5/10/23

Reliving the War: the Disney Dining Plan

May 10, 2023

The Disney Dining Plan is returning in January of 2024. This is huge news for Disney World frequent flyers. This is one of the last hold-outs from the Great Unpleasantness and its return has been highly anticipated. With its reintroduction, 99% of pre-Covid experiences and policies are back in place (BRING BACK 1900 PARK FARE YOU COWARDS!). However, the Disney Dining Plan is also one of the most polarizing add-ons for our quirky little community. Some people use it EVERY time, while others cannot fathom why anyone would use it. This latter group gets pretty captious and pretentious about the whole ordeal honestly. They make it sound like DDP enthusiasts are voluntarily using $20 bills as campfire kindling. I understand not liking the product and choosing not to use it for your trip, but don’t be an arrogant jack-wagon about it.

Being a rational and logical person, I can see both the merits of the Disney Dining Plan and the drawbacks of it. Let’s look at some of each. First the negatives.

1. Sticker Shock – A Disney vacation already borders on the absurd when talking about the price tag and adding the DDP makes that final tally even higher. Since you have to order the plan for everyone in your room, if you have a few kids, that balance can become astronomical very quickly.

2. Too Much Food – One of the most common complaints is that no one needs THAT much food on a vacation. Eliminating the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan has eased that grumble a bit, but it’s still a LOT of food. A previous quibble about this was the number of snacks everyone had left-over at the end of the trip. I guess this means Disney is being a real bro by reintroducing the plan with a reduced number of snacks. *snark alert*

3. You Don’t Get True Value Out of It – It is possible to come out ahead on the Disney Dining Plan, but you have to be strategic about it. You must order the most expensive thing on the menu (or at least close to the most expensive) at every meal. As someone who could absolutely eat a ribeye or a filet for every dinner, this wasn’t a problem for me. But some people just want a salad occasionally. If you order a salad, you can literally hear Bob Iger laughing from his mansion in California. My guess is that 80 – 90% of people don’t save any money using the DDP. This is another reason it is baffling why it has taken Disney so long to bring it back.

I have no qualms with these accusations about the Disney Dining Plan. There are varying degrees of truth to each of those points. However, there are as many DDP advocates as there are detractors. Probably more! So if it is so difficult to save money on the plan, why are there so many DDP enthusiasts? Let’s list some of the advantages.

1. Convenience – This is probably the main advantage to the Dining Plan. Some people really like to have the all-inclusive feel to their vacations and having the meals pre-paid is a big step in that direction. Once the vacation package is paid off, there is no separate budget for food. It’s all included. When I have crunched the numbers to compare my family’s trips with the DDP and without it, the difference was less than $100. The convenience was worth that price for us.

2. No Guilt Ordering – My wife is a frugal woman. On the times that we have not used the Disney Dining Plan, she would sometimes order something other than what she really wants because of price. I try to convince her that I have plenty of Gift Card budget for meals and she can order whatever her heart pleases, but that frugality is built into her. I know she’s not alone in this. The DDP is great because everything is on the menu, literally. We may even enjoy a cocktail where we might not if paying out of pocket. Once again, it kind of goes back to that all-inclusive feel.

3. Sit Down and Relax – It’s no secret that a Disney World vacation is not the picture of relaxation. For many it is a vacation that you need a vacation from when it is over. Adding the Disney Dining Plan to your vacation package does force you to slow the pace a bit. This can be a great advantage for families with little kids or rope-droppers that are running out of steam by 6:00 PM or so. My family has always utilized the DDP in this way: we use the snack at the resort for breakfast, quick service lunch, and a sit down dinner to decompress after a day of commando park touring. It really works out well for us. Since we have a full service restaurant every evening, it also allows us try out new places.

As you can see, there are valid arguments on both sides. However, as is the theme of almost every article I write, where do you find value? For my family, it depends on what type of trip we’re taking. For a full week, we will likely add on the Disney Dining Plan. For a long weekend, maybe not so much. If I’m doing a solo trip there is little to no chance I’ll be adding it on. Everyone has their opinions and they’re all valid. Just don’t be a jerk to those who vacation differently than you do!