Can We BEAT The Disney Dining Plan?! Best & Worst Ways To Use In Disney World 2024 | Guide, Reviews
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- čas přidán 16. 01. 2024
- The highly-anticipated return of the Disney Dining Plan is here! This add-on allows you to prepay for some of your meals and snacks in Walt Disney World -- but is it worth the high cost? Molly and Alan are headed to put the Dining Plan to the test, and do their best to BEAT it! Follow along for a day of eating and drinking through Disney World, packed full of tips, tricks, reviews, and of course...math.
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You know what you do better than anybody? You teach people. You show what's going on in the app, and you explain things really well. And you make it so much fun to watch! The balance of tangible info and light-heartedness is the best on CZcams in the theme park space! I click so fast when I see a new video. Thanks for everything! :)
Yes! They are so good at teaching people how to use it and maximize it!
@@corriezoetewey7860 I am really the only one who watches them; my husband just chimes in "I can see myself hanging out with them."
Exactly why I recommend her to everyone I see or know that says they are going to the parks. I have tried to watch other CZcamsrs and it is either overwhelming, boring or not helpful. Not Molly though!
Boo
Truly the best out there for Disney content! 🎉
I'd love to see a comparison of prices between what you would acutally like to get vs. what you got to "beat the dining plan."
Yes!
Right before the parks shut down for covid we did an eight day trip for two adults. I kept track of everything we spent for food and drink. Some of the items we bought weren't on the DDP. In the end we saved about $400 by not buying the plan and ate what we wanted instead of having to eat only what was on the plan.
Yes exactly what I thought.
@@CharleneCTXthanks for that.👍Disney isn’t doing the dining plan to loose money. 👍
TOO MUCH FOOD. People don't need to eat that much. We go to Disney multiple times a year and we spend about half what the plan would cost. Everyone eats normal, we still do a character dining and go to our favorite restaurants. I also wouldn't buy a $14 beer on principal alone. Not for us.
One thing I noticed when we used the dining plan was we order apps, entree and dessert to try to maximize the plan when normally we would only order an entree. Then we had to pay a tip on the food we normally wouldn't have bought so we spent more on tips than we budgeted.
You also likely ate more calories than you would normally want.
Could not help but chuckle when Molly said she is not a fan of Mickey pretzels while wearing a pair of Mickey pretzel earrings 😂
Lol good catch
Pro Tip: If you need two rooms for your trip. Split the reservation and only get the DDP on one room. Then you can share.
what does ddp mean?
Disney dining plan
@@helentait6727 thank you
Molly is the top Disney vlogger and her husband adds some magic to the vids as well. This channel is better than 90% of the theme park channels out there. I believe Molly deserves to get to a million subscribers or more.
PRO TIP: If you want to budget food but don’t want to do the dining plan, BUY DISNEY GIFTCARDS at wholesale clubs or at target. You can purchase a $500 card for $485 and I used my discover credit card and got 5% cash back. We ended up saving $40 for every $500 we bought in gift cards and that helps us stay on budget throughout the trip👍🏼
Ooooh I love this tip! We've gotten the dining plan before in order to not have to think about how much we were spending. Even if we had budgeted for the food we still would have been thinking of saving money but if it's already on gift cards we wouldn't feel like we were spending too much. Thank you for this tip!!
pro tip: Eat free breakfast at your hotel. ride rides.leave the Disney Park at noon and eat at a chain restaurant to save money. come back to the park at 2pm and ride rides and at about 7pm eat dinner in the Disney Park. Also take a backpack of simple snacks into the park after returning from lunch. Also bring 1 bottle of water each.
@@jondisneyhitsyoutuber450 We would have to rent a car since we live way out west. But it sounds like a good plan for others.
It's a snow day, I can happily live vicariously thru Alan and Molly in warmer weather! ❤. Now if only there was smell vision 💕💕
Same for me!
Agreed 👍🏻 I love mammoth club so much
My pro tip....DON'T BUY THE PLAN. Seems like a lot of planning to beat it. There's already enough planning 😅 Also they wouldn't sell it if it wasn't to their benefit
Don’t buy it, get it for free! I got free standard dining for our trip in September.
