Wow, Bekah, I cant believe we didn’t talk to each other about the specifics of what we were going to say but I feel like our two videos work perfectly together!! Great job and I’m so glad we did this together!!!! 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
I save a few hundred a month in a separate Disney fund account. I then use the Disney visa with Tables in Wonderland. I pay off the credit card with the funds saved. Win all the way around. We get to order what we want, it’s “already paid for”, I get a discount (TIW), and points using the Disney visa.
I loved this video along with Jen's! After watching yours, I am thinking the Disney Gift Card strategy sounds like the best of both worlds -- buy a Disney Gift Card (through BJ's of course to save money) for the amount you would spend on the Dining Plan plus tips, and then do what you want! If you don't end up using every dollar, you have money left over on a gift card to use for hotel charges, souvenirs, or to save and put toward the next trip! I am definitely doing this next time -- why obsess over if you are getting your money's worth the whole time? The point of the Dining Plan (for me) is to be able to let go and enjoy yourself without worrying about what it costs. Thank you for doing this and for all your opinions.
We love the dining plan mostly because we enjoy feeling like all our meals are paid for before we get there. We don't feel pressured to choose the most expensive items because, honestly, we never really run the numbers. We do it so we don't have to think about how much we're spending on food. I'm sure we would probably be better off just buying a Disney gift card with my Target red card & using that for food.
That’s great! I think that’s how the DDP is supposed to be used haha, but crazy people like me add up every penny 😅 It definitely gives your vacation that all inclusive feel, which we loved!
We are planning our first trip as a family to Disney world and we are wanting to pre-pay our food and it doesn’t hit your pocket book all at once when you pay your vacation off over 14 months. I love planning and I think that’s one reason I like the Disney Dinning Plan. I don’t feel pressure to buy the most expensive thing and I am ok losing a little money on the Dinning plan, I would lose 8-15% on interest if I put my meals on a credit card and pay it off after my vacation instead of pre-paying for my dinning. So even if I lose 10% of my dinning plan cost, I’d be ok with that, because I would lose that or more if I put my meals on a credit card. We are doing the Deluxe and we are looking forward to the food at Disney and are excited to try a lot of signature restaurants, Be our Guest, and eating at the castle. It’s a lot of money, but I ran the numbers looking at the menus and even with the cost I think we will break even or come out ahead. I just found your channel and love it, as a compulsive planner I like getting as much information as I can. My advise is don’t let the Dinning Plan dictate your vacation, it’s a tool just learn how to weld it.
I travel with a group of adults, two couples and me. If we use the dining plan, all of our points are together and we have one receipt. If we paid individually we have the hassle of separate checks and sometimes are told that we can't split a bill, or share a plate between bills. Using the dining plan is convenient for us. We take turns paying the tip, and this works out for us
Your honest analysis is great. Yes you saved money based on what you bought, and you ate at a nice sit-down every night. But you also felt you had to do that! And you missed the fun of 50s Prime Time. I always tell my wife when she says she saved 40% on some sale item, yeah, but you spent the other 60%!! Found you through Jen, and I totally get why you and she would connect. Great video, subscribed.
I was able to grab the free dining promotion for my trip in my December so I’m curious if it actually saved me anything. I did have to add park hopper and pay the extra cost to upgrade to the dining plan vs quick service. The main reason for us getting the dining plan was because my husband wanted it to feel more all inclusive. So it’s more for peace of mind for us versus a way to save.
Found you through Jen's channel, this was a great idea for a collab! And you are lovely! I've never done the dining plan myself, but I feel like I want to do this experiment on myself over my next couple WDW trips!
I loved these videos between you and Jen! Thank you so much for the information and your honest thoughts about the dining plan. It was super helpful!! I’ve always wondered whether I would ever do one of the plans just to experiment myself but I’m not sure if I’ll take that plunge. I do like my flexibility to get things I want. Thanks again! Loveeeee.
So glad this was helpful! ☺️ There really is no right or wrong way, so that’s what makes it so tricky when deciding to use it or not. It was definitely fun to experiment with it! 👍🏼
Thanks for putting the numbers on the screen. That really helped. We’ve gone both with and without the dining plan. It really depends on where you plan to eat. Character meals and buffets are so expensive. Also choosing lunch for table service meals helps to save money.
