Dining plan still a good deal if you don't go to the most expensive restaurants?

[Liz]

This dining plan is going to give me an ulcer! I made up a list of where we would eat with and without the dining plan and find there's not a major difference in the restaurants we would choose.

We are staying 7 nights in a cabin at Ft. Wilderness - two adults and two teens so basically 4 adults. Take a look please:

12/17 Arrival evening - Dinner at Trails End Buffet

12/18 Lunch - Food court @ The Land (would be counter service somewhere in WS w/o Dining plan)
Dinner - Rose & Crown

12/19 Lunch - Tusker House
Dinner - Hoop De Doo Review

12/20 Lunch - counter service
Dinner - counter service (no TS today to make up for HDDR using 2 credits)

12/21 Lunch - 50's PTC or Sci-Fi
Dinner - counter service

12/22 Lunch - counter service
Dinner - Candlelight Processional dinner package - least expensive option - Germany

12/23 Breakfast - Crystal Palace
Early dinner - counter service

If we didn't do the Dining Plan we would have the DDE card to give us 20% off TS meals and CS at Animal Kingdom. I know we would end up with more food on the DP but is that always a good thing? Based on our choices would someone please tell me if the DP would be good for our family? We don't drink alcohol and the only time we ever order an appetizer is at Rose & Crown and we get one or two to share. We might order one or two desserts at 50's PTC but its not a regular thing for us either.

Thanks for any input!

 

[Anewman]

This dining plan is going to give me an ulcer! I made up a list of where we would eat with and without the dining plan and find there's not a major difference in the restaurants we would choose.

We are staying 7 nights in a cabin at Ft. Wilderness - two adults and two teens so basically 4 adults. Take a look please:

12/17 Arrival evening - Dinner at Trails End Buffet

12/18 Lunch - Food court @ The Land (would be counter service somewhere in WS w/o Dining plan)
Dinner - Rose & Crown

12/19 Lunch - Tusker House
Dinner - Hoop De Doo Review

12/20 Lunch - counter service
Dinner - counter service (no TS today to make up for HDDR using 2 credits)

12/21 Lunch - 50's PTC or Sci-Fi
Dinner - counter service

12/22 Lunch - counter service
Dinner - Candlelight Processional dinner package - least expensive option - Germany

12/23 Breakfast - Crystal Palace
Early dinner - counter service

If we didn't do the Dining Plan we would have the DDE card to give us 20% off TS meals and CS at Animal Kingdom. I know we would end up with more food on the DP but is that always a good thing? Based on our choices would someone please tell me if the DP would be good for our family? We don't drink alcohol and the only time we ever order an appetizer is at Rose & Crown and we get one or two to share. We might order one or two desserts at 50's PTC but its not a regular thing for us either.

Thanks for any input!

I think it would not be of GREAT savings with your schedule, pretty close to breaking even.

But dont forget that you would still get 28 snacks.

 

[Dina]

I feel your pain!!! We usually do our sit downs for lunch (and a few breakfasts) because I don't like being tied to having to be at the parks or anywhere for dinner (if we go back to the pool and the kids want to stay there-- we like to do that). We usually just do one nice dinner at 'Ohana. This dining plan is killing me (though we have it for free) because I feel like we have to eat table service dinner now. I have no words of advice for you (as I've never done the plan before) just wanted to say that I sympathize!

 

[kcashner]

We had a valid DDE from a previous trip...so I ran our proposed numbers in planning our recent trip.

We basically broke even between the DDP and DDE until you considered the snacks. I decided that the convenience of the DDP was worth the expense. When we got to WDW, we actually made some changes to the ADRs that resulted in more expensive restaurants....

Bottom line, you will more than break even on the DDP. The real question then becomes whether it is the best choice for your eating style--and only you can answer that. We tried it and loved it.

 

[Redwitch]

When deciding whether or not to purchase the DDP for our trip in January of 2006, I actually pulled up the menus and decided what we would order if were paying out of pocket. This generally would not be the the most expensive item on the menu as I am cheap by nature. We often figured sharing an appy, generally getting one or desserts. I added up the meal cost, added tax and tip to find the actual total for the meal. For us, we were at the break even point before eating a CS or a snack. It is a lot of work, but planning is half the fun! Try doing this, only do it with and without your discount. (You can use excel to create a spreadsheet.) Remember to add in tax and tip to your TS meals as this is covered with the DDP. I don't have the discount card, but I figure it roughly covers your tax and tip if I understand it correctly.

 

[Liz]

When deciding whether or not to purchase the DDP for our trip in January of 2006, I actually pulled up the menus and decided what we would order if were paying out of pocket. This generally would not be the the most expensive item on the menu as I am cheap by nature. We often figured sharing an appy, generally getting one or desserts. I added up the meal cost, added tax and tip to find the actual total for the meal. For us, we were at the break even point before eating a CS or a snack. It is a lot of work, but planning is half the fun! Try doing this, only do it with and without your discount. (You can use excel to create a spreadsheet.) Remember to add in tax and tip to your TS meals as this is covered with the DDP. I don't have the discount card, but I figure it roughly covers your tax and tip if I understand it correctly.

Okay, I did what you suggested and here's what I came up with:

7 counter service meals @ $40 each = $280
Trails End @ $18 pp = $72
Rose & Crown = $95
HDDR = $161
50's PTC = $70
Germany CP dinner pkg = $128
Crystal Palace breakfast = $76
Snacks @ $10 per day = $70
Cost of buying DDE = $60
TOTAL cost of meals w/DDE discount = $1,012

Cost to purchase the dining plan = $1,064

So not much difference. Still either way that seems like a ton of money to spend on food for one week!

Thanks for the opinions and help! How close to your trip can you add dining? Do they ask when you make ADR's if you are on the dining plan?

 

[Amyrlin]

Don't forget the DDP includes tax and gratuity plus snacks if you are going to have any.

 

[castleri]

Also the dining plan now has many more snack options so the value of that could be an additonal $42 if you opt for some of the ones in the $3.99 range. We will be using some of them for the bakery items that we can use for breakfast such as pastries and juices that can then be shared. Also we don't always order an appetizer either but most places don't have a salad unless you order it separately and we do like to have a salad which counts as the appetizer on some menus. Good luck with your decision- we have gone over and over it for several months now since it became available to DVC stays and have finally decided that it will be fun to do the restaurants we normally are too cheap to eat at and not have to worry about who orders what at each meal. We have from 3- 9 people on various ADR's and without it I can't even imagaine trying to sort out the checks without having the waiter do separate ones. The one thing I don't like is having to make ADRs as that means it takes some of the spontaneous "let's go here or there out" of the trip. Since we are going during the free dining promo( we are paying for ours as we are DVC members) we made the ADRs already and had some trouble getting what we wanted for September 19-29 3 weeks ago. When we were there April 3 we watched people being turned away at MM because they were booked solid so I know they are needed if you have your heart set on a specific olace.

 

[tkitty]

I agree that the best part about the dining plan, is that it's paid ahead-no stressing over the cost, and you get to order things that you may not have ordered and resteraunts you would not have tried(in my case).
Of course the Free dining is even better! This is what got me to try it for the first time, this Aug. (I really am pretty cheap )