No Dining Plan = no stress!

[Paul in CT]

I just wanted to put this out there to see if anyone else agrees....

The last two trips we had we were on the Dining Plan, and while it was great to have meals pre-paid (sort of), I have to admit that there was a certain level of stress involved.... Between all of the planning of ADR's, trying to get my money's worth, and the keeping track of credits, I found myself a little crazed...and believe me I am a PLANNER with a capital P and also very organized.

This trip, however, we have decided NOT to use a dining plan. Now I did make ADRs for where we wanted, but I feel SO much less stressed out about this. Make sense to anyone else?

I have a budget for food...and it may actually be the same as the cost of the dining plan! But I think we'll just wing counter service meals, share when we want at either CS or TS, etc.

Curious to see how it works out this time!

Thanks for listening to me think out loud!!

I absolutely agree with you. We have never done the dining plan for that very reason. Since we buy AP's, we also get the Tables in Wonderland card for $75 that gets you a 20% discount on food and alcoholic drinks. This works better for us since we like to do table service and "signature" restaurants. It saves us a lot, but it also costs us a lot. Being a planner myself, I am sure that you will be able to enjoy your trip more.

 

[catne]

I keep seeing people say the appetizer isnt included but when I look here
----------> http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/media/wdw_nextgen/CoreCatalog/WaltDisneyWorld/en_us/PDF/2010Dining.pdfwhere it says table service, it says it is. Can someone clear this up for me.

the section on lunch/dinner in that PDF that says Appetizers also says (ages 3-9 only) after the word appetizer...they literally mean only children get the appetizer. And keep in mind the kids meal appetizer is not a traditional appetizer like onion rings or nachos/cheese or shrimp cocktail. No, the kids meal appetizer is actually something like a tiny bowl of soup or some carrot sticks. This is part of Disney's move to make the kids meals healthy...so the meal components will work out to a balanced meal. Kids cannot order regular appetizers in place of the kids meal components.

If adults want appetizers on a dining plan, you have to buy the deluxe dining plan, which will run you about $30 more per adult per night.

We actually love the dining plans...we drive, so transportation is no hassle at all. We go often enough that there's no time constraints. Table service restaurants are part of the vacation experience for us. The dining plan components suit us to a T...sometimes the basic "plus dining" and sometimes the deluxe, depending on what we're going to do that trip at Disney World. I can see that for some, it would be stressful, especially if time is limited or you must rely on Disney transportation to get around. I wouldn't want to do it that way, or with little kids. But for adults-only parties, it works out great for us.

 

[Hallowishes]

I TOTALLY know what you are saying! the dining plan is NICE and its terrific to not have to worry about paying for most meals. HOWEVER, it is VERY stressful when trying to get from one hotel to another and it WASTES alot of TIME! i very much enjoy the table service rest. dont get me wrong, i am still going to eat at a few (boma, chef mickeys, california grill, le cellier) but i am not going to let my dining plans dictate my time like they normally seem to.

 

[henderkm]

This will be our first trip to do the DDP and you guys have almost talked me out of it. While I like the idea of a prepaid plan, I was concerned about my days at the park being dictated by where and what time our ADR's were.

Maybe I'll have to rethink our plans....

 

[Cafeen]

The "park days dictated by Dining Reservations"* is not truely an issue with the Dining Plan itself, but more of the nature of Dining Reservations at TS locations. Whether or not you use the plan doesn't matter in this sense.

However, it's true that on a plan, most people typically make more reservations than if they were not on the plan, and it leads to the same issue. But it is not only a Dining Plan issue. Just to clarify what everyone already knows

But, as I've been drilling into anyone who reads my posts lately (and you guys will now be included in that!), if the plan doesn't fit your style, it's best not to use it. In other words, "Get a dining plan if it fits your plans, don't force your plans to fit a plan." With the former, there is no added stress (or at least very little) as you're doing what you were going to do anyway. With the latter there is more concern about maximizing and additional dining reservations to get to. The plans work great when you're doing it that way in the first place, but not so much if you have to change your trip to "follow" them.

As for me, well, I only have 1 DDP trip under my belt and it worked out great. Will have a DxDDP trip coming up in a couple months, and that's more aligned to the dining than the parks (I'll be solo for 5 days and with my Mom for 4, so I'm not too concerned about not being able to see what I want to see). I've planned it out so the resort meals are close to where I'll be anyway and it looks like it'll work.

