For those with small children, do you buy the Dining Plan?

[bunny]

We are taking our first trip as DVC members in October staying for 8 nights in a 1 bedroom at SSR. We have a 7 year old and a 3 year old. I am so torn about the dining plan. On one hand, I know it is a great deal if you will be eating at restaurants alot. On the other hand, I know my children are very antsy in restaurants. We had them at Dairy Queen on Saturday and they were all over the place. At the end of the meal, I looked at my plate and realized I didn't enjoy anything I ate. :sad2: (Thank goodness, that meal was only $17.) I fear on vacation they will be even worse. My husband wants to order groceries and try to eat some of our meals in our villa. He wants to take afternoon breaks and swim and eat. This is something we have never done before. We have always been commando. I am just looking for some feedback from other parents of toddlers. My husband has even offered to do all the cooking, so it isn't the work. Anybody in the same boat? What did you do? My 7 year has been to the parks some many times he would prefer to swim all day. Thanks.

[MomofKatie]

We did the DDP with our 7 year old last fall and loved it- but we have a calm only child who has been going to sit down restaurants her whole life. It sounds like you might not get too much enjoyment out of eating at TS restaurants. I'd maybe skip the DDP this time and wait til the kids are a bit older. Just spend your $$ on one or two character meals, and use your kitchen and CS the rest of the time- you will have a better time if you aren't stressed about trying to keep the kids sitting through TS meals every day.

[pilferk]

I think it would depend on your kids, how much they'll eat, etc.

Heck, with my 2 kids (who are big eaters) 10.99 wouldn't cover their snack and counterservice meals per day, never mind the sit down meal. So it's well worth it for us, and would be even if the kids were "antsy" and we had a hard time doing sit down meals. If you book even 2 or 3 character buffets (where there is a bit more distraction for the kids) for the week (maybe lunches) as your sit downs, and just pay for an extra counter service the other 3 days/nights...for us it would STILL work out as a pretty good deal for them. For you guys, at $38, maybe not so much (Maybe you guys could leave them with one of the in room sitters or at one of the "sitter clubs" and catch another sit down meal or two alone?). You really have to sit down and crunch the numbers, AND know your family's eating habits, to figure out if it's the best deal for you.

If you're AP holders, maybe the DDE card is a better deal because it'll get you discounts?

[rjthkids]

Well, the next time we go to Disney we will have four children under the age of six.

I can only answer for myself, but there is *no way* I consider it even remotely enjoyable to eat out with my children. Not in a million years. My oldest has actually always been a good "eat out" child, the other two are six months apart and right now are my worst nightmare in a restaurant. Way too antsy, never enough to do, never interested in coloring etc. etc. always want down in five minutes, etc. etc. The jury is still out on the fourth one. But the middle two alone make it enough for me to practically have a heart attack of dread just thinking of taking them out to sit down at a meal. :rotfl:

The last time we went to DW, we stayed at SSR and I cooked in for the week and took stuff with us. It worked for us and we saved a ton of money.
:-)

[kcdisneymom]

If you want to try eating out, I would suggest Whispering Canyon at Wilderness Lodge. My two year old had a blast with the "trail ride". They have wooden stick horses and organize the kids to do a "trial ride" around the restaurant. They really interact with the kids.

[kahluacream]

We used DDP with our DS(5) and DS(2.5) in May. Normally, the dining plan is "free" for children under 3-- meaning the child can eat off of your plate. We opted to pay for our younger son to have his own dining plan credits since he loves to eat! It was worth every penny.

We LOVED the dining plan. Our boys are active and squirmy. Since character meals are considered "table service", that was a great option for us to use those credits. Our children loved the interaction with the characters! We also enjoyed Whispering Canyon Cafe (as another poster suggested).

I have a dining report in progress describing where (and what!) we ate using DDP on our recent trip. Here's a link if you're interested:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1121580

Happy planning! :)

[JimMIA]

We really enjoy sit down dinners with DD4goingon24, but she's mature for her age, we've been dining out with her since she was a baby, and there's only one of her. We used the dining plan last time out (May), and found it very beneficial for us.

