My pre-trip DDP evaluation

[KJHawley]

For those of you still trying to figure out whether the DDP is worthwhile for you, I thought I'd share my research. It's lengthy & detailed, but it helped me, and may help someone else, so here goes.


DW and I are planning a trip in June. I figure we probably eat at one CS and one TS restaurant per day, so I did some pretty thorough investigation into the DDP. For our 5 day trip, I looked at each park we were planning on visiting, and each restaurant we'd probably eat at. From there, I looked at menus, figured out what we would want to order (I know DW's tastes pretty well). For TS, I picked the entrees we'd want, appetizer (for most TS restaurants), and included drinks, tax, & tip. All menus and prices were from allears.net.


For our 5-day trip, I came up with the following "menu"


Sunday
Dinner: Tony’s Town Square - MK ($33 shared, or 1 TS)

Monday
Lunch: counter service at hotel or Epcot ($25, or 2 CS)
Evening: Dinner AK - Pizzafari, Tusker House, or Flame Tree ($20, or 2 CS), or maybe late dinner at Epcot / Resorts ($60)

Tuesday
Lunch: A) hotel - Boardwalk- Spoodles, or Big River Grille ($15-$40, or 2 CS or TS)
B) Epcot - Le Cellier, San Angel Inn, Alfredo’s ($35-40)
Dinner: Alfredo’s, Nine Dragons, Cantina de San Angel ($60)

Wednesday
Lunch: counter service still at AK, or back at resort ($25)
Dinner: Mama Melrose’s or 50s Prime Time Café ($50)

Thursday
Lunch: A) hotel - Boardwalk- Spoodles ($15), or Big River Grille ($40)
B) Epcot - Le Cellier, San Angel Inn, Alfredo’s ($35-40)
Dinner: Alfredo’s, Nine Dragons, Cantina de San Angel ($60)

Friday: ?? counter service, $25


Totals
Sunday: $35
Monday: $45-85
Tuesday: $75-100
Wednesday: $75
Thursday: $75-100
Friday: $25
Totals: $330-420

There's a "range" for each day because I thought there were good TS and CS options for each meal. If you add them up, you'll see that I more than used our TS allotment, which means you can't just say we probably would have spent the higher amount every day we'd choose the "higher" range on some days, and the lower on others to use all of our TS and CS allotments.

What does this tell me? For 5 days & two adults, the DDP would run $380, which is right in the middle of our range: there's a good chance it would save us some money, and a good chance that it wouldn't. If ease of planning was the main concern, I'd probably go with it. However, for us the budget is the main issue- if the DDP isn't "guaranteed" to save us money, I'd rather have the flexibility to eat when and where I want.

So, in conclusion, the DDP is not for us- at least on this trip. If you have the time to do this sort of calculation for yourself, you might find it enlightening.

 

[PaulaSB12]

Here is my pre trip ddp evaluation, remember I am going solo so no sharing plus I am counting 3 days out for a trip to Busch Gardens, Sea World and a shopping trip. Forgive me but I used popcorn as a snack for ease plus Animal Kingdom is my favourite park.

1 Planet Hollywood dinner and popcorn snack
55.84 + 2.59 =58.43
2 Flame Tree + Boma
14.25+31.11*2.59=47.95
3abc + Sci fi Cafe
14.43+2.59+39.54=54.56
4 Sunshine season Coral Reef
16.27+2.59+58.83=77.69
5 Cosmic Ray Crystal Palace
19.78+2.59+34.85=57.15
6 Backlot Express 50's Prime time
13.29+2.59+42.42=58.30
7 Electric umbrella Le Cellier
12.85+2.59+61.59=77.03
days 8,9,10 assuming 30 for food out (for some reason I don't bother eating outside of disney as soon as I get into disney all I can think of is food)
30 supper at everything pop so I can go to 3 2ts resteraunts
30+2.59+14.46=47.05
30+14.46+2.59=47.05
30+14.46+2.59=47.05
11 abc Concourse
14.43+2.59+46.66=61.68
12Electric cafe California Grill
13.60+2.59+73.46=89.65
13 Tusker House Jiko
14.46+2.59+67.85=85.12
14 columbia Harbour House Narcoossee's
13.32+2.59+87.76=103.67
15 Tusker house Big River Grill
15.09+2.59+44.72=62.40
Day I fly out last trip to Animal Kingdom (I know but I love it)
Tusker House
15.09 + Ice cream from Ghiradelli for late breakfast 7.53
22.69

Totals for 15 days 997.50
cost of dining plan 569.85
So for me its worth every penny.

 

[KJHawley]

Wow! I can see how the Dining Plan is definitely worth it for you. One of the keys is going to some of the best (and most expensive) TS restaurants, which are usually at the resorts- Concourse, Boma, California Grill, Jiko, Narcoossee's etc. ( I think those are all in resorts). For someone with only 5 days to spend, I won't have a lot of time to visit resort restaurants, so I won't spend as much on TS dinners- note that I'm estimating $60 on TS dinners, which is only $30 per person.
Of course, if you have to fly from overseas (I assume you are?), a longer trip would be necessary. Hopefully, our next trip will be longer, and we'll have more time to resort hop- and then we'll do the Dining Plan too.

 

[PaulaSB12]

I am coming from the UK 15 days away from shift work!!! The best thing is that I finish work on afternoon shift so I actually finish work on 13th September, and because the flight arrives back in the UK on 3rd I am going back to work the next day on 4th October again on an afternoon shift so its only a 2 day week!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SandraVB79]

How much is the DDP per day? Isn't it $37 or $38?

