Anyone else out there not use the Dining Plan?

[JimmyV]

However when we stayed using the deluxe dining, we had booked a character breakfast every morning, two dinner shows throughout the week, 2 steak TS restaraunts, and the royal table breakfast. I guess it all comes down to the dining choices of each family to say if it's worth it.

Not arguing any of that. You are 100% correct about the bolded part. I guess what I was saying is that a typical "foodie" isn't going to be entralled with character breakfasts, dinner shows, buffets and eating in the castle. At least, not anyone within my definition and understanding of the term "foodie". That is why I would steer a discriminating epicure away from the plan.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I don't use a plan every trip, only when I can get it for "free." Paying for it wouldn't be a good deal for me, since at best I'd only break even.

 

[sparks19]

we don't use the dining plan either. We go with my inlaws so we get a villa that has a kitchen and such so we eat breakfast at the room, likely eat lunch at the parks before returning to the room for a break and then we'll probably eat dinner before going back to the park and we may skip one of those meals depending how hungry we are.

I only have one sit down meal outside of the room planned and that's Akershus for my DD's birthday. other than that it will be counter service places for lunch and the rest will be made in our room or ordered in.

so as you can see it's definitely not worth it for us to have the dining plan. I don't like to make a lot of reservations because I jsut never know what we are going to feel like when time comes for said reservation. I don't want to make 3 reservations a day and then decide that we just aren't hungry at that time and want to spend more time at the park or something.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

None of the dining plans are a good fit for us. Additionally, while I'm sure they're profitable for Disney on the whole, I'm not convinced that the dining plans are at all beneficial to the restaurants themselves. I doubt we'll ever use one.

 

[pamelaz]

It doesn't work for me either.. when I compare the dining plan to menu prices, I always get a better deal paying out of pocket.

 

[Pugmalion1]

But I no longer use them. I don't order meals they way they require me to order, I don't have children, and I rarely do buffets.

These are the exact reasons that we have never used the dining plan, even when free.

I can see where it works. If you have a large group or are in a family with a few children, the plan not only might come out to be a better deal than paying out of pocket, but at the very least, it makes getting in and out of restaurants that much easier due to the simple convenience of being on a plan. Add in the use of the plan in buffets, and you have a decent deal.

For a childless couple, though, it just doesn't make sense. The point system is too restrictive and the set ordering pattern is often counter-intuitive to how and what we like to eat. What if we want to eat at a signature every night or twice in one day? What if we want to lounge hop and eat nothing but appetizers? What if we don't eat desserts or like to share courses?

In a situation like ours, the dining plan is simultaneously too much and not enough. You really have to examine where and what you like to eat and your personal dining habits, and decide what is best for your situation. If I had to guess though, based on what I can glean from this thread, you're probably going to be better off out of pocket.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I am anti dining plan.

used it once, never again.

Way too much food.

Way too much time spent "making sure we made our ADR"

And NO, you don't burn off all those deserts walking around Disney LOL!

IMHO,it's really not a good deal. To make it a good deal you have to eat EVERYTHING you are entitled to and order the high end at each resturant. (I will never forget hearing the Mother YELL at her son that he couldn't order the pasta because "in order to get our money's worth you have to order the steak")

 

[mkburme]

I had this debate with myself for my upcoming solo trip for the F&WF.
I'm trying TS restaurants that have never interested my family, some signature ones. I prefer appetizers over dessert, but not with every meal- just certain restaurants.
And since I was going for F&WF I wanted to try the bites from the kiosks so I don't have many plans for CS.
It was going to be too much food for me, and I can't be caught up with " I need to eat this to get my money's worth"
(My pants wouldn't be happy!)

 

[BabsBunny]

Not arguing any of that. You are 100% correct about the bolded part. I guess what I was saying is that a typical "foodie" isn't going to be entralled with character breakfasts, dinner shows, buffets and eating in the castle. At least, not anyone within my definition and understanding of the term "foodie". That is why I would steer a discriminating epicure away from the plan.

I agree. A foodie would much rather sample the foods and wines at the F&WF kiosks or hit the raw bar at Blue Zoo than to have all-you-can-eat at Chef Mickey's.

 

[Karebear]

We are trying the dining plan for the first time in a couple of months--never used it before, but then again, I have never taken my kids to WDW before either. My kids want to do the character meals--Akershus, Tusker House, CRT, etc.--I think that we have 5 scheduled. We will be 2 adults and 2 kids on the plan. DH likes at least 1 sit down meal per day. I looked at the menus and figured out the cost of what it would cost us to eat--I looked at what we would likely order and did NOT include desserts or extras. The total exceeded the cost of the dining plan by about $100--so I figure that the dining plan will work for us--the desserts and snacks are bonus on top of the $100 savings. Next time that we go, it might not work out to be something that we would do because we probably won't be doing the character meals.

