Dining cost without Dining Plan for 5 nights

geethb

Earning My Ears
Joined
Oct 17, 2014
Friends,
Iam a family of four with two kids age 6 & 11
I am planning to travel first week of April 2020.
I am deliberating whether i should take or skip DDP
I am planning to do one or two character dining for my younger one.
How can i calculate the costs without a dining plan?
Any opinions or pointers would be helpful
I love Disney's dining options but since i can have the same without a dining plan, deliberating if it will be worth to me.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Geeth
 
Friends,
Iam a family of four with two kids age 6 & 11
I am planning to travel first week of April 2020.
I am deliberating whether i should take or skip DDP
I am planning to do one or two character dining for my younger one.
How can i calculate the costs without a dining plan?
Any opinions or pointers would be helpful
I love Disney's dining options but since i can have the same without a dining plan, deliberating if it will be worth to me.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Geeth
With you having one Disney child you might could come out to the good with the dining plan. Really have to determine where you will eat, what, and do the math. If you drink alcohol with some of your meals, then you probably would. If not, then you should do the math.
 
I would google the dining calculator. Look through the menus and see which restaurants you would like to try. You can put in your dates and whether or not you like appetizers and desserts with your meals. Also how many snacks on average you eat a day. For us it doesn't make sense to use the dining plan. We tend to just do one or two TS meals and the rest QS. Even the QS plan would cost us more. It really all depends on how you eat.
 


Thanks Guys.
I put in my inputs here
https://www.distripplanner.com/It tells me that there is 18% gratuity for every table service meal.
Do we need to take that into account for budgeting purposes.
All i want is to maximise the time i spend in the parks and also do one or two character dining since iam only going for 5 days and i dont go there frequently.
Thanks,
GeethB
 
The dining calculator factors in tips. So that is included in the cost on there. I have used the calculator in the past and it's pretty spot on for our trips. If anything we spend a little less than it says we will. If the total on the first section is the lowest then the dining plan would probably be a waste of money for you.
 


We have been both with the dining plan and without.
Granted, we have only had the plan when we lucked up on free dining.
I think for us, we would definitely do better paying out of pocket. For example, my 13yo daughter and I often share an entree. We are not huge dessert eaters, though do love appetizers. We tend to eat one TS meal per day, and sometimes will just snack for lunch and/or breakfast.
Agree to take a look at how your family eats, where you are planning to dine, and go from there. The plan does now include an adult beverage and that was a nice change on our last visit with dining.
 
We have been both with the dining plan and without.
Granted, we have only had the plan when we lucked up on free dining.
I think for us, we would definitely do better paying out of pocket. For example, my 13yo daughter and I often share an entree. We are not huge dessert eaters, though do love appetizers. We tend to eat one TS meal per day, and sometimes will just snack for lunch and/or breakfast.
Agree to take a look at how your family eats, where you are planning to dine, and go from there. The plan does now include an adult beverage and that was a nice change on our last visit with dining.

My daughter and I used it once on free dining. It was so many TS meals and we found ourselves ordering food so we could get the most value out of it. It was so much food. I often order kids meals at QS because I'm not a big eater. I will say that alcohol being added is a good perk but I usually only have a few drinks on our trips so I doubt that would make a huge difference.
 
I have yet to find a calculator that is worth my time. Especially with the variables now including alcohol. A cocktail a day can add up to $15 pp to the days total

Do the math yourself. Set up a simple spreadsheet. Put in your meals most likely to consume.

This serves double duty. It can tell you if the meal plan is a value for your family and give you a great budget to pay oop
 
I have yet to find a calculator that is worth my time. Especially with the variables now including alcohol. A cocktail a day can add up to $15 pp to the days total

Do the math yourself. Set up a simple spreadsheet. Put in your meals most likely to consume.

This serves double duty. It can tell you if the meal plan is a value for your family and give you a great budget to pay oop

100% agree with this. The calculators average out costs and that can vary alot depending on what you eat. Spreadsheets are your friend. Like others, we used to do the dining plan years ago and found out the first time we went without that we preferred without. We don't eat as much food and you have to even use all your credits. I'm a small meal eater so it's usually kid's meals and water at QS, Kids meal and coffee at breakfast and 9 out of 10 times at a TS I'll order an appetizer or two and my son and I will share a dessert. We rarely snack between meals, I only drink water, coffee and refreshing adult beverages, no soft drinks. There are days when we will just eat snack type items all day, especially if it's during F&G or F&W at Epcot, then most of our lunch and suppers come from booths. We just like the freedom to not to have to worry about trying to use all the credits.
 
