Disney Dining Plan vs. Paying Out of Pocket
Walt Disney World’s Dining Plan is a popular prepaid option that some people swear by. It’s especially popular with Free Dining, when it’s offered as part of a package discount. This does the math and analyzes whether the Disney Dining Plan is “worth it” both out of pocket and when offered as part of the deal.
The Disney Dining Plan (DDP) is easy to use and if you eat a certain way, or plan well, you can save money at Walt Disney World restaurants with the DDP. This is especially true if you follow a value maximization strategy for your credits–we have a number of resources on our site devoted to helping people get the most savings on the Disney Dining Plan.
What isn’t so clear is whether using the Disney Dining Plan saves you money versus paying out of pocket if you don’t eat the certain way it is designed. If your party consists of light eaters, or you are spontaneous, is the Disney Dining Plan right for you?
A lot of guests visiting Walt Disney World just assume the Disney Dining Plan will always save them money, which isn’t always true. In fact, a lot of times it will cost more money than paying out of pocket, and that’s the case even when the Disney Dining Plan is offered for “free.”
Rather than approaching this in the abstract, we decided to do a little “case study,” taking all of our receipts from our most recent 4-day trip to Walt Disney World, adding up our totals, and comparing our out of pocket costs to what we would have spent if we used the Disney Dining Plan. We’ll then examine free dining to explain why that doesn’t always save you money.
Which option “wins”? Let’s break things down…
Disney Dining Plan Case Study
On our recent 4-day Walt Disney World trip, we visited a number of restaurants, both table service and counter service, and had a lot of snacks. Most of our plans for dining were made at the last minute shortly before the trip or on a whim the day of, which meant that we didn’t do the math in advance to determine whether the Disney Dining Plan would have been right for us.
Had we booked the Disney Dining Plan in advance, our plans would have changed to better suit the Plan and “save” more money. That said, we ate exactly where and ordered exactly what we wanted while paying out of pocket on this trip.
We arrived mid-afternoon our first day and left mid-afternoon our last day. Here’s where we ate and how much we spent:
Day 1:
Flower & Garden Festival Kiosk – $13.11
Garden Grill – $73.62
Day 2:
Everything Pop Food Court – $7.01
San Angel Inn – $54.92
Flower & Garden Festival Kiosks – $6.92
Artist Point – $120.79
Day 3:
50s Prime Time Cafe – $63.20
Restaurantosaurus – $25.92
Auntie Gravity’s – $5.52
Day 4:
Landscape of Flavors – $10.80
Tusker House – $57.78
Animal Kingdom Snack – $4.25
What We Paid:
Subtotal: $443.84
Tables in Wonderland Proportional Cost: $25
Total: $468.84
What We Would’ve Paid on the Disney Dining Plan:
Disney Dining Plan Cost: $333.54
Out of Pocket Cost: $253.50
Total: $587.04
Unused Credits: 0 Table Service, 3 Counter Service, 0 Snack
Okay, time for a little explanation. How much we spent at each location speaks is the total we paid, including tip (~18%) and less Tables in Wonderland discount. All of these amounts added together form the basis of the subtotal, which is $443.84. Now, since we benefited from a Tables in Wonderland discount, and since that card costs $100 and we take about 4 Walt Disney World trips per year, I’ve attributed $25 of the card’s cost to this trip. That brings the total we spent on food for this trip to $468.84. Follow so far?
Tracking the amount spent gets a little trickier on the Disney Dining Plan. If we were on the DDP, we would have spent $333.54 on the plan alone, which would have given us each 3 credits for table service meals, counter service meals, and snacks (since our trip was 3 nights long).
As for the out of pocket portion there, the Disney Dining Plan does not cover tips, nor does it cover some other things we ordered, like alcohol and appetizers. We also paid for two table service meals out of pocket, since we only had enough credits for 3 table service meals, and we ate 5 table service meals. Here, I made sure to apply the DDP credits in the most efficient manner (so in this hypothetical, I applied a snack credit to a $4.25 cupcake rather than a $2.19 coffee, etc.).