We use our TSs for dinners almost exclusively, and those dinners are something DD looks forward to each day. Our biggest bonus was the character dinners, which worked into our schedule better than breakfasts or lunches. The other big benefits were her excitement at Teppenyaki and her fascination with the aquarium at Coral Reef.

I don't think there is any question that the dining plan is good for those of us with small kids. The real question, I think, is whether the kid(s) will enjoy the sit-down meals. Some do, and some don't.

One thing you might do on this trip is try things out. Take the kids to a character meal, and take them out to a sit-down with something to offer them -- like WC or Coral Reef. Get them used to it a little, and then consider the dining plan next year when they are a year older and more comfortable with the experience.

[Doug7856]

Our 4 year old hated the meal plan -- "Do we have to eat again! I want to do fun things!".

We won't be doing it again until he is older. Having table service every evening when there are so many amazing things to do at WDW is just too difficult for my 4 year old to handle!

[pilferk]

Well, the next time we go to Disney we will have four children under the age of six.

I can only answer for myself, but there is *no way* I consider it even remotely enjoyable to eat out with my children. Not in a million years. My oldest has actually always been a good "eat out" child, the other two are six months apart and right now are my worst nightmare in a restaurant. Way too antsy, never enough to do, never interested in coloring etc. etc. always want down in five minutes, etc. etc. The jury is still out on the fourth one. But the middle two alone make it enough for me to practically have a heart attack of dread just thinking of taking them out to sit down at a meal. :rotfl:

The last time we went to DW, we stayed at SSR and I cooked in for the week and took stuff with us. It worked for us and we saved a ton of money.
:-)

Yeah, I have to admit, we're very lucky. Both our 2 year old and our 4 year old are good resturaunt eaters/patrons. Heck, our 4 year old ASKS to go out to resuraunts! :)

Again, that's what I meant about having the answer be specific to your family on whether it's worthwhile or not. For us, it definitely is. But I can completely see the scenarios for other families where it wouldn't be.

[las3888]

We crunched numbers and didn't see any great benefit to us (we are planning on using the DDE card for 20% off). It seemed tempting to us at first, but then we realized it really does kind of take away your dining freedom. I know you have alot of options, but we didn't want the pressure to use the right kinds of meals enough times etc.

Sounds like you might enjoy a little more freedom in your dining as well with your little ones. Good luck with your decision!

[pilferk]

Our 4 year old hated the meal plan -- "Do we have to eat again! I want to do fun things!".

We won't be doing it again until he is older. Having table service every evening when there are so many amazing things to do at WDW is just too difficult for my 4 year old to handle!

Yeah, we typically book all our TS dinners as character dinners, so they're doing something fun while eathing. And our kids are character NUTS, so that pretty much seals the deal, but they still eat. I can certainly see others who are more attraction oriented or are easily distracted at meals not being in the same boat.

[starbox]

When our kids were 3 and 5, we only ate at a select few table service restaurants on each trip, and those were kid-friendly - Cinderella's Royal Table, the Sci Fi Drive In, Chef Mickeys. It was enough, but not too much and so they've learned to love eating out. I think DDP would have been a stress at that point. When you work in the appetizers and desserts, each DDP meal takes a while to eat (we spent 2 1/2 hours in the Coral Reef). When the kids were toddlers/preschoolers we bought a few TS meals at lunch when prices were lower, and it was a nice air-conditioned break for everyone.

We worked up to a TS meal per day and have used the DP for four trips now. The kids are now 7 and 9 and consider dining to be one of the best parts of a vacation. My DS gets to go to WDW for his birthday in a few weeks, and I let him plan the trip. He spent an afternoon poring of menus at allears to pick his dining! :goodvibes

[deedeetoo]

We have two kids dd8 and ds5. Our kids are old enough that they will sit in restaurants but dd8 eats like a bird (she must somehow absorb nutrients out of the air). We were on the fence about getting the plan for our trip last week and decided against it. It turned out to be the right decision for us.

We ended up eating only 4 TS meals while we were there. We missed a few reservations because of weather. We had come back to the room for a swim and then storms moved in and didn't let up for hours - it wasn't your typical late day FL thunderstorm that comes in and then leaves. We didn't feel like treking through the torrential downpours just to have dinner. We missed a couple others because no one was really hungry enough to sit down for a big meal. If we had bought the meal plan we would have felt like we wasted our money. I think the DDE is a much better way to go if you can get it.

