NEW! 2018 WDW Dining Plan

Chelle wrote:

Desserts and apps aren’t included. And as someone else pointed out, you still have to tip so it’s not completely “pre paid”.
But yes, it’s always good to run the numbers! I always try to convince my clients to do that before opting for “free dining”. But disney does a great job convincing people it’s a great deal!

Is that new? I remember the apps were with the deluxe, the last time we had that (2012 maybe? It has already been that long! ). But even our last trip a dessert item was included with each meal.

@RocketEAR99 Haha!! Pretty much! In my defense it was because when we were looking to book, they were running a summer sale and the sale priced rooms were all gone and the rack rate was pretty high since it was for August. I actually almost booked Animal Kingdom Lodge for like $212/night on Priceline! But we had to wait a few weeks to book. By then those prices went up. But we were able to book Riverside on the summer sale price. The problem was that I had to call Priceline and Disney several times to get things corrected! I booked for two people, Priceline showed 2, Disney resevation only showed one. Back and forth calls finally resolved that. Then I had two rooms showing booked on MDE but just charged for one. But this wasn’t allowing me to book FP’s properly. So more back and forth calls! :p Not worth the hassle. And to top it off, once it was all resolved, sale priced rooms opened up directly through Disney again! So I should have just booked with Chelle at rack rate and then had her watch for sales! Plus, I had to call to set up Magical Express then call again to request more luggage tags! Well folks, don’t think you are getting a better deal elsewhere!!! @chelle will always take good care of you when you book with her!!

it’s easier for the wait staff to compute the check.

RocketEAR99 wrote:

It sounds like you had a Leroy Jenkins moment (if you get the reference).

I get it!

GreatBiscuit wrote:

We last did the DP in 2009 and back then, our family of four was able to do DP for $100 a day. At that point in time it was a no brainer, I jumped on it and it saved me money. Not that my girls at older and are “adults” in the eyes of Disney, and now that the price has more than doubled, absolutely not. I do much better to pay out of pocket rather than the $304 per day that it would cost for the DP. Even with a couple of bigger Character meals thrown into the mix, we still save money paying Out-of-Pocket as my girls are picky eaters and don’t order a lot. While I loved the convenience of the Dining Plan, it just doesn’t work for me anymore. I will say the last time I had to pay cash all week for meals it sucked so as an alternative, I now purchase Disney Gift Cards. Our local supermarket sells the ones you can load with $5-$500 and as part of our savings plan for our trips. I go once a month on payday and purchase one with $250 on it. Once I have one for each day of our trip, I know my dining is pretty well paid for and move on to saving up for other things. (Like Southwest Airlines gift cards and such.) It’s a fun way to for me save as it gives us a visual and physical thing to hold onto and see how close we are to returning to The World. On our trips, we bring one card per day to the parks with us, and leave the rest in the safe. Whatever money is left over that day, gets set aside to help cover days where we eat our BIG meals (character dining, O’hana, etc.) I like it because my meals are prepaid but I still have flexibility when ordering. Plus we always have money left over to use for souvenirs.

This is what I did on my last trip. I had about $300 on one gift card and $100 on another and I used it for all of my food and gifts and ended up bringing home about $40 for the next trip!

steve wrote:

RocketEAR99 wrote:

It sounds like you had a Leroy Jenkins moment (if you get the reference).

I get it!

I still play WoW

(EDIT: Adult language)

RIDisneyPinGuy wrote:

Chelle wrote:

Desserts and apps aren’t included. And as someone else pointed out, you still have to tip so it’s not completely “pre paid”.
But yes, it’s always good to run the numbers! I always try to convince my clients to do that before opting for “free dining”. But disney does a great job convincing people it’s a great deal!

Is that new? I remember the apps were with the deluxe, the last time we had that (2012 maybe? It has already been that long! ). But even our last trip a dessert item was included with each meal.

I got my vacation thing in the mail yesterday and it says that with my plan we get an appetiser, entree and dessert. I had heard a long time ago that the app was taken away but apparently it’s back.