Should I Get the Dining Plan for my WDW trip? :a case study
March 13, 2020
Whether or not to get the Dining plan for your Walt Disney World trip is a question I see often. I think the best answer is that it depends. Ok, I know it may seem like a cop out answer, but there are so many variables, that no one answer may be the right one for you. Some people like the feeling of having a set price paid for before the trip, or have a lot of character meals planned that are pricey and others may want to save money by packing their lunch and bringing it to the park with them. The best way to make the decision is to use a Disney Dining calculator. There are a few different ones available, but I checked out the one offered in the Touring Plans site to estimate the value for our November 2019 trip. I compared the estimate I got with the price for the Disney Dining Plan at the time of our trip. The plan I priced was the standard dining plan with one table service and one quick service meal per day. For two adults and one child, the price was $894.80 for a 6 day, 5 night stay. Using the calculator, I saw that the price would be about the same, but with at least one place I wanted to eat not on the dining plan. Armed with this information, I decided to not get the dining plan for this trip. So how did I do? Was the estimate right, or did I spend more or save more?
The Results:
We spent $1040.54 on food and drinks on our trip and this includes purchasing the refillable mug for all 3 of us. This total does not include tips, as even with the Dining plan, you need to add tips. However, once you remove food and drinks not on dining plan we spent $860.48 that would have been covered by the Dining plan. What did we buy that was not on dining plan? It was a few alcoholic beverages , a dinner at the Crew’s Cup Lounge and ice cream desserts at Beaches and Cream Soda Shop.
I didn’t try to limit us on how we ate , so I don’t think this influenced the results in anyway. For breakfast we either got breakfast platters at the Beach Club Market Place or had prepackaged doughnuts or coffee cake also bought there. We also ate at Cape May Cafe, Tusker House Restaurant, Toledo Tapas, Steak and Seafood, Dahlia Lounge, The Polite Pig, Docking Bay 7, Leaning Palms and O’hana. At Cape May Cafe we saved 10% off our bill since we used our Disney Visa card to pay for our meal. If you have this card, research in advance which restaurants offer this discount for further savings.
The Disney Dining plan can be a nice addition to your trip if you rather not think about budgeting for food, but remember to plan for tipping when using it. It may also save you money when doing character dining. To decide if a dining plan fits your needs and is cost effective, doing your homework in advance may save you some money.
My brother suggested I may like this website. He was entirely right.
This submit truly made my day. You can not imagine just how much time
I had spent for this information! Thank you!