Are the Dining Plans worth it?

[sprouse0625]

I am planning my children's first vacation to Disney World. We were thinking we wouldn't be able to go for a few years, but we we had a vacation planned and for a little (it started out as a little, and seems to have CLIMBED!) bit more than what we planned to go there we can go to Disney instead.

I was planning to take advantage of the Free Dining Plans they have going on OR the Kid's Play Free thing. I was set to get the regular dining plan so we could have sit down meals, but as I got to thinking, packing food and such we could spend way less than the average $540 it'll cost us to add the dining plan to the Kid's Play Free package.

BUT - I was looking forward to getting to eat at all the places IN Disney because growing up (I've been numerous times in my childhood, but once I hit 10 I've only gone 3 times since and I'm 25 now) we never got to do that but once or twice.

Anyone have any suggestions or advice? I've never planned a trip to Disney World myself, I've only ever gone with my family. So, now I realize why my mom was ALWAYS on the computer months before our trip! LOL!

 

[sprouse0625]

my children are ages 6 (boy), 3 (boy), and 2 (girl). Annnnd I'll be 5 months pregnant with number 4!! So, we'd really like to take them before the next baby gets here!! LOL

 

[lucyem]

At the top of this forum are other forums and one is for the dining plan specifically. People ask this question a lot. It really depends on your particular family and your eating style and when you go, etc etc. For my family it does not make much sense. For others it is the greatest thing ever. It all depends.

 

[left_arm]

If everyone is hungry and has expensive tastes, it can be worth it. I will be "saving" 180 bucks on the deluxe plan over paying out of pocket for a week. That is only because I plan on eating expensive apps and desserts as well as steak. I also plan on gaining several pounds based on eating so much. Most people probably don't normally eat what it takes to make it worth it. Go with a discount on your room and just pay for each meal and you'll probably come out ahead. Plus the dining plans require you to not trade a table service meal for a counter service meal if you want to get the full value of the plan. If you Try to make ADRs and can't get your first choices, it definitely is not worth it.

 

[pooh2001]

Since you children are of the younger set and may be picky and you and your spouse may not wnat to fill up on an appetizwe, main entree and desser - I vote for no meal plan.

We get the AAA rate for our resort room - 15% discount (or maybe 10%).
One a $1000 resort room bill we save aboout $150 to $100 dollars.

For our food we do alot of breakfasts in our room - we only pay for milk and ship cereal, granola bars and other snacks to our resort before our WDW vacation.

We eat one TS and one CS meal each day. We do not do alot of desserts. Mostly our DS & DD (but off the kid menu) order dessert. Our DD sometimes orders an adult appetizer and a child's meal. Our DD is over 10 - but not a big eater.

So for us, a family of 4, all over the age of 10, the DDP would cost us $160 per day. We do not spend $160 each day on food.

Check out the menu's on this website and see what your family would eat. It takes some time to add items up for each restaurant. But it will be worth your time to see about how much you will spend on food.

For us, OOP cost us less than DDP.

 

[jojomoore]

I usually visit allears.net and look at all of the menus of the resuarants that i would like to eat at. I add up the cost of the meals and compare it to the price of the Dining Plan. For my family, the Dining plan and paying out of pocket costs very close to the same. We are not using the Dining plan this year because of all the restrictions that come with the dining plan and because we wouldn't save money based on how we normally eat.

More on the restrictions,

1. When you pay for a TS or QS meal for your children using dining plan credits your children can only order from the kids menu at TS and QS restaurants. If they want something from the adult menu, you will have to pay out of pocket for those meals.

2. We usally want to eat at least one restaurant that does not accept the plan. However, this leaves us with an extra TS meal which forces us to eat at a signature restaurant that we may not have wanted to eat at or forces us to add an extra meal that we would have not normally eaten or forces us to choose a restaurant that accepts the dining plan.

3. Personally, I really didn't like someone telling me what i could and couldn't order because I had prepaid for a meal.

4. You also have to keep up with your dining credits. With a large family, keeping up with snack credits, QS credits, and TS credits as a whole is a little bit of a hassle.

 

[Cafeen]

Before you think about the dining plan, think about where you want to eat. Does your desired plan call for at least 1TS location per night of your stay? If so, then look into the DDP further as there is a good chance of saving some money here.

Now, take into consideration the actual places your plans have you dreaming of. Are you looking mostly into character meals (they are a touch pricey)? Are you planning to not share meals so much? Are you into desserts over appetizers? If so, we're leaning more toward DDP. If not, then OOP would likely be the best bet.

Remember that if doing buffets and AYCEs (All You Can Eats) then the littlest one (well, soon to be the second littlest one ) will be free and can pick and choose what she wants off the buffet without a problem.

Now, you can certainly spend less if not going on the dining plan and if you plan to share or bring food rather than eat out, it's a much better option. The key is to pick the dining plan if it fits your personal plans, not to try and fit your personal plans to get a dining plan.

 

[twinboysmom]

Looking at the age of your children I would say no to DDP unless they are big eaters. Something else to consider is that for most TS you will need ADRs. Your children are young and I have found can have unpredictable needs and schedules. Last year we travelled to WDW with young children and it would have been difficult for us to try to plan sit down meals. We had several children with us and it seemed one was always having a melt down or needed a nap and someone had to leave the group to go back to the hotel. Other people swear by the DDP and do fine with young ones. Just my opinion.

 

[catne]

I have to suggest that you might still consider the dining plan: your kids are the perfect ages for the character meals...if you have any interest in getting pics with your kids & characters, I'd say go for the dining plan & book those character buffets. It's the best way to see the characters instead of waiting in line in the parks....you're sitting in air conditioning and the characters come to your table...how fun & easy is that! And the buffets will have something to please everyone (kids can eat from either the kids section or the adult section on the buffets.) For what it would cost to take your kids to a buffet will about pay for the dining plan for them...plus they still would get a counter service meal & a snack each day. It also gives a nice built-in break for the family to have a scheduled indoor meal.

