I think we are done with the dining plan.

[happyann79]

That is very expensive...these prices just keep going up!

 

[Kidanifan08]

Just want to thank everyone for their thoughts. Though we have been to DW many times, we have never purchased DP. Sitting here planning for our upcoming trip and I was wondering what would be the best. I was leaning towards purchasing the TiW card and now after reading all of these posts I think that is what we will do. I am looking for the most discounted program and it doesn't sound as the dining plnas provides that deep of a break.

Just keep in mind, if you are an annual passholder, the TIW is $75, so you have to spend at least $375 over the course of the year to recover the cost of the card. If you are purchasing TIW as a DVC member for $100, the minimum amount you need to spend increases to $500. It is usually not too hard to hit those numbers, but only you know what you may spend on dining at Disney. We like the TIW, since it allows us more choices when dining.

 

[vinmar4]

This is going to be our third trip and we always got the DDP. We have a DS15, DD9 and the DH and. Well, my DD doesn't like the kids menu When putting the number together for our 12 night trip in June, it came out to over 2,000 just for the regular DP not even the deluxe. So now we are going to get the TIW card with our season passes and still do some of the TS that we like to do and make reservations, but will also have the freedom to either eat in the room or in our resort if we change or mind at the last minute and decide to stay in our resort, Also, we like to have a drink or two during our dinner and the TIW carsd will be better. What I did, because we are getting there the day before Father's day, I asked for my reservation of 7 days in AKV to get the first night splited and I'm only getting the Deluxe for the fist night and have dinner at Boma, and have a TS for luch and dinner on father's day. It doesn't bother me to check in and out one time if it's going to save us some money since most likely we will stay in the same room. Also we get tired pretty quickly of not wating homemade Mexican food, so I figured once we transfe to the BWV to our one bedroom, I could cook some homemade mexican breakfast or lunches. We are renting a car for 2 days when we get there and we are going to get some groceries.
We will see how it works out for us.

 

[stitchsgrandpa]

We have been on DP, DDP the in past years we are going to try TIW this time but even then we might just skip dining at parks. Last October food quality and service was very poor we had better food when we ate outside the parks. Yes, we did 2 credit meals but food was mediocre at best. Yachtsman's steaks were on par with local Logan's at best. Did not like idea of dinner taking 3-4 hours to finish; we have things to do!
We do not eat this way at home and always felt we had to stuff ourselves instead of eating just a simple meal.

 

[goldenears]

I am not surprised by people's feelings at all. I couldn't believe it when I found out the price is now over $50 for adults. I remember when it was under $40/adult and included tip and an appetizer. It was really a "no brainer" for us back then.
With that said, we have three kids under the age of 6 and even at the current price, the basic DDP can still be a value for us. Unfortunately, the DDP does require strategic planning (i.e., making sure you want to dine at restaurants that will give you the most bang for your buck) and I do understand people's concern with being "tied down" to a schedule. With little kids, we loose a lot of our flexibility anyway and up to this point, have not found that having daily dinner ADRs restricts us in anyway. As our kids get older and we reach the point where we will need to pay adult prices for them, we will definitely be abandoning the DDP.
DH and I will be purchasing APs this year and have an upcoming kid-less trip and I think we may purchase the TIW to see how this compares. I hope that I am pleasantly surprised and can give up the DDP for our trip the following October
p.s. The addition of the mug does nothing for us (we don't drink soda or other fountain drinks) and I imagine it was added to try and appease some of the complaints that they have heard about the rising cost of the DDP, etc.... They are certainly not losing money by adding this feature to the DDP.

 

[Hollymom1229]

We have only done the DP twice and that was back when it included both tip and appetizer. Our discovery then was that it was too much food for us. Also, when they took away the tip and appetizer and raised the price it stopped being a good value. We do the TIW and love that it is available to DVC members now. DH and I tend to like appetizers more than desserts, we love to have a drink with a meal, and we tend to snack instead of doing CS meals. Also, we never order dessert with CS, so that has always been strange to us on the DP. For all these reasons it would take some pretty major changes to DP to lure us back.

 

[btrim]

Someone posted that TIW is available to DVC members. Do you still have to have an annual pass or can you get it just being a DC members?

 

[MouseMomx2]

Someone posted that TIW is available to DVC members. Do you still have to have an annual pass or can you get it just being a DC members?

You do not need an AP. Just show your blue member ID at any Guest Services Window at the parks or DtD. The cost for DVC members is $100, as opposed to the $75 for AP holders.

 

[MouseMomx2]

Someone posted that TIW is available to DVC members. Do you still have to have an annual pass or can you get it just being a DC members?

You do not need an AP. Just show your blue member ID at any Guest Services Window at the parks or DtD. The cost for DVC members is $100, as opposed to the $75 for AP holders.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

We are at WDW (VWL) now on the CS dining plan. It has been a couple of years since we have used any dining plan. Maybe I just don't remember but it seems like there are less and less choices at the CS places. The prices seem VERY EXPENSIVE. $10 for a Wilderness Salad or bacon cheese burger.Pizza is $9 as well as any sandwich. Just seems like prices have gone up a couple of dollars per entree since eating in 2009. I think this may be the last trip we do any dining plan unless the CS credits can be used for samples at F & W. I haven't been able to confirm that yet.