Isn’t Jen the best?!?? Great video collaboration! Excellent information and I agree that sometimes on the dining plan you feel “obligated “ to order so that you don’t feel like you’ve wasted money.
I agree with your video to an extent. What I mean is if someone was going to Disney World/Land during a “downtime” I would load a gift card to pay for the meals while I’m there because it gives the illusion of prepaying for a meal but also having the freedom to pick what to eat. But if someone was to go during a festival time I would choose the dining plan because they would get the most out of it there trying the different deserts, drinks and foods. We went last year at the end of summer ( not recommended LOL) and we had credits left over at the end of our trip. This year we are going in the beginning of December and feel like we will get our money’s worth with the Christmas festivals using the dining plan! Overall great video.
This is a really great video on the Dining plan, I love your honesty and I love that you kept track of your receipts to see the difference. Thanks so much for sharing this with us!
We get the deluxe dining plan, it's 3 adults, one being a almost teen, I have to be honest, I feel it's worth it, mainly for the fact of not worrying about cost of everything. We are the type that after a day at any park, we just want to sit down, relax and be served, and in the morning, we still enjoy the character breakfast, although you are very correct, you kinda of feel forced to get the most expensive thing on the menu, I really feel that's part of the fun, enjoyment and for lack of a better word word, the excitement of being at Disney and on vacation, being able to do what you normally wouldn't do in our every day normal life. definitely the snacks and quick meals are worth it for lunch and such. plus, the mug is nice, but agree with you, you're lucky if you use it maybe once a day, lol.We will be going back this March and I think I will do what you all did, and keep track of what the totals are and see if it really is worth it or not. just an fyi though, we did eat at 50's prime time and even with the plan, definitely worth it, a lot of the places work with you and the dining plan, maybe give you something extra just to make up for you not using the plan to it's fullest, BUT, not all places, 50's is worth it either way though. Thanks for the insight and excellent video
I said this on Jen's video, there is more to the dining plan than the raw numbers. For the most part, people will not save money on the dining plan, as they will leave credits (full meals/snacks) on the table at the end of the trip. If you are a person (family) who plans on doing the average credit allotment per day, you probably can maximize your savings. but 1-2 quick service and 1-3 table service a day, plus 2 snacks is quite a bit of food. but if you can make that commitment, you probably can come out ahead. Now if you start factoring in you want an appetizer here, or something extra there, it really does start to diverge. another factor is if you have discounts from things like AP, DVC or Tables in Wonderland. If you take 10% out of the snacks/quick service, and 20% of table service (and factor in that you are paying 18% in tips now with TiW) the numbers probably start to look more competitive. But, if you place a value on prre-paying for your meals, and loving that "all inclusive" feel where you can order that 45$ steak today, and the $17 chicken tomorrow, how much does that "cost" what's that monetary value to throw into your "out of pocket" expenses vs. the dining plan cost? so really, it's up to each family (peson, group..ya know) to sit down, examine their eating habbits, and lay out all of these factors. so much work to do for a vacation, some might say. me? psersonally, i'm a planner and love looking at spreadsheets up front so i can have a "relaxing" disney vacation.
Tips are extra no matter what. I don't think you should even compare prices using this. Next, the extra you paid for meals outside the plan because you stayed an extra day also is not a fair comparison. That is like adding in food at the airport on the way home. Just my thought... Still a good video even with these items. Thanks for sharing...
I don't think it's that simple. It really depends on the difference in how you eat on the DDP vs not. If you normally wouldn't eat at table service without DDP but you go that direction because it's a credit now, then you'll end up paying at tip there when you wouldn't have at quick service. Our family only ate at one table service restaurant during out week at Disney, but we probably would have done a lot more if we had had DDP, and those tips will add up. If you were going with table service anyway, then you're absolutely correct--they don't need to be a part of the math.
I totally agree! My husband and I have used the dining plan on our last two trips but we don't really like the lack of flexibility. We are going in March and are not using the dining plan so I can't wait to compare my own two experiences!
My wife and I are trying this out starting tomorrow, 10/30/2018. We have used a dinning plan the last two years but we are not good with keeping a tally of the prices. We plan on sharing when we can and hopefully we save some money.
