Is the Dining Plan worth it? Is there a better way?

Do the Disney dining Plan?

  • Yes

    Votes: 24 27.0%
  • No

    Votes: 65 73.0%

  • Total voters
    89
I do the standard DP on free dining, and as I have 3 children, I do all character meals (1 per day). The amount of food is just right, but I plan seriously before getting there, whre I am spending each credit. Before, as everybody knows, free dining was much better, last time I got the standard DP staying at POR, and they just asked for 3 day park hopper. Now moderates get only QS and you have to buy 4 day park hopper =(

I haven´t made the math though. I guess it depends on each family / guest and their needs.
 
I did the mental math yesterday and realized I was close to making the dining plan work for me on an upcoming trip. I put it in the calculator and realized that if I just upped our snack intake to 2 a day (my wife was fine with that idea - more dole whips!), and added a quick service lunch over eating in the room one day, and added a breakfast at Ohana, we could save $30. Essentially, we would have to spend a lot more, and eat a lot more than planned, to save a little. For those who would already eat that much I could see it working, but I felt like we would have to submit to the plan more than have it work for us in order to see any sort of savings.
 
I used to do the DDP when I had Disney kids and the previous posts were correct, you can come out quite a bit ahead especially doing character meals. I then lost 1 Disney kid when my son turned 10, so we had 3 adults and a Disney kid. We did the DDP one more time and it was OK. After that, my kids got older and we did not do character meals (maybe 1 per trip) and it was also easier to pay OOP (using giftcards) and eat as we wanted. Especially if you go in the summer, there were days where we were not very hungry and that was fine as we cut back on the TS meals and ate when we wanted to. Putting the charges on my magic band or giftcard is just as convenient as DDP and if you have a meal budget, you can shoot for that number. What I have done, if the DDP would have cost me $2000 (for example) I have $2000 set aside either on gift cards or in my budget for food. That way, I don't worry about costs, I don't worry about who eats what and where, we just do it. In the end, we usually have $300-$500 left that we did not spend on food (based on our last 3 trips).
 


I did the mental math yesterday and realized I was close to making the dining plan work for me on an upcoming trip. I put it in the calculator and realized that if I just upped our snack intake to 2 a day (my wife was fine with that idea - more dole whips!), and added a quick service lunch over eating in the room one day, and added a breakfast at Ohana, we could save $30. Essentially, we would have to spend a lot more, and eat a lot more than planned, to save a little. For those who would already eat that much I could see it working, but I felt like we would have to submit to the plan more than have it work for us in order to see any sort of savings.

I think this is the key to everything when it comes to the DDP. I don't encourage anyone getting it and forcing themselves to lose park time or stuff there face and feel like they need to eat or lose money. It really is about 5 percent of people who can actually benefit from it and the rest really don't. My family is one who loves it and it works for. I think its great that people take the time out to research and map out there plans to see if it works for them. Most people go in blindly with it and just think the concept sounds good to them. Obviously if it was a huge money saver for everyone then Disney wouldn't offer it. Disney is just like every other theme park in the world were if they can obtain money from you prior to you even getting there they assume you will also spend more when your there also but there is some people who do it so well that they save a huge amount of money with it. Research is key to everything and not jumping in blindly.
 
I think this is the key to everything when it comes to the DDP. I don't encourage anyone getting it and forcing themselves to lose park time or stuff there face and feel like they need to eat or lose money. It really is about 5 percent of people who can actually benefit from it and the rest really don't. My family is one who loves it and it works for. I think its great that people take the time out to research and map out there plans to see if it works for them. Most people go in blindly with it and just think the concept sounds good to them. Obviously if it was a huge money saver for everyone then Disney wouldn't offer it. Disney is just like every other theme park in the world were if they can obtain money from you prior to you even getting there they assume you will also spend more when your there also but there is some people who do it so well that they save a huge amount of money with it. Research is key to everything and not jumping in blindly.

