Is the dining plan worth is? How much is food?

M

moet7

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 30, 2005
Hi
I'm trying to decide if the Dining Plan is worth it for my family.

It will cost us 603.00 for a family of of 6 for 3 nights.

Wondering if anyone can tell me what the following might cost me:

snack items

Ice Cream
Water
Pop
Popcorn
Fruit

Counter Service

Hamburger meal
Hotdog meal
Chicken meal

Table Service

Le Cellier Steakhouse
Brown Derby
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Cinderella Royal Table
1900 Park Fare
Chef Mickeys

Also does anyone know a site that will tell me what restaurants are included in the plan and if it takes 2 table service "tickets" to eat at them.

Thanks so much!
 
We are also a family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids 9,7,7,& 2) I am not sure how the dining plan works but would be interested in hearing about it.
 
The snack items have to be $2.50 or less if I'm understanding it right. We're a family of four and a CS meal (Casey's or a burger meal) usually costs us about $40. Your TS meals can add up really fast. I would say Le Cellier alone would easily cost over $200 for a family of six. I would suggest to check out the menus at Debs and just crunch the numbers. That's what we did and we'll essentially get our CS meals and snacks for free. The dining plan paid for itself in our TS meals.
 


The snack items have to be $2.50 or less if I'm understanding it right. We're a family of four and a CS meal (Casey's or a burger meal) usually costs us about $40. Your TS meals can add up really fast. I would say Le Cellier alone would easily cost over $200 for a family of six. I would suggest to check out the menus at Debs and just crunch the numbers. That's what we did and we'll essentially get our CS meals and snacks for free. The dining plan paid for itself in our TS meals.

Debs:
http://allearsnet.com/

Here's a link to show you which restaurant takes one TS and which takes two:

http://adisneyworld.disney.go.com/m.../eng/nontheme/tickets/2006DiningLocations.pdf
 


I actually did the math after we used the dining plan for 3 people in October. We paid around $600 for 6 days and what we would have actually spent was over $1100. Now, with that being said, I don't know that if we weren't on the meal plan we would have had appetizers and desserts each meal. It was nice to have that freedom though. If I ordered an app. and dessert and the main course, I didn't feel guilty if I didn't eat everything because it was already paid for up front. Maybe that's just my own weird hang up, but I thought it was a pretty good deal.
 
Hi, now that DVC members can buy the dining plan I called and was told it would cost us $999 for our family (me, dh, dd10 (paying as adult) and ds7, 8 nights). It sounded like so much I was convincing myself that we would spend less and wouldn't get the plan. Then I pulled out an old credit card statement from our 7 night trip three years and best as I can tell it looks like we spent somewhere close to $900 on food, even though we were paying for two kids instead of paying for one kid at adult prices and we ate all breakfasts, two dinners and at least one lunch in our room using our DVC kitchen. And although we did some character meals, we didn't even eat at any of the more expensive restaurants! So now its looking like a pretty good deal to me, its amazing how much things add up even when you are trying to keep costs down.
 
We are a family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids – 2 of them qualify as adults) and we used the dining plan in December 2005. For one day of the dining plan, our cost was $160.

6 counter service meals: $56.10 (Electric Umbrella)
6 buffet character meals: $121.94 (Crystal Palace)
6 Mickey Ice Cream bars: $18.00

Total: $196.04 (This does not include the tip, which is also included with the dining plan)

So for one day, we have “saved” $36 – actually more because of no paid tip. We saved even more when we went to fancier restaurants, like Le Cellier, where the bill for just 2 of us was $111.00.

Even if you don’t plan on ordering an appetizer or dessert with every meal, you still save money and it gives you the freedom to try many places and have many nice meals. We loved it!
 
Well I added it up for my family for our Christmas trip today, 3 adults & 1 child for 11 nights. The plan will cost us about $1463 and the food would cost us $2,070. And this is not even eating at lots of fancy restaurants, it is mostly character meals, which we always do. It does have us eating aqt Le Cellier and Yachtsman Steakhouse. I have always wanted to eat at these two places but would never pay for it. It's just always been more important for us to take the kids to character meals.

Now I'm sure we wouldn't eat quite the same foods but I'm pretty sure we have spent close to the $1400 on food on all of our longer trips. This way we will be able to just do aws we please and not worry about the cost. As a bonus I finally get to go to the two restaurants I nput on every plan but take back off because of the cost!

Lori
 
The freedom to eat at restaurants you wouldn't normally eat at and the convienience of already having meals paid for is great. The savings just pushes it over the top for us. We used it last summer (2 adults and 1 child) and figured that we saved around $400. Like others have said previously, we ordered appetizers and desserts that we might not have ordered otherwise, but we feel that we would have still saved money without the extras.
 
it definately seems worth it. I worked out on our last trip we spent about $150 per day on food , snacks, drinks etc. This was for 2 adults one child and one infant. We ate a TS meal most days but not every day and when we did have TS we rarely had the 3 courses you get with the DDP (although we could have eaten them..LOL) and this amount covered tips, but we had the DDE card so TS meals were already discounted.

On our next trip DD will be 3 therefore we would need to pay for her at buffets character meals so i would expect to pay more, plus we are planing on doing more TS meals on our trip. It will cost us $98 per day so it is a definate saving for us and even though we will be paying rack rate as opposed to AP rate we will still be better off.

I also like the idea that all our food (well most) is already paid for so we don't have to worry about budgeting for it each day. Our spending money is therefore just for treats and souvenirs.
 
I'm sure this has been asked and I hope it isn't a dumb question but do you have to use this for your entire stay? For instance if I were going for 5 nights, could I buy 3 days of the dining plan?
 
The dining plan is part of the package and is for each night you are staying. You can not buy extra or just purchase it for a select part of your stay. Kind of the all or nothing thought behind it. Sorry.
 
We loved the dining plan!! We paid $490 for it for 7 days, and "spent" close to $800. We tried out places we normally wouldn't have. The main reason I like it so much is since it is already built in to my AAA price, food is one less thing to budget for. And, I can "inflate" the amount I tell my DH that we need for souvies, pics, etc. :)
 
i've been struggling with decision since it's only two of us going...but I finally had to say it was like one of us eating for free. I think it makes great sense and can hardly wait to try places that we wouldn't have tried otherwise.
 
Do it. I've yet to read a post where someone regretted getting the Dining Plan. (Any out there?) We loved it last summer. :flower:
 
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