Finally, the unused credits show what we didn’t use. We exceeded both our table service and snack credit allotments, but only had 3 counter service meals, so we would have had 3 credits remaining. Were we actually on the Disney Dining Plan, we would have used all of these credits, and not done one or two of the table service meals that we did. It’s also worth noting that for some meals we ordered appetizers and split desserts (or didn’t order dessert), which wouldn’t have been efficient on the Dining Plan, but we ordered what we wanted since we didn’t have to consider the Plan.
Is the Disney Dining Plan Worth It? Conclusion
I normally do this math (very roughly) before each trip based upon menus from places we’re dining to get an idea of whether we might want to use the Disney Dining Plan. The first thing I want to note here is how liberating it was to do things spontaneously and not do this degree of planning (of course, I ended up doing even more work after the fact for this blog post, but whatever) and just eat what and where we wanted to eat without thinking about credits or Disney Dining Plan efficiency.
To that end, I think it’s much more convenient to NOT use the Disney Dining Plan. I say this in our review of the Disney Dining Plan, and I know this flies in the face of why so many people use the Dining Plan, but I don’t possibly see how it’s more convenient to use the Dining Plan than to not use it.
Unlike what some people say, you are not “just” paying the cost of the Plan and then forgetting about dining costs and “eating whatever you want.” You’re pre-paying a portion of the cost, then paying another (significant) cost at each meal in the form of tips. Oh, and you can only eat certain things and have to plan the types of meals that work with the Disney Dining Plan, otherwise you waste credits.
When paying out of pocket, you show up where you want, order what you want, and pay for what you ordered. Done. I’m not even going to address the “budgeting” argument, as without extensive pre-planning, you can’t completely budget dining costs with the Disney Dining Plan any more than you can when paying out of pocket. So that’s a wash. Our experience with both paying out of pocket and with using the Disney Dining Plan has been that paying out of pocket is unquestionably more convenient. Any convenience of the Disney Dining Plan is illusory.
More importantly, what about actual savings? Based on my numbers, we clearly saved more money by not using the Disney Dining Plan and instead paying out of pocket and using Tables in Wonderland (we would have saved more even without the Tables in Wonderland card). However, in fairness, those numbers are a bit misleading. As mentioned above, we didn’t eat in a manner that fit the “style” of the Disney Dining Plan, and we had a table service-heavy trip.
Honestly, we could have changed our style pretty easily without negatively affecting our experience and that would have made the gap between out of pocket and the Disney Dining Plan a bit smaller. By that, I don’t mean trading Artist Point for a counter service meal (unless there’s an AMAZING counter service restaurant we’ve never heard of, that swap would have had a negative affect on our experience!), I mean not ordering appetizers and instead doing more desserts.
Something that would have negatively affected our experience, but would also have decreased BOTH totals would have been to eat 2 additional counter service meals and 2 fewer table service meals. Obviously, this would have decreased the Dining Plan total more than the out of pocket total since we had the unused counter service credits on the Dining Plan. In fact, my rough math shows that, had we done that, the totals would have been almost even.
My preference is eating whatever I want at any restaurant and dining at the two table service restaurants rather than adding 2 counter service restaurants to the plans, but the point remains. For the sake of fairness to the Disney Dining Plan, we’re showing that a change to our plans could have made a big difference in terms of costs.
We don’t want to make it appear that paying out of pocket will always be considerably cheaper than using the Disney Dining Plan, because that’s simply not true. It was true on this one trip we took, but is definitely not always true, even for us. On other occasions, we’ve saved a lot of money by using the Disney Dining Plan! In fact, this article is sort of a “counter-point” to last year’s case study showing how we saved a lot of money on the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan. (Just to show we’re not biased one way or the other…)
This also shows that there is no single answer to the out of pocket versus Disney Dining Plan question in terms of savings. The results can substantially deviate based upon your personal dining reservations, plans, and eating habits. While my numbers illustrate this point, they offer little more than illustration, and are really little more than academic here.
The real point is that both paying out of pocket and using the Disney Dining Plan can each be viable options worthy of consideration. In other words, don’t just rely on the numbers presented here–read past them and do your own math if saving money is something about which you really care.
