Is the dining plan even worth it?

[disneyjunkie]

I'm just back from my first trip and I have mixed feelings. Having food paid for upfront was nice. However. The food is often so overpriced that what you pay in tips onsite is what the meal is actually worth. I live in NYC and I think Disney restaurants are overpriced-that's saying something, lol. If/when we go back I"m going to crunch numbers and my husband and I are going to have a serious talk about what we want to do and what might make more sense, like splitting, ordering kids' meals and just generally eating more frugally. I can still see us splurging once or twice on a particularly nice place but we kind of went nuts on this our first trip together, and I can see things being different in the future.

I'm also in NYC. There's no way the tips were what our meals were worth.

We love the dining plan because we don't want to skimp, share, order kid meals....while on vacation.

 

[MarieKat]

Everyone is different. In our case there were a couple of instances where the food was poor quality and too expensive, and yes the $20 tip we left was what that crap pizza lunch was worth, not the megabucks they charged. Not in every case but in some. And the tips added up to several hundred dollars over the course of the week. Granted DH is a generous tipper but still. Do what works for you. For us the menu prices seemed excessive in many cases and paying out of pocket so much in tips after having paid SO MUCH ahead of time lead us to question our strategy if/when there is a next trip. But like I said, do what works for you and we'll do the same.

 

[SouthJersey]

It's very subjective, some will say not at all, some will say absolutely, others will be in the middle.

For us, we always travel during free dining promotions and we always upgrade to the deluxe dining plan.
Since we would dine at a 2TS signature each evening and a 1TS lunch earlier in the day with or without a dining plan, we don't have to eat differently or plan differently to get value out of it.
We book a 1TS lunch around noon and a 2TS signature around 7:35, so with nearly 8 hours between meals, the "gorging" or "too much food" argument is null.

During free dining, with the mug, snacks and average lunch/dinner cost at a 1TS and 2TS, we save about $750 for an entire week by going during free dining and upgrading to deluxe.
Not calculating costs and having money on hand for meals is also a plus.

 

[Winky65]

For the most part I would say no it is not worth it, for us, unless you have kids under 10. We are doing a split stay starting tomorrow and have the plan for 2 nights. To max out the plan our TS are Ohana dinner and Crystal Palace dinner-our son loves Pooh and this is a must at some point over the trip. We plan on converting tat least a few QS into 3 snacks at F&W, buying the most expensive items we want and items will cost more than the cost of the plan. That and the mug make it worth it for a couple days. But we will never do it again for more than 2-3 days. Too constricting in haveing to make ADRs and we prefer apps to dessert.

 

[Winky65]

EXACTLY


We won't do disney without the dining plan. I don't care about maxing out the plan or getting the biggest bang out of it. I care about having as much of the trip paid in advance as possible.

It isn't too much food because no one is forcing us to order/eat more than we want. Just because a ton of food is included with the plan, doesn't mean you have to order and try to eat it all.

I certainly understand that, what we did was get Disney Gift cards at Target. Buying a few every month over the year since we started planning the trip. Ended up with about $1000 worth of cards, at 5% off. Use them to pay down room charges.

 

[caroline1851]

Typically unless you order one of the more expensive items on the menu and get dessert, rarely are you saving money. I found it's also work to figure out ADR's , how best to utilize the plan to maximize snack credits, etc. My last trip, we paid oop and it was cheaper but we also ate some pretty below par food at CS restaurants and only had 2 ADR's: Crystal Palace,which is REALLY mediocre and Whispering Canyon.

 

[myhoney]

Definitely depends on your touring style. We upgraded to the deluxe dining (during free dining), and did all of the "specials", thinking it was a once in a lifetime trip! We did CRT, the luau, Hoop de Doo, Cali Grill. With young kids who eat three meals a day at the same time each day, it helped keep them on schedule and the breaks kept us from getting exhausted. We also NEVER order apps or dessert at home (eating out is a splurge for us), so being able to live it up on vacation was great! Of course, now that we are planning our next trip with two additional kids, DH will only consider going if he can get the deluxe again! So much for "once in a lifetime"!

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

Depends on what you want to eat, character dining, and age of your kids. Also depends on if dining is part of the "offer" Disney has going either with "free dining" or "play, stay, and dine" I did the math and we were going to pay OOP for meals in March and just use a room discount at a Moderate. With the promotion, I was able to add the dining plan (2 adults and 2 disney adults) and it was going to be as much OOP as I had planned on for our trip, so we did it. My 13 year old son is almost 6'6" and 200 lbs, so he will love all the food. My daughter is tall too, but not as big of an eater at 10 years old, but loves to have steak. So, it really depends on your situation and please crunch the numbers before you go.

 

[Kingdome8]

I just booked for next october a week that typically does free dining. If offered I will get. If not I won't get it. We did free dining last year and it was awesome. But way to much food.