Look for additional savings, are you a DVC member, AP holder, Tablesin Wonderland? Do you have the Disney Visa card? Not sure if DV gives food credit, but worth a shot.
I agree with you that with the plan you feel like you have to get the most expensive items to make it worth it. We looked at menus before we went and realized this. We want to eat what we want, so we cancelled the plan and went out of pocket. We saved well over $400 for 10 days. Another thing we found was that there were so many snacks we wanted that were not eligible on the plan, so those would have been out of pocket anyway... then would we be hungry for more snacks from the plan? Great video, and these are the things that newbies need to know when planning their trip cuz the plan isn't good for everyone. You have to figure out what works best for your family cuz depending on how you plan to eat, you can save pretty significant money both by getting it or not getting it... which is weird, but why it's good for some and not others.
When my kids were very young and we went to Disney, we did the quick service meal plan. I didn't bother to figure it out whether the cost was worth it. My kids barely ate back then. We might do the regular or deluxe next time though. Your info was very useful. My husband and son can eat shrimp and lobster and steak. I hate all that kind of stuff so my meals would likely not be as expensive. I will so watch the other video you mentioned. I am sure that will help me decide. Thanks.
I've used the quick service dining plan on the majority of my trips. I never wanted to be tied down to reservations, so quick service is for us. It has save us a bundle, and peace of mind. I like to buy lots of merchandise, so not having to worry about money for meals has been wonderful. We have done some sit down meals, but I choose a character dining experience as a treat. The quick service menus are not all "fast food" either. At our resort, our favorite quick service meal was roast turkey for me, and salmon for my hubby. So quick service can be very tasty.
Good video -- I'm weighing the pros and cons of the DDP for a trip in 2021. I think a good rule of thumb is to try and hit the average per day cost of the plan it's not so bad -- maybe one day you go way over while other days you're a little under. For those who are out there to have as much prepaid as possible so you're not stressing at the end of the trip when you're near your budget limit.
Thanks all the videos. This is my first trip to Disney World and Disney Cruise for my wife our kids and her sister (6 total). August 1st isn't coming fast enough. We were looking into the dining plan and I have a very IMPORTANT tip. In looking at the dining plan we felt that the plan that gives each of us 2 snack credits, 1 quick service, & 1 Table service fit us best. When the Disney Agent informed me of the price ($1216.00) for the 6 of us for 3 days we then looked at some of the menus online for meal pricing. Today (July 11) I called Disney reservations to purchase the dining plan. In the discussion with the Agent I literally Asked the agent, "Is the price of $1216.00 of the dining plan the best possible price for the 6 of us?" After a brief hold (15 minutes) the agent then came back was able to drop the price of the dining plan for us to $898.00 for the 6 of us for the days we will be at Disney World. Thats a $319.00 savings. Yahoo now that's something I can sink my teeth into. lol.
I agree with your final comment about would you really spend that money if you weren't on the plan? I see people saying it feels all inclusive but to me its like going on a cruise and getting the drink package. We just don't eat this amount of food per day so I do what someone said below and use a gift card to manage what we spend on food. On our last trip some days we only spent $30-50 to eat a day for 2 of us. We may splurge on one sit down meal but we don't eat this much food in our normal lives so we don't eat that much at disney either. I'm glad you were honest at the end of your review because thats how i feel about the dining plan. But some people love the ease and ability to just eat without thinking i guess.
Doing the math this way will always trick you into making the dining plan appear to save you money. As you eluded to, you need to spend the time at Disney, buy exactly what you want without the plan, and add that up. Chances are, it’ll cost you less than the dining plan does. You are exactly right when you say the plan tricks you into ordering expensive stuff.
we did the quick service plan was this just the basic dining plan where u have to make reservation ? we didnt do the reservation dinners and suppers cause we didnt want to have to be there at certain time and such cause it was like we were rushing sometimes we might make one and pay out of pocket and such and this is great video on you explained it thanks for sharing
My family of four went to WDW last June and only spent a little over $400 on food for 5 days. We didn't scrimp we just didn't over eat. The dining plan isn't worth it for us.
DDP is always worth it if it's free! Otherwise, you have to decide that you are paying for the convenience of it. If you don't look at it that way, then you do end up feeling rather trapped. I have had the same experience and that's how I dealt with it.