 

[lisaviolet]

We are at WDW (VWL) now on the CS dining plan. It has been a couple of years since we have used any dining plan. Maybe I just don't remember but it seems like there are less and less choices at the CS places. The prices seem VERY EXPENSIVE. $10 for a Wilderness Salad or bacon cheese burger.Pizza is $9 as well as any sandwich. Just seems like prices have gone up a couple of dollars per entree since eating in 2009. I think this may be the last trip we do any dining plan unless the CS credits can be used for samples at F & W. I haven't been able to confirm that yet.

I was there in August and I too noticed a big change in prices at CS locations. Didn't have DDP because I don't really enjoy it.

And I always have thought Disney was reasonably priced (CS). But a change for sure. I remember sitting at POR - surrounded my free diners n- staring at my bill. At WPE - that's fine because the food is usually both special and divine - worth it - but at some of the others the food was not good enough for those prices.

 

[pequele]

can someone explain the TIW? I just had my 1st WDW trip in Feb, we did the DP. Going again at Christmas and was figuring I'd do the DP again but don't know a thing about this TIW thing (we joined DVC on our Feb trip so it sounds like I'd qualify). AND can you use it at character dines? Is there a list where you can use it?

 

[Kidanifan08]

can someone explain the TIW? I just had my 1st WDW trip in Feb, we did the DP. Going again at Christmas and was figuring I'd do the DP again but don't know a thing about this TIW thing (we joined DVC on our Feb trip so it sounds like I'd qualify). AND can you use it at character dines? Is there a list where you can use it?

Look here:
http://www.tablesinwonderland.com

It only works for table service restaurants, with a few exceptions at CS in AK (e.g. Flame Tree) and some of the lounges around WDW resorts. It works for character experiences and signature dining experiences. It includes alcohol at those meals . The card is good for 12 months from the time of purchase, so we usually try to work it out to be able to use it on two trips. You only need one card to cover 10 guests.

If you have to buy the DVC version for $100, you will need to spend at least $500 on meals to recover your cost, since it is a 20% discount on the sub-total. As we all know, it is not hard to spend $500 in a 1 week stay at WDW on TS meals, even if there are only two people! There is an automatic 18% tip added to the bill, no matter how many are dining. I usually do not tell them about the card until the bill comes so the server is not aware that he/she is getting a guaranteed tip.

 

[pequele]

Look here:
http://www.tablesinwonderland.com

fantastic info! Thank you! We will be getting annual passes so even with DVC we can get it for $75 it looks like.

Is it possible to get the child DP and then use the TIW for the adults?

 

[dbprimeaux]

We visited WDW 2 weeks ago and stayed in a 1 bedroom villa at VWL. This was our first trip using TIW, and we LOVED it!!! The DDP is just to expensive for our family now...and our kids get so tired of eating mac & cheese and chicken nuggets. We saved about $200 using TIW instead of doing DDP...and we ate a TS meal everyday of our trip. We ate breakfast and most lunches in the villa (and a few CS). And we still saved money! We ate what we wanted and where we wanted. For our next trip, we are cutting our TS meals down to about 2-3 meals...

 

[lsutigger2]

I have never done any of the dining plans because I get tired of "park food" and so we eat more in the villa, especially if we stay for a week.

For a treat we will do a nice restaurant once or twice during a trip.

 

[rascooby]

We did the dining plan last trip and it was a great value. But, that was because we had a 2 year old and 1 year old who ate for free at buffets and even some table service places, if I remember right. This year I'm looking at the numbers and I don't think we'll do it. If the prices are accurate (or even close) at allears, we would spend $175 a day on the dining plan for the 5 of us or $124 plus the cost of whatever snacks we get if we paid separately (I looked at the CS menu and ordered for us, hypothetically). My 3 girls will easily share 2 counter service kids meals and we can just bring in a few extra drinks.

Last time I didn't like the hassle of trying to figure out what we could have on the plan, wasting the desserts, and eating too much because we felt like we had to.

 

[gdrj]

We used the DP once. What I really enjoyed about it was:
1- Our teenage Daughter had a friend with her so they could eat on their own when they wanted (we did some ADR for them)
2- Since we weren't looking at prices we tended to be more adventureous and tried things we normally wouldn't (I know we still paid for it but when we got a $180 dinner bill it just didn't feel the same since it was just dinner credits)

We did the Plan for convienence and to give it a try. We werent looking at saving money just made it easier. Headed to Disney in April with no kids, we are not using DP, but still planning ADR's at Artist Point, Cal Grill, and Narcoossee's. We'll probably do some nights of counter service to offset the big nights. Also might do some nights of wine and cheese on the balcony...and dessert from France!

 

[VLee]

Our family too has tired of the DDP. We did not have it on our last trip in November nor plan it for upcoming trips in March and June. It has gotten too expensive, especially when you pay adult prices for an 11 year old. And even the 9 year old does not really care for the items on the children's menu. We have the TIW card and also find that we order less and share meals sometimes.
We had a rental car in November and will again in June and made several trips to off site restaurants, had wonderful meals at 1/3 of the cost. And did not feel as we were planning all our park days around meals.
I think Disney has priced themselves out of the market, when a family of 6 to 8 has to spend almost $3000 for 8 days of food!

 

[Kidanifan08]

Is it possible to get the child DP and then use the TIW for the adults?

With DDP, your either all in or all out. If you get it, everyone in the room has to be on the plan for the length of stay.