Why do YOU do the dining plan?

[nov02mom]

I've never even tried to figure out if we "break even" on the dining plan. We do it because I don't have to worry about paying off a big credit card bill the month after the vacation- it was all paid for 6 months before we leave! Plus, I think I would worry about the overpriced food and end up not ordering stuff I actually wanted.

 

[webbmom]

I have totaled it and it was a huge savings. I also love that everything is paid before we leave. THe what ever I manage to save extra spening money

 

[iwrbnd]

I really liked it when my kids were younger but am debating about using it for our next trip. I have an 11 yr old with food sensory issues who pretty much lives on chocolate milk. Everyone would benefit from it but him and I really don't want to spend $41/day for chocolate milk!

 

[jacksg@l]

For our family, we about break even on the price of food. We go with the dining plan, this time Deluxe, because it helps the "vacation" mood. My DH is able to relax and enjoy his meals if he doesn't have to think about paying cash or by credit card for each meal. This is true even if we had set aside the money before hand--the moment the money is leaving his hand, he is thinking about how much it is. When we get the dining plan, the money left his hand months earlier and he doesn't think about it when the check comes. For us, the feeling of being able to not obsess about the prices and being able to just relax and "be on vacation" puts the value over the top.

I agree - well said!

 

[KELLY]

We have a room only reservation. We are thinking of adding the 1 day ticket so we can add on the QSDP. The regular dining plan just isn't for us. We have done it for 3 years now. I just don't want to be bothered with adr's. But I like the fact is is paid for. But we do have 3 ts meals we want to do in the 10 days so OP may be better for us this trip.

 

[texasgirl73]

I can get stressed out about little things if the "perfect storm" of vacation annoyances happen all at once (crowds, grouchy kids, being late to a show, etc.) The dining plan takes one factor out of the annoyance equation- cost of food. I make the decision of how much to pay months beforehand and when I'm there, there's no turning back. We order whatever we want and cost is not an issue other than tip (and in the grand scheme of things the tip is a super small fraction of the vacation budget.) I decided to splurge and go with the deluxe plan. I have already paid for it, it's a done deal. Food expenses taken care of, I've already beat myself up for spending so much on food and I've forgiven myself.

 

[DisneyFirefly]

We're going with the DxDP on our next trip (it's a couples trip) because we want to do a few Signature restaurants in addition to everything else. With our current financial situations, if we went and paid OOP, we'd be eating QS all week with maybe one TS, and that'd probably be Crystal Palace. Because of the dining plan, we're able to plan for other restaurants that we would never be able to afford and not worry about how much things cost, because it's already paid for and we just have to leave a tip.

 

[EclecticWAHM]

This is our first trip, and our kids are considered adults for the dining plans. We're going with the DxDP for several reasons. I love having ALL of our dining paid before we go. Our kids also like to eat stuff besides typical kids menu or CS type meals. We love the idea of scheduled down-time (in air-conditioning!) during the hot days (we're going in mid-July). We love not having to worry about menu prices. We probably won't all get apps AND desserts at each meal, but having the option is nice. We're not the types to order stuff just because it's "part of the plan." If we don't feel like dessert, we'll skip it. We're also big breakfast eaters, so the thought of being able to have a nice sit-down full breakfast every day AND sit down meals for lunch and dinner is really appealing to us. I did go through the menus for each place we've reserved and made good estimations of what we'd all order and according to that we'll be saving over $400 from what we'd spend OOP.

 

[Nadjalu]

DH and I have done the DDP twice, the first time we paid for it and the second I had a pin code for free dining.

Now on the first trip we spent 5 days at WDW. DH wanted to know if we saved money, so he tallied the receipts everyday and we had anywhere from a $20 to a $40 savings. Yes it is convienent, we pay tips OOP with cash.

We pick our restaurant for dinner plan the adr but that is it....lunch and snacks are not planned...not sure where you thought you have to do that. And we still get a savings.
We eat the way we would normally and it works out for us.

The second time we went as I said it was free dining but we went 7 days....DH still tallied everything and our savings would have been over $300 that trip!!

To us it is worth it.

 

[Bridge203618]

We recently decided to add the dining plan after WEEKS of debating it. I originally had on intentions of using it.

For me i realize that I could save money not using the dining plan but it will be more enjoyable using the dining plan.

