Dining Plan Pros and Cons

[buffettgirl]

I have two friends planning trips and both have asked "Is the dining plan worth it?" I have never used the dining plan so I can't give them a good answer.

Could you list pros and cons for me? Not just "I love it!" Why do you love it. Or why do you hate it.

 

[Carriehalty78]

Our family loves it because it makes the trip less stressful for us. We only do quick service because of the way we like to tour. I like knowing that when we get to DW the only things I have to worry about paying for is extras. However, this is the second time we are going with the plan and have gotten free dining both times-so for us thats a no brainer that its worth it. I think I would buy it though because again I like not having to think about the cost or how many snacks the kids want etc.

 

[icc2515]

We love it because I am the type of person who is well lets say very cheap. At home I am the type of person who orders water at a restaurant because I am not going to pay $2.50 for a pop when the gas station sells a 32oz for $.67. It drives me crazy that the kids want the most expensive thing at McDonalds when the $1 double cheese burgers fill you up just the same and are just as bad for you.

Now on vacation I do not want to stress about those things. Everybody can order anything they want. The kids (Disney Adults) want steak at every meal, go for it. You want dessert with that, go for it. Pop instead of water yep fine by me. You want the chicken and rib combo at Cosmic Rays I don't even think twice when they only eat half of it.

I don't want to carry a calculator around to figure if we could have saved money by not using the dining plan. I don't care, it is paid for, and I am on vacation. For myself I cannot think of any cons.

 

[disneydeal]

We love it because I am the type of person who is well lets say very cheap. At home I am the type of person who orders water at a restaurant because I am not going to pay $2.50 for a pop when the gas station sells a 32oz for $.67. It drives me crazy that the kids want the most expensive thing at McDonalds when the $1 double cheese burgers fill you up just the same and are just as bad for you.

Now on vacation I do not want to stress about those things. Everybody can order anything they want. The kids (Disney Adults) want steak at every meal, go for it. You want dessert with that, go for it. Pop instead of water yep fine by me. You want the chicken and rib combo at Cosmic Rays I don't even think twice when they only eat half of it.

I don't want to carry a calculator around to figure if we could have saved money by not using the dining plan. I don't care, it is paid for, and I am on vacation. For myself I cannot think of any cons.

I couldn't agree more....

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

Background:

We started off getting the regular dining plan - mainly when it was 'free'. Once they switched the values over to the QS plan and DD turned into an "adult" (age 10) on the plans (happened pretty close together) we went over to the QS plan for Free Dining then we moved over to paying OOP (out of pocket) and occasionally getting the QS plan when it was free.

Advantages of the dining plan

- you really don't have to worry about what to order in terms of price (I'm not one of those get your moneys worth people we order what we like)

- if you're on the regular dining plan it's really fun to do the character meals (if you've got kids). I bulk at paying for those OOP way too expensive.

- You can eat at Wolfgang Puck Express (in DTD) for a CS credit! Great food but I can't imagine a lot of people would pay for it out of pocket.

- really it's great for folks who like to pay for it then forget about it.



Disadvantages of the dining plan

- if you eat at a TS you do need to remember to budget for tips and those prices (and thus 15% + for a tip) really are expensive.

- I never minded making ADRs 180 days in advance - we always had Park Hoppers and thus could plan fairly easily. If your friends don't have Park Hoppers they need to be pretty well organized in terms of planning where they're going to be going each day.

- the dining plan only really feeds you for 2 meals - if you get the QS it's 2 CS and one snack per day per person. If you get the regular it's 1 TS, 1 CS and one snack per day per person. Seems like they think people only eat twice a day

- it's expensive - especially if your "child" is a Disney adult.


Things we've learned and other comments

For us we loved the regular dining plan when we first started going to Disney. We had so many magical moments at Character Meals that were really priceless. And I loved not having to worry / stress about Disney food prices.

Once we moved to the QS meal plan I really loved the FREEDOM. Most of the time we had our ADRs (when we were on the regular plan) for breakfast so we'd get them done and not have to stop and go to eat. But the QS plan is even easier - just eat when you're hungry basically where you are (no trekking to another park or a resort and building in time to do that).

