Dining Plan - What's the big deal??

[Familyx4]

Our 5th trip to DW is June 15th for 10 days. We have never used the dining plan but have been reading a lot of posts about how great it is. Can someone help me because I just don't see the value for our family? When we are at Disney food is the least of our concerns. We usually eat things we packed from home for breakfast, snack through lunch and eat a decent dinner. We don't do character meals anymore since the kids are 15 and 12 and do not require upscale sit down dinners - particularly at Disney. We typically spend less per day than the cost of the plan. Is there something we are missing? Thanks for any help!

 

[LilGMom]

If you are packing things from home and spending less than what the DDP costs per day than it obviously isn't a good idea. For my family we were spending about what the DDP costs per day and not getting as much food, so for us it makes sense to do the DDP. So no, I don't think you are missing anything - each family has different dining habits and for some the DDP can save them a good bit of money.

 

[ribbot]

The DDP costs $40 per day for Adult---so as long as you're not spending that, then I guess it wouldn't be for you. Remember though to add up the cost of the things you've packed from home and the drinks that you'll have to buy to wash them down. I'd probably sit down and make a list of what I'm bringing from home, an estimate of the drinks, the cost of your snacks for lunch and look at the menus to decide where you might be eating dinner for those 10 days and see if it's worth it for your family. In Disney, it really doesn't take much to add up to $40 a person per day.

It's not for everybody--but for some, it's great! I am not leaning one way or the other since our upcoming trip will be the first time we'll be using it.

 

[Twingle]

I can only speak for myself and my family, but for us the Dining Plan is a HUGE saver. Given the way that you tour the parks, it probably is not to your benefit to use the DP. We always have one sit down meal a day - ALWAYS. Sometimes it is a character meal, sometimes it's just a table service meal, like at 50's Prime Time or Sci Fi Drive In.

The price of a character meal is approximately $28.00 for adults, approximately $13.00 for children.

The DP costs $38.00 per day for adults. That's $10.00 more than the character meal, and I cannot purchase both snacks and lunch for under $10.00 at Disney.

For our family, it just makes sense. But, like I said, we always plan for one sit down meal a day.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

For us, half the fun of Disney is the parks and the other half is the unique dining experiences. We are foodies though and could easily spend $300-$400 just for dinner at one of the signature restaurants each night for our little family. We use the vacation as an opportunity to try different things and live it up (wine, appetizer, entree, dessert, etc.). We go all out. We did this all the time, way before DDP came to be. (BTW...we don't normally eat like this at home and we are not in need of Jenny Craig! )

The DDP was a phenomenal deal for us, because it literally saves us thousands...yes, thousands of dollars on food when we are at Disney. I'm sure for other folks, who aren't even foodies, it allows them the opportunity to try different things like the character meals and table services restaurants that they may not have otherwise tried if it weren't for the DDP. For some folks it may not be worth it, but I think the majority appreciate the opportunity and savings it can afford you. Everyone's needs are different, so whatever suits your family.

 

[BroganMc]

Another alternative is the Disney Dining Experience which gives you 20% off the meals you do plan. We're notorious for just doing a few sitdown meals per trip and when we eat out we almost never get much of a snack.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Another alternative is the Disney Dining Experience which gives you 20% off the meals you do plan. We're notorious for just doing a few sitdown meals per trip and when we eat out we almost never get much of a snack.

We have the DDE card. But isn't that only open to AP holders, CM's and DVC members? We paid $50 to renew our card this year (just like having it still), and they wouldn't process the renewal until I found my AP and provided them with the number off of it. Just curious if they changed the guidelines recently because some of my extended family would love to get DDE card, but they don't have AP's.

 

[italianfamilia]

So this Dining Package is it only available if you are staying at a hotel near Disney? Can you just purchase a Dining package. We are having to stay in Daytona, DH work assignment, and we are driving back and forth each day, me and the kids. Want to save as much as possible on food. So would I be able to purchase a dining package if we aren't staying at a Disney resort?

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

So this Dining Package is it only available if you are staying at a hotel near Disney? Can you just purchase a Dining package. We are having to stay in Daytona, DH work assignment, and we are driving back and forth each day, me and the kids. Want to save as much as possible on food. So would I be able to purchase a dining package if we aren't staying at a Disney resort?

I'm pretty certain to have DDP, you have to be staying at a Disney resort or at DVC. You can't purchase it as a separate thing. Then again, it could have changed, but that's what I was told last time I inquired.

 

[mom2aredhead]

So this Dining Package is it only available if you are staying at a hotel near Disney? Can you just purchase a Dining package. We are having to stay in Daytona, DH work assignment, and we are driving back and forth each day, me and the kids. Want to save as much as possible on food. So would I be able to purchase a dining package if we aren't staying at a Disney resort?

No, it is part of a package if you are staying at one of the Disney properties.