When you do the math, don’t base your calculations on what the Disney Dining Plan provides. Base your numbers on what you’d actually like to eat on your vacation. If you don’t do much snacking at Walt Disney World, but would take home a bunch of bags of Disney candy with unused snack credits if you had to, don’t factor that candy into your calculations.
It’s not something you really want, and just because you would use snack credits on the candy (instead of letting the credits go to waste), doesn’t mean those credits are “worth” $4.19 each. Spending more money to “save” more money isn’t really saving money at all–it’s wasting money.
What About “Free” Dining?
I mentioned Free Dining above, and the same principle that the Dining Plan–even when “free”–doesn’t always save you more money. This is something I’ve harped on in the past, and it’s worth sounding like an ornery nag for the sake of hammering home, because many people still don’t seem to understand this: FREE DINING IS NOT FREE.
Walt Disney World almost always has discounts. The place is like the Kohl’s of vacation destinations. No one is paying full price at either place, making full price/rack rates almost meaningless. Since the statement that Free Dining isn’t really free seems to confuse a lot of guests, let’s go through it point by point.
Walt Disney World almost always offers discounts on vacations. If you book with one discount, you cannot book with another discount (at least guests from the US can’t). Free Dining is one discount that Disney offers. A room-only discount of 20%/25%/30%/35%/40% off is another discount Disney offers.
It thus becomes a question of opportunity cost. Do YOU save more money paying with free dining and a full priced room and tickets than you do with a room discount and paying out of pocket for food (and with potentially discounted tickets)?
If Free Dining were offered during our visit (it wasn’t), it would have been a far better offer because room-only discounts were meager. Then again, meager room-only discounts partly explain why free dining wasn’t offered. If discounts are meager they are meager across the board, and they are meager because Disney doesn’t need to use them to “persuade” more guests to visit (this is why summer break discounts are so rare). When Free Dining is offered, it’s usually offered in off-seasons when room-only discounts are also usually much more substantial.
It’s frequently true that Free Dining is the best discount. If you have a family of 4 staying in one room, no matter the resort, that’s usually the case. However, if you have a couple staying in a more expensive room, it’s often not the case. Sarah and I frequently stay at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn, which often has a 30% room-only discount or Free Dining when we stay there.
With a 30% off discount at BoardWalk Inn, we save around $125 per night with a 30% off room-only discount during our annual Epcot Food & Wine Festival trip. This is more than the average daily amount that we spend on food, which is why we book the room-only discount at BoardWalk if both discounts are offered. If there were 2 more people staying in the room with us, that would tip the scale in favor of Free Dining.
Likewise, a family of 4 staying at a non-Deluxe resort, such as Disney’s Coronado Springs, is probably going to find that they save much more with Free Dining than they do with a room-only discount. I know everyone hates math, but the point, once again, is that you have to do the math for your circumstances to know for sure. Better to suffer through a little math and save some money than just assume based on marketing buzzwords like “free,” be wrong, and end up paying more.
Our example illustrates why it’s important to do some advance planning when it comes to dining at Walt Disney World. You vets out there already know this, but if you’re a first-time visitor or are only really familiar with Disneyland, you may not realize this. Planning your dining is almost as important as booking your airfare.
A lot of Walt Disney World restaurants book up months in advance, and the difference in experience between a good and a bad restaurant is like night and day. We highly recommend reading some of our restaurant reviews and checking out menus online before before making your Advance Dining Reservations. Not only will they give you an idea of what restaurants to book, but they’ll help you do the math and figure out whether the Disney Dining Plan or paying out of pocket is right for you!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Do you typically use the Disney Dining Plan or do you pay out of pocket? What works best for you? I would love to hear what your thoughts are about the Disney Dining Plan, and how it works—or doesn’t work—for you. Share your thoughts in the comments!
The point about DDP’s “convenience” being a complete farce is spot on. The one time we did DDP, it was the opposite of convenient. First and foremost, it’s not as if being on DDP has any impact upon the actual business of settling up your tab at the end of a meal. Using DDP or paying OOP, you’re still handing a server a card of some sort, waiting for it to come back, and then signing it before you’re on your way. It isn’t as if the DDP folks are having a blast in the parks while the OOP people are stuck wasting time dealing with a bill. Zero difference in the experience.
