Dining Plan or No Dining Plan?

[Sleeping Becca]

Agree that the Quick Service plan might be your best bet. And by the way, it's dining ... not dinning.

Obviously it's a typo, it was spelled correctly twice in the title. Don't be a jerk.

For future reference, if you want to be helpful send that person a private message instead of publicly correcting them.

 

[The Duchess]

This will be our second trip with no dining plan.
I think it worked out pretty well the first time.

All of our reservations for October are Signature or not on the Dining Plan (V&A, Il Mulino)
Since we used the 40% Room Discount, we couldn't get the free DP which would have at least covered some of the meals.

But I agree, if the DP is not free, and depending on where you want to eat, it may not be worth it.

 

[Sleeping Becca]

Anywho, the only way to find out if the dining plan is cost effective is to plan out meals ahead of time then price them out, then add to that the cost of snacks or refillable mug and snacks with the quick service plan. Then compare it to the cost of the plan.

Sometimes the dining plan is worth it sometimes not, this Thanksgiving trip is the first time in a long time that we will be purchasing the dining plan. Normally we eat at a lot of signatures and use Tables In Wonderland.

This trip we are taking my brother and his family, my mom, my dad, my sister and will be eating mostly character meals so it actually was cost effective to go with the dining plan.

Sometimes the dining plan is worth it just for convienence, esp if you are paying for multiple rooms. It's easier to just pre-pay sometimes.

 

[labattblue]

I'd skip the DP entirely if planning on eating CS, unless u like the desserts (usually yucky imo, I'd rather wait until later & get something I really want to eat that's sweetlike a mickey rice crispie treat). It is very convenient though to have it paid for in advance.

re TS check out disney's online reservation system to see what's available on your dates, then pick a few and plan on paying OOP, lunches are usually less expensive & easier to book

good luck

 

[BlovesC]

We LOVE the dining plan. Heck we'll be using it twice this year and we're locals. It's not a hassle for us and it's certainly not restrictive. I'm sure a lot depends on your party size, your touring style, and what/when you like to eat. It's just me and my fiance, and we are rope drop commandos, so when we stay on property for special occasions, we'll knock out everything we want to do in one park by 3PM with a CS lunch, relax a few hours, then hit another park or resort in the evening for a dinner ADR and fireworks/scenery. We use the snack credits to stash stuff in the room fridge for breakfasts. We select our ADRs wisely and we always wind up saving money with the plan, plus we just find it convenient. We've never had an issue with improperly charged credits and we've never had a problem keeping track of how many we have left at what point.

 

[Boardwalk33]

We finally made the decision to purchase the dining plan becuase it made a lot of sense. Just be careful which plan you choose b/c you could easily spend too much.

 

[Sofia's Dad]

Are you talking about the Deluxe Dining Plan?? The Deluxe Dining Plan is I think $76 dollars per day- not $33.
Also the regular Dining Plan is around $45 per day. I am not sure where you got $33 per day. Did you have free dining and then upgrade to the Deluxe Dining Plan??

I stated "but when the trip is added to the free meal plan which is a counter service, snack and a full sit down meal ( appetizer, main meal and dessert) its a good deal. To ad DDP it comes to an added 33 dollars a day per person". So yes I did upgrade. Maybe if i said upgrade instead of added.

All in all. having a DDP, even if you paid 76...or 74... Its worth it cause Disney meals have gone up. Maybe not the quality, which is in debate on some threads but Ill see for sure. For those who enjoy quick service, Disney has a deal on that to. Which you probably know. To me the DDP is the way to go especially when you eat at the signature restaurants. Soon for us.

 

[rachel09985]

I stated "but when the trip is added to the free meal plan which is a counter service, snack and a full sit down meal ( appetizer, main meal and dessert) its a good deal. To ad DDP it comes to an added 33 dollars a day per person". So yes I did upgrade. Maybe if i said upgrade instead of added.

All in all. having a DDP, even if you paid 76...or 74... Its worth it cause Disney meals have gone up. Maybe not the quality, which is in debate on some threads but Ill see for sure. For those who enjoy quick service, Disney has a deal on that to. Which you probably know. To me the DDP is the way to go especially when you eat at the signature restaurants. Soon for us.

Ahh, gotcha!! I agree it is worth it too. I dont think I will ever go back to the Non Dining Plan because we have grown to love restaurants that would be too expensive if we were paying OOP! I have never done the Deluxe dining Plan but would like to eventually.

 

[Airb330]

I tend to agree that the QS might be your better plan. Also, I think you might have a hard time getting
any good TS ADR's. We're going Dec 11-15 and I made my ADR's at my 180 day window (a month ago).
Went online to maybe "tweek" some of my ressies (different times and/or restaurants)
and there was nothing available. Glad I made mine when I did. Although, you can keep checking back
if you don't find the restaurants you want, or you could try walk ups.
Good luck!

Agreed. I am there the same days as you and there is not much available. I really wanted Coral Reef and did manage to get it, but this was only after looking everyday. Epcot shows some restaurants open, but MK seems to have little options in mid-December.

 

[molfrog]

I think the dining plan is a great option. It is cheaper than paying out of pocket if you like to order seafood or steaks. Look at the menus of places that you would like to eat, and add up the costs. That will be the determing factor.

 

[Sleeping Becca]

Just to clarify, the regular dining plan does not include an appetizer.

 

[Sofia's Dad]

Just to clarify, the regular dining plan does not include an appetizer.

Regular meaning 1 sit down, 1 counter and 1 snack right? I looked it up and the one who gets an appetizer is the kids 3-9. The Deluxe everyone gets it, Lunch and Dinner. That was interesting. Wonder why Disney went on a cheap with the regular DP.