Practically everything going up from 50 cents at a snack level to 3-5 bucks for a character meal. Has me rethinking the value of the DDP. I was on the “no DDP” side of the fence, but 10 bucks more a day or so out of pocket brings the DDP closer to the break even point for our family.
Prices Increased on Nearly ALL Food & Beverage Across Walt Disney World Resort – WDW News Today.
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I’ve always done the math and we’ve never been able to justify the DDP unless it was free. Now that they have removed a snack, I can easily save 20-30% of what the DDP costs. We don’t eat tons of food though. We can usually go with 2 solid meals and a light meal per day. We rarely order appetizers or dessert either. If I had kids, I might take advantage of the discounted dining plan offer if we could get closer to breaking even. But I think that would still be a splurge on food.
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IME - They still need to tweak the system so I don’t feel “forced” to buy the most expensive entrée, whether that’s my #1 choice or not, to get value.
I can make it work & have, but I don’t enjoy it as much as just paying as I go. I feel more like I’m" on vacation" instead of crunching numbers… 
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We used to get it because it was worth it to us in not having to keep tabs on what we are spending. However, both my husband and I have very specific and complex dietary restrictions. We know we can always work around that at TS, but not necessarily at QS. Since the Deluxe dining plan isn’t coming back, I don’t see the benefit for us.
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I don’t think people realize that if they establish a expense account they can just use their Magic bands, same as using for a DDP. DDP’s are seldom worth it and they force you to buy things you would not and in bigger qualities. I must clarify this statement. Putting a credit card on a account for Disney expenses is NOT a DDP but rather a charge to your credit card on file. If you feel you eat enough for the DDP to be worth it for you then by all means purchase one. If you figure your expenses though buying straight up to your credit card on acct. you will seldom if ever save buying a DDP. A lot of people like the ease of using there Magic Bands as payment but you do not need a DDP to use it. Charges on your Magic Band use will go to your credit card on acct.
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A lot of people like to also pay for it upfront. They don’t like seeing the bill after vacation, even if those dollars were already put aside. It would be nice if Disney allowed people to put a gift card on file for primary room charges with a credit card back up. That way the money is automatically taken off of the gift card. The only charges you have to deal with is the excess. But at the end of the day, it’s 6 of one and half dozen of the other.
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You can always prepay your credit card. I have done that before. If you budget $500 for food, just go ahead and pay $500 to your CC. When you get back, it won’t be on your next bill!
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Not all cards will do this anymore. I’ve never personally TRIED to do it to pre-pay but have tried to pay too early for things that I only charged for the points and it wasn’t allowed. Maybe if I sent a check in but I don’t even know where my check book is. Haven’t written one in over a year.
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DDP is a personal decision, as reflected in the comments already. If you normally order alcohol with your meals, the DDP could be a good value. And if you add on a number off character meals that use only one TS credit, DDP is a no brainer.
DDP just doesn’t work for my family in terms of value and flexibility. We are all working adults. We don’t normally drink alcohol and we don’t eat that much. We don’t always order 4 entrees at QS or TS. And depending on the restaurant and how full we are, we might order 1 appetizer and/or one dessert to share. And if it’s hot, we don’t feel like eating much. It may be a good value if we ordered the most expensive items on the menu and eat everything we ordered. Thus, we feel stress and no flexibility in ordering what we really want! And, we find that we spend less money than the cost of the DDP, if we pay as we go.
Maybe one day, when we have more than one room at WDW, we might buy the DDP for 1 room.
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This is a good strategy but TS places generally frown upon sharing meals when partially paid with DDP. We tried something like this many years ago. But it was just DH and I sharing a meal because we couldn’t eat that much. Twice we were charged a plate charge. Iirc, $10. Not a lot but back then it was more than the standard QS meal cost.
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Well Gift card or credit card they both are basically the same. One pays upfront and one pays with the bill going to your home. Of coarse there are Gift cards per say that you can buy and actually save money doing it. I know we buy about $500 worth at Sam’s Club and save $3 on a $75 Gift card. If you don’t mind keeping track of how much is left on which cards after use then I guess you have the paying ahead of time covered. Most people will pay upfront with a credit card anyway so it just depends on if you wish to hand them your credit card or use your Magic Band that goes to your credit card. Sorry, but most often cash is no longer King.
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Right. In the end it is the same. I get my gift cards at Target for 5% off. And pre-pay the trips. I use my Disney Visa to get % off in the parks and just pay it when I get home. But I can say that when we get the free dining promo (when it makes more sense than the room discount) it does feel different. And some people like that all inclusive “feel”. Financially, it doesn’t always make sense. But to some, dropping thousands to go to Disney for a week also doesn’t make sense.
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Good to know. We share meals paying cash and they didn’t charge us.
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Agree with your approach, and this pretty much captures my thoughts about DDP.
My point in the original post was that while yes DDP is never going to make pure financial sense, with the substantial price increases on the WDW menu it just got a lot closer (as long as DDP price doesn’t increase from what was previously announced). We do a lot of character meals and some cocktails, so at the announcement of DDP returning my math told me DDP was about 15 dollars more than what we would spend a day per person, so not worth it - but those price increases got the math a lot closer. Close enough to redo the equation anyway.
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If i could get my math that close for a family of 4 I would probably just go ahead and get the DDP. There is something to be said about not thinking about how much one is spending for a change. With all the nickel and diming Disney is doing lately, it’s nice to feel like your getting one over.
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You do realize the meal prices and the DDP prices are taken into consideration when determining DDP prices. Disney seldom if ever loses money
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Though we are quite aways from WDW we always purchase AP’s for I and the wife. You get a percentage back on most restaurants (TS) and items you buy. I figure two stays and the AP’s have paid for themselves as we stay for two to three weeks at a time. Get cold in the winter in ND.
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That’s a nice break from the cold! Meanwhile, I’m ready to move further south wn the temps stay at 40 too long, lol.
We go to the front desk every couple of days or so and pay off our folio w/ gift cards.
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They tell you with each transaction which really helps me. And I combine mine into just two through Disney Gift Cards.
I have been able to save 5-15% on gift cards. Now I am AP that is another 10% at TS. So the DDP won’t be worth it to me - though in the past I made it work on a short trip (without even “maximizing” the meal spend but definitely buying alcohol)
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