Dining Plan - yes or no

[RipleyKCR]

Any feedback on the dining plan? A good way to go?

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

It can be, depending on the makeup of your group and how and where you like to eat. Kids under 9 are a bargain at 10.99 per day (or whatever it is this year) - adults may or may not be a bargain depending on your meal choices. Kids 10 and up pay the adult price (DDP or not) - whether that is a good deal depends where you eat and how much your child eats.

Check out allears.net for menus and prices and make some guesses as to where you will eat. If you will do a TS each day, DDP can be a good value. If you prefer to eat mainly counter service with a character meal or two thrown in, it might not be a good deal for you.

There is a subforum on the restaurants board with lots of DDP info.

 

[Disneyfan1977]

We like the dining plan. We don't eat out much when we are home and we try to pick the best restaurants in Disney to enjoy. I think it is worth the money too, but thats just our experience.

 

[eyor44]

We did the deluxe and will do it again.

Things to ask yourself. Do you like sit down meals and want to do them every night? Do you want to do a lot of character meals? Do you not want to worry about what things cost when you order?

For us, doing the dining plan, and making ADRs meant we had scheduled breaks each day. This worked really well for us. I know there are others here who will say it is a waste of money. What finally convinced me was I looked at all the menus, figured what we would order, did totals, added it tips (tips aren't included) and we saved about $350 over the course of the week versus paying out of pocket.

 

[dseth]

Wouldn't go without it! I love the freedom it gives us to try new places without the fear of the bill at the end of the meal.

 

[Mrs.Reese]

I really like the Quick Service Plan. No tips to worry about so everything really is pre-paid. You don't get sit-downs but it's a little cheaper. Two Counter Service meals a day, two snacks and a refillable drink mug.

 

[Piecey]

I'm doing it because my DH eats a lot more than me... and he can eat whatever I've got leftover. We're only doing counter service, though.
Plus, I like the idea of having it paid for and all taken care of before we go. To me that is almost worth the cost entirely!!

 

[mindyd]

We went without it this Year and I wish we would have gotten it. It is nice to have everything paid ahead of time and I spent a lot more paying out of pocket then I would have just for the dining plan. We didn't do all TS we were there for 8 days and did 5 TS but 3 were Character Meals. but even the Counter Service adds up we will definitely atleast do the Counter Service next time. We had a picky eater with us and I thought it would be better to not do the dining but that was a mistake.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

The Dining Plan is a must in our plans now. Our first visit we paid OOP and did not eat enough or keep hydrated. I cringed at the prices. When we started with the dining plan, I looked at it this way. I was budgeted for my vacation, not paying for the meals. My children who have picked up on the "cost" of items were not afraid to order what they wanted. (my DS13 to this day will still order a hamburger happy meal because it is the cheapest, and starve the rest of the day). Also, both my children and hubby have tried new foods and it didn't matter if they didn't like it, cause no one (okay MOM) was going to give them a hard time. My advise, try it once, and if you don't like it, then you don't have to do it again.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

We went without it this Year and I wish we would have gotten it. It is nice to have everything paid ahead of time and I spent a lot more paying out of pocket then I would have just for the dining plan. We didn't do all TS we were there for 8 days and did 5 TS but 3 were Character Meals. but even the Counter Service adds up we will definitely atleast do the Counter Service next time. We had a picky eater with us and I thought it would be better to not do the dining but that was a mistake.

Us, too. I figured up how much I thought we'd spend using allears.net before we left and it came out about $30 less than the DDP, but I was wrong. We ended up spending more than we would've spent and it was kind of stressful. I already told DH next time we'll either go during free dining or get the DDP.

 

[Kim1964]

We didn't care for it. Being tied to ADRs every day made it hard for us to be spontaneous. I thought about the quick service plan for this year, but with DD#2 still under 10, I am passing on it. I think the kids' menus are very limited and I don't want her stuck with mac and cheese or pizza for a whole week. Yes, it saves money if you want to eat all of those meals, but if you don't eat them all, the money is gone and they don't give you a refund for unused credits.

 

[TifffanyD]

We have done all 3 plans and love them all. We love DxDDP for shorter trips (we can get an extra day out of it) or really special trips (lots of signature dining). We love QSDP for the flexibility, price (can't beat it) while still having the snacks. We haven't done regular DDP in awhile but we just downgraded to it for free dining. Our first trip we didn't do the plan but we have EVERY trip since!

