Disney Dining Plan Price Increases

[Elle23]

@Elle23 I like knowing my meals are already paid for and I don't have to worry about reaching spending limits on my magicband charging it to the room or daily limits on debit or credit cards or having to carry that much cash. Any money we spend once there is for incidentals.

What is the spending limit for room charges? I guess we never hit it.

 

[rteetz]

Why not just put the money into savings in advance and use it to pay off the amount?

I'm being serious and not trying to be snarky. If it's just a matter of having the cost covered in advance, wouldn't it make more sense that way, especially if the dining plan would actually cost more?

Ask the people who do it for the convenience. I can't speak for them but I have talked to who do it for that reason. Personally I think it makes sense for convenience sake to pay off everything in advance and not have to worry about anything but souvenirs. A lot of General guests don't know that the dining plan is costing them more than if they paid out of pocket. The majority of Disney guests don't go in depth planning like many of us do here.

 

[Elle23]

The dining plan was probably one of the biggest surprises for me on the trip. I thought I'd love it, but I actually ended up not caring for it. I didn't like having to juggle credits and being forced to eat a certain amount of meals or snacks to use up the credits.

My kids just aren't huge eaters either, despite being teenagers. There were many times one qs meal was enough for the 3 of us. I know we would never come out ahead on a full priced dining plan.

 

[Disney_traveler]

What is the spending limit for room charges? I guess we never hit it.

I'm not sure what the limit was and we were never told at check-in or anything. One of the last evenings we were buying souvenirs for family and had a lot of stuff and were told our magicbands were declined, limit reached. It was shocking and a bit embarrassing to have that said loudly like that. It made no sense because we knew what the limit on that credit card Associated with the band was and we were nowhere near that. Turns out no matter what your card limit is, Disney creates their own amount. Once we got back to resort, we asked and they looked and what CM said was something along the lines of they weren't keeping up and clearing it every night. They were waiting for it to get to a certain number, so amount was building all week. This was in 2014 and we were on dining plan, so meals weren't on the band, but all tips and other stuff was.

 

[firegurl]

I don't remember what the Deluxe limit is but Value's are $500 and Mod's are $1000. Once you hit that or get close to it, they charge your card.

 

[MamaBelle4]

I asked this in another thread, but HOW is it more convenient? It was literally the exact same procedure to use the dining plan as it was to charge something to my room.

It is more convenient to have it prepaid. If you're in a family where you closely watch each penny disappear during your vacation, it is much more convenient and stress relieving to know your dining is already covered.

BUT, there are 6 of us. 2 adults, 3 disney kids and a disney infant. We came out ahead on the plan. We had ALL character meals for our TS credits. Plus we paid for the plan with discounted disney cards, so that increased our savings.

Even once my kids start becomin Disney adults, I probably will keep getting DDP. I have a hard time justifying spending 7.00 on a pretzel. But knowing it is prepaid gave me the freedom to not worry and just get what I wanted.

 

[andyw715]

I would never ever pay for the dining plan, but I do like going with free dining packages. The dining plan is way more food than I really need and we always end up with a lot of snack credits to use up on the last day.

Free is good, but its at the expense of paying full for a room. Really need to crunch the numbers and take into account any room discounts.

For us, the only time the dining plan will be closely cost effective is if the age of a child plan becomes 16. There is no way my 10 yo eats enough to justify an adult plan for her. And the next time we go, we'll they will be 10 and 12, neither would eat enough to spend almost $70/day

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I asked this in another thread, but HOW is it more convenient? It was literally the exact same procedure to use the dining plan as it was to charge something to my room.

It's "convenient" because it's prepaid...but that's low brow.

It is falling into the trap. If I know there consumer tracking (and I do)...the main advantage to prepayment (other than banked revenue) is that it leads to outbid pocket on lower margin things: gift shop crap.

Now add up sells in the planning process. Why are these dining packages or special events often released 2 months or less in advance?

 

[Madonna3]

We had the dining plan on our trip (got it at a discount). The only way we came out ahead was because we did 3 character meals.

Turns out my kids didn't even like the character meals.

The only way I'd do the dining plan again is if it were free or deeply discounted. I'd never pay full price for it.