The same is true for TiW if you can get it. Now I move on to the next insane stage of trying to anticipate where I want to eat 11 months from now in order to determine if the initial investment will pay off or not. I won last time I bought it, but just like the Dining Plan, I'm sure Disney makes more of a profit than a loss off the sales of it, which is why they offer it in the first place.
 
For those "educated" on Disney via multiple trips, those are not the ones Disney targets with the DDP (IMO). They know if they put it out in front of someone planning their first trip, show how easy it is to use, they are probably an easy sell. Disney also works off the notion that if you sell a Disney package vacation, you are in their "bubble" the entire time and they get all your $$$ and don't have to share it with other Orlando attractions. Now, if a newbie is diligent with their research, they will see that maybe the DDP will not work for them, but may try it out regardless. Like most on the boards and forums, I have tried the DDP and used it multiple times. Do I like it, sure. Does it make economical sense for me anymore.....no.
 


For those "educated" on Disney via multiple trips, those are not the ones Disney targets with the DDP (IMO). They know if they put it out in front of someone planning their first trip, show how easy it is to use, and also working off the notion that if you plan a Disney package vacation, you are in their "bubble" the entire time and they get all your $$$ and don't have to share it with other Orlando attractions. Now, if a newbie is diligent with their research, they will see that maybe the DDP will not work for them, but may try it out regardless. Like most on the boards and forums, I have tried the DDP and used it multiple times. Do I like it, sure. Does it make economical sense for me anymore.....no.

Couldn't agree more with this. Honestly I would only recommend DDP for a new person that I could explain it to and help them plan. I would not recommend it to someone who would not want to take the time out to know how to use it because they will get to the last day of there trip and find out they have 20 snacks left lol
 
I just wanted to clarify that skipping the dining plan doesn't mean that we fret over how much we're spending or that we try to make sure we're spending less than the plan would have cost.

We look over the menus of the places we'd like to go ahead of time and actually plan on eating more than we think we will, so when we budget our trip, the food portion of the budget is heavily padded. So we can and do order anything we want without worry while we're there.

It's just that even ordering anything we want is still considerably cheaper than the dining plan for us. :)
This is what we do. We do a 'back of the envelope' budget based on where I think we'll eat and then I buy Disney gift cards to cover those meals. I used to be able to get a great discount on Disney gift cards through Target, but Target recently closed the loophole where I could buy Disney gift cards with Target gift cards (which I bought at a discount). I will still buy Disney gift cards with my Target RedCard and I'll get 5% off.

The same is true for TiW if you can get it. Now I move on to the next insane stage of trying to anticipate where I want to eat 11 months from now in order to determine if the initial investment will pay off or not. I won last time I bought it, but just like the Dining Plan, I'm sure Disney makes more of a profit than a loss off the sales of it, which is why they offer it in the first place.
We stopped getting the TIW card when they increased the price to $150. That means that I have to spend $750 to make up for the price of the card before I see a discount. I'll have to spend $1500 in food/beverages to get a 10% average discount. I get get a 10% discount on food pretty easily without paying anything.
 
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The same is true for TiW if you can get it. Now I move on to the next insane stage of trying to anticipate where I want to eat 11 months from now in order to determine if the initial investment will pay off or not. I won last time I bought it, but just like the Dining Plan, I'm sure Disney makes more of a profit than a loss off the sales of it, which is why they offer it in the first place.
This is simple math and very little planning involved. TiW is $150 (for DVC and AP). Discount is 20% on all menu items at any participating restaurant. The savings begin after spending $750 ($150/20%) of food and alcohol. For an average family (2 adults and 2 children ages 3-9), standard dining plan is $200/day. For an average family, you begin saving (comparing to standard dining plan) on the fourth day. Furthermore, you can eat as little or as much as you want and you still get 20% savings. My guess is that if you are on a budget, you will likely spend less than $200 a day on food and will take you a few more days to break even.