I always do the Deluxe Dining Plan at WDW. We like going to a table service restaurant for lunch and then a Signature for dinner restaurant everyday. Can we just say Le Cellier rocks? Signature dining requires 2 meal credits, by the way. So you’re only eating at 2 restaurants a day. Believe me, you won’t want more than that especially since you get 2 snacks a day, too. On Deluxe Dining you get an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. Oh, and the alcoholic beverage. I don’t drink but someone in the party is always game for getting that alcohol drink. I really like being able to get the most expensive meal especially at the Signature places. Since it’s prepaid, I don’t think about the money so I don’t feel bad if I leave food on my plate. It is definitely a LOT of food but I feel you maximize your savings by doing Signature restaurants. And if you eat 3 times a day that’s pretty much all you’ll be doing. 😂🤣
Our Package Included the Deluxe Dining Plan for 2 adults and realized it was a LOT of food on our last day!... it was our first time using a dining plan. Since we were not too familiar with it, we had half the snack credits on our last day, plus we had a late start to our day. Had reservations only a few hours appart and only ended up eating half of our last meal... I agree, We would not have splurged into that amount of dining if it wasn’t for the dining pla... we are going back again this summer with our kids. It will be my wife, our 5 y/o, our 2 infants, and myself. Not sure if it would be worth getting the regular dining plan for 2 adults and 1 child. I feel like the kid won’t eat to $27 of her plan. Has anyone used it w/ kids before?
I’m glad you made this video! I’m a vegetarian, so I never end up ordering the most expensive items on a menu, ever. I’m not sure the dining plans would be worth it for as, even though we’re huge foodies. Thanks for the video!
The dining plan is great for our family, especially since we enjoy our snacks and character meals. We definitely save and I don’t order the most expensive things. What’s great about it that most forget to mention is that you’re also paying for convenience of not having to worry about budgeting your meals. It’s a great feeling to just go where you want, get what you want, get that Mickey pretzel, and not really think about it.
I have found the best value with the dining plan is when you have numerous kiddos in the 3-9 range, AND you plan to do a lot of character dinners. We saved over $1000... how? For example, the kid price for most character dinners is in the $30+ range. The cost of the kid meal plan per day is $28. Right there, with that one dinner, you save $2. We would be doing the character dining regardless, since it was our first trip and we wanted all of them. We had 4 kids ages 9, 7, 6 and 4. We had a 9 night trip. So aside from the $30+ character dinner, add in a quick service meal for $12+, and two mickey bars at $6 each. Per kid, per day that is $54+ on meals that we paid only $28 per day for. That is a savings of $26+ per day, x4 kids, x9 days. Total savings of $936. And I do know my husband and myself saved as well, not as much per day as the kids but for example, I love starbucks and get it with extra shots and coconut milk. Starbucks for me was $9 a drink, and it was a snack credit. We got 4 of these starbucks a day between the 6 of us. Plus throw in more expensive quick service meals, and the refillable mugs. Our savings was close to $1100. So if just adults, it is hard to save money. But with kids, omg the savings are totally there. We also decided to splurge on this trip, it was so nice not telling my kids no when they wanted expensive snacks. So if you have lots of kids in the 3-9 range the meal plan will save you.
We've always managed to get free dining every time we go (in the UK) So I've never had to worry about getting my money's worth - but we say every time, we'd never eat so much food if we weren't on the ddp! We'd share a lot of drinks and snacks, not have so many sit down meals and look for lighter, cheaper lunches when in the parks. Some days we we're so weighted down with food we just wanted to go home for a lie down lol. I'm sure we would only eat what we needed if we paid oop and we'd save loads
I'm the same way on the dining. I feel like I have to order the most expensive thing. I'm not a big fan of the dining plan but sometimes it makes sense to buy it. We have two small kids and if we do character meals, sometimes the math makes sense. I plan where I want to eat for table service meals and add up what I think we will each order. That total is a deciding factor on whether or not we purchase the dining plan.
I appreciated this video! Thank you. I’ve never used the DDP before. I think it would be most worthwhile if you are planning on staying on Disney property for the duration of your vacation: if, for instance, you were to head to Universal or another property, you would still be paying daily for Disney meals. If I’m correct, you could still use those missed credits on your Disney days... i.e. 2 table service meals in a day and extra snack credits as well. I’m full thinking about it!
