Does anyone forego dining plans to save money?

[Nebraska_Disney]

We don't do the DDP anymore now that both my kids are over 10 years old. We have groceries delivered to take care of things like breakfast, bottles of water, soda, and snacks. Our last trip, I had $2000 in Gift Cards which I purchased at Sam's club that we used for food/snack purchases. I saved $60 on the initial $2000 purchase by the discount Sam's gives and I also got 2% back on my CC in cash ($40), so we saved about $100 doing it this way. In the end, the $2000 was pretty close to what we needed for our 7 night trip. We had 2 TS meals during that trip and the rest were all QS. I think I had a $75 bill for WeGoShop to deliver our other food. Compared to what the DDP would cost for 4 adults for 7 days, we came out ahead. In the heat of the summer, we were not interested in big, sit down meals. We only did 2 (Ohana and Cape May) spaced out throughout the trip. IMO, it is very hard to even break even with the DDP, maybe on the DxDDP and there is really no purpose for my family to use it.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

my view it is vacation so I cast caution to the wind and just enjoy myself. .

I like how you roll!

 

[YesterDark]

Like everyone else says in other threads, you typically only save money or break even when you're spending $50-60 per adult every day at a sit down meal (tip not included). Essentially a character meal every day.

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

You're gonna get a bunch of different answers. Just know that you're either for or against the meal plan...

We like it. Honestly? We just went for Easter as AP holders. We skipped the DDP and instead did QS meals and relied on our AP discount. We quickly realized how many places don't accept the AP discount. Also, things added up—Mindless things you don't consider when you have the DDP, like buying that $5 coffee from Starbucks which is normally a snack.

Now, you can argue that guests can simply save money and fill gift cards leading up to their trip. This is 100% true. You can go on, check the menus, the snacks you want, budget out some money for coffee each day, waters, etc. Many people do that and are very successful in doing so. For my family, it's easier to just get the DDP. We've done the math and have "beaten" the DDP once—not on purpose, either, we just so happened to eat at expensive QS restaurants and mostly buffets... however, most of the time the difference is anywhere from $50-$100, maybe $150. Split 4 ways, that's not TOO bad. We'll easily pay the price to have peace of mind and scan our Magic Bands.

Plus, we use our Disney Visa. Disney Visa allows you to pay off your trip with 0% interest for 6 months. We go home and from Jan-June we pay it off. We're very on the ball, so including the DDP allows us to pay for it all as one big package.

 

[greg9x]

Only ever had the dining plan when it was 'free'.
Never saw the value of it to pay for it. Seems at best would be close to break even, but then are restricted to what the plan offers. Just pay out of pocket and get what you want.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I'm sure eating in the room would save money no matter how you crunch the numbers but the standard Disney room is too small for me to feel comfy eating for more than 4 people max. Not enough chairs, the table is pretty small and I despise eating on the bed. Also as much as I truly enjoy cooking it's nice to have some one else do it for me as long as it's worthy.

Our forthcoming trip will be a split stay and half of the trip we'll eat OOP and the other half, do DDxDP. The first half of the trip will be at a hotel near MK and AK; I don't much like the food at MK so I'll make a muffaletta at home, bring it w/ us, and that will be lunch for arrival day. This will be the end of our home made food but I expect all will enjoy the sandwich more than anything we could buy @ MK and it'll be less expensive and healthier to boot.

 

[Tksolomom]

That is our usual plan, to just eat on our own. Wondering if most people do the opposite!

We have a large family, so we do Garden Grocer for room, eat breakfast bar/fruit in room, pack everyone same basic sandwich lunch with fruit.

Then we buy one snack at park in afternoon and eat out for dinner in parks.

We feel like it saves us tons of money. Wondering what your feedback may be. Thanks!

We get Garden Grocer too for snacks, quick breakfasts, fruit, water and drinks. We normally have 1 QS meal and one TS meal a day. Since our family is not big on desserts, the dining plan doesn’t make a lot of sense for us. We also often spend a day or two at other parks (SeaWorld or Discovery Cove) so that is another reason it financially doesn’t work.

 

[2manypets]

We do a TS for lunch and then another TS for dinner with several dinners being signature dining. We'll just eat fruit or something very light for breakfast.

Even with our dining style, none of the dining plans work for us as I'm a very light eater. I may get a salad and an appetizer (which is as large as a entree in most cases.) or just an appetizer and dessert.

We use the time it takes in the restaurant as our breaks, since we're not pool or nap type people. It's the perfect amount of time to unwind and regroup, IMO.

 

[travelgirl77]

We did not do DDP last summer and we definitely went over what our cost would have been had we gone with the plan...and we did not even eat like we would have on the plan. We did have 3 character meals (Askershus, Crystal Palace, and Tusker House) plus O'Hana and The Wave. We didn't do a lot of QS except for Contempo Cafe and World Showcase places. Getting that bill at Askershus gave me extreme heartburn. So, this is the last year my son can get child pricing at 9 years old, so we are doing the DDP next week. I am already a bit relieved because I do not have to think about it and I am excited to try some new places and have some adult beverages with my meal. I am also excited to try some snacks this go round, which I was reluctant to do last time because I already knew the costs were skyrocketing. It works out differently for everyone.