As stated in the previous post, the dining plan only works (for a discount) if you eat character dining locations or more expensive locations for most of your meals. Example Cinderella's Royal Table (FYI - most expensive character meal), which costs $70 per adult and $43 per child. However, to get into these places, you have to plan well in advance and virtually plan your entire trip around maximizing the use of your dining plan, which will likely mean eating more and more often.
 
This is simple math and very little planning involved.

The math isn't as simple as you are making it out to be. Most TiW eligable people are also DVC and or AP members, which come with their own discounts.
As for the planning piece, the real trick with getting your money's worth of the dining plan is knowing you wanted to do all of those meals in the first place. Sure, you can save money compared to some dining situations, but if you are changing or adding dining plans to save it, you are really costing yourself.
 
The math isn't as simple as you are making it out to be. Most TiW eligable people are also DVC and or AP members, which come with their own discounts.
As for the planning piece, the real trick with getting your money's worth of the dining plan is knowing you wanted to do all of those meals in the first place. Sure, you can save money compared to some dining situations, but if you are changing or adding dining plans to save it, you are really costing yourself.
Exactly.

Here is a PDF of all the dining discounts: http://www.allears.net/pl/disc_dining.pdf

PLUS, the TIW card is "blacked out" for most holidays. We went over Christmas and NYE for many, many years and Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve and New Years Day were all blacked out. It was hard to break even when half of your days were blacked out!
 
Exactly.

Here is a PDF of all the dining discounts: http://www.allears.net/pl/disc_dining.pdf

PLUS, the TIW card is "blacked out" for most holidays. We went over Christmas and NYE for many, many years and Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve and New Years Day were all blacked out. It was hard to break even when half of your days were blacked out!

Thanks for posting that link! Not sure how you knew, but I was literally just looking for it when I decided to look on disboards.
 
Without a dining plan-how do you pay for meals?

Cash, credit card, gift card at the point of sale if you're not onsite. If you're onsite, just use your MB to charge back to the room and pay at the end of your trip with either cash, credit card, or gift card.
 
Without a dining plan-how do you pay for meals?

The same way we pay for everything else. We do a very good guestimate of what we'll spend, and we save it all ahead of time. Then we use our magic bands to charge everything and if we have any Disney gift cards we pay them against our growing balance every so often while we're there. The rest goes on our credit card and we immediately pay off the credit card with the money we saved. We get a percentage back on our credit card spending that we can use as a credit against what we already spent or as a start to our savings for next time. :)
 
Without a dining plan-how do you pay for meals?
Cash & Credit card just like we do on vacations at other locations. I do go ahead and buy some Disney Gift cards . We had the free DDP on one trip. I did the math afterwards ( Accounting major so I like spreadsheets;)) & saw we would have lost money buying it.We ate what we wanted , not the most expensive item and didn't get dessert if we weren't hungry enough . We are 2 adults so other than a CP breakfast, character dining isn't part of our plans.
I did spreadsheets before the last 2 trips and saw we still wouldn't come out ahead. Now with the addition of alcohol it may work so whenever the next trip is I will do the math.
 
Cash & Credit card just like we do on vacations at other locations. I do go ahead and buy some Disney Gift cards . We had the free DDP on one trip. I did the math afterwards ( Accounting major so I like spreadsheets;)) & saw we would have lost money buying it.We ate what we wanted , not the most expensive item and didn't get dessert if we weren't hungry enough . We are 2 adults so other than a CP breakfast, character dining isn't part of our plans.
I did spreadsheets before the last 2 trips and saw we still wouldn't come out ahead. Now with the addition of alcohol it may work so whenever the next trip is I will do the math.

The adult per day price of the plan makes it harder for adults to come out ahead. The kids' per day price is so low (often less than the cost of a single character meal) that we as a family usually break even as adults and always save a bunch of money on the kids' meals. I think the regular plan rarely makes sense for adult-only groups. The DxDP is another story, if you like signature dining, as it is much easier to save money on adult meals on the DxDP with signature dining.
 

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