Dining Plan or not?

[HGD24]

Me, DH, our 9 month old DD and my in-laws will be at WDW in October. We've never really liked the idea of choosing our meals before we arrive because we like to be in the moment and not worry about getting to a specific park by a certain time and we don't always feel like a having table-service meal; however, I realize that if we do feel like having one, it's getting more and more difficult to do so without ADR's.

I know that the dining plan would be worth purchasing money-wise, but we can't decide if we want to have table-service each day or not. On one hand, we think it will be a nice break from the hussle and bussle of the parks, but on the other hand, we don't know how content our DD will be in a restaurant every single day. Right now, she's a very content baby and does very well in restaurants. What would you do if you were us?

 

[HGD24]

Sorry - I just realized that this should be posted on the Dining Plan Board. Please feel free to move it there...

 

[Tricia1972]

I would not do the DDP for your group. If you are sure you want a TS every day then yes it's certainly worth the value. However having the reservations and knowing you need to be there will take away some of the spontonaity.

I would make reservations for every day that you're there, but if you're having fun and don't want to break away or if you're just in the mood for CS - call before your reservation time to cancel the reservation.

We went without the DDP last year and enjoyed the freedom of not needing to make it to our ADR's because the meal was prepaid for. Some nights we just did CS or we snacked our way around World Showcase. It was great for us!

 

[OurfirsttimetoDisney]

We did not do the dining plan when we were there last month and I'm really glad we didn't. We ate breakfast everyday in the room--we brought cereal from home--which saved us a lot of money. On the days we did have ADRs, it was so much more stressful and not as carefree as the other days. "No, we can't go watch Beauty and Beast we have to get over to Hollywood and Vine!" We only had 4 sit down meals but we loved them all. Maybe if you pick one or two that you would really like to do the then do counter service for the rest. We liked all the count service restureants we tried and it's not like you can't actully sit down and eat. I was surprised how many indoor seating resturerants there are. I guess I was just used to other theme parks. Have fun on your trip!

 

[SandraVB79]

Whether you have the D¨DP or not won't change the fact that you need ADRs for TS meals.

I haven't done DDP and don't plan to do it. For the simple reason that I want to eat according to my preferences and not according to a number of credits. We had cake for breakfast in the room, sometimes CS, sometimes TS. I think money-wise, we kind of broke-even with what the DDP would have costed us, but we never felt like we overate or so. I like this for our situation, but everyone is different.

 

[Tricia1972]

Whether you have the D¨DP or not won't change the fact that you need ADRs for TS meals.

I agree completely. However, it does change whether you feel compelled to rush to an ADR that you may not be in the mood for.

Like you also, it doesn't work for us either.

 

[mom2aredhead]

We did DDP on our trip last month, but it's probably the last time.

There were a few ADR's (especially toward the end of the week) that I would have just as soon skipped, but they were already "paid for" so we went. We also had several CS meals leftover. So sine we had to pay for apps and gratuity OOP, and go to meals that we would have otherwise skipped, I think it would have been cheaper to just pay as we went. And isn't the whole point of the thing to save money? After all, I could just approximate how much our meals would be and buy myself a a gift card if all I wanted to do is "pre-pay".

I will say though, make a few ADR's for your favorite restaurants - with the Food and Wine Festival going on, walk-ups will be even harder to come by in Epcot.

 

[LadyZolt]

Another vote for not getting the dining plan and just making a few table service reservations that you know you and your family will enjoy. I think that you can be more flexible this way, and the table services you choose will be more special than if you had one every day, too. For my upcoming August trip, I made one character dinner ADR and two lunch ADRs at restaurants we love. For the rest of our meals, we'll just see where we are and what we're hungry for. I know if I can't get any other table service ones, I'll be happy doing the three I've made reservations for. And if we get lucky and get into a table service one spur-of-the-moment, that'll add to the magic. (DH and I were able to get seated as walk-ins for two table service locations when we were at Disney World last Christmas time, so you never know -- but I do think it's easier for a restaurant to seat a party of two than it would be for your party of five, so keep that in mind as well.) Have a great time!

-Dorothy (LadyZolt)

 

[HGD24]

Thanks for the input! We haven't had DDP in the past because we really enjoy picking a meal that we feel like having at that moment. We miss being able to walk up to a TS restaurant and either getting in right away or having a 30-45 minute wait so we do usually make an ADR for at least one TS meal per trip, but I've got to say, even that one ADR can make things difficult when you prefer beinging spontaneous with meals and which park you go to that day.

We loved the old Food 'n Fun plan where you paid a set amount per day ahead of time, then it all got put into one lump sum for your stay and could spend it whenever and on whatever you wanted until the money ran out. I soooo wish they would bring that back....ahhh the good old days....