@@megzyx1room rates are higher
@@Bekind817nope, I booked a stay for September at all stars movies for about 2500 for my family of 4 (1 under 3 years old) with the free dining.
I got it as I am from the UK and this is a big trip for me. I dont want to worry about paying for absolutely every food item when I'm there. I personally dont care much about beating it; just using it to pre-pay for my food.
@@Stale_Cupcakes It is nice to not worry so much about food costs
My parents and I got the dining plan once, during one of our trips, and our experience was about the same as yours: we were determined to get our money's worth, went for more expensive items, made sure to definitely eat every single table service meal we were allotted... and then found ourselves extremely stuffed every day, AND we found we were burning more time than we would have liked of our vacation on sitting down to eat. I can see how it might be a good choice for some, but after doing it once, we decided we likely wouldn't do it again... and never have.
i feel like this kind of seems like more of a hassle than it’s worth. i remember when my family went back in the summer of 2008 and we got breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. i swear we got apps, dessert, and everything. it was so wild. i will never forget how full we all were lol.
Yes! We would get so much and have more snack credits than we could have ever used! We gave a bunch away every time
Yep I was a cm in 2007 at a food court and it used to be entree/drink/dessert but the drink had to be nonalcoholic-seems like that was the trade off for losing dessert
In 2005, we got the appy, entree, dessert and a 10% tip was included in addition to a quick service and snack.
That was the deluxe plan, we did it once and almost exploded lol
We did the dining plan in 2014 and it was so much food! We did do some character dining that was 2 credits. We felt like we HAD to order the most expensive items and honestly I wouldn’t do it again. We did the dining plan at Universal right before they dropped it. I compared what we bought vs our next trip when we just bought what we wanted and we spent way less paying as we went. A lot of the snacks/quick meals we shared when paying on our own and we weren’t hungry but definitely not stuffed. It was more comfortable. Meat recently decided to not get along with my stomach and we don’t drink alcohol so I can’t see this new plan being worth it for us (if we ever make it back to Disney). Watching this video made my tummy upset 😂
The Mammoth Club folks are real
Disney enthusiasts and are the real deal. I binge watch this channel
I wish you also bought the “what I usually get/what I want” to compare how that would work with the plan.
Am I the only person that likes it because I want to beat the plan? I enjoy all the endless planning and math. Lol. Let the eating games begin. And may the odds always be in my favor!!!
I think the DDP is great for a weekend trip, but beyond that, no way! It’s just too much food. Plus, I don’t want to run around trying to “beat the plan.” However, I loved your thorough explanations of the madness!
I agree, it’s like being on a cruise ship. Just because there is food always available doesn’t mean you want to eat it. But for a quick trip it’s great to have prepaid meals.
I went to Disney with family for a wedding in 2009 (my dad’s cousin was getting married and I was a bridesmaid, with my brother as a groomsman). On our last day, we had a bunch of meal credits because my dad had gone home early (he was in the end stages of Stage 3+ metastasized colon cancer and died the following weekend), but we took home SO MANY chocolate covered Mickey Rice Krispy treats that I have never looked at a Rice Krispy Treat the same way since (also just mixed emotions about Disney in general because it was our last holiday as a family before dad died).
I'm so sorry, 😢 that was rough.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing ❤
SPLIT STAY - get the dining plan for only a day or 2, hit the expensive stuff, get your refillable mug, continue on with the rest of your trip as you would. thats the key. Its not fun to only get the most expensive stuff your whole trip, but easy to do for 1 or 2 days. Easiest way to do this is renting or owning DVC since there is no package requirements. Love your guys’ channel!
This is such a good idea! Do the cups still work after you check out of your first resort stay?
@@laurencass6449 yes! They are active for 14 days :)
@@laurencass6449I think they are good for about 14 days after purchase
I assume they would, unless like universal freestyle machines the detect the cups when fill up? @@laurencass6449
@laurencass6449 I believe they last 2 weeks. That was the case when we went in October 2022, however we bought the mugs, so don't quote me on that ❤
(We were only there 1 week, so gave our mugs to another family on check out day)
I did the dining plan once in 2018, I intentionally tried to beat it which I was successful at since I did character dining everyday, but it was sooo much food. I also seemed more stressed out trying to figure out what counted and what didn't the whole time. I think I'll stick with only stressing about Genie plus and not throwing food on top of that! lol
Alan’s face with the pretzel 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I agree that cheese you get with the pretzel is funky tasting and smells funky too.
