NEW!!!! 2008 DDP Poll and comments About This Page:

[qesue]

While I love the idea of budgeting ahead for food, and the DDP certainly is convenient, we find that it's just not cost effective for our family of 5. Even with the 2007 plan, we saved over $300 by not using the plan. We ate T-S most days (6 out of 8). For us it comes down to the fact that paying adult rates for our 2 older kids (11 and 13) just isn't worth it. They usually order an appetizer as a meal or share a meal anyways. I WOULD love to try the DDP sometime if (when!) DH and I visit without the kids!

[TinkerbellSweetHeart]

I guess this is my opinon, I love the Disney Dining Plan ((the old one)) partially because we have not tried the new one. It was great, i mean the restaurants we get to try...it's pure heaven!! Now here is the downfall. I got ready to make my reservation and it was 1870 ((rounded to like the nearest cent)) and then i added dining plan to it, just the basic, and it hopped up to a whopping 2600+ that was CRAZY!! I didn't even add the waterpark yet. To make matters worse, in a case, maybe better... We decided to extend our stay, to 6 nights/7days, thats great and all until i hit the dreading Dining update button and that little baby popped up with a lovel 3400+ now i asked myself whats the matter with this, so i did it without dining...then with dining and subtracted it and got $1,093.22 how in the world would i EVER spend that much on food....someone please help me! there has to be a simple & logical explantion as to why my favorite part of disney is being stomped out by a 3400.00+ ticket!!! help me...

[TinkerbellSweetHeart]

BTW, it was yesterday i tried to make reservations for June and it done that to me, how much did they up the price??

[jhoshowski]

Actually, the DDP is $1 less per person than it was for 2007. Are you sure that you were looking at the basic DDP, not the deluxe one?

[TinkerbellSweetHeart]

Ok so i went back and done it this morning and got $2,241.00 before dining and $3,153.66 afterwards...that makes dining $912.66 thats outrageous. Couldsome please help me, i am heartbroken to think that we won't be able to do it. Oh, and yes, it is the Basic DDP (this is what it says)>>Your Current Selection: Magic Your Way Package Plus Dining. I just dont see how anyone can spend $912.66 on dining??

[TinkerbellSweetHeart]

ok so i broke it down and it made sense...i kind of answered my own question....but for anyone else who has the same problem... it is $912.66 ((go ahead and peel yourself off the floor)) BUT!! divide that by 6 ((amount of days)) you get $152.00 divide that by 4 ((amount of mouths to feed)) you get $38.00 then divide that by 3 ((number of meals a day)) and you get $12.66! which is per meal per person all week long, and that does make sense!! --bet you can tell i like numbers

[doccoc2002]

I have used the basic DDP and LOVED it! We used it when it was free and decided that even if it wasn't free it was well worth it. I will still use it with the changes. I don't care about the app, they give a lot of food anyway, and I would rather give the tip. Like others had said waiters seemed not to care about service when you are on the DP because they already got your tip. If they offer free dining with an upgrade, I might try that and see which one I like better. I would like to try the wine and dine, but my DH doesn't drink wine so I would have to drink the bottle myself(if we were alone might be good but not with the kids), maybe someday we will get a vacation by ourselves. We won't be able to go to Disney though. We would feel terribly guilty.

[doccoc2002]

Tinkerbell sweatheart just remember that 1 of those meals is a snack. It is still worth it. When we were there in 2006(free DDP), I saved all my receipts and added the totals to see if it was worth it. Like you I couldn't imagine spending that much money on food, that is why we went during free DDP promotion. We would of saved over $300 if we had to buy the DDP. So we would of spent over $1100 on food for 7 days. Granted we did go to CRT for breakfast that alone would of cost over $120(when you add tips even more). It took to 2TS meals but we weren't paying for it. We also did a lot of character breakfast(it was my DH first time to DisneyWorld and our DD3 & DD1 first trip to the DisneyWorld). So at first it may seem like a lot of money but you do save. I am a numbers person too so I did the same thing you did while researching the plan.

[TinkerbellSweetHeart]

We have used the DDP for the last 3 years and loved it... i was just in "sticker shock" you might say...to see such a big number!! but we are going ahead with it anyways!!

[TheGoof]

I sat down this weekend and ran the numbers.

We are going on the deluxe dining plan, because we like to eat mostly at Table Service with the occasional quickie counter service thrown in. I also like a full breakfast when I'm on vacation.

We are going from 4/18 - 4/27, but we are staying off-site the first night at the airport Hampton Inn (since we get there after midnight) and on the last night since we have a 6am flight home. We are staying at POFQ the rest of the stay.

So that means that we are staying 7 nights, with 3 of us at 69.99 per person that is $209.97 per day or $1469.70 for the stay.

