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Post by fuzzylogic on May 23, 2023 8:02:59 GMT -5
It will be interesting to see the costs and changes of the new Dining Plans. I also wonder if the Deluxe Dining Plan will be offered. Hopefully they will bring the TIW card back next. This is good news for members who want dining plans although it will make it harder to get ADRs. I like this coming back, but it's not going to be a big draw for DVC members. We already get 10% off menu prices but not off the dining plans so that puts the plans 10% behind on the value calculation for AP/DVC members. We did use DDPs a lot back in the day before we had other discounts. Like most things, they're geared toward the occasional traveler coming for a week on dated tickets and not the regulars. I do love the availability of reservations these days. It seems like we can get whatever we want any time now. A couple weeks ago I completely blew by our 60-day mark for our summer trip and I was able to go in around day 50-55 and book all my hard to get restaurants for large parties. It was weird. It's been that way for the last couple years, basically since the change to 60 days. It encourages less hoarding, and that's been nice. |
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Post by MinnieMom on May 23, 2023 8:51:44 GMT -5
I tried the dining plans a couple of times, then decided that the research & planning to maximize or at least make sure we came out even was just more than I wanted to do. We tend heavily towards quick service for most park days anyways, with the few occasional splurges for nice meals. TIW was great at TOtWL, but given the changes there even that may not really make sense for us in the future.
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Post by johnb on May 23, 2023 9:00:30 GMT -5
We did "free dining" back when it first started, and it covered (IIRC) the entire meal (app, main, dessert) excluding tax and tip. It was way too much food for us. I recall having dinner at Flying Fish, and the kids menu did not have appetizers, so we were told the kids could order an app from the adult menu. We didn't, because five apps for two adults and three young kids was just too much. And the quick service meal included a dessert. We never eat dessert at quick service places.
I think we did it once after that, and it took a lot of math to determine that paying for the dining plan was slightly beneficial.
Now that the price has gone up and it covers less of the meal, I don't see it as a benefit for us.
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Post by skywatcher1206 on May 31, 2023 7:22:07 GMT -5
Now that pricing has been released and it is $57.01 for the quick service plan per day per adult, I don’t see how anyone could come out ahead with using it. I did a cost analysis for all 4 parks using the online menus, and the max I “spent” out of pocket was $43.57 not including the resort mug which I don’t think we would use much anyway. I will not be getting it. I’m sure the $94.28 per adult per day regular dining plan would yield the same result. I hope this does not mean that DW is going to drastically increase their food prices to make it seem worth it.
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Post by fuzzylogic on May 31, 2023 8:10:27 GMT -5
What do those prices include? Alcohol, tax or gratuity?
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Post by JaxFLBear on May 31, 2023 8:24:27 GMT -5
What do those prices include? Alcohol, tax or gratuity? Gratuity is not included (hasn't been for many years), tax is. For adults, you can get an alcoholic beverage. |
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Post by robinb on May 31, 2023 11:58:55 GMT -5
Now that pricing has been released and it is $57.01 for the quick service plan per day per adult, I don’t see how anyone could come out ahead with using it. I did a cost analysis for all 4 parks using the online menus, and the max I “spent” out of pocket was $43.57 not including the resort mug which I don’t think we would use much anyway. I will not be getting it. I’m sure the $94.28 per adult per day regular dining plan would yield the same result. I hope this does not mean that DW is going to drastically increase their food prices to make it seem worth it. I usually have an alcoholic drink (wine/beer/cocktail) with lunch and dinner. I just ran the numbers for every park too. For TS restaurants I allowed myself to eat at a nearby restaurant instead of in the park itself since the in-park TS restaurants are usually pretty ho-hum. My QSDP max was $63.34 and my DDP max was $108. But ... over all four days, I broke even on both plans not counting the refillable mug. I would actually pay a bit less OOP for the DDP if I used my DVC 10% discount for the entrees. |
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