Dining Plan Good or Bad? 1st Time Using Experience.

[john storey]

Following our 3 week vacation I thought I would add a few comments about the Dining Plan. For the 3rd stage of our holiday (6 nights at Saratoga) we thought it would be a good idea to try out this much advertised concept. Paying upfront as soon as we checked in, 'the plan' was up & running, the 1st reaction is one of mild panic, have we made all the 'advance reservations', would we use up all the credits, will we get tired of eating 'on site' for 6 consecutive days? Well I cheated a bit & booked 2 meals in (a) Flying Fish (b) Yachtsman Steakhouse which took out 4 nights as they required 2 credits each so only 2 more nights to book. One was spent at San Angel Inn Mexico (a disaster), the remainder at Raglan Road (brilliant). Because we were staying at Saratoga most of the 'counter service' credits were used up for either breakfast or midday meals at Artist Palete. Unless we spent an entire 6 days constantly in the parks I think we would have strugled to use these up, ditto for the 12 'snacks' credits. Now that Disney have changed the plan you only get main meal + dessert (no appetizer) + drink (non alcoholic) you sometimes think it is a bit restrictive then you have the dreaded 20,% service charge which is added (the waiters HATE it). Value for money the plan is probably on the plus side as far as what you get for your money, having to use it for entire length of stay is what finally turns you against it. We found the 'pre planning' & the fact that we couldn't just go to The Outback, TGI's, Bahama Breeze etc made us decide we wouldn't use the plan again.

 

[darthtatty]

thanks for the info, we havent booked a dining plan but i do keep wondering if we should add it.
we didnt eat that much last time so dont think itd benefit us.
we're not much of pre planners and like to go with the flow, i guess thered be some days we'd use it but a lot we wouldnt need it.

hope you had a great time

 

[Young Pooh]

We used the DDP last year (before the changes) and will still probably use it again next year unless they do seem even more drastic changes to it next year.

We tend to only eat onsite and like planning our days so it was the obvious choice for us - I also did a price comparison after the holiday and it saved us $$$$ - can't remember the exact figure but well worth it.

 

[tashasmum]

We used the DDP last year (before the changes) and will still probably use it again next year unless they do seem even more drastic changes to it next year.

We tend to only eat onsite and like planning our days so it was the obvious choice for us - I also did a price comparison after the holiday and it saved us $$$$ - can't remember the exact figure but well worth it.

We too used the DDP last year and thought it was great. We booked a sit down meal for each evening and just went into that park that day. We ate at some of the restaurants in the hotels and loved looking around the different hotels.
It was nice to sit down and eat some proper food (i.e not junk food).
We are regular visitors to Florida so it was no big deal having to make ADR's . There was a lot of food but no-one says you have to eat it all. A lot of the snack credits were used in the gift shops at the resort for sweets for nieces and nephews. We used CS credits for breakfast a few times and were able to get 2 drinks plus we had the re-fillable mugs so we would take the bottled water into the parks with us.
I can see why it would not be for everyone but for us it worked out fine, especially as it was free.

 

[Shooby doo]

John I take it your party was 6 or more? If it was less then there shouldn't have been any service charge plus I thought that it was 18%? We are using DDP for the first time & as I've stated in other posts ,not sure that I would use it again,not because it's not good value (Free in this case!) but we are finding it very restrictive & we are having to do a lot more planning than normal!
SD

 

[paulh]

20% thought the dinning plans gratuity was 18%,
Glad were not doing plan this time think tip amount of 20% too much
Paulh

 

[cazzie]

We had the dining plan last September but it didn't really suit us, apart from the fact there was to much food and we never used all the credits it was to restricting. We are very much eat when we feel like it and will then find somewhere to eat. It seemed every day was planned around where we would be eating and the holiday lost some of it's spontaneity. Food wise it was excellent value for money although I know they have now changed it. We have the dining card now and I will stick to using that it worked better for us.

 

[Lizzybear]

I thought the tip was now at the customer's discretion rather than a fixed percentage? I can see why they might need to automatically add it but it does seem rather presumptious to me to make it 20% for any meal, dare I say *some* servers probably don't deserve that much..!
We enjoyed the dining plan last year, though we did get it for free so that made it a no brainer for us in terms of value for money. I'm not sure if we'd use it again or pay for it, depends what kind of trip we do next time (more than likely won't be visiting Florida just for Orlando)

 

[Portugal1000]

We did the same sort of thing. Was in Disney for 3 weeks last December and spent the last 8 nights at Saratoga Springs and had the DP. We loved it. Had a couple of meals in the parks but had really done all the parks by then sao mainly used it at the different hotels. Only went to 1 credit places as we have a 7 year old who probably wouldn't have appreciated the nicer places. We loved the counter service places, especially Artist Point and Wolfgang Puck. Also, my son could get an adult meal in the places which was great as he didn't really like the kids options. We added up everything when we got back and saved about $800 but saying that we probably wouldn't have eaten as much as we did if we didn't have the DP. We are going the same time this year and satung the last 10 nights at Fort Wilderness. Haven't decided yet whether to get DP as there is no counter service option at FW, plus without the starter and having to pay the tip, it may not be as good value, we'll see.