I really need help with the Dinign Plan...

[ccgirl]

Originally Posted by Sunshineglow68

We took advantage of the following deal:

Guests staying at a Walt Disney World Moderate, Deluxe or Disney Villa resort will receive the Disney Dining Plan included for free. Disney World guests at moderate, deluxe and villa resorts will also be able to book the “Free Disney Dining”, and upgrade to the Disney Deluxe Dining for the normal price difference, which is $34 for adults and $9 for children three to nine per night of your stay. Please note that in order to qualify for the free dining offer, your must check in between August 25 and September 29, 2012

Availability is extremely limited, and must be booked by May 18, 2012.

It will be myself, DH & DD (10) I think that's a good deal if you can go then.

Depends on if you can get a discounted room and discounted park tickets. As always, it also depends on how your family eats. For example, I would come out ahead with a 30% Pin (for mod/deluxe) and discounted park tickets such as YES tickets. At a value resort, the free dining is almost always the better deal.

[mco65]

Originally Posted by sunshineglow68

we took advantage of the following deal:

Guests staying at a walt disney world moderate, deluxe or disney villa resort will receive the disney dining plan included for free. Disney world guests at moderate, deluxe and villa resorts will also be able to book the “free disney dining”, and upgrade to the disney deluxe dining for the normal price difference, which is $34 for adults and $9 for children three to nine per night of your stay. Please note that in order to qualify for the free dining offer, your must check in between august 25 and september 29, 2012

availability is extremely limited, and must be booked by may 18, 2012.

It will be myself, dh & dd (10) i think that's a good deal if you can go then.

ditto!

[dwight16]

People People People the dining plan is not worth if you pay for it yourself. you are going to be paying more then you actually would order off the menu. Just take a sample on what you might order. at 52 a day for adults take out 13 for counter service then 25 average meal and 6 for dessert minus 4 for snack. you are coming in at 48 bucks right there. 13 is aggressive also for counter service. you are not going to order the most expensive thing on the menu most of the time. it only works if you eat at 39.99 buffets every day. so unless you are complete irresponsible with money and cant handle it then i guess its worth the metal price. other then that there is no 20% savings....its a scam if you have to pay of for it. until some proves my wrong i stand by my analysis

[ccgirl]

Originally Posted by dwight16

People People People the dining plan is not worth if you pay for it yourself. you are going to be paying more then you actually would order off the menu. Just take a sample on what you might order. at 52 a day for adults take out 13 for counter service then 25 average meal and 6 for dessert minus 4 for snack. you are coming in at 48 bucks right there. 13 is aggressive also for counter service. you are not going to order the most expensive thing on the menu most of the time. it only works if you eat at 39.99 buffets every day. so unless you are complete irresponsible with money and cant handle it then i guess its worth the metal price. other then that there is no 20% savings....its a scam if you have to pay of for it. until some proves my wrong i stand by my analysis

Please read my post #10; which is actually a 30% discount. I understand the DDP does not work for your family but that does not mean it won't work for others. We usually go to WDW twice a year, sometimes 3 times so we are very educated with regard to the restaurants and dining plan. While it does not work for everyone, it certainly does work for some people.

[dwight16]

Originally Posted by ccgirl

I believe you can only get TiW if you have an AP or are DVC. Florida residents get it also, I think.

It is not a scam and I have made it work. It is different for every family depending on their eating style.

For example, for 2A/2C the basic dining plan is $134

Breakfast:
Pastry with $4 value = 16

Lunch:
San Angel Inn
Ensalada Mexicana with Shrimp $18
Rib Eye Tacos $19
(2) children's meals at $8.50 each
dessert (2) churros at $6.25 each
Total = $66.50 without sodas

Dinner:
Garden Grill
$37.27 adult
$18.10 child
Total: $110.74

Days total: $193.24 for a savings of $60 with the plan. So, as you can see, if that is how a family would typically eat, the dining plan can be quite a savings. I did not figure in the refillable mugs which are now included.

well you are using 2 table service meals in 1 day so your not telling the truth. the 52 dollar adult plan is only 1 quick service plan and 1 sit down meal. you ate 2 sit down meals that is why you saved. so according to the website both would be 1 dining credit i just doubled checked. so unless i am wrong i still dont get it. i wish it was an amazing savings i would love to buy it but i need to see the savings before i buy it.

[vicki_c]

Originally Posted by dwight16

well you are using 2 table service meals in 1 day so your not telling the truth. the 52 dollar adult plan is only 1 quick service plan and 1 sit down meal. you ate 2 sit down meals that is why you saved. so according to the website both would be 1 dining credit i just doubled checked. so unless i am wrong i still dont get it. i wish it was an amazing savings i would love to buy it but i need to see the savings before i buy it.

You are wrong from the standpoint that you are saying it is a scam and no one would save money. Just like anyone who would say that it saves everyone money would be wrong.

As the point has been made repeatedly on the boards and in this thread, you have to figure it out for your own family, based on your party make-up (especially # of kids and how old they are), and where you will eat over your whole trip. You also need to compare it to how you might eat if you weren't on a dining plan. For some others, paying even a little more for the convenience of the package / pre-paying / whatever other reasons people give is okay with them.

For some families, they really work the plan and come out ahead. More guests probably lose money on the plan because they have no clue how to maximize it, but that doesn't mean it's a scam.

If you don't want it, don't buy it (like me, we have never bought dining or even had free dining) but you don't have to suggest anyone who does doesn't know what they're doing.