In every other respect, though, doing it OOP is MUCH more convenient. No need to worry about whether the item you want is covered by DDP. No need to eat more or less TS meals than you would otherwise eat to shoehorn yourself into the strictures of the DDP. No need to go forward with a huge TS meal in EPCOT you booked 180 days out when you’re enjoying yourself at Magic Kingdom and would prefer to just grab a quick burger at Pecos Bills. To me, flexibility provides convenience, and there’s nothing remotely convenient about having artificial limitations placed upon the way you eat on vacation.
I suppose DDP does provide an advantage in terms of budgeting, but even that is overstated, I think, because it doesn’t include tips, alcohol, anything you’d like to eat that doesn’t fall within the DDP, etc. The one time we did DDP, I still ended up spending a significant amount of money on things not covered by the plan.
Never again!
The 180 reservation window is ridiculous no matter whether you’re paying out of pocket or using the Disney Dining Plan. The calendar isn’t even available that far in advance!
Less then a week behind, and all my points have already been made. hahaha
We have 2 small children, and took advantage of the “free” DDP for the first time 2 years ago. We are planning a trip this October and hoping that the Dining Deal is offered again. As the point has been made repeatedly, this is a great deal if you plan on taking advantage of numerous character meals. Without the deal… my husband will have us eating hot dogs and McDonalds all week long!!! LOL
Tom, thanks for all the great tips and FABULOUS pictures. I’ve been enjoying your blog immensely. :o)
Hot dogs and McDonald’s…now that sounds like my kind of vacation! 😉
hahaha I think you’d miss those yummy cupcakes!! (which I’m still drooling over the pictures of.. and may have to seek out on our next trip…FDP permitting, of course) hahaha
Thanks for this post! We’ve been waiting for the free dining to book a September trip, but are wondering if it will be offered after all. We have 4 children ages 10 and under so I think we would come out ahead in our case, but it’s still good to know some other things to consider.
Seems like the Disney plan has become less worthwhile over the years.
My wife and I went to Disney for our honeymoon, with the DDP and found it excellent, we were able to get everything we wanted, and it was a great experience.
We’re going back next month many years later, and I actually just cancelled our DDP because I discovered how limited it’s become since we went last. My wife and I will share a desert, and not every meal…so lots of wasted money there. Also, we typically don’t drink anything but water with our meals…enough empty calories as it is!
We went through our plan (we schedule everything pretty much) and looked at menus, picked what we’d want to order and it ended up being $100 – 200 less than the DDP, and a lot more flexibility (i.e. apps)
Definitely do the math. It’s absolutely possible to save the 20 – 30% that Disney advertises, but who wants to have a steak every single meal? Some people probably…but not me or the missus!
This doesn’t have anything to do with dining specifically, and would probably be a more appropriate comment on one of your 101 Disney Tips or Disney on a Budget posts, but it is what it is…
another way we save a few dollars (hey! every dollar counts!) is to purchase Disney gift cards from Kroger family stores (here it’s dillons, other places it’s kroger, ralphs, bakers, gerbes, etc etc) while they’re running their 4x fuel points event. For every dollar you spend on a gift card, you get 4 fuel points, and every 100 points = .10 off a gallon of gas. So $250 on Disney gift cards = $1 off a gallon of gas. My husband and I will fill both our tanks together under one transaction, and that’s a $35 savings…for money you’d spend at disney anyway!
That is an AWESOME tip. Now this kind of gift card use I can get behind! I will have to remember this for personal use! Thanks.
We did the same thing one our last vacation. We booked through Disney also and paid for the entire vacation with gift cards. All said and done we got $295 in free gas. Gift cards were worth it!
Jeez, am I the only one not doing this?! I can’t believe the deal-hound in me had never heard of this!
You’ve given me a great idea! We can purchase grocery store cards as a fundraiser for my daughter’s choral trip. So we will earn $ towards her trip & earn gas points! Thanks!
I always enjoy reading DDP posts – each time, it causes me to look at my numbers again to see if I’m getting the best deal (3 adults, one child, one infant in a value room, booking character meals every day on a 6 night trip – consistantly, I win with free DDP and save $300-400).