 

[mainegal]

BUT - I was looking forward to getting to eat at all the places IN Disney because growing up (I've been numerous times in my childhood, but once I hit 10 I've only gone 3 times since and I'm 25 now) we never got to do that but once or twice.

Anyone have any suggestions or advice? I've never planned a trip to Disney World myself, I've only ever gone with my family. So, now I realize why my mom was ALWAYS on the computer months before our trip! LOL!

There is a reason why you did not in the restaurants when you were young. It is expensive!

You and your kids might be happier not having to sit through so many table service meals. Counter service, some food from home and select one character buffet could be a good way to go.

 

[cbg1027]

The only way to answer this question is to figure out your eatings habits, what you would usually order, and how much you want to spend.
Go to http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm and take a look at the menus of the places you think you'd like to eat. Write down what everyone might order and total all the costs up. Then compare that to the cost of the DP.

For me, the DP doesn't save me any money because I rarely ever snack, and I don't order desserts and drinks with EVERY meal. So it's not saving money to pay for a DP that includes a dessert and drink with a CS meal that I would not have otherwise ordered.

It's kind of time consuming, but if you really want to know, that's the best way to figure things out.

 

[SILLYANDI]

my children are ages 6 (boy), 3 (boy), and 2 (girl). Annnnd I'll be 5 months pregnant with number 4!! So, we'd really like to take them before the next baby gets here!! LOL

A bit off topic but I did WDW 4 months pregnant with #4 and my kids were 5, 3 & 2 also! We didn't do the dining plan because at the time our kids weren't big eaters so it didn't make sense for us. We did use it when we went back in 2008 and I thought it was worth every penny EXCEPT that we lost the ability to be flexible. With sit down reservations we had to eat sometimes when we weren't hungry or had to drag the kids away from rides to get there in time- so I don't think I'd do it again.

I had the same childhood memories of mom packing pb &j into the park and I will NEVER deprive my kids of the full Disney food experience haha!

 

[rock*mom]

On our last visit I opted out of the Disney dining plan for my family of three and called myself researching prices on Allears.net to budget in daily costs for meals. Needless to say we went over budget-buffets were more expensive than expected. I would explore the quick service plan if any. On our upcoming trip we will be on the DDP

 

[AmberHeartsDisney]

We are doing quick service. I don't like being tied down to an eating time.

 

[pooh2001]

Please, Please, Please Check out the WDW menu's and the prices.

You have to decide for your family what works for you.

As I stated before, we do OOP with DS, DW, DS age 19 and DD age 15.
We like one TS for the A/C duriing the hot days at WDW.

DH always eats salads - not an expensive entree. Dw eats mostly chicken and salads. DS eats ribs, burgers, french fries and DD likes pasta, chicken fingers and pizza. Our kids drink milk at TS - our rule.

We are not fancy restaurant eaters with alot of sauces and asparagus.

So when we go to the TS we are not eating the expensive steak entree.
Our example:
LTT lunch to get our of the heat -> value 1 TS
For our meal = DH coffee ($2) & Colony Salad ($14), DW Cheeseburger ($12) & water (free or $2), DS Cheeseburger ($12) & milk ($2), DD childrens menu pizza ($8) & milk ($2).
Total = $56 plus tip $9 = Grand total $65

If we did the meal plan - that would leave $95 for a CS & snack.

CS for us is max of $10 a person = $40 and if we each get a snack = $10.
So adding in another $50....using DDP would be a loss of $45 for the day.

 

[Melodious]

If I'm reading this right, it sounds like you want to do the dining plan, you want to eat a TS meal once a day, BUT you are thinking of the cost of the dining plan versus bringing your own food. I will say that I often splurge when I go to Disney in one way or another, however, when I was younger (my mom bringing my sister and I to Disney), we would only eat one or two TS meals a trip because there's SO much to do. We were more interested in riding rides and seeing shows than sitting down to eat, plus kids love snacks and every five feet there's a snack cart and I always wanted something from it. I say if you really really want to eat TS meals, then do it. But I do think you can have a great trip by bringing food and eating CS and one character meal because there's so much else to think about that you're unlikely to miss the restaurants too much. Course my mom agrees that maybe I've always loved CS cheeseburgers more than the average bear.

 

[hart6066]

It also sounds like OP is deciding between those 2 deals. If I were OP, I would just crunch what the savings is between the 2 offers--I have a feeling that the free dining will be a bigger savings (unless you can use a discount on room for the kids stay/play free). Kids are really not that much on the DDP--I would just look at the Disney website (or call a AAA travel agent if it's easier) and see what the savings is on the 2 deals. I know that we (2 adults 2 kids in the 3-10 range) found that free dining was a better deal than the pay for 3/stay for 7 deal they had a while ago. Just crunch the numbers.

And if you do decide not to do DDP, be careful of the number of buffets you do--they cost a lot more with kids than going to a regular TS. If you go OOP, you could take all of you to a somewhat less expensive TS (there are MANY at Epcot) and you could all order 3 adult meals and share--or 2 adult meals and an appetizer. Good luck!

 

[SGMCO]

If you get the dining plan Free you wouldn't have to worry about how much it cost, just the tips. I love the DP because I like being able to get out of the
heat and eat real food (not CS fast food). There are several Character meals
some for Breakfast and Dinner that are fun for kids. When my DS was little
I they didn't have the DP yet--but if they did I would have gotten it, just for
the conveinance.