dining plan worth the $$$?

[bballdiva]

HI goin to dw in october 2005 and i was wondering if anyone has input on the dining plan? I was wondering if this addition is worth the price.We will be staying at the port orleans french quarter. we are staying there for 7 days but we only got the disney pass for 3 days at the parks cause we also want to explore sea world ect. any imput would be greatly apprecaited.

 

[Bob P]

Hi and welcome!

If you go over to the restaurant board and do a search on the dining pan, yo uwill find lots of tips and opinions. Also, are you aware that if you go between August 21 and October 4 you can get the dining plan for free?
http://www.wdwinfo.com/discounts/discounts-current.htm#package

 

[pinkdiamonds1007]

Yes...Very much so worth it. Hope you were able to get in on the free dining plan before they ran out.

Nicole

 

[katecca]

We were glad we did it for our first trip to WDW. We paid $540 for 2 adults and 2 kids for 6 nights and spent about $750 in 7 days. DH and I said if we ever go back, we will probably not do the dining plan again even though we came out way ahead. We found that it was almost too much food. We don't normally have an appetizer for each person and a desert with every meal and the last day we were scrambling to spend all of our snacks and left without having 1 of the counter meals and 3 snacks. I guess it really depends on your family and how you think you will eat.

 

[ncbyrne]

We are also going in October, staying at Coronado Springs resort. I did some research, and for us, it is definitely worth it! http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dining.htm
On this website, you will be able to check out every restaurant on WDW property - menus and prices.
In your case, if you plan a few days of offsite activities, you will have to decide how much eating you will actually do at WDW to make it worth it for your family.

 

[bballdiva]

Thank you everyone for the great info on the dining plan it was greatly apprecaited. i am traveling at the end of oct 24 so i cant get the free deal, go figure thats just my luck. oh well. thnx again

 

[Texan Mouseketeer]

We saved over $400. I would definitely do it again! I am already trying to figure out how we can squeeze in a four day weekend with the free dining plan...

 

[Toadman99]

I had already purchased my package with Dining Plan before the free plan code came out. I got my money back, but was planning to pay anyway. Glad it's turning out to be a good deal for everyone.

Just wanted to point out (since I haven't seen anyone else mention it) that you obviously have to eat at one of the Disney restaurants to take advantage of it. If you are staying at your resort for 7 days, you will be paying for 7 days of meal plan. Might not be worth it if you are eating many lunches and dinners at Sea World or Universal or wherever else. I'm inclined to say that it won't be worth it for you to pay for the meal plan, unless you intend to return to your resort for dinner and lunch on at least a couple of those days. You're going to have to do the math based on your touring schedule.

_ Todd

 

[bballdiva]

Thanks for all the great imput it will def help me in mt decsion