Dining plan for DVC

[Dean]

This thread has raised a question for me about DDE--I thought that it was only an option for annual passholders, which we are not (we only go to WDW every third year or so, I've done the math and there is really no scenario under which annual passes make sense for us now) so I haven't paid too much attention to it. Can DVC members who are not annual passholders use DDE, and how much is it?

FL residents and any AP type holder only as far as I know. But with the discount, it's not hard to justify an AP for many. If one can't make the AP work, the dining plan would certainly have more value. And for shorter trips or other specials situations including multiple kids who are young enough to be kids price but old enough to really eat or when there are multiple rooms and you only get it for a portion of the rooms/people. And also for those that take the opportunity to order more expensive meals. Just look at your options and see if it will work for you compared to the DDE.

 

[Wish I lived in Fl]

I If one wants to prepay, they can do that also on any credit card.

Thanks!

I really, really want a vacation to be prepaid and wanted the dining plan for that purpose. But as you pointed out, there is no reason i can't just prepay my Visa card.

 

[ratfam]

Thanks, Dean, for the DDE info. I'm still hoping for a dining plan, but I hadn't thought to run the AP numbers including a DDE discount, so its worth looking at.

 

[Dean]

Thanks, Dean, for the DDE info. I'm still hoping for a dining plan, but I hadn't thought to run the AP numbers including a DDE discount, so its worth looking at.

And that is ALWAYS my goal, to get people to think about what they are doing and make informed decisions. It always brings a smile to my face when someone seems set in one direction and then realizes there are other options and considers them honestly.

 

[Patty3]

I really want a dining plan. Sure, we have the kitchen, but that is for beer and snacks right? Honestly, even though we have a full kitchen, I do not cook. The most we do is sometimes have bagels and cream cheese or cereal for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. When I am on vacation at DW, there are just too many restaurants that we enjoy. Our dinner meals usually consist of an appetizer or salad, entree and maybe dessert. But with the restaurants we go to, this one meal per person is more than the dining plan for one person per day. I really hope that we will see a DVC dining plan soon for those who want one.

 

[Chuck S]

If you have kids, the Dining Plan may be worth it...but if your party consists of adults, our experience on our 9 day trip opened our eyes.

We were two adults, with DVC/APs and DDE. We ate what we were comfortable eating, where we were comfortable eating, including California Grill and Chefs de France. We did have coffee in our room most mornings, but went out for Breakfast most of the time at Olivia's, we also had most of out Table Service meals for a late lunch. We usually didn't eat dessert, but did on occasion, and most of our beverage choices were water...though we did have a few alcoholic beverages during our stay. Some days we spend more than the $35pp currently charged by the dining plan, some days less. Overall, we spent a little less than it would have cost us, including gratuities.

If DVC charges more for "The Plan" than the other resorts (if they even get the plan), it definately would not be worth it for us.

 

[DisFlan]

I've been trying to run numbers for a dining plan and I'm not sure it would do us much good. Traveling with 4 adults on our next trip, we'll be doing a private Illuminations party (not on any plan), we don't do character meals and we tend to do at least a couple of the "2 credit" meals on each trip. We also often do a sit-down for both lunch and dinner. We don't do a lot of counter service - maybe once or twice at the most during a trip. We usually have a light breakfast in our villa.

Plus, we usually get a bottle or two of good wine with a meal. We almost always have a cocktail before a sit-down meal, so alcohol can add up to quite a bit that the Dining Plan wouldn't discount.

Things might change in the future when grandkids come along, but at the moment, we seem to be better off sticking with the DDE card. And I would imagine we aren't very different from a number of other DVCers.

DisFlan

 

[erikthewise]

I don't think I want a DVC dining plan.
Why not?

It could not be used to sell rooms. I supposed it could be used to sell MYW tickets, but most of us would be buying tickets (AP or MYW) anyway, so how would that pay off for them?

So it seems to me the DVC dining plan would at least have to pay for itself on the average. Since the plan will be more often bought by those who expect to get the most out of it (i.e. big eaters), the terms of the plan are not likely to be such that it would make sense for us.

I hope that those who want a plan are granted their wish, but it's for them, not me. I'm very happy with the AP/DDE discounts.

