DDP cost

[DisBuckMan]

I don't understand the gift card scheme. When I eat at Disney OOP I just put the meals on a point rewarding credit card and zero out the c/c before the monthly payment is due. No interest charged and points too. Woohoo!

We don't do the gift card thing either, but in their defense, maybe some here buy their gift cards with their point rewarding credit card and pay off the balance when it comes due? Same end result.

 

[NYCgrrl]

We don't do the gift card thing either, but in their defense, maybe some here buy their gift cards with their point rewarding credit card and pay off the balance when it comes due? Same end result.

Granted, same result with an extra step.

 

[DisBuckMan]

Granted, same result with an extra step.

Yep, but that may just be their method of budgeting. Buy a gift card every month, then combine them when it's trip time.

 

[sharonabe]

Granted, same result with an extra step.

and if they buy them at Sam's, Costco or places like that where you get them for a discount, then they get a double bonus...discount AND rewards points. Plus their vacation is paid for before they leave home, so no credit card bills afterwards.

 

[NYCgrrl]

and if they buy them at Sam's, Costco or places like that where you get them for a discount, then they get a double bonus...discount AND rewards points. Plus their vacation is paid for before they leave home, so no credit card bills afterwards.

I still work to up /maintain my credit score for various asset adding projects so gift card purchases and their rewards don't help me on that level Still, I certainly understand how it can be important to others for budgeting purposes.

 

[Arkansas Disney Girl]

Just got back and here's how NOT DOING the DDP for us this year worked out.

The DDP Quick Service AND paying for breakfast out of pocket would have cost us $4275. (14 nights / 5 adults)

We spent a TOTAL of $2729.50 on food.

This included buying 5 of the rapid fill mugs, still allowing everyone 2 snacks per day, and few table service meals.

We did share a few quick service meals. I didn't keep up with how many meals were shared, but not a huge amount. We didn't really share in effort to save the money, we shared more to avoid throwing so much food out. Still had too much food sometimes.

Did not buy any Alcohol.

The only thing we did go without that the DDP would have allowed for, was Cokes when we didn't have our mugs. We bought Cokes a few times, but mostly drank water when we didn't have our mugs.

We also had a lunch at Be Our Guest was refunded, so that would have been another $100 or so.

We also spent 2 days at Universal Studios and this total does NOT include what we spent outside of Disney.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Just got back and here's how NOT DOING the DDP for us this year worked out.

The DDP Quick Service AND paying for breakfast out of pocket would have cost us $4275. (14 nights / 5 adults)

We spent a TOTAL of $2729.50 on food.

This included buying 5 of the rapid fill mugs, still allowing everyone 2 snacks per day, and few table service meals.

We did share a few quick service meals. I didn't keep up with how many meals were shared, but not a huge amount. We didn't really share in effort to save the money, we shared more to avoid throwing so much food out. Still had too much food sometimes.

Did not buy any Alcohol.

The only thing we did go without that the DDP would have allowed for, was Cokes when we didn't have our mugs. We bought Cokes a few times, but mostly drank water when we didn't have our mugs.

We also had a lunch at Be Our Guest was refunded, so that would have been another $100 or so.

We also spent 2 days at Universal Studios and this total does NOT include what we spent outside of Disney.

It would be great for those "on the fence" if you could give a more detailed accounting of how you came to an almost $2800.00 food budget for 5 adults over 14 nights. This works out to ... approximately $40.00 per day per adult and is a substantial saving from the $75.49 cost for the QS dining plan.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Just got back and here's how NOT DOING the DDP for us this year worked out.

The DDP Quick Service AND paying for breakfast out of pocket would have cost us $4275. (14 nights / 5 adults)

We spent a TOTAL of $2729.50 on food.

This included buying 5 of the rapid fill mugs, still allowing everyone 2 snacks per day, and few table service meals.

We did share a few quick service meals. I didn't keep up with how many meals were shared, but not a huge amount. We didn't really share in effort to save the money, we shared more to avoid throwing so much food out. Still had too much food sometimes.

Did not buy any Alcohol.

The only thing we did go without that the DDP would have allowed for, was Cokes when we didn't have our mugs. We bought Cokes a few times, but mostly drank water when we didn't have our mugs.