To respond to the OP, it works for a lot of people, but not for us either. It just doesn't suit our vacation to have to drop everything and run to a TS restaurant because it's already paid for. We talked about it, and my husband gave me the "reality check" - He made some kind of comment about dragging my son off Small World kicking and screaming to go to Canada for steak dinner at 4:30 in the afternoon and it just sounded silly. We'll be there for 6 nights, and have reservations at CM for dinner arrival night, CM breakfast departure morning, Mickey's Backyard BBQ and Garden Grill during the course of the week. Rainforest Cafe is also a must do for us and is not on the plan. We'll have a rental car, so we'll have lots of options. Would we save money on the plan? Probably. Not a ton. Not enough to make it worth it. Frankly, it's too much of a commitment for me.

Yes, I know if you add up the price of GG for the 3 of us it would cost what the plan cost for the day and I would still have a CS and snack credit for that day and I could eat steak every day blah blah blah. But if I want to cancel GG and go to Margaritaville at City Walk instead, I can. If my son wants pizza at Pizza Planet, he can get it. I still plan to eat whatever I want and I don't stress over menu prices on vacation. It's only 7 days out of my life. When I get home I'll eat a yogurt for lunch for 3 days instead of a sandwich and it'll all even out. We'll have filet mignon and a bottle of Merlot at home. "Disney Time" means "Park Time" for us!

 

[labst60]

We did the DDP on our trip last May and wouldn't do it again, at least until our eating style/family dynamic changes.

It was DH, me and DD (14months at the time), so we only needed to pay for 2 adults. I just didn't fit our eating style, so we didn't save any money.

At WDW, we typically would eat a light breakfast on the run (most likely something from our room or boardwalk bakery), do CS for lunch and then TS for dinner (or vise versa), so we thought it would be a good fit. However, our ordering style is more 1 appetizer, 1 entree, 1 dessert split between the two of us or (more often) 2 entrees, no appetizer and dessert and a kid's meal for DD so we could order more "adult" foods.

It really just ended up too much food- and a pain to figure out how we were going to use the extra credits. Sure, we could have done more signature meals (we did do Flying Fish), but holding a toddler every night in a more upscale restaurant is not my idea of a good time - she did much better at character meals and more casual palces - so for us, we do better with our DVC discount at some places - and maybe next trip we'll get DDE, but with a 2 year old, I don't see us doing that many TS on this trip!

 

[Suzanna1973]

We purchased the dining plan when we went to Disney in June of '05. It was worth every penny!! I took my mother and my children, and we had dinner at the Living Seas restaurant. Grand total for that meal alone was $234(tip included). My mother almost had a heart attack until I gave him my room key to remove the DDP credit for that meal. She was amazed!!! And earlier that day we had used a counter service meal, plus a snack that afteroon. My mom was overwhelmed by all the food. We used two of our table services to have a character breakfast and it was so fun! The kids really enjoyed themselves. Ages 3-9 are $11 daily for the dining plan, and 10 and up are $38 daily. All the information you need on this are posted on disney's website. Hope this helps! Enjoy your stay!! Have fun!!

 

[CleveRocks]

Our 5th trip to DW is June 15th for 10 days. We have never used the dining plan but have been reading a lot of posts about how great it is. Can someone help me because I just don't see the value for our family? When we are at Disney food is the least of our concerns. We usually eat things we packed from home for breakfast, snack through lunch and eat a decent dinner. We don't do character meals anymore since the kids are 15 and 12 and do not require upscale sit down dinners - particularly at Disney. We typically spend less per day than the cost of the plan. Is there something we are missing? Thanks for any help!

You're not missing a thing.

The Dining Plan is a bad deal for my family. We eat breakfast in the room (not big breakfast eaters, anyway) courtesy of a grocery delivery, and we eat counter-service for lunch and dinner. In a week at WDW, if we eat 2 table-service meals that's A LOT for us.

So I did the math and realized we'd pay much less out-of-pocket than pay for the Dining Plan. And I checked my receipts after the trip and I was correct.

For people who will eat a table-service meal every day, I think the DDP is an exceptional value, a real no-brainer. But for families like mine, it would be a poor choice.

 

[CleveRocks]

The DDP costs $40 per day for Adult---so as long as you're not spending that, then I guess it wouldn't be for you. Remember though to add up the cost of the things you've packed from home and the drinks that you'll have to buy to wash them down. I'd probably sit down and make a list of what I'm bringing from home, an estimate of the drinks, the cost of your snacks for lunch and look at the menus to decide where you might be eating dinner for those 10 days and see if it's worth it for your family. In Disney, it really doesn't take much to add up to $40 a person per day.

I hear what you're saying, but just to clarify, it wouldn't be correct to add up all the money you'd spend on food in a day. It would only be correct to add up the amount you'd spend on 2 meals and one snack per day (per person). The DDP doesn't provide 3 meals a day.

SO, in my family's example, we eat breakfast in the room each morning. In figuring out whether the DDP would work for us, I would NOT include our breakfast grocery expense, since we'd be using the DDP for lunch and dinner (and a snack) only, know what I mean?