Probably because Molly was sporting a pair of Mickey pretzel earrings at the time 😂
They changed the cheese recently (within the last year) and this new cheese is MUCH worse.
Probably not cheese at all, just chemicals with cheese flavoring.
Great job guys!!🎉 This video was so detailed and explained The Dining Plan so well! Great tips and tricks!!
Love it when you really tell us the best way to get the most out of something!!!!
Outstanding!!! I was clueless. Thanks.
I loved watching this to see you getting the most for your money and above! Great tips! The food looked amazing! Thanks for sharing.
Such a great, in-depth video. You guys really put in the work when making videos and it shows and is appreciated!
Loved the throwback picture of you and your Grandpa 28:47 ❤️
Yay Ty so much for doing this! It’s been so long since we got to use it and you guys always explain the best! I hope you update us in this like with genie!
Thank you so much for the tips on the mobile orders! The visual walkthrough was exactly what I (and all the other visual people out there) needed. I have been worried about the plan for that very reason. So helpful. Thank you again, Molly and Allen.
That was a truly excellent breakdown of the DDP. We did the dining plan our first two WDW trips when our son was young and we did multiple character dining meals (and this was when it was two snacks per day and alcohol was not included). We haven’t done it since. The plan forced us to have to think about stopping for meals or snacks when we weren’t really hungry so we ended up with a ton of snack credits at the end of our stay (Which we used to purchase gingerbread shingles at the contemporary since it was holiday season). We ended up doing a full excel spreadsheet comparison of what we would have to buy to use up credits vs what we would typically buy if it was all out of pocket, we spent less going out of pocket by a pretty significant amount. Great vid. Thanks for all your hard work breaking down things like this in super easy and digestible ways. 😊❤️
Thank You Molly and Alan for doing this vid! Very helpful information for our upcoming trip in the spring! Love You All MamFam!
I got the deluxe dining plan one year and we ended up cancelling a few reservations because we could not eat another bite! We do gift cards now ... gives that same feeling of not having to spend money on vacation... just by using credit card points in Target rewards points. I have $800 worth of gift cards that I didn't pay for! It allows you to budget so much better ❤
girl math. you paid for it alright...
Yes, unless you got the points on this you normally buy anyway without the redcard. Btw you can get a red card free by adding your bank debit card to get the 5% discount on disney gift cards. No need to apply for credit.@@joereuben4909
Glad to see what happened in animal kingdom because if they’re gonna pull all the good snacks off the dining plan there’s no point in having it! I’m also curious to see what happens with the food and wine festival’s. In the past you could get three items at one booth and it would count as a meal credit, I’m interested to see if they carry that on or if they wipe the festival items off the snack menus as well 🤨 and honestly I am extremely disappointed in Disney not updating the signs! I get that it takes time to update signage, but they need to go out and put a piece of masking tape over the icons at least, you can’t leave the signs up with incorrect information and not even cover them up! I’m surprised because Disney is a lot usually a lot more on top of things.
You used to be able to swap multiple snack credits for a meal but not anymore...at least not right now :(
I've never used the dining plan because the first time I ever got to go to WDW was in 2022 lol THANK YOU so much for what you do, again. I can't thank y'all enough. I can't recommend your videos to other people trying to plan their WDW vacations enough!! Molly the way you explain the different aspects of planning a WDW trip (genie plus, dining plan, rope dropping, etc) CANNOT be matched. You make it so easy to find and navigate all the tools and your tips and tricks are the most helpful out of any I have seen. You've also helped grow my love for the Disney PARKS through your amazing community that I'm still so honored to be a part of. Love you guys, I can't wait to see what adventures you take us all on next!