Now, while it may be semantics, as someone who spends a lot of time communicating with non-native English speakers (which requires paying very careful attention to how I say things), I have to address this:
Free dining IS free. You book rooms/tickets at the standard listed price, and DDP is added on at no additional charge. To say that it isn’t free insinuates that the cost is simply slipped in somewhere else, and then hidden, when the truth is that at no time are you paying for the DDP. You are simply choosing that discount over another, which may be a room discount. If free dining isn’t free, then discounted rooms aren’t really discounted – when in reality, you’re simply paying for different things.
You do a great job explaining times you and Sarah saved money using each of the various discounts. Why not capitalize on that without blanket statements?
Back to happy thoughts…
Love the site, love the photos, PLEASE keep up the great work!
Yeah, in your circumstances, I can’t imagine free dining not coming out on top. The combination of your number of guests plus character meals makes it difficult to beat.
I used the statement that free dining isn’t actually free because the practical and economic reality is that it is true. That you have to preface your comment with, “it may be semantics” confirms as much to me.
I’m fairly certain that everyone reading this blog post knew exactly what I meant with that statement. The alternative was a drawn out discussion of opportunity cost, which I’m betting not everyone would have understood.
I also use a fair number of colloquialisms in writing. If I write, “it was raining cats and dogs outside last night,” I’d wager most people know what I mean.
You sound like a lawyer… 😉
All very true points – especially the “opportunity cost” comment. We have an economist in the family, and I have to listen to those discussions more times than I like.
I think it’s simply on of those phrases that rubs me the wrong way, and I choose to explain differently. I’m sure there are people who understand your way much better than they would mine. It takes all kinds, right?
I’ve done the math and for the last two years, DDP is not worth the money. I find lots of people use it because they love having the meals paid for ahead of time – no big credit card bill after vacation. I tell them to take the total cost of the dining plan for their party plus add $7 per person per night (average tip per day per person) and at the time they would be paying off the dining plan, put that total amount on a Disney gift card. Then use the Disney gift card to pay for their meals. Since they will be ordering what they want and not what they have to eat (desserts all the time), they will probably find they actually end their vacation with money left over on the gift card. This obviously only works if they eat where they would have eaten if they were still on the DDP … they certainly can’t eat at Artist Point, Yachtsman, Brown Derby, etc. every day. By purchasing the gift card with the money you would have spent on DDP, at least you won’t have what most want to avoid, the cost of all their meals at the end of the vacation on their credit card. JMO
Yep, this is a great alternative for people wanting to prepay. Not something we personally do (I don’t money tied up in gift cards), but it’s a great idea for those who need it.
I find now that the DDP is more of a convenience than bargain- but still a cost savings. It was a much better “deal” several years ago when the price included gratuities and before Disney gradually raised the cost of the plan. It works for the four of us since we plan our summer touring schedule around meals. We make a point of resting/cooling off at lunch stopping for counter service (some are much better than others and include dessert). We try to choose a table service with “extras” – excellent atmosphere (Sanaa/Coral Reef) and/or built in entertainment (Marrakesh/PrimeTime/character meals). We rarely order anything not on plan and order more expensive entrees without worrying about the cost. We rarely have the urge to snack during the day because of all the food, yet always scramble to use our snack credits before we travel home (we usually bring home 12-14 rice krispy treats/huge cookies). So, DDP works for my family.
I’m a middle school math teacher and I LOVE this post. I’m always trying to come up with realistic word problems and scenarios that one may actually encounter in life. The kids at me like I have two heads when I tell them I actually do math like this on my cell phone in the middle of Target when shopping for things like toilet paper and paper towels. Anyway, I digress.
Great job with your case study – I’m going to be doing my own in June. My husband and I are traveling with family who have two small children, so we’ll be doing a character meal, and an expensive summer surcharged ‘Ohana meal. The only other two sit down meals we have planned over a 5 night stay are Prime Time Cafe and Beaches and Cream. I still don’t think the DDP is a good deal for us (we also have TIW) so I’m going to put the cost of what my husband and I would pay for the dining plan on a Disney gift card, and see if he and I end up spending it all. If we don’t, then we will just have that much leftover for our next trip. If we go over the gift card amount, then I guess I will have to reconsider things for the next trip.
