Dining Package

[WDWfor5]

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![/QUOT

I just wanted to let you know not to worry - you would need to make ADR 180 days out whether you are on the DDP or not if you want to eat at any of the TS restaurants. The 180 days only seems to matter if you want Le Cellier or other very popular meals. If you make an itinerary of 1st, 2nd and 3rd dining choices and then call for your ADR's I'm sure you will be fine. I did the planning for my Best friends trip less than 3 months out for a trip during busy Jersey Week and still got her great meals and she loved her trip and saved a ton of money with the DDP. She didn't get to eat at Le Cellier's but she wouldn't have gotten to even off the plan so it didn't matter to her.

Have a great trip.

 

[rebecca314]

I'd like to warn you that it really depends on your kids, too. We paid for everything ahead of time, wanting to have as much paid off before the trip as possible. My DD4 FREAKED at the characters and we never quite got to enjoy our TS meals. We ended up with 3 extras and just decided to forget about it because she kept freaking out and screaming. DS2 was fine. I'd consider my kids first - especially with more - before planning on TS.

JMHO.

 

[ZPT1022]

We think it's worth it, and for us it fits perfectly with how we eat on vacation anyhow. We like to grab something quick in the room for breakfast (bagels, cereal bars, etc..) then a quick lunch, then a nice sit down dinner. I know a lot of people don't like how long the sit down dinners can take but I find that for us it's nice as it forces us to slow down and relax at least once a day. Take a look at the menus at www.allearsnet.com and see where you would like to eat. For us, we went to a lot of character and family style meals and the cost was roughly the same between paying cash for just dinner or having the dining plan. The nice thing about the buffets and family style service is that the kids under three don't pay. This will affect you too, traveling with a one year old. This past trip my twins were two. Not old enough to need a ticket, but they certainly eat and they wanted the typical kids foods. at our non buffet or family style places we ended up buying them meals from the kids menus since they were not on the DDP (to be on it we'd have had to declare them as 3 year olds and pay for park tickets and also two rooms or a deluxe resort). If you have any more questions please feel free to ask. Have a fantastic trip

 

[Steve's Girl]

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!

We stayed in a DVC resort on our last trip and we did not do the dining plan. We only ate out one meal per day. We ate breakfast in the morning before we left and depending on our schedule that day we would eat lunch or dinner in our room. With small kids, this worked really well. But as they get older, we will probably do the dining plan.

 

[TheDizMom]

I recommend it too. We saved receipts and compared too, and we saved about $400 We definitely liked that especially since we were on a tight budget. Keep in mind that it only gives you 2 meals and a snack. To solve the 3rd meal issue we brought cereal, and other breakfast stuff with us from home to just eat in out room as we were getting ready. We ended up having left over snacks and just used them up at the hotel for airplane snacks the next day. I think we might have used up more but we didn't realize until the last couple days we could use it for beverages not just ice cream and popcorn. One draw back was the kids could only eat off the kids menu,unless it was a buffet, and our DS who was 81/2 at the time didn't always want what was on the kids menu. Sometimes I would order from there and let him use one of my adult meals. So if you have a child who is not quite ten but close you may want to put them down as 10 so they have more options. We are doing that on this trip with my niece who is 91/2. You have to pay a little more but at least they aren't relagated to the sometimes uninspiring kids menus. A good thing though is you can use them however you want and because they do give you so much food we shared a lot and ended up being able to swing a few more meals out of what we had and got to have a couple breakfasts too. They are so good about wanting to make you happy that when we had to wait 30 minutes for waffle sundaes, because the server was so slow about making them the restaurant manager at our resort refunded us all 4 CS meals for even more extras!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TheDizMom]

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!

Making ADR reservations can be done up to 180 days in advance, but you certainly don't have to. At that time of year it won't be as big an issue and you can even do it when you get there, just keep in mind that the times most people would like to dine with kids (between 5-7) will be the first to go.

 

[TheDizMom]

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.

Actually the only character meals that require more than one TS meal are the ones at Cinderella's Royal table and the dinner shows, all the other ones require only one.

 

[JodyTG]

I don't know about anyone else, but DDP helps me have a really great time at Disney. How is this, you say! Well, my DH doesn't stress out when he sees the prices on the menu because our meals are already paid for. He doesn't make a big production about choosing something cheaper because our meals are already paid for. He doesn't balk when I make an ADR at Le Cellier because our meals are already paid for.

Men will spend $100.00+ on a golf game but when they see an item on the menu for $25.00 they freak out. Or, at least, my man will.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

Actually the only character meals that require more than one TS meal are the ones at Cinderella's Royal table and the dinner shows, all the other ones require only one.

Yes your correct. We happen to have booked cindy's breakfast, hoop dee doo, and mickeys backyard bbq. They all would have cost us 2 tickets each. We paid for them extra. Man i'm looking forward to May.

 

[JodyTG]

Making ADR reservations can be done up to 180 days in advance, but you certainly don't have to. At that time of year it won't be as big an issue and you can even do it when you get there, just keep in mind that the times most people would like to dine with kids (between 5-7) will be the first to go.

Also, don't forget that those of us on the DIS are weird and the average WDW guest doesn't even think about ADRs until a few months out if they even know about them at all. I think you'll be fine as long as you don't wait too long. I was able to get an ADR for the Saturday before Christmas at the Biergarten only 5 weeks out and for the time that I wanted.

 

[dijid]

I think you really have to figure out how you are planning on eating in the parks. The DP is not a good fit for my family as we do not like spending the time on sit down meals while we're in the parks. We don't eat out often at home, either. We tend to share meals as no one in the family is a "big eater" and so I think we would waste a lot of food and/or $$ on the plan.