Disney Dining Plan Analysis for Family of 5

[cdnSpinalTap]

Hello,

For anyone interested...

We are a family of 5 and have been going to Disney World every January for the past 14 years, always getting the Disney Dining Plan. For the past 2 or 3 years, we have been starting to question whether the dining plan cost was worth it for us, but we always ended up getting it by default. This year we decided to bite the bullet and not get the dining plan. Being the analytical guy that I am, I decided to track all of our meal and snack spendings as if we were actually on the dining plan. The goal obviously was to determine whether we were actually saving money with the DDP or not.

Background Information:
Number of Nights - 9
DDP Adult Cost/Night - $75.49
DDP Child Cost/Night - 25.75
Number of Disney Adults - 4
Number of Children - 1

DDP Per Day Cost - $327.71
DDP Total Cost - $2,949.39

Adult Table Service Credits Starting - 36
Child Table Service Credits Starting - 9
Quick Service Credits Starting - 45
Snack Credits Starting - 90

I would say as a family we are generally good eaters. By this, I mean that when we are at Disney, we like to eat - this is part of the experience for us. Also, we were there during the EpCot Festival of the Arts and sampled quite a bit of the food.

Below is a spreadsheet showing our spending on dining at Disney for the 9 nights we were there. The costs shown are the amounts we spent on items that would have been covered by the DDP only. So gratuity, extra drinks, etc are not included in the prices shown. The credits shown are the number of credits we would have used had we been on the DDP.




As you can see, we saved around $950 by not getting the DDP. We ate as much as we wanted and were not cutting back just because we were not on the dining plan. I also noticed that we did not waste nearly as much food as we used to throw away on the DDP. We also felt that we were less pressured to eat and only ate when we were hungry. When we were on the DDP, we would always feel like we had to get a TS meal and a QS meal in every day to make it worth the cost.

In terms of credits, we would have had the following amounts of credits remaining, had we been on the DDP.

Adult Table Service Credits Ending - 0
Child Table Service Credits Ending - 0
Quick Service Credits Ending - 25
Snack Credits Ending - 51

So for our dining and snacking habits, it definitely makes sense to not get the DDP. Of course, others would be different, but this makes the decision easy for us going forward.

For additional interest, we ate at the following table service meals:

Wednesday - Ohana's
Thursday - Trattoria Al Fornio
Friday - Teppan Edo
Saturday - 50's Prime Time Cafe
Sunday - Be Our Guest
Monday - Raglan Road
Tuesday - Crystal Palace
Wednesday - Biergarten
Thursday - Chef Mickeys - Breakfast

 

[quandrea]

Really fascinating. Thanks for laying it all out so clearly and carefully.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Great analysis! I'm planning to do something similar on our next trip. I expect to come out ahead like you did. I'm just worried about missing the all inclusive feel. We'll see how it goes!

 

[3gr8boys]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Pumbaa_]

Always enjoy seeing the comparison. You always wonder should we.....

You saved a ton. Even more since your overall gratuity would have been less also

Thanks for sharing!

 

[halfpintpeggy]

You did an amazing job with your analysis, thanks so much for sharing your findings with us!

 

[Hootenany]

This is so helpful for us being a family of 5 as well! Thank you for sharing!

 

[LaidBackDad]

That is just a fantastic analysis. We have had similar results paying OOP, only we will throw in a couple signature restaurants and adult beverages whenever we want and still pay 2/3s less than we would if we went with the DDP. While our analysis isn't as in depth, we just purchase gift cards for the amount the DDP would have cost us and charge everything to the magic bands / room and we get even more of an all inclusive feel because we aren't limited by the silly restrictions of the DDP. It's always such a nice surprise to have so much money left over on the gift cards that we can use for other things or our next trip rather than trying to jam 100 snack credits into out suitcases.

 

[AFwifelife]

I've done the math a few times and I can't ever get free dining to work in our favor for us.