I thought being on the QS plan we'd end up being bored with burgers/chicken the usual fare but I really did my research on allears and here for menus and found SO many great places to eat that are CS.

I thought I"d dislike eating OOP but we really don't in fact it has a lot of advantages. With either meal plan you get dessert with your meal. With paying OOP we split 2 CS meals (between the 3 of us) and then get dessert / snacks later in the day - for us it spreads the food out nicely AND at a lot of CS locations the desserts are "so-so". You can go to somewhere like Starring Rolls (DHS) or Main Street Bakery (MK) and get a much better dessert later in the day if you're paying OOP (or if you use a snack credit on the meal plan).

When we eat OOP (or often times on the QS plan) we eat breakfast in the room (poptarts, cereal etc - we have a car and a fridge). Then for lunch and dinner we split 2 CS meals between the 3 of us. Budget for food for each day for all 3 of us is $50 and that's easily done even with snacks/ later desserts thrown in.

So my advice (if you're still reading!) is to check over the menus - think about where they really want to eat and see which plan or if OOP works out best for them.

 

[Mrs K]

We like the dining plan because it's easy. We don't worry about how much the meal costs and whether or not we have enough cash with us. Now that the kids are older, the QS plan works for us. The kids can take their cards and go off. When they get hungry, they can eat. They don't need cash, and we find that they aren't constantly asking for money! We do pay OOP for a few TS meals during our trips.

 

[buffettgirl]

thanks so much for everyone who has commented. Special thanks GM Dewdrop for the really complete breakdown.

 

[saffsmom]

i sat down with the menus and figured out what we would likely order/eat if we were paying OOP.
yes it was time consuming (and it made me hungry) but it was very useful.

because we have 2 littles (6+3) and are planning on 2 character meals (CRT, H+V) and O'Hana we will save money on the DDP
if we weren't going to save ($100 by my calculations) significantly i would most likely skip the DDP in favour of more flexibility.

it really is worth it to take the time to run the numbers based on individual needs!

 

[AimeeMichele]

I've done the dining plan our last three trips and thought it was great (Deluxe Dining), and it saved us money. However, for this year's trip with the price increase and the fact that most service portions are HUGE I decided to forego the dining plan after picking out which restaurants we'll go to and what we'll order. I'm actually saving over $200 by not doing the dining plan.

The dining plan sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. I believe it really pays off for you to look at the menus and guesstimate what everyone will order.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Background:

We started off getting the regular dining plan - mainly when it was 'free'. Once they switched the values over to the QS plan and DD turned into an "adult" (age 10) on the plans (happened pretty close together) we went over to the QS plan for Free Dining then we moved over to paying OOP (out of pocket) and occasionally getting the QS plan when it was free.

Advantages of the dining plan

- you really don't have to worry about what to order in terms of price (I'm not one of those get your moneys worth people we order what we like)

- if you're on the regular dining plan it's really fun to do the character meals (if you've got kids). I bulk at paying for those OOP way too expensive.

- You can eat at Wolfgang Puck Express (in DTD) for a CS credit! Great food but I can't imagine a lot of people would pay for it out of pocket.

- really it's great for folks who like to pay for it then forget about it.



Disadvantages of the dining plan

- if you eat at a TS you do need to remember to budget for tips and those prices (and thus 15% + for a tip) really are expensive.

- I never minded making ADRs 180 days in advance - we always had Park Hoppers and thus could plan fairly easily. If your friends don't have Park Hoppers they need to be pretty well organized in terms of planning where they're going to be going each day.

- the dining plan only really feeds you for 2 meals - if you get the QS it's 2 CS and one snack per day per person. If you get the regular it's 1 TS, 1 CS and one snack per day per person. Seems like they think people only eat twice a day

- it's expensive - especially if your "child" is a Disney adult.


Things we've learned and other comments

For us we loved the regular dining plan when we first started going to Disney. We had so many magical moments at Character Meals that were really priceless. And I loved not having to worry / stress about Disney food prices.

