Is the Dining Plan worth it?

[MickeyMouseCD524]

I'm 100% positive this has been asked before but had some trouble finding it. We're booked for a magical stay in early December. If the rumors are accurate we don't qualify for free dining (This honestly doesn't bother me). My friend and I are paying for 90% of the trip for everyone hotels & tickets. Well now he thinks we should add a dining plan for everyone. I'm dragging my heels because the trip is already very expensive, and while yes we have a lot of dining booked I really think we'll get a better value on food paying out of pocket and with Tables in Wonderland cards (We're APs). Last time he and I went with another friend and had SO many snack credits and QS credits left over it felt like a waste. And the you get so much food with the plan I just don't think it's a good value. Anyone else want to weigh in?

 

[StageTek]

Not worth it to us. For the same reason: several snack and QS credits unused - but paid for. Also we didn't always want the "top shelf" items so out-of-pocket for many of the QS meals would have been cheaper.

I see the value for a family of 4 and above but for two friends... no value in my experience. I did the math after the trip and figured the two of us lost about $75 paying for the Dining Plan.

 

[Joey M]

Best bet is to get some approximations on cost and compare it to the dining plan. My children want character meals as much as possible so it is panning out for us.

 

[ThisIsJason]

It all depends on if YOU think it is worth it or not. Do you want most/all of your food paid for seems to be the biggest draw (mostly mine as well)?

There are some dining calculators out there that can help you figure out if a plan can save you money or not.

My wife and I being DVC owners don't use TiW. We have done the deluxe plan since 2012. This past trip (2017), after what we would have paid for TiW we still came out ahead $112 with the deluxe plan (that is including the food discounts as well). Now if we did drink alcoholic drinks at dinner, it would be better deal with TiW by far. We also see it as our meals are paid for before going. We just charge the tips to the room and pay if every few days.

 

[chalee94]

Never worth it for me.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

So many factors to weigh in. Where are you eating? Do you drink alcohol? My advice would be to check the menus of the places you're planning to eat and get a rough idea of what you would spend OOP. Then compare that to the cost of the dining plan.

I will also add, for some people the decision is strictly a cost analysis....which will cost more. For my family, though, when deciding whether or not the plan is "worth it" we also consider how having the plan (or not) will impact our vacation style. We like having the food paid for up front. We like feeling free to order anything on the menu, regardless of the price. We like the option to choose a drink with our meal and not worry about the added cost. And finally, we like being able to say "YES!" any time our kids ask for a snack. For us having the DP creates a more laid back vacation, so we don't really care whether or not we break even, come out ahead, or lose money.

 

[mernin]

I'll have to redo the math from our trip last week, but we came out ahead by paying out of pocket. We ate what we wanted when we wanted - had 8 TS meals (one would have been 2 credits), 5 CS and bought 2 refillable mugs. We would have had tons of snack credits left as we spend what would have been around 17-20 but would have had 56! We did buy groceries to have in the room (for breakfast & for snacks) but even adding that in, we came out ahead.

 

[MickeyMouseCD524]

Not worth it to us. For the same reason: several snack and QS credits unused - but paid for. Also we didn't always want the "top shelf" items so out-of-pocket for many of the QS meals would have been cheaper.

I see the value for a family of 4 and above but for two friends... no value in my experience. I did the math after the trip and figured the two of us lost about $75 paying for the Dining Plan.

We'll be in a group of 4 but in different rooms and people have different dates and I just don't want the headache. I'm happy to cover some meals but the general agreement was we covered all hotel rooms and ticket to Disney and anything else like Dining and Universal was out of your own pocket. He's bent on getting a meal plan but I really don't think it's worth the value.

Best bet is to get some approximations on cost and compare it to the dining plan. My children want character meals as much as possible so it is panning out for us.

Yeah I think I need to number crunch.

It all depends on if YOU think it is worth it or not. Do you want most/all of your food paid for seems to be the biggest draw (mostly mine as well)?

There are some dining calculators out there that can help you figure out if a plan can save you money or not.