[liznboys]

Oh no, No Dining Plan for us. There's no way we could or would want to do table service meals everyday. We did figure out the cost of the DP out of curiousity and actually we would spend about the same with or without it...but with it would be a headache!! Thank you, but no! :)

[NMW]

I spend a lot of time on the restaurant board and I can not tell you how many people say they called 2 months before their trip to make ADR's and got nothing! A woman this mornig said she just cancelled a last minute anniv. trip at BWI for September because she spent 2 days talking to dining and could not get any dinner ADR's that weren't 9:45 or 9:50. She also said she had back-ups for her back-ups and still got nothing-even at resort restaurants. Some places were entirely booked for September. She and her husband wanted to do nice dinners on this trip and were so dissapointed.

We went in Dec 2005 and we saw so many people walking up to the restautant with out ADR's being turned away. A family at San Angel while we were waiting told the CM that they had tried EVERY restaurant in the world showcase and was there any way they could get in-they said they would wait. The CM told them sorry, no walk-ups. I felt really bad for them, they looked so frustrated.

A couple dining CM's have told me that the dining plan is so popular that it's really tough to get ADR's unless you call early. So many more families are doing table service AND eating all three courses, than ever before.

The reson I'm telling you all this is because you have young children and may want a more regular dinner time for them (between 5-7 PM) and I thought the info might help. :wizard:

I think the dining plan would be great for families with kids. You can feed them a TS dinner and CS lunch pretty much anywhere for only $10.99! That's a great deal. Plus they get a snack-which has recently been updated to MOST items under $4.00. You can get an entire box of doughnuts at SSR for one snack credit!

If you pick louder, more fun places, I'm sure even antsy children, AND their parents would have a good time. :)

[dtndfamily]

I spend a lot of time on the restaurant board and I can not tell you how many people say they called 2 months before their trip to make ADR's and got nothing! A woman this mornig said she just cancelled a last minute anniv. trip at BWI for September because she spent 2 days talking to dining and could not get any dinner ADR's that weren't 9:45 or 9:50. She also said she had back-ups for her back-ups and still got nothing-even at resort restaurants. Some places were entirely booked for September. She and her husband wanted to do nice dinners on this trip and were so dissapointed.

We went in Dec 2005 and we saw so many people walking up to the restautant with out ADR's being turned away. A family at San Angel while we were waiting told the CM that they had tried EVERY restaurant in the world showcase and was there any way they could get in-they said they would wait. The CM told them sorry, no walk-ups. I felt really bad for them, they looked so frustrated.

I have never done this but I have heard of others calling the ADR phone number the same day and were able to book dining reservations since there are those people who do have to cancel. They might not accept walk-ups, but they may have been able to call the ADR number and made the reservation "in advance", albeit only an hour or two in advance. If you do not have TS reservations and may want to have a TS meal, you may want to add the phone number to your speed dial...just in case.

We are on the dining plan for next month with our DS6 and DS4. We have never had an issue with them in restaurants, and when we used the DP last October, our then DS5, DS3 and neice of 6 years ate very nicely at Le Cellier as well as at the California Grill. I see the TS meals as a very much needed break for the adults as well as the kids to get out of the hot weather.

Best of luck with whatever you decide.

[pbharris4]

We tried the DP 2 weeks ago. I have a 10yo DD and a 3 yo DD both of whom eat really well. However, either it was the heat or the excitement or both, but neither one of them ate that much. We normally eat 1 TS a day (sometimes 2, but that's like only 1 or 2 days), but we don't always get an appetizer, if we do, we split it, and sometimes we get dessert, but not always. Most of the snacks we got were mints, or donuts, a popcorn, cookies, etc. to bring back. Plus..it's alot of running around to different restaurants. I think it does save money though, but it's alot of waste. Also, I don;t think the quality of food was that good this year. We are going back in a few months and skipping the DP this time to compare and see (for us) which is better.

