Can't make the math work

[Stephencb]

I've done some basic calcs but if I had the time could certainly run it out in more detail. The issue is I can't seem to find any way to make the math work on the dining plans when paying out of pocket.

Here is my family - 2 adults and 2 kids (6 & 9)

I was thinking it would work out as I could use the kids credits as adult credits and we would likely split some meals however I believe that only works for the QS right? If I bought the QS we would then pay for our table service OOP.

Regardless - what I am thinking about is that we don't drink sodas really or certainly not every meal. I would if it was paid for I guess but normally we are water or wine - or beer. Kids would have a sprite if it was on the plan but they drink water mostly too. Without doing any fancy math I think it is the drinks that throw it off.

Any comments greatly appreciated as I know so many of you have done this many times already...

Thanks!

 

[NicoleLarson]

Well for starters its almost impossible to come out ahead on the QSDP. If I ate a BOG breakfast every morning and a Bbq combo meal at flame tree every night, and got 2, $7 coffees at starbucks, I might save $2-3. Same for the regular plan unless you eat dinner character meals and average $20 on a CS meal. Even then the savings are very small. If you want to do it for convenience then just put the money in a disney gift card and do it that way....its just as easy. Keep in mind the DDP was not made to save you money, its for WDW to make money. P.S. the adult/kid credits are only interchangeable on the QSDP and DxDDP

 

[persimmondeb]

Current QSDP is very hard to break even on. This isn't true of the DDP, but it tends to work best if you either intend to do a lot of character meals with children nine or under, or you tend to like the most expensive restaurants. I've never had trouble breaking even or better, but it's really individual, and the question is not would you order that way, but would you like to order that way?

 

[Stephencb]

Appreciate the reply and confirmation.

My sentiments exactly- I know this is a money maker like everything else and if you miss a meal or snack you are behind even more. I was just wondering if "working the plan" with the kids priced plans would somehow make it make sense. Even then I still couldn't get there- didn't spend a lot of time on it but I was skeptical out of the box.

To each his/her own but my wallet and credit card is pretty convenient just like my wrist band would be I suppose.

 

[rebelbuddhist]

Appreciate the reply and confirmation.

My sentiments exactly- I know this is a money maker like everything else and if you miss a meal or snack you are behind even more. I was just wondering if "working the plan" with the kids priced plans would somehow make it make sense. Even then I still couldn't get there- didn't spend a lot of time on it but I was skeptical out of the box.

To each his/her own but my wallet and credit card is pretty convenient just like my wrist band would be I suppose.

If it is important enough to you, find the time to "do the math" in as much detail as you can. The dining plans are very dependent on your dining habits and it's difficult to get someone else to figure out how a dining plan would work for your family. Finding/making the time to figure out how it would work for your family is part of good planning if making a dining plan work is important to you.

 

[persimmondeb]

If it is important enough to you, find the time to "do the math" in as much detail as you can. The dining plans are very dependent on your dining habits and it's difficult to get someone else to figure out how a dining plan would work for your family. Finding/making the time to figure out how it would work for your family is part of good planning if making a dining plan work is important to you.

Exactly! It works very well for my family, to the point where I often don't even bother with the math, BUT for us there's never any question of leaving a credit or an entitlement unused (my husband passed on the dessert once, not realizing he couldn't collect it later, and has never lived it down), or not wanting the most expensive things on the most expensive menus. It doesn't work that way for some people, because it's either too much food, or doesn't dovetail with their preferences. I could easily run a set of numbers for DDP for a family of two adults and two children that was coming out about twenty dollars ahead for the day, without a character meal, BOG, or a lot of Starbucks, but it would involve what would be too much rich food for a lot of people.

 

[Faldred]

Well, do note that wine/beer/cocktails are included in 2018 for all meals, even CS, where available (most non-MK CS locations have at leats wine or beer).

 

[Stephencb]

I was sold on not messing with it as to me the freedom of just eating what I want and when and paying for it is valuable as well; BUT I did bother to do some math after all...

