I am trying to make dining reservations for our trip in like 5 weeks. Crazy right? I am normally an 180 days out girl, and even then I make first and second choices a month before the 180 days. So we are staying off site at a condo my parents rented. I figure - this is a good time to try some of those restaurants that aren't great dining plan values like Kona, Sanaa, 1950's prime time, sc fi, skipperdees canteen, beaches and cream ... but then i go look at the menu's and its so pricey I end up thinking .... maybe we should just eat counter service. Maybe it's because my parents will be with and I know it hurts my mom to overpay for things .. I have no problem paying for the dining plan - and honestly thats probably MORE expensive than just paying OOP and eating at these places - especially since we're not all going to get a dessert, and Im probably not going to get an alcoholic drink (i do, with dining plan now that its included) So esp considering tipping on dining plan meals . this is cheaper but it's STILL hard for me to make reservations.
Why I love the dining plan.
- Thread starter kristennn
- Start date
DWVol
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 21, 2019
I agree 100%! The dining plan just makes the planning part that much easier. We loved being able to eat wherever we wanted to and not having to think about the price. It's stressful and makes the vacation less rewarding when you have to look at each price and think about it fitting into your daily budget.
I really hope things change by this summer, but I don't think that they will. Enjoy your trip!
I really hope things change by this summer, but I don't think that they will. Enjoy your trip!
Eastern
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2006
You just explained how you know the dining plan is not any cheaper than paying out of pocket. So go, order what you want, and pay less money. Keep a running total of what you spend and then compare it to the dining plan after. Pretend you are doing a study! I never get the dining plan and I'm quite thrifty.
ps it's also easier to split things and skip things here and there if you aren't on the dining plan and trying to maximize your value. I found it a pain making sure the credits were being used correctly. I pay by cc and I'm done with it.
loves to dive
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2011
It works for some and doesn't for others, I think a lot depends on your family make up, if you eat a buffets and if you like character meals and if you eat larger meals. It hasn't worked for us in years. It's myself and my adult son. I don't eat large meals, neither of us snack between meals, I don't drink soft drinks very often. There are days we don't even eat a proper meal just munch on things. We tend to go during the festivals at Epcot and have park hoppers (pre-Covid of course) and at least one meal a day comes from the booths. We do like to go to TS restaurants but do not book any more in advance than night before, it's usually day of at some point in the afternoon when we are walking around. Since I'm not a large meal eater, if we eat at QS I get a kid's meal and sometimes even that is too much food for me. If we eat at TS I tend to get an appy and a soup or salad and we share a dessert. I don't like buffets, again don't eat a lot at one sitting and we haven't done a character meal in probably 30 years or so.
dreamer17555
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2007
ucf_knight
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2017
The DDP is more of a state of mind than anything else. It lets people feel everything is included and taken care of when one could easily budget and plan in the same manner and save money if they just paid OOP. When it was first launched it was an incredible deal and now like everything else it’s become more expensive with less being offered.
DisneyHardin
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2010
I totally agree. We are doing a Spring Break trip and I'm not sure we will eat any table service because I just can't bring myself to pay that much when I am actually putting my credit card down for that meal. I definitely the the pre-paid aspect of the dining plan.
Ladyandthepuppies
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2017
It really is a state of mind! We saved money (and calories!) not doing the DDP but it was a bummer to see the bill after every meal and think “there goes $200 for that?”
@kristenn you said it’s painful for your mom to overpay for things- I can understand that! But maybe try to think of the ambiance as part of the price. Some of the Disney restaurants - like the Sci Fi dine in, San Angel Inn, 50’s Prime Time, Coral Reef, etc. are unlike any other restaurant in the world. You are paying in part for the theme, not just the food.
Karebear
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 24, 1999
We do this exactly. We order what we want and charge it to the room and then pay the room balance with gift cards. That way the trip is paid for and we don't bring credit card debt home.
kristenrice
NOT just an ambulance driver
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2006
^^THIS^^
On my last trip (just me and my dad), I knew that he would not be too thrilled with the cost of dinner and breakfast at Topolino's, but I knew that the restaurant would impress him. One of his favorite places to eat is Garden Grill, despite the fact that it is almost $120 for lunch/dinner for the 2 of us. We went on the trip with our food budget planned out and loaded onto our gift cards. We made ADR's at the restaurants that we wanted to eat at and budgeted for an entree, N/A beverage and a dessert. We ended up changing some meals to CS, "upgrading" some choices, and deleting one meal, but at the end of the trip, we both came home with over $100 left on our gift cards.
Dug720
See the line where the sky meets the sea?
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2012
I feel like that's really the easiest way to do a true test of if the Dining Plan is worth it. Load that much onto a gife card (or gift cards if it would be over $1000) and order what you WANT to eat rather than stuffing yourself with all the food that the dining plan requires. If you have to supplement after using the gift card(s) to $0, you'll know that it's a better deal. I suspect most people will end up with money left on their cards.
I did Dining Plan once to "make it feel all-inclusive" and I hated it because I was eating when I wasn't hungry to use up credits. And I wasn't eating stuff I didn't want to just because it was the most expensive thing. The only thing that MAYBE was an advantage was at breakfast or resort-based QS meals, I'd grab a bottle of water or soda for my drink and save that for the parks, using my mug for my in-resort meals. But that was MINOR in the bigger picture.
We just did this for our trip and wanted as accurate of a comparison as possible. So we promised to hold ourselves to a - order what you want, and ignore the costs. In an attempt to get a true idea. All in all, our non-dining plan costs came out to be 30% cheaper.