Omg Molly is hitting all the topics I want to know about recently because I need to brush up on my disney knowledge 😭 thank you 🙏🏻❤
Absolutely fantastic that you gave a run through of how to use the app. Especially to look out for things like the cheese sauce counting as a snack! Great content as always guys ❤
I saw you both today at Epcot. I was eating a few table to your left during lunch. I wanted to say thank you for your Genie+ videos. They really helped me since it's my first time getting an annual pass and going alone.
Hope you enjoyed your day at EPCOT!
wonderful video, my husband and I were just planning for our trip in April and was just having this conversation and then yall posted this video 30 seconds later. Thank you for the tips and tricks.
This was so informative!! Such good tips ! Ready for my trip in May now !
Yessss!!! Needed this!!! ❤❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉
I'm adding to my comment after watching. 😅 I can really tell how much research and dedication was put into this video. Thank you Mammoth Club for helping educate me for my family's upcoming Disney trip.
I think you guys should do another one of these! This was so fun to watch. We have a trip in August and the dining plan came included in our package so this was so nice to be able to see you use it in the best ways! Id love to see you do a beat the plan at each of the parks!
Thank you Alan and Molly! I learned a lot -- my head hurts from all the math! 🤣 You are both so funny! Thanks for keeping it real! Love the end of the video after your meal at Ohana. 😂🤣❤❤
Ahhhh!!!! We've been here since Monday and keeping our eyes out for you two!!!! My wife and I only watch your videos when it comes to Disney information and love your videos!!!! Maybe we will see you later this week in the parks!!!
Thank ya'll for doing this video, you get into the nitty gritty and really give a good glimpse of logistics and practicality. We've only used the DDP one time and that was enough for us to know that the math didn't really math for us- 1 we are not big eaters, especially at disney since we find a lot of the portions at WDW to be really large and 2-even with as often as we go and would know what to eat to maximize our bang for our buck, it tends to feel restricting given we want to "eat enough" to make it make sense. The realest selling point of the DDP is that you can pre-pay for your food which lends itself to having your trip paid for and you've incurred the expense before the trip. Sort of gives it an all inclusive feel, but beyond that, it never really worked well for us.
Not only are you guys wonderful humans, but you’re amazing teachers. Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge 🧡💙💖
Sharing this video with a client that’s traveling next week and using the dining plan for the first time! Thanks guys! ❤❤❤
Fantastic video !!!!! Thank you for showing how the app works, how to take out items if you don't want to use them as a dining plan option. And of course, you both always have the best videos with laughs, tons of fun, and an enormous amount of information. Thank you so much.
Using it for the first time every this spring, was waiting for a video on this from you!
You guys are my new favorite WDW vloggers. Great information with humor thrown in.
Alan and Molly, this is one of your best topics for video. Awesome and I love that you accurately describe the DDP as a pre-payment meal plan! It is not a discount dining plan in any way. It is beneficial if you understand that and use it accordingly. Great Video
Molly & Allan, excellent video & explanation of the dining plan concept-I’ll be purchasing this for my family on my next Disney trip. Job well done.
What a great video! Super educational too. You guys are the best!
Another thing we found when we did a 2 different resort stay. One was 3 people in a resort, the other was a 2 person stay in a DVC resort. Your dining plan is good until midnight on check out day, and since we were checking out of our regular resort, we saved some credits till that day...then used them up since we had a microwave and fridge. There is so much food on the dining plan that we were able to stretch it to cover 2 more days for the 2 people! We used the credits for things that would do well with reheating or things like a chicken caesar salad that was quick serve and didn't need reheating.
I was so full just watching! Tums for the win! 😂 snowed in in Mississippi this week and dreaming about my trip next week! Headed to Ohana for the first time and can’t wait!
Superb pro tips for how to use the Disney dining, especially via mobile ordering! 🌟📱🌟 I totally agree with the planning approach that Allen and Molly use for meal, snacks, and drink selections along with checking for dining packages involving seating for shows! 💖 Reserving two tickets meals at some signature restaurants is great for dinner celebrations which the combination of Disney ambiance and delicious cuisine, has created priceless memories I still hold dear! 🥂
Thank you for the most informative video I have seen on the dining plan
You two are adorable and so informative. You always give the most detailed and helpful info. keep up the great work Mam Fam. 💝
This was so incredibly helpful! We have a trip in April and was unsure how the Moblie ordering would work with the dining plan! Thank you so much!
