Correction: dinner should have ended at 9:30. It did on trips when we were only 5 people. With 14, dinners never finished in less than 3 hours. Artist Point took 4 1/2 hours because of frustrating mixups with the billing process.
Aside: Artist Point has been our favorite Disney restaurant for 20 years. The chef changed. Cross it off your list.
On Christmas eve I had to spend over an hour at the front desk of Coronado Springs trying to sort out the points mess on our dining plan. We had some of our group of 14 who were out of points and very embarrassed to discover this at dinner at Tiffins. Be sure to check your points used and remaining points every time you use them. Also be sure to check that staff used a snack point and did not charge you for that drink or snack you put on your magic band. The cast members are wonderful, but they do make mistakes, often.
Part of the problem was that we were 4 rooms totaling 14 people who ate together for dinner. We did figure out that if we sat next to our roommates it was easier, but that negates the purpose of a large family trip, which is to mix it up and talk to everyone during the trip. Our points were really mixed up as a result. I assume that we also paid for other peopleās drinks and tips since they were charged where the points were charged. That would be me since we were a room who ran out of meal points.
As a group of 14 there was really only one place we could stay on the āfreeā dining offer - Coronado Springs. The resort needs to be refurbished. I would not recommend this resort for a family with children. The property is gigantic. From the back you need to take a bus or walk 15 minutes to get to the front desk. I am not exaggerating.
If we can go during a free dining offer, I would do it again. For our family the dining at Disney has always been part of the attraction. We seldom treat ourselves to such extravagance. Even with all of that eating we didnāt gain any weight. We walked all day every day, and we are not āclean plateā eaters. Choosing signature restaurants allowed a varied menu (although nowhere near as good as it used to be), and a relaxing dining experience for every meal. We could not have afforded it without the free dining plan.
Iām in the camp that says you can save quite a bit of money depending on how you intend to use the plan. For us, our upcoming vacation was booked with a promotion that took $500 off the package price when including the magic my way 2017 table service plan. That includes 1 table, 1 quick and 2 snack credits per person per day, plus refillable drink mug. The overall cost of my vacation increased by $900 when adding the DP for 5 people, 6 nights. Because we intend to do mostly character and/or buffet dining for our table service meals, and the better values such as BOG, Wolfgang, Flametree for our quick serve meals, it made financial sense. The total cost out of pocket for our ADRās and quick meals would come to about $2,500 for the 5 of us for the week. We end up coming out around $1,600 ahead! One dinner at Akershus alone would be about $285 with tax. These add up rather quickly. Now would I normally eat at all of these places without the plan? The answer is probably not. However, being able to take advantage of a plan that makes it affordable to experience a whole side of Disney that we have only scratched the surface of before, makes this a no brainer. My granddaughter will only be 6 once, and I love the prospect of having her be able to dine in the castle, Akershus and 1900 Park Fare, just to name a few.
So my main point is depending on how much cost it adds to your vacation and where you intend to use it, the DP can definitely save you money. And in our case we are getting $2.77 for every $1.00 spent. Itās hard to beat that.
I donāt think anyone argues that the DP doesnāt save you money if you get it for free or discounted! Just make sure you also calculate the cost of any room-only discount that you would give up for that. If you have more than 2 people it is almost always a no-brainer to go with the DP. I just personally think for most (not all) that paying full price for the dining plan rarely makes sense.
Just watch what (if anything) you wind up throwing away. You pay for that. Iām starting to think my family could make the regular DDP work for our next trip. Iām trying to figure out the math of getting the (free) regular ddp and staying at a full price resort vs booking a Costco package at the Swan (no ddp.) Last trip, the three QS meals we had could feed my wife and I with leftovers (Flame Tree, Pecos Bills, and Tangierene) and I am a BIG eater. Gotta get strategic with this dining plan like you to make sure it really works. The snacks - Starbucks and Dole whips - will never be an issue. Itās the meals - we could easily split the Qs meals we would want, so having two of them per day would mean throwing a bunch of food away, unless we startegerize (gotta get used to having a republican again! - HA!) splitting / sharing them.
There is that, as far as throwing stuff away. Iām sure we are getting way more food than we can possibly eat. The fact that the character meals alone more than pay for the plan, means that we are already ahead before even using a single quick credit.
I also tried to spread the days and times of days so that we arenāt trying to gorge ourselves.
The last three times weāve been, weāve been able to do free dining (or pay just to upgrade to the DDP from Quick Service). This time, I except our dates to be blacked out. I have booked the dining plan, but after reading so much about the cost, I decided to calculate it up. I wanted to see how closely the DDP was compared to what we would likely spend if we ate what we wanted without concern for prices. I also wanted to know if we canceled the DDP, how much would I need to save up ahead of time to cover food. I used the menu prices listed on All Ears. If it was a buffet where there was a range listed, I used the max price.
My meals are tentatively planned as follows (this list excludes meals not included in DDP):
Breakfasts at Tucker House, our resort (1 day), Be Our Guest, and Akershus.
Lunches at Flame Tree BBQ, Pecos Bills, ABC Commissary, Sunshine Seasons, and one other TBD location
Dinners at Ohana, Be Our Guest, Hollywood & Vine, Via Napoli, Whispering Canyon Cafe.
I looked at each of those menus, found what I thought we would likely order and calculated approximately how much it would cost. I came up with the dining plan being a little over $100 more than out of pocket. That alone would be worth the convenience to me; however, it also doesnāt include snacks. Two snacks a day for 7 days for 3 people at $5 per snack would be $210. So based on where weāre planning to eat, it looks like the dining plan would be worth it to us.
That being said, if we didnāt do the dining plan, we probably wouldnāt eat all of those places. Even if we did, I probably would refuse to get the $34 steak even though that would be my preference. I do want to be able to eat at several of those places while weāre gone without feeling guilty of the costs. I know that may sound crazy to a lot of people, and I understand that its completely my thought process, but because of the convenience, I like it.