Dining Plan with 2 meals + snack...extra costs

[missliany]

I am totally new to this, so please excuse me if this is a silly question. We are planning our first ever family vacation to Disney world for our oldest daughter's 4th birthday in March (we also have a 1 year old). I am looking at the deals with the dining plan included and there is a huge difference between the price of the dining package with 2 meals + 1 snack or 3 meals + 2 snacks.
Obviously if we choose the first option we will have to purchase an additional 3rd meal out of pocket each day. What are the average costs of meals?

Thank you so much from a VERY overwhelmed newbie.

Liana

 

[brymolmom]

We have always done the Regular Dining Plan (2 meals plus 1 snack) and never the Deluxe plan. And the regular plan is PLENTY of food for my family. Keep in mind that the counter service meal includes dessert AND the table service includes dessert - so that is a TON more food at those 2 meals than we usually consume at home. I know it 'seems' like you'll need 3 full meals a day - but if you are like us, it won't be an issue. Some things to consider:
1) I have a family of 4 - we rarely order 4 full CS meals together. 3 meals (maybe with an extra snack credit used in there) is plenty for our family to share most of the time.
2) We always bring a box of cereal or two in our luggage. Between this and a couple of snack credits (think HUGE cinnamon loaf or HUGE chocolate chip muffins from Main Street Bakery at Magic Kingdom) - we are good for most breakfasts.
3) We will use the deal at the resort food courts where you get one large pizza, 2 drinks and 2 desserts for 2 CS credits. We feed our whole family this meal once or twice during the vacation - and this gives us 'extra' CS credits to use to split a couple CS breakfasts.
4) On our 'sleep in' day - we have a big CS breakfast at the food court at about 9 - 10 am. Then we head to the park and have 'ice cream for lunch' - the kids love it and it helps to use our snack credits up. Then we schedule early dinner at 5:00-ish. Only 2 meals plus a snack used and full tummies all day long.
5) We actually get so sick of food during a 7 -8 night trip that we intentionally schedule at LEAST one 2 credit signature meal - this means one fewer night with a Table Service meal (and therefore less overall food that day) - but we have to stretch our CS credits farther (as done with the sharing, etc. discussed above).
6) My extended family used the regular plan back in January - I think all of the 4 families ended up with unused credits ( a few snack and a couple CS). So it's not just me who thinks it's a lot.

Moral here is that outside of tips and alcoholic beverages - we spend very little to nothing out of pocket when we are using the basic dining plan. It does take planning, however. And we are not tiny people - we enjoy our meals!

 

[Forensicmom]

I've only got experience with this one (last year) but we had the regular dining plan and we have 4 kids (17, 13, 11, 8). This was MORE then enough food for us. To maximize things for us, I brought and extra suitcase (we flew Southwest, so it was free) filled with cereal, oatmeal, poptarts and other snacks. I also brough plastic bowls and spoons. We all ate breakfast in the room before we left for the parks. We sometimes for a snack and then had the CS for lunch. We were still full until we had out TS for dinner. That kept us full until we went to bed. We had leftover credits so we used those on the day we were going home.

I can't imagine how people can actually eat all of the food on the Deluxe plan. We wasted so much stuff. I would definately think that with a 4 year old and a 1 year old, the regular will be PLENTY.

 

[CraigInPA]

The difference in price is due to the fact that the 2 meals + 1 snack plan (Disney Dining Plus, or DDP) is 1 counter service and 1 table service, versus the 3 meals + 2 snack plan (Disney Deluxe Dining Plan, or DxDP) is 3 table service credits per day. In the DxDP, most people use 1 table service credit for a sit down breakfast or lunch, and 2 table service credits for a signature dinner or one of the dinner shows (Hoopty Doo Review, Spirit of Aloha). The other key difference between DDP and DxDP is that DxDP includes appetizers at lunch and dinner table service. The extra snack on DxDP also is often used, at least in my family, to get a breakfast pastry as we typically schedule lunch/dinner, not breakfast/dinner while on DxDP.

Even with the DDP, you'll find that there is a lot of food included. Portions are generous at Disney.

The only way to know whether you'll want to move up to DxDP is to look over the online menus, choose a typical day, and see how much it would cost for your whole family. Compare that to the price of DxDP and see if it makes sense for you.