Thanks for watching! Agreed, if you plan to factor in a day at Universal, the DP might not be the best fit. If you’re at the Disney parks every day, it’s awesome if you love eating a lot and often, haha!
As Florida residents, we have the annual passes, which usually give us a 10% discount at most of the restaurants, and I use my Target card and buy Disney gift cards [using the Target credit card at Target gets you a 5% discount on your purchases], so that gets us a 15% discount.
Wow, you did really well, especially the values that you got on your quick service meals, that was incredible. We had the dining plan this year as well, and we had the same impressions as you did on trying to maximize the values by getting the more expensive items and the alcoholic beverages. We also saved money by having the plan, but not sure we would do it again. Also we had the deluxe plan a few years ago for a short trip, and it was just way too much food and way too much time spent in restaurants. The deluxe plan is so much more expensive that it is even harder to get the value out of it unless you do three table service meals each day, with alcohol, I love Jen’s videos as well. Keep up with the good videos!
FYI use your snack credits for something more expensive next time..the Disney food blog said that most people don't use it correctly and use it on cheap things under $7. And to use QS on breakfast
Helped a lot, I’m going to pass on plan. Seems many people have same thought that if they didn’t lose money on dining plan they had to force themselves to get more than they would have anyways if they weren’t on a plan...
Thank you for making this video. I'm considering buying it for a trip we are planning. I don't like overpaying for meals and theme park food is certainly overpriced. But I feel the dining plan liberates me to buy anything I want. Even if what I want is cheaper, with the meal plan I don't have to worry about it. When I'm on vacation I want whatever I want without having to worry about it. Steak every night for me. Even if we lose money I don't care. I just don't want to worry about the cost.
For us we aren’t into rides,we don’t park hop,we are skipping mouse keeping,we are saving on travel since we live close enough to drive and won’t be buying any items from the shops. For us it makes sense to splurge on the food. However that for sure won’t the case for everyone. Many factors can go into the decision making. I feel like your video is helpful for everyone. If the kids only eats chicken strips and fries the family is better off probably skipping the plan. If on vacation a person orders a cocktail with their meals anyways then it probably best to get the dining. Then in my opinion the question is will the be your first/likely only trip ? Or is the person going to be back every quarter? Then I would say skimp on food each trip and pay for annual passes. So many variables 😂
Hey Bekah! 😀 How've you been? Great video. I was going to say, instead of using a snack credit for coffee, you should use your refillable souvenir mug for the coffee. For our upcoming trip, I was calculating the cost for two of our meals without the dining plan, just to cost compare, and for two of our meals came to about $182/ person. So, for us, I am thinking the dining plan would save us.
Awesome to see this! Was debating the deluxe .... I think it’ll be worth it staying 9 days and for food and wine.... I can use credits for the signature dining, then I don’t have to worry about too much food... just use the credits for two credit evening meals. Unless the standard is free!
@@Cccoast what I have found is the free dining plan is usually the basic one quick service credit. Then you also have to figure with that, there's not as great of a savings discount on the room itself. So, just have to weigh out which is the better value; saving on the meal plan with the basic dining, or saving more on the room and getting the higher end dining plan.We did the deluxe dining plan and did a lot of signature and character dining. Next time we may opt to do the basic dining plan an split a meal. That is what my wife and I typically do anyway locally.
That is a LOT of information. BUT!!! It is all GOOD information. My son is paying for the food when we finally get over to the "DISNEYS" so i'm trying to make it as easy as possible. We will have a few charachter dinings but knowing him, he will prefer quick service and snacks. I am thinking of getting prepaid visa cards and loading them before we leave which seems to be what you did for the arrival and departure days. I'm looking at the figures you and Jen came up with and WOW! Yours is probably closer to the way we would eat and it still works out to nearly $200 a day in US dollars. Unfortunately it is 2020 (18 months after you posted this) and the world is topsy turvey so we have cancelled the booked trip for another 12 months, that gives us more time to padd those prepaid cards. STAY SAFE.