Yeah, but then your trade off is higher priced rooms. From just looking at this thread alone, if you have kids, you're going to save some money on the dining plan. If you don't have kids, you're not saving anything. For my family, it actually costs us more. We use TiW and our AP's like they're going out of style. Some resort food courts won't take an AP, but they will take a TiW discount. We love the TiW. It sucks we have to pay for it up front, but one big dinner and that cost is wiped out.

The minute they start having a hard time getting people to pay at Boma...rafiki and timon start walking around there too.

I was eating.... I now have a graham cracker in my nose from laughing.

 

[MamaBelle4]

It's "convenient" because it's prepaid...but that's low brow.

It is falling into the trap. If I know there consumer tracking (and I do)...the main advantage to prepayment (other than banked revenue) is that it leads to outbid pocket on lower margin things: gift shop crap.

Now add up sells in the planning process. Why are these dining packages or special events often released 2 months or less in advance?

I guess I'm low brow because I find it convenient to not have to worry about money on my vacation knowing it is already taken care of.

Those who say, "Put it in a dediacted savings and save money instead," are missing several points for my family and families like ours:

1)According to all the planning calculators available online, taking into account tip and the meals we ate, we saved $400; and
2) Even planning ahead and KNOWING I had enough, I would watch the dwindling balance and stress out EVERY night whether we would have enough or have to pull it from somewhere else. As a reaction to that, I would skip meals and not get any snacks to make sure my family got what they wanted.

I guess you can call the peace of mind that gives me low brow if you choose. It is worth it to me.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I was eating.... I now have a graham cracker in my nose from laughing.

If there are two things I get done before i leave this earth...they will be:

1. Teach my young friend sarcasm
2. Get you to stop eating when you're on the internet.

It's not exaclty as impressive of a resume as Thomas Edison...but it's something.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I guess I'm low brow because I find it convenient to not have to worry about money on my vacation knowing it is already taken care of.

Those who say, "Put it in a dediacted savings and save money instead," are missing several points for my family and families like ours:

1)According to all the planning calculators available online, taking into account tip and the meals we ate, we saved $400; and
2) Even planning ahead and KNOWING I had enough, I would watch the dwindling balance and stress out EVERY night whether we would have enough or have to pull it from somewhere else. As a reaction to that, I would skip meals and not get any snacks to make sure my family got what they wanted.

I guess you can call the peace of mind that gives me low brow if you choose. It is worth it to me.

Right...bad choice of words on my part.

The sales tactic by Disney is low brow misdirection...not the paying customer. That's my fault.

They are using a very basic idea that the majority will by more high profit gift shop stuff if you have paid them months earlier for the food. And they are mostly right.

If you can stick to a budget, don't give in, and have a party mix (like lots of kids) where it works out in your favor and you see past the design ...I fully support that.

Still getting ripped off on the character meals...but those are a guilty pleasure that is completley understandable.

 

[Madonna3]

1)According to all the planning calculators available online, taking into account tip and the meals we ate, we saved $400; and

I'm curious, do you save your receipts, and actually compare what you paid to what you would've paid? I'm always wondering if people actually do that. I saved all our receipts last Xmas trip (or at least most of them) and I think we came out at $600 less oop than had we chosen a dining plan, but I can't be sure of the EXACT number because I'm not sure if I had ALL the receipts or if one or two got misplaced. However, my husband and I kept a running tally for the first 3 days I guess and by then, we were $200 under the cost of the dining plan, so I want to say our number is pretty close.

Imo, if someone has no other discounts for meals such as AP, DVC, or TiW then the dining plan insures their maximum cost and I get why someone would choose to do that. They can blow $1000 on Mickey Bars if they wanted to and know that they can still eat on the rest of their trip. If someone has other discounts, then the dining plan makes zero sense.

 

[MamaBelle4]

Right...bad choice of words on my part.

The sales tactic by Disney is low brow misdirection...not the paying customer. That's my fault.

They are using a very basic idea that the majority will by more high profit gift shop stuff if you have paid them months earlier for the food. And they are mostly right.

If you can stick to a budget, don't give in, and have a party mix (like lots of kids) where it works out in your favor and you see past the design ...I fully support that.

Still getting ripped off on the character meals...but those are a guilty pleasure that is completley understandable.

Completely agree the character meals are a rip off. The food wasn't terrible, but it wasn't worth more than Hoss's. And kids 5 & under eat free there (off the salad bar).

