Considering the dining plan... first time. PLEASE HELP!

[mommy2jack]

Hi everyone!

I was wondering if someone could help me with a few questions about the dining plan. We have never used it before and I'm not really sure how it works.

Here's our current plan. We are flying into Orlando late May 22. We plan to stay on site possibly at POR. We'll leave for home on May 28. 6 nights/ 5 days. We are planning on getting 4 day park tickets. Day 5 will be spent relaxing at the pool and going to DTD.

My 1st question is: Will the dining plan we pick cover us for the ENTIRE trip (including the night we arrive, the day we leave and the day at DTD) or does it ONLY cover the days we have the park tickets?

My other questions is: If we are looking to eat at Cinderelle's Royal Table, Be Our Guest, Le Cellier, T-Rex and the Brown Derby (Fantasmic package). Would we need the Magic Your Way Package Plus Dining or the Deluxe Dining?? I think some of those restaurants are 2 credits. How does that work?

Sorry if these questions have been asked before. I'm just completely clueless when it comes to this.

Thank you!!

 

[havoc315]

Hi everyone!

I was wondering if someone could help me with a few questions about the dining plan. We have never used it before and I'm not really sure how it works.

Here's our current plan. We are flying into Orlando late May 22. We plan to stay on site possibly at POR. We'll leave for home on May 28. 6 nights/ 5 days. We are planning on getting 4 day park tickets. Day 5 will be spent relaxing at the pool and going to DTD.

My 1st question is: Will the dining plan we pick cover us for the ENTIRE trip (including the night we arrive, the day we leave and the day at DTD) or does it ONLY cover the days we have the park tickets?

My other questions is: If we are looking to eat at Cinderelle's Royal Table, Be Our Guest, Le Cellier, T-Rex and the Brown Derby (Fantasmic package). Would we need the Magic Your Way Package Plus Dining or the Deluxe Dining?? I think some of those restaurants are 2 credits. How does that work?

Sorry if these questions have been asked before. I'm just completely clueless when it comes to this.

Thank you!!

I generally don't recommend the dining plan to most people, but for the basics of how it works:
Under the BASIC DDP -- You get 1 table service credit per night (and 1 QS credit), but they are all banked together when you check in. You are staying 6 nights, so you would have to pay for 6 nights worth of the dining plan, and you would receive 6 table service credits when you check in. You can use them any time you want during your stay. In theory, you could use all 6 just on your first day (a 2-credit breakfast, 2-credit lunch and 2-credit dinner).
If you have more meals than you have credits, you can pay out of pocket for extra meals. At most a la carte restaurants, you can also share meals.

 

[Cafeen]

From a credit perspective, you have 8 credits listed (CRT, Le Cellier, and Brown Derby are all 2 credit meals). This will be too many for the normal DDP and you'd either have to cut 2 TS credits out or pay OOP for them. 8 over 6 nights would also be far too few to make DxDDP worth doing.

Now, looking at the actual plans, with that amount of 2 credit locations, even paying for one of them OOP, you'd still likely fall behind on the plan since nearly all of the 2 credit locations are actually losses on the DDP individually (since a 2 credit meal is rarely twice the cost of a 1 credit meal). Now, they aren't bad to do one or two over a longer trip that also focuses on higher end 1 credit locations to balance it out, but a shorter trip with more 2 credits than 1 is going to hurt the bottom line considerably.

My gut tells me that you're going to be better off OOP, even though the individual meal costs look high. I'd still suggest doing the math a couple ways (what you'd order on DDP, what you'd order if paying OOP, what you'd order if there weren't any prices) and seeing what comes out, but again, the gut tells me that DDP won't work all that well for you from a financial standpoint.

 

[abdgeek]

Hi everyone!

I was wondering if someone could help me with a few questions about the dining plan. We have never used it before and I'm not really sure how it works.

Here's our current plan. We are flying into Orlando late May 22. We plan to stay on site possibly at POR. We'll leave for home on May 28. 6 nights/ 5 days. We are planning on getting 4 day park tickets. Day 5 will be spent relaxing at the pool and going to DTD.

My 1st question is: Will the dining plan we pick cover us for the ENTIRE trip (including the night we arrive, the day we leave and the day at DTD) or does it ONLY cover the days we have the park tickets?

My other questions is: If we are looking to eat at Cinderelle's Royal Table, Be Our Guest, Le Cellier, T-Rex and the Brown Derby (Fantasmic package). Would we need the Magic Your Way Package Plus Dining or the Deluxe Dining?? I think some of those restaurants are 2 credits. How does that work?

Sorry if these questions have been asked before. I'm just completely clueless when it comes to this.

Thank you!!

Here are some numbers to help you with your decision:

For the regular dining plan use this budget: QS=$12, TS=$35 and snack=$4. You get one of each per day of the plan and can use them how you choose. I know the plan cost went up for 2013, but this should get you close.

For the deluxe dining plan use this budget: 3TS=$30 per meal and 2 snacks=$4 per snack. This plan is good if you plan on eating at signature restaurants that require 2TS meals or if you are used to eating three full meals a day. You will get an appetizer, entree, dessert and beverage at each meal(except breakfast).

Whether or not the plans will work for you will largely depend on what time you are arriving on the 22nd and leaving on the 28th. The plan will expire at midnight on the 28th.

Here's the breakdown:

Regular Dining Plan--6 QS meals, 6 TS meals and 6 snacks
Deluxe Dining Plan--18 TS meals; you can use the meals for QS also but I don't think that's a good use of the plan.

What you have so far is CRT(2TS), Be our Guest(1TS), Le Cellier(2TS), Brown Derby(2TS) and T-Rex(1TS). As a PP said, that's only 8 TS credits. You will still have 10 TS left if you do the DxDP. If you use 1TS each day to eat breakfast or lunch, you may have 4TS meals left at the end of your stay. You won't have enough if you do the DDP and it will be difficult to eat $70 worth of food at Le Cellier and Brown Derby by only getting the entree, dessert and beverage that the plan allows. Also keep in mind that you will need a ticket to enter any park for a dining reservation.