 

[pullen]

I'm checking in on the evening of December 22nd and checking out on the morning of the 31st. They wanted over $1100 for 2 adults and a 13 year old child for 2 meals and a snack each day. We will only be in the parks for 8 days and I figure I can average $100-120 a day if we eat 3 quick service meals a day. We also have several nice reservations made that will cost quite a bit more. The biggest turn off to me about the dining plan is that it seems I'd practically have to carry around a check book ledger just to keep track of what we've used up and what we haven't, what is included and what isn't. Without it, we just order what we want without having to worry about if we have to pay extra or are wasting it. If I could get the package for at least 50% off, I'd do it.

 

[Baklava]

I'm checking in on the evening of December 22nd and checking out on the morning of the 31st. They wanted over $1100 for 2 adults and a 13 year old child for 2 meals and a snack each day. We will only be in the parks for 8 days and I figure I can average $100-120 a day if we eat 3 quick service meals a day. We also have several nice reservations made that will cost quite a bit more. The biggest turn off to me about the dining plan is that it seems I'd practically have to carry around a check book ledger just to keep track of what we've used up and what we haven't, what is included and what isn't. Without it, we just order what we want without having to worry about if we have to pay extra or are wasting it. If I could get the package for at least 50% off, I'd do it.

Your Magic Band tracks your dining plan. I believe your receipts at each meal also tell you how many entitlements you have left.

 

[pullen]

I'm so busy planning what parks to do what day, getting fast passes and getting reservations to the places I want to eat that I'm not interested in dealing with the plan. By the time we arrive at the parks, I'll have my itinerary already lined up and simply relax and enjoy it as we go. I've heard of people getting free dining plans and would definitely be worth it if you can get it.

 

[RuthieT]

When or Where can I find out if and when DDP will be on special??

 

[sharonabe]

When or Where can I find out if and when DDP will be on special??

Go to the Disney website and find the special offers. That will tell you what is currently offered.

In recent years, free dining for the general public has only been through the fall, Sep-Dec with some dates excluded. The Stay, Play, Dine has been Jan/Feb.

 

[Murphoid Mouse]

Yes! No fuss no muss prepaid meals. Makes budgeting much simpler. That is what makes it worth it. And as long as you use your meals you will probably beat the cost. They have box lunches at every resort you can purchase on your llast day before noon so it is pretty hard not to use all your credits.

 

[Nancyg56]

Definitely depends on your touring style. We upgraded to the deluxe dining (during free dining), and did all of the "specials", thinking it was a once in a lifetime trip! We did CRT, the luau, Hoop de Doo, Cali Grill. With young kids who eat three meals a day at the same time each day, it helped keep them on schedule and the breaks kept us from getting exhausted. We also NEVER order apps or dessert at home (eating out is a splurge for us), so being able to live it up on vacation was great! Of course, now that we are planning our next trip with two additional kids, DH will only consider going if he can get the deluxe again! So much for "once in a lifetime"!

Oh I feel your pain! We added the DxDDP to one room in AUgust to see how our family would fare. Well, I did not do the math, my DD takes care of that, but I can say that we are even better than we normally so, and now that I planned a very budet trip in December, I am aleady bemoaning the fact that I will now need to think about appetizers and OOP meals. That plan is addictive!

I'm so busy planning what parks to do what day, getting fast passes and getting reservations to the places I want to eat that I'm not interested in dealing with the plan. By the time we arrive at the parks, I'll have my itinerary already lined up and simply relax and enjoy it as we go. I've heard of people getting free dining plans and would definitely be worth it if you can get it.

You really need to compute the offers to see if a RO discount would be a better deal fo your family. I had FD on a BB last August on one room and RO discount on the other. It was a little work to do the math to make sure we made the best decision but it was worth the calculating.

 

[Disney_Obsessed11]

I know you have already gone on your trip, I hope you had fun!! However, for others reading this post my boyfriend and I went to WDW in May 2015. We opted not to do any dining plans. Instead, we went to the Walmart that is close by and got lunch meats, bread, quick foods that we could keep in the room as well as snacks. We stayed 7 days and spent $50 for food and drinks the entire trip!!! So worth it! Unless the dining plan was free, I wouldn't waste my money on it. Or unless you plan on eating in restaurants the entire trip, but for college students, that wasn't the plan for us. An awesome thing that Disney does is allows food into the parks! We brought pop tarts, chips, and drinks into the parks everyday with no problem! That way, if we got hungry, we could just stop and eat in the parks without paying the hefty price tag.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

That's one way to do it (bring your own) but I'm way past college and on a vacation type trip I don't want lunch meats and pop tarts.

Dining plans have not worked for me since 2008. It's a pretty narrow group of guests that actually save money on them these days. Most guests who use it just enjoy the idea of having a prepaid plan. Some don't care if they end up spending more on the plan than they would have without it, they just like to have it.