Hello, wanted to share my thoughts regarding the dining plan.
It was myself, my boyfriend, and 2 kids (dd8 and ds5) on the DDP. For our TS we had booked: Hollywood & Vine Fantasmic package, Crystal Palace pre-RD breakfast, 'Ohana dinner, Coral Reef Lunch, Rose & Crown dinner, 1900 Park Fare dinner, Tusker House lunch, Be Our Guest dinner, and Raglan Road for dinner. Since 5 of 9 ADRs were fixed price and 2 kids under 10, we decided to get the DDP. I had run the numbers several times estimating what we would order, which QS we would do, etc. The DDP was the same price as OOP except would offer us an additiona 5 QS meals (total, not per person since we sometimes share), and about 4 snacks. And an additional mug (we'd have bought 3 OOP, not 4).
Mugs - It was extremely hot so we made great use of the mugs - especially since we took a daily pool break!
TS meals - we had 9 ADRs and 8 TS credits each. I paid for one CP adult breakfast OOP ($25), 1 R&C adult (wanted $19 entree only, no dessert), and 2 diff meals for the kids based on who was too full for dessert when. I did feel that we ordered a few extra desserts when full just because it was "included". For the most part we didn't look at menu prices and ordered what we wanted.
QS meals - we shared a bit which I had anticipated. I had planned on breakfast QS since we would have some additional credits but we didn't enjoy the QS breakfast at our resort (Old Key West) so that only happened 1x. We ended up not sharing and wasting some food that we couldn't finish. And we still had 5 QS credits left over on our last day. We went to the OKW General Store and asked the 1st person if they could convert our QS credits to snacks, she said yes but she didn't know how because she was new. So we went to the 2nd person who said they can't do it at that location but we could try to go to Saratoga Springs since their QS and store are connected. Being that we only had 1hr left before ME pickup, not possible. We went to Guest Services by the check-in desk and they said they'd accomodate as a one time request, but we only received 2 snacks per QS credit. In past years it was 3 snacks per QS but we had no time and didn't really need it anyway so we took the additional 10 bags of junk food to bring home.
Snack credits - Having done the DDP every trip, I know we always have snack credits left over so as much as it pained me, I occasionally let the kids use a credit for a powerade or bottle of water during the day if they didn't already use a snack credit that day. Some of our best snacks were in Epcot and would have loved to snack around the world, definitely do for next time. Especially loved the egg rolls from the cart in China, and the caramel store in Germany. Our last night we still had 8 snack credits left (out of 32, about 6-8 used on drinks) so got a bunch of bagged items from Goofy's in DTD.
Price wise we came out ahead but value wise not sure I'd do it again. Our daily price for the DDP was ~$160 and most of our dinners were anywhere from $100-150. I was generous with the character meals because they were a good use of credits. This time around (this is our 6th trip), the food at the buffets was OK but definitely not as good as the a la carte restaurants and the characters overall seemed a little rushed. Some of the places were better than others but compared to previous years, I felt a huge difference in character interaction.
I've always been a strong supporter of the dining plan but I think that next time we will go without. If we limit the character/fixed price meals and stick more with the a la carte restaurants I think we'll have better food and it will definitely cost less.
It was myself, my boyfriend, and 2 kids (dd8 and ds5) on the DDP. For our TS we had booked: Hollywood & Vine Fantasmic package, Crystal Palace pre-RD breakfast, 'Ohana dinner, Coral Reef Lunch, Rose & Crown dinner, 1900 Park Fare dinner, Tusker House lunch, Be Our Guest dinner, and Raglan Road for dinner. Since 5 of 9 ADRs were fixed price and 2 kids under 10, we decided to get the DDP. I had run the numbers several times estimating what we would order, which QS we would do, etc. The DDP was the same price as OOP except would offer us an additiona 5 QS meals (total, not per person since we sometimes share), and about 4 snacks. And an additional mug (we'd have bought 3 OOP, not 4).
Mugs - It was extremely hot so we made great use of the mugs - especially since we took a daily pool break!
TS meals - we had 9 ADRs and 8 TS credits each. I paid for one CP adult breakfast OOP ($25), 1 R&C adult (wanted $19 entree only, no dessert), and 2 diff meals for the kids based on who was too full for dessert when. I did feel that we ordered a few extra desserts when full just because it was "included". For the most part we didn't look at menu prices and ordered what we wanted.
QS meals - we shared a bit which I had anticipated. I had planned on breakfast QS since we would have some additional credits but we didn't enjoy the QS breakfast at our resort (Old Key West) so that only happened 1x. We ended up not sharing and wasting some food that we couldn't finish. And we still had 5 QS credits left over on our last day. We went to the OKW General Store and asked the 1st person if they could convert our QS credits to snacks, she said yes but she didn't know how because she was new. So we went to the 2nd person who said they can't do it at that location but we could try to go to Saratoga Springs since their QS and store are connected. Being that we only had 1hr left before ME pickup, not possible. We went to Guest Services by the check-in desk and they said they'd accomodate as a one time request, but we only received 2 snacks per QS credit. In past years it was 3 snacks per QS but we had no time and didn't really need it anyway so we took the additional 10 bags of junk food to bring home.
Snack credits - Having done the DDP every trip, I know we always have snack credits left over so as much as it pained me, I occasionally let the kids use a credit for a powerade or bottle of water during the day if they didn't already use a snack credit that day. Some of our best snacks were in Epcot and would have loved to snack around the world, definitely do for next time. Especially loved the egg rolls from the cart in China, and the caramel store in Germany. Our last night we still had 8 snack credits left (out of 32, about 6-8 used on drinks) so got a bunch of bagged items from Goofy's in DTD.
Price wise we came out ahead but value wise not sure I'd do it again. Our daily price for the DDP was ~$160 and most of our dinners were anywhere from $100-150. I was generous with the character meals because they were a good use of credits. This time around (this is our 6th trip), the food at the buffets was OK but definitely not as good as the a la carte restaurants and the characters overall seemed a little rushed. Some of the places were better than others but compared to previous years, I felt a huge difference in character interaction.
I've always been a strong supporter of the dining plan but I think that next time we will go without. If we limit the character/fixed price meals and stick more with the a la carte restaurants I think we'll have better food and it will definitely cost less.