Without it I budge money for food and I agonize about everyone's food choices and hope it stays in line. I would encourage my 14 year old DSD to order kids meals at CS and we would only do about 3 TS meals. For me it was a way for my family to have a better vacation. That might seem silly, its just food.

But I know ME and I know that I will love not worrying about the cost. I love the idea of going to places we wouldn't ordinarily go and ordering food we wouldn't ordinarily order. And I just think it is a nice splurge for my family.

With that being said I realize that the food we will be ordering it will definitely be cheaper with the plan. If we went to all these places without the plan, I definitely would be spending more. I enjoy a good steak and my DH likes seafood so I know that we will spend 30-40 at table service alone.

I have looked at a lot of CS places but I haven't really planned where we will eat and the places I have picked out are more about food than price. I definitely haven't picked out my Snacks. I think the TS alone, and knowing that you will be eating the others, pays for itself.

If you are light eaters or aren't steak/seafood eaters, it probably isn't cost effective, but it is for me

And who doesn't like the luxury of dessert daily ??

 

[Melodious]

We pick our restaurant for dinner plan the adr but that is it....lunch and snacks are not planned...not sure where you thought you have to do that. And we still get a savings.

As I had previously said in this thread, not all things that I might consider snacks are counted as snacks by the plan. If I walk into the boulangerie in Epcot's France, not everything that I might want will be covered. So the question is, does that bother anyone? For you, I am going to guess that it doesn't bother you.

I'm glad that you get a savings. For us however based on what TS we want to do, we will only get our 'money's worth' out of the plan if we choose snacks that are close to $4. If my mom wants a bottle of Coke for $2 then I have to think that that's not a cost effective use of the plan, and we should save the snack credit for something more expensive. Does anyone else do that? Or do you not worry about it? Or do you get more savings from the plan based on other things? For us I fear that it's that some of our TS credits would be used to breakfast at the GF Cafe and that's gonna be a max of about $15.

It sounds like most people are getting more savings out of the plan based on what they want and how they eat than we are. We are also drawn to the prepaid aspect, but has anyone bought a gift card? We're considering that as well so we can just pay it off beforehand.

And I do see the benefit that several people mentioned that it allowed them to order whatever they wanted without feeling guilty.

 

[purplepixiedust]

We had our first family trip to Disney earlier this year. We chose to do the QS plan based on many of our friends who had previously been to Disney giving us advice. We heard so many "too much planning around eating with regular plan" etc. We didn't really know what to expect for the food after looking at menus online etc, so we decided to try the QS plan. We ate well and it was very convenient. BUT we would not normally eat the way the plan is set up, so we would have been better off paying OOP and just eating whatever whenever we wanted. Our kids didn't like a lot of the limited choices for them and we would have been better off just buying them an adult meal to share at most places.

 

[ReneeA]

As I had previously said in this thread, not all things that I might consider snacks are counted as snacks by the plan. If I walk into the boulangerie in Epcot's France, not everything that I might want will be covered. So the question is, does that bother anyone? For you, I am going to guess that it doesn't bother you.

I'm glad that you get a savings. For us however based on what TS we want to do, we will only get our 'money's worth' out of the plan if we choose snacks that are close to $4. If my mom wants a bottle of Coke for $2 then I have to think that that's not a cost effective use of the plan, and we should save the snack credit for something more expensive. Does anyone else do that? Or do you not worry about it? Or do you get more savings from the plan based on other things? For us I fear that it's that some of our TS credits would be used to breakfast at the GF Cafe and that's gonna be a max of about $15.

It sounds like most people are getting more savings out of the plan based on what they want and how they eat than we are. We are also drawn to the prepaid aspect, but has anyone bought a gift card? We're considering that as well so we can just pay it off beforehand.

And I do see the benefit that several people mentioned that it allowed them to order whatever they wanted without feeling guilty.

To be honest, I haven't ever been told that I can't use a snack credit for what I want...since 2006 it's been "anything under $4" rule for snacks, and it seems as if the majority of snack qualify. I don't use my snack credits for pop or water because we get that at CS meals to go, and I have a few groceries delivered, so we have drinks in the room to bring with us.

As for using a TS credit for breakfast, we very rarely do so because we aren't big breakfast eaters. I can see where that would be a concern for those that are. Our family really likes early dinners - most of my TS meals are for between 4-5pm because that's when we like to eat.

Everyone has to figure out what works for their situation. DDP really works for us. It may not in a few years when my kids become Disney "adults", but for now, it is enjoyable to use and a savings.

