3. Planning your meals
Image: Disney
I realize that planning a Disney trip is a divisive topic for many guests. Some folks love to maintain spontaneity during a trip. Others are like me. They like to plan out as much as of their trip as possible. To hack the xDDP, at least a modicum of planning will help. I’m not saying that you must plan every meal. You simply need to understand the basics.
The most important one is that some restaurants are more expensive than others. Even before you sit down to open a menu, a couple of basic rules exist. The obvious one is that dinner costs more than lunch which, in turn, is more expensive than breakfast. Also, Disney charges more for character meals. This is an understandable practice since they must train and pay cast members to act like the company’s most famous intellectual properties. Regular meals don’t include those costs. Also, and this is just a fact of capitalism, Disney fans will pay more for meals where Mickey and Minnie come to their tables and greet them. Since you paid for your meals in advance, you might as well add lots of character meals, assuming you enjoy interactions with costumed mascots.
Places to Target/Avoid
Image: Disney
We’ve already ruled out the Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe and Electric Umbrella Restaurant options for this trip. Our aspiration is to enjoy the delectable morsels with the largest price tags at Walt Disney’s World finest restaurants. Several wonderful options exist. Akershus Royal Banquet Hall and Chef Mickey’s are two of the most expensive character meals onsite. You’d spend more than $40 per person if you weren’t already on the xDDP.
If character meals aren’t your thing, the most surprising option resides at Magic Kingdom. You probably know that Cinderella’s Royal Table is a signature dining experience, charging two entitlements per meal. The shock is that Be Our Guest, the hardest reservation to acquire at Walt Disney World, isn’t a signature meal. While that can change any year, capitalize on the opportunity while you can.
Eating at Be Our Guest at least once during your trip is a must. Now that it’s open for breakfast, you have three opportunities a day. That brings us to a hidden strategy you can employ with the xDDP. Since you have the entitlement to have breakfast each day, take full advantage of it by planning a meal inside one of the parks. Akershus, Be Our Guest, and Crystal Palace all open well ahead of rope drop. Eat your meal and then exit into the park before it officially opens. You’ll have your pick of rides. And why shouldn’t you? Your xDDP places you among the elite!
What to Do with Extras
Image: Disney
Are you vacationing with family and/or friends? In 2015, Disney finally clarified the rules about all aspects of the dining plan. They codified the gifting of meals. What this means for your purposes is that when you have extra entitlements, you can use them to purchase meals for others. On a recent trip, my wife and I wound up with enough unused meal credits to purchase food for the other guests at our table.
Should you follow this suggestion, you have two options. The first is to give the meal as a gift, asking nothing in return. The second is to request partial/full compensation from your loved ones. Should you choose the latter option, that money will counterbalance the cost of that day’s xDDP. Alternately, what tends to happen is that the beneficiary of the meal offers to pay the tip as a showing of gratitude. This works out well for everyone, including the server, who regularly winds up with a larger-than-normal tip.
Two additional alternatives exist if you’re traveling alone. The first is that you can exchange any remaining entitlements for three snack credits. This strategy affords you the ability to take a part of Walt Disney World home with you. Many of the wrapped snacks stay good for an extended period of time. I once ate a ginormous Disney sucker nine months after I returned from my trip. If you’re not much of a snacker or don’t have any room in your luggage, a superior option is available. You can extend the magic of a Disney trip to a total stranger. Sprinkle a little fairy dust on someone at a neighboring table by offering to pay for their meal. Anecdotally, I’m hearing about a lot of people doing this lately, and it seems like the perfect way to cap off a Disney vacation.
And there you have it. Disney’s recent changes to their dining plans empower you to eat like a king during your next vacation. My philosophy with this hack is simple. Disney is constantly raising prices and adding expensive add-ons. With this one tactic, I can feel a bit better about what I pay them, maybe even cause them to wonder about the profit margin on their various food items. It’s a penny at Fort Knox, relatively speaking, but it’s a fun thing to try to do during at least one Disney visit as a strange form of protest. Plus, it’s a wonderful, liberating feeling to order anything off the menu without feeling a sense of guilt.
Comments
Although this is helpful, you forgot to keep one thing in tips, which if you don't keep in mind when ordering with the dini plan you. An end up spending a 30-50 dollar tip. Had that happen to me
I wouldn't call these tips "hacks". Maybe reminders how to get the most out of your dining plan.
I will say that, if you budget it, and look at a DDP, it can be worth it. Sure you may save 10-?? bucks a day buying a-la-carte, how much is it worth to not have to worry about where to eat, or what you can/can't get.
I will say, when I was in WDW last fall, we had the regular dining (1ts, 1qs, 1s) and still had left over credits. and we were NOT hungry.
And while it may be a nice gesture to have our meal paid for from a xDDP surplus, that just means we now have a surplus of credits we need to get rid of.
1st world problems.
In the last few times we've been to mouseland, we've gone with the deluxe dining plan. For us it is a good deal, but I can understand that for many it is not. Note, my main goal is to simplify things, and not save every penny. However, I do generally see if the plan is in the ball park for the meals we eat.
For reference, recently my wife and I have been going alone (our daughter is now an adult). We prefer to do sit down meals, since my wife has some mobility issues and it is a lot easier to stash the scooter for a sitdown meal rather than trying to navigate counter service (and I was noticing problems navigating the park myself the last time too). We do generally eat a regular breakfast as well. So for us, the deluxe meals are similar to what we would be spending anyway.
First of all, depending on when you go, there might be discounts, that include dining plans. I forget in the past when we went (May 2014, December 2015) whether the plan we went with had free dining or discount on the rooms. We have the Disney Visa card, so we see these offers coming in earlier before the general public.
Second, depending on how close you live to Orlando, you should note that the deluxe dining plan is 3 sit down meals for the number of nights that you stay in a Disney resort. We live in New England, and we travel south in the morning and north in the late afternoon. This means we typically have at least 1 meal that is not covered, due to wanting to eat lunch both on the day we get in and on the day we leave.
Third as you mention, there are some meals that cost 2 meal credits. We generally treat ourselves to at least one during our stay (in the last trip, we did Artists Point, which wasn't too our taste and Fulton's Crab House which was one of our favorite restaurants ever). However, there are other things that cost 2 meal credits, such as Candlelight processional, or preferred seating at Fantasmic. So we do have a few breakfasts or lunches that we pay out of pocket.
Fourth, remember that tips/alcohol are no longer included in the deluxe dining plan (IIRC, they were included quite a few years ago). So, if you are eating at more expensive restaurants to maximize your return on investment, you will be paying a higher charge on tips.
Fifth, I helped my father set up a trip for his 80th birthday, where he took the whole family down (he paid all of the expenses). While I have a good job, and can afford to pay my way, my two siblings and their families are a different matter. One is struggling to keep afloat, but they are mostly making it, and the other is below the poverty level. With the deluxe dining plan, my father was able to pay for all meals ahead of time and my siblings didn't have to pay extra on the meals we didn't eat together (assuming they did counter service). This can help in some cases where you have an extended family going down.