Thank you again for the video! Good way to start my day and always very helpful in my trip planning 🙌🍽️ Love from Canada 🇨🇦
Greetings from Victoria!
Molly and Alan, I really enjoyed this video. Apologies that I don’t regularly comment, but want you to know I appreciate you and enjoy your personalities 😊 I recently watched your Pringles and PopTart videos and they were a blast!
Have a blessed day 🙏
OMG! I didn't know about Pro tip #1. I would have been so mad to use a snack on extra cheese.
Here to help!🫡
@@Mammoth_Club We learn so much watching your videos! I've been telling everyone in our group (Sept trip) about the app defaulting to using the snack credit on $1 cup of cheese. Telling my adult kids, "Pay attention! Don't be throwing away our credits on stupid stuff! If I hadn't watched your video, I would have never thought to look this closely at our mobile orders. Thanks so much!
I LOVE this video! Truthfully, I love all of your videos, but this one really spoke to me. Math, food, beating the system: yes please! I am the math nerd who will spend months planning, down to the penny, to make sure I am getting the best bang for my buck. Thank you so much for making such helpful, detailed, fun videos. I love watching them! One more thing; I was laughing so hard at the part about bringing antacids because my parents call Tums “after dinner mints” 😂
I enjoy y'all's videos! They are entertaining as well as helpful! I like getting the dining plan for the worry-less, enjoy-more, reasoning, meaning I can just enjoy my time without the worry of seeing the huge bill every time, lol!
I just found your channel while looking for tips and tricks for a future disney honeymoon/vacation, and I'll be watching and making notes on what to do and what not to and how to use the app lol.
Very informative! I am not planning on going on a trip anytime soon but as someone who loves the parks and just went to Disney World for the first time in September, I love watching your videos.
I appreciate that you hit some roadblocks. As wonderfully as I try to plan, I don’t go to Disney often so I run in to hiccups, and get frustrated. Actually refreshing to see it happens to the Pros!!
AND THEN my family says, “ you spend all that time watching Molly and researching…& this still happened!” …then I slap my family.
*for legal reasons I do not punk-slap my family on Disney property.*
You guys did an AMAZING job showing us how this works. You showed us why it would work for our family on our Disney Trip this coming year. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOU DO!
This is the best video to explain the new plan that I have seen! Thank you
We got the deluxe dining plan a couple times with promotions... the pro during the time were because it was the food and wine festival so all the kiosks counted as snacks which we mainly used then... the downfall was that we were so full from sit down table meals every meal we didn't eat snacks at any other parks which we missed out on..i would do it again but like what they say in the video definitely research before you decide. We saved up to $1000 as two adults because we picked what we liked at each restaurant before reserving times... and if you can't decide always ask cast members! Some helped us pick the best options to get the most out of it
We are going to WDW next month and I was wondering what the Disney Dining Plan is. But, through this video, you guys gave me a lot of useful information in an easy to understand way. Thank you so much!
Prior to COVID, I tried the Quick Service dining plan. Like you, I tried to maximize everything to get a head or at least break even. I was successful, however, I had to pick items that I really didn't want just get my money's worth. I even traded some of my quick service credits for snack while eating around Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival. It was a lot of food and I really hated having (in my mind) to pick the most expensive items despite not having a taste for them, just to break even. I also didn't want to leave with a bunch of frivolous snacks to go home with if I didn't use all my quick service credits. I realized during that trip that I really don't eat that much. I rather have a small snack at my resort before heading out (or not at all), snack mid-day and have one meal at night. It all depends upon how long I'm at the park and if I'm at a festival. Oh, using quick service credits at a festival kiosk -- had to use all of them at the same kiosk. I didn't like that at all since most of the time I only wanted one item at the kiosk and not multiple items. I'm not saying dining plan is not good. It's just not good for me.
