Paying for Dining Plan v Paying as you go

[Fiona35]

I'm trying to work out if it's easier to pay for the dining plan or put the money aside and load a gift card up.
Part of me thinks that if I didn't have the dining plan I'd be questioning the price of everything I ordered even if I had the money put aside.
I should note that we don't hire a car and stay on site but we do use Uber.

I can't remember when we were out there last if a drink was included with QS meals and wondered if anyone can advise so can work some rough sums out based on what we would usually order😀
Thanks

Thanks

[Nelly7]

A drink is included with the QS dining plan, it also includes an alcoholic drink now

[loldis]

How many people? Do you plan to do any off-site meals? I think the more people and more time off-site, the less financial sense it makes as I see so many reports of people splitting meals, days spent at Universal/shopping/etc and then having loads of credits leftover.

As a solo traveller, I was on QSDP last time and had all meals on-site. I did get it free, but I'd say it would have broken even if paid as I do tend to go for fairly expensive snacks, e.g. large Starbucks fraps. And I only had 1 QS credit leftover - this was because I had one TS meal OOP, otherwise would have used them all. Spent it at Ghiradelli (they exchanged it for $18 to purchase anything in store from memory) so definitely didn't go to waste as I was planning on stocking up anyway!

ETA: There's a DDP calculator website that's really useful. You can even put in what restaurants you plan on going to, it uses average bill values to work out how much you're likely to spend OOP compared to using DDP credits.

[gjdjud]

I think that if you do pay-as-you-go you’ll end up spending less. But what I think to myself is, “I think I’ll have that snack” it costs $6. “maybe I won’t and I’ll save it instead”. if I’ve already pre-bought the dining plan I’m going to have that snack! I would personally stop myself from buying things because I saw the price. I’m going to pre-buy it next time if it’s available for our five days on site to stop myself from doing that!

[akhurstf1]

Funny enough we've just recorded our latest podcast where we discuss our views on the dining plan. It is out on the 1st of May. Check out The Great British Mickey Waffle on your podcast app of choice.

As of this moment, there is no dining plan but if it was to come back it would be trying to work out how much you would usually spend on food by looking at the menus. We all love a good spreadsheet

We've previously used the QSDP on 3 occasions, twice with free dining and one out of pocket when we became DVC members. It is nice to have everything prepaid upfront but for our next trip, we will be topping up our revolut with the same cost of the dining plan and will see if there is any money left.

[ChoppyGirl]

We have often thought this but DH is a strange one when it comes to cost.

If we paid for the DDP and it cost £1000 against putting £1000 on a prepaid card would mean very different things for DH. If we were on the ddp he would order what he wanted as it’s all paid for. If it was on a prepaid card he would really want the steak but would be too tight to pay for it and end up ordering a burger!

If there is no free ddp I will add it on as paid (if available) so I know DH will order what he wants

[lfc_sarah]

Originally Posted by ChoppyGirl

We have often thought this but DH is a strange one when it comes to cost.

If we paid for the DDP and it cost £1000 against putting £1000 on a prepaid card would mean very different things for DH. If we were on the ddp he would order what he wanted as it’s all paid for. If it was on a prepaid card he would really want the steak but would be too tight to pay for it and end up ordering a burger!

If there is no free ddp I will add it on as paid (if available) so I know DH will order what he wants

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This exact reason for myself!
When it comes to spending money on me or the kids he's very generous, when it comes to spending money on himself, he just doesn't, ever!

We are crossing everything for free DDP to come back before we go but if not and it's available to purchase we 100% will.

I actually worked out one year that we paid for the dining plan, we would have actually saved money if we have eaten out at the exact same places and ordered what we did (not by much but still). Free dining is a whole different story though.

On the dining plan my husband will order steak every night, off the dining plan he would definitely choose a burger too. He works so hard and he totally deserves to eat steak every night on his holiday and I quite like not budgeting too 😊

[The Fatadder]

When booking for last October I did some calculations to try and work this out for our planning. In the end my calculation had it pretty evenly matched between buying DDP & paying out of pocket. In part because while on the plan you end up getting extra stuff "because its free / paid for".

In the unlikely chance that the plan becomes available in August we will end up buying it, if not I am not too worried.

[Gill H]

We have done both paid and free DDP and for us, it works. We don’t have kids so don’t share meals. We tend to do 5 Signatures over the fortnight. I know if we were paying out of pocket, I would start ordering cheaper things than I wanted.

Also - alcohol!

[derbylass]

Originally Posted by Fiona35

I'm trying to work out if it's easier to pay for the dining plan or put the money aside and load a gift card up.
Part of me thinks that if I didn't have the dining plan I'd be questioning the price of everything I ordered even if I had the money put aside.
I should note that we don't hire a car and stay on site but we do use Uber.

I can't remember when we were out there last if a drink was included with QS meals and wondered if anyone can advise so can work some rough sums out based on what we would usually order😀
Thanks

Thanks

See more...

I am hoping that dining plans come back, there aren't any at the moment and I have booked for 2022