Cant make up my mind about dining plan !!!

[marivaid]

I was just going through the prices and SO FAR, the total for the 9 ADRs we have is about $550. For $50 more, we can be on dining plan for the entire stay. It would make sense to go on DDP since on top of the $550 we would have to buy breakfast,snacks,and probably a few more meals since we'll be there for 8 days.
On 1 day alone (NYE) we would spend over $140 on food which is twice what the dining plan would cost for that day.

All the ADRs are TS though,so we'd either need to get rid of one, or do they let you pay separately once you run out of credits ? This is what we have booked :

Crystal Palace
Rose & Crown
Donald's Breakfastausorus
Sci-Fi Dine In
Liberty Tree Tavern
Le Cellier
Garden Grill
Grand Floridian
Chef Mickey's

After reading the reviews here it seems that Sci-Fi would be the one to get rid of.Maybe just go for dessert & a drink or something.Nothing on the menu says "yummy" to me but it looks like a fun place to go to!

We have booked our MYW package already,but have until Nov. 12 to pay the balance,is it even allowed to add the dining plan after you've made your reservation ?

Sorry for all the questions

 

[beth_cam]

DIning plan can be added after ressie made but must be added and paid for before arrival (not sure how many days before 2, 3, 5 something). As far as 9 ressies..you can look just pay for one of the meals OOP. Even if the meal would have cost you $100 add the $50 extra the plan costs and I'm sure you would still spend more than that much in breakfasts/snacks. For us, we found that at both Coral Reef and 50's prime time (I know you dont have these but you might have something similar) we were able to share 2 meals (1 kid/1 adult) for the 2 kids/2 adults. Allowing us to have one more meal. You might think about that kind of thing especially somewhere like sci fi where sound like you are going more for the experience than the food...In the end this kind of thing still has you paying some OOP for drinks, tips, etc but it isnt as much. We didnt stress over it. I booked what we wanted and decided when we got to the non buffet places if we wanted to share or not. If we hadnt we would have just canceled the last meal or paid OOP. I didnt even really plan it that way I just knew I had an extra one but knew there might be a day we didnt feel like eating what I had planned. Just worked out that Sharing happened early in the trip and I knew I had the credits.

 

[marivaid]

Thank you for taking the time to reply
I didnt know we were allowed to share.Definitely something to consider for Sci-Fi. Are waiters upset when you share?
I didnt expect the food would end up costing so much,I thought the DDP was overpriced considering we'd only be having 1 meal a day on most days.. now that I see only a $50 difference I'm thinking geesh, I'm gonna spend more than $50 on rice krispies treats alone

 

[beth_cam]

sharing can be a hot topic. but if you are sharing like meals ... not trying to save kids credits to use as adults, and you are considerate of the extra involved like tipping accordingly etc then I dont see anything wrong with it and as far as I know it's still allowed. It has been much debated here though and rumors come and go saying it wont be allowed. The individual restaurants esp the non-disney owned ones all have their own policies like possibly having sharing charges or deciding sharing wont be allowed at any given point. Still as I said it's may be cheaper than the whole meal OOP. It may mean you are less full than other meals on your vacation but then you do have a cs meal and a snack on still there. I thought the cost prohibitive as well. I mean really $700 for food....then I looked at cost. I figure the meal cost me extra maybe 100-150 than my penny pinching plans. Not only was the extra money gonna be worth it but in actuallity I probably would have spent a good bit more on snacks etc than I had ever budgeted.

 

[bicker]

if you are sharing like meals ... not trying to save kids credits to use as adults, and you are considerate of the extra involved like tipping accordingly etc then I dont see anything wrong with it

I think most everyone can agree about that. The only caveat is that there have been reports from members returning from WDW where some draconian enforcement of Dining Plan rules have "caught" both violators and non-violators alike. You may be prevented from sharing, even when it should be allowed because you're doing nothing wrong. Just be prepared.

 

[fws]

Go for the dining plan - you'll spend a lot more than 50 dollars on snacks and drinks alone!

 

[marivaid]

Thanks everyone for your advice & info,we've decided to go with the DP. Gosh, I'm never gonna fit on the plane seat on the way back

 

[LBelle]

We came back from WDW last Sat. It was DH, DS10 and myself. This is the 2nd year we have used the DDP. I would NEVER go without it again!!!!! To the best of my recollection here are some numbers for you:

Kona Cafe (D)....$142.00

Boma (B)....$63.00

Garden Grill (D)....$85.00

Crystal Palace (B)...$63.00

O'Hana (D)....$110.00

Sci-Fi (D).....$65.00 (shared 2 credits)

Le Cellier (D)....$145.00

ESPN (D)...$65.00 (shared 2 credits)

Boatwrights (D).....$65.00 (shared 2 credits)

Nobody even batted any eyelash when we said we were ordering 2 meals for the 3 of us. ALWAYS tip OOP..they are SERVING 3 ppl. and getting tipped on 2.

