what is the best dining plan calculator?

[stickeymouse]

Aren't the credit card points the same whether you spend them at WDW or Sam's Club? Or do you get more points back from using your card at Sam's Club?

What kind of discount are you getting on the gift cards? I'm assuming they are Disney Gift Cards?

The first answer is yes, it would be the same. Some cards might reward more based on where you're using them, but it depends on what card you have. Cash back, points, air miles, etc.

The second answer is that Sam's sells gift cards at a discount. I think it is around $7 off per $150? But somebody who knows for sure can chime in. The same is true if you buy them from Target using a red card, which gives you 5% off all purchases, even gift cards. Not a huge savings, but every bit counts.

 

[LucyBC80]

Disney LOVES that people are willing to pay for a convenience

Convenience is the main factor for the dining plan, at least in our case. We book our trip up to a year and a half in advance and add the DDP as right when we book it. We have 18 months to pay for our food and not have to worry or budget an specific amount of money to eat while on vacation. Not having to worry about this kind of expense during a vacation beats saving money, at least for our family.

 

[Disneybiginner]

We are going to use DDP for our coming trip in Jan. We have 5 and 2 yo, will do all character meals, a couple of those will be a night time show package. In our case, DDP is well worth it, both fanacially and conveniently.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

The first answer is yes, it would be the same. Some cards might reward more based on where you're using them, but it depends on what card you have. Cash back, points, air miles, etc.

The second answer is that Sam's sells gift cards at a discount. I think it is around $7 off per $150? But somebody who knows for sure can chime in. The same is true if you buy them from Target using a red card, which gives you 5% off all purchases, even gift cards. Not a huge savings, but every bit counts.

We are getting some today.

But we think is is 7% off. We can get 3 $50, for $150, minus the 7 %.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

We are getting some today.

But we think is is 7% off. We can get 3 $50, for $150, minus the 7 %.

At Sam's you can get $150 for 145. And $500 for 480.

They didn't carry $500 cards when we went on our last trip. But they had plenty of them today.

Sorry, not 7%, closer to 3% to 4%.

 

[stickeymouse]

Convenience is the main factor for the dining plan, at least in our case. We book our trip up to a year and a half in advance and add the DDP as right when we book it. We have 18 months to pay for our food and not have to worry or budget an specific amount of money to eat while on vacation. Not having to worry about this kind of expense during a vacation beats saving money, at least for our family.

At Sam's you can get $150 for 145. And $500 for 480.

They didn't carry $500 cards when we went on our last trip. But they had plenty of them today.

Sorry, not 7%, closer to 3% to 4%.

That is disappointing! Target might be the way to go. If you shop at Target, you NEED TO GET a red card anyway, no matter what. You can get it as a debit card (no credit inquiry needed) that directly deducts from your checking account. 5% off everything! It's a no-brainer. I promise I am not being paid by Target.

 

[Superchikk]

That is disappointing! Target might be the way to go. If you shop at Target, you NEED TO GET a red card anyway, no matter what. You can get it as a debit card (no credit inquiry needed) that directly deducts from your checking account. 5% off everything! It's a no-brainer. I promise I am not being paid by Target.

I've purchased gift cards with my Target RED card - I always get teacher gifts that way. It is a bit of a higher percentage than buying gift cards at Sam's. However, with the RED card you don't get the credit card points. I'd rather take the 3-4% AND the CC points than the straight 5% and not get any points. My CC often gives bonus points for wholesale stores, which means I get my gift cards at a discount plus the bonus points on the CC. And I can buy them in higher denominations than Target typically carries.

 

[stickeymouse]

I've purchased gift cards with my Target RED card - I always get teacher gifts that way. It is a bit of a higher percentage than buying gift cards at Sam's. However, with the RED card you don't get the credit card points. I'd rather take the 3-4% AND the CC points than the straight 5% and not get any points. My CC often gives bonus points for wholesale stores, which means I get my gift cards at a discount plus the bonus points on the CC. And I can buy them in higher denominations than Target typically carries.

Good point! Target does offer higher denominations on its website.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

That is disappointing! Target might be the way to go. If you shop at Target, you NEED TO GET a red card anyway, no matter what. You can get it as a debit card (no credit inquiry needed) that directly deducts from your checking account. 5% off everything! It's a no-brainer. I promise I am not being paid by Target.

Sam's is as good as it gets for me.

I'm not a Target shopper.

 

[Snowy_pvb]

what credit cards does SAMs accept?

 

[FelisLachesis]

what credit cards does SAMs accept?

https://help.samsclub.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1551/~/accepted-payment-methods

For major credit cards, both the warehouses and samsclub.com takes debit cards, Amex, MasterCard, Visa, and Discover.

 

[Tonyz]

I found this one https://www.distripplanner.com/

This one is good but the Snacks aspect is terrible. It averages that each snack is like 2 bucks.