 

[Monykalyn]

Another family of five (although starting last August it's been four or less). I've done similar spreadsheets when we return home (I also track offsite food, groceries, lodging, souvenirs etc). We've always come out ahead by not having a dining plan. It definitely helps that this past years trips we've had AP discounts as well. I do the discount Disney gift card plan instead. Great analysis! It still amazes me that people think they save money on DDP but then state they always have tons of snack credits left!

 

[cdnSpinalTap]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

@ENJDisneyFan - We were worried about the "all-inclusive" feel as well, but that quickly disappeared as I tracked the daily over/under. As I mentioned, we definitely did not cut back, so we ate and snacked on everything we wanted to.

@Monykalyn - I do the same thing The spreadsheet above is number 5 of 5 in my workbook that I maintain while we are there. We are from Canada, so I track all of our purchases for customs and keep track of the spending money each of our 3 kids brings along. Obviously, for some, it would be tedious and overkill, but I tend to enjoy doing this kind of stuff.

 

[sharonabe]

Would love to see what items you also purchased that would NOT be covered with the plan to see if your grand total was under what the plan would have cost.

 

[mdelano4]

Great thread! I do the same analysis every trip and find the DDP costs way more for our family of 5. Its closer if you were to buy everything a la carte, but we don't eat all that, even though some of us are pretty big eaters.

 

[cdnSpinalTap]

Hello,

@sharonabe - I spent an additional $459.28 on "dining" items, in addition to what would have been covered by the dining plan. This would include any extra food items (appetizers, etc), gratuity and drinks above the one they cover with the DDP. This would bring my grand total to $2,456.21, which is still a $493.18 savings.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

Hello,

@sharonabe - I spent an additional $459.28 on "dining" items, in addition to what would have been covered by the dining plan. This would include any extra food items (appetizers, etc), gratuity and drinks above the one they cover with the DDP. This would bring my grand total to $2,456.21, which is still a $493.18 savings.

And ya got to have what you wanted...imagine that!

 

[pd1138]

This is fantastic! We have always had the DDP and we are family of six. This trip in aug we are NOT getting it having decided to stay in nicer hotel at a great discount. I am a little nervous thinking we always made out before since we had 2A and 4children, however I think in those trips we were eating for the sake of eating....and our last trip in 2016 we had 20+ snack credits left to bring home.
I am excited to see how our trip calculates out this year too! I’m all about spreadsheets! Great set up!

 

[CraigInPA]

My wife and I did a similar analysis several years ago. Since then, we've calculated our savings at over $800 per 10 day trip for just the two of us! We still eat at the signature restaurants, table service, and almost never at a counter service (our only counter service was to get Lobster Roll at Columbia Harbor House). The savings, for us, came because we almost never get snacks (which are included in the plan), typically share an appetizer at lunch, and occasionally will skip dessert and get something in the park later (e.g., we skipped the $11 per person dessert meal at Hollywood Brown Derby in order to get the $7 funnel cake in the park).

 

[GillianP1301]

This is a great analysis. If you had used up all your entitlement you would've come closer to breaking even, so I guess the take away here is to really think about and understand how and what you eat and that will go a long way to figuring out if a dining plan is good for you or not.

 

[HodgesMom3]

Ok now I am beginning to question whether I did the right thing by booking the QSDP for our family of 5. We’ve never had any of the dining plans before & thought we would be better off getting it this time around. Now I’m thinking I should not have gotten it.

 

[cdnSpinalTap]

Ok now I am beginning to question whether I did the right thing by booking the QSDP for our family of 5. We’ve never had any of the dining plans before & thought we would be better off getting it this time around. Now I’m thinking I should not have gotten it.

Hi HodgesMom3 - I think it is very different, depending on how much you eat. Our family just never ate the quantity of food and snacks they give you with the dining plan. Some families could and would break even, or possibly even save some money. You would probably never know for sure unless you track it at least once.

You can use this site to get a bit of a better idea of what you might spend out of pocket versus the dining plan - https://www.distripplanner.com.