*While this quote is pretty much when the person above me said, this isn't directed to her exclusively, it was merely a stepping off point for the rest of the post

 

[wide awake]

I don't see any stress to the DDP. I would have to get ADRs for the places I want to eat, I like nice restaurants, like expensive food, therefore the DDP is a no brainer. Good thing we're not all the same.

 

[walkdmc]

I think it makes sense but it also depends on the members of your party. If I had only older kids and adults in our party, I would be bothered by all the rushing and stressing to make ADRs. However, we had 4 young kids and LOVED the Deluxe Dining Plan on our most recent trip. We did a bunch of character meals, used every one of our snack credits and feel like we got a great deal in the end. I realized with my party, QS meals would've been too chaotic. In the future, when my kids are older, QS will make more sense and the DDP might make less sense for us.

One thing I discovered at the end of our trip was we could get room service for 2 dining credits/entree. It was fantastic! We stayed at Bay Lake and ordered room service breakfast on our last day and everyone agreed it was our best breakfast in 2 weeks! So, for those of you who don't have every little credit accounted for, leave some for room service when in doubt.

 

[twentysix]

The dining plan (deluxe) is less stressful to me. I know everything's already paid.

I also never feel stressed because my ressies don't tie me down to specific touring plans or parks.

I make my ressies so that we eat at the hotel most mornings, and then have a signature meal at night after we're done with whichever park we end up choosing while we're there. If it's not a signature, I make a late ressie for Epcot because that's open after all the other parks close at the time of year we go.

On my last trip (10+ days), the only days where I had to be at a specific park during "primetime" were for the Fantasmic Dinner Package at the Brown Derby and the Coral Reef for lunch. I have no problems being Future World in Epcot no matter what the weather situation because you're just hopping from building to building, and several you can just stay in till bad weather passes. The Fantasmic Package of course you have to book way in advance.

 

[Family Fun Mom]

We had the dining plan in 2005 when they first offered Free Dining. It was awesome but, yes, stressful. I loved the prepaid aspect of it, and back then you had an appetizer and tip included, which was fabulous. However, we often had to leave our fun to make it to our ADRs and wasted a lot of food because sometimes our ADRs fell at times we weren't hungry. I felt we were slaves to the ADRs and it did take a little something away from the experience. It was pretty cool to try all those restaurants, though, that part was very fun.

This upcoming trip we decided to go with the Quick Service plan. We like that our meals are prepaid but we will have the freedom of eating when we are hungry, not when the reservations say we need to eat. We'll just stop at the closest counter service eatery and on with the day!

We still plan to eat at two table service places and pay OOP. I'm excited to give it a try. We'll see how it goes.

 

[hoffmann2828]

Family Fun Mom is right on the money with me!

We did the regular dining plan last time, and had to rush around to get to ADR's. We also felt obligated to order more expensive foods and desserts just because it would make the plan more "worthwhile" cost wise.

This time, we are doing the QSDP and can't wait! We are looking forward to more snack credits (awesome during F&W), our refillable mug (which we never purchase, but for my soon to be 4 year old, she'll think it's a souvie), and not running from one park to another because of ADR's.

BTW, Family Fun Mom, I am going to make a list for each park of the Counter Service restaurants I want to try (don't want to go to the same old ones we usually go to) and have it on me. That way, wherever we get hungry, we'll have a pre-decided list of CS places we want to eat at instead of finding ourselves at the Electric Umbrella...again and again.

Jenny

 

[disneymeces]

I was there in May and the receipts printed the amount of credits we had left each time we 'paid'

It was very easy to keep track of!

Ours were easy to keep track of, not to meniton with 4kids, the DDP is worth it for us, it takes the stress of trying to budget for food. It is something I dont have to worry abt.