 

[Familyx4]

Thanks for all the good thoughts. It sounds like it is more a function of the type of dining you like to do at Disney. In our case, we are light eaters and will probably be too on the go for all the "sit downs" We usually do one nice restaurant dinner and Rainforest on our trips. So I think the dining plan is not for us. Thanks! This Forum really works well.

 

[labst60]

We did the DDP on our trip last May and wouldn't do it again, at least until our eating style/family dynamic changes.

It was DH, me and DD (14months at the time), so we only needed to pay for 2 adults. I just didn't fit our eating style, so we didn't save any money.

At WDW, we typically would eat a light breakfast on the run (most likely something from our room or boardwalk bakery), do CS for lunch and then TS for dinner (or vise versa), so we thought it would be a good fit. However, our ordering style is more 1 appetizer, 1 entree, 1 dessert split between the two of us or (more often) 2 entrees, no appetizer and dessert and a kid's meal for DD so we could order more "adult" foods.

It really just ended up too much food- and a pain to figure out how we were going to use the extra credits. Sure, we could have done more signature meals (we did do Flying Fish), but holding a toddler every night in a more upscale restaurant is not my idea of a good time - she did much better at character meals and more casual palces - so for us, we do better with our DVC discount at some places - and maybe next trip we'll get DDE, but with a 2 year old, I don't see us doing that many TS on this trip!

 

[design_mom]

I was surprised when I looked into the DDP. I didn't think it would be worth it for our family since we are not table-service people.

However, I looked up the cost of food on AllEarsNet and was surprised. I planned on two meals per day (breakfast from stuff we brought from home) -- mostly counter service. I priced them as eating reasonably, though not cheaply. When I say that I mean that we'd order two sandwiches, two drinks and two kids meals for our family of four, but no appetizers, dessert or extra stuff. I had one table-service meal and one character meal figured in (also ordering entrees/drinks only). I figured on a snack one day (mouse bars at the MK are a "tradition.")

The total price of what I figured out was within $20 of the DDP price -- and DDP would have included a lot more food.

I still don't think we're going to add the DDP because I don't want to be tied down to reservations for the TS meals. We prefer counter service because we can eat when we're hungry and tour if we're not. (I'm really surprised that they won't let you use your TS credits for CS meals...I can certainly understand not letting you do the other way around, but...) Anyway, I still don't think it's the right "fit" for us, but it's not because of the price.

Kim

 

[leighe]

I'll probably get flamed for this but DH and I think that the DDP is just ruining table service at WDW. The menus are now all very similar and the quality of both food and service in certain restaurants (Le Cellier and California Grill come quickly to mind) has declined IMO. We have never used the dining plan because we just don't eat that much in a day. We do use the 20% DDE card since we are AP holders.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

I'll probably get flamed for this but DH and I think that the DDP is just ruining table service at WDW. The menus are now all very similar and the quality of both food and service in certain restaurants (Le Cellier and California Grill come quickly to mind) has declined IMO. We have never used the dining plan because we just don't eat that much in a day. We do use the 20% DDE card since we are AP holders.

Well, I hate to be in agreement, but I totally understand where you are coming from. We had the same thoughts in the past year. Don't get me wrong, I love everything Disney, so I'm not knocking it as a whole...but I agree. Great for Disney, not so much for the guy who recalls the great variety and personal attention you used to be able to get. Perhaps the service is related to the fact that the servers are guaranteed 18% gratuity? I didn't know they were actually guaranteed that from Disney until recently, but I guess that sure would cut down on giving a rats behind about the service you provide...and with the volume of people DDP has created at the table service restaurants now, the great service is not always there. I'm not sure if the menus really were changed due to DDP or because Disney was trying to have healthy offerings on their menus. Could be because of both. I do miss some old favorites, but I guess there is not much you can do.

I love DDP for the money it saves us, but I'd happily trade it in if we could go back to the way things used to be before DDP. It's absolutely ridiculous that you have to plan your meals so far in advance (and if you don't you may be out of luck), the offerings are not all like they used to be and the service lacks at times. DDE was a great deal for us as well, but I guess we have to get with the changing times (just don't have to like it).

 

[TheBigQ]

Thanks for all the good thoughts. It sounds like it is more a function of the type of dining you like to do at Disney. In our case, we are light eaters and will probably be too on the go for all the "sit downs" We usually do one nice restaurant dinner and Rainforest on our trips. So I think the dining plan is not for us. Thanks! This Forum really works well.

We decided the same thing. Even though the DDP would have saved us a little $ if we went to all our 7 scheduled ADRs, we decided that we would rathar have the flexibility in our schedule and not having to be a certain place at a certain time. And if you add up the time waiting for your table, ordering/eating and waiting for your check it could be 2 - 2 1/2 hours later. All that time GONE! Having said that I have scheduled 5 ADRs but if we decide kiddos are too tired or we want to do something else we can cancel and we won't have to worry about losing a TS credit and losing money.

We are light eaters also so I've planned breakfast & one meal in our room (we're having groceries delivered) and then the other meal will be CS or one of our ADRs.

Good luck and have fun!