Calculating if Dining Plan is Worth it for Us. Need Help Please

famsen

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 15, 2006
We have 6 nights booked in September. Trying to determine if the price is worth it. The convenience is nice but not sure our eating habits and reservations I already made calculate to more than what we would pay cash. It is just my husband and me. Can you help me? Here are our table service reservations. Also I am a vegetarian and eat no meat at all; including any fish and chicken. My husband eats meat.

Reservations:

2 Ohana dinners
1 Be Our Guest
1 Via Napoli
1 Biergarten
2 Kona Cafe
1 Sci Fi Dine In
1 Afternoon Tea at Grand Floridian( I know not on plan anyway)
1 Bon Voyage Breakfast (may cancel this one)

For breakfast we like Kona Cafe which is why we have 2 breakfasts there but otherwise we just go get a bagel or sweet roll and coffee to start our day.
We will be going to Food and Wine Fest so the snack credits would be well used there.
We aren't big drinkers so a drink with dinner is not a big deal. We would get one with our meals since it comes with the plan
For quick service we like places like Columbia Harbor House. I would like to try the new quick service in Toy Story Land. I enjoyed the artisan grilled cheese at Wilderness Lodge when we stayed there. Usually my quick service lunches consist of some sort of grilled cheese sandwich or flatbread. My husband is a burger and any type of meat sandwich guy.

Should we do the dining plan based on these parameters?
 
ALWAYS do the dining plan

You get your meals, 2 snacks, the resort refillable mug,

It is ALWAYS the best deal
 
If your BoG is for dinner, that one will require 2TS credits, so you're over the 6 TS credits you each get.

With two breakfasts and Sci-Fi in the mix and the vegetarian, I don't see any way the plan will work for you. Have you checked to see if you can get free dining and what the difference in price that would be with your current reservation?
 


Free dining for my dates at the same resort would be $480 more for the same room category at Boardwalk. To save any money with free dining I would have to stay at Coronado, Caribbean or All Stars. I like Boardwalk for the convenience to Epcot and Hollywood Studios.
 
Free dining for my dates at the same resort would be $480 more for the same room category at Boardwalk. To save any money with free dining I would have to stay at Coronado, Caribbean or All Stars. I like Boardwalk for the convenience to Epcot and Hollywood Studios.

Would that be $480 over what you have already budgeted for food? Because I am not sure you can dine 7 days and 6 nights on under 500, not with 'Ohana twice.

AS it stands I do not think the DDP works for you however the best way to know is to crunch some numbers. Add up what your likely choices would cost. Breakfasts are not generally a good value onthe plan, and I do not think BOG will be with the 2 credit cost.
 
I most like pay out of pocket for Be Our Guests. I would hate to use 2 TS credits on one meal.
I could always get rid of one of the Kona Cafe breakfast and instead get tonga toast at Captain Cook's as a QS breakfast.
 


Free dining for my dates at the same resort would be $480 more for the same room category at Boardwalk. To save any money with free dining I would have to stay at Coronado, Caribbean or All Stars. I like Boardwalk for the convenience to Epcot and Hollywood Studios.

If you keep both Ohana meals, Biergarten and the Bon Voyage breakfast, you're right at $300 with just those meals. Surely you'll spend $180 on the rest of your meals. You need to go to the menus and see what you might order, including the QS meals you may do and look at last years F&W menus, but do it quickly. I believe the free dining offer goes away pretty soon.

If you BUY the dining plan for the two of you for six nights, you're talking $900, so how is the $480 not a better deal?
 
I purchased the dining plan knowing very little about Disney but have since learned a lot. I made an excel spreadsheet to make sure it was worth it for us. There’s a “sticky” post on the restaurant forum that has all the prices for most table service restaurants. You can calculate how much you would be spending out of pocket and compare it to the cost of the dining plan. For us, 2 adults, 2 kids, 1 infant (so no dining plan), it ends up being worth it because every table service we are doing is a character meal dinner, which are the most expensive. But I can totally see how in some instances paying out of pocket is cheaper. Honestly we would probably never eat this much food (esp snacks!) at Disney if not on the dining plan, so I’m not sure it’s actually saving us as much as I think, but it will be nice to have the “all inclusive” feel and not bat an eye when my husband orders the most expensive thing on the menu... in fact I’ll encourage it!
 
As the vegetarian options Are generally the cheapest on the menu, I would not imagine it would be good value for you. I am one vegetarian out of 4 people in my family, and my choice is consistently the cheapest on the menu. We travel from the UK with free dining, I would definitely not pay for the DDP for our 2 week trip, we always have a bunch of snack credits left over.
 
I already have the Dining Plan added to my room only discount reservation. It's about $3700 for room, 2 day tickets and dining. When I look at the free dining offer at the same resort it comes to $480 more. So I don't understand why I would take the free dining option when it's $480 more than my room with dining added on. Unless I'm missing something.
 
I already have the Dining Plan added to my room only discount reservation. It's about $3700 for room, 2 day tickets and dining. When I look at the free dining offer at the same resort it comes to $480 more. So I don't understand why I would take the free dining option when it's $480 more than my room with dining added on. Unless I'm missing something.

There are certainly times when the free dining promotion doesn't work out, and it looks like your situation is one of them.

From your list though, and considering the fact that you are vegetarian, I'm not sure the dining plan would be best for you.

