Quick Service Dining? Thoughts please :)

[Sundancer UK]

Our holiday is all booked, so if it all turns out that we can't add this on then it's a moot point anyway

I was wondering if the QS would be worth it for us. We've not booked a dining plan as we're not overly fussy about where we eat, but we do want the flexibility of being able to go where we want (have hoppers) and not have to rush to get to ADRs in time.
We're there for almost 14 days (evening arrival, afternoon leaving) and have a breakfast, lunch and dinner planned anyway. We're not huge eaters so were just going to pay for what we eat as and when we order it.

But I've been looking at the QS option and wondering whether that would work out a good idea (partly to save me stressing about making sure we have enough money), or whether it would just end up a big waste.

What do you think?

 

[sscassel]

I personally love using the meal plans. ANd WOW 14 days, that is sweet. Honestly, if your there that long, I would go for the regular meal plan. Eating burgers/chicken & pizza would get old for me. Your missing out on some great meals. My kids would never talk to me agin if I didn't take then to Teppen Edu! Some resturants are a lot of fun to experience such as Teppen Edu, Prime Time & Hoop Dee Doo. We also love 1900 Park Fare. Rethink your meal plan. Hoop Dee Doo if you haven't done it is a must. It's a lot of fun with lots of laughs. That would use up 2 meals per person.

 

[Sundancer UK]

We're too late for the regular meal plan now anyway, most of the ADRs are taken for the time we're there Honestly, I think we'll be ok without though. I know it seems pretty tiring and samey - and I'll probably agree after 1 week let alone 2! But my kids will love it - they don't often get to eat junk like that lol.

I'm also planning on checking out Epcot for dinner times, I've heard there's more variety there (hope that's right lol!)

14 days might sound good, but it's all we're ever getting, as we have to travel so far to get there!

 

[kat3668]

Hello... I am going to be there the week before you and there is still tons of availability for all the resteraunts in that time frame. But if you are not interested in the regular dining plan I would definately go with the QSDP. I like not haveing to worry about $$ and with your little ones I think it would make life much easier for you.

 

[jaminmd]

Here is why I wouldn't want the QSDP:

1. They give you a dessert with each meal & they are not appetizing to me whatsoever. If I'm going to splurge on calories, it'll be for something I find appetizing. So, when Disney includes dessert in the "value," to us, there is no value.

2. We like to graze throughout the day. DD & DH like turkey legs. Those things are huge & are a meal in themselves. You cant use the dining plan for those. I like pretzels & even though you can use a snack credit for them, they are a meal to me as well.

3. There are some limitations. We don't like that. We prefer to eat as we go & often find with our in between snacks, we don't eat that much.

I hope you have a safe & wonderful trip.

 

[marie1203]

We have been there for 14 days before and we did the regular dinning plan (couldn't imagine having to eat fast food for 14 days straight ). We will never do just the quick dinning plan. We are not big on fast food and most quick dinning places offer about the same food selection sometimes having to walk to the other side just to get something different it just not worth it for us. We don't have children but I heard the selection is even smaller for children menus. I really do not think there is enough variety of quick service restaurants to not repeat it over and over during 14 days stay. Specially in a long vacation we would like to take the time to break an enjoy a meal. But if you already have other ADR'S and you know your family better than any of us go for it.

 

[scboyd]

We always do the qsdp and its not all fast food. On our last 10 day trip we didn't have hamburgers at all and I think we had fries/chips twice. There are plenty of options just do a little research and you can have great meals on the qsdp. As for desserts, we wouldn't normally eat dessert twice a day so we tend to pick desserts that will last and use these as snack through out the day.

 

[Mrs Stonfiesta]

We are going to be there the same time as you we have never done a dining planning before so it will be our first exp of it, however we normally go for 12-13 nights and eat mainly in cs places and you def don't have to live on burgers for 2 weeks! I like the idea that the cost of meals are paid for, so we literally need spends. We will be doing a couple oop meals so dd can get her character fix tho but any spare credits will be used for her meals etc. We park hop a lot so cs if perfect for us as we will eat where and when we fancy it rather than being tied down to adrs. Hope you manage to decide what works best for your fam

 

[RachaelA]

I could never do the QS for 14 days. I would want to do some nice sit down meals plus if you aren't big eaters, you won't want desserts with every meal.

Do you have APs? You could get the Tables in Wonderland card and save money with that. That way you can choose what you want to eat and at mix up the types of places you go to.

