dining plan worth it?

[mistee]

trying to go in oct and wondering if the dining plan is worth it. there will be 5 of us, 2 adults, 11 year old , 4 year old and baby. we will alsol be getting a discount as my brother is a cast member,,, i think 21 for adults and maybe 11 for kids.

any input would be great

 

[jamaunt]

You'll get different answers from everybody.
An 11 year is considered an adult at WDW so you'll pay adult prices for that child. If you plan on doing a number of character meals, it would be worth it. If you are big eaters, I'd say yes...go for it. For us, it was a lot of food. We ended up with a bunch of snacks and a couple CS credits for the day we checked out which was fine. I almost felt like my day was centered around dining.

 

[The Hendies]

We have only had DDP once, and we really did enjoy it. We ate at places we probably would not have if we were paying out of pocket. However, it is a lot of food. The discount might make it cheaper than paying out of pocket if you think you're going to do a bunch of TS.

 

[keywestbride]

Would you get a similar discount if you were to pay out of pocket? If not, I'd definitely go for it.

 

[MGNA]

We just returned from our first Disney vacation. For us the Dining Plan was definitely worth the option. My advice would be to research your restaurant preferences and compare the Dining Plan price vs out of pocket.

For example, I would not use a Table Service Credit for Sci Fi. We dined there one day and opted to pay OOP. There are much better restaurants, IMO, to use for a table service. The atmosphere there is unique but I would compare the food to some of the counter service meals.

We also read many reviews, menus, etc for counter service options too because not every counter service is the same. You don't have to just eat "hamburgers & hot dogs" with the counter service meals. We enjoyed Wolfgang Puck Express and Tangeriene Cafe to be two of several good meals.

I do wish more restaurants had a better menu option for the children under 9. For example, at the Tangeriene Cafe my DSs would have opted for a smaller portion chicken or lamb entree instead of a hamburger or hot dog.

When we return to Disney we will opt for the dining plan.