My wife and I being DVC owners don't use TiW. We have done the deluxe plan since 2012. This past trip (2017), after what we would have paid for TiW we still came out ahead $112 with the deluxe plan (that is including the food discounts as well). Now if we did drink alcoholic drinks at dinner, it would be better deal with TiW by far. We also see it as our meals are paid for before going. We just charge the tips to the room and pay if every few days.

Well if we were to do it I would want to get deluxe cause we're doing quite a bit of TS but I'm just not sure we're going to get our money's worth. Do you remember where you found the calculator that would be a huge help.

So many factors to weigh in. Where are you eating? Do you drink alcohol? My advice would be to check the menus of the places you're planning to eat and get a rough idea of what you would spend OOP. Then compare that to the cost of the dining plan.

I will also add, for some people the decision is strictly a cost analysis....which will cost more. For my family, though, when deciding whether or not the plan is "worth it" we also consider how having the plan (or not) will impact our vacation style. We like having the food paid for up front. We like feeling free to order anything on the menu, regardless of the price. We like the option to choose a drink with our meal and not worry about the added cost. And finally, we like being able to say "YES!" any time our kids ask for a snack. For us having the DP creates a more laid back vacation, so we don't really care whether or not we break even, come out ahead, or lose money.

We're doing primarily TS. I like that it's prepaid for and I'm not frantically doing math in my head before hand. But snacks and QS we just don't eat that much and I didn't like that last time we literally were getting junk just so the credits didn't go to waste.

I'll have to redo the math from our trip last week, but we came out ahead by paying out of pocket. We ate what we wanted when we wanted - had 8 TS meals (one would have been 2 credits), 5 CS and bought 2 refillable mugs. We would have had tons of snack credits left as we spend what would have been around 17-20 but would have had 56! We did buy groceries to have in the room (for breakfast & for snacks) but even adding that in, we came out ahead.

I'm super curious now as to where you ate. Would you mind sharing where you went would love to look into them for this trip.

 

[mernin]

I'm super curious now as to where you ate. Would you mind sharing where you went would love to look into them for this trip.

CS - Mara x 2, Columbia Harbour House, Satu'li Canteen, Peco's Bills
TS - 1900 Park Fare dinner, California Grill dinner, ROL Tusker House Breakfast, Garden Grill Breakfast, Sci-Fi lunch, Teppan Edo dinner, Be Our Guest Dinner, Homecomin' Lunch

 

[SG131]

It is worth it when you have kids 9 and under (lower price for them) that love character dining. I’m taking a trip in December and I really love having the dining plan so that I don’t have to worry about food costs, but I just couldn’t justify the cost. Take a look at menu costs and add it up, but unless you’re ordering one of the most expensive things on the menu and having a drink at every meal there’s a good chance it won’t make sense for you, especially with tables in wonderland.

 

[loves to dive]

Worth it is subjective. Some people like it for the convenience of not having to look at prices on the menu, some people have done the math and it saved them money if they were doing character meals or ordering the most expensive thing on the menu. I have noticed a lot of people who are on it trying to figure out how to max their credits and trying to figure out which places takes it and how to use their credits. Gives me a headache to just think about it. For us, it's not worth it. We don't eat the way the plan is structured. Some days my son will eat breakfast, some days he won't, some day's he will just eat a donut. I eat breakfast every day but some days it's a kids meal from the resort and some days a pastry at a park. We don't always eat lunch, we might just grab a QS meal and share it or a snack then have a lupper later on. There are days we will eat TS and days we won't. More often than not if we eat QS, I'll eat a kid's meal because I don't eat huge meals. If we are eating at a TS, sometimes I'll just have a appetizer and a salad and maybe we will share a dessert. We don't make ADRs in advance, it's usually just while we are walking around and one of us will hop on MDE and find what's available. We just don't structure our days period. We don't book FPs in advance more than one ride at a time and only if the time we can get is within 45 min. of right then. We don't like being tied down.

 

[MickeyMouseCD524]

CS - Mara x 2, Columbia Harbour House, Satu'li Canteen, Peco's Bills
TS - 1900 Park Fare dinner, California Grill dinner, ROL Tusker House Breakfast, Garden Grill Breakfast, Sci-Fi lunch, Teppan Edo dinner, Be Our Guest Dinner, Homecomin' Lunch

Oh brilliant we're planning on some of those too!

