We just got back LATE last night from Disney World and I had to take time to post about how GREAT the Disney Dining Plan turned out. 
We were there 9 nights with me, dh, dd5 and dd2. The 2 yr old was free so it cost us $720 for the 9 night stay for our food. ($35 + $35 + $10).
Before we left I was worried about not having credits for the 2 year old. It turned out to be no problem at all. We usually ate 3 meals a day and easily had enough food. What we did was buy the biggest breastfast platter item usually. At our hotel (Carribean Beach, also great, btw!), that was the Isle Bounty platter - it had scrambled eggs, potatoes (yummy!), a piece of french toast, sausage patty and bacon and a biscuit. You got to get a "dessert" with that, we got either a fruit cup, a cinnamon roll or danish or zucchinni bread that was just like dh's mom makes. We also got a drink. Since dh and I purchased the mugs from the hotel we got our dd's drinks - Oj, Choc milk or juice boxes. Usually they split one choc milk and we saved the extra for later. Occassionally we got pancakes (w/side of sausage) or some other meal, but we were still able to get the "dessert" and drink. So, we were able to get 2 meals and easily have enough food for all 4 of us without feeling hungry at all.
For lunch we did the same, got the biggest counter service thing we could. At Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe (magic kingdom) you can get 1/2 slab of ribs, 1/2 rotessiere chicken, mashed potatoes and carrots as ONE meal! Add in dessert and a drink and you're set. Dh got a double cheeseburger w/fries. Again, 2 counter services fed us all easily. Lots of times dh was too full from the breakfast and skipped lunch or just had parts of one counter service.
We enjoyed having the variety, the flexibility and the chance to try new foods. I think that we would have spent about $700 either way, but without the plan we would have eaten the cheapest things, had plain old cereal in the hotel room all the time and really not have eaten at any fancy resturants.
Here is the best part - our food bills totalled $1226 at the end! We ate $500 worth of extra food basically! WOW!!! On our last day we "bought" 9 Mickey Mouse Rice Crispy Treats and took those homes as we still had that many snack credits left. We also twice gave extra tip.
One problem we had was actually poorer service twice. It was almost like the servers KNEW they were gettting 15% so why bother. This happened at Whispering Canyon Cafe and again at the Yacht Club Galley.
We also had to watch our credits. Once we were double charged for counter services and another time the server (YCG time) rang it as 4 guests instead of 3 so it took one off. He assurred us the manager had fixed it but it wasn't. At Whispering Canyon the waitress wanted to charge us for my 2 year old having some milk shake and a cookie as if she had eaten a whole meal. These are easier taken care of at the lobby of the hotel instead of at the time we learned. It took 20 minutes for them to fix the WCC one.
I will make a seperate post later with the details of the meals we ate, right now, gotta entertain some kids.
I highly reccommend this plan to anyone - it was more than worth the money and made our vacation feel like a vacation!
Nora
We were there 9 nights with me, dh, dd5 and dd2. The 2 yr old was free so it cost us $720 for the 9 night stay for our food. ($35 + $35 + $10).Before we left I was worried about not having credits for the 2 year old. It turned out to be no problem at all. We usually ate 3 meals a day and easily had enough food. What we did was buy the biggest breastfast platter item usually. At our hotel (Carribean Beach, also great, btw!), that was the Isle Bounty platter - it had scrambled eggs, potatoes (yummy!), a piece of french toast, sausage patty and bacon and a biscuit. You got to get a "dessert" with that, we got either a fruit cup, a cinnamon roll or danish or zucchinni bread that was just like dh's mom makes. We also got a drink. Since dh and I purchased the mugs from the hotel we got our dd's drinks - Oj, Choc milk or juice boxes. Usually they split one choc milk and we saved the extra for later. Occassionally we got pancakes (w/side of sausage) or some other meal, but we were still able to get the "dessert" and drink. So, we were able to get 2 meals and easily have enough food for all 4 of us without feeling hungry at all.
For lunch we did the same, got the biggest counter service thing we could. At Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe (magic kingdom) you can get 1/2 slab of ribs, 1/2 rotessiere chicken, mashed potatoes and carrots as ONE meal! Add in dessert and a drink and you're set. Dh got a double cheeseburger w/fries. Again, 2 counter services fed us all easily. Lots of times dh was too full from the breakfast and skipped lunch or just had parts of one counter service.
We enjoyed having the variety, the flexibility and the chance to try new foods. I think that we would have spent about $700 either way, but without the plan we would have eaten the cheapest things, had plain old cereal in the hotel room all the time and really not have eaten at any fancy resturants.
Here is the best part - our food bills totalled $1226 at the end! We ate $500 worth of extra food basically! WOW!!! On our last day we "bought" 9 Mickey Mouse Rice Crispy Treats and took those homes as we still had that many snack credits left. We also twice gave extra tip.
One problem we had was actually poorer service twice. It was almost like the servers KNEW they were gettting 15% so why bother. This happened at Whispering Canyon Cafe and again at the Yacht Club Galley.
We also had to watch our credits. Once we were double charged for counter services and another time the server (YCG time) rang it as 4 guests instead of 3 so it took one off. He assurred us the manager had fixed it but it wasn't. At Whispering Canyon the waitress wanted to charge us for my 2 year old having some milk shake and a cookie as if she had eaten a whole meal. These are easier taken care of at the lobby of the hotel instead of at the time we learned. It took 20 minutes for them to fix the WCC one.
I will make a seperate post later with the details of the meals we ate, right now, gotta entertain some kids.
I highly reccommend this plan to anyone - it was more than worth the money and made our vacation feel like a vacation!
Nora
At Shutters the waitress put in the order as an adult entree but that was not our choice and was way too much food.
, too worn out. We had gotten priority seating that morning, and when we went in we were 15 min late for our time. The person in front of us was told 1.5 hour wait. We were seated in less than 10 minutes!! We are not seafood lovers, so this could have been lots more money. We got the Sesame Wings Appetizer (GREAT!), and a Ceaser Salad. (could have gotten one more, but nothing else interested us). Dinner was Ribs, Prime Sirloin, and a Kid's Meal Chicken Breast. Dessert, omg, yum. DH had ice cream, I had the Cappacino Cheesecake which came with a beautiful chocolate sculpture. Dd2 got a Mickey Brownie w/ice cream that had mickey sprinkles on it.
. I just wanted to clarify that one point. I can see that it is an awsome deal, though, and I'm glad I had it included! If you could just explain how you used your childs meals, it might help me to understand better. We are going to be DH (coming in from Iraq just for WDW!!! 
), Me, DS 4, DD 18 mo. Thanks for the help! 