 

[ratfam]

Well, I took Dean's advice and ran the numbers to see if APs would make sense for our trip if I factored in a DDE savings, but since the cheapest MYW tickets without all the bells and whistles work fine for us the APs are not cost effective for us even with DDE. So I'll keep hoping for a dining plan to at least have more options

 

[Dean]

Well, I took Dean's advice and ran the numbers to see if APs would make sense for our trip if I factored in a DDE savings, but since the cheapest MYW tickets without all the bells and whistles work fine for us the APs are not cost effective for us even with DDE. So I'll keep hoping for a dining plan to at least have more options

Remember you only have to have one pass, would simply getting one AP and the DDE work out for you? Are there people in your party that will go more than others or do more things like PI, DQ, etc to make a PAP worthwhile for some?

 

[CharlesTD]

Our family doesn't eat out enough to make this a viable option we prefer to cook our own meals otehr than our 2 carachter meals per trip 1 per week of our 2 week stay. IMHO the dining plan is really not something we would ever use or want to pay money for.

 

[ratfam]

Thanks, Dean, another good point. I was pricing it for everyone getting season passes, and now that I look back at the DDE information you're right, we could do it with one AP and one DDE. With younger kids we pretty much travel as a pack, so no one would make extra use of the AP features, but the difference with one person buying AP and DDE would be about $175. What do people tend to save with DDE? We will be at WDW 8 days but not in the parks every day, staying at BCV, two adults, one kid, and one kid who will be paying as adult under revised dining ages but who given the choice would order off kids' menus (from what I'm reading here, sounds like for non all-you-can-eats it varies by establishment how 10-year-olds are treated). Always eat breakfast in room, never do more than one table service per day, don't necessarily do a table service every day (some dinners in room), like a glass of wine maybe but not going to end up with big bar tabs, not going to eat at "signature" restaurants and extremely unlikely we'll travel to many other resorts for meals. I suppose we would probably make it back it we only ate table service at DDE places, but don't know what others' experiences have been.

 

[Dean]

Thanks, Dean, another good point. I was pricing it for everyone getting season passes, and now that I look back at the DDE information you're right, we could do it with one AP and one DDE. With younger kids we pretty much travel as a pack, so no one would make extra use of the AP features, but the difference with one person buying AP and DDE would be about $175. What do people tend to save with DDE? We will be at WDW 8 days but not in the parks every day, staying at BCV, two adults, one kid, and one kid who will be paying as adult under revised dining ages but who given the choice would order off kids' menus (from what I'm reading here, sounds like for non all-you-can-eats it varies by establishment how 10-year-olds are treated). Always eat breakfast in room, never do more than one table service per day, don't necessarily do a table service every day (some dinners in room), like a glass of wine maybe but not going to end up with big bar tabs, not going to eat at "signature" restaurants and extremely unlikely we'll travel to many other resorts for meals. I suppose we would probably make it back it we only ate table service at DDE places, but don't know what others' experiences have been.

Glad to help. The first question is whether any plan would really work for you given the above info, assuming you stick to the rules. Remember that there are some DVC discounts anyway that you can get with no cost and not extra pass expenses. And of course counter service and some sit down restaurants lend themselves to your situation it would seem. Good luck, I hope the choice you make ends up being the best one for you and your family but regardless it will be a learning experience for you and hopefully for many on DIS as well.

 

[ratfam]

Thanks, luckily we've got until the end of March, so we can wait to see what options we will have when the time gets closer. I'm sure I'll seek more opinions/info. My dining "rules" scenario are what we have done in the past to avoid breaking the bank on trips. Truth be told, the kids love the character meals and themed restaurants and I would love to do a table service and a counter service every day and not do so much cooking on vacation, which is why the dining plan appealed to me in the first place. From looking at menus and reading reviews it seems fairly easy to cover your costs and you know what you're getting into. And if it was an option we could consider buying fewer days' MYW passes and therefore not have 8 days worth of dining plan. But when I think about paying separately, including full gratuity, for every bill, I know it would affect our decisions on where to eat and how often to eat out. Anyway, food for thought, so to speak.