Meal Plan or No Meal Plan?

[Captainrunner56]

Should I get a meal plan for my family or not?

 

[disneyfantotheend]

You will; get MANY opinions some very strongly in favor other very strongly against. In my experience, we enjoy the convenience, but it didn't save us a lot. We have not bought it since alcohol is included though. That could probably make a difference. if you will be taking advantage of that.

 

[verleniahall]

WE love the dining plan - makes it 10000000000000000 times easier

 

[wishuponastar1984]

It really isn't a way a to save money IMHO it is basically a way to pre-pay for meals and snacks. Will your family eat 1 quick service, 1 table service and 2 snacks per person per day? We just don't eat like that in our family and don't always order full entrees at a sit down meal. I like setting aside the same amount of money and using that as the dining money which makes our choices more flexible. Sometimes we eat lots of snacks. Other times we may go to a TS restaurant and just order several appetizers wtih a round of cocktails. I am always amazed when I hear people say that they have some huge pile of snack credits left at the end of trip and they go on a quick end of trip binge buying things like bags of candy. Yes, you get to take that all home with you but would you have bought it otherwise with cold hard cash?

 

[Marionnette]

Should I get a meal plan for my family or not?

That depends on a lot of variables. Are you looking to save money? Convenience? Prepaying for your food? Do you have young children? Do you plan to do a lot of character meals? Do you drink alcohol? eat desserts regularly? snack between meals? Are you eligible for any dining discounts (Disney Visa? DVC? AP holder?)

Everyone is different. What works for one person won't work for another. No one can give you a definitive answer, especially without more details.

 

[Meglen]

if you want to go and not have to worry so much about money = get the DDP
if you want to save money on food = dont get the ddp

 

[imbatman]

Your question is like asking all of us, "Should I buy a 4 door car?" There are so many variables AND it depends on what your spending tendencies are. You can try a quick search to read all about the different opinions. Or hop over to the dining section and read about actual experiences.

 

[MikeNamez]

Never in a million years.

 

[Hikergirl]

Should I get a meal plan for my family or not?

Who is in your family?
Do you have kids or "Disney adults"?
Will you be doing alot of character meals?
Is your goal to have an all inclusive feel, or to save money?
Are you a planner or a go with the flow eater when it comes to vacation?


We did the DDP a couple times when my kids were little, once they all reached Disney adult age it was a huge money waster because we didn't do alot of character dining, and my kids weren't big eaters then. We also are more go with the flow, we don't always end up at a TS meal every day, some days it could be all CS, or maybe just apps at a restaurant and snacks the rest of the day, or even just order a pizza one night.
We also don't feel the need to pre-pay in order to make things convenient. It is really no trouble to charge to the room and pay it all at once, or even just pay with your card at the restaurant.

 

[LJSquishy]

Paying for each meal out of pocket isnt any more difficult than paying with a prepaid dining plan. It's in fact easier to pay out of pocket because you don't have to make sure what you're ordering qualifies under the dining plan. We paid with our Magic Band.

We've done one trip with a dining plan, and one trip without. We truly enjoyed paying out of pocket more because we ordered what we actually wanted in the moment instead of being required to order certain things. Some days we ordered several appetizers and split them, some days we shared a meal, and some days we each ordered an entree and enjoyed several alcoholic beverages. We also paid out of pocket for the refillable mugs since we stayed 9 nights and enjoyed a soda or hot cocoa in the evening while relaxing poolside or on our balcony. On really hot days I sometimes opted for Kid's meals for lunch because a heavy meal was not appetizing.

When we had the dining plan, we never wanted an entree plus snack/dessert plus beverage at each meal. We mostly drink water in the parks due to all of the walking so we were paying in advance to just get water, and dessert plus an entree was just too much at once. We preferred to space out things like that...eat lunch somewhere, then a couple of hours later get ice cream, etc. We declined a lot of desserts and felt very overstuffed a lot of the trip.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

We haven't used it since our kids joined the 9+ club. Using the kids' TS credits on character meals was what made the DDP "worth it" for us because that one meal price was more than the price of the kids' DDP that day. It tipped the scale in favor of making the cost worth the menu cost. But we haven't done any DDP in years. The cost kept going up and the value going down, IMO. Even the last time we used it, my oldest was almost 9 and complained about eating kids' meals everywhere. We often had to supplement with a snack or extra side for him.

I haven't tracked it specifically, but I'm pretty confident that we don't spend as much eating OOP when and where we want as we would with a DDP. But we also eat fewer TS meals, maybe 2-3 per trip rather than one per day. I even tried to make the QS plan work for us on paper for our trip last summer, but it didn't. I think it's a worse value than the DDP.

 

[Shanti]

Should I get a meal plan for my family or not?