Just keep in mind the DDP is not designed to save money.

I don’t agree w this statement. It had gotten to where it was difficult to break even. With the changes made, it is much easier to make the plan work for many.

Adding alcohol. This was a huge game changer, imho. W a cocktail around $12-14, that bumped the credit value up for many. Being able to share dxdp credits was the other.

It is still a math exercise, but it is a very good value for many.
 
I don’t agree w this statement. It had gotten to where it was difficult to break even. With the changes made, it is much easier to make the plan work for many.

Adding alcohol. This was a huge game changer, imho. W a cocktail around $12-14, that bumped the credit value up for many. Being able to share dxdp credits was the other.

It is still a math exercise, but it is a very good value for many.
I have free dining for my trip but, I am pretty sure the cocktails are going to put the potential value of what I choose over the $78 per day it would cost with one TS, one QS, 2 cocktails and snacks a day. Without them, probably not, cos I have not chosen wildly expensive meals.
 
Thanks Guys.
I put in my inputs here
https://www.distripplanner.com/It tells me that there is 18% gratuity for every table service meal.
Do we need to take that into account for budgeting purposes.
All i want is to maximise the time i spend in the parks and also do one or two character dining since iam only going for 5 days and i dont go there frequently.
Thanks,
GeethB

If you are staying 5 nights and you're only going to do 2 table service (TS) meals, then it's doubtful a dining plan will work for you.
You still need to take a look at the menus of both TS and QS (quick service) to not only see what you might eat, but also to help with any sticker shock that might happen when you get there and don't have a dining plan. For my family of 4 (all Disney adults), we spend less than any plan would cost us and we did 3 TS over the course of 5 nights last time, but that's because of the way we prefer to eat.
The truly best thing for you to do is decide where you WANT to eat and then do the math. Don't forget that the dining plans are based on the NIGHTS you stay and you also get 2 snacks per person per night.
 
I have yet to find a calculator that is worth my time. Especially with the variables now including alcohol. A cocktail a day can add up to $15 pp to the days total

Do the math yourself. Set up a simple spreadsheet. Put in your meals most likely to consume.

This serves double duty. It can tell you if the meal plan is a value for your family and give you a great budget to pay oop

This is the best advice. No one can really tell you what the projected cost of your meals will be without knowing how your family dines, and if they consume alcohol. The calculators are not up to date with the recent changes, so a spreadsheet is the best method.

Check out menus and think about what your family would likely order, and then add it up. Include what you think they would order, and not what is included or excluded on a plan.

Meals and snacks options bought using a dining plan have already been taxed, so you should tally the cost with tax and with out.

You now have an overall food budget in place for yoru trip, and you also can look at the cost of a dining plan and determine if you are likely to save moeny or lose.

Just keep in mind the DDP is not designed to save money.

Um.... the DDP is not designed to save YOU money. We killed it two weeks ago, My sister and I took two teens. I had meals in place that we wanted and never suggested they order anything in particular. The only time I said anything was when one wanted to buy a cake pop with a snack credit. Nope, I paid the $3.00 and saved that credit for the Venti Starbucks Refresher I knew she was going to order a bit later in the day.

The alcohol and specialty drinks on the plans is a game changer for many of us. We enjoyed cocktails at lunch and dinner, and if you ever took two 13 year old girls anywhere for an extended period of time, you knwo we were going to order the cocktails anyway.

Everyone needs to factor their own dining preferences. It is not only impossible to make a blanket determination that a plan will be of value or not for a family, it is doing that family a disservice. You need to know the family dynamic and what and where they plan to dine before you can tell them the plan is not going to save them money, or that they will save in the longrun.
 
How much is the Disney Dining Plan for 2020? One website says $78.02 per person per night which would be $936.12 for my upcoming trip; yet, the DDP Calculator said the cost for my dates/party is $905.88. I plan on following the advice given above to calculate the costs manually, but I need to know how much the DDP costs before I can do that.
 

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