[lizziepooh]

When we went with our grandkids then 7 and 2, we found it more relaxing to cook and eat simple breakfasts and dinners in the room. One person could take the kids swimming while the other started dinner. Having a dishwasher made cleanup pretty easy. The kids are now 4 and 9. After taking them to a table service lunch today, we will do the same thing again when we go to OKW in November. We had to haul the 4 year old out from under the table at least 3 times today, which doesn't make for a relaxing lunch. I love her to pieces, but it is very hard for her to sit still. You know your kids better than anyone. If your last lunch out was stressful and if DH is willing to do all the cooking, I would go for doing more meals in your unit.

[SleepyatDVC]

Totally would depend on our kids. Or in your case, YOUR kids. Lol!

We are lucky in that no matter how my kids drive me batty at home, they are very well behaved in public ESPECIALLY in sit down restaurants. We don't eat out much at home except special occasions and the kids consider all sit downs a treat, especially, if at WDW.

Our kids are 5 and 7 now. There was ONE year, I think when DD#2 was about 2 or 3 where she couldn't sit still in a restaurant for long and that was the year we spent most of our dinners cooking mac and cheese in our one-bedroom. But she out grew that phase quickly and joined DD#1 who could sit quietly throughout an entire 2 hour meal. She could do that since infancy.

For families who have restless kids who want or need to be on the dining plan, I would suggest trying to suggest scheduling as many character or "themed" meals as possible. Kids are more likely to be better behaved if they don't feel bored. Another suggestion would be to bring "stuff" from them to do - coloring books, quiet toys, gameboys, etc. A happy, entertained, quiet kid, makes for a more enjoyable meal for the parents as well as your table neighbors.

Our kids just basically kept themselves entertained with whatever the TS restaurant provided them with - mostly coloring in the children's menu's. Certain restaurants have more varied "keep the kids quiet activities" - CG and some other restaurants have paper table cloths that the kids can actually draw on; Artist's Point let the kids color a Mickey and hang it on the wall; some restaurants have kids' desserts that can be decorated, painted, etc. Again whether or not these will keep your child entertained will depend on your child.

Good luck.

[3DisneyKids]

We have 3 kids (2 are the same age as the OP's...7, 5, and 3.5) and we did the dining plan in May and it was FABULOUS for us!

First, remember that half of the plan is counter service and snacks, so these are a non-issue I would think. Second, as other have said, character meals count for table service...and now matter how squirmy your kids are, if they are Disney kids, they will love a character meal, right? We actually used 3 of our table service meals for character meals. We also had 3 "nice" table service meals (Wolfgang Puck's, Coral Reef, and 50's Prime Time). Yes, these were a little long for our kids, but remember that the servers at WDW are used to little kids and they accommodate beautifully. The Coral Reef was easy b/c of the "view" of course...but at the other two, the servers did a great job of keeping the "fidgets" out of our kids. The other thing we often did was have our main meal (table service meal) at lunch. This gave us a nice break mid-day, allowed us to still walk off all of that food (as opposed to going to bed completely bloated), and the kids were not so tired that they couldn't make it through the restaurant. When we had a dinner table service, they were already so tired from the parks all day, that it was asking a lot of them to have "restaurant manners." Yes, using ts credits for lunch instead of dinner is not as good of a value, but it still worked great for us.

All in all, we are great fans of the dining plan b/c it allows to try places we would never pay for otherwise (like Puck's)...and you know up front how much you are paying for food.

Also, considering the DVC aspect (and that you hve a kitchen or at least studio), this REALLY worked to our advantage. We went to Artist's Palette and could get FULL SIZE (i.e.: the large, family size) bags of chips, etc. and kept those in our villa for snacks for afternoon breaks or for evening when crashed out and watching some tv.

And probably the best thing we did was use counter service credits at Wolfgang Puck's Express for pizza (Yes, you get them to go). DH stayed with the kids at "home" while I zipped over to DTD and picked up all of those personal pizzas and desserts and we all had pizza at home. We did that twice and all loved it.

There are tons of opinions on the dining plan out there...my overall advice is to try it once...then at least you'll know one way or the other for future trips...

P.S. If your kids are not great at restaurants, you can "play" restaurant at home. You or DH can pretend to be the server, take orders, etc. My kids LOVE this and it also helps them learn about restaurant behavior.