I am with you on the liberation front in that I know that if I were on the dining plan, I would constantly be worried that we were losing money if we didn’t do every little thing according to plan. That does not sound relaxing to me.
Great post…gave me some ideas for some extra credit work for one of my classes!!
Oooh, I live the DDP word problem idea. If I return to teaching I’ll have to use that one!
The only time I considered DDP was last November when I was going to stay at a Value, upgrade to the DeluxeDDP and have a lot of meals at Signature restaurants because it was my birthday weekend. (Something I’m pretty sure I read about on your blog.)
Was unsure about going through with it since I couldn’t get an answer to if the Magic Your Way tickets I would have to buy could later be used towards an Annual Pass renewal.
Fully decided against after some international friends visited in August and only wanted to dine at Signature dining. Considering they were buying me dinner, the least I could do was get myself a Tables in Wonderland card, let them use it, and then I’d have the card for the rest of the year.
TiW is the way for me to go now. Going to reevaluate now that it’s more expensive.
[Btw, I really enjoy your blog.]
I have a situation where free dining paid off, but I found that out by doing the math. We had 4 adults at Pop ( yes I know that is most people’s nightmare, but it was a commando touring trip so all we did was sleep and shower). We could have taken the room only discount and gotten tickets from Undercover Tourist or we could take the package from Disney with free dining. The free dining package came out to be $200 more than the room discount package. We were staying for 7 days so that was 14 CS meals and 14 snacks (oh the days of 2 snacks/day) for $50 per person. There is no way this doesn’t come out ahead. Even if we hadn’t ended up using all the CS credits, we paid for the ‘free’ dining after a few meals. We didn’t have any table service meals, but I wouldn’t have felt guilty having a few table service meals since we had already broken even on the dining plan.
I know it doesn’t work for everyone. And like I said, not everyone can have 4 adults in a Value, but it worked for us. So all I can say is do the math!!
Interesting analysis. I’ll have to go back and price out what I would have paid during my recent Disney World trips had I used the Dining Plan. During one, I traveled with a friend who booked a room during free dining for his family, so I’ll have to see what it would have cost me had I done the same.
I’m glad you take on the “convenience” myth. I have yet to hear anyone explain why paying for food in advance is more convenient than paying for it with the rest of the vacation bill. I get the feeling some people would rather pay in installments rather than trust themselves to save enough money to pay for things at the end of their stay, but I wouldn’t call that “convenient”.
I’ll also underscore something you mention regarding the “convenience” of ordering what you want off the menus. I often order appetizers and it’s not unusual for me to order an alcoholic drink during a meal. The dining plan (at least none of the plans I would consider and certainly none that are ever offered “free”) doesn’t cover those. I find that distinctly unpatriotic, or at least not very convenient.
“I get the feeling some people would rather pay in installments rather than trust themselves to save enough money to pay for things at the end of their stay, but I wouldn’t call that ‘convenient’.”
That’s exactly what it is, and this is something that has become endemic of our society. I have a lot of thoughts on this subject, but I will spare you all from those! 🙂
Great Article!! WE have done with and without the DDP. When we did use it we did LOTS of character meals with our then 4 and 8 year olds. With our ADRs we saved tons of time because we didn’t have to wait in long lines to meet with the characters. We were in Disney for 10 day so most of our credits got used. Our left over snack credits got used for gifts to bring home or save for a little Disney after our return. We did have 1 CS credit left over for all 4 of us. We got a meal to go for on the plane and gave our bottles of water to some other guests to have.
Having said that, on our other trips we haven’t used the plan and were happy with less food. We found that it was just to much food for us and we ate things we wouldn’t normally eat. I honestly thought I be happy if I never saw another buffet again.
Thanks for doing the math, I’ll be sure to share it!
Character meals with kids seem to be a deciding factor for a lot of people, so I’m not surprised that it worked out in your favor on that trip!
