Dining plan. Need WDW experts opinions!

[midnight star]

I was looking at the 2020 Vacation packages that were released today. What dining plans are good for a 5 or 6 day stay? I wanted to have a full Disney experience so I am thinking about the deluxe dining plan. Is that too much food? Has anyone used this dining plan before? There aren't any dining plans at DL so this is all new!

Also, this is I know will sound dumb, but when you purchase the dining package, you don't pay for the meal when you are at the restaurant? You scan a ticket?

 

[sethschroeder]

Head to the restaurant board but be aware.

- dining plans are almost always overpriced unless you are doing character meals
- you need to use all your credits to really get any sort of deal
- you can easily charge the food to your room via your magic band and end up saving money especially if your not a big eater

Biggest tip is look up the menus and do the math yourself on what you would possibly eat when in parks.

The Deluxe plan is going to take up a ton of time with all the table service meals as well. Think 1 to 1 1/2 hrs per meal gone for each meal.

 

[midnight star]

Oh man, glad I asked. I'm def not a big eater, but I for sure want to do some TS and maybe even a character meal. Is one TS a day too time consuming?

 

[Sandflea3]

I haven’t been to WDW yet (going in August) but have gone to DL many times and like to do a TS lunch each day because it’s a nice rest for the feet in the middle of the day. I got the regular DP for my August trip because I plan to do the same thing there. I don’t find it too time consuming since it’s lunch/ rest time in one. It’s really up to your personal preference.

 

[sethschroeder]

I haven’t been to WDW yet (going in August) but have gone to DL many times and like to do a TS lunch each day because it’s a nice rest for the feet in the middle of the day. I got the regular DP for my August trip because I plan to do the same thing there. I don’t find it too time consuming since it’s lunch/ rest time in one. It’s really up to your personal preference.

To be clear I was saying the Deluxe plan which has 2 or 3 table service meals per day which can be time consuming.

Have you run the math on your plan to see if it's actually a good deal?

Some people like it because they would rather pay more to not have to think which is fine.

 

[sethschroeder]

Oh man, glad I asked. I'm def not a big eater, but I for sure want to do some TS and maybe even a character meal. Is one TS a day too time consuming?

Depends some people take it as their mid day break. Others skip the meal and do a nap instead and will do a nice meal in the evenings (if you have hoppers you can hit epcot as an example or another resort).

The regular dining plan might be your best fit but that is really something you can decide as it gets closer as well.

I would plan out what places you want to try and how it would fit in your schedule.

As an example me and my wife would split a quick service meal during the day and go out for a nice dinner in the evenings.

We liked the flexibility of just charging it to our room. Plus when you start looking at menus not everything can be ordered on the dining plan (but most things can).

 

[Gehrig1B]

For us, a family of 4 adults, the DDP is too restricting and yes the Deluxe Plan is too much food and too much time spent in restaurants. We have found we can eat when, where, what, and how we like paying out of pocket and spend a lot less money than the DDP costs. Do the research yourself. We will eat a TS meal a day and a quick service meal. We usually have breakfast in the room and would never eat as many snacks as the plan provides. If you like the idea of prepaid food just put the money on a Disney gift card and pay with that.

 

[Rowlf the Dog]

I'm also no big eater. At my solo trips I always pay out of pocket, because when I go to once a day to a table service, I grab at the maximum one snack the same day. Only as I invited my mother I got the regular dining plan, so that she didn't look at the prices, because she needs at least a good breakfast to a table service-dinner. As we had the dinner with beer or wine, and this was included in the dining plan and I got a free dining-package, it was an okay deal although we had several unused snack-credits...

 

[_19disnA]

We were just at Disney in May and had the regular dining plan. Worked out great for us and the way we typically eat. Went to a few character meals the children enjoyed and the dining plan also included an adult beverage (i.e. mixed drink) for each dinner that would have cost an additional $10-15 if purchased separately.

You can find lots of often contentious threads on the dining plan topic. The amount of time spent eating is part of what we enjoy on vacation, but everyone has their own idea of how to spend their time. Even with our 3 daily FastPasses, we still spent 15-25 minutes waiting to get on each of those rides. I don't see nearly as many threads on that topic.

 

[Christine]

I did the standard plan last year for my room. As the "lady" in the group, I'm not a huge eater. I mean, I did order some of the most expensive meals for dinner, but I had a hard time having a counter service meal for lunch, a table service meal for dinner, and then the snacks. It was too much food for me all day. Of course, it was blazing hot and, on a few days, even my husband and son just didn't want to eat.

But if you are decent eaters and enjoy a cocktail with your meal, I think it's pretty easy to break even on the plan.

The Deluxe Plan...uh, no. Too much food and too much time.

I did have my hotel reservation CM today try to get our party of 12 to book half the group on the deluxe plan and then "share". He said that can work out really well if you're dining out a lot.

 

[McNs]

As others have mentioned it does depend a little on what you want your holiday to be like. Our first trip was 2017, I had booked a TS per day but for us this was too restrictive and I wound up cancelling some. I found the time each TS took was annoying, maybe we had bad luck but inevitably we would wait 20 minutes post reservation time to get seated, then the meal itself would take forever. This took away from either park time or pool time.

This visit we are planning on mostly quick service with a coupe of character meals thrown in, allowing us the flexibility we like with our touring style.