It is worth it when you have kids 9 and under (lower price for them) that love character dining. I’m taking a trip in December and I really love having the dining plan so that I don’t have to worry about food costs, but I just couldn’t justify the cost. Take a look at menu costs and add it up, but unless you’re ordering one of the most expensive things on the menu and having a drink at every meal there’s a good chance it won’t make sense for you, especially with tables in wonderland.

I'm sure if I had kids I'd be all about the dining plan. We're not really big on drinking (though the boys really want to drink around the world). I really have to do some number crunching on this one.

 

[Dakota731]

I did the math and we came out ahead but we did ALOT of character dining!

 

[MickeyMouseCD524]

I did the math and we came out ahead but we did ALOT of character dining!

We're doing a fair amount of character dining but even with the number I'm crunching we still come out ahead without it

 

[coast2coastmickey]

Does EVERYONE in your group eat a ton? Then do it.

If you eat normally, pay out of pocket. DDP would require you to get appetizers, alcohol, and a very expensive entree, repeatedly, in order to come out ahead. That, or tons of Character meals.

We pay out of pocket because we try to do groceries for breakfast/snacks/water, and prefer counter service in lieu of table service to maximize time in the parks (even if it means just walking around). We do spring for TS usually once per day, but even then we're usually at 2 entrees, no appetizers, and water to drink. We'd waste so much food if we ate appetizer, entree, drink, and dessert to make the plan worthwhile.

 

[Disneychick75]

We've found that it doesn't work for us. The first couple of years DDP was great though. Here's a calculator:
http://www.distripplanner.com/

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Does EVERYONE in your group eat a ton? Then do it.

If you eat normally, pay out of pocket. DDP would require you to get appetizers, alcohol, and a very expensive entree, repeatedly, in order to come out ahead. That, or tons of Character meals.

We pay out of pocket because we try to do groceries for breakfast/snacks/water, and prefer counter service in lieu of table service to maximize time in the parks (even if it means just walking around). We do spring for TS usually once per day, but even then we're usually at 2 entrees, no appetizers, and water to drink. We'd waste so much food if we ate appetizer, entree, drink, and dessert to make the plan worthwhile.

Just FYI, the regular DDP does not include appetizers.

 

[MickeyMouseCD524]

Does EVERYONE in your group eat a ton? Then do it.

If you eat normally, pay out of pocket. DDP would require you to get appetizers, alcohol, and a very expensive entree, repeatedly, in order to come out ahead. That, or tons of Character meals.

We pay out of pocket because we try to do groceries for breakfast/snacks/water, and prefer counter service in lieu of table service to maximize time in the parks (even if it means just walking around). We do spring for TS usually once per day, but even then we're usually at 2 entrees, no appetizers, and water to drink. We'd waste so much food if we ate appetizer, entree, drink, and dessert to make the plan worthwhile.

We enjoy character dining but this trip we're only doing two or three. We mainly planning on eating in EPCOT. The most we get is entree and dessert and 8 times out of 10 the dessert people want is something like a cakepop. Not big drinkers as I said. I think the only dessert we're getting is at CRT cause it's included and I really want the little moose from Le Cellier when we go for someone's bday. (I've never been and it looks adorable).

We've found that it doesn't work for us. The first couple of years DDP was great though. Here's a calculator:
http://www.distripplanner.com/

Thank you!!!! This looks like it will be very helpful!

 

[MickeyMouseCD524]

Just FYI, the regular DDP does not include appetizers.

We've substituted a dessert of an appetizer before while on the dining plan. But yes it does not include appetizers.

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

I think the real point is the age of any kids....are they kids or 10+ and adults (in Disney's eyes). With 2 kids under 10, the DDP is going to be close to making sense for you especially if you do a lot of character meals. Once you have kids who are 10+, it is VERY hard to make it make sense as far as $$$ goes. Disney does not sell this to save you money, just a fact. It can be convenient, but just as convenient as using a CC or GC to pay. We have been paying OOP since my first child was 10+ of age.