Counter service meal prices varied greatly...ordered 2 Chicken/Rib combos ($13.99) at Cosmic Rays and the cost for 2 was around $45.00 once you factor in the drinks and desserts. 3 CS meals at Wolf. Pucks was approx $65.00!!!!!

Anyhoo......I have learnt that using credits at breakfast buffets does NOT maximize your value!!! I will never waste credits like that again.

 

[Karnak]

Yep, the Si-Fi would be the one to drop. Poor food and almost nonexistant service.

Enjoy.

 

[marivaid]

I'd personally drop Sci-Fi but DM is dead set on it.It's the cars
Instead I'll probably pay OOP for Chef Mickey's breakfast. With the reviews I've read about Sci-Fi,I definitely do not want to pay OOP for that one.

What are the decent CS in MGM ? It seems like all the good CS are at Epcot and MGM's are pretty bad! I'm trying to find a few good CS places so we dont waste our snack credits.Wanna save those to use at Goofy's in DTD. Yes we are candy addicts

Yep, the Si-Fi would be the one to drop. Poor food and almost nonexistant service.

Enjoy.

 

[beth_cam]

Decent CS in MGM isnt that kind of nonexistant?? We like pizza planet but it gets poor reviews. I mean it isnt an great pizza place but rates well above mall pizza or most other pizza by the slice venus as far as I'm concerned. We always eat there so we really havent tried much. We ate at another place near tower of terror. Last meal and had four credits left so one of the only times we actually ordered 4 meals. All different meals and no one liked any of the food. Admittedly this was day 8 and 3 of us were a bit sick and you do eat well on the dining plan so we may have been a bit sick of eating. I cant remember actually trying anything else there.

 

[kdzgon]

sharing can be a hot topic. but if you are sharing like meals ... not trying to save kids credits to use as adults, and you are considerate of the extra involved like tipping accordingly etc then I dont see anything wrong with it and as far as I know it's still allowed. It has been much debated here though and rumors come and go saying it wont be allowed. The individual restaurants esp the non-disney owned ones all have their own policies like possibly having sharing charges or deciding sharing wont be allowed at any given point. Still as I said it's may be cheaper than the whole meal OOP. It may mean you are less full than other meals on your vacation but then you do have a cs meal and a snack on still there. I thought the cost prohibitive as well. I mean really $700 for food....then I looked at cost. I figure the meal cost me extra maybe 100-150 than my penny pinching plans. Not only was the extra money gonna be worth it but in actuallity I probably would have spent a good bit more on snacks etc than I had ever budgeted.

RE: tipping: Just returned from WDW - we only had 2 TS credits left and ate breakfast at Chef Mickey's (walk-in), so paid for kids OOP. We were told it is policy if you combine dining credits and OOP (such as for kids' meals) they automatically add 18% gratuity to your OOP purchase.

 

[NeedaVacation03]

RE: tipping: Just returned from WDW - we only had 2 TS credits left and ate breakfast at Chef Mickey's (walk-in), so paid for kids OOP. We were told it is policy if you combine dining credits and OOP (such as for kids' meals) they automatically add 18% gratuity to your OOP purchase.

We did not realize that they add it in to the check until we were at Nine Dragons at Epcot. We had 2 table service meals left and ordered 2 additional meals. When the bill came I had the 2 oop meals charged to the room and then left the tip (I did not really read the bill). Later after we left I looked at the receipt and realized that the tip was added in and then I had tipped again. So I tipped him VERY well that evening. It did bother me as bad as it might have since we had a nice dinner there. If the dinner and service had been bad I might have been upset, so we were lucky. I did learn to read the receipts more closely after that. I was caught up in the days excitement I guess.

 

[pooch]

we thought the burgers at Sci-fi were the BEST on property!!! Also, they are enormous. DD could have and should have split a meal here. I didn't order an appetizer at all and only finished half my burger and fries. She only ate half of her appie and almost nothing of her burger. It would have been more than enough for the 2 of us. And I also thought the service, both times we went, was great. It really is a cool place.

As to the DDP in general:

We were fortunate to get it for free. I think that I would do a better job of managing the plan now, having used it once. It was A LOT OF FOOD!!! WAY MORE THAN WE NEEDED!!! But it was also LOTS OF FUN to try new restaurants and not look at prices. Ideally, I'd like it for maybe 6 out of our 10 day vacation (do a split stay). Use the first 6 days to go to all the places we love or want to try and the last four to recover from it all!! We found that by day 7, we weren't really interested in eating anymore and would have been more than happy with splitting a few counter service meals or just snacking. I can't imagine going back without it though.