Meal plan or pay as I go

[Arielismyfave]

Our last trip we did not add the dining plan. We had at least 1 TS per day but found we either didn't eat another meal each day or shared something small on the go. We would have been hard pressed to get the value back out of what we had paid for the Dining plan.

My cousin always gets the dining plan because everything is prepaid - just scan your band and go. You're not having to pay as you go and feel the pain each meal. It also ties the total trip cost together nicely.

In any event, the dining calculator mentioned above is what we used when deciding to go for dining plan or not.

 

[robotdisney]

Every time a waiter was told we had the Deluxe dining plan, they would act impressed. "Oh... *Deluxe*... very good sir.". This reaction was fun for reasons I don't understand.

 

[Lynne M]

I'm going to move this to the Dining Plan board.

 

[sharonabe]

Another way to look at it. . . The dining plan is $61.84 per adult and $20.96 per child. If you opted for the dining plan, that's $144.64 per day in food (let's assume your toddler is 2 and won't need to pay). Multiply that by 7 days and it's $1012.48.

Do you think you'll spend more or less than $1012.48 out of pocket for a week of eating?

Your costs are off just a bit. Pricing went up a few months ago when all the restaurant prices went up.

Adult QSDP is $44.13, Child is $19.04
Adult DDP is $63.70, Child is $22.85
Adult DxDDP is $115.08, Child is $35.49

 

[nicolebridget22]

We don't opt for the DDP because we just want to order what we want, when we want, without thinking. I didn't like to think so much about what I could have on plan, and how many credits I had and all that. We found the DDP to be altogether too much food for us. But I do see the appeal in "prepaying" for your meals in using the DDP.

 

[babesboo99]

We used the regular dining plan last time we went to Disney and loved it, it was 4 adults and 2 children age 8. Now when we go this year we got the DxDDP because we love the ease of not having to worry about food or how much the food will cost. This time it will just be me my DH ,DS,DD both age 9 we love food the only picky eater is my son we feel we can use our snack credits at food/wine festival and we made a couple of 2TS reservations and the rest just 1 TS . We will not go with out it again but like others have said crunch the numbers and see if its right for you. We like the ease of knowing everything is paid for so that's one headache we don't have to worry about . I too used the dining plan calculator and that was helpful in helping us to decide if we should do the DxDDP or not and we decided to go for it. I will be saving the receipts just to see if we come out ahead and if we do fantastic if we fall short a little bit it won't bother us we had the comfort of knowing we don't have to worry about the food and I think for a lot of people that's the big part of it.

 

[Lisa F]

Doing the math, if you reach your minimums for the day, you "spend" $65 "just to break even." For a meal plan that costs only $61.84. You are also not adding in the cost of the refillable mug.

I agree that the dining plan doesn't always save money.

But if you rig the math, it will never save money.

Having disney kids and doing character meals changes the math... I mean, look at the overall cost of what you'd spend and not just per person but your family per day. With kids you can 1) get more than the value of the entire day on JUST a TS if you do character/aycte meals 2) use their QS credits for an adult QS meal 3) get full priced snacks. if you have a 1:1 ratio of kids to adults and you do a lot of buffet/aycte meals you are going to be coming out ahead easily. 2:1 maybe, depends more on how many aycte and what you spend the QS credits on.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Having disney kids and doing character meals changes the math... I mean, look at the overall cost of what you'd spend and not just per person but your family per day. With kids you can 1) get more than the value of the entire day on JUST a TS if you do character/aycte meals 2) use their QS credits for an adult QS meal 3) get full priced snacks. if you have a 1:1 ratio of kids to adults and you do a lot of buffet/aycte meals you are going to be coming out ahead easily. 2:1 maybe, depends more on how many aycte and what you spend the QS credits on.

We don't have kids, but we eat the way the plans works. We eat 3 meals a day. And if I have an option of a good steak, I will get it. And when on vacation we eat dessert.

About half the time, the plan saves us money. It really depends on the number of table service we do.

When I calculate the cost, I divide the cost of the mug over the number of days we are staying. That cost is deducted from our daily cost. I then calculate the cost of the table service. What is left covers quick service and a snack. Most of the time, the snack is "free" because what is left is used up by the quick service.

It only doesn't work if we aren't eating a table service every day or we plan to eat at cheaper table service.

Our next trip we have a number of table service breakfasts. We can't make up the cost with one counter service and a snack. Of course sometimes we can make it up on another day. But with so many breakfasts, we won't.

 

[Lisa F]

Every time a waiter was told we had the Deluxe dining plan, they would act impressed. "Oh... *Deluxe*... very good sir.". This reaction was fun for reasons I don't understand.

tip size?
we are going deluxe. I would enjoy impressing people, lol

 

[robotdisney]

tip size?
we are going deluxe. I would enjoy impressing people, lol

20% or more. The Waitresses/CMs at Be Our Guest and Cinderella's Table were amazing, so they were tipped more.