What a well-written and balanced article. Allow me to contribute my two cents.
hubby and I last went in 09/09, during which Free Dining was available, but not to us. I think b/c we stayed in Shades of Green? Can’t remember why now. We spent a FORTUNE on food, to the point where it became an issue between us.
I’m going this October and praying for Free Dining, lol. We don’t go all the time. I simply don’t have the time or inclination to sit down, go thru all the menus, decide what I may want to eat 6 months from now, add it all up and compare it to free dining. Even if it’s just regular dining, I would rather pay ahead of time, know that my food bill is taken care of and not stress about it while there. I’ll know I have a certain of money for extra snacks, should I need it but won’t be worrying about every penny while I’m there.
I totally see your point and understand it. It’s just there are folks out there who would rather pay for their food in advance (whether they realize that’s what they’re doing is another thing). After my last trip, I’m doing the dining plan, one way or another. Maybe after this trip, I’ll be singing a different tune, but I don’t know. The logistics of going to all the trouble to really compare prices just is not worth it to me, personally!
My Mom and I are going in 3 weeks and don’t do the Dining Plan. We always get fussed at by the Disney man at our AAA’s Disney Day for not however, we don’t feel like we eat the money’s amount per day. We are going to keep track this year but, I think we come out ahead by paying ‘out of pockey’. We aren’t seafood people so I can see if you eat that that maybe you would come out ahead.
Great review Tom. The only thing that I would offer is a difference in opinion on your assertion that not being so stuck with planning and ADR’s is convenience. When my family goes to Disney, we have two kids. Every trip is thought out and well planned (including planning that there is a small amount of wiggle room in our trip). We make ADR’s at the 180 day mark and we have a plan, because that it actually MUCH more convenient. A lot of families with small kids are in the same boat. It is better to know that you have a spot reserved close to when your child normally eats and can be done before they need a nap or bedtime. As for the Dining Plan, we have used it for all our trips and it has worked out well. The first time I used it, we ended up saving about $300 (again, with A LOT of planning). During our last trip in 2012 (with some masterful planning) we saved over $2,000. We upgraded from DDP to Deluxe when we got free dining at Caribbean Beach, ate two meals a day (mostly table service) and ate at a lot of Signature Dining. My youngest ate off our plates for free. Even though my daughter is now considered an adult by Disney standards at the ripe old age of 10, she is often known to eat crab legs, sushi and steak regularly. My husband goes for the steak no matter what (complete score on the dining plan) and I always ordered what I wanted. Our trip was in October and we stayed for 12 days and took full advantage of the Food and Wine snack credits. I am certain at this point in time that we will NEVER save that kind of money again, because there is no way that every single money saver will be enacted at the same time for my family like it was this trip. I think that we might forgo the Dining Plan next trip due to a large multigenerational family trip and a possible stay off site, so I am really interested in crunching those numbers to see what the difference is going to be.
Great to hear your perspective. It’s definitely possible to save a lot of money on the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan if you plan well. No doubt about that.
As for planning v. lack of planning, I realize that a lot of people LOVE to plan their trips. I used to be in that boat. I’m just way too busy for that now, so it’s a relief to just basically show up and wing it.
“Wing it?” Good Lord, man, Touring Plans is probably already collecting pennies for your next effigy. Keep this up, and November 5th will become “Tom Bricker Night.”
I’ve done it enough now that I could go without a lot of planning like it was in the beginning with two kids in tow. All of the planning made everything go so seamless that they were fun and relaxing for the first couple of trips. The last one, it only took me a couple of hours to create a plan and made all of the ADRs in about an hour for 12 days. Glad that I was not working when I planned our first trip, that one took me about 6 months! Trust me, I would take a Disney vacation any way that it would come planning or not!
Tom,
First off…fabulous pictures! I am jealous of your skills and ability to tell a story through your art.
My family has used the Dining Plan many times under the guise that it was saving us money. Then…my 9 year-old turned 10 and I knew that we were not going to get any value from paying the adult price for her.
So we used your recommendation of purchasing a Disney gift card to pay for our meals. I calculated the cost of the dining plan (we always go deluxe), added 20% for gratuities…and then purchased a gift card in the amount.