When going out of pocket, I budget about $40 per person for a sit down table meal, $80 for a signature table meal, and $15 for a counter service meal for an adult.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

The regular dining plan with 1 TS, 1 CS and 1 Snack was plenty of food for us. We had leftover snack credits and CS credits at the end of our stay.

The portions are large, and often we would split some CS meals. Usually we split breakfast platters, or saved our CS dessert for a snack for later. We were never hungry.

I would advise not purchasing the deluxe and just paying OOP for anything extra. We only ended up paying oop for 2 hot chocolates that I purchased early in the trip because I was worried about using up all our credits too fast. lol

We also brought a box of cereal and some instant oatmeal for some breakfasts when we wanted to get to the parks quickly!

 

[vicki_c]

I don't think the Deluxe plan is a good choice for a first time visit to WDW with very small children. To get the full benefit of the 3 credits per day, you will be spending a lot of time eating in table service restaurants. That will take up a lot of time when you would probably rather be touring the parks and it is often not something that families with small, squirmy, impatient children (not that yours fall in that category of course - LOL) want to do. I'm sure you would be fine with the regular dining plan or no dining plan at all. My family has never done the dining plan and find that we spend less without it - and we do eat at TS locations at Disney.

 

[wdwloverz]

You also may want to consider the Quick Service dining plan and just fill in with a Table service meal or two that you really want to try. The Quick service ding plan gives you (2) Quick Service(counter service) meals per day and (1) snack. This will save you a lot of $ per day vs the DDP(regular dining plan) and leave you extra money to pay out of pocket for a few TS meals... It is what I would do if I were doing WDW with a 1 and 4yo

ETA: there are some VERY decent counter service places at DTD and in most of the parks (DHS is a little shy on decent CS food). There is a lot of info here regarding the YUMMY CS places!! With a little research you won't be disappointed!!

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I don't think the Deluxe plan is a good choice for a first time visit to WDW with very small children. To get the full benefit of the 3 credits per day, you will be spending a lot of time eating in table service restaurants. That will take up a lot of time when you would probably rather be touring the parks and it is often not something that families with small, squirmy, impatient children (not that yours fall in that category of course - LOL) want to do. I'm sure you would be fine with the regular dining plan or no dining plan at all. My family has never done the dining plan and find that we spend less without it - and we do eat at TS locations at Disney.

I agree that the Deluxe plan is not the best choice for a first visit with small children. You would have to do 3 TS meals per day to really make the cost of the Deluxe plan worthwhile. I found the regular plan with 1 TS, 1 QS, and 1 snack to be plenty of food. I sometimes used our snack credits to get something small for breakfast the days when we weren't doing a character breakfast. I also packed granola bars and other breakfast/snack type foods to eat in our room or throw in our park bag.

I found that on days when we were doing a character breakfast, we really didn't need 2 additional meals that day. We'd be full enough that we'd eat a really late lunch or early dinner, and maybe buy a snack to supplement.

 

[Peachkins]

Yeah, the regular dining plan was fine for my family, and our group was mostly adults. The deluxe plan to me only seems like a good deal if you're going to make a lot of dinner reservations at table-service restaurants. For the most part we only ate two full meals a day while there- we did a counter service meal for breakfast, used a snack for around lunchtime, and then used our table-service credit for dinner. Even if you add another counter service meal to that, you're not going to spend anywhere near the extra you would pay for the deluxe plan. You would have to eat at least two table-service meals, plus a third meal, plus your two snacks each day to even come close to getting your money's worth out of the deluxe plan. That's a lot of food.

 

[goofyintoronto]

The regular dining plan with 1 TS, 1 CS and 1 Snack was plenty of food for us. We had leftover snack credits and CS credits at the end of our stay.

The portions are large, and often we would split some CS meals. Usually we split breakfast platters, or saved our CS dessert for a snack for later. We were never hungry.

I would advise not purchasing the deluxe and just paying OOP for anything extra. We only ended up paying oop for 2 hot chocolates that I purchased early in the trip because I was worried about using up all our credits too fast. lol

We also brought a box of cereal and some instant oatmeal for some breakfasts when we wanted to get to the parks quickly!

I agree with this. The reg DP is plenty! We always use up all of our snack and TS credits, but we always have leftover CS credits....we buy snacks with those. So this DP is perfect for us! I think its more than enough food. Delux is way too much, unless you plan on doing a signature dinner every night, otherwise i think its too much.