# DVC + Dining Plan in GBP



## RossK

Hi all,

Does anyone know if its possible to add the dining plan to a DVC reservation, but at the UK GBP price? In the UK, the deluxe dining plan is £73.99/day, where as the US DVC price appears to be $111.73. At the current exchange rate, that makes it quite a bit more expensive per day. This would be for a 2017 booking, if that makes any difference.


----------



## RossK

Actually, just used the live chat and they said no, it can only be charged in dollars. However, the PDF shows the price for this year, whereas 2017 there is a slight reduction, so the plan is $103.57, which makes it similar to the UK price at the current rate. Woohoo


----------



## Lee Matthews

Don't suppose you have a price breakdown of the other DDP tiers do you? Deluxe is too much food for us.


----------



## RossK

Lee Matthews said:


> Don't suppose you have a price breakdown of the other DDP tiers do you? Deluxe is too much food for us.



Its available in the member site if you add it to a booking. I have a couple and should be able to pull the prices. Will update shortly.


----------



## RossK

Here's the prices:-

*2017 Disney Dining Plan Pricing:*

$67.33 per Guest age 10+, per night of your stay
$24.22 per Guest ages 3-9, per night of your stay

*2017 Disney Deluxe Dining Plan Pricing:*

$103.57 per Guest age 10+, per night of your stay
$37.62 per Guest ages 3-9, per night of your stay

*2017 Disney Quick Service Dining Plan Pricing:*

$46.34 per Guest age 10+, per night of your stay
$20.18 per Guest ages 3-9, per night of your stay


----------



## Wakey

Difficult to justify for UK DVC ers.


----------



## RossK

Wakey said:


> Difficult to justify for UK DVC ers.



I'm not really sure why being in the UK would make any difference. The price is in dollars whether you're a DVCer in the UK, US, or anywhere else. Yes, we have exchange rate fluctuations to contend with, but without the dining plan, if you're eating on Disney property, you will still be buying your food in US dollars regardless. Therefore, the argument for whether the plan makes sense or not doesn't really change. Even if the exchange rate is excellent, it doesn't change the calculation, because this reduces the GBP cost whether you get the dining plan or not. So the argument that its hard to justify for *UK* DVCers doesn't make any sense.

The plan can definitely make sense depending on your dining preferences. For example, one of the main attractions of Disney for us is the dining (and the food and wine festival). We typically do a three week/21 night vacation. We get the Deluxe dining plan which allows us to dine at a different signature restaurant every night of the week and live like kings. We do one whole week at the Food and Wine festival (usually in the second week of our vacation) and we don't pay a penny there, since between the two of us we have 84 snack credits. There is something nice about being able to completely ignore the price column on the menu. For us it works well because of the type of dining we like to do, and the type of food we would _normally_ order. We don't feel compelled to order the most expensive thing on the menu to "maximise" the value of the dining plan. We're pretty confident, _at worse_ we will break even because of what we normally eat. Is it too much food? Actually, if you do a signature each night, the portions in the signatures are fairly 'normal' (i.e. not huge mountains of food), this uses up two out of your three dining credits per day, meaning you can have a medium/large breakfast, and then a nice three course meal in the evening.

It all depends on what you want to do. If you're not massively in to the signature dining options and the food isn't a big part of your holiday, then no, it probably doesn't make sense - but that's not because you're a UK DVCer


----------



## Sean91

Can you get the US DDP with the UK park tickets.


----------



## Wakey

Sean91 said:


> Can you get the US DDP with the UK park tickets.


The dining plan is booked on the DVC website, it is enabled because you book the acommodation, you don't need tickets to book it. If you try and book tickets via the DVC website, it takes you to the UK ticket page (cheaper anyway than US tickets so that is good). I suspect if I use a VPN placing myself in US, it will take me to US ticket page, but I haven't tried that yet.


----------



## jo_de_vil

You can add any of the dining plans to your DVC booking. But after helping a friend book there holiday and finding out that as they were booking a package They would be paying £41.99 ($51.05) per adult per day and we would pay £55.33($67.33) a difference of £13.34 ($16.28). Which for the 3 of us it would cost us £498 ($600) more to add the DDP for 14 nights!!!
 We have done DDDP 3 times too much food even when we had  breakfast and a Signature at night. We last did the DDP before they took away the starters and we are more for starters than desserts so we would end up paying out of pocket if they wouldn't substitute.
So this year we are going to try TIW all the Restaurants we want this time are included and for the 20% off the alcohol as well is a big bonus. 
I have chatted with DVC about this difference in pricing and they have passed it on to the powers that be, they agree its a lot of difference in the cost, but are not able to give the UK prices.


