Dining Plan for us??

[tessa]

My husband and I are taking our son (2 in June) on his first trip to WDW in August! We are staying at WL for 4 nights starting August 24. My question is, is the $350 (give or take) worth it for my husband and I to do the DP since our son isn't eligible? He is the type of kid who will need his own kids meal, he likes to eat!

My husband is a chef, and won't eat breakfast, and since we are driving and will have the fridge, we will definitely be doing bf in the room. And we will definitely do counter service for lunch. I just really don't see us using more than one ts meal for the trip, maybe 2.... (one for character dining and one for dh and I to go out one night while we get a sitter in-room). Our son is a nightmare at restaurants and we prefer to get in and out.

Do you think that we would be better off going ala-carte? I just really am not too familiar with the prices of food (I know it is $$, though) and my DH doesn't eat a ton, usually a small lunch and a big dinner, no snacks. And I will bring snacks with us.

Thanks!

 

[GatorLady]

If you go to allears.net you can look at all the menus with the prices so you can get an idea if it would work for you. My initial thought is if you don't want to do TS for each night of your stay, it probably will not be worth it.

You said your husband is a chef. Maybe he would appreciate dining at one of the signature restaurants (2 TS credits per person on the dining plan). If you did that and one character meal that would use up 3 of the 4 TS credits you have per person. You would then have 1 TS credit (per person) left to use. Just an idea.

 

[Wendybird55]

I would say the best way to decide is to figure out what TS meals you want. You may want to do a TS breakfast simply because most of the character meals are breakfast and your son might like it. Since your son can share your meal and character meals are usually buffets or family style there will be plenty for your son without having to order him his own meal. Also the character meals may give other things for your son to focus on and he won't be as "antsy" in the restaurant.

If you go to the dining section of allearsnet.com you will be able to see menus for both CS & TS restaurants. This way you can figure out roughly how much it would cost to eat where you want to.
The DDP is 37.99 per person per night you stay. and you get 1CS and 1 TS and 1 snack for each night. So it would cost $151.96 each for you and your husband and you will each get 4 CS meals, 4 TS meals and 4 snacks.

If you go to the DDP section of this forum there is a thread that lists all the items you can get as a snack on the plan. Some may be enough to supplement as a meal for your son. Also.. if you don't eat snacks you can use your snack for a soda or water or other drink.

I wasn't sure about the DDP as well for me & DH (our son will be almost 2 when we go) but after I figured out where we will have our TS meals and estimated the cost if we ordered entree and dessert (included on DDP) the DDP was worth getting.

You can always add the DDP at a later date - you don't have to decide when you make your reservations. So do some research and crunch some numbers and see if it's worth it for you.

 

[goofygal531]

Check out the menus at www.allearsnet.com under the dining section.

When you add it up, it's worth the price.

Someone also mentioned that you can go to The World of Disney in DTD and purchase cookies, pretzels, etc... to take home with your left over snack credits. So they're not wasted.

Also, if you dine at buffets, your son will be free and can eat as much as he'd like. We're doing this since my DS1 can eat more than my DS4! My DS4 gets restless in restaurants, but in WDW as long as we find a restaurant that has some kind of "entertainment" for him, we're okay. Character dining, Teppan Edo in Japan (they cook table side), Sci-Fi (eat in Cars), etc... I think you'll little one will be fine.

I've had lots of friends and clients who love the dining plan. I would love to try it, but Disney does not offer it to Travel Agents. Either we get the discounted room rate or the discounted dining plan, not both. Obviously, the room rate is the better deal so we take that.

Happy eating!

 

[GatorLady]

Don't forget the plan is only a good deal for you if you would normally be eating the way the plan is set up. Tessa said that she didn't see them using but 1, maybe 2 TS credits.

You have to add up how you would ACTUALLY eat (not how the plan lets you eat, to see if it makes sense for you). Example: If you are not a person who eats dessert with every meal, you would not add in a dessert to make things equal when you do your comparison. Does that make sense? You need to compare how you would eat if you didn't know the dining plan existed and then compare it to the price of the plan.

It happens to work for our family and we enjoy it. But each families eating habits are different.