Once we moved to the QS meal plan I really loved the FREEDOM. Most of the time we had our ADRs (when we were on the regular plan) for breakfast so we'd get them done and not have to stop and go to eat. But the QS plan is even easier - just eat when you're hungry basically where you are (no trekking to another park or a resort and building in time to do that).

I thought being on the QS plan we'd end up being bored with burgers/chicken the usual fare but I really did my research on allears and here for menus and found SO many great places to eat that are CS.

I thought I"d dislike eating OOP but we really don't in fact it has a lot of advantages. With either meal plan you get dessert with your meal. With paying OOP we split 2 CS meals (between the 3 of us) and then get dessert / snacks later in the day - for us it spreads the food out nicely AND at a lot of CS locations the desserts are "so-so". You can go to somewhere like Starring Rolls (DHS) or Main Street Bakery (MK) and get a much better dessert later in the day if you're paying OOP (or if you use a snack credit on the meal plan).

When we eat OOP (or often times on the QS plan) we eat breakfast in the room (poptarts, cereal etc - we have a car and a fridge). Then for lunch and dinner we split 2 CS meals between the 3 of us. Budget for food for each day for all 3 of us is $50 and that's easily done even with snacks/ later desserts thrown in.

So my advice (if you're still reading!) is to check over the menus - think about where they really want to eat and see which plan or if OOP works out best for them.

It's like you read my mind! I couldn't agree more! One additional item-I love QSDP so I don't have to make one single ADR. Priceless!

 

[ssleblanc]

I've never used the DDP but have read a LOT about it, trying to decide what to do for our Feb 2013 trip.

Originally, I thought it wouldn't be worth it - it is a lot of food and I wasn't sure it would be cost effective. Lasts time I brought the variety pack boxes of cereal, cereal bars, and bought milk/juice at the resort. We never ate a full breakfast. We split food because my kids were not big eaters then.

But, the more I thought about it, I really think this is the last trip where my older two will want to be "kids" and it is my daughters first trip. It is pushing me towards doing more character meals (we only did 2 last time), and I want to do the Fantasmic dinner package.

I created a spreadsheet and added up the snacks, likely food, character meals, and resort mugs (which is just a given for us). I think we would come out cheaper without DDP if it were not for the character meals and DDP. As it is, right now I think I'll be doing 4 character meals plus Fantasmic Dining.

The fact that it is only 2 meals a day doesn't bother me. Some days we will do the cereal thing in the room. Two days I plan for character meals to be breakfast. The other character meals will be lunch. I will save CS for dinners. My youngest (Disney Adult) is a very light eater - he's small and picky. My 3 year old and he often split a large burger and fries. I could see the two of them splitting a CS meal several times, which would free up a few CS meals to be extra meals during our stay. On a day when we have a buffet breakfast, somewhat mid-morning, no one will be really hungry at lunch. The four of us can split a basket of chicken nuggets from Cosmic Ray's for a light snack at lunch, or the four of us split two meals, saving 2 for that evening.

I realize that the DDP is only 2 meals a day, but each meal is a lot of food and if you time the snack and meals right, it is still more than you can eat.

If it were not for the desire to do several character meals and a Fantasmic package, I wouldn't do it. But, I think in in the end it will save me money ... add in the whole "convenience factor" and I'm sold.

I'm using a travel agent this time, and I am working on my list for my ADR's. Once more info and crowd predictions come out for Feb 2013, I'll send her my ADR list and let her them. One email and it will be done.

 

[buffettgirl]

thanks to everyone who keeps contributing thoughts on this.

I'm starting to get the feeling that for both my friends the dining plan isn't going to be beneficial. Neither is going to do character meals (maybe 1 for one family) and neither wants to do any dining events like HDDR . It seems like that might be where the payoff is.

 

[hotcarib]

I couldn't agree more....

