Dining Plan, Good or Bad?

[Nuchi15697]

If you used the dining plan, would you use it again?

 

[jolyn96]

we used the silver plan for our honeymoon in oct of 04 and it was def worth it. If you plan to eat out everyinight you can save a ton of money. One night we ate at fultons crab house and spent 230.00 for the two of us. The plan was about 67.00 per person per day. We are going down again in oct of 06 and using the premium package, I would recommend it to anyone.

 

[Nuchi15697]

Has anyone used the new dining plan?

 

[fishy_mouse]

I have not used it yet, but will on our trip in June. I will give you my thought process, but each person's preferences are different.

1. We are not big breakfast eaters, we will likely just eat cereal in our room. Because of that, we only need two meals per day.
2. We will be doing theme parks each day, so we will lunch there.
3. Dinner could be in theme park or hotels. They love character dining and restaurants like Ohana and Whispering Canyon. They also want to try Boma.

That said, if I conservatively estimate a theme park lunch with drink and dessert at $10 and the dinners mentioned at $25 (before tax and tip), I have already covered the $35 per day cost of the plan. That means that I am saving 21% on the two meals (tax and tip are included) plus getting a snack or drink during the day. I also like having as much as possible paid in advance, so I know my cost.

I know that each person is different, but I hope this helps.

 

[rocketriter]

We'd never use anything like the Silver plan again. To get the most value, we felt obligated to make PS at the most expensive restaurants and then eat every course: appetizer, salad, entree, side dish, dessert and so forth. This took hours out of each day and left us feeling stuffed and logey. Worst of all, our kids learned to eat prime rib and lobster and now they want to order them everywhere!

 

[Nuchi15697]

Bump Anyone else?

 

[NeverlandClub23]

We'd never use anything like the Silver plan again. To get the most value, we felt obligated to make PS at the most expensive restaurants and then eat every course: appetizer, salad, entree, side dish, dessert and so forth. This took hours out of each day and left us feeling stuffed and logey. Worst of all, our kids learned to eat prime rib and lobster and now they want to order them everywhere!

I definitely agree, we did this once and we spent almost all of our day eating and then wanting to take a nap the rest of the day! It is a lot of food to eat.

 

[estnh]

We haven't used it yet, but have purchased the MYW package through AAA for our April trip. We enjoy the Disney restaurants and it is an important part of our vacation.

We are going to the same restaurants we go to every year, and just have to do the math to know we are saving quite a bit. Strictly from a dollars and cents point of view, if you like to eat on property, MYW dining is a no brainer.
(I bet that Disney realizes it's too good a deal and modifies it before too long!)

 

[aliwolly]

The boyfriend and I used the silver plan on our trip last September... It was the highlight of the trip for him. He LOVED being able to eat a large, mostly gourmet meal at the end of the day every day. It's what really made it a vacation for him.

I enjoyed it as well but I seriously gained 15 pounds on the trip.

We're in the process of planning a trip for next year and I'm looking at renting DVC points for our stay this time. He was devestated when I told him there'd be no meal plan if we rented points.

In fact, he's still whining about it as we speak... sigh...

We'll probably end up booking a package through Disney instead just so he can get the meal plan... (and I can get some peace and quiet...)

 

[renda460]

Does anyone know if you can get the dining plan if you dont have a package deal? We are DVC members, and already have park passes. I assume we are not entitled to the dining package, but thought I would check.

We just got back a couple of days ago from WDW and the dining plan would have saved us a lot of money. Every restaurant we ate at is part of the plan. Dinner alone would have covered the daily cost of the plan.

 

[henrylovespooh]

We're going next week and we signed up for the plan. When we're on vacation, we like to eat nice meals. I looked at the costs on many menus and figured that we will either break even or save a good deal of money on the plan every day we use it. I've scheduled one sit down and one counter service each day. A few times we will use counter service for breakfast because there are some places not on the plan that we're going to try for lunch.

I think it's a great deal for $35 a day.

 

[WDWBetsy]

Does anyone know if you can get the dining plan if you dont have a package deal? We are DVC members, and already have park passes. I assume we are not entitled to the dining package, but thought I would check.

We just got back a couple of days ago from WDW and the dining plan would have saved us a lot of money. Every restaurant we ate at is part of the plan. Dinner alone would have covered the daily cost of the plan.

Unfortunately, you can only get the dining plan with a package (room and tickets).