Dining Package

[proudarmywife]

Hi there! We are planning a 10 day vacation to Disney in May, after a long year of my hubby being deployed..........so excited. My question is TRUTHFULLY do you think the dining package is a good choice for us. It is an extra 800 dollars. My hubby is a big eater LOL. We are a family of 4. kids ages 5 and 1. They dont charge for the little one. We want to enjoy ourselves, but not too sure if this is a good choice. Thanks!!

 

[bonnielynn]

I would say yes.. We are hooked on the dinning and wont go any other way.. the only down side to it is you seem to overeat... ... and you have to make reservations. Which means you have to schedule yourself around your dinning.. but you get an abundance of food...and get to go places you may have overlooked.. like Boma..(AK)... so I say its worth it...

 

[chorlick]

If you are big eaters, YES......we had so much food, we didn't use it all. we had 3 CS meals left over and went to the gift shop the last day and bought drinks so we could use all of our credits. You would probably spend the 800 on food anyway.

 

[LegoMom3]

If you can swing the cost, I'd say definitely do it. With Disney prices, you end up spending a bundle anyway and I just liked knowing it was ALL paid for ahead of time. My DH can really eat, too, so we booked several buffet meals. Got his money's worth!! Try a character meal or two for the kiddos - breakfast at Chef Mickey's or Crystal Palace are particularly good.

What a great reason you all have to take a vacation together!! Have a WONDERFUL time!

 

[nettii]

If you can afford the extra 800 and as you said your DH is a big eater and after being deployed this food may taste better than any thing ever! And its nice not to have to reach for your wallet reaching for that ol wallet seems to take away from the enjoyment of vacation for us!
Also tell your DH Thank You So Much for serving our country! Its men and woman like him that make it possibel for us to enjoy a trip like Disney!

 

[proudarmywife]

First of all thank you for your support, it is greatly appreciated! Well that settles it we will go with the dining plan....woooo hooo I am getting so excited i cant stand it and I still have 4 months to go!

 

[Frincy]

I waivered back and forth on this for a long time, but decided to go with the dining plan. I didnt want to spend my entire vacation tabulating in my head how much we were spending on food. And for TS I booked the most ridiculously expensive things I would never pay OOP for.

 

[hvivona]

Last year we got the dining plan and everytime we ate, we saved the receipts. After the trip we added up what we would have spent on those same meals and compared that to the cost of the dining plan. We ended up saving $200 by using the dining plan.

 

[jrsmom]

If you can possibly swing the dining plan I would go for it. After adding up everything we saved around 350 or so. We did have extra snack options left and we used them to buy full size snacks at the hotel. We love character meals so this was great for us. One meal was 118 for three and another 104 and pizza planet for three was 44 and change. So yes it is a great deal. Check with disney or your travel agent about getting a military discount. Check mousesavers for discounts. Even if you already booked your trip you can change it to get a discount. Also check allearsnet.com and you can check menu's to see how much you can save. You shouldn't have to buy the dining plan for a one year old. We opted to do a character breakfast and pay out of pocket. We paid because it was over and above our tableservice limit however, we didn't want to give up any of our favorites and a character breakfast is less expensive than a dinner.

Vickey

 

[Harvest02]

We are considering the dining plan for our trip in October. I have read so many positives about it that I think we may go for it. We spent on average $100 a day in June when we went and we didn't eat anyplace fancy, mostly counterservice. I want to try a few new places this time that are sit down so it may be worth it for our next trip. Then I can also tell the kids "order whatever you want since it is paid for". Would probably add less stress to our vacation!!!

GO COLTS!!!

 

[brymolmom]

We've only done DP twice (both times it was free) - yes it is a relief knowing that you don't need to spend a penny on food and being able to go to restaurants you wouldn't normally try. BUT....it really depends on how you like to vacation. When we don't have the DP, we bring food/snacks/drinks to the parks and do mostly CS and share...on the positive side we spend a lot less time at restaurants and more time on rides, seeing parades, etc. And if you don't like to overeat I can tell you it is difficult not to with DP (unless you're a lot more disciplined than I am ).