I am going for this year's Food & Wine, for two weeks(split stay with a couple days off property between). For me, I have come to see the Disney Dining Plan as something akin to cruise ship dining, minus the seconds. It's good to have that peace of mind, especially for someone like me who will typically order the lamb, duck, or dine in a few signature restaurants(I think I have 3 or 4 planned for my trip).
So true! My husband is like you... he’s all about the duck or filet, so the dining plan makes total sense for him. The DP was great to have during food & wine, so you will definitely appreciate those snack credits! 👌🏼☺️
Something my husband and I do is we share a meal like breakfast or lunch and then go to a signature restaurant that uses 2 credits for a really nice dinner. Also a quick service can be used for 3 snacks. So we will get two pastries and a coffee and walk around animal kingdom.
Excellent video. Next time, jot down what you would have ordered so you could know for sure whether you would have actually saved money. Might be that you would be close to break even because you would have spent less on tips and tax as well. Fascinating!!
Hey Bekah, I'm going in December and we just always get the quick service plan, and we just pick and choose if we want to have a sit down dinner...if I purchase a Disney gift card now in advance of our trip, will I be able to use it at Resort restaurants and Disney springs ? That way I won't have that credit card bill later... Thanks, Geo.
Yes! Disney gift cards can be used at the resorts and Disney Springs! It’s a such a great way to pre-budget for your trip 👌🏼 We would always charge any extra costs to our magic bands, and then use the gift card to pay it off each night ☺️
Thanks for this information. We got the DDP our last trip but are debating not getting it the next trip in February 2019. We felt like it forced us to eat too much and also lose some park time because we had to set up reservations. I didn't like feeling like I had to make TS reservations everyday when we were in the park, where we could have just grabbed something quick and went on more attractions. You guys know how it is when the line for Space Mountain has been at 75 minutes all day then all of a sudden it's down to 20 but you have to be at Chef Mickeys in 10 minutes lol (true story)
We just booked for our trip next year and booked the deluxe plan because we don't want to bother with prices, haha. We want the option to eat the high end stuff, and don't want to stress out about a food budget. To each their own. :)
Great video,love Jen...I always use the dining plan and seems to work for my family,I also use the rewards from my Disney Visa card to cover the tips .
If you had the regular dining plan how did you have 5 snack credits in that one day? I've never used the dining plan, but I thought it was just 2 snacks, 1 counter, 1 sit down. We got the regular dining plan for our trip this December. We thought it would be great because we want to try all the holiday food, and eat at fancy restaurants! I'm definitely going to save our receipts after watching this!
Great question! You each have 2 snacks per day, but you’re able to disperse the credits throughout your trip however you like ☺️ So one day we only used 1 snack each, the next we could use 3 snacks each. You pretty much get a pool credits for however many nights your stay is 👍🏼
I never did dining plan but always doubt if it was a good option for me and my family, after your video is so clear what you said that you feel pressure to eat everything you already paid and more the expensive stuff, that perhaps you wouldn't eat all that food if you weren't on the dining plan. Perhaps it also has to do with the importance that food has on your vacation, if it does then dining plan may be a good option. thanks for your videos!
To stay consistent with your collab, the tips should have been added in, that makes the total plan "cost" $744. Really the moral is you need to plan and you need to get your money's worth. Great video and so glad you shared actual costs.
This is what I been trying to explain to people. My husband and I naturally like expensive things from food to designer clothes lol. I eat healthy at home and buy keto organic foods. Sometimes Paleo. I have 5 kids! My kids are scavengers. They eat all day and everyone keeps telling me that my kids can share ya right. What you said about using your own money and looking for cheapest plate won't work either for us. If we went on vacation or gone to Disneyland Anaheim on a budget we would never buy food at the park and limit cash. There's no point in going to wdw on a tight budget . We are doing the regular Disney dinning plan with 5 kids 3 are Disney adult and three 18 and over. 5 nights 6 days Sept 2020
So if you do the regular dining plan. When you go to a restaurant you can order a appetizer, your main meal and a dessert and it’s all considered one credit?