 

[pooch]

SSSHHHHHH, do not say OOP is cheaper. DDP is the only way I get DH to go back and it better darn well be free (and don't tell him its not FREE). We took the extended family last November with the free DDP - 5 adults, 3 kids & a baby. We love TS meals and each one came to well over $300. Loved it, loved our food, loved scanning the band & done. We always enjoy using the DDP and can't imagine we don't make out using it.

 

[Rich M]

SSSHHHHHH, do not say OOP is cheaper. DDP is the only way I get DH to go back and it better darn well be free (and don't tell him its not FREE). We took the extended family last November with the free DDP - 5 adults, 3 kids & a baby. We love TS meals and each one came to well over $300. Loved it, loved our food, loved scanning the band & done. We always enjoy using the DDP and can't imagine we don't make out using it.

If you do this again you might want to try what we did in December. We had one room on the free dining quick service and then upgraded another room to the DxDDP. We used the QS credits for everyone for those and used the TS credits for everyone with the DxDDP. It allowed everyone to get an App and for us to try ones we wouldn't have done if we paid OOP. It worked really well for us and we had more then enough credits for all meals and a lot of snacks for everyone also.

 

[rentayenta]

The plan doesn't fit our dining habits. We drink more and eat less than the plan allows.

 

[pooch]

And I tried to wrap my head around that but somehow I just couldn't. We ended the trip with 6 QS and 12 SC left. Stopped at EOS and got sandwiches, chips & drinks for the airport and DD who lives down there filled her cabinets with the snack credits.

I know your plan would have worked well but I was the sole planner for the trip and my brain was fried!!!

 

[Rich M]

And I tried to wrap my head around that but somehow I just couldn't. We ended the trip with 6 QS and 12 SC left. Stopped at EOS and got sandwiches, chips & drinks for the airport and DD who lives down there filled her cabinets with the snack credits.

I know your plan would have worked well but I was the sole planner for the trip and my brain was fried!!!

Yes it is crazy planning for sure. I think I change my reservations everyday because something sounds good when I look at it and the a couple weeks later it doesn't sound good anymore

 

[Shanti]

That is our usual plan, to just eat on our own. Wondering if most people do the opposite!

We have a large family, so we do Garden Grocer for room, eat breakfast bar/fruit in room, pack everyone same basic sandwich lunch with fruit.

Then we buy one snack at park in afternoon and eat out for dinner in parks.

We feel like it saves us tons of money. Wondering what your feedback may be. Thanks!

We never buy groceries or otherwise cut corners. We eat mostly table service and pay out of pocket, and that still saves a lot of money over buying the dining plan.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We have never done dining plans. But for the last five years we have TIW card where we get 20% off food and alcohol at most table service and character meals. Also at most bars and lounges. We don’t do parks much just love all of our dvc resorts. We make breakfast, usually eggs, cereal or oatmeal, buy lunch at pool or make sandwiches in room and go out for good dinner at night. The breaking point for the TIW card is supposed to be $750. We usually hit that within a few days given nice dinners for 4 plus a bottle of wine most nights. And we go for about three weeks a year scattered over a couple visits so the card lasts for lots of meals. But we don’t really budget for food, which I know is very lucky and easily spend well over 2000 on meals over 10 days or two weeks for four people.

 

[Shanti]

Like everyone else says in other threads, you typically only save money or break even when you're spending $50-60 per adult every day at a sit down meal (tip not included). Essentially a character meal every day.

Character buffets don't cost $50-60 per adult. We regularly eat at character buffets, and even doing that, the DDP is still more expensive than paying out of pocket.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Character buffets don't cost $50-60 per adult. We regularly eat at character buffets, and even doing that, the DDP is still more expensive than paying out of pocket.

Depends on what time of day meal you are eating...breakfasts comes in cheaper with an average of less than $30.00 p/p. Dinners are at the other end of the spectrum and can in fact cost 50-60 dollars depending on what season (hi, low, or in between) you're there.

Not a big fan of buffets only because some people are not on their best behavior when it comes to making up plates.

 

[Hopefully]

We (3adults) bought the DDP for years and always saved a bit. It works with how we eat.
Last trip DH and I drove - long story- so he and DS went grocery shopping. We cooked 2 dinners in and had Disney Rewards points and also Disney Gift Cards to pay.
But we calculated our costs comparing apples to apples and we actually saved about $200. But as DH & I get older we don’t want as much. I think now the DDP would be too much food for us.

 

[Farro]

We normally always do the dining plan. But after last trip, we took an honest look, we don't really eat the way the dining plan is built for.

I like appetizers. I would eat an appetizer over an entree. I don't really eat dessert. On dining plan, we had to pay out of pocket for appetizers and I know we got dessert, but nothing memorable. And for lunch we would rather get a quick service and some snacks and split it rather than two counter service lunches.

Next trip we are putting the cost of the dining plan for the two of us on a gift card and will pay for food that way. We will still eat table service every night, but will probably save money as like I said, I often want appetizers for dinner and neither of us want dessert.

Booze has it's own budget.