Dining plan or no dining plan.. that is the question!

[Cwilson]

Hello all! We are in the beginning stages of planning a trip to WDW next May for our 10th anniversary. We're bringing our 3 kids, plus my mom, so there will be 6 of us in total. We are going for 8 nights, and will be spending 7 days in the parks. My kids ages at the time of the trip will be 16, 7, and 4. What are your thoughts on the dining plan? We have done it before, and have done the 1 QS, 1 TS, plus snacks plan. I was thinking for this trip we would just do QS, and pay out of pocket for any fancier sit down meals. Or, I was thinking of skipping it all together. My thinking is that if we do the plan, meals are already budgeted for. however, I don't want to spend extra money on something we don't need. Plus, sometimes scheduling around reservations and meals each day can eat a lot of time. Though I know that they're a much needed break in the AC. I'd love to hear your thoughts!!

 

[srwarden1928]

The dining plan CAN save you money, but OFTEN it is more expensive than OOP would be. IF you eat EXACTLY as the dining plan you chose is designed, do NOT have ANY left over credits, choose the most expensive snacks (at least $5 each), the most expensive QS meals, the most expensive TS meals (or especially character meals, buffets, family style), would NEVER share meals otherwise, would order all the desserts otherwise, would order a soft drink otherwise, it CAN save you some money. It is always more expensive for me the way I eat to use the dining plan.

Also, some people like to prepay everything. I fail to understand this as an advantage at all. The Disney hotel has to be prepaid. So I charge that in month A and pay it off in month B. The trip (and the charges for food) is in month B so I pay that off in month C. It spreads the expenses out to pay OOP.

Whatever you decide, have a magical trip.

 

[mousehockey37]

Generic Dining Plan response...

Crunch the numbers and see if it works or doesn't.

You know what your family eats like, you know your budget. There's no right or wrong answer here. You just need to figure out the answers that work for you.

 

[KrazeeK120]

Are your kids going to want to do a sit down meal every day? It seems like a lot to me, with little kids. You know your own kid's best though, and maybe this would work well for your family. Just something to think about.

 

[ArtieRyder]

Personal experience is that it isn't worth it. We like to do a big breakfast, either a character breakfast or pancakes and stuff in the room. Either way, it usually leaves everyone full for most of the day. We wind up eating pretzels, popcorn, or something else around lunch time. Then we get an early dinner around 4-5, sometimes sit-down, sometimes quick service. Then go on a couple rides and get a good dessert. That just suits my family better, we like the flexibility of doing it differently.

 

[mustinjourney]

Even ordering steaks it is barely worth it. You might come out ahead $10 a day, but the problem is you end up eating more than normal and usually feel bloated by the end of the trip.

Also, if you order the steak in order to make it make sense, it still ends up costing you when you factor in that you're now tipping on the steak instead of the burger. So the savings isn't really as much as it may seem. Never mind that you may split meals normally.

The only time I really see it as savings is if you are already doing Character meals.

In spite of my own advice, I often find myself going back and forth on the meal plan, but then I take a step back and realize that the meal plan is actually dictating my vacation, which is not good.

In other words, if I decide to do the meal plan, I completely change my meals "to get the most" out of the dining plan. But then that means I have to change everything to fit those ADRs. Which is completely counterintuitive.

Eating should be secondary to the vacation. Unfortunately, the dining plan makes you plan the vacation around the meals.

This is why I've decided to forego it for my next two trips.

 

[momof2halls]

We have always chosen the regular dining plan (1qs and 1ts) it worked well for us, we always saved money. However, this year we decided to drop down and get the standard qs only plan. We actually enjoyed not being tied to adr's, but we did not find it useful at all. We were there for 7 nights/8 days and when we checked out we had 15 meals and 20 snacks we had not used. We are not breakfast people and found ourselves snacking more than taking time to eat a full meal. We have already decided we will be going back to the regular plan for our trip next year.

 

[Tink_83]

I've looked at the numbers for my family and it never makes since for us. Others like it because it is already priced out and if you have older kids you can let them roam (I'm thinking teens) and they can easily use their food credits (but then again you could just let them charge food to the card on file as well...). I will say the character meals get expensive but then there are other meals you can do that are not that expensive. For instance we did Garden Grill last week in Epcot for breakfast. My brother picked up the tab for 4 of the 6 of us (I paid for myself and DD) and for 4 adults that came to about 150 I think he said. That night we ate at Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria in Epcot and the total for all 6 (not just 4) was 180 or so and that included a $50 bottle of wine for the adults to split. He even remarked on how the meal that he thought was better and included alcohol was so much less expensive. Anyway, my point is that if you plan it out you can choose locations and meal options that are good but less expensive then other options, depending on what your interests are.