I made a very lengthy comment on Jen's page so I won't do that here, but I will reiterate that I love these real-world DDP discussions with numbers. We have saved twice using the DDP, but next trip we're going to not use it and try AP and TIW discounts and see how that works. That being said, as a numbers geek I ran the total numbers if you had gone ahead and gotten the DDP for the extra night and used it for all your OOP meals. You would have 4 snack credits left over, still paid CG OOP, and only saved $58.80 (not including what getting those 4 snack credits would've cost....probably about $20) That sounds like not enough savings to justify what you called "guilty-eating" and only looking at the $$ instead of what you really wanted to eat. We did the same thing a few times this last trip and that's why our next trip will be sans DDP. Thanks for the great video!
Very interesting! Yes, I did the math as well before our trip and found that paying out of pocket for those meals was the best option 👌🏼 You really can find ways to save with and without the DDP! Thanks for watching!
I've seen both your clip and Jen's and I will say this flat out that the Dining Plan will only save a small amount of money for a small amount of people. I understand the convenience of not having to worry about paying out of pocket when you eat. But at the same time, you're paying out of pocket whether you have the Dining Plan or not when you think about it. And in my opinion, they're don't provide much value for most people because most people tend to have too many credits left over at the end of their trips thus no value. I go to Disney World every year, if not, every other year and for me personally, I've NEVER used the Dining Plan because of two reasons, loss of flexibility and no value. You said so yourself Bekah that you wouldn't have used the Dining Plan because you wouldn't be able to get the food you really really wanted. Like you said, it depends on what kind of trip you're going to be taking. But with prices for the Dining Plans going up, its going to be even more difficult to find any value.
I watched both vlogs these comparisons are ok, but the most important thing for people to decide is how much do they really eat and what they really WANT to eat. I will say between the two videos, YOURS was the fairest of the two. That being said people need to go to my first point...pick what you really want to make a true personal comparison and you did nail it at the end. Contrary to my point I really enjoyed this video. Great job! .
We had the dining plan for 10 nights. Omg, it was so much food and by the end of it...my son said let's not get the plan again. So many times I wanted to get a nice salad or a pasta dish but I know I would lose money on it. The dining plan makes you eat a certain way and that's why I've never gotten again. I do not want to eat steak everyday. I probably eat steak one per month. I don't want dessert at every table service. Sometimes I want to wait later and get a dole whip or cupcake later.
NurseRhonda44 The 1st time we went to WDW we had the deluxe plan for a 4 adults & one 9 year child. It was TOO Much food. Our mini fridge was filled w/ all these deserts nobody wanted to eat. We left w/ 10 meals I couldn’t use. (Now I know I could of converted them into 3 snack credits.) Also had 35 snacks credits we never used. So I was buying up 35 Mickey rice crispy treats to take home as gifts for the co-workers.
Great question! Even though the receipt you’re given says you owe $0 when using a dining credit, they make sure to list your total at the bottom so you know how much to tip ☺️
When we did the same thing with keeping track of the numbers, I just noted on my phone how much each item was on the menu, and added it all up manually at the end.
The more you pay for your meal, the higher the tip comes out to be. I personally think people should try to break even with the cost of the dining plan just to get their money's worth, but also lower your cost for tips.
$900 a week on food is goals! haha Hope you're doing well Bekah. I've been seeing your vlog. You're on your way to 1k subs, don't forget us small people! Have you heard of DisneyIRLtv? I hear a Star Wars world will open in Land 2019, it's on my future radar. My goal has been owning a certain amount of Stock that pays a dividend amount equal to what I'd spend on vacations a year. Anyways keep on the vids!
I will be going this summer and with 5 of us it would be $250 a day. Too much for me. I have finicky eaters, so we eat at the quick service places, in that way we have more time for attractions. We have lunch back in our room, share meals, so we can eat more snacks. Why do you use 2 resorts?
New sub from Jen's channel! Well done and I look forward to viewing your other vlogs! Good luck to you! We have utilized the dining plan before, but prefer not to use it. Our last trip we bought gift cards and still felt like it was prepaid!
Yay! Thanks for watching! I think we’re going to try the gift card route on our next trip as well ☺️ Same pre-paid feeling, and we might spend less money!
New sub here, from Jen's channel! Love that you guys did this. I'm going to have to do some numbers and figure out if I should try this next trip without DDP!
