To get Dining Plan or Not Oh BOY

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

Our family of 5, with one of 3 kids deemed "adult" it works out great for us when free.

We stay at POR, a moderate. Usual RO discount for this resort would be about 20%, so even at $200 a night on the high end, that is only $40 a night savings or $400 for our 10 night package. Free dining saves us over $1700, even if I factor in that we would spend a lot less per day, and back out tips, our savings would still be $1000. In this situation, for us, its a great bargain.

There are so many variables that it is impossible to state emphatically whether its a good deal or not, that criteria has to be applied to each individual.

After having the free dining on our last two trips, while I certainly liked the savings, I got little pleasure in having to map out our entire stay 6 months in advance, just so that we could get good dining reservations.

[azcavalier]

Our family of 5, with one of 3 kids deemed "adult" it works out great for us when free.

We stay at POR, a moderate. Usual RO discount for this resort would be about 20%, so even at $200 a night on the high end, that is only $40 a night savings or $400 for our 10 night package. Free dining saves us over $1700, even if I factor in that we would spend a lot less per day, and back out tips, our savings would still be $1000. In this situation, for us, its a great bargain.

Yes, this exactly. It depends on a lot of factors. It *can* be a great savings.

Honestly, we usually get it. We are a family of five, but four of us are "adults" on the DDP. And our youngest is about to turn ten, so in the future there will be five of us "adults". We'll double-check the math at that point.

One time we went without it, paying out of pocket, but we still followed our usual routine of eating at a TS restaurant every day. Yes, we did go off-site once or twice (which we never do when we have the DDP). We found that we spent more money on meals than the DDP would have cost us. So, for us, it is a good deal.

I would also point out that you do not have to do a TS meal *every* day. You could certainly save up and book a couple of signature restaurants that require two credits, such as California Grill or Le Cellier, and then do something different on the days you no longer have credits for a TS meal. We've done that in the past for our character meals.

[Mrs Bus Driver]

One more thing to consider, do you want adult drinks with dinner? You pay out of pocket for adult drinks and apps. Because this is how we eat sometimes making a meal of apps. I have looked into TIW and for us it would be better you get 20% off the entire meal including Adult drinks. In other words it covers the tip. But if you do a meal with apps and adult drinks that can be quite a savings. The only draw back is the card costs $100, more if you don't have an AP or DVC member so once again you have to do the math.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

Yes, this exactly. It depends on a lot of factors. It *can* be a great savings.

Honestly, we usually get it. We are a family of five, but four of us are "adults" on the DDP. And our youngest is about to turn ten, so in the future there will be five of us "adults". We'll double-check the math at that point.

One time we went without it, paying out of pocket, but we still followed our usual routine of eating at a TS restaurant every day. Yes, we did go off-site once or twice (which we never do when we have the DDP). We found that we spent more money on meals than the DDP would have cost us. So, for us, it is a good deal.

I would also point out that you do not have to do a TS meal *every* day. You could certainly save up and book a couple of signature restaurants that require two credits, such as California Grill or Le Cellier, and then do something different on the days you no longer have credits for a TS meal. We've done that in the past for our character meals.

If you are a larger family, of 4 or 5, with at least two or more being adults, and you stay at a moderate level resort, its hard to imagine that any room only discount would be a better bargain than free dining. I've crunched the numbers so many times and so many ways, but the end result is the same, "free" dining is the better deal and it's hard to walk away from when offered.

If that same family is staying at a Deluxe resort, then its a whole new ball game, but at the moderate level its much easier for the free dining to be a better deal.

Living in Minnesota, generally any flight we take gets us into MCO late afternoon. So by the time we take ME to the resort, get checked in, its often early evening. Instead of using a TS entitlement that first night we always just eat at the resort food court, which gives us the extra TS to do a signature restaurant or CP package. We usually try to do this twice. More than likely, without the DDP we wouldn't try signature restaurants, just not in our budget.

[joonyer]

Using the free dining promotion, when offered, can be a good choice. For instance, we are going during Christmas week this year. There are no room discounts offered during the time we will be traveling. But if we check in by December 23, we can take advantage of the free dining promotion. It costs us nothing additional over a room/ticket package for the same time period to get the free dining offer. So that's a no-brainer for us or anyone else.

But whether to use the free dining offer vs. room discounts (when available) and then buying food OOP is an entirely different question than whether purchasing the dining plan will save you $$. We tried it both ways, for us, it always costs us less $$ for food when we paid OOP than purchasing the dining plan, and that was back when apps and tips were included in the plan. Buying the DDP is less of a value now.

[hauntedmansiongirl]

We usually travel just 2 of us, but twice we have taken our Godson- he was 12 one year (2012) and 13 the next (2013). In 2012 we got free dining. It worked out to be a good deal. But the big issue that we had was that our Godson rarely liked anything off of the adult menu. So he would order off the kids menu. I kept all of our receipts and we would have made out badly! In 2013, there was no free dining, so we booked a room only discount and paid our own way. It ended up being $450 cheaper than had we bought the dining plan.

The thing I really love about the dining plan is having it all paid for well ahead of time. To fix that problem I figured out roughly what we would spend at each restaurant and made up little envelopes with cash for each one. I paid ahead without the dining plan! If we lived in the US, I would have bought disney gift cards to work the same way. I overestimated what we would need and at the end we had a lot of cash leftover that we used for our September trip. It worked out perfectly! We ate dessert when there was something we wanted, but certainly didn't eat it with every meal.

At first you are really excited about all the dessert, but believe me- by day 3 you are tired of the counter service lunch desserts. It seems to be the same chocolate cake everywhere. Unless you are at a resort and can get ice cream or a Rice Krispie square etc.

Really try to estimate what your family will eat at each place. And if you do decide to go with the DDP, upgrade some of your restaurants to the pricier ones or the character buffets.

Have a wonderful vacation!

[Katzateer]

We have never gotten a dining plan. If I don't find a room discount we just pick another time to go to WDW. We eat at a signature dining location once a day, a counter service and a snack. When I have priced out all the options, even with "free" dining, it doesn't work out cheaper for us.

But having everything already paid for would be nice. My parents always got a package with dining. The only time I have vacationed like that was a Disney cruise.

[MouseHouser]

We like the dining plan. I never kept track, but I'm sure we spend more with the plan than we would otherwise. We're generally frugal. But we find the plan to be a splurge that's worth it. Pay a bit more, but get a lot more.

We're huge fans of the Disney restaurants, but there is no way normally we would spring for fancy dining at normal Disney prices. Enter the dining plan. I can't even count how many memorable meals we have experienced that never would have happened absent the plan.

With over 100 restaurants to choose from, the dining plan ensures plenty of new things to experience, despite having visited Disney for years.