Also, I actually don't like that I get a reduced menu to order from the one time I did the DDP; I understand why they do it but I prefer to choose what I want from the entire menu and I don't always want steak. On occasion I like eating chicken

 

[bellebud]

We used it once during free dining, and it was just way too much food. I'd never pay for it. We like to share meals, share lots of snacks, sometimes skip meals, etc.

 

[Allie B]

I agree. When we used it with free dining just seemed like too much food and a lot was wasted! This trip I used the calculator and it showed we would actually save money by not getting dining plan.

 

[Cwilson]

That's very helpful! I guess I'm just hesitant to not do it, because we have the past few times. We did in the fall because it was free, and then our last family trip just because that's what we were used to (if that makes sense). However, this time around we are trying to be a budget conscience as we can. Thanks again! Where can I find the calculator you're talking about, Allie B?

 

[Nancyg56]

I never use a calculator. I do build a spreadsheet for us. I know what my family generally will order, and while it is not foolproof, it is more accurate than the online calculators. For my family, we are generally on point with the regular DDP, and woudl nto come out ahead with the QS plan. Given that you have two under 10, depending on the meals you choose, you may be fine. If you choose character meals or AYCTE TS meals, you may save. I plan meals first than cost the plans out to see what is best for us. I do not choose meals to suit the plans.

 

[ChasingLeslie]

Personally, I think the QS plan is a waste of money. I do think the regular plan (QS/TS) can be worth it if you are planning a lot of character meals and/or like soft drinks, desserts, and pricier entrees.

As always, check the dining calculator to gauge it.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

We just recently got back from our 5th trip, and this was the first time we didn't get the dining plan. I'm sure we saved money, though I still need to add everything up. DH and I split meals almost everywhere and had plenty of food. (I posted a review in the Dining Reviews forum - May 2017 Dining Report). I definitely liked not having the plan.

 

[jvz82]

We just did it for the first time. I don't know if we saved money, this was the first time we've ever done character meals so I don't have anything to compare it to. I ultimately decided to go for the dining plan because we wanted to do some character dining, and CRT in particular which is so expensive to pay OOP. My kids are big eaters so it was nice for us to have the food. I had a toddler too so even though it was a lot of food for me, I also shared with him so that was fine. We were often so full from meals that we didn't use many of our snack credits and ended up with a bunch left at the end of our trip. But we used them to buy lots of goodies like fudge and Mickey shaped cookies and stuff that we took with us.

 

[jeepnjudy]

I think it depends on your touring style and budget. For my family it becomes too costly. We eat breakfast in the room, pack in a lunch and then treat ourselves to a nice TS for dinner. DS4 also shares food with us as he eats like a bird and it is not worth ordering him a separate meal.

 

[ajwolfe]

So my family has always been a big fan of the 1 TS/1 QS DDP. We've always crunched the numbers based on how we would eat and came out ahead or broke even - depending on the ages of our kiddos. Now we have both kids over 10 and I'm just not sure what we will do for our trip in 2018. We love knowing it's all paid for and everyone can order whatever they want but we've done all the character meals and with the increase in having all "adults" I'm just not sure if it will be the great deal it was always before.
I honestly say just do what you feel will work best for your family.

 

[mustinjourney]

We have always chosen the regular dining plan (1qs and 1ts) it worked well for us, we always saved money. However, this year we decided to drop down and get the standard qs only plan. We actually enjoyed not being tied to adr's, but we did not find it useful at all. We were there for 7 nights/8 days and when we checked out we had 15 meals and 20 snacks we had not used. We are not breakfast people and found ourselves snacking more than taking time to eat a full meal. We have already decided we will be going back to the regular plan for our trip next year.

why not just go with no plan and pay out of pocket?

 

[heather913]

6 of us went earlier this month. We ate what we want, when we wanted. We did several character breakfasts (because they work better for our touring strategy), including Cinderella's Royal Table, Chef Mickey, Garden Grill & Hollywood & Vine.

Before we went I did the dining plan calculator online estimating where/when/what we would eat and it had me coming out about even with or without it. I decided against the plan because I prefer not to be locked into anything. When we got home, I added up the total to see if we would have been better off. We saved $500 not doing the dining plan.

 

[Sundowner2]

We have always done the QS plan, and have come out ahead. Part of the reason for that is we like to get a lot of the more expensive snacks to take home for later, or as gifts. We also tend to go to the more expensive QS places, like Wolfgang Pucks in Disney Springs for a few meals, and my husband can order the ribs, and chicken at Flame Tree BBQ for $20 and not feel guilty, or we do a BOG breakfast. Now if we just wanted to snack, or eat salad, then no, it's not a good deal, but we are on vacation and want to try new things, plus enjoy the getting it all paid for in advance and not pinching pennies when we are there, because we did it all before hand. This is such a common question, I'm glad I put it up on my blog recently!