[dwight16]

i know your right its not a scam i just got a little annoyed with there 20% savings claim and spending a ton of time trying to figure out what they were talking about and i had a hard time even breaking even in my calculations. its like everything some swear by it some hate it. i would just not want anyone to buy it and lose. so i was just trying to raise questions to make people really think about dollars a cents. rather then hearing a claim you will save 20% and sign right up.

[ccgirl]

Originally Posted by dwight16

well you are using 2 table service meals in 1 day so your not telling the truth. the 52 dollar adult plan is only 1 quick service plan and 1 sit down meal. you ate 2 sit down meals that is why you saved. so according to the website both would be 1 dining credit i just doubled checked. so unless i am wrong i still dont get it. i wish it was an amazing savings i would love to buy it but i need to see the savings before i buy it.

Sorry about that. I can switch to the counter service place in MOrocco and come up with similar figures. Trust me, as I said, I go frequently and it is definitely possible to save more than 20% with the dining plan if you know what you are doing and if it is how your family eats. However, not all families eat the same so while the dining plan is good for some, it may not be for others. But, it is definitely not a scam.

[sharonabe]

Let's get back to helping the OP shall we?

OP you will need to do the math and perhaps decide on those one or two character meals before you can figure out if the plan is right for your family.

With that in mind, take a look at just your Ohana day. The meal at Ohana for your family of 3 Disney adults and 3 Disney children and one 2 yr old freebie will cost you around $166. You daily cost for the plan is right at $200. That means you have $34 "value" for your other meal and snacks for the day to break even. If you use all your entitlements, you'll easily spend more than the $200 you paid for the plan.

Your character meals should be about the same. Your regular TS meals may be a little more difficult to make that $200, but not impossible.

If your kids share some meals, you may find yourself with some leftover kids credits. Unless you find a way to use them, you will lose money on those.

[Kate0716]

Originally Posted by mickeyplanner

TRex and Rainforest are not part of the dining plan.

Actually, Rainforest and TRex are on the plan this year. It was a new addition for 2012.

[Cafeen]

Ok, I may be a bit rusty... returning to this after a ~6 month haitus!

As has been mentioned, the only way to know for sure is to do the math. It varies widely from family to family based on eating habits, desired locations, family make up, and all that jazz. (Throw in the free dining plan promotions and you also throw in resort rate discounts into the mix!)

A few key things to consider for DDP (Disney Dining Plan) are:

• Does your family typically dine in a manner that's suggested of the plan? Basically, does your planned eating stuff already resemble the structure of the plan (1QS, 1TS per day*)?
• Are you looking to dine in the way the entitlements are structured? E.g. Are you interested in an entree, dessert, and soft drink at every meal? Or would you rather have an appetizer as an entree, drink water, and skip dessert?
• Would you be more likely to order from the top third of the menu (price-wise) than the bottom third? (For example, I don't eat chicken or fish or any of that, and prefer some sort of beef or steak, so for me this works, since I'm already slanted in that direction.)
• Are you looking to spend the majority of your TS meals at dinners rather than lunches (and especially breakfasts, although a few of the character breakfasts are "ok" from a cost to value perspective)?
• Are you willing to sit down ahead of time and plan out where you want to be at a given time? (This may take some thought!) Are you then willing to stick to that plan to make sure you're not missing out on any of the plans?
• Are you planning (or desiring) to spend most of the snack credits on items of ~$3.50 or more in value?

(There are additional considerations for the DxDDP (Deluxe Disney Dining Plan) as well, including the amount of courses, signature restaurants, and time it takes for that many TS meals)

If most of those are yes (well, except the rather having an app as a meal, water, and no dessert that is ), then it should work out for you. It can still work if you prefer to share some, or whatnot, but it will require deeper planning. I still echo the "do the math" mantra that many have suggested though, as this is the best way to truly see the savings or loss accrued by the plan.

Additionally, while this doesn't pertain so much to the OP's case, if you are bringing someone along and don't want to bother with figuring out who got what, so long as most of the above are true for the group, it should work out, and that added bonus of no haggling is a good thing . (Or, you're with someone who normally would order cheap and you want them to order what they want.)

*Technically, since all the plans are done by reservation nights, this should say "per night", but that ends up sounding awkward. And since it's just in the general sense, it can stay because I said so!

As a side note, we have previously mathematically proven that any of the plans can be a savings (even over what Disney advertises). In the same breath, we have also proven that they may be a loss. The difference between saving well and losing out is planning and picking what's right for your own traveling party.

As another side note, I am currently doing my own math, as I very well may be heading back this year, even though I swore to myself that I'd take a year off ><

[vicki_c]

Cafeen/Allen - I was JUST thinking about you yesterday and wondering where you had been, or if I had somehow just managed to miss your posts. So welcome back!

[vinotinto]

There are restaurants at Disney that you can usually get seated without an ADR or get a last-minute ADR. The first year we went to Disney, I decided to go 3 weeks prior, made our reservation less than 3 weeks out and booked our ADRs about two weeks prior. I had no idea what I was doing! And we still managed to get reservations. For some reason the restaurant in Morocco is not that popular, and it's a beautiful restaurant with belly dancing! We also booked The Wave and loved it. I would still go ahead and make 2-3 ADRs at restaurants that you think your family would enjoy, but that do not have cancellation policies (see the main restaurant board for the list). Then, play it by ear. Don't forget to program the dining line on your phone so you can look for last-minute ADRs.