We will do most breakfasts in the room, bring snacks and some sandwiches to the parks and eat CS plus one character meal on our next trip. We will enjoy the other aspects of this trip (other than food) and will spend a lot less than the DP will cost.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

800 divided by 10 equals $80 per day. Look at the menus now and book for the park you are in that day. You can get some real good meals worth way more than $80 for your whole family at one sitting. If you only plan on fast food than no it's not worth it. In our case any meals that cost more than 2 meal tickets each we paid for and we will use the meal ticket for a different meal as we know it's better value that way.

 

[WAHMto5]

We Won't go without it It really depends on where you plan to eat. If you are totally a counter service person, it may not be worth it. But if you plan on eating at the tabble service restaurants, then I would say for sure!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

This will be our first time, but I think it will be worth it. I tried looking at the menus and adding up.
Not to mention we are doing quite a few character meals, those alone almost meet the amount of money per day on the plan.

 

[almburr]

it is worth it I think. It is nice to have it paid for up front. That way you dont have to set aside $$ each day for food and worry can we have that or no kids we cant have that today. If you have extra snack credits get packages of cookies or candy to take home. DS took home suckers for his class.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We went on our first family trip in 2004, our kids were almost 4 and 15 months old. There was no dining plan at that time, and I came up with a budget of $140 a day for food using the menus on Allears. We used almost all of it, some days we went over, some days we have a little leftover. We did one sit-down/character meal each day, and there were two days that we had two in one day.

Now we use the dining plan and that costs us a little under $100 each day, so it works for us.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

This will be our first time, but I think it will be worth it. I tried looking at the menus and adding up.
Not to mention we are doing quite a few character meals, those alone almost meet the amount of money per day on the plan.

Keep in mind the character meals that cost 2 meal tickets are not worth 2 sit down meal tickets. Pay for them in cash. Then use the meal ticket for other meals in that day or another day. You will end up saving money that way and end up with 2 good meals. That way you have a counter meal to use for the 3'rd meal that day or another day. Thats one of the benifits to the meal plan you can use them when you want or need them. Your not forced to use one each day. Enjoy your trip and dont forget to book your meal 180 days in advance to make sure you get what you want. Just book the meals for the park you plan on being in that day. We planned most our meals in the parks with the extended magic hours.

 

[lazydazy8]

We LOVED the food plan in December!!! It made the food a highlight of our trip, but it also was the WORST part of our trip! We were chained to a schedule of over-eating! (Although, I have to admit, with all the walking, I lost 2lbs while we were there.)

We are not going to do it on our next trip, b/c we got a one bedroom (DVC) and figure we can save some money this trip by eating back at our room for breakfast and some lunches or dinners. We are buying annual passes for this trip, so that's a big expense. The DP is another expense we can avoid.

Next trip in '08 we WILL do the food plan again. I am a little bummed that we won't have that freedom of eating absolutely anywhere and having it already paid for. If I can swing it, as we get closer to November, I just might add it to this year's trip.

I was thinking that the next time, I will do more TS meals for breakfast and lunch. Maybe it would be better to have our bigger meal at lunchtime instead. We had a heavy meal every night. Even after a 5:30 ADR, we weren't done eating until after 7pm. I don't like to eat that late.

If you can swing it though, do the DDP! I felt so spoiled!

 

[vwdisney]

We just got back yesterday and our family of three saved around $270 over 10 days on the dining package. Use it wisely and plan it out. It seems that different places have different rules and ALWAYS check your receipt to make certain your were charged a snack and not counter-service. We encountered a few mistakes that were easily rectified. Cheers!

Robert

 

[proudarmywife]

thanks for the opinions, the only thing I am concerned abou is the booking 180 days in advance, we just booked our trip for May 16-26...I read that May is a slow time, i havnt had the chance to sit down yet and plan where we want to eat, now Im concerned that we wont get reservations anywhere. Thanks!