 

[Meshell2002]

This is great....I like hearing everyone's perspective. I am a foodie, we also would never eat that much food, which is why I have never felt it would save any money. We normally stay DVC and I cook....we might eat 1 meal "out"....it may be dinner or lunch depending on what we are doing that day. My 5 yr old doesn't eat enough to even justify the child plate....we drive, we know where Publix and Walmart are. Usually if we eat out we do a CRT (for the kids obviously) not for the food. My parents are going with us this time and love the DP, in fact since they like to sleep late, and we don't, they like to wander into the park @ 10, we eat breakfast in room (take snacks w/ us)....use EMH and meet my parents when they are up(you get the picture). They won't go without the DP and we won't buy it......so we choose to have seperate reservations (even though combined there's only 6 of us). Everyone finds it funny how my family vacations.....but we have very few fights this way

I do use my DV rewards to pay for our CRTs....and that's usually all I need for eating out

 

[2manypets]

We went with the Deluxe DDP for several years and for some reason, on our last trip I just got tired of eating. We felt obligated to get everything we were entitle to on the plan. After gaining 10 pounds and realizing we usually don't eat desserts and appetizers at home, we decided to go OOP this time. The regular DDP would regulate us too much also. There's too many places (DTD, S/D) that have great restauants not on the plan that we'd like to try. So no more DDP for us.

 

[prljamjeep]

I have done both but if you can afford the dining plan and do your homework, it is the way to go

 

[Baileymouse]

We used the Deluxe Plan in 2008, but it made sense on that trip since I had to pre-plan everything, we had the kid with us, and my MIL. DH & I are thinking of going alone for a few days, and we won't be getting the dining plan. Why?

1. We don't want the restrictions.
2. I can't eat a lot, so we often wind up sharing
3. We love trying the signature restaurants when we're alone, and why bother using the DDP?

I think that for families it can be a good deal, especially if you never plan on leaving the property, but we're explorers.

 

[Kricketnp]

I think the DP cam be worth it, but it really depends on how your group eats. We used it for free on the last trip, and although it was a lot of food, it ended up being sufficient. However, we are normally not the type of people to order 2 drinks with breakfast or dessert with lunch.

IMO, the DP is worth it if you want to have expensive sitdown meals or buffet dinners (Even bfast barely seems worth it) every day of your stay,a s well as another big meal and snacks. We considered getting it for our upcoming trip, but with the plans we have, it just wasn't worth it. Instead, it made more sense for us to pay OOP and have more flexibility with our trip, rather than being tied to specific locations for ADRs.

 

[NancyC1000]

We don't use the dining plan because I agree it is a lot of food and I know us we would make sure we got are money worth and use every last credit or die trying! Besides we do eat at a lot at the signatures and we usually never order dessert because we like to go to other places for drinks and dessert later in the evening. I do understand why the dining plan works for others. That's what makes going to Disney so great, many, many choices!

 

[Nature Mom]

No DP for us either. We drive, stay at FW where we prepare about 60% of our own meals, eat off property at other places Orlando has to offer and pay OOP for the few places that we do want to try while at the World.

I've made 4 ADRs for our upcoming trip and that is all I will do. I will admit it, we are snobs, lol. We ARE foodies, we have a catering business and appreciate good food but also good dining experiences. We feel the DP takes away from that, so it is a no go for us too.

It is all about quality over quantity for us and unfortunately, it seems a lot of the places are more about the numbers served, not the quality of food being served to the masses. We aren't drinking the kool-aid.

That being said, if my kids were younger, we were doing character meals all the time, etc., then possibly it would have been a good deal for us. Every family is different, you just have to figure out what works best for YOURS.

 

[CynBeth]

The DP is not the right fit for us. We are 3 adults and one person has food allergies so would not have an appetizer or dessert and for us the flexibility is important. The other 2 without the allergies might not be very hungryapnea day and decide to split an entree. Plus we might decide to do TS for lunch and dinner one day or stop at a cart, etc. We only made a few ADRs for our entire trip because we want to go with the flow.

 

[clanmcculloch]

The DP is not the right fit for us. We are 3 adults and one person has food allergies so would not have an appetizer or dessert and for us the flexibility is important. The other 2 without the allergies might not be very hungryapnea day and decide to split an entree. Plus we might decide to do TS for lunch and dinner one day or stop at a cart, etc. We only made a few ADRs for our entire trip because we want to go with the flow.

I'm not sure I understand why a person with allergies would not have an appetizer or dessert because of the allergies. My family has multiple laundry lists of food allergies yet we're able to have appetizers and desserts at every restaurant we go to. In fact, the dining plans helped us out when there was an upcharge for some CS foods for the allergy foods because we paid 1 credit regardless but when paying OOP we have to pay the upcharge. I absolutely do believe that far more people are better off without dining plans than with but I don't understand allergies as a reason.

 

[mousegear]

We only take DP when offered FD promotion. Usually the FD promotion is cheaper than other promotions (such as room %, child play free). Otherwise, we OOP meals. Lots of times, I could share an appetizer and entree with DS 7 and full without dessert. Also, I like the flexibility of not being tied down to use the credits.