----------



## jo_de_vil

Simple answer is yes you can use UK tickets when adding DDP to DVC bookings, you have to do Park Ticket and accommodation and then the DDP when booking with disney travel not DVC. The US site doesn't do a 14 day ticket and it is way cheaper also you don't have to book your ticket through Disney we have used many companies in the UK to get multi park tickets at excellent prices.
Sorry the quote didn't work


----------



## Willowfae

We worked out that with what we eat we would be better off just getting our DVC discount (or TiW card)


----------



## Toffeewoffy

Because we don't have enough points for more than 7 nights - and that's just booking a cheap studio - I had to do a package through the Disney Travel site for this year's holiday for the 3 of us.  We're doing 8 nights at OKW with free DDP and a $200 gift card.  We then have 3 nights at BLT on points but obviously have no dining for this part of our holiday.

The last couple of years that we've been DVC I've paid for the dining - 2015 I did QSDP and last year I did DDP (because it was our Silver Wedding), but due to the terrible $ rate I can't justify the cost any more.  I tried very hard to be able to buy 3 nights in Sterling, but you can't extend the dining beyond the date of the UK booking - even if you're paying for it, and if you have DVC you HAVE to pay in $$s.  I paid for last year's DDP in about February 2016 when the rate was around $1.45, so while it was more expensive than paying OOP once we got there, it wasn't so much I couldn't justify it.  To buy it now at the average rate of $1.23 is a bit hard to swallow.

I have 3 options for this September's holiday: 1) Buy the DDP in $ (and I am keeping a close watch on the $ rate); 2) Use the gift card to pay for our food (QS only) for our last couple of days (either using the card at the eateries or charging it back to our room and paying it back later); or use the card to charge the tips for the DDP to and then pay OOP for QSDP for our last few days).


----------



## RossK

Toffeewoffy said:


> I have 3 options for this September's holiday: 1) Buy the DDP in $ (and I am keeping a close watch on the $ rate); 2) Use the gift card to pay for our food (QS only) for our last couple of days (either using the card at the eateries or charging it back to our room and paying it back later); or use the card to charge the tips for the DDP to and then pay OOP for QSDP for our last few days).



Unless you have reason to believe the exchange rate will suddenly jump during your actual holiday dates, I find the £:$ exchange rate to be a moot point. You're still going to have to purchase food in $ while out there, so you still have to pay the awful exchange rate either way. The only question you need to ask is whether you will purchase x dollar value of food per day anyway to see whether the plan makes sense. You can purchase the dining plan just a few days before your holiday, so I'm not the exchange rate is a massive factor to consider. On the plus side, if there is a sudden favourable spike in the exchange rate ahead of your holiday, you can lock it in by purchasing the dining plan in advance.


----------



## Toffeewoffy

Listen, the DDP has never made financial sense.  I have only done it as a convenience treat.  We stayed off site right up until 2013 and just paid for our food as and when we wanted it.  Of course it worked out cheaper to do that.  The disadvantage of staying on site and not having a plan is that you will still pay more for your food than if you went off site to eat.  

Of course, we're staying in 1-bedroom villas with a full kitchen at both OKW and BLT, so technically there's nothing stopping me doing what we used to do when we stayed in a condo and buying ingredients off site for our meals.  The reason why I won't do a full cook is because I'm on holiday, so anything I do do myself will be stuff that can be heated and eaten or salads that we can buy ready prepared, for example.

Our last stay off site I took our usual $50 per person per day (ie $1,500).  We came HOME with $500.  So, including parking at Disney and Universal and meals on and off site, we spent $100 per day between us.


----------



## RossK

Toffeewoffy said:


> Listen, the DDP has never made financial sense.  I have only done it as a convenience treat.



I get you, the dining plan clearly does not make sense for a lot of people (maybe most?) in terms of saving money. I was only responding on your specific point of "due to the terrible $ rate I can't justify the cost any more". All I mean is, the exchange rate isn't a factor to consider, since you'll be paying for food in $ with or without the dining plan. So yes, the dining plan has become more expensive due to the exchange rate rise, but food at Disney has risen in equal proportion, so the cost calculation is the same as it has always been. i.e. The only factor to consider is whether you will spend the required $ to make the DP worth it. I'm not commenting on whether the DDP is worth it to people in that regard - that's a very personal decision. The only exception RE exchange rate issues would be some sort of event that causes the exchange rate to temporarily spike in our favor (e.g. the night of the brexit vote), which would allow you to "lock in" the good exchange rate by purchasing the dining plan (e.g. for those who do not hold USD accounts).


----------



## Wakey

RossK said:


> I get you, the dining plan clearly does not make sense for a lot of people (maybe most?) in terms of saving money. I was only responding on your specific point of "due to the terrible $ rate I can't justify the cost any more". All I mean is, the exchange rate isn't a factor to consider, since you'll be paying for food in $ with or without the dining plan. So yes, the dining plan has become more expensive due to the exchange rate rise, but food at Disney has risen in equal proportion, so the cost calculation is the same as it has always been. i.e. The only factor to consider is whether you will spend the required $ to make the DP worth it. I'm not commenting on whether the DDP is worth it to people in that regard - that's a very personal decision. The only exception RE exchange rate issues would be some sort of event that causes the exchange rate to temporarily spike in our favor (e.g. the night of the brexit vote), which would allow you to "lock in" the good exchange rate by purchasing the dining plan (e.g. for those who do not hold USD accounts).


