but not much..

Say for our dinner we do Cape May Cafe... an expensive buffet. That is $153.32. Okay... so out of the $242 we paid we still have $89 left for the day... to use on a snack for each of us and a QS breakfast. Um... no way that would cost $89 for that. Had expensive buffet.. but didn't break even.

And that's just one night. Aren't going to have big dinner buffet nightly. We want Tony's for dinner the next night... is about $90 for us to eat there. Still leaves us $152 for our QS breakfast and snacks! Most places for us... Tony's, Via Napoli, 50's Prime Time and so on and so on... about $90 to $100 for dinner.... and here we'd pay $242 for dining plan for that day. That's a lot left over for QS and snacks! Not breaking even on any of those.

And even with 1900 Park Fare, Garden Grill, Cape May Cafe.... if did those for dinner each night, high priced buffets... we STILL would be spending LESS out of pocket than if dining plan.

No matter how I price it...just screams so not worth it.

friends of ours went last November. Always get dining plan. I said don't do it! They came home... hubby was like omg, how much did we spend on food and why no dining plan!? She had her receipts from meals. Added them all up and showed her hubby... Turns out that on a 6 night trip they SAVED $300+ by paying out of pocket instead of DDP.

DDP worked great for us when was me and 3 kids. Now... nope.
and then still have to figure in Tip, too.

Now we use Tables in Wonderland. We do a LOT of dining,so get our $100 paid for it back pretty quickly.


I'd say.... before just adding on DDP to reservation.... look at menus online for where you plan on eating, get rough idea okay, how much will this or that meal cost... add up all those meals, and your QS too, and even what would pay for snacks. Then add up total for your party for the entire trip on DDP. Pretty sure that out of pocket will be less.

yes, is NICE to have it paid for in advance and not have to worry about it. But.... I think a LOT of people are really overpaying for it. Especially those that dont' use their TS credit for a pricey meal.

 

[mgsquared]

So many people are asking this and you laid it out so nicely. Thanks! I can definitely see how the DDP is not worth it if it is not free (or free with the upgrade). I saw lots of blogs on this and the only way you save is if you're the kind of person that always want dessert and always orders steak.
But seriously, a week of steaks is asking for a heart attack!

Anyways, the all inclusive feel is awesome and I am so looking forward to eating at all these places with the "free" DDP that we otherwise wouldn't. We are the kind of people that will sit there like, "OMG. The price is ridiculous. Order a salad!" being a vegetarians a full price DDP would be such a waste though! So I think we can only ever go during free dining!