CHRISTMAS Dec.19-28 Dining Plan Reviews- IS IT FOR YOU?

[Dchef]

Check out FOOD SEGMENT 1 for Information about the individual Restaurants.

DISNEY DINING VIA the Disney Dining Plan – SEGMENT 2
When we decided to do Disney and really got into the planning stages, I wasn’t sure the DDP was for us. But, the price was right and I thought we would make it work to fit OUR needs—and so we did. Here are some tips we used and maybe it can help you.

3 SQUARES or 2…Which is best for you?
We stayed at the Wilderness lodge and really utilized the Roaring forks Café. When we decided how early we would get to the parks (or how late), that is what determine how to use our Counter Service and Snack credits.
This worked the best for us because then we weren’t out any cash- We decided to do mostly breakfast using CS instead of Lunch- The choices were better and you weren’t standing in line for a load of grease to carry around with you the rest of the day.


On those few occasions where we bought lunch because we got up super early for early entry, we would grab some fruit and use our Counter Service for Lunch around 11am. Then, a snack and a 5-6:00 dinner. Either way, we never felt the need to have 3 meals a day. Most important was getting sleep and so we slept in (so to speak) and that was our best plan. We felt sleeping in and eating a good breakfast, were enough to carry us through till Dinner and we were right.

DEAL or NO DEAL with your MEAL?
I did a few major calculations and what I came up with says YES, we saved money. Also in those calculations was about 5 extra pounds of weight though. So here is a brief overview to give you an example of what our out of pocket expenses would have been:

For Tableside: and 2 Adults:
Ohana’s Total = 95.95
Crystal Palace = 98.95
Jiko’s = 164.00
Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue =163.96
Park Fare = 103.15
Hollywood and Vine = 86.35
Yak and Yeti’s = 133.70
TOTAL = 846.06


For Counter Service: All including tax, tip, drink, entree, dessert and appetizer for 2 Children
Breakfast Example;
Roaring forks = 30.00 x 4 days =120.00


Lunch Example:
Catalina Eddies = 54.39
Tamu Tamu = 44.92
Raglan Road = 30.00
TOTAL = 129.31


Snacks;
Ice Cream = 3.49
Popcorn = 2.49
Water = 2.00
Pretzel = 2.49
TOTAL of average 4 (ppl) snacks per day @ 10.00 x 9 days = 90.00

In general I estimated the savings to be about $500.00 on average for what we consumed.
A savings YES.

There are pro’s and con’s

PROS:
You don’t have to keep track of what you are spending
You don’t have to worry about what everything cost on the menu
You can order pricier items regardless of the menu price
You have tons of food credits and can use them whichever way it works for you.

CONS:
You eat much more food then you normally would
You may gain weight by the above
Not everything is included such as Alcohol and certain menu items
Items at the TEA CART in Animal Kingdom are NOT included (Just had to add that

In retrospect I would have to think seriously about doing the Dining plan again. It really boils down to the pros and cons list for us. Normally we would not order Apps or dessert, but we would order alcohol sometimes and we would be overly cautious about the pricier menu items and probably not order them if we were on a tight budget. For this time, it was nice to not have to worry about watching the budget in that respect. But, I don’t care to bring back with me the souvenir weight gain I found once I got home.

That is my DDP synopsis—no need to send notes about how my math is messed up, it’s only a generalization of how we “spent” out credits and vacation on the plan. In the end we had some counter credits left over (a lot) and the kids had 2 TS left over because we used extra 2 for our friends one night—so it isn’t perfect by any means