MomOTwins
The Mommy Fairy
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2018
I am a bit of a cheerleader for how if your family likes to do character meals and buffets, and your kids are still under the age cutoff or kids, the DDP is an incredible deal. I did the math on our upcoming trip and wanted to share, because I so often see the opposite themed post about how it's impossible to save money on the DDP.
We are staying 5 nights, regular DDP, 2 adults, 3 kids, for a total DDP cost of $1,174.60
We are eating dinners at the following 5 table service restaurants, with the following after tax prices, not including alcohol or specialty drinks. For the record, we booked this vacation last Thursday and are arriving next week, and still got rezzies at the times we like to eat (between 5:30 and 6:30pm) at all of these locations, so it is not as though we had to plan our vacation 180 days ahead to do this.
Storybook/Artist Point: $58.75 adult; $35.15
Hollywood & Vine Fantasmic: $61.77 adult; $37.28 kid
Biergarten: $43.67 adult; $23.43 kid
Akershus: $62.84 adult; $37.28 kid
Tusker House: $50.06; $29.82 kid
Total Price for TS meals: $1,043.05
So the DDP cost is only $131.55 more than the table service meals alone. My husband and I do enjoy wine or cocktails, and we do let the kids get the specialty kids drinks a few times over the course of the trip as a special treat at Disney World, which will basically (if not more than) cover that difference. Which means we are essentially getting all of our counter service meals, plus ten snacks a day, for free.
The real factor here is, as you might notice, all but one of the kid meal prices above is more than the full day cost of the kids dining plan ($27.98 per day). So this does not work nearly as well if your kids are considered disney adults. But for our family with small kids who LOVE character meals (yes, I know biergarten isn't one, but there is still a fun show the kids like), I was actually surprised how much we saved.
We are staying 5 nights, regular DDP, 2 adults, 3 kids, for a total DDP cost of $1,174.60
We are eating dinners at the following 5 table service restaurants, with the following after tax prices, not including alcohol or specialty drinks. For the record, we booked this vacation last Thursday and are arriving next week, and still got rezzies at the times we like to eat (between 5:30 and 6:30pm) at all of these locations, so it is not as though we had to plan our vacation 180 days ahead to do this.
Storybook/Artist Point: $58.75 adult; $35.15
Hollywood & Vine Fantasmic: $61.77 adult; $37.28 kid
Biergarten: $43.67 adult; $23.43 kid
Akershus: $62.84 adult; $37.28 kid
Tusker House: $50.06; $29.82 kid
Total Price for TS meals: $1,043.05
So the DDP cost is only $131.55 more than the table service meals alone. My husband and I do enjoy wine or cocktails, and we do let the kids get the specialty kids drinks a few times over the course of the trip as a special treat at Disney World, which will basically (if not more than) cover that difference. Which means we are essentially getting all of our counter service meals, plus ten snacks a day, for free.
The real factor here is, as you might notice, all but one of the kid meal prices above is more than the full day cost of the kids dining plan ($27.98 per day). So this does not work nearly as well if your kids are considered disney adults. But for our family with small kids who LOVE character meals (yes, I know biergarten isn't one, but there is still a fun show the kids like), I was actually surprised how much we saved.