what is the best dining plan calculator?

This time it ends up saving us a lot of money on the plan because we are doing a lot of character meals so it depends upon your ages, how you like to eat etc.
Agree. We did lots of character and buffet dinners plus we used most snacks at flower garden festival so it definitely saved us money!
 
I am trying to figure if I should do the dining plan or not. On the dining plan calculators do they include the tip and the tax?

Which one do you think is most accurate?
Thanks!

Tip isn't included with the dining plan. You will need to take care of that separately with cash, card or room charge, it should be the same whether you pay with ddp or oop.
 
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.

Yes, the gift cards were an interest free loan for ME! And.....I was paid by my credit card to use their interest free loan. Sam's club gift card discounts and my points back on my CC are nice and helps me to keep more of my money....to give to the mouse in other ways. Free dining is not "free" either......FYI.
 
Yes, the gift cards were an interest free loan for ME! And.....I was paid by my credit card to use their interest free loan. Sam's club gift card discounts and my points back on my CC are nice and helps me to keep more of my money....to give to the mouse in other ways. Free dining is not "free" either......FYI.
LOL. Of course free dining is not "free". Did anybody make that argument?

And yes, I love how my credit cards give me cash back after buying Disney reservations, dining plans, souvenirs, whatever.
 
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The calculator I use is the one on my phone. I give myself one evening to go through the menus, add up what we're likely to eat, and calculate tax and tip for each meal. Then I add it all together and compare it to the dining plan. In the past, it usually makes sense for us to do the dining plan. We do quite a few character meals, at least one a day.

I think that in 2018, however, we will no longer do the dining plan. Unless the price of meals increases substantially, it won't be worth it any longer. We don't really drink much at all, maybe one or two glasses of wine on our entire trip, so the addition of alcohol to the dining plan is going to be a deal breaker for us, I think. We just became annual passholders, though, so will probably purchase a Tables in Wonderland card. I'll have to do the math there as well, but I think that will end up saving us more than the 2018 dining plan.
 
The calculator I use is the one on my phone. I give myself one evening to go through the menus, add up what we're likely to eat, and calculate tax and tip for each meal. Then I add it all together and compare it to the dining plan. In the past, it usually makes sense for us to do the dining plan. We do quite a few character meals, at least one a day.

I think that in 2018, however, we will no longer do the dining plan. Unless the price of meals increases substantially, it won't be worth it any longer. We don't really drink much at all, maybe one or two glasses of wine on our entire trip, so the addition of alcohol to the dining plan is going to be a deal breaker for us, I think. We just became annual passholders, though, so will probably purchase a Tables in Wonderland card. I'll have to do the math there as well, but I think that will end up saving us more than the 2018 dining plan.
Keep in mind, those that save a lot of money with TIW, tend to drink. At least as much as you would receive on the dining plan.
 
Tip isn't included with the dining plan. You will need to take care of that separately with cash, card or room charge, it should be the same whether you pay with ddp or oop.

Actually, the tip can be quite different paying OOP vs. DDP. If you are going to order all the parts of the DDP anyway, then it is the same, but if you don't want to eat the way the DDP dictates, it does make a difference. For our family, we would not order four desserts; we would order one. Giving the desserts a $7 value, that's almost $4 in tips for every meal. That's an extra snack for someone.

One more. For our upcoming trip, DH and I are doing a date dinner at Skipper's Canteen. If on the DDP, we'd have to order two entrees, drinks, and desserts to make the plan valuable. What we really want are several of the apps and maybe one dessert. Total for what we WANT is $46, so about $8.30 in tips. If we were using the DDP, the very least amount would be $56, so a tip of $10. And I guarantee you, we wouldn't be ordering the least expensive entrée if on the DDP, so our total would be closer to $80 and a tip of $$14.

Just wanted to show that paying using any dining plan will probably increase your total tip amount.
 


The calculator I use is the one on my phone. I give myself one evening to go through the menus, add up what we're likely to eat, and calculate tax and tip for each meal. Then I add it all together and compare it to the dining plan. In the past, it usually makes sense for us to do the dining plan. We do quite a few character meals, at least one a day.

I think that in 2018, however, we will no longer do the dining plan. Unless the price of meals increases substantially, it won't be worth it any longer. We don't really drink much at all, maybe one or two glasses of wine on our entire trip, so the addition of alcohol to the dining plan is going to be a deal breaker for us, I think. We just became annual passholders, though, so will probably purchase a Tables in Wonderland card. I'll have to do the math there as well, but I think that will end up saving us more than the 2018 dining plan.

If you have kids under 10, the regular dining plan is possibly going to save you money, but you are going to need to do a lot of character meals for your TS. Once my kids were paying as adults, OOP became way cheaper as we could not ever come close to breaking even and threw a lot of food away.

I also eat more on the DDP, vs OOP. Hard to skip out when you have already paid the Mouse in advance. Even prior to the 2 snacks change, we brought home a lot of candy and treats.
 
Actually, the tip can be quite different paying OOP vs. DDP. If you are going to order all the parts of the DDP anyway, then it is the same, but if you don't want to eat the way the DDP dictates, it does make a difference. For our family, we would not order four desserts; we would order one. Giving the desserts a $7 value, that's almost $4 in tips for every meal. That's an extra snack for someone.