Hopping whole heatedly on the no cons train~ even though now we get no appetizer and tip isn't included! We DDP

 

[navywifetill2002]

We're going to try it! I will admit I was against the DDP when my frined said they used it then DH said we could go this year (DD's 1st trip) and I started planning... Well, I wanted to do CRT and 5 other character meals plus Boma. When I added that up it came to over $550 and that's 1 meal a day with no snacks...get real, that wasn't going to be enough food! In my head I had thought $100 a day would feed our family; I quickly realized that wasn't going to cut it! We are going during free dining but staying at a Value so we upgraded from the QS to DDP and I'm excited! I don't have to worry about what anything we eat at CS costs and we can make all our ADR's too! Now DH is a huge eater but I can see a few places DD & I can share a CT and save her credit for another "snack" somewhere along the way.

 

[dd50]

I only purchased the DDP once and that was in 2009. Two of my teens don't eat much but I went with my older daughter and my small grandchildren so it was a good deal for her but not us. My girls ended up only eating ice cream at the character meals and eating very little so for me it was a big waste. I also didn't like getting tied down to sit down meals every day.

In 2010 I was thinking about the quick service but I am not always that hungry to have a big meal so we didn't do it but we ate every thing we wanted (4 of us). I saved all the receipts and we ended up saving about $300 not doing the plan as sometimes we shared or my girls got a kids meal. I didn't have to worry about going to Goofy's to use the rest of the snack credits.

 

[KrazeeK120]

Pro:

You know ahead of time how much you are paying for food.

Con:

If you are a light eater, it's not a good value.

Limits flexibility.


DH and I have been to WDW 3 times together and we used DDP the first two. On our most recent trip, we did not use it and were much happier. I had done some quick math and realized that we weren't actually saving money using the plan - we were just ordering more food than we would have otherwise and throwing a lot of it away. Also, if you buy the QS plan, you can't have any TS meals unless you pay OOP. With the regular plan, you have to eat a TS meal every day unless you use a 2-credit meal and then pay for another meal OOP (which would probably make the plan a bad value). DH and I wanted to do a mix - TS some days and not some days.

The bottom line is that your eating habits really need to match what you will get on the dining plan for it to be a good value.

 

[Lisa71]

We love the DDP for one reason...it is prepaid and as many posters stated you don't have to nickle and dime your choices. This allows us to eat at character meals, signature restaurants, and anything you want to eat is A-Ok..it is already taken care of. We had free dining last time, but had already budgeted for the plan. This time we are paying for it, and getting some groceries for breakfast (only one character breakfast booked to help with touring time). Our kids loved the flexiblity and my DD and I trade options often as he is a big eater and I am not. He can have my grown up CS meal and I can have his kids meal with the grapes and carrots.

 

[wallawallakids]

Pro:

You know ahead of time how much you are paying for food.

Con:

If you are a light eater, it's not a good value.

Limits flexibility.


DH and I have been to WDW 3 times together and we used DDP the first two. On our most recent trip, we did not use it and were much happier. I had done some quick math and realized that we weren't actually saving money using the plan - we were just ordering more food than we would have otherwise and throwing a lot of it away. Also, if you buy the QS plan, you can't have any TS meals unless you pay OOP. With the regular plan, you have to eat a TS meal every day unless you use a 2-credit meal and then pay for another meal OOP (which would probably make the plan a bad value). DH and I wanted to do a mix - TS some days and not some days.

The bottom line is that your eating habits really need to match what you will get on the dining plan for it to be a good value.

I agree. For us the DDP works out to be a lot more money than paying OOP. Esp when you figure in the things we wouldn't normally order (mainly desert and drinks at every dinner for all 6 of us. We are H20 drinkers and not big on sweets.) Add that to the tip you still need to pay, it was a lot more for me to buy the DDP vs. pay OOP. It took a long time to go through everything and the menus on the Dis but I felt it was worth it. With DD turning 10 this year, it was another big tipping point. She doesn't eat enough to make the cost of the adult plan "worth it". She would be happy with an appetizer or a grilled cheese. Plus I like the flexibility and not having to worry about the credits and what I can and can not order. I am admittedly cheap though and a bit obsessive with how we spend our money. It is probably a big fault of mine! Lol.

 

[buffettgirl]

One question - is Water considered a drink on the QS plan? I know that at TS / QS you get one drink and obviously you can get free ice water, but what about bottled water?