It is a factor to consider though because the dining plan makes often little financial sense, we have to assess the cost. At the moment the cost is even higher so the loss is bigger than paying out of pocket. Also it's increasingly more expensive than we'd have paid Disney UK. Yes spending there is more expensive too, but if the Dining Plan cost you more anyway, then the gap grows proportionately as the exchange rate drops.


----------



## RossK

I don't even look at the UK dining plan - since its not an option for DVC owners, I don't see much point in considering it. I just work out roughly what I'm likely to spend on food in $ amount, and then compare that to the cost of the dining plan. I don't see any need to factor exchange rate if you're doing everything in $ regardless. For my forthcoming trip, we are planning to do a Signature every night and breakfast in the morning, so the DxDP works out slightly cheaper. Next year, we are planning to BBQ some nights using the grills and so we would lose on the DxDP and likely won't get that year.


----------



## Cyberc1978

I know this thread is a "few" days old, but I still think its worth commenting. 




RossK said:


> I get you, the dining plan clearly does not make sense for a lot of people (maybe most?) in terms of saving money.





Wakey said:


> It is a factor to consider though because the dining plan makes often little financial sense, we have to assess the cost. At the moment the cost is even higher so the loss is bigger than paying out of pocket. Also it's increasingly more expensive than we'd have paid Disney UK. Yes spending there is more expensive too, but if the Dining Plan cost you more anyway, then the gap grows proportionately as the exchange rate drops.




As most have said the DDP does not make much sense seen from the financially point of view. The deluxe plan however makes more sense if you are a foodie and buy the plan for the week, then you can come out ahead but you need to run the numbers before doing so. 

Another option which I myself uses, is that since we arrive late at WDW when flying in from Europe we book another resort for the first day of our vacation, and then the day after we switch resort for the remaining time of our vacation. The first day allows us to buy the deluxe plan for only 1 day, giving us 3 credits pr person + mugs for length of stay. The credits are usable from checkin day until midnight on checkout day. As we arrive very late on checkin day we have 9 credits (2 adults and 1 kid) to use on checkout day. 

If you arrive early instead of late you could spread the use of the credits on two days instead. Downside is you need to switch resort the day after.


Regarding exchange rate, I dont take that into account. If we have decided to go to WDW we need some food and then the exchange rate is of less importance. The deluxe plan gives us the option to do a signature restaurant or whatever we chooses at a lesser cost than paying OOP. Also the fact that we have mugs for length of stay is very nice, the cost for the mugs alone is $17.99.

I have done the deluxe plan for my entire stay and it was way too much food, did I come out ahead? - well if you dont take into account that we wouldn't have had that many meals should we have paid OOP then yes we came out ahead. Otherwise we didn't as it as way too much food. Everything was about food and when we should have the next meal  Would I do it again - No unless I wouldn't care about maximizing the use of the meal plan. Knowing myself thats not gonna happen.


----------



## Minniesgal

RossK said:


> I'm not really sure why being in the UK would make any difference. The price is in dollars whether you're a DVCer in the UK, US, or anywhere else. Yes, we have exchange rate fluctuations to contend with, but without the dining plan, if you're eating on Disney property, you will still be buying your food in US dollars regardless. Therefore, the argument for whether the plan makes sense or not doesn't really change. Even if the exchange rate is excellent, it doesn't change the calculation, because this reduces the GBP cost whether you get the dining plan or not. So the argument that its hard to justify for *UK* DVCers doesn't make any sense.
> 
> The plan can definitely make sense depending on your dining preferences. For example, one of the main attractions of Disney for us is the dining (and the food and wine festival). We typically do a three week/21 night vacation. We get the Deluxe dining plan which allows us to dine at a different signature restaurant every night of the week and live like kings. We do one whole week at the Food and Wine festival (usually in the second week of our vacation) and we don't pay a penny there, since between the two of us we have 84 snack credits. There is something nice about being able to completely ignore the price column on the menu. For us it works well because of the type of dining we like to do, and the type of food we would _normally_ order. We don't feel compelled to order the most expensive thing on the menu to "maximise" the value of the dining plan. We're pretty confident, _at worse_ we will break even because of what we normally eat. Is it too much food? Actually, if you do a signature each night, the portions in the signatures are fairly 'normal' (i.e. not huge mountains of food), this uses up two out of your three dining credits per day, meaning you can have a medium/large breakfast, and then a nice three course meal in the evening.
> 
> It all depends on what you want to do. If you're not massively in to the signature dining options and the food isn't a big part of your holiday, then no, it probably doesn't make sense - but that's not because you're a UK DVCer



I think the point is more UK DVC people tend to go for 14 or 21 nights.  DDP is a heck of a lot of food so it is better for a short trip where you can eat like that for a few days but I certainly could not eat Disney food on the DDP for 1 or 21 consecutive nights.  We can do about 4 days max.


----------