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Completely agree the character meals are a rip off. The food wasn't terrible, but it wasn't worth more than Hoss's. And kids 5 & under eat free there (off the salad bar).

I just shot my food like madonna when I read "Hoss's"

I'm gonna have night sweats from childhood memories now...

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I'm curious, do you save your receipts, and actually compare what you paid to what you would've paid? I'm always wondering if people actually do that. I saved all our receipts last Xmas trip (or at least most of them) and I think we came out at $600 less oop than had we chosen a dining plan, but I can't be sure of the EXACT number because I'm not sure if I had ALL the receipts or if one or two got misplaced. However, my husband and I kept a running tally for the first 3 days I guess and by then, we were $200 under the cost of the dining plan, so I want to say our number is pretty close.

Imo, if someone has no other discounts for meals such as AP, DVC, or TiW then the dining plan insures their maximum cost and I get why someone would choose to do that. They can blow $1000 on Mickey Bars if they wanted to and know that they can still eat on the rest of their trip. If someone has other discounts, then the dining plan makes zero sense.

Exaclty...

And dining plan defenders around here have often forgotten to include:

1. The tips (probably $300 a week on average)
2. Alcohol
3. Appetizers cause you're starving and the bad cheesecake an hour later isn't gonna cut it.

I have always maintained that the average "cost above dining plan" is significant and kills the savings anyway...now the savings aren't much there.

 

[MamaBelle4]

I'm curious, do you save your receipts, and actually compare what you paid to what you would've paid? I'm always wondering if people actually do that. I saved all our receipts last Xmas trip (or at least most of them) and I think we came out at $600 less oop than had we chosen a dining plan, but I can't be sure of the EXACT number because I'm not sure if I had ALL the receipts or if one or two got misplaced. However, my husband and I kept a running tally for the first 3 days I guess and by then, we were $200 under the cost of the dining plan, so I want to say our number is pretty close.

Imo, if someone has no other discounts for meals such as AP, DVC, or TiW then the dining plan insures their maximum cost and I get why someone would choose to do that. They can blow $1000 on Mickey Bars if they wanted to and know that they can still eat on the rest of their trip. If someone has other discounts, then the dining plan makes zero sense.

We only go every other year and (if it passes ROFR) we will have resale DVC so won't be eligible for DVC or TiW discounts.

I did not save the receipts, but we ate at buffets so all of those are preset, Akershus, & CRT. For QS, we ate at WPE twice, Cookes of Dublin, Flametree BBQ, Backlot Express, and Columbia Harbour House and the fish & chips stand in Epcot WS.
My sister and I shared several QS meals because they were huge. We still have unopened trail mix snacks we brought back with us.

 

[Madonna3]

Exaclty...

And dining plan defenders around here have often forgotten to include:

1. The tips (probably $300 a week on average)
2. Alcohol
3. Appetizers cause you're starving and the bad cheesecake an hour later isn't gonna cut it.

I have always maintained that the average "cost above dining plan" is significant and kills the savings anyway...now the savings aren't much there.

The tips really kill it imo. I'm not saying you shouldn't tip, but you're tipping on an inflated meal price BECUASE of the dining plan. Seems like circular reasoning. I want to save money so I buy the dining plan, but the cost of food is inflated because I bought the dining plan, and now I have to tip based on the inflated dining plan prices because I bought the dining plan to save money. $30 tip for a buffet? Why not?

 

[Madonna3]

We only go every other year and (if it passes ROFR) we will have resale DVC so won't be eligible for DVC or TiW discounts.

I did not save the receipts, but we ate at buffets so all of those are preset, Akershus, & CRT. For QS, we ate at WPE twice, Cookes of Dublin, Flametree BBQ, Backlot Express, and Columbia Harbour House and the fish & chips stand in Epcot WS.
My sister and I shared several QS meals because they were huge. We still have unopened trail mix snacks we brought back with us.

I'm missing something here, how are you not able to purchase a TiW card because you have DVC resale? How do they know? I think we only had to show our membership card.

 

[Elle23]

Completely agree the character meals are a rip off.

I'm STILL bitter about our $180 sub par breakfast at Akershus.

I know people say it's for the experience, but for $180, the food should at least be decent. I've had better breakfast meals at McDonald's.

And $180 for about 2 collective minutes of princess time was not worth the "experience".