Also...you only have 2 day tickets purchases, but I see meals scheduled at 3 different parks. Are you planning to hop and eat meals at two different parks on those days or what?
 
What I always say about Dining Plan:

"Yes the Dining Plan is subtly designed for you to get the most planning out of your Character Meals! :)" There is adjusted value now that BoG is now a 2 credit TS.

"Yep, Dining Plan is much more designed for families who are trying to get ALL the Character Meals they can. If you've eaten at enough places and eventually have some favorites and a pattern, the Dining Plan will lose its value to your family, as well as when your kids become Disney Adults. :( "

"I have a simple batch of questions I ask to determine if the plan will save you money, or just be more convenient...

1) Are you trying to get at least 1-2 Character Meals a day out of your trip?
2) Do you have at least ONE child guest that will want to eat off the adult menu? And do you have an adult guest that may want to order from the kids' menu?
3) Do you have party members who will just not survive without massive quantities of food?

The #1 question is really the most important one. Near as I can tell, Disney's restaurants/credits and the Dining Plan system are supposed to work in conjunction to provide Guests with more themed experiences. If you don't care about Character Meals, and you order breakfast food for your hotel room and you eat Snacks and Quick Service only, yeah please do not try to "save money" by using the Dining Plan. If you're eating appetizer-sized portions at Table Service, and you cannot or do not want to bag up the rest in take-away boxes and nibble on it for the next three hours, don't do Dining Plan. Assuredly, if the situation for your family LOOKS complicated in conjunction with the Dining Plan, really, don't get it! Just manage yourself on giftcards or the room account, or OOP."


Doesn't sound like you are doing Character Meals nor does it sound like you have children. Considering your dietary choices, there will be heavy substitutions to your meal. I can't say that you'll get value out of any meal that is vegetarian-based. If the meal is steak and gravy with potatoes and they have to bring you an Triple Extra Large Salad with Chickpeas... yeah... Disney prices their food on profit margins so don't pay them for filet mignon if you're going to make a special request for an eggplant. :( IMHO I would pay OOP!
 
DisDuckMan; We have Halloween Party tickets for the night we have BOG reservations. We also plan to add another day ticket on and likely a hopper.
 
I already have the Dining Plan added to my room only discount reservation. It's about $3700 for room, 2 day tickets and dining. When I look at the free dining offer at the same resort it comes to $480 more. So I don't understand why I would take the free dining option when it's $480 more than my room with dining added on. Unless I'm missing something.

You aren't missing anything, but we were. We didn't know the $480 was above and beyond an already priced out vacation with paid dining. So, no, you don't want to go the free dining route.

As I said in the other posts, your fixed priced meals (excluding BoG) are right at $300, and you'd be paying around $900 for the plan. There's no way you're going to spend $600 on the rest of your meals. Drop the plan and pay OOP.
 
ALWAYS do the dining plan

You get your meals, 2 snacks, the resort refillable mug,

It is ALWAYS the best deal

No it's not. The plans are not designed to save money except under very specific circumstance. Regardless, if you're not eating any meat I can't see that the plan would save you anything.
 
I purchased the dining plan knowing very little about Disney but have since learned a lot. I made an excel spreadsheet to make sure it was worth it for us. There’s a “sticky” post on the restaurant forum that has all the prices for most table service restaurants. You can calculate how much you would be spending out of pocket and compare it to the cost of the dining plan. For us, 2 adults, 2 kids, 1 infant (so no dining plan), it ends up being worth it because every table service we are doing is a character meal dinner, which are the most expensive. But I can totally see how in some instances paying out of pocket is cheaper. Honestly we would probably never eat this much food (esp snacks!) at Disney if not on the dining plan, so I’m not sure it’s actually saving us as much as I think, but it will be nice to have the “all inclusive” feel and not bat an eye when my husband orders the most expensive thing on the menu... in fact I’ll encourage it!

This is my situation for my next Disney trip. Wife and I, 5yo and 3yo and an infant. If you're doing a lot of character meals, it's worth it. Otherwise, paying out of pocket might be better. Like others have said, take a look at the menus and price it out and you'll have your answer easily enough.

Ignore the snacks, if your QS and TS come close to even, then do the dining plan. Personally the dining plan help curb anxiety because it's already bought and paid for and you're not worrying about money at all. It also keeps you from overspending, for example, if you run the exercise now and pick a medium priced item off the menu but when you're that at dinner you really want that high priced entree; your budget gets blown up. With the dining plan you have the freedom of ordering whatever you want.

The reverse works too where if you're just not that hungry you just wasted money if you had the dining plan!

Edit:
My wife is vegetarian and she was happen at all the places we ate.
 
I am starting to believe that your first question to yourself when thinking about the dining plan is would I like to eat the way the DDP dictates. If your someone who likes to share meals or worried about eating to much food or wasting food then I don't feel like the DDP is for you. If your someone who would eat a QS meal, a TS meal (with desserts), 2 snacks per day, and would buy the mug then its hard to find the DDP not being of value unless your eating at the cheapest places all the time. We enjoy the DDP because we like the meals paid off ahead of time and we will going to the restaurants we like and ordering anything we want without caring at all. We even like the DxDDP even more because we like the option of apps and also like the fact that I don't have to do QS meals. For us it makes sense but for the number of people it makes sense for you will probably find 2 or 3 people that it doesn't and the number one answer you will find from them is that it is too much food.
 

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