 

[rvchat]

I think the QSD is mostly or all fast foods. Too many french fries and fried stuff for 2 weeks. I'd just pay as you go instead if it were me.

 

[mrsg00fy]

We have crunched the numbers again and again and the QSDP isn't a good deal unless you typically always order the most expensive items AND eat dessert at every meal. In fact, the longer you book the plan for, the worse a value it is. (ie, when you spread the value of the mugs out over many days.).

We are DVC members and thinking of adding the QSDP for a single day.....and eating that night at Pepper Market. In this case, it is worth it. However, the option of adding a single day is only available to DVC members. For everyone else, you have to book the plan for the duration of your stay.

As far as the "convenience" of it.....you have to use your room key anyway, and if that is the case, it is no easier than just charging to your room. Also, the QSDP pretty much means that you are locked into eating Disney's fast food for a long period of time.

For us, the $35 per person per day is a pretty high cost and I don't see how it is convenient at all.

 

[kayrosek]

I'd go ahead with the QSDP to save you stressing about money and for the snacks and refillable mug. As far as eating the same food over and over again. I don't think you'll have to (though the kids might more than you). Don't forget places like Wolf Gang Puck Express, Earl of Sandwich, Cookes of Dublin, Columbia Harbor House, Sunshine Seasons and Starring Rolls for some different options and of course all the additinal places in World Showcases. You shoulden't have to feel like your eating burgers and fries all the time. It might even be worth it to go over to CSR for Pepper Market or the CS at the Polynesion or Contemporary for a few of thier different options.

 

[Sundancer UK]

Reading through your replies is like a rollercoaster! I'm so easily swayed, first I want to, then I don't!

No, we don't have APs - this will be our first trip to WDW, maybe our only one ever and certainly our only one for a long time to come.

Having credits left over to save is no problem for us, and I don't mind getting some bits to eat on the long journey home

But if it would be a waste of money because of huge portions that we wont get through, then I'm not so sure. I'd rather buy less and let my children share. But then they're pretty unpredictable, one day they'll share and the next they'll all be ravenous!

Seriously, we're not fussed about sit-down meals. With 4 smalls and my husband it's more stress than it's worth half the time (yes, even at places designed for children), and I *really* don't want to have to add in stress of getting places in time.

scboyd, thanks for your input, it's good to hear that it's not all fast food. Is there anyone else with experience of QS out there?

jamminmd - it's things like the turkey leg that puts me off! I want to try these treats, so will resent having to pay for them on top of already paying for the QS.
But again, if it saves me worrying about how much money to save and how much to spend, it could be a good thing, because at least then I'd have money to spend on treats like Dole Whips and a Turkey Leg!

 

[mrsg00fy]

To really be able to assess whether or not it is a good deal.....try viewing the menus at Allearsnet.com. Price out what your typical meal would cost. Unless you order dessert, I would assess the plan components as follows:

I'm assuming all adults here:

Typical Counter service meal @ $11 each (no dessert)
2 snacks at @ $4 each

That brings the total to roughly $30 and you are paying $35 per day.

Then the mugs are roughly $15 a piece. So if you spread this out over the two weeks, then for an adult, you are paying $35 per day for $31 of value.....and this also assumes that you are going with the most expensive snacks.

The plan could make sense IF you typically order dessert with every meal and / or if you eat at the more expensive options like the Pepper Market. I have not priced this out for children.....and of course the value will vary depending on your eating habits. I would advise to just go to Allears and check out the pricing at the places where you think you'll eat.

As for the convenience, I really see no difference between handing your room key over for a meal entitlement or to charge to the room.

But consider doing the math first........YMMV....

 

[crazelion]

It not all fast food. You can get serve fruit instead of fries in almost all counter service meals. I think the QSR plan will be perfect for you.

I went for week two years ago and I did not set foot in sit down resturant. I did not what they serve at all. I only like standard American food. I went for a week.

 

[ceecee]

You can get things on the quick serv besides fast food, but that being said...I do like sit downs as well. 14 days of it may be too much! Sometimes we eat a lot and don't feel like eating another meal so we just snack then. We usually get the dining plan because there are 5 or 6 must do and they are all sit downs so we feel it is worth it.

 

[maggiew]

To me, you have to try really hard to make the QSDP worth it in terms of $$$. If you eat the most expensive entrees at the most expensive places, then you can come out ahead. But, if you just go to a restaurant that is near where you are at the moment and looks good to you, then you probably won't get the most value out of it. I think maximizing the plan for 14 days would be hard.