I've done the math before several trip and it never worked out for me. Half my family doesn't eat breakfast, half doesn't eat dessert or snacks. We would just eat just for the sake of "getting our money's worth"
I felt this way about Universal’s dining plan before it was discontinued. Only + was you didn’t have to get it for your whole stay. Had they kept it I would have done the plan for 1/2 the stay but we ended up spending way less on our next trip without the plan. We split alot of the snacks and quick service meals.
Thank you for this-it was really helpful to see how this would actually play out.
This was a really helpful video, thank you!
I love you guys, you're so cute! This was very helpful info on the dining plan!
🎉🎉thanks for the wonderful tips!!!
Y’all are people after my own heart. Fantastic video with tips and explanations on how to save and get the best deals. You were throwing down facts like no other every ten seconds, thank you for your hard work on this video!!
brilliant vlog and the sound level was on point.
So happy to hear you’re releasing a festival of the arts video-I didn’t see it on your January calendar so that’s great news!
Molly, your "Küche" was spot on. Almost 100%
Greetings from Germany.
For last 7 days I am watching all the videos related to DDP 2024 ... but this is the BEST ONE. I love how you show examples and tricks!
You guys are so fun to watch 😀
Thank you so much for making this video! It’s so helpful to see it being used real time and I love that you showed how to find your credits in the app! Thank you 🧡🩷🩵 love the tips and tricks
Brilliant! Best explanation of the dining plan I've seen!
I would love another video of you trying to beat the Dining Plan (Quick Service) at another park.
I love that place,always busy.Pizza looked great.Thank you for making me hungry!
Wow, THANK YOU! Your tips and tricks, plus demonstration of the mobile order app, are very helpful!
I have Crohn's Disease, and it's clear that the dining plan will not work for me. From one day to the next, I never know for certain if I'll even be able to tolerate solid food or just have to stick to clear liquids (hey, vodka is a clear liquid 🤣).
Thank you so much for being so thorough! Safe travels. 💜
I booked my trip and got the quick service dining plan back in september! this is EXACTLY the kind of video I have been waiting to come out! Thank y'all for showing us how to use and win the dining plan! We are staying at Pop! In Septmeber of this year for my partner's 25th birthday. I am counting down the days!
I'm an "off-property" girlie so the Dining Plan isn't an option, but I honestly don't think I could eat enough every day to make it worth it! It's great they include Disney Springs too - so many options there! I definitely appreciate the in-depth (and delicious-looking) research.
We had the DDP back in 2018, it was great but we got so stung with tips as we kept going for the most expensive items which obviously bumped up the tip value so it still cost us a lot!! I also loved being able to convert our unused credits at the end of our holiday to snack credits and bought bags and bags of candy to take home, such a shame that they don't allow that any more!
Thank you for showing how to use the dining plan. With this information people can decide if the dining plan is for them. I see pros and cons to the dining plan. People need to choose wisely.
Thank you guys for doing this!!! I’m doing a vacay where we’re just staying at AKL (no parks) and wasn’t sure if the dining plan might be worth it. I’m thinking not. This was a huge help!
You really did a great informational video on this subject.
Thanks for the video❤❤❤ can you do a video on more info on what snacks are included vs those that arent? Was surprised when you had to go look for snack options!
So useful. Thank you!
Thanks for another great video! Can you do a video about using snack credits for breakfast? That was my favorite way to use snack credits prior to 2020, but it looks like snack credit options have changed. Thanks!
Alan and the plastic cheese…lmao! Had my gagging! Also the Mickey pretzel. Nice and dry…just like the wines I love! lol
this was SO helpful, thank you!
Great information, I never understood the dining plan. Thank you.
Thank you for explaining the dining place and showing us how to get the best bang for my buck!
Would love to see just the quick service one and the comparison. Great video as always!!
OMG I just came back from Disney so this video is about 2 weeks late for me but I will be following for updates 😉😜
this was helpful and helped me realize i dont want to buy something because its more expensive to beat the plan when in reality i prefer another option at a location that may happen to be cheaper. i think my anxiety could never handle the plan. I think instead buying $200 in giftcards with a discount from target or costco will work better for me. THIS WAS GREAT THANK YOU!
The best content and tips as always!