[TinkGirl]

I would try the dining plan now, while your kids are still at the children's prices. We don't even consider it worthwhile now that our three children are 10, 11, and 13. There is no way they could eat nearly $40 worth of food each in a day. You have to eat, so why not. We have found that there are many restaurants that are entertaining or have characters and are suitable for kids that are not always perfectly-mannered little diners. ;) A few kid-friendly ones we like are: Whispering Canyon Cafe, Teppanyaki, 50's Prime-Time Cafe, Sci-Fi Dining Theater, O'Hana, Garden Grill, Rainforest Cafe, and Liberty Tree Tavern. They all have fun desserts that are great bribes, too. :)

[CapeCodFam]

Dinner at Boma and other one price dinners is 11.99 for kids. The 10.99 per day/child more than pays for itself for our kids.

[momtosydneyntodd]

I have a two year old and a four year old. My four year old will cooperate and is very well behaved in restaurants when we are home, as in Pennsylvania. However, after a long day of swimming and walking through MK/AK/MGM/EPCOT--the last thing my children want to do is go to a restaurant to eat. Spare yourself the headache! Cook in your room--esp. if your hubby is willing to cook.

[OurDogCisco]

Wow you guys sure spend a lot of time at sitdown restaurants. 2 Hours.... Yikes I won't even sit that long. We are usually in and out of restaurant in one hour. What do you do for 2 hours?

Now back to the OP, if your kids can't sit for 20 minutes at Dairy Queen I can only imagine it would be worst at a TS. I'd skip it and eat in the room or counter services. I love the counter service at Sunshine in Epcot. It feels like I'm eating an adult meal instead of fast food. GL...

[CRSNDSNY]

We have a 7 year old and a 3 year old. I am so torn about the dining plan. On one hand, I know it is a great deal if you will be eating at restaurants alot. On the other hand, I know my children are very antsy in restaurants. We had them at Dairy Queen on Saturday and they were all over the place. At the end of the meal, I looked at my plate and realized I didn't enjoy anything I ate. :sad2:

IMO, I'd skip the dining plan, then and just try to eat most of my meals either counter service or in my villa. If your children are not ready yet for sit down dining, don't put yourself through all of that stress and wasted money.

We did the dining plan last trip with our 1yo and although we tried to choose mostly character dining to keep her entertained while we ate, it was still pretty tough.

[LisaAP]

My husband and I often travel to WDW with my family which includes one little prince and one little princess. On their first trip to WDW, my nephew was 4 and my niece was 2. We have gone every year since and have always used the dining plan and found it to be great at every age. These two are generally very well behaved in restaurants, so we really didn't have any problems, but there is one tip that I do have that seemed to work really well. We used a few of our TS meals for breakfast. In the morning, the kids are generally in better moods and are not tired and cranky after a long day in the park. There are a number of character breakfasts which they really enjoyed and it gave us a little more freedom in the evening in that we didn't have to stick to a schedule. Also, our kids were more apt to eat better at breakfast. Sometimes by the time we would get to dinner, they would have had so many park snacks throughout the day that they really weren't interested in their meals.

In terms of making advanced reservations, it is true that a lot of the restaurants book up. I am the ultimate planner, so that is not really a problem for us. Soon after we make reservations, we sit down and make our schedule and decide where we want to eat and I make reservations very early. I understand that some people like to do things more spur of the moment and if that is your style then making reservations months in advance is not really an option. For me, I would rather plan it in advance and know that I will be able to go where I want, when I want.

[mnasf]

We have used the dining plan twice and plan on using it for our upcoming trip. We have 3 children DS-12, DD-7, DD-2. They are usually very well behaved when eating out and they look forward to it (especially character meals).

However, if I thought that my kids would have a difficult sitting through the TS meals, I would skip the dining plan and eat in the villa. It is too expensive and time consuming to do the DDP and go to TS meals and not enjoy them.

I hope you have a great trip.

[ktbugsmom]

While I haven't tried the dining plan yet, I am quite sure we are going to try it in January. However, my kids are 12 and 6 - so I will need to get 3 adult plans and one child plan.

