Disney Dining Plan vs Paying Out of Pocket: Which Way SAVED $133.45?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 พ.ค. 2024
- Disney Dining Plan vs Paying Out of Pocket: Which Way SAVED $133.45? This is an HONEST comparison of the Disney Dining Plan vs paying out of of pocket. AND I take it a step further and show the difference between the Standard dining plan and the Quick Service dining plan.
👋 Connect with me: gingermmt.com
📧 Email me at ginger@marvelousmousetravels.com
🌴 If you'd like a free vacation quote click here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA...
📷 To see my recommended travel products or to see what camera equipment we use, check out kit.co/epiercemedia 😍
Disclaimer: Some links are affiliate links from which I can earn commissions.
-------------------------
📱 Connect with me using #GingerMMT on:
Facebook: / gingermmt
X: / ginger_mmt
Instagram & IGTV: / ginger_mmt
Pinterest: / gingermmt
LinkedIn: / gingermmt
Check out my blog at: gingermmt.blogspot.com/
-------------------------
Intro and Outro bumper music:
A WAY FOR ME by Nicolai Heidlas Music / nicolai-heidlas
Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 Unported- CC BY 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/...
www.hooksounds.com - Music by HookSounds
Morning Sun by Nicolai Heidlas Music / nicolai-heidlas
Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 Unported- CC BY 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/...
www.hooksounds.com - Music by HookSounds
-------------------------
About:
Disney Dining Plan vs Paying Out of Pocket: Which Way SAVED $133.45? This is an HONEST comparison of the Disney Dining Plan vs paying out of of pocket. AND I take it a step further and show the difference between the Standard dining plan and the Quick Service dining plan.
-------------------------
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:12 - What the Dining Plan Includes
2:29 - Using the Dining Plan in Magic Kingdom
7:04 - Using the Dining Plan in Epcot
11:47 - Dining Plan in Hollywood Studios
15:27 - Dining Plan in Animal Kingdom
19:11 - Total Cost Comparison
20:24 - Quick Service Plan Includes
20:52 - Quick Service Plan in Magic Kingdom
23:02 - Quick Service Plan in Epcot
25:11 - Quick Service Plan in Hollywood Studios
26:43 - Quick Service Plan in Animal Kingdom
28:03 - Quick Service Total Cost Comparison
29:15 - Conclusion
#disney #disneydining
There are very few times that the Dining Plan is worth it. You have to be calculating with every meal and get things that you may not even want that much just because they cost more. If you just buy what you want with a discounted gift card from somewhere like Target, you’ll pay less, get what you want and not be stressed about whether or not you’re winning.
People say it’s for the convenience but I’m not really sure what’s inconvenient about linking your gift card or cc to your account and paying with that. I wouldn’t at all recommend the dining plan. It’s not worth the hassle and you’ll end up either stressed or losing money
I calculated based on what I would realistically order at restaurants I frequent on every trip and saved over $130 in this sample experience. On other trips I’ve saved more. For some people it is definitely worth it.
I feel the opposite. If I'm paying as I go I'm going to get very caught up in the cost and I won't order things I want because I'll keep thinking it cost too much money. The dining plan makes for a much more fun and relaxing experience because I don't worry about the cost since it's already paid for. I'd also say no to shakes and smoothies for the kids and skip cocktails and both of those make a trip more fun.
Love the video! We always bring in our own drinks and it saves so much. We are doing the dining plan in a few weeks and we did this comparison and it doesnt save money unless you drink alcohol (we dont). But it is fun to get what we want and not really have to tell the kids no on anything when they order.
Great question! And I agree that it is nice to be able to let the kids order whatever they want. We do tend to purchase bottled water in the parks because I don't like having to carry around my refillable bottles. I prefer to have something I can throw away.
Once your kids are teens you’ll really see the savings. Because the sit down non buffet you also get a dessert per person. That combined with indulging in a milkshake or specialty or alcoholic drink adds up fast.
I agree! Thanks for watching!
Another way to save on DP is if your family can split meals, the DP activates on check in day and is good through midnight of check out. So for one night stay on say Tuesday you’d have all day Monday and Tuesday to use the credits. So if your family could just split two meals at CS you’d still have two more to use the next day. (You cannot split at buffet or fixed price locations)
Yes! We do this sometimes with our QS credits. Some snacks are even large enough to share so you can stretch those credits even further.
Great video!
Great video! Can't wait to indulge in the DDP this December
This was awesome!!! I loved all the visual 😊
Thanks for watching! Glad it was helpful!
Thank you so much for this comparison. I did a similar comparison when I was booking our upcoming trip in June. We decided to not go with the Dining Plan for our trip. We want to spend as much time in the parks and the table service just takes way too much time out of the parks. That takes the standard plan out for us. My children are 21 and 17. We would be all having to pay the adult prices. My son is on medication that prohibits him from having carbonated/caffeinated drinks. We will just get water and it makes no sense paying $4 to $5 for a bottle of water when you can get it for free. After doing the math, it makes more sense for us to just pay out of pocket and eat the way we want.
Thanks for watching! I love that Disney hasn’t started to require purchase of an all inclusive package so guests are free to pay out of pocket if that makes more sense for their eating habits.
This is such a helpful video!!! Thank you for doing this!!!
You're so welcome!
Thank you! Great video and comparison! I too love spreadsheets! 🤣 This was helpful!
I love a good spreadsheet! Thanks for watching!
Thank you for your very realistic video. Very helpful.
Thank you so much for watching! Glad you found it helpful.
Thank you!
You're welcome! Thanks for watching!