I used this gift card solely for meals, gratuities and snacks.
As it turns out…we saved a ton of money and without the restrictions of you have to have dessert after your giant meal or you are not getting your money’s worth. There is also the fact that my kids tend to have well developed palates and they would rather have the mussels appetizer from the adult’s menu as their main course as opposed to another pizza from the kids menu.
Dining this way allowed us total flexibility in our ordering choices and still gave us the benefit of “pre-paid” meals.
I would also like to note that we used the same gift cards t pay for our entire meal — including items that are not included in the dining plan such as wine or cocktails. We still came out ahead and had money left over to buy a couple of extra souvenirs.
Keep up the great work!
Glad that this worked for you! Would you say this was as easy (or easier) than using the Disney Dining Plan?
Absolutely easier! We ordered what we wanted and only what we wanted (no feeling the sub-conscience pressure to order a dessert) and the kids were not restricted to the Kids’ Menu.
We ate where we wanted and never had to worry about how to use those unused snack credits at the end of our trip!
I love this idea! On our last trip, my husband got bronchitis and ended up skipping a few meals. On the last day we were scrambling to use up our credits. On another trip, we ended up eating at 2 table service resturants that we were not interested in because the were the only places with open spots.
Also my family of 5 is used to sharing. We never order 5 value meals at a fast food place.
I think I will be checking into gift cards today!
I have always been a sparse eater on vacation. Partly because I’m kind of picky, but mostly because I have a really hard time paying more than $12 for a chicken dinner, or $15 for pasta. It just isn’t that special to me. On my last trip 2 years ago I ate counter service every day for lunch and at least half of the time for dinner too. I ate breakfast in my room, and snacks were often a bottle of water and a piece of fruit. I’m not going to Disney World to eat, I’m there for the rides, attractions, atmosphere. If I want good food I’ll go to a nice restaurant for that. Not that Disney food isn’t wonderful, because it is. I just don’t need to spend so much money on food while I’m there. And that leaves more money for souvenirs!
I love your blog – I am also a Photographer and shoot Nikon! (D600/D700)
I have never stayed on resort so never have had a chance to use the DDP — so I kind of felt like I was missing out.
Our family owns Wyndham time share points — we purchased dirt cheap as a re-sale. The Wyndham is actually on Disney property and has shuttles every 30-60 min depending on time of day to all four parks and we always get a big 2 BR condo with a full kitchen.
The more I read on the plan the better I feel. I occasionally get an appetizer, and rarely desert. My mom (who I normally travel with) is a fan of salads and I like pasta — which are hardly the most expensive. We also both like to drink…beer/wine are normally our dessert. Since we have a timeshare — we eat breakfast and pack snacks/water. I don’t think the plan would work well for us anyway. This blog makes me feel a bit better about not staying “on-site”.
This year we are getting an annual pass — since we are going in early December for a week to see the Christmas decorations, I am gong alone in May 2014 for the garden show and again in October for a week with my mom and sister. With our eating/drinking habits — we are getting Tables in Wonderland, getting 20% off most table service and alcohol works well for us. With just the two of us we pay for it during our December trip (I am an engineer — I did the math based on where we would go and what we like to eat). With a breakeven of $465 (I normally tip about 18-20% anyway and the tax is applied after the discount) we will easily spend the $29 per person per day.
Right from the first sentence you earned some major street cred here.
If you have Annual Passes and are going on 2-3 trips, the Tables in Wonderland card is a no brainer. Keep in mind that it’s also valid at a number of CS restaurants (most in DAK and hotels).
We went Dec 2009 My adult daughter and I. We used the free dining plan and upgraded to table service. We ate in restaurants we never would have without it. when the end of the trip came wiht leftover quickservice credits we bought apples and healthy stuff to take home with us but we had plenty of food, were able to order the more expensive things on the menu, that we would never have ordered if we were paying out of pocket. We had 2 character breakfast, it’s not just the kids you know, we did the candle light procession at the rose and crown, mama melrose, coral reef, 1900 park fare, Akershus Royal Banquet Hall with photo. it was such fun and we did save money. But yeah if they’ve changed it’s definitely worth doing the math.