We also had a lunch at Be Our Guest was refunded, so that would have been another $100 or so.

We also spent 2 days at Universal Studios and this total does NOT include what we spent outside of Disney.

Wow, that sounds like a considerable savings by NOT doing the DDP! Interested to know the story of the BOG lunch refund. I was considering the BOG lunch form next trip, but chose the Plaza Restaurant instead. Sounds like it may be a good choice.

 

[sharonabe]

It would be great for those "on the fence" if you could give a more detailed accounting of how you came to an almost $2800.00 food budget for 5 adults over 14 nights. This works out to ... approximately $40.00 per day per adult and is a substantial saving from the $75.49 cost for the QS dining plan.

QSDP is only $52.50/night. DDP is $75.49. Still a substantial savings.

My family of four Disney adults did something similar last year for a 5-night trip. We ate at Via Napoli, Garden Grill breakfast, and Skipper Canteen (DH & I only), Backlot Express, Be Our Guest lunch, Fairfax Fare, Satu'li, Flame Tree, Sunshine Seasons, Liberty Inn/Katsura Grill, and Pinnochio Village Haus. The only sharing done was at Via Napoli with a mezzo pizza. We said yes to any snacks we wanted, did the refillable popcorn bucket, had breakfast in our room. Drank water with a coffee every day for DH and I somewhere, didn't do desserts at QS except BoG. Everyone ate what they wanted. Our daily average per person came to $38.60.

 

[NYCgrrl]

QSDP is only $52.50/night. DDP is $75.49. Still a substantial savings.

My family of four Disney adults did something similar last year for a 5-night trip. We ate at Via Napoli, Garden Grill breakfast, and Skipper Canteen (DH & I only), Backlot Express, Be Our Guest lunch, Fairfax Fare, Satu'li, Flame Tree, Sunshine Seasons, Liberty Inn/Katsura Grill, and Pinnochio Village Haus. The only sharing done was at Via Napoli with a mezzo pizza. We said yes to any snacks we wanted, did the refillable popcorn bucket, had breakfast in our room. Drank water with a coffee every day for DH and I somewhere, didn't do desserts at QS except BoG. Everyone ate what they wanted. Our daily average per person came to $38.60.

Thanks for the clarification of pricing of QS vs DS.
As for how we care to dine that price point would be difficult for us to eat consistently which is one of the reasons I've an interest in how others accomplish their vacation diet.
Always something to learn.

 

[Rich M]

I think its great that people come out ahead not being on the dining plan but there is also people who come out ahead being on it. Too each there own. Congrats on the big savings.

 

[Arkansas Disney Girl]

It would be great for those "on the fence" if you could give a more detailed accounting of how you came to an almost $2800.00 food budget for 5 adults over 14 nights. This works out to ... approximately $40.00 per day per adult and is a substantial saving from the $75.49 cost for the QS dining plan.

The Quick Service Dining plan is $52.50 per person per night.

The reasons this worked for my family is:

~We don't buy ANY Alcohol at Disney. So the price increase on the DDP, which included alcohol, even though is was somewhat small, really had me look at the numbers.
~We did share some meals. Like I said, I didn't keep up with the amount of shared meals, but if I had to try to guess, I'd say maybe 8 meals were shared.
~We ate no desserts with any meals, unless it was considered one of our snacks.
~Unless we had our mugs, we drank water with the majority of our quick service type meals. My husband had a Coke with every meal and the rest of us had an occasional Coke.
~We spent 2 days at Universal. My total does NOT include what we spent at Universal.

My biggest problem with the DDP has always been, it's way too much food for us. We usually don't check in till it's pretty late, and usually spend 2 days at Universal. So for us, that's three days of food too much to start. I have on multiple occasions, bought a dozen or more meals for people the night before we check out and came home with multiple bags of candy(snack credits) that usually end up being thrown away.

This is the first year we haven't done the DDP. Honestly, the main reason we gave this a shot was the Alcohol now being included in the plans. This was a gamble, and may not work out for every family. For us, we likely won't do the DDP again. Unless there's some big changes, it's just not for us.

 

[Arkansas Disney Girl]

Wow, that sounds like a considerable savings by NOT doing the DDP! Interested to know the story of the BOG lunch refund. I was considering the BOG lunch form next trip, but chose the Plaza Restaurant instead. Sounds like it may be a good choice.