Great video, I thought about the dining plan the first time we went to Disney but had little bit of sticker shock(being our first trip) and since then I have really paid attention to our spending and a dining plan has never been worth it for us and on vacation we eat what we want. This was a great video, it was very interesting. Just subscribed (your welcome I brought you off the 666:} lol
I will be happy to order the filets and ribeyes so I think I will be happy with the Dining Plan. I’ve already made reservations at my table Service Restaurants.
It seems like it maybe different for everybody, if your fine in making the most out of the dining plan you will save, but if your a more spontaneous eat where and what you want person then the dining plan may not be the best fit.
Sometimes the food you order is so expensive, when comes to the tip it is as much as going to eat in a quick service ... so if you have a budget never buy the table service
Are you counting the Alcoholic Drinks in those totals. You get a drink with dinner, and lunch. My wife likes those expensive drinks like cosmos that cost over 15. each X 2 plus my drinks beer 8.00 X2.
The food and wine festival completely invalidates the comparison. The average family will not be doing that event and get stuck with 18 bags of Disney trail mix or gummy bears Glad to see the honesty regarding what you would buy with or with out the plan.
I do want to add though that while Food and Wine is not happening, Festival of the Arts, Flower and Garden, and Epcot Internation Festival of the Holidays happen during other times of the year. The only time a Festival is not happening is for 2.5 months during the summer, so it's actually more likely a family WOULD hit a festival rather than not! Food for thought LOL
Yeah there's pretty much always a festival happening in Epcot with food booths, we'll be there for festival of the holidays and there's lots of food booth items available for snack credit during that festival, it's not just food & wine.
Good video but you would save more money without the dining plan if you eat healthier options or light or small dishes. I got the dining plan in Aug, and noticed I could have paid out of pocket for less. I think the dining plan only works for foodies that go to higher priced restaurants.
Found your Vlogs thanks to Jen-I agree with what she says below...So hard to compare for many variables. Never thought of getting a gift card for tips, but I am going in two weeks and I think I might do that!
Gift cards come in $25, $50 and $100 amounts. The Disney servers are very used to seeing them and you just write on the bill how much you are going to give as a tip and they deduct it from the gift card -- just like you'd use a credit card. And if you use your Target credit card at Target to purchase the gift cards, you get that 5% off, which is nice. Of course, if you don't get a Dining package, stock up on the gift cards and pay for your meal and tip with them. -- If you spend, say, $800 on food and pay for it with the gift cards, you'll have saved $40.
I would tend to agree and disagree with your assessment. It really has to do with your reasons for going with the dining plans. My last trip I used the deluxe pining plan. I ended up saving on every meal more than enough to cover the tips. Mostly because the value of each dining credit is lower than the table service credits on the Disney dining plan. So I didn’t need to have the most expensive meal on the menu. But for me the real value was in the convince of having pre-paid for my meals and snacks. Plus I could eat at 2 credit restaurants without worrying about the cost. But I rarely ate the most expensive meal. I ate what I wanted. You don’t have to get alcoholic drinks. You can get specialty drinks like a shake or virgin mixed drink.
I love the DDP too but here’s a different breakdown of your analysis... Two people spent $971 on six days of meals... Let’s assume three meals a day. The math tells us that’s an average of $81 per meal ( I rounded up 6 cents per meal). I’m not sure the Rockefeller’s average $81 per meal. Know what I mean? The DDP is fun and it’s good because by the time you eat, you’ve already gotten your credit card bill and reconciled to the fact that food at Disney is insanely priced... so you’re over it and you can just enjoy the moment. I think that’s the reality.
The only time we've used the dining plan was when it was 'free' with a room upgrade. It was nice but when doing the math, it just doesn't work for the way we choose to eat while at Disney. I've looked at menus and priced what I thought we would spend on average per day and it just never works out to being worth the money. My child is getting older and maybe in the future we'll maybe decide we want to spend time enjoying dining and not park time which might make it worth it.
Free dining seems like the way to go when deciding the take advantage of the DDP! And I totally agree... sometimes after doing the math, it doesn’t make sense for your vacation. I’m glad we gave it a try though!
We are doing that dining plan in March 2019. Everything you said sounded EXACTLY like my feelings. Family members want to do this so we aren't always discussing who's paying for what, which can be awkward on vacation. My ADR's are the most expensive restaurants, some we would never do without being on the plan. So I guess that's good. Great video!
