Would it be worth it to get the DP for one adult and one child?

[traces7]

We're going in Oct, so it's not free for us. Would it be worth it for us to get it? It's me and my 7 year old DD. Neither one of us eats a whole lot, so it may be too much food for us. But seems like it's a good deal. Any advice? Thanks

 

[mousebit]

I think it really depends on what you want to do the most during your trip. If your DD7 enjoys the characters as much as my DGD did at that age and you don't mind spending a good deal of your time in restaurants, it can be a real value. However, if your priority is to spend as much time as possible in the parks hitting the attractions, you would probably do better to skip the dining plan and enjoy the spontaneity of eating more counter service. When I go with DGD we've done it both ways--cheaper, counter service with the benefit of eating where we want, when we want with more $$ left in the budget for shopping OR dining plan with table service meal with the characters every day and a little less time in the parks. There are some really yummy counter service places that the two of us really enjoy and get plenty of food by sharing one meal, leaving more room for snacks and desserts between meals! Hey, we're on vacation, right?

 

[calie_j]

If you want to do 1 sitdown/day it's probably worth it just for that. I've got free dining plan for me and DD8 so I didn't figure it out but I'm pretty sure it will pay for itself just with the buffets/character meals and the TS because there's nothing on the adult menu she'd share with me so she'll need her own. If we weren't getting it for free we'd do mostly CS with 2 character meals so the dining plan would be more $ for us. The only way to know for sure is to figure out which meals you'd do and look at the menues at allears and add up what you think you'd order without the plan for TS,CS & snacks to compare against the price of the plan.

Calie

 

[pezpam]

DD(now 8) and I have gone with and without the DDP and have been happy with each. I will say that having the DDP allows us to do more character meals and sit-downs like Sci-Fi that we ever would when paying OOP for all of our food.

If you plan a TS or character meal each day, it's probably worth it. If you'd rather eat CS for the whole trip, it may not be.

If you want to crunch numbers, head over to allearsnet.com and check out the menus. Not all prices are totally up to date, but it'll give you an idea. Get a rough idea of what you'd eat without the DDP and add tax (6.5%) and tip (18%?). Then compare that number to the cost of the DDP for the two of you - not adding tax and tip since those are covered by the plan. Now, if your potential OOP numbers are slightly under the DDP costs, you then get to decide if the extra cost of the DDP is worth it to you to get more TS/character meals......

 

[kcashner]

Basically if you do one TS each day, the plan is worth the $. An adult character dinner costs $28 plus tax and tip--total about $34-35. The plan is $38 and you get the CS and snack as well. A child's character dinner is about $10 plus tax and tip--you pay $11 for the plan.

If you don't do sit down meals, it probably isn't worthwhile....but at that age, we did a lot of character meals.

The character dinners are among the cheaper sit-down dining available at WDW. If you go to another restaurant--like one at one of the countries in Epcot--you will likely spend more than $28 for an adult.

 

[formernyer]

Definitely worth it IMO for two reasons:

(1) daugher is under 10
(2) neither of you eat a lot

This is a great opportunity to get almost all of your meals covered for just $49 per day. Plan to share meals! As long as you only order one meal at a time, your daughter's credits can be used for an adult meal.

Let's assume you're traveling for 5 nights/6 days (just an arbitrary number since you didn't specify). You'll have 10TS and 10CS to cover six days of meals.

You'll have 15-18 meals during that time (depending on how many meals you'll be around for on the first and last days of the trip). In a worst case scenario, you'd need to cover 18 meals. This leaves 2 credits leftover to use at buffet-style (character) meals where sharing isn't allowed. If you need less than 18 meals, then you can add in more buffet-style meals and still have all meals covered.

Obviously there are a ton of ways you can work out your sharing, but it should be pretty easy for the two of you to cover three meals a day (including the day you check out) without having to pay for anything OOP.

Another way you might be able to "cover" a meal without using credits is to try to use snack credits for breakfast at the resort. Some cashiers will allow you to get a muffin or pastry with a snack credit. You can also use them for fruit.