Doing the character meals certainly makes sense and I could book a couple of those dining package deals that have reserved seating such as Tony's for the parade at MK and Tusker House for Rivers of Light at AK. Both of those are 1 TS credit I believe which is a "bargain" in relative terms. Although would I do those if I were not on the plan? Probably not. Meaning do I even need the reserved seating? because if not I doubt those restaurants would be my choices. However if reserved seating is really valuable for those shows please tell me!

If I was paying OOP I am sure we would pick Tiffins vs Tusker if I needed to pay for the ROL seats as it is not much more and the food looks like night and day better - but for a whole extra dining credit on the plan it probably isn't. All of these what if's are brain draining...

So character meals or seating packages are good value on the plan - what else? If I go that route I may buy the middle plan and then just pay OOP for Cinderella so we don't burn up 8 credits there. But what about the snack credits? And what other meals are priorities if doing a dining plan?

If I end up not doing much of the character stuff I am still thinking these plans are way overpriced but that is because we, like a lot of people, would not always order an included drink and desert. I'd skip desert and grab a glass of wine or beer - or to be honest probably two...

 

[persimmondeb]

Once again, NOT everyone's preference, but if we're drinking wine/beer, which we usually do at dinner, we'll use the beverage credit for coffee to have with dessert or mineral water to drink along with the meal. You do have to tip on it, of course, but it's an extra we never mind having and usually won't pay OOP for.

 

[Stephencb]

Persimmondeb- Thanks for your input. This may have gotten lost in my rambling before so I will repost as this is a genuine question and I'd like some input:

So character meals or seating packages are good value on the plan - what else? If I go the regular dining plan route I will just pay OOP for Cinderella so we don't burn up 8 credits there. But what about the snack credits - how best to use those?
And what other meals are priorities if doing a dining plan?

thanks again

 

[persimmondeb]

Ok, depends on your preferences, and with little kids, your dining habits are going to be somewhat different from ours, since my son is 22 and a foodie. With a very large appetite. Even on our first trip, when he was eleven, he ordered and ate like an adult, so we didn't mind paying for the adult credit (which can be an issue with children that age, although the DDP was a better value then as well).

The numbers I was playing around with involved Sunshine Seasons, Chefs de France, and eight snacks. One of the things in your favor is that there is no such thing as a child's snack credit. A snack is a snack is a snack. The number of things available on the plan as a snack are dizzying, and while some of them are pretty inexpensive, lots of them hit the four or five dollar target for breakeven. If you like Starbucks, even very large all the bells and whistles drinks are "snacks". Exactly what qualifies where varies, and can change, but ice cream, even many sundaes, pastries, counter service desserts, novelty candy/cookie items like Mickey Krispies, hummus with vegetables, non-alcoholic specialty drinks, prepared fruit items, etc., etc. will qualify. The reality is much more exciting that the rather bland descriptions of the snack entitlement in the brochure. It is worth noting that it's pretty common to have trouble using up all the snack credits, although it's not an issue we have. It is possible to use snacks for breakfast, very easily, and if you are a "snacky" family, you could trade a kid's QS credit for three snacks (usually but not always permissible), which is an excellent value.

Also your drink doesn't have to be fountain soda at QS (with a couple of exceptions, such as WPE). Most non-alcoholic bottles and cans qualify, even the ones that are quite a bit more expensive than soda.

My bit better than break even accounted for that, along with entrees over the average (although not the most expensive) and kid's meals also over the average. Without figuring places like Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, Garden Grill, etc., which are always a good deal on the plan with kids under nine (the OOP cost many be as much as the plan for the entire day, depending), the way to break even or better on the plan is to order expensively at expensive places, get everything you're entitled to, and use all your snack credits. If that's a fun way to eat for you, it's a great deal, if it's not, it's not so fabulous.

And you don't have to make yourself crazy figuring every last item if you stick to that as a strategy.