No, it's cheaper to pay for the same food out of pocket.

It is also easier to pay out of pocket, as there is no tallying of dining credits needed before choosing what to eat. Instead, you just choose the food you happen to want, & tap your Magic Band to pay.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Depends on how much Character Meal Table Service you want, and how many Disney Kids vs Adults are in your party.

 

[Darcy03231]

This was posted by mi*vida*loca on another thread:

"This is a pretty good tool and was pretty accurate for our last trip.

www.distripplanner.com

We haven't used the DDP the last two trips. Once because we did an agency exclusive and couldn't buy the DDP and another time because we rented points and I didn't want to purchase the DDP. I would probably only ever do the DDP again if we got it for "free" since there is 4 of us, all Disney adults, and it would save us tons of money over a room discount IF we were in one room at a moderate or value.

Last trip we were there 10 nights and did 13 QS, 10 TS (including character buffet, Cali Grill, CRT, Ohana, BOG, etc), lots of snacks, two nights of drinking/eating around the world and Trader Sams one night and we came out cheaper than the DDP. We ate what we wanted when we wanted and still came out ahead."

I used it to price out a trip for next spring with a 5 year old where we plan to do a character meal a day. I'll come out about $200 ahead by purchasing the DDP. I also ran the numbers as if just my mom and I would be going. I would lose about $300 in that scenario.

 

[crazycatstacy]

We always get the deluxe and love it. It suits the way we like to splurge on vacation. However; we have no issue paying an upcharge if we want something that requires it or paying for a different/extra appetizer or something. We also do not worry about getting the most for our money or if we have credits left. I love to have credits left so I can bring treats back to my team at work. It's part of the fun for me. When we go somewhere else and have to "pay" for food we always have sticker shock. For my family we consider x amount of dollars the cost of a Disney trip and it's just automatically included in the figure.

 

[Goofy'slady]

We've always gotten the DDP and we're using it again this August. It's just easier that way and I don't have to worry about coming up with money before the trip for meals. My youngest daughter who is turning 13 in June still likes to do Cinderella's Royal Table, heck my oldest who is turning 20 also in June still requested to do 1900 Park Fare so having the DDP plan alleviates headaches over paying for those pricey two meals right there. Plus I like the idea that the DP now has two snack credits each day that will allow us to try new and exciting snacks (and not just Mickey bars and popcorn either) and alcohol for me with my meals is a bonus. I don't drink very often but while on vacation I've been known to order a drink here and there only because I'm way to cheap to do it more often but now that it's included in both my counter service and table service meals I may partake in a little more often. My girls are good eaters and often like to try the pricier entrees since they know they can without seeing mummy glare at them because it's 35.00 instead of 19.99. LOL So it's a must for me and my daughters and will be so even more when we go back in 2019 when my oldest will be 21!!!! Whoot! Whoot!

 

[Goofy'slady]

Yes, I forgot to mention that whatever snack credits are left, which in the past for us has been quite a few but we always snag several for the flight back home (saves on the expensive snacks at the airport) friends, coworkers and even a few church members. It's our way of spreading the Disney magic to all those we come back home to without having to whip out my wallet.

 

[crazylady]

What I've come to realize is that we are not Disney foodies, and while I make ADRs, we don't feel tied to any of them. It is not unusual for us to cancel our ADRs the night before if we don't feel like eating TS. For that reason, the dining plan doesn't work for us. I don't want to feel like I have to go to an ADR just because I have TS credits to use up.

 

[adamak]

I just posted my experience in the Restaurant / Dining plan thread. Agreed with all of the above. It depends on # of days / people, how you eat, what you eat, what places do you plan to eat...etc. Also remember that people on dining plan tends to order the most expensive entree /drinks. And your OOP tips will reflect accordingly.

 

[Cloe Colton]

Personally, I did a spreadsheet of where me and my DH would eat daily, picking things we would eat whether we had the meal plan or not using the menus posted on the disney website for each restaurant and quickservice. For us, we are eating at mostly signature restaurants and would have to do the deluxe plan and it would not work out. It was actually an extra $600 to get the dining plan + the additional tip we would be paying on more expensive meals. I do have an AP and plan on getting the TIW card so that definitely factors in. Also, the amount of food we would get with a deluxe dining plan actually makes me sick to think about lol

But my main point is, put together a spreadsheet and just see what your total amount spent (on stuff you would actually eat) comes out to versus the dining plan (whatever one works best for you) and then you will know if it is worth it or not. It's pretty easy to guesstimate what family members will eat and if you don't know pick an average price and go with that. I don't think the "convenience" of the dining plan outweighs cost savings since you can basically "pretend" to have a dining plan by just charging everything to your magic band.