 

[imthatgirl]

We do it because it saves us money. We are a family of 5, 2 adults and 3 kids. For us it's cheaper and more convienient to get the DP.
Now when the kids get over 10...I'm not so sure it will be such the great deal. But we will probably still do it for the sheer convienience. I love that things are already paid for.

 

[Shih-Tzu]

We got our for free last fall, but I really did enjoy the fact that we really didn't have to carry much cash around....and if we did purchase either QS or DDP, it would be pre-paid before we left home so any $$ we did take would only be for extras and souveniers, etc...I guess it would be the convenience factor....

The only way I wouldn't pre-purchase the meals is if the hotel came out with a 4/3 deal - then it would be close as to how much we saved.

 

[camnhan]

PREPAID

I have to agree with the prepaid convenience. This is our second time staying onsite and doing the dining plan. It was so nice to not have to worry about the money we were spending. We did not use our snack credits for pop as we had mugs and just paid for them. We don't typically do appetizers and don't drink alcohol cuz of the kids being with us so that was not an issue either.

It was really nice at the end when we had some left over for the kids to get all those Mickey rice krispie treats to bring home to family and friends!!! They thought that was the best thing!!!

We also are not good at saving for these things so having it paid upfront is great for us. We also would not do all the sit down character and sig meals that we do if it was not for the dining plan (family of 5).. We don't plan our CS or snacks either...just do what we want with them. Everyone is pretty easy to please so has not been an issue. The only thing we plan is our TS meals.

 

[Melodious]

To be honest, I haven't ever been told that I can't use a snack credit for what I want...since 2006 it's been "anything under $4" rule for snacks,

Thanks for chiming in. It seems like it works for you because you don't like breakfast, enjoy CS lunch, and eat TS dinners and, as you mentioned, that's not exactly what we want to do every day. But I asked why YOU bought the plan not why your reasons don't work for me so it was a good answer

I don't mean for this to be a thread about using snack credits but I just can't help myself from responding. I have heard the "anything under $4" mentioned, but I only meant that if I want a snack and say I want it from France's boulangerie or Main Street bakery or somewhere, there are plenty of things for me to order that count as a snack credit. But I also know that not everything is under four dollars thus not everything counts as a snack credit. If I were confronted with that decision, I'd probably choose something that I didn't want as much because it counted on the plan and I'm not sure that's something I'd want to do for minimal savings if any. Does this happen to anyone else? Do people normally buy several things outside of the plan?

 

[Bridge203618]

For us however based on what TS we want to do, we will only get our 'money's worth' out of the plan if we choose snacks that are close to $4. If my mom wants a bottle of Coke for $2 then I have to think that that's not a cost effective use of the plan, and we should save the snack credit for something more expensive. Does anyone else do that? Or do you not worry about it? Or do you get more savings from the plan based on other things?

From what I have read the ones that got the most of the plan and enjoyed it didn't worry about if there snack credits were good value or not, they just used them on what they want. They found that if they though oh that isn't a good value I will pay out of pocket for that one, then they end up with too many credits at the end.

I think if you need your snack credits to make it worth while then the DDP plan probably isn't for you. I am not being snotty or anything. I just think the most value comes in TS dinners and if those aren't making it worth it, then you probably would do better on your own... JMO

 

[lisa3635]

The DP is a good value if you have kids. It'd be hard to feed a kid for less than $12. We book more expensive meals (Le Cellier, Ohana, Princess Meals) so we get good value out of ours.

 

[pooch]

so our savings is different. But I still don't think we'd go without the plan even if we had to pay for it. Our trips are just DD (25) and myself usually. We split all CS meals, normally breakfast and lunch, because the portions are too big for us to eat alone. If a dessert interests us, we get it. If not, we get bags of apple slices to munch later. Since our TS dinner meals average $35 each, we've almost covered the "cost" of the plan there, snack & CS are throw ins. We do like some snacks that aren't included in the plan and we buy them OOP, doesn't take away the value of the plan. You still have the SC to use on something else. We also like an occassional appetizer and adult beverage so we get them and pay OOP. My guess is we spend $20-25 per day OOP, sometimes more, often less.

BUT, the plan is not for everyone. It fits our style and we love it. Love having a TS meal each evening as we don't leave the parks for a break, don't mind sharing food as we have similar tastes and really like the restaurants at WDW. Its plenty of food and we certainly get more than the $42 worth. Your experience may vary.