Our goal is to have least one meal where my DH and I will have a nice evening dinner at a Signature restaurant - thus using up 4 TS credits for one meal. We will get the kids CS meals that night and either get a sitter for them or have them go to the kids club. If that works, we may even try that again - thus not subjecting the kids to long sit downs every night and giving us some adult time. :)

And just so I don't get flamed for using children's credits on an adult meal - I won't be. I will make this up another day by sharing a meal with my 12 year old (who needs an adult package - but eats like one too!) at someplace like ESPN on the Boardwalk. That way, we would only use 1 TS credit for two of us. The appetizers are SO huge there, they are big enough for a meal anyway. And, if we run out of TS credits, I can always buy a CS meal someplace - right?

So - you can make it work and the price for kids is reasonable enough. I can't get my daughter a CS meal for under $6 at Disney anyway (when you include a drink and a dessert) and then she will get a snack credit (and she loves her snacks!)- so basically that covers the price of her plan and TS will then be a bonus - almost free.

If the kids get antsy at a sit down restaurant, box it up and take it back to your room. We have done that many times... maybe not quite as nice, but better than cooking- in my opinion anyway! :rotfl:

Good luck with your planning. Only you know what will work best for your family - but the opinions of people who have tried it always helps - right?

[melk]

I would try it, as another poster said, while you're children are still under 10. I think the price for kids is reasonable. I would like to, but our oldest is 10 and she just doesn't eat enough food to justify the adult price. Also looking at some of the menus, I'm not sure she would want the adult meals.

I would agree with others that suggested character meals. We've found that even with our picky eaters they would munch on what was in front of them happily while waiting for the characters to make the rounds.

[EnviroChick]

That way, we would only use 1 TS credit for two of us. The appetizers are SO huge there, they are big enough for a meal anyway. And, if we run out of TS credits, I can always buy a CS meal someplace - right?

Do they let you share a TS credit meal?

If the kids get antsy at a sit down restaurant, box it up and take it back to your room. We have done that many times... maybe not quite as nice, but better than cooking- in my opinion anyway! :rotfl:

This is a good idea. And there are a lot of other good ideas in this thread.

We'll be going with 4 adults and two children, 4 and 6. The kids have good restaurant days and bad restaurant days. Our plan is to eat breakfast in the villa, go to the parks, come back and swim/eat lunch at noon and eat supper out. I'm planning on some fun places like O'Hana, Whispering Canyon and Cinderella's Gala Feast at 1900 Park Fare. While fun, I doubt they'll eat much of their meals at these places. We also have booked a couple of regular dinners and a couple of adult only dinners. I've pondered the dining plan and done the math re: DDP vs. AP and DDE. It comes out about even cost wise. The bonuses are the CS (no lunch in the villa) and snack on the DDP vs. 20% off alcohol, minature golf, Disney Quest etc... for the DDE.

As we get closer, we'll make a final decision, but we're tending toward no DDP.

[ktbugsmom]

EnviroChick -
I have heard mixed messages on sharing meals. However, again, I don't think that is cheating the system, so I can not imagine why that would be a problem. I can not eat an appetizer, meal and dessert at ESPN and would hate to have it go to waste. I suppose if they give us a problem, we can both order our full meals, and I will just eat my appetizer, box up my meal and take it back to our room. I can have it for breakfast or something! :)

Again, the plan probably does not work for all families. I have rented a studio for a friend, her husband and 5 year old son. They have already told me they won't do the dining plan because they just don't eat enough and will try to cut down on meal costs by eating breakfast in the room and making sandwiches for lunch some days.

For us - we are big eaters - my 12 year old step daughter eats more than most adults I know! My husband is 6'5" and loves a good meal! Even my 6 year old is a good eater - so we will try it out. It will be fun to tell them to order whatever they want without worrying about price.

Also - I will admit, if we had APs - I would probably seriously consider the DDE. Why? The 20% off alcohol would be well worth it. (Not that we drink that much - but at $5 a beer and more for a glass of wine - it adds up!) But, if I buy APs, that means I will end up going to Disney again in 2007 which of course will cost more than the savings... so I don't think I can talk hubby into that one! ;)