It's not efficient if you would tend to eat at less expensive restaurants, especially for table service, or get $2 snacks, or not use all those credits, or if you usually want the vegetable pasta, not the steak or the salmon, or if you're using credits for pizza delivery.

And I completely agree that CRT is better out of pocket.

 

[Monykalyn]

That was probably one of the best explanations of dining plan "worthit or not" I've seen @persimmondeb!

@Stephencb you can get $100 Disney gift cards from Costco for $94.99 online-plus I went Through ebates portal for additional $0.95 back.

EDIT-should be BJ Wholesale not Costco!!!

 

[persimmondeb]

Thanks! @Monykalyn

 

[robl45]

I've done some basic calcs but if I had the time could certainly run it out in more detail. The issue is I can't seem to find any way to make the math work on the dining plans when paying out of pocket.

Here is my family - 2 adults and 2 kids (6 & 9)

I was thinking it would work out as I could use the kids credits as adult credits and we would likely split some meals however I believe that only works for the QS right? If I bought the QS we would then pay for our table service OOP.

Regardless - what I am thinking about is that we don't drink sodas really or certainly not every meal. I would if it was paid for I guess but normally we are water or wine - or beer. Kids would have a sprite if it was on the plan but they drink water mostly too. Without doing any fancy math I think it is the drinks that throw it off.

Any comments greatly appreciated as I know so many of you have done this many times already...

Thanks!

Your family is basically the same size and makeup of ours. Our kids are 6 and 8 right now. We paid I think 1228 or something to that effect for 7 nights of dining plan that we used a couple of weeks ago. So figure quick service meals are 40 bucks or so minimum assuming all of your order a meal. Thats 280 dollars right there and frankly probably going to be more than that if you add in the drinks. Now factor in the dinners. I'd guess minimum a 100 dollars assuming you eat steak or some other expensive meal. Even if you don't, Disney still isn't cheap. It certainly is true that the character meals do help to make it worthwhile, Chef Mickeys is about 200 dollars by the time you are done. So lets assume we average 100 a night for meals and 40 a day for lunch which frankly will likely be at least 45 for lunch and probably higher for dinner depending on where you eat, but we will use worst case scenario.

Now we have snacks. 7 nights , 4 people, 2 snacks a day is 56 snacks. Lets call them 5 dollars a piece as you aren't going to get a soda for a snack right? Complete waste of the snack credit. Grand total comes out to 1260 assume 100 dollar dinners, 40 dollar lunchs and 5 dollar snacks and those figures are probably low. That doesn't even include the mugs.

 

[Stephencb]

That was probably one of the best explanations of dining plan "worthit or not" I've seen @persimmondeb!

@Stephencb you can get $100 Disney gift cards from Costco for $94.99 online-plus I went Through ebates portal for additional $0.95 back.

I saw the gift cards on Sam's and did order some although with mailing fees and delays I'm not sure how many more I'd buy. They capped me out at $750 per order.

I looked online at Costco but didn't see them. Am I messing up the searching? I have both memberships but vastly prefer Costco.
Thanks

 

[Snowy_pvb]

I looked online at Costco but didn't see them. Am I messing up the searching? I have both memberships but vastly prefer Costco.
Thanks

No I don't think you are... haven't seen Disney at Costco online or in store in ages.

 

[ryanj52]

This is an interesting thread, we used the DP on our last trip and remembering that it hurt less to see some of the bills for the food knowing it was already paid for. Some of the meals can be very expensive.

 

[Monykalyn]

OMG meant to say BJ's!!!!! so sorry!

 

[DisneyDeb83]

You don't need a membership to buy online at BJ's. I just checked prices again and the $100 cards are not available at this time. You can get the $50 cards for $47.99 though.

 

[Valstew]

For us going during food and wine we use our snack credits at the kiosks, last year ddp saved us around $100 when it was all said and done, but we do a lot of character meals and F&W.