 

[djm99]

I will NEVER do the regular DDP again. It was way too stressful for my family. Too MUCH preplaning had to happen. Don't get me wrong. I love to plan, but it was excessive. And life (especially vacations) never seem to go as plan. Almost daily we had to leave somewhere early just to make our reservations. AND, the food wasn't that good. We all had just as good (if not better) meals on counter service. So, the following year when the new QSDP was offered, we jumped aboard. WE ALL LOVED IT!! Besides one of my favorite places to eat (Crystal Palace) isn't on the plan. We all LOVED the Quick DP. We all loved the 2 snacks and we had some really great meals in the resorts. We visited many different resorts for lunch/dinner too. I wish we were staying onsite this year, we would get the QSDP again.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I just wanted to put this out there to see if anyone else agrees....

The last two trips we had we were on the Dining Plan, and while it was great to have meals pre-paid (sort of), I have to admit that there was a certain level of stress involved.... Between all of the planning of ADR's, trying to get my money's worth, and the keeping track of credits, I found myself a little crazed...and believe me I am a PLANNER with a capital P and also very organized.

This trip, however, we have decided NOT to use a dining plan. Now I did make ADRs for where we wanted, but I feel SO much less stressed out about this. Make sense to anyone else?

I have a budget for food...and it may actually be the same as the cost of the dining plan! But I think we'll just wing counter service meals, share when we want at either CS or TS, etc.

Curious to see how it works out this time!

Thanks for listening to me think out loud!!

DEFINITELY less stressful. We found ourselves having to preplan months in advance so that we could make our ADRs. Now we don't make ADRs, except maybe a week or two in advance at most. Often, we just try walk-ups wherever the day happens to take us. Then, if we can't get a walk-up when we're hungry, we eat CS. No more stressing about "But we have to eat TS X # of times to use our credits." or "But we have to go to that park tomorrow becaue that's where our lunch ADRs are." Yet, we don't like all CS either, we just don't like such scheduling with the DDP.

 

[Robin K]

It's a good thing everyone is different.
We LOVE the DDP. We go in Sept when free dining is offered. It works for us. We plan our park for each day then pick a place to eat at that park or at a resort near that park. I give my TA times we would like to eat between (6-7) whatever she gets is fine by us. We are two adults doing everything at a slow, relax pace.
I can see how it would be a waste of time and/money for others. It all is a matter of personal opinion. That's the way life is: isn't it great?!!
Hope everyone has a magical and wonderful trip!

 

[Micca]

About 3 years ago we bought some kind of dining plan, I don't recall what exactly it was. We'll are unlikely to ever do it again. Now we pay as we go, do whatever we want. The dining plans must be hugely successful so I'm glad they work for others.

 

[Melodious]

We've never done the DDP, but when I heard of it, I thought it must be great. It's prepaid, and saves you money. So we made a list of all the restaurants we wanted to eat at and there weren't enough TS credits being used and the QSDP wasn't saving us money either. We're also the type of people who don't want a sitdown meal every day, like to share appetizers and a single entree, we will eat more food than we should if it's paid for and in front of us making us feel icky , and we're likely to choose things like sundaes that are on the plan rather than the brownie sundae snack I really want.

BUT we're buying loads of gift cards to give us the prepaid, may as well order whatever you want feel And then the tips and alcoholic beverages will be prepaid too.

 

[DemonLlama]

We've never found the dining plans to be profitable for us. We're much more interested in grabbing a bite at CS whenever we want and doing very few sit-down meals. I'd be too consumed (ha) with trying to work out where to be to eat and how much to eat if we did it.

 

[Planogirl]

We haven't ever done the dining plan and I have no intention of starting. The last time we were onsite we had one ADR and this time we've doubled that. That's enough for us.

 

[chrisw127]

I think the OP makes a good point. We do the dining plan, more for the convenience of it than anything else. Also, even though we stay at DVC resorts and have a kitchen, it doesn't feel like a vacation without a nice restaurant meal every day or so. I can only handle so many quick-service meals. I do have to say that when I added everything up from our last trip, it saved us money, but that's mainly a factor of how we eat at WDW. I think for people who wouldn't otherwise eat a lot of table service meals or who tour the parks "commando-style,", it's probably not the best bet.

Having said that, I did feel a bit chained to our ADR schedule and it was difficult with little kids to make all the ADRs, so I do agree about the stress factor.

 

[WDWFWfan]

I would love to try the DP sometime, but since we normally go for two weeks at a time, it's just way too expensive for us. We can typically eat for about 1/2 of what the DP costs.