Doing a character dining or AYCE with kids ages 3-9 is really where the dining plan “pays for itself” for adults I think you have to partake in alcoholic drinks to get it up to par
Thanks for watching! The specialty beverages definitely add to the value for adults, but I personally don't drink for health reasons and still found that we save money even with 2 adults and a kid over 10. Only our youngest gets to pay the child pricing.
It definitely helps if you do specialty drinks and many character meals. Our family only infrequently does the former and never does character meals anymore. Also, sometimes I just want to snack all day and not even have a full quick service meal (see: epcot festivals) or only have an appetizer or salad at a table service restaurant. So for us, it absolutely doesn't save us any money.
Thanks for watching! In cases like yours it may not make sense, so I'm happy that Disney doesn't require the purchase of an all-inclusive package and gives guests the freedom to pay out of pocket for meals if that's what works best for them.
This is a great video and probably right on for your target audience. If you have an annual pass or DVC discount in sit down dining the equation changes though and the dining plan can at best break even if you are using that AP discount on your sit down meals. I would not recommend the dining plan for families with DVC or AP discount eligibility.
Thanks for watching! You're correct that DVC and AP are not a market that I am able to work in, so I can't speak to how the dining plan works vs. their discounts. It may not make as much financial sense for DVC or AP. I work with clients who are purchasing a room and ticket package, so I looked at the value from that perspective.
This is interesting. Only tried the QS dining plan once (when it was two snacks) and found I was making different choices to get value from the plan. Eg choosing more expensive items, having an alcoholic drink where I might not have.
Thanks for watching! That's definitely something to consider when making a dining plan decision. I tried to be faithful to what we would realistically order in the parks, but I can also see where someone would feel the pressure to order things they may not necessarily love just to get the value out of the plan.
I think the best thing is to sit down and plan where you think you want to eat and do a cost benefit analysis. Include tax as well. Now for us, we enjoy an adult beverage so would save a tidy sum with DDP, if you frequent cheaper restaurants or do not drink you will probably lose money or just break even.
Thank you for watching! I agree that there is definitely a strategy to getting the most out of the dining plan! We still save money even though we don't drink, but we use our TS credits at character meals to max out their value.
Do you know how to find out what alcoholic drinks are included vs which aren’t?
@@agrubbs7496 I haven’t seen an extensive list of specific menu items, but here’s the general information they have released: disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/disney-dining-plan/
@@agrubbs7496 I know the app does state under the menu which food items are not included such as the Carne Asada at San Angel. I would imagine it is the same for the drinks.
That would be my assumption as well.
We’re a family of 5 and at least the youngest 2(6&11) and me aren’t big eaters. Much less with the rides excitement. I reserved our stay with the Quick service DDP but you have to buy it for each person trough your whole stay and I’m thinking it’s not worth it. What do you think?
My kids are very similar in age to your kids and, for our family, the table service plan is usually a better value than the quick service plan because we do love character meals (which are great uses of table service credits). With the quick service plan you can do really well if you use a lot of your snack credits at the Epcot festivals and/or if you like a specialty or alcoholic beverage with each meal. The greatest factor of any dining plan, in my opinion, is the convenience factor. I like having it all prepaid so I don't have to keep track or think about how much we're spending on food. I enjoy the vacation better that way. But, depending on your dining style, the quick service meal plan may not be a big money saver for you guys. However, it will still have the convenience factor.
I would have a drink at least once x day for My and My husband i think like that makes more sence
For guests who tend to order those specialty beverages I think the dining plan is almost always a good value! Thanks for watching!
Please keep in mind that if you have Disney Visa, DVC membership, or annual pass you get between a 10% and 20% discount at many dining locations. These discounts don’t apply to the dining plan itself.
Correct, your mileage definitely varies on that though. I am a Disney Visa cardholder and have not been able to use my 10% discount at all locations. It's important to check the restaurants you're interested in before deciding which way works best for you.
We have DVC/AP discounts and a picky 12 year old who would rather order kids meals (and has done so without issues even at sit down restaurants) so the dining plan doesn’t work for us. I really wanted it to work for us so I’ve done the math multiple different ways and unless we eat a character meal every day it just doesn’t work out in our favor.
@@sheilaa1333Thanks for watching! The character meals definitely make it more worth it. We like to do character meals every day so it makes sense for us, especially since kids over 9 are required to pay adult pricing at those.
Is it required to get a Kids plan? Cause my picky eater WON'T EAT disney stuff. He is Autistic.
We r thinking we may need to get Quick service plan for Him n His Nanny
Yes, everyone in the same vacation package has to have identical components so it's all or nothing for the dining plan.
@@GingerMMT Gotcha. We will figure something out. Mayb his eating habits will b better by time of trip
Character dining, like Crystal Palace, costs 2 Table service meals correct?
A few do, many don’t. For the purposes of this video I chose options that cost 1 TS credit.
That is great to know! Is there a list available anywhere that shows character dining that only costs 1 TS credit?
@@RoBear477 There isn't a static list because it's subject to change at any time, but you can view each character meal individually on the website and click on "dining plan" and it will tell you if it takes 1 or 2 credits.
Do you really order 4 of the same snack when you get a snack? That's the only part that seemed kind of unrealistic. Otherwise, it's the most reasonable breakdown I've seen. Most videos and articles that do this seem determined to prove the dining plan is a bad deal.
Often but not always. There are many times when Epcot has a festival and my husband and I might use a snack credit on a food booth (and those tend to be pricier on average than the standard snacks shown here) but for the purposes of the video it was easier to keep it the same and show snacks available year round to compare value for people not attending during a festival.
On your epcot Day, you still need to eat dinner. You probably will spend another at least $60. So that whole day, you are out $67+ dollars.
I rarely ever eat 3 full meals on a park day. We usually do a late morning and early evening meal and with snacks we are good to go.