But it is a myth that you will be eating burgers/fries, fast food, fried foods, etc. the whole trip. You can go the whole trip without eating those things on the QSDP. But the key is to knowing where to go.

A previous poster mentioned several good places:
Pepper market
Earl of Sandwich
Sunshine Seasons
Wolfgang Puck Express
French bakery
Starring Rolls
CS in Norway (can't think of name)
Tangierine Cafe
Yakitori House
CS in China

Maggie

 

[pat fan]

I can't believe this is my opinion, but I say go for it!

I always said the dining plans were a waste, then we did free QSDP last year and my DH is hooked on it! Maybe we did break even or lose a couple bucks, but the convenience is unbeatable and we were still able to pay OOP for the character meals we wanted. We also had a bunch of snack credits left at the end of our trip that we used up and brought home a bag full of treats for ourselves and nieces & nephews!

We made good use of our "credit" allotment too. Example being that we got a bottle of water as our a.m drink (if we got breakfast as a credit) and brought that with us for a drink in the park and used our refillable mug for coffee or tea or whatever. A lot of times the "dessert" we got was a Mickey Rice Krispie bar that we either ate later or wound up bringing home to make the magic last! They also thought it was a great treat to come back to the resort at the end of the day and get a sundea as a snack credit (we would NEVER get a sundea that much if we had to pay OOP for it!). Normally we hardly ever have ice cream etc...at home, so this was a great treat for us

I can't say enough how awesome the snack credits turned out to be. My family was thrilled that a Dole Whip was a credit. I think they must have eaten their weights worth of them during our trip!

We also never felt like we were eating burgers & fries the whole time. We found a lot of variety. In Epcot we found the Refreshment Port where you can get a chicken sandwich and as a "dessert" you get a strawberry slushie thing that is out of sight on a hot day! I do wish the chicken could have been gotten grilled, but it was still tasty. I think my DS and I got it like 3 times just to get the "dessert"

Have fun!

BTW, I know your trip is close, but in future I recommend getting the Disney Visa. We had enough Rewards Points on it to pay for all our character meals and anything else we wanted that was not on the QSDP, so we never laid out any $$ for food on our whole trip

 

[mjejj]

Where are you staying? Sorry if I missed this, but I think that would make a difference if the QSDP would work for you. Last Sept., we stayed at the Boardwalk Villas and got the QSDP (we are DVC members, so we added at the last minute). For staying at Boardwalk, it wasn't that convinent. There just weren't that many counter service options in the Boardwalk area outside of Epcot (that I found.). If you are staying at Pop Century or one of the resorts with a QS restaurant, like the one at Animal Kingdom, it probably would be a better value since the food court at the Pop is a QS. In fact, we trekked over to the Pop for breakfast one morning because I couldn't find waffles near the Boardwalk (I may have missed them). Like someone else said, inside the parks, I think you would find lots of options that aren't traditional "fast food". Whatever you decide, Have a great trip!!!

 

[indimom]

We went for two weeks last summer. None of the meal plans seemed worthwhile for our family due to our eating habits and the ages of our children so we chose to pay OOP.

I was afraid to eat quick service for two weeks, so I scheduled one sit down meal for every day of the trip. We budgeted for one sit down and one quick service each day; but went a step further and bought some food for the room in case we opted for a quick snack/meal by the pool. We also ate breakfast from our room each day to save time before rope drop.

When all was said and done, we ended up canceling 6 of the 14 sit down meals. Not because of the cost, but because with that much time to burn at Disney we found ourselves not enjoying staying at the parks ALL day. We started taking longer breaks at the resort or opting to go shopping at the outlet malls, etc.

Since we couldn't make the ADRs we had scheduled in advance, we just cancelled them day to day if we lost interest in where we had "planned" to be on a particular day.

We found plenty of other options at the quick service locations. We had salads, bbq, veggie burgers, spaghetti, pizza, fresh fruit, and of course burgers and nuggets. It didn't feel like too much fast food at all. (Well, we did eat at the room more than I thought we would also and found we enjoyed the fresh fruit and veggies/sandwiches/pudding/chips there.)

Hope this helps. Personally, I'd schedule a few ADRs. It can't hurt. You can always cancel them if you change your mind. But, you'll have the option if you DO want a relaxing "real" meal.