Dining plan worth it with $500 gift card

[VeeHam]

Hi

Newbie here again. I need some advice about whether or not I should purchase the dining plan or not.


We, myslef, DH, DD6 and DD3 are going for our first WDW in December of 2010. We are staying at WL and will receive the $500 gift card. I was thinking of using the gift card for dining that week. We have ressies at Cinderella's castle for 11:55 AM, 50's prime time cafe, whispering canyon cafe, tusker house (non-character), chef mickey's and les chef des france. We are planning on eating breakfast in our room with brought in cereal and such and will bring bottled water to the parks, as we usually drink water or milk. Do you think the dining plan would be worth it or would just using the $500 GC plus extra cash to pay for whatever is left be a better option? I'm leaning toward using the gift card to pay for food, but I'm not sure how much eating at theses restaraunts will cost us. I did see they all range from $15-36.99 on the WDW website. How much does the average meal costs at these rest. for adults and kids? Also is there a place where I can find the up to dates menus/prices for these rest. ?
Thanks so much in advance.

 

[Faldred]

WDWinfo (same parent site as the DIS) has restaurant/menu information here.

First question to ask is, if you don't use it to pay for meals, what would you use the gift card for? If you aren't going to have that much in incidental expenses, it may make more sense to use it to pay for meals and not got a dining plan.

Next up comes the normal math of: Where do I want to eat? How much would that cost? And how does that compare to the dining plan costs?

Then look at the subjective questions: Do I want to be tied to a schedule? Does the dining plan really "fit" my vacation style? Will it improve or harm my total vacation experience?

Edit: in short, I'm not really providing you any answers, but hopefully I'm helping you ask the right questions

 

[ilovepete]

I am currently doing a dining review and I've taken pictures of all the receipts to post to show people the cost. Of your list, I have already done Chefs de France, and coming up soon are some others you listed, Chef Mickey's, Whispering Canyon, and Tusker House lunch. You are welcome to check it out if you want, it might help in your decision.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2582253