 

[MarkinNM]

The only downfall for me is the GC's one can not get the money back, they stay on it until you use it, so once Disney has your money in GC form it is theirs........We dont got to Disney every year so they are getting plenty out of the unused $$.....I use the DDP for the convenience just like staying on property, very convenient....

 

[Dakota731]

Can you put the gift cards onto your room account or magic band? I don't want to be carrying around a ton of gift cards and seeing what's left on each.

 

[rwdavis2]

Can you put the gift cards onto your room account or magic band? I don't want to be carrying around a ton of gift cards and seeing what's left on each.

You can't prepay but every day or so you can use the card to pay off the balance charged to the room. Go to the front desk. FYI, there is nothing "on" your magic band other than an ID number.

 

[Dakota731]

Was hoping there was something online to apply gift cards like Amazon. Don’t want to waste vacation time standing in line at the front desk.

 

[DISNEY1975]

My DD had a vacation assignment from her math teacher a couple of years ago to compare our DxDDP to actual cost.

We were there 8 nights, 8.5 days. Every morning, except 1, we went to a character breakfast (other was Captains Grill, non character). We went to 2 dinner shows (Spirit of Aloha and Mickeys BBQ), Cali Grill, Artist Point and Yachtsman Steakhouse. All other dinners were 1 credit, plus one day my husband bought a lunch at a waterpark. For snacks, almost every other day we got an ice cream.

On the last day, we had 36 snack credits left plus 8 meal credits. We were able to exchange a meal credit for 3 snacks (24), so my DD bought 24 Rice Crispy Treats, 24 Chip and Dale crackers and 12 chocolate bars.

Deluxe plan was $2520. The cost of everything above was $2108 (though we paid for an adult on the plan for my DD, she ordered often from the kids menu).

Normally, we would not have bought all those snacks either, but did just because we had the credits. The snacks were about $240.

So no...we took a big loss! But I LOVED having everything paid for ahead of time! This year you would think I have learned, but we are back on the deluxe plan again. Of the 30 credits we each get, I already know we will leave many behind. Most of our dinners this time are only 1 credit. Im struggling to find places to use the credits, but want to try new places and feel we have done all the 2 credit meals enough. I only want TS and sadly they dont offer a plan with only 2 credits per day.

 

[cmwade77]

The best calculator is to total up what you will order and compare.

Personally, we find we are usually within 10% one way or the other of our OOP cost, but with the dining plan, we order what we want and without it we often just go for the cheapest thing in the menu, compromising what we really wanted.

So that and the fact that my meals are prepaid are worth it, but the trick is leave no credit on the table, even if you have to get snacks to take home at the end of your trip. Also if doing character meals you can come out way ahead.

 

[cmwade77]

My DD had a vacation assignment from her math teacher a couple of years ago to compare our DxDDP to actual cost.

We were there 8 nights, 8.5 days. Every morning, except 1, we went to a character breakfast (other was Captains Grill, non character). We went to 2 dinner shows (Spirit of Aloha and Mickeys BBQ), Cali Grill, Artist Point and Yachtsman Steakhouse. All other dinners were 1 credit, plus one day my husband bought a lunch at a waterpark. For snacks, almost every other day we got an ice cream.

On the last day, we had 36 snack credits left plus 8 meal credits. We were able to exchange a meal credit for 3 snacks (24), so my DD bought 24 Rice Crispy Treats, 24 Chip and Dale crackers and 12 chocolate bars.

Deluxe plan was $2520. The cost of everything above was $2108 (though we paid for an adult on the plan for my DD, she ordered often from the kids menu).

Normally, we would not have bought all those snacks either, but did just because we had the credits. The snacks were about $240.

So no...we took a big loss! But I LOVED having everything paid for ahead of time! This year you would think I have learned, but we are back on the deluxe plan again. Of the 30 credits we each get, I already know we will leave many behind. Most of our dinners this time are only 1 credit. Im struggling to find places to use the credits, but want to try new places and feel we have done all the 2 credit meals enough. I only want TS and sadly they dont offer a plan with only 2 credits per day.

For future reference, the trail mixes are really good and resealable and snack credits (at least most are), wishing we would have used our friends left over snack credits before leaving to get more. Also much of the stuff from the caramel shop in Germany travels well and all of the smaller bags of Werther's are snack credits and while we wouldn't have normally bought Werther's at Disney World, we would have bought them here because we like them, so saved us some money that way.

 

[cmwade77]

Disney also LOVES when you buy gift cards (interest-free loans, anybody?). My point is, there is no way that the Mouse does not come out ahead. It's a business, and one that is run superbly. I NEVER claimed that how I do things gives me more money or even makes me break even. It's just how I prefer to do it. Then again, I usually go when free dining is offered, so there is some economic advantage to that, depending on when you go (dining offer vs. normal cost). If the goal was to keep $$$ out of Mickey's hands, then the only solution would be to pack some PB&Js and keep out of the restaurants. But, alas, that's not what brings us here.

I buy discounted gift cards and then pay for the dining plan with those, Disney still gets their money, but I end up saving close to 15% most of the time after all is said and done.