We were refunded our lunch at BOG because it took over an hour for them to bring our meal out. They were very nice about it, and we din't ask for a refund, they brought our receipt to the table with the refund attached.
Have eaten there many times and never had a problem until this trip.
They also gave all of us all a fast pass for anything is the park.

 

[NYCgrrl]

@Arkansas Disney Girl
Cool.
There are times we have trips that are OOP and times when we eat on a dining plan. Whatever works for your manner of eating is a good thing.

 

[Rich M]

Out of curiosity has anyone saved money not doing the Dining plan but actually ordering everything you would get with the dining plan? I know that if the dining plan offers to much food for you then obviously it just doesn't work for your family but I wonder if anyone has saved money by not getting the dining plan and getting the exact same thing for that would have been offered. So not sharing of meals or skipping desserts or not ordering a drink but paying OOP for the exact same thing that is offered. Thank you in advance for any ones input.

 

[sharonabe]

Out of curiosity has anyone saved money not doing the Dining plan but actually ordering everything you would get with the dining plan? I know that if the dining plan offers to much food for you then obviously it just doesn't work for your family but I wonder if anyone has saved money by not getting the dining plan and getting the exact same thing for that would have been offered. So not sharing of meals or skipping desserts or not ordering a drink but paying OOP for the exact same thing that is offered. Thank you in advance for any ones input.

Haven't actually done it, but was intrigued with your question, so went to allearsnet, picked the restaurants that appealed to me right now, looked through the menus and picked what I would order if I were there right now without looking at the price, and did some math.

Restaurant choices: Satu'li, Yak n Yeti, Fairfax Fare, 50's Prime Time, Biergarten lunch or Garden Grill breakfast (they're only $1 difference), La Cantina, Be Our Guest lunch with Plaza dinner OR Liberty Tree Tavern lunch with Columbia Harbor House dinner.

Without alcohol, but a few specialty drinks (again, chose what I WANT to drink if I'm not choosing my preferred water):
BoG with Plaza is $217.39
LTT w/CHH is $206.30

With alcohol at AK, HS, EP (except the buffets because I couldn't find a price):
BoG with Plaza is $241.87
LTT w/CHH is $230.78

Total price for 4 nights DDP is $301.96, subtract $40 for snack average, and you have $261.96.

So, with alcohol my savings OOP is $20-30. Without alcohol, my savings is $45-55.

If I were going to eat and drink the way the plan dictates (with or without alcohol), it would be worth it to me to get the plan to have it paid for and because snacks could easily go over that $5 average. The OOP savings isn't quite enough to swing me to the OOP route.

 

[Rich M]

Haven't actually done it, but was intrigued with your question, so went to allearsnet, picked the restaurants that appealed to me right now, looked through the menus and picked what I would order if I were there right now without looking at the price, and did some math.

Restaurant choices: Satu'li, Yak n Yeti, Fairfax Fare, 50's Prime Time, Biergarten lunch or Garden Grill breakfast (they're only $1 difference), La Cantina, Be Our Guest lunch with Plaza dinner OR Liberty Tree Tavern lunch with Columbia Harbor House dinner.

Without alcohol, but a few specialty drinks (again, chose what I WANT to drink if I'm not choosing my preferred water):
BoG with Plaza is $217.39
LTT w/CHH is $206.30

With alcohol at AK, HS, EP (except the buffets because I couldn't find a price):
BoG with Plaza is $241.87
LTT w/CHH is $230.78

Total price for 4 nights DDP is $301.96, subtract $40 for snack average, and you have $261.96.

So, with alcohol my savings OOP is $20-30. Without alcohol, my savings is $45-55.

If I were going to eat and drink the way the plan dictates (with or without alcohol), it would be worth it to me to get the plan to have it paid for and because snacks could easily go over that $5 average. The OOP savings isn't quite enough to swing me to the OOP route.

Thank you very much for that extra effort to see how it would be. I do the same thing and I usually always come out ahead but I see some people saying they would save half of the cost so I was just wondering how people would do if they actually spent the way the plan dictates you to do. I personally love it so I am trying to see every ones view and be open minded.