Dining Plan - Pros and Cons - Math Never Lies

We are fans of the dining plan but for us it's mostly the convenience factor and not having to worry if I have enough money to order what I really want. We will probably always use the plan for those reasons. Having said that I will say the value has gone down since we first starting using it. The first time we used it was in 2005 and not only was the entrée and dessert included but it also included an appetizer and tips. They took appetizer and tips off the next trip we took and lowered the price like $1 per person, not a huge savings really. Every year since then the price has gone up. They are now including the refillable mug so that makes it a little better if you are big soda or coffee drinker.

This type of post is a reoccurring theme on the forum for many, many, many years. I always find it a little funny. You have your "DDP is a waste crowd" and your "we love DDP crowd". The true answer is it all depends. Frankly if you pick to be on the DDP or not should not it should not matter to fellow WDW fans but somehow it does. Here are things we like about DDP that go beyond "the math" but bottom line is that everyone should make their choice based on what matters to your family.

1) The food is prepaid. If we were paying out of pocket I would probably buy the less expensive items on the menu (ie get the chicken instead of the steak reasoning). I would be thinking about the cost (thinking how much items cost and if the "extra" for the expensive menu item was worth it) instead of enjoying my vacation with my family. But with DDP I can get whatever I want on the menu and not worry about the price (because it is prepaid).

2) Dessert! We generally do not have dessert with every lunch and every dinner (does anyone?) throughout the year. BUT we are on vacation and it is fun to have dessert with our meal. If we were paying out of pocket we would not order dessert for most Disney meals but we can on the DDP because it is already included / paid for.

3) Restaurant selection. Again if paying out of pocket we would likely weigh the cost of the restaurant into the equation of where to eat. With the DDP we select the restaurant we want to eat at without regard of prices (with the exception of the 2 credit restaurants which we can always pay out of pocket if we choose).

4) Snacks. Some how the cost of snacks seldom is discussed in these posts. It is fun to have your favorite snack (dole whip, cupcake, pretzel, popcorn, etc.) throughout the day. Even if you have "left over" snack credits you can get package items at the resort gift shop for the ride / flight home.

5) Refillable resort mugs. Some people love them (we generally use them once a day). Other people could care less but it is an added benefit of DDP.

So do we save money? Depends if you are comparing the cost of DDP vs the items actually ordered OR the cost of DDP versus the cost of the items you would have ordered not being on the DDP. I know we order more food on the DDP than if we would have not on the plan. But this is part of the vacation fun for our family. I would say we do not save money on DDP but our enjoyment of WDW is increased dramatically. Isn't this why we are on vacation?

HoosierDisneyFan;2486095 wrote: This type of post is a reoccurring theme on the forum for many, many, many years. I always find it a little funny. You have your "DDP is a waste crowd" and your "we love DDP crowd". The true answer is it all depends....

...I would say we do not save money on DDP but our enjoyment of WDW is increased dramatically. Isn't this why we are on vacation?

Excellent reasoning, and at the end of the day that is what it is all about. I figured that the topic has been discussed many times on this site but I wanted to get a perspective on whether I was missing something. To me, it is all about the numbers and what you pay but your comment "Isn't this why we are on vacation" holds true. I still plan on checking out the menu's to get an idea of what we would pay oop but I can also end the debate by simply buying the dining plan and go have fun!