Convince me we will be okay without the dining plan!

debdebdebby13

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 28, 2009
We have been to Disney 3 times and all 3 times we've had the dining plan. Twice it was free dining and the very first time it was just DH and I to pay for (and it was 2009 so significantly cheaper!)

Now it is DH and I and our 11 year old, who is a Disney adult, but likely would happily eat from the kids menu about 50% of the time and our 4 year old who is incredibly picky and would probably be happy if we just packed him oranges, granola bars and PB&J sandwiches to eat for every meal.

I have a package reserved with the dining plan, but since we are staying at POP Stay Play and Dine did less than nothing for us!

I feel confident that we would spend less while keeping all of the same ADRs but my husband I love the freedom of not worrying about prices. I've already priced out what we would eat each day so really, I KNOW we don't need the plan.

Tell me it will be okay!
 
We have been to Disney 3 times and all 3 times we've had the dining plan. Twice it was free dining and the very first time it was just DH and I to pay for (and it was 2009 so significantly cheaper!)

Now it is DH and I and our 11 year old, who is a Disney adult, but likely would happily eat from the kids menu about 50% of the time and our 4 year old who is incredibly picky and would probably be happy if we just packed him oranges, granola bars and PB&J sandwiches to eat for every meal.

I have a package reserved with the dining plan, but since we are staying at POP Stay Play and Dine did less than nothing for us!

I feel confident that we would spend less while keeping all of the same ADRs but my husband I love the freedom of not worrying about prices. I've already priced out what we would eat each day so really, I KNOW we don't need the plan.

Tell me it will be okay!

If you've priced it out, then go for it! See if there is a room discount that is comparable to SPD.
 
It will fantastic. You won't be burdened with having to be tied to all those ADRs and keeping up with all your credits and trying to get the most bang for your buck and eating all that food. Spontaneity rules!!!
 


Look at my signature below. We only had DDP once because it was heavily discounted. I see no reason to get the dining plan.
 
You'll be fine. I never use dining plan, and I don't stress over food prices. I make sure to go in with plenty of dining money reserved and I don't think about it the rest of my trip.

I also don't have to worry whether an item is a meal or a snack item or even covered on the dining plan. I eat what I want, when I want, and I'm not stressing.
 
Definitely. I tallied up what we spent on our August trip and we definitely saved paying OOP. One of our daughters eats off the kids' menu and we don't always eat 2 full meals per day.
 


We used DDP this trip. The upside was we could order whatever. The downside is it’s A LOT of food. The day before we checked out I had 5 TS credits and 9 snack credits left. Let’s just say my coworkers are getting a lot of candy lol we did make a lot of dining changes when we got there so that had something to do with it. If we do it again we will be better prepared for it tbh
 
You will be fine. If you are really worried about not be "prepaid" just buy some Gift Cards and use those to pay, your mind will think you have prepaid. Seriously, we never use the dining plan, it just doesn't go with the way we eat. I'm not a heavy eater so I tend to eat kid's meals at QS and a couple of appetizers at TS. We rarely, if ever, snack between meals and often a snack type thing is a meal for us.
 
Our first trip we got the DDP cause I wanted that freedom of not having to think about price. My second trip I just saved up the money, and honestly felt *way* more freedom without the DP. Didn't have to order dessert just to make sure I got my moneys worth, could get odd things or swap things out...I just charged it to my magic band. I much prefer it without the dining plan. :) You'll be fine. :)
 
I have done both and you will be fine. loves to dine provides my favorite tip in taking gift cards so that you can have the majority if not all of the dining prepaid anyway. We use the dining plan when we want lots of special meals on one trip only (say a Christmas holiday trip). Most of the time we just wing it and make one ADR for something special that we are looking forward to. We have so many QS locations that we love and snacks that we don't miss the table service.

I find we eat less, are just as satisfied and are less rushed on the schedule without the DDP.
 
DH & I will be going DDP-less this Dec. for the first time in years. We crunched the numbers and with both AP & DVC discounts we think we will better off to pay OOP. I plan to bring Disney gift cards purchased at Target so that's another 5% discount. I think I'm going to bring gift cards equivalent to what the DDP would have cost me plus tips so we should be good to go.
 
We never use a DP. Often DD (15) and I will split entrees most portions are huge. We have done the math and it never adds up for us. We mostly do QS and then a few ADRs for some special spots we want to try.
 
We have been to Disney 3 times and all 3 times we've had the dining plan. Twice it was free dining and the very first time it was just DH and I to pay for (and it was 2009 so significantly cheaper!)

Now it is DH and I and our 11 year old, who is a Disney adult, but likely would happily eat from the kids menu about 50% of the time and our 4 year old who is incredibly picky and would probably be happy if we just packed him oranges, granola bars and PB&J sandwiches to eat for every meal.

I have a package reserved with the dining plan, but since we are staying at POP Stay Play and Dine did less than nothing for us!

I feel confident that we would spend less while keeping all of the same ADRs but my husband I love the freedom of not worrying about prices. I've already priced out what we would eat each day so really, I KNOW we don't need the plan.

Tell me it will be okay!
It will be great! We never buy the dining plan anymore, and typically end up spending way under our food budget, even though we eat as we wish.
 
Absolutely, you will be fine. We've never used the DDP, eat what we like/want and never pay as much as the dining plan. We don't eat like the dining plan provides (ie. don't like all the desserts or sodas), so we are much happier.
 
Just got back form our first trip without either the dining plan or free plan. It would have been almost $700 for me and DD for the QS plan. We ended up charging just over $700 on our bands and that was with 3 TS meals and gifts and anything else we wanted. Always thought I wanted the plan, but spent way less on on food plus I drank a lot less soda and sweets that I often ordered because they came with the plan.
 
We spent way less on food than we would have on the dining plan last trip. We didn't miss it at all and really enjoyed the freedom of being able to eat at the pool side restaurant, or in a lounge, etc. We did a grocery order for breakfast and some snack stuff, drinks and fruits and veggies for the room so that helped as well. Sometimes the kids were too tired and just wanted to hang in the room and eat a pizza vs getting ready to go out to dinner. I found it a lot more relaxing this trip than the others where we felt we had to get to an ADR. We only had 6 in our 10 night stay.
 
We are thinking about the same thing. We did a mock menu to try and see what we would spend out of pocket versus the plan and it was about the same. The only reason we might stick with the plan is so that we don't act too cheap and ruin the vacation for the kids.
 
Good for you to give it a shot & ditch the DP this time! IMO, it is so easy at Disney to repeat what you know because it's comfortable.
 

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