What's better Dinning plan or Dinning Experience card.

[kwsoccerkid]

I'm a first time annual pass holder I had been making plan's on buying the dinning experience card.
Now they say you can get the dinning plan which do you think is better for a family of 4.
We are staying for 7 day's in May and plan on coming back in Dec.

 

[lucigo]

I'm a first time annual pass holder I had been making plan's on buying the dinning experience card.
Now they say you can get the dinning plan which do you think is better for a family of 4.
We are staying for 7 day's in May and plan on coming back in Dec.

I think you need to explore the DDP and see if you think it will save you money. There are several threads with spread sheets and information to help you decide. If you decide its not for you you can always go for the DDE. At least you won't end up doing what I did...we bought the DDE card in January and now are doing the DDP in April!

 

[cdnmickeylover]

We've done trips with both and it really depends where you are planning on eating and what you will be eating. Even when we've used the dining plan we've also used the DDE card to get a discount on alcoholic drinks and extras.

We sit down and figure out where we want to eat and what we want to eat and then figure out which is a better deal for us. When you do this don't forget to calculate in the tax and tip. It's an automatic 18% gratuity with the DDE.

It takes a bit of work but we've found that's it worth it to do the work.

Hope this helps.

 

[ChelleinNC]

A lot depends on how old your kids are, and what type of food/restaurants you like.

We aren't big CS fans and eat a lot more TS meals. Also my DS10 is a Disney "adult" that prefers kids meals. For us, the DDE is a better choice. We did try the DDP in December, but found it difficult to use all of the CS credits. We used DS's TS credits and paid OOP for him to order the kids meals that he wanted (we did use the DDE for him )

 

[MM32830]

We've done trips with both and it really depends where you are planning on eating and what you will be eating. Even when we've used the dining plan we've also used the DDE card to get a discount on alcoholic drinks and extras.

We sit down and figure out where we want to eat and what we want to eat and then figure out which is a better deal for us. When you do this don't forget to calculate in the tax and tip. It's an automatic 18% gratuity with the DDE.

It takes a bit of work but we've found that's it worth it to do the work.

Hope this helps.

Since Disney changed the DDE to include an 18% tip at all restaurants, we've used our DDE several times and, sure enough, the tip was added every time. EXCEPT last night. We ate at Tutto Italia and the tip was NOT added. I had to look at the check several times to make sure I wasn't giving an additional 18%. Only restaurant so far that has not automatically the tip.

Armand

 

[ADP]

It can be really tough to figure out what would be better for you and your family. I struggle with which is better for us at times.

Here are some factors to consider which will help drive your decision:

- Can and will you be able to dine table service everyday?
- Do you have a family of big eaters? Can you eat a TS, CS and snack each day?
- Do you like to eat TS at dinner time or breakfast? Dinners are much more expensive than breakfast.
- What restaurants will you be dining at? A TS reservation at Tutto Italia is more expensive than Trails End at Ft. Wilderness, but they are both one TS credit.
- 2 TS credit dining is not cost effective in my opinion. If you plan on eating a signature dining experience during your trip you are better off with the DDE.

Depending how you answer these questions it should give you an idea of what is better for you and your family. Hope it helps!

 

[MaryKatesMom]

Some pretty good answers here.

I've done both and for our family the DDP didn't work. When we used them at TS we got too much food. I'm the only one who normally order's an appetizer and we never order desserts. However, since we normally have 2 TS's a day and go to signature restaurants we end up paying many TS's OOP because they weren't worth using the credits. Like Sci-Fi for lunch or the BD Fantasmic! package.

We also rarely use CS, the water parks being the obvious exception to that rule. We ended up using them for breakfast which isn't a good bargain.

The DDP didn't fit our vacation dining and I didn't want to change our plans to fit the DDP. With WDW being such a busy vacation I didn't like having to pay attention to the DDP.

Since both the credits and our OOP charges were both going on the KTTW we had to pay strict attention to the bill. Yes, there were some mistakes, but were usually easily corrected. The one big problem we had, was a cart's register wasn't working and on the way out the last afternoon 3 Mickey Heads were charged OOP instead of using credits but the mistake was caught after checkout and my BIL spent hours on the cell phone at the airport trying to get it corrected. He got the run around and eventually got so frustrated and had now used so many minutes that he just had to eat it so to speak. It was never corrected.

 

[kwsoccerkid]

I called wdw dine and was able to get every place we wanted to eat.
Le cellier ,Raglan road, Whispering Canyon, and more.
Did the math so we are gonna get the DDP. Thanks again

 

[Dale-Not-Chip]

If you like wine with Dinner it really makes more cents to have the DDE.

 

[missminniemouse]

On our January trip I did a very detailed analysis of this very question. Our family of 4 likes to order a couple of appetizers , DD12 usually shares an entree with us, DS8 orders from the kids menu, and we will get 1 or 2 desserts between us. DH and I also like to have an alcoholic beverage at most table service meals as well.

We did get our money's worth out of the things that were included in the DDP. We did each order an entree and dessert at each restaurant, with some of it going uneaten. Since we don't usually order as the plan is currently set up, my analysis of the savings using the DDE card is based on the items we "would have ordered" if not on the DDP (which by the way, we got for FREE from Disney due to a problem with resort inventory at AKV. We stayed at OKW for our entire trip to help them with their "overbooking" problem and got the DDP as compensation for making the change. Otherwise I don't think we would have paid for the DDP ourselves.)

Anyway, in our case, we would have saved about $300 using the DDE card verses having the DDP. We still used the DDE card for Appetizers and Alcoholic Beverages on this trip anyway. I suspected for quite some time that the DDE card made more sense for us, but I'm glad to now have the hard evidence to back it up. No more DDP for us, unless of course it's FREE!

 

[missycj96]

Last few trips we've just done DDE. There is more flexibility and I find that it brings the costs of meals to be reasonable. At certain hotels, you can also use the DDE in the food courts (POP and POFQ), which helps. We've stayed at both resorts several times in the past few years. Also, if you like the table service breakfasts, DDE is a good idea because on a dining plan it's not a good value to use the table service credits for breakfast. Ultimately it depends on where you plan to eat and what you would order.

 

[DaParkers]

Simple question. After the DDE discounts, will you be able to eat for less than $40 a day. If so, roll with the DDE. If not, the DDP is an alternative. Alcohol doesn't matter. You can purchase it separately if on the DDP.

 

[Dale-Not-Chip]

Alcohol doesn't matter. You can purchase it separately if on the DDP

It does matter in that you get a discount on your Alcohol with the DDE. Buy enough 30 dollar bottles of wine and the saving adds up.

If your like me and my wife it dosn't really enter in because we hardly ever get wine with dinner. But if you do it could really add up.