Dining plan comments....

[maleficent_man]

Folks.....I'd welcome your thoughts on this post, particular given the exchange rate at the moment and the possible value of the Dining Plan....

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=29712990#post29712990

 

[Elise79]

What were you plans regardings tickets?

You will need to purchase park tickets to get the dining plan. I can see savings with the current exchange rate if you could get tickets and add the DPP to your Pop stay. If you use all your TS credits with the exchange rate the DDP is very good value when bought in the UK at the moment.

 

[wifey]

It's a tricky one . Each family has to weigh it up for themselves. You need to work out your costing and your family's own likes and dislikes and if any of the plans are worth using, remember you'll need park tickets too and be staying onsite, plans are worked on the number of nights of your stay.
We booked the basic plan in advance and we're so glad we did now the exchange rate is so poor. We usually do one sit down or TS meal a day so for us it's worth doing this vacation but next time probably 2011 our son will be 10 and classed by Disney as an adult for meals and park tickets so it will all depend on changes made to the plan and the exchange rate then too.

 

[maleficent_man]

Cool thanks - I'm going to try and price it up tonight. I've already booked my hotel and bought the tickets - is it actually too late to add it?

 

[Elise79]

The hotel room and tickets need to be as one to be able to add the DDP. Hope you get it sorted

 

[heatherbelle]

I would work out where you want to have your sit down meals and then go over to allears, as they have prices over their, and work out the cost of your meals, against the dining plan.

We had the free one last year, and if we were going again i would definately pay for it. We also have one sit down meal everyday.

There are some excellent places to get snacks too, for example the bakery on main street and the one at boardwalk. You can get a lovely small cake using a snack credit. Somewhere there is a whole thread dedicated to the snack credits you can get.

For three of us, (2a, 1 c) I think we spent over 800.00 on food, I kept all of the reciepts at the time. Mr T actually paid for the food, as I paid for the holiday using deals, so it was even better value. We had some great family meals, that we would never have otherwised experienced. The best was the steak resturant in canada, sorry the name escapes me. Another one was at the Wilderness campground.

We also experienced loads of different character meals too.

 

[Mr Stoat]

Le Cellier is the restaurant, beneath the Canadian Pavillion.


Do not forget to try the cheese and beer soup, some of the best I have had. It is a VERY busy place, we booked 6 months in advance and still ended up waiting 1/2 hour. Walkups were being turned away and seemed surprised to be told that they had that kind of advance booking.

 

[wideeyes]

I agree that it depends, I already have an annual pass so its not worth it for us as I would have to buy tickets which would cover our food costs for the week based on the quick service plan. We don't plan on eating to many TS restaurants so not worth getting the normal DDP. We did the DDP back in 07 free and I decided I did not want so many ADRs again.

 

[higgy66]

Am I right in thinking a lot of the restauarants in Epcot are included.

I quite fancy eating at all the diffrerent "countries" in Epcot plus I know some nights we might not fancy a TS meal so will save these for a charactor meal which I understand take 2 credits.

I think for our family it would be worth it so thinking of adding it to our booking in April - I'm waiting to see if I get my annual bonus??

 

[Mr Stoat]

Ohana (doesn't that sound like an Irish Pub: O'Hanas ! )is only a single making it realy good value. The buffet at the Crystal Palace in MK is only a single as well and was a realy nice meal.

 

[wideeyes]

Am I right in thinking a lot of the restauarants in Epcot are included.

I quite fancy eating at all the diffrerent "countries" in Epcot plus I know some nights we might not fancy a TS meal so will save these for a charactor meal which I understand take 2 credits.

I think for our family it would be worth it so thinking of adding it to our booking in April - I'm waiting to see if I get my annual bonus??

Only Cinderellas royal table and signature restaurants take 2.

 

[wifey]

Only Cinderellas royal table and signature restaurants take 2.

Don't forget Hoop De Doo Review and the Back Yard BBQ also require 2TS credits each

There's an updated list of which hotels are participating this year I think its on this link:-
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2054845

Just scroll down to the plan info you require click it and read away

 

[madmumof2]

I personally wouldn't get the dining plan unless it was free. I worked it out for us and it was about £200 more expensive than paying myself. I have an ADR planned almost every day too.

 

[wifey]

We sat down and worked out where we would eat and what type of credits we would be using, then worked out the average costs per day including tips and decided for us it was worth using the basic plan. As suggested we looked at http://www.allears.net go to the Dining section and menus / locations. We upgraded from the free quick service plan to the basic giving us more TS options as we like to have good sit down meal together once a day and a CS meal once a day too. Cost to upgrade was £56 per adult and £14 per child for a 14 night stay. I thought this was good value for money and a great way to budget for meals in advance .We found there are plenty of options for our family to try and even have chance to experience some untried restaurants this coming trip, that's really saying something for my family who are very particular about the food they will eat. We've spent the last few weeks looking at the "food porn" threads and reading dining reviews to get a feel of food quality and service.

 

[maleficent_man]

Thanks for the helpful replies folks - I'm probably about 70% No on it at the moment having worked out what we are doing each day - I don't want to end up feeling like we have to use something.......I'll keep thinking about it though!