dining plan or not?

[scriv2]

We are going to Disney in December - myself, DH, DD (10) and DS (5). I added the dining onto our plan, but am now thinking about taking it off. My daughter, who just turned 10, cannot eat all the food on the adult plan. She only eats kids meals, even though I have to pay $35 a day for her. Will it be worth $115 a day for us to eat, even though my daughter will not eat all the food? Or should I cancel?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Amyg]

I would check out the menus at allears.net to make some quick calculations on what you might eat and base your decision on that.

 

[SB in KY]

One character meal for your family (your DD will be charged the full adult price now) with tax and tip would be about $110....so if you are planning to eat at a nice sit down restaurant each day you would come out ahead on the plan....if you would eat most of your meals at the CS places, then it would probably not be a good value for you.

If you and your spouse enjoy fine dining you could use some of DD's table service credits to eat at some of the signature places and just pay out of pocket for kids meals for DD at the regular TS places.

I would just pick the places I would normally eat. look at the menus and add up what your family would likely eat. Remember to add in tax (8%, I think) and a 15% gratuity. drinks, etc and then just do the math and see if it is a good choice for you. If you would spend that amount on food/day, then go for it....because it will allow you to try new things and places you might not usually pay for.

 

[BrerMama]

We're in a similiar situation, except we have two in the gray area -- one will be turning 12 and one will be 10. The 10 year old still eats kids meals routinely. The 12 year old has started ordered off the adult menu sometimes, or we'll get an appetizer so he can get enough food.

We decided to go ahead and get the dining plan. I'm not sure we'll always come out ahead, but we like the idea of being able to prepay for our dining and being able to eat a sit down meal every day. We figured it out and we're probably spending more money than we would without the plan -- we don't normally order appetizers or desserts, for example -- but I love doing character meals and since the kids are adults for those, we're just going to do it.