Disney Dining Plans?

[whit8960]

We are taking our honeymoon in May of 2010. FI and I are trying to figure out if the Dining Plan is worth the money or if we are better off just taking cash? Any advice? This is our first time going to WDW and staying onsite. Thanks!

[CharacterFan]

It depends on what and where you'd like to eat. When I go with my dad the dining plan isn't worth it, because we're both light eaters. We don't need a dessert with our entree and most places I'd prefer an appitizer.

With my fiance the dining plan works out because he can eat his entree part of mine and then we have dessert.

We do Deluxe Dining Plan from time to time and have a nice signature meal. This is what we're planning for our Disneymoon next year. Considering doing a signature dinner almost every night.

I do though before every trip go over to allears.net and price out what I think we'll eat and figure out the savings. Then we decide if we should pay out of pocket or get the dining plan.

[Teamdisney306]

I always use the Deluxe Dinning plan, but you have to make your ADRs early to get to eat wher you want. I like having all that planned out, it breaks up the day keeps you a slower pace and lets you enjoy your time. Where as if have found if you just do counter service after a while it jsut feels like your back at the office grabbing a quick bite before you rush off to your next meeting. And I for one come to WDW to relax and forget the real workd for a couple of weeks.

[rebecca_boo]

My family always does the dining plan and I think it is definitl worth it if you aren't a light eater. However, if ou don't book in advance the choices of restraunts might not be so good and in that case I would just bring cash!

[MainStMandy]

We love using the DP. There is plenty to eat, everything is planned ahead of time. I don't think we would take a trip without it!!

[whit8960]

Our main concern is time and we will have our own car so it is possible that we can eat outside of the park as well. Ugh...I am driving myself crazy trying to figure out what we need to do! :confused:

[soulmates]

Our main concern is time and we will have our own car so it is possible that we can eat outside of the park as well. Ugh...I am driving myself crazy trying to figure out what we need to do! :confused:

If time is a problem I'd rethink using it. We were just there in Aug, and while it was SO worth the money, it DID cause probs with the timing. We MISSED Illuminations. I was VERY upset. We had ressies at Le Cellier, and they were behind...we were seated 40 min. late and well, while we were enjoying a fabulous meal, I heard Illuminations outside. :sad1: Also, we had to be at the restaurants early. As far as quality & quantity of food, for the money, it's a STEAL if your big eaters. We never made it thru a meal w/out leftovers. Hope this helps! ;)

[lurkyloo]

Our main concern is time and we will have our own car so it is possible that we can eat outside of the park as well. Ugh...I am driving myself crazy trying to figure out what we need to do! :confused:

That's one of my main problems with the dining plan - driving myself crazy trying to maximize it so I feel like we're getting our money's worth! The thing is, you don't have to be on the dining plan to make reservations or plan out your meals; anyone can do that. But if you're on the dining plan you are pretty much *forced* to do that if you want to be sure you use all your credits.

Like Characterfan said, the usefulness of the dining plan depends on how you usually like to dine.

For example, if you eat a table-service meal for breakfast and for dinner every night, and sometimes do Signature Dining, then the regular Disney Dining Plan (DDP) is not a good deal; you would have to pay the $72/person to get the Deluxe Dining Plan. But if you just eat a snack in the morning, a counter-service meal for lunch, and a (non-Signature) table-service meal for dinner, the Regular Dining Plan would be perfect for you.

The reason that no Disney Dining Plans work for us is that we like to eat at table service restaurants for lunch and dinner, and dinner is always a Signature place, which would require 2 credits. We'd use all our Regular DDP credits up in the first few days if we did that. And Deluxe DDP costs more than we pay out of pocket, because we usually split our meals.

Another factor is that we want to be able to eat at non-Disney restaurants, like bluezoo, which isn't on the plan.

There are TONS of comparisons, including blow-by-blow cost breakdowns, on the Restaurants board - you might check them out and see if it helps you figure out what's best for you! http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=116

[aduck126]

If you are anything like me, i LOVE food. The dining plan is probably my favorite thing about disney world especially because my DF and I dont eat out alot in order to save money. It becomes part of our vacation experience. The food is sooo good and it gives us a nice little romantic break in our schedule of event for the day. For us the dining plan is a MUST!

[pezaddict231]

We are huge fans of the Deluxe plan. We eat at mostly signature meals for dinner and like to do TS lunches and character breakfasts. DF is not a fan of CS, he finds it to be stressful and he wouldn't want to share a meal with me, so it really is a great value for us. We saved a ton of money on our last trip using it. Dining is one of our favorite things about Disney and there are so many restaurants that we love and new ones to try that it's not hard to use up all those credits!