We then looked at the menus from Allears and came up with some basics ideas of what we were likely to order for each meal that we had planned. We are not eating at places because of the dining plan, but the places we would have likely gone anyway.

This came to $1522.46 a savings of about $52 more or less. But we still have 4 credits per person to use for TS or CS, I arbitrarily assigned a value of $40 per meal (which equates to about $13.33 per credit) for the remaining credits. So that is a savings of another $160. The 3 refillable mugs are worth $39.72.

We will have 42 snacks, since these can be used for snacks up to $4, I chose to value them at $3.00, as I'm sure that some of the snacks we use will be for soda's / waters. That equates to $126.

Grand total savings is $378.39 over paying on my own for the same meals.

Now, if you are not going to want to eat 2 or 3 meals a day at table service, it will clearly not be a good plan. You have to run the numbers for yourself and base it on the way you are likely to eat.

Now with that we will still have several meals that are not covered, because we are staying off site the first night and we will probably try to eat breakfast and lunch offsite before we make it to the resort the first day.

In fact we have 8 meals (aside from the first day breakfast and lunch) that are not covered. But we expect to skip breakfast the day after MK EMH evenings since we will probably sleep in. We may do that again the morning after DHS EMH evening so that really leaves 6 meals, 4 of which we have credits for. So we may have to cover a couple of meals, probably counter service.

Oh the tips on the booked meals works out to $245, so the savings is more then enough to pay for the tips.

So for us it at least looks on paper to be a good deal.

The big question is whether or not we will eat all of the apps and desserts we assume we will. Even if we don't though we will defintely not come away having lost money, that just will eat into the savings.

[olendl01]

Thanks "TheGoof"! I have done my own break down for the cost effective choice of going for the DDP and I forgot to include some of what you included which makes me see this to be even a better deal!

[TheGoof]

That's great Debb, glad to hear it.

Just keep in mind that I'm on the Deluxe, some of what we get like the mugs are not included in the basic plan. I'm not sure which you are using.

[Disneyserver]

Originally Posted by TheGoof

I sat down this weekend and ran the numbers.

We are going on the deluxe dining plan, because we like to eat mostly at Table Service with the occasional quickie counter service thrown in. I also like a full breakfast when I'm on vacation.

We are going from 4/18 - 4/27, but we are staying off-site at the airport Hampton Inn (since we get there after midnight) and on the last night since we have a 6am flight home.

So that means that we are staying 7 nights, with 3 of us at 69.99 per person that is $209.97 per day or $1469.70 for the stay.

We then looked at the menus from Allears and came up with some basics ideas of what we were likely to order for each meal that we had planned. We are not eating at places because of the dining plan, but the places we would have likely gone anyway.

This came to $1522.46 a savings of about $52 more or less. But we still have 4 credits per person to use for TS or CS, I arbitrarily assigned a value of $40 per meal (which equates to about $13.33 per credit) for the remaining credits. So that is a savings of another $160. The 3 refillable mugs are worth $39.72.

We will have 42 snacks, since these can be used for snacks up to $4, I chose to value them at $3.00, as I'm sure that some of the snacks we use will be for soda's / waters. That equates to $126.

Grand total savings is $378.39 over paying on my own for the same meals.

Now, if you are not going to want to eat 2 or 3 meals a day at table service, it will clearly not be a good plan. You have to run the numbers for yourself and base it on the way you are likely to eat.

Now with that we will still have several meals that are not covered, because we are staying off site the first night and we will probably try to eat breakfast and lunch offsite before we make it to the resort the first day.

In fact we have 8 meals (aside from the first day breakfast and lunch) that are not covered. But we expect to skip breakfast the day after MK EMH evenings since we will probably sleep in. We may do that again the morning after DHS EMH evening so that really leaves 6 meals, 4 of which we have credits for. So we may have to cover a couple of meals, probably counter service.

Oh the tips on the booked meals works out to $245, so the savings is more then enough to pay for the tips.

So for us it at least looks on paper to be a good deal.

The big question is whether or not we will eat all of the apps and desserts we assume we will. Even if we don't though we will defintely not come away having lost money, that just will eat into the savings.

The Disney Dining plan is Only for Guests who stay at a Disney Hotel, You will not be able to Purchase the Dining plan staying at a Non Disney owned Hotel , FYI

[TheGoof]

I am only offsite the first and last night, and only because of flight times. Apparently I dropped a word in my sentence about arriving late and staying off site the first night because it will be after midnight. I don't want to go any farther then I have to to get to bed.

I am at Port Orleans FQ the 7 nights that I am on site and on the plan.

[galardia]

We used the DDP for six adults and four children in January, and saved money by doing so. It was so nice to have everything, but the tip, paid for in advance. We were all pleased with the quality of food and service. We will definitely use it again.