It is important to take tips into account when pricing the plans. If you have the deluxe plan, then you will probably want to get an appetizer and dessert, and likely order the most expensive things on the menu, because they are all "free". However, all of these items greatly increase your tip amount, so you end up paying the price of a full "non-resort" meal on the tip alone. I guess this is precisely why the waiters get excited when they hear "deluxe".

I will likely pay out-of-pocket the next time I go, but it was fun to have the meal plan.

 

[Lisa F]

20% or more. The Waitresses/CMs at Be Our Guest and Cinderella's Table were amazing, so they were tipped more.

It is important to take tips into account when pricing the plans. If you have the deluxe plan, then you will probably want to get an appetizer and dessert, and likely order the most expensive things on the menu, because they are all "free". However, all of these items greatly increase your tip amount, so you end up paying the price of a full "non-resort" meal on the tip alone. I guess this is precisely why the waiters get excited when they hear "deluxe".

I will likely pay out-of-pocket the next time I go, but it was fun to have the meal plan.

No i meant that is why the waiter or waitress might be impressed that you are on the deluxe plan. They know the tip will be bigger with the guaranteed extra course.

 

[GillianP1301]

Can you eat cheaper OOP than on the Dining Plan? The answer could almost always be yes. The real question then becomes, is that how you want to eat?

As others have suggested, the best idea is really to start looking at menus and really think about how/where you want to eat and start adding up the numbers. We are 3 meals a day type people, we like to eat dessert with most meals on vacation and eating at TS restaurants is a very important part of our WDW vacation and touring plans. For all those reasons, we do the deluxe plan and I usually either break even or save a little (not significant enough to consider cost savings as the driver for my decision). You'll need to know what your priorities truly are where dining is concerned (i.e. is it just cost, is it experience, is it convenience?) and then when you crunch the numbers, you'll have an easier time making the decision.

 

[arlinar]

We are traveling (Just two adults) during the food and wine festival with the regular dining plan (staying at all star sports)

We been contemplating on switching from free dining to another package so we can stay in a moderate hotel (we will be at the resorts more then the park).

We are going to be calculating with the resources mentioned in this thread, but while our travel agent is saying this is a great deal, we are wondering if the Free Dining plan is worth it during the food and wine festival.

 

[Ndusmama]

Thank you all for the advice/tips. I think narrowing down restaurants would be easier for me if there wasn't 342 places to eat. I have yet to see any websites that have easy to use spreadsheets for choices. I would love one that says this restaurants are here, they have this type of meal plan, they are buffet (we don't do buffets). Personally my girls don't care about character meals. The conveinance of all characters in one place and not having to wait an hour in line is nice but we aren't big autograph character people and you see the character for like 30 seconds, so not really worth it for us. I think the covienece of not having to pay each meal would be nice but looking for reservations and not knowing where to go is daunting.

 

[robinb]

We are traveling (Just two adults) during the food and wine festival with the regular dining plan (staying at all star sports)

We been contemplating on switching from free dining to another package so we can stay in a moderate hotel (we will be at the resorts more then the park).

We are going to be calculating with the resources mentioned in this thread, but while our travel agent is saying this is a great deal, we are wondering if the Free Dining plan is worth it during the food and wine festival.

I've heard that a lot of people use their snack credits at F&W in Epcot. Isn't FD available in a moderate during your stay? You would be spending a LOT more if you switch to a moderate and then pay for the DDP on top of that.

 

[Shanti]

Pay as you go is less expensive than the meal plan.

 

[Hikergirl]

I just did the DDP calculator that was linked and I don't think its accurate.
I put in the ADRs we have planned for our trip, all TS restaurants. When it priced out the QS it said the additional cost will be $127.64. We have 5 dinners and one character breakfast planned for 2 adults, there is no way that is right.

 

[MichiganScott]

Doing the math, if you reach your minimums for the day, you "spend" $65 "just to break even." For a meal plan that costs only $61.84. You are also not adding in the cost of the refillable mug.

I agree that the dining plan doesn't always save money.

But if you rig the math, it will never save money.

You don't buy the refillable mug every day.

 

[sharonabe]

You don't buy the refillable mug every day.

No, but if you use it every day, you could add in the value of those drinks in your calculation. We didn't/don't use them every day because it's just not that convenient, so for us, it was more a souvenir we got "for free" when we did the plan.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

You don't buy the refillable mug every day.

No kidding. But you do need to calculate in the cost.

If you had read further, you would have seen my post about how to calculate a daily cost for the mug.