When I look at the prices at the different TS restaurants, and you take some average prices, you'll pay +/- $8 for appetizer, +/- $22 for main course and +/- $7 for dessert (I looked at the dinner-menus)

Add your drinks, tax and tip, and you already exceed your DDP price! Which means you get 1 CS + 1 snack per day for free!
In many cases, when you have some steak, it's more expensive than the price I mentioned here, the same goed when you have crab cakes or so for appetizer...

In my case, it would be more than worth it!

 

[DisOrBust]

Now I will mess even more with your head,lol!

Did you figure out if you "save" more money with buying 1 AP having AP rate on your room and getting the DDE??


Its enough to make you insane!!!

 

[disneymom3]

OP--awesome breakdown. Very well thought out, but I did want to ask if you included tax and tip in your breakdown?

I know that we would get our money's worth by ordering what we could with the DP but would not normally order an apetizer and dessert at every TS nor desserts at CS ever. So, for us, it does come out pretty easily as saving us money, but not as much if we were to eat frugally. Our next trip is not a frugal trip though, so it's in the plan.

 

[KJHawley]

OP--awesome breakdown. Very well thought out, but I did want to ask if you included tax and tip in your breakdown?

I know that we would get our money's worth by ordering what we could with the DP but would not normally order an apetizer and dessert at every TS nor desserts at CS ever. So, for us, it does come out pretty easily as saving us money, but not as much if we were to eat frugally. Our next trip is not a frugal trip though, so it's in the plan.

I did include drinks, tax, and tip in my calculations. I didn't include dessert, and rarely included appetizers. This is because DW and I never eat desserts in restaurants, and almost never order appetizers- not as a budget thing, but because we're just not huge eaters. There's no sense including something as a "bonus" in the DDP if we don't actually care about it.

And on the flip side- we almost always end up getting dessert somewhere else later. Wherever we eat dinner, I'll bet we'll end up at Beaches & Cream for dessert when we get back to the BCV. And of course, this wouldn't count in the DDP.

So, we'll probably spend $38 per person each day, but it just won't break out evenly into one CS and one TS meal per day. It's more like a CS lunch, appetizers at a TS restaurant in early evening, CS or table service dinner around 8 or 9, and a couple desserts around 10 or 11. If the DDP allowed you to spread your meals out throughout the day, I'd probably do it.

 

[disneymom3]

I agree--the whole dessert with a counter service thing is just silly. I would much rather be able to get that dessert as a treat at a later time.

At normal going out to dinner places we don't get appetizers or desserts either and most of the time wouldn't at WDW so I totally see where you are coming from. I seriously doubt that most of our trips will include the dining plan. We want to do it once to experience it while 2 of our 3 kids still count as kids.

Have a great trip!

 

[woody5]

I too am still doing all the math on the DDP. We are a family of five, where all three of our kids count as adults. We normally share counter service meals when we are in WDW. We have plenty to feed all. This is without the extra dessert the DDP gives you. I figure with five CS meals per day plus dessert at lunch we can feed all five of us breakfast and lunch with these credits. We normally then would not share our TS but with appetizers and desserts and all three kids having adult portions it could probably be done for us. That would all us a couple extra meals on our arrival or departure day. The other factor I think is just ease. I think if you are extremely budget conscious then you shouldn't get the plan and be as frugal as you want while dining in WDW.

 

[tabrizia]

I did the same thing for our vacation. Although I added a bit to it, I figured out how much we spent when we went in 2001 (based on current prices), and then I did a basic if we were going without the dining plan where would we go and what would we get. I figured for our 8 nights we would have ended up doing:

Cinderella's Castle ($80 for the two of us plus tax and tip around $95 (if I remember correctly))
Jiko ($90 before tax and tip for the two of us (2 appitizers, 2 meals, and 1 dessert) about $115 after tax and tip)
Boma ($52 before tax and tip so about $65 after)
Coral Reef ($82 before tax and tip (2 appitizers, 2 meals and 1 dessert) so about $97 after tax and tip)

So just for the 4 sitdown meals I was planning it was $372

I then figured we would end up with about 12 counter service meals a person for our other meals or 24 total. I figured that each counter service meal with drink was around $11 (plus tax for an average of $12) so $288 for counter service meals.

I then figured snacks would be about $5 each time we got one (a drink and some type of food), I figured we would be sharing these, I figured we would want at least one a day so decided to go with 12 snacks which is $60.

Adding all the prices together I came up with $720 without the meal plan for our vacation. The meal plan is only around $624 for the two of us for the 8 nights we are there. And we get to eat at more sit down restaraunts so it works out well, for us.

I also figured out how much I would spend with the meal plan and paying out of pocket for my restaraunts (including all the desserts etc) and that number was fairly high, but irrelevant for my calculations.

Once I figured it out I booked the meal plan and I'm extremely happy with how it works out, we get to eat at 8 restaraunts (Boma, Coral Reef, Spoodles, Boma breakfast (out of pocket), Flying Fish, Le Cellier Steakhouse, Cinderella's Round Table (out of pocket), and Jiko) and will have a nice rest period during our days. Plus I don't have to worry as much about my husband's food alergies. Since sit down restaraunts tend to be better for making sure food is kept seperate as needed.

I will admit though that adding the two out of pocket meals does raise the cost a bit more then we would have spent, and we will probably end up having to pay for at least one counter service meal as well (we arrive by lunch on our first day and aren't leaving till late evening on the 9th day), but overall it definately works out best for us to do the meal plan, since I was going to spend the same amount for mostly counter service meals if we had just gone without it.


That being said, our next three trips will be without the dining plan, since it isn't offered for AP holders if you have a room only reservation (and we're upgrading our tickets to APs when we get there). We will be using the DDE card though which should save us as much or more when you also consider the room discounts. For our Aniversery trip though the dining plan definately works out the best though.