Dining Plan or no dining plan

[RoseRoni2]

My dd 14 and I have gone to Disney 3 times without the dinning plan but I am considering upgrading both to a moderate resort with the delux dinning plan. What is your opinions on the dinning plan, is it worth upgrading to the delux or just staying with the basic dinning plan? Or should I go without the dinning plan at all?

 

[3pletprincesses]

We like Deluxe. We do character breakfast or early lunch and then do a signature meal for dinner. If give us forced down time for everyone and give mommy and daddy good food for dinner with better choices for the kids. That being said, don't forget that with the deluxe plan, comes more ADr, moreTS therefor more tips to pay and lots and lots of food. try to plan your meals at times where you know you own't have to run from one event to the other.

For exemple we do early ADR at parks or close to parks to be at the parks for rope drop, we go back to POR for afternoon break and then our dinner is usually between the resort time and our return to the park. I would hate to have an ADR in the smack middle and have to drop everything to run to an ADR KWIM. Also be prepared to not use your snack other then drinks or for take home stuff LOL

 

[havoc315]

There is no 1 best answer for all. It really depends how you want to eat.
Do you want exactly 1 CS lunch, 1 TS dinner, 1 snack, and 2 desserts every day? The ddp may make sense.
Want 2-3 TS meals per day, including lots of signature meals, and lots of 3-course meals? Then the DxDP may make sense.
Want more flexibility? Don't want many desserts? Will some of your TS meals be just a sandwich, or an appetizer as your meal? Then oop makes the most sense.
The way the various plans work, you only save money if you maximize your entitlements (especially the basic ddp)