But let me tell you, it is hard to ignore the costs. We definitely skipped a desert, snack, or a $22 alcoholic drink because it was out of pocket. It didn't matter how often we told ourselves to ignore it. The positive is it's cheaper. The negative is that you really do miss out on some of the food experiences. I've had some great food on the dining plan that I wouldn't have otherwise had without it.
Ricguz
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 6, 2000
We have had the dining plans and the last few trips we used Disney gift cards and stayed club level. The analysis is the dining plan makes you eat more than you want and spend more than you should. You can get Disney gift cards at BJ’s and I think we paid 467 for a 500 card. Also we love club level if it opens again, and you can get drinks, beer, wine when we want plus light breakfast, snacks, light dinner, deserts without overeating. Just don’t overdo it. Also if it’s food and wine time, it’s more enjoyable to get a little of everything, not feeling rushed in the restaurants. If we wanted to go to a Disney restaurant we can without the pressure of using the dining plan. The dining plan also takes time to plan and takes time out of your day.
Ladyandthepuppies
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2017
I tried to be smart on our last trip and charged all our meals on my Magic Band, then looked at it the night before check-out and bought a e-gift card for the amount we had spent. I got an instant email delivery Disney gift card from Target for 5% off using my red card. Of course, we had spent something like $982 so I had to get $1000 because they don’t sell small/odd increments. It was mostly a worthwhile plan, the two issues were that we did MVMCP on our last night so it was around 1am when I was trying to do all this- not exactly a relaxing way to end my night/vacation! And then in the morning they had already charged my credit card so I had to go down to the front desk and have the charges reversed so I could pay with the gift card instead. But overall it wasn’t a bad plan. Next time I will probably do it before our evening begins so that I can give the gift card # to the front desk before they run my credit card, and before it gets too late at night when I don’t feel like doing it. The food we eat that evening won’t be included on the gift card but I think it will be worth it for peace of mind that it’s all taken care of. And at least this way I don’t end up with too much money left on a gift card.
Thinking about the “ price shock” for a parent not familiar with Disney ...
When seated they don’t actually give you a menu anymore. You have to scan and read menu on cellphone... could you just tell your mother what you think she would like choices ? That way she technically would not see the price... You could study the menus ahead of your visit to familiarize yourself. I am older and never carry a cellphone inside the parks. My son scans and lets me know some of the simpler choices . I usually like soup or simple hamburger or grilled cheese... I even consider some of the items on the children’s menu , just can’t eat really salty foods and Disney is over processed. And overpriced!
And don’t forget mobile order for the QS... plan early in morn to place lunch or dinner on just one cellphone (yours) and then press we are here as you get closer to time to place order.
When seated they don’t actually give you a menu anymore. You have to scan and read menu on cellphone... could you just tell your mother what you think she would like choices ? That way she technically would not see the price... You could study the menus ahead of your visit to familiarize yourself. I am older and never carry a cellphone inside the parks. My son scans and lets me know some of the simpler choices . I usually like soup or simple hamburger or grilled cheese... I even consider some of the items on the children’s menu , just can’t eat really salty foods and Disney is over processed. And overpriced!
And don’t forget mobile order for the QS... plan early in morn to place lunch or dinner on just one cellphone (yours) and then press we are here as you get closer to time to place order.
beachdreamr1229
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2013
I absolutely agree. I haven't been in years, but when we had the dining plan on our last visit, it was a no-brainer. We ate TS every day, sometimes twice. The cost of the meals is no surprise because we are DLR locals and spend far more money that we should on visits. But there's still a big difference between having and not having dining plans. I'm in the early stages of planning for December because I'm big on having my plan A, B, and C and am secretly or not-so-secretly hoping dining plans come back or at least that they'll start booking 180 days out again, even if it is a major long shot. And as I'm looking at menus, I realize my kids won't eat most of the stuff that's actually worth the money at any of the TS restaurants. So we are looking at substantially fewer TS reservations. But if I had a dining plan, even though I know the dining plans generally cost more, I truly wouldn't hesitate to just book the restaurants even if my kids hardly touch their food I guess because psychologically, pre-paying makes me think it's okay or something. It's funny because I know I actually will be saving money and not wasting food without a dining plan, but I still miss the ease for planning purposes.
Eastern
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2006
I just don't understand this. If your kids don't like the food, don't order it. Get them a side of fries or share an appetizer. Ordering them something knowing they aren't going to eat it?
Disney makes money on the plans. End of. That's why they sell them. Knowing this, it should be easy to realize that it's not hard to do better financially by paying by the meal. Different if you get one of those 'free' plans by paying rack at a value or moderate with a fully packed room. I get that you can probably do a little better in that case.
Sara_H
999 ghosts with room for 1 more...
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2015
For us, we don't care all that much about food. Yes, we want it to taste good and yes we enjoy fun experiences but we also don't like wasting time eating when we could be riding rides. Both times we went for a week we paid out of pocket. We did 3-4 table service meals per trip, each trip had one character breakfast and yes it was a crazy amount to spend on breakfast but we enjoyed it. We ordered what we wanted off the menus because we were on vacation and we got some snacks throughout the day (not necessarily every day) and got desserts at some meals and it was still cheaper for us to pay out of pocket. However, I can totally see the issue if you are the person that would order the $56 steak (guessing no clue on actual price). However, remember that you are on vacation and you should enjoy yourselves.
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