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

[ReggieB]

Every year I look at whatever dining plan Disney have and work out if it's good value for my family or not. This new plan is a whole lot better value than the previous plans they have had, but they way we eat I still can't think we would do very well with it. We don't very often eat at counter service restaurants, we would probably use our full service credits up fast as we usually like to splurge at the 2 credit restaurants. Also we like to order the odd thing from room service (is this included or not?) Does the food and wine festival come included, as a snack or as counter service?..wow we would use those credits up in a day!!! I reckon we could probably break even on it, if we really planned it out but I just can't persuade my DH on it, he thinks I plan enough as it is! Which is fine it's his money!! We don't eat out much at home, so we like to make the most of our dining options.

How well do the staff do out of it, do they do better from the dining plan as they are guaranteed a tip, or do they do worse, because people don't leave anything over the 15% that's included. My servers at Disney usually always get 20% from me, unless the service was terrible. Perhaps that's why some people are encountering bad service...there's no incentive for the staff to be nice if the tip is already a foregone conclusion. Hopefully that's not the case.

 

[daver]

You bet its worth it. For about $125.00 a day, the avg counter service meal was $60.00 - 100.00 and the table service was 100.00 to over 200.00. We stayed for 9 nights on the dining plan. There was more than enough food to eat. Often we skipped desert as it was too much. For the Counter service, you can choose from alot of things, and the food is consistant. Anything from sandwiches, bacon dbl cheeseburgers, chicken strips, up to 1/4 chickn and rib combos, all with large drinkc and desserts. For the table service meals you had a wide variety of choices. For example we went to the Coral Reef Restaurant For the 5 of us the bill was $209.00. The food was sooo good we went back the next night. The total was $229.99. We had 12 oz Steaks and the kids had pizza. We all had desert, and all has appetizers. I had Ceasar Salad with rock shrimp on top. WOW Awesome. If you are going, reserve at Coral Reef... I cant imagine you'd be disappointed.You can also book at Mama Melrose' for the Fantasmic package with DDP, then get into Fantasmic afterwards with preferred seating... need I say more? At the end we had to work to use all of the meals, and had 16 snacks left, which we went down and got the Mickey Mouse shaped rice crispie snack to have back home!
Also, some places allow you to order the kids meals from the adult menu as well.
Enough already, get the plan and EAT!

 

[anneofgreengables]

Is this plan worth it if you normally don't order appetizers or desserts? Or if you don't eat at table-service every night? Plus, sometimes, I share my husband's entree at restaurants. So I'm wondering if we'll save more without the dining plan.

 

[tabrizia]

I looked over the dining plan when booking and decided it was worth it for me and hubby. We tend to get an appitizer to split when we go to restaraunts and about half the time we get dessert as well. I figured out the worth by figuring out how much we had spent when we were there in 2001 and had only eaten three sit down meals. I then figured out how much it would cost us when we go in August if we only did 4 sitdown meals (longer trip, would add at least one sit down meal). I then compared that to the cost of the dining plan and they were basically even. So I was able to add 4 more sitdown meals for the same price as it would cost me for getting food while there (okay to be fair dining plan is costing me a bit more because we are paying out of pocket for CRT and a Boma breakfast) so it seemed like a no brainer to me. Sure we may not want an appitizer or dessert every night, so we just won't get one, the cost of the main course alone makes it worthwhile to me and hubby.

It really depends on the person on if it will be worth it or not, the best way to figure out if it is worth it is to figure out where you would eat if you weren't on the plan and how much it would cost you and compare. Since hubby and I tend to enjoy fine dining (though his choices are a bit limited since he can't eat meat) we figured the dining plan was a great fit for us. If we were doing mainly counter service or character breakfasts it wouldn't be as good a deal for us and we would probably not get it. It really depends on your situation as to what works best for you.

 

[dabsjad]

Does anyone know if at the sit-down restaurants is it possible to get food-to-go on some nights ? I am planning a 7 day trip in Feb 2007 for me , dh, ds5 & ds3 and am trying to see if the DP is worth it for us. I am sure some days the kids are going to be so tired they will not want to sit and eat !!