One more. For our upcoming trip, DH and I are doing a date dinner at Skipper's Canteen. If on the DDP, we'd have to order two entrees, drinks, and desserts to make the plan valuable. What we really want are several of the apps and maybe one dessert. Total for what we WANT is $46, so about $8.30 in tips. If we were using the DDP, the very least amount would be $56, so a tip of $10. And I guarantee you, we wouldn't be ordering the least expensive entrée if on the DDP, so our total would be closer to $80 and a tip of $$14.

Just wanted to show that paying using any dining plan will probably increase your total tip amount.
This was a great explanation! Thanks
 
I am also going "Free" Dining time and actually upgraded to the deluxe. For us again its about paying off our trip a month prior to going and only having the tips to worry about. I might save and I might lose but to be able to go and order anything I want off the menu and not worry about the price is priceless to me. I will order what I feel like that day regardless of weather I am under/over the price for the day. This is a debate with no wrong or right answer from anybody because to each there own on what you and your family likes to do. We are all winners by getting to go to the place we love.
 
I am also going "Free" Dining time and actually upgraded to the deluxe. For us again its about paying off our trip a month prior to going and only having the tips to worry about. I might save and I might lose but to be able to go and order anything I want off the menu and not worry about the price is priceless to me. I will order what I feel like that day regardless of weather I am under/over the price for the day. This is a debate with no wrong or right answer from anybody because to each there own on what you and your family likes to do. We are all winners by getting to go to the place we love.
Amen. Well said!
 
:flower1::flower1:
I just returned from a 7 day trip and brought $1200 in gift cards to pay for meals. Everyone was able to order what they wanted, it was pre-paid, and I did ncot have to worry about using credits. For a 7 day trip with 4 adults, it ended up saving me $500-800 by NOT using the DDP.
That is a great idea! we have the free Dining Plan for our trip in December. It does not look like we will have the dining plan for 2018. the prepaid credit card is a great idea!:daisy::daisy:
 
I also went to Sam's Club and purchased $500 gift cards at a nice discount too. I used them to pay off my trip and for meals, so I got my points on my credit card and I also got a discount on my Disney purchases too.
Great idea! I'm going to try this!
 
I also went to Sam's Club and purchased $500 gift cards at a nice discount too. I used them to pay off my trip and for meals, so I got my points on my credit card and I also got a discount on my Disney purchases too.
Quick question.

Our Sam's Club only sells them in $150 increments. Does yours do different amounts?
 
Distripplanner includes tips in its calculations. By playing with the variables you can see how number of snacks/ desserts etc you would pay for oop changes how the ddp saves money or not. It also lists how much it assumes for each restaurant, so if some are way off for your family you could adjust at the end.
 
I agree - pen and paper are probably most accurate. You can see all menus and prices on the disney website - so plot out what you would typically eat and at what restaurants. Snacks you can probably average as $5 or you can search out those costs too. You have to tip whether on the DP or not at TS so i don't think i would even factor that in. The tax i am not sure what they charge.

I have also done a comparison between what we would typically eat and what the dining plan would save -- I would come out ahead OOP vs DP because i would never get soda in a restaurant nor would i eat dessert at every TS meal. I wouldn't get the refillable mugs because we usually are not at the resort much. When my kids turned Disney adults is when the dining plan no longer made sense.

It makes the most sense if you have disney kids (under 9yo) and are planning on some of the expensive character meals. Other than that it is just a convenience thing. I believe the dining plan many moons ago did save you $$ but now it does not and if leave with unused credits then it is just money in disney's pocket. I recall reading someone making a great point -- what if someone in your traveling party gets sick and can not get to the meals or eat their snacks -- well you have already paid for it so you might lose out on a significant amount if $$ with unused credits.
 
I agree - pen and paper are probably most accurate. You can see all menus and prices on the disney website - so plot out what you would typically eat and at what restaurants. Snacks you can probably average as $5 or you can search out those costs too. You have to tip whether on the DP or not at TS so i don't think i would even factor that in. The tax i am not sure what they charge.

I have also done a comparison between what we would typically eat and what the dining plan would save -- I would come out ahead OOP vs DP because i would never get soda in a restaurant nor would i eat dessert at every TS meal. I wouldn't get the refillable mugs because we usually are not at the resort much. When my kids turned Disney adults is when the dining plan no longer made sense.

It makes the most sense if you have disney kids (under 9yo) and are planning on some of the expensive character meals. Other than that it is just a convenience thing. I believe the dining plan many moons ago did save you $$ but now it does not and if leave with unused credits then it is just money in disney's pocket. I recall reading someone making a great point -- what if someone in your traveling party gets sick and can not get to the meals or eat their snacks -- well you have already paid for it so you might lose out on a significant amount if $$ with unused credits.


Well stated !
 
There are a lot of variables, but as others have indicated what makes the biggest difference is character meals. I analyzed the numbers for my family of 4 for 6 nights. If we paid oop and bought exactly what we would get with the dining plan it would only save money or break even if we did at least 4 character meals. Less than 4 character meals and we lose money.
 
Yes, the gift cards were an interest free loan for ME! And.....I was paid by my credit card to use their interest free loan. Sam's club gift card discounts and my points back on my CC are nice and helps me to keep more of my money....to give to the mouse in other ways. Free dining is not "free" either......FYI.

Please help me understand the savings. We don't have Sam's Club where I live, we have Costco, so I can't go to the store and check it out.

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?
 

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