Ashwini

 

[Tinker*Shell*Bell]

Is this plan worth it if you normally don't order appetizers or desserts? Or if you don't eat at table-service every night? Plus, sometimes, I share my husband's entree at restaurants. So I'm wondering if we'll save more without the dining plan.

It sounds like in your case the dining plan might not be the best deal. Check out some of the menus at http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm to see some of the prices and decide what the best plan for you is going to be.

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.
...

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.

Did you mean that you intend to do all 6 TS meals listed above? The dining plan only covers one TS meal per person/per night. I am confused. Brown Derby and Cinderellas Royal Table are 2 credit meals. You would need many more credits than you are going to have if you wanted to do all these meals.

If I misunderstood and you just want to know which ones are the best deal, I'm sorry. There are great menus at http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm where you can decide for yourself based on what your group eats if you would save or not.


Hope that helps.

 

[cstraub]

It sounds like in your case the dining plan might not be the best deal. Check out some of the menus at http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm to see some of the prices and decide what the best plan for you is going to be.



Did you mean that you intend to do all 6 TS meals listed above? The dining plan only covers one TS meal per person/per day. I am confused. Brown Derby and Cinderellas Royal Table are 2 credit meals. You would need many more credits than you are going to have if you wanted to do all these meals.

If I misunderstood and you just want to know which ones are the best deal, I'm sorry. There are great menus at http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm where you can decide for yourself based on what your group eats if you would save or not.


Hope that helps.

You know a lot about the dining plan! I just have a quick question. Is sharing looked down upon if you order at one of the TB restraunts with a voucher? I never eat a lot and neither does my mom. Would we be able to share our meal at a TS restraunt with the vouchers?

Thanks!

 

[cstraub]

If you are staying 7 nights is the dining package for 8 full days?

Thanks

 

[twinsmamma]

You know a lot about the dining plan! I just have a quick question. Is sharing looked down upon if you order at one of the TB restraunts with a voucher? I never eat a lot and neither does my mom. Would we be able to share our meal at a TS restraunt with the vouchers?

Thanks!

you can share any meal unless it is a buffet or famly style rest. Just let he waiter know that this is what you are doing.
Also the plan is for the number of nights not days so 7 nights gets 7 c/s meals, 7 t/s meals and 7 snacks per person onthe plan.

 

[cstraub]

you can share any meal unless it is a buffet or famly style rest. Just let he waiter know that this is what you are doing.
Also the plan is for the number of nights not days so 7 nights gets 7 c/s meals, 7 t/s meals and 7 snacks per person onthe plan.

Thank you!

 

[happiness]

I just went in April using the dining plan with hubby and five children. I stayed in DVC with kitchen. I would not buy the dining plan again. We would have spent less. We wasted time going out to eat every day instead of touring or swimming. We felt that we HAD to have a sit down meal every day which consisted of appetizer, dinner and desert (too much) because we paid in advance for it. We would have rather had a couple of slices of pizza at the boardwalk for 3.99 and walked to Epcot to tour. Instead we had to eat our meal which takes up to 1 to 1 1/2 hour.

 

[DaniDownUnder]

I ran the numbers on our last trip before deciding to take the DDP for our July honeymoon. For one person last trip (2003) we averaged $45.00 per day and that isn't including appetizers or deserts! So, between the 2 of us, we end up saving roughly $20 a day...which means I can book us in for 1 character brekkie and dinner the last night at CRT which I will be able to pay for OOP with what I'll be saving....AND best of all, we'll get to eat at lots of TS places that we wouldn't usually be able to afford.

For the 2 of us we're eating at:

TS- CRT, Whispering Canyon (2 meals), Teppanaki, HDDR, H&V (or Sci-Fi...still haven't decided if Fantasmic is really an 'us' thing)

CS- Cosmic Rays, Casey's Corner, etc...

We LOOOOOOOVE the DDP!!!