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

The other thing the dining plan does is encourage you to eat on Disney property instead of going off-site. That's not necessarily a bad thing - it is just another way Disney wants you to spend money with them instead of somewhere else.

If you plan to eat one TS meal per day, the regular DDP can be a good deal. If you don't eat TS meals at all, the QSDP can be a good deal. If you're like us and eat a few character meals, eat a bit off-site, eat CS meals fairly often and pack breakfast foods, it might not make economic sense. But since your meals are paid for in advance, it encourages you to eat at Disney and can be a good deal if you would do that anyway.

 

[Ashlander]

We love it! I like that I do not have to worry about paying for my meals when we are on vacation. We just get what we want and don't worry about it

 

[jaminmd]

We don't really eat a lot on vacation & we tend to graze throughout the day. I also don't want to be tied down to reservations every day, do the DP doesn't work well for our needs. I wouldn't turn it down if it was free but I won't buy it myself. We average about $60/day total for the three of us to eat.

 

[SpecialK]

We just got back from our first trip using the dining plan. Without paying much attention to optimizing use of credits for the most bang for the buck, it saved us about $250. My husband, who is not a Disney fanatic by any means, already said he'd like to do it again when we go back. We enjoyed having all of the meals prepaid, and we didn't even look at menu prices.

 

[3boymthr]

I neither loved it nor hated it. I saved a ton of money so I liked that part. I still have my receipts and still plan to add up exactly what I saved but I calculated in my head that our last day and half of meals were free. We definitely are not CS people so the basic DDP plan worked fine for us.

I LOVED going to restaurants and not having to tell my son, sorry you can't have the x or y because we can't afford it.

I liked that all the Lunch/Dinner meals came with a dessert so I didn't have to deny the kids the dessert because it was a budget buster. I also liked that I could take the dessert with me if it was a cookie or such.

I loved knowing that my food was paid for in advance so I wouldn't have another bill when I got home.

But...I still had out of pocket expenses. Although you can use your snack credits for all kinds of things I mostly used them for our third meal each day. I then ended up buying drinks out of pocket (DH refused to bring drinks into the parks). Even if I'd shipped from home it still would have been an OOP expense. And I still had one full meal out of pocket.

Also DH is a big eater for all his meals so a snack just didn't cut it for him for his third meal of the day. If we could have gotten a plan with two CS and a TS per day that would have been perfect plus I would have been able to not have the OOP expenses for drinks, etc.

I disliked having to drive myself nuts with picking where we were going to eat so far in advance and I disliked having to stop what we were doing to go get dinner because of the way the ADR system works.

 

[DSNY4ever]

If you eat all sit down meals, then possibly it is for you. But if you don't, it is pretty expensive. My husband and I eat one sit down meal per day in the parks and we never spend as much money on food as the Dining plan costs. But we usually split things (sometimes our meal or an appetizer or our dessert), and we never order anything other than water (that's all we like, except at breakfast my DH gets coffee). We usually eat breakfasts in our room (and then do one or two special sit down breakfasts per trip- breakfast buffets can get us all the way to dinner time with no lunch). Often we also bring food and snacks into the parks to eat for lunch. or our one sit down meal will be a late lunch so we get the lunch prices but can fill up as an early dinner. We calculated how much we spent on our last trip on food and it was way less than the dining plan.

On the other hand I know not everyone eats like that, and I have heard that if you do your research (and there is a lot of it) that you can get the dining plan to be a deal if you work your points right. And if I ever get it for free I definitely will give it a try, I guess I'll just have to loosen my belt a couple of notches to make more room

 

[golden6911]

I decided against it for our last trip (in 2006) back when it was better, gratuity and appetizers included, and we actually spent less OOP than we would have if we got the dining plan. It just doesn't suit how we eat. I like eating my big meal at lunch, which is less economical on the dining plan, and my husband and I tend to split meals a lot. My kids were, and are, picky eaters. Usually one kid size meal is enough for both of them, or I end up bringing a sandwich or fruit to the park that they would rather eat.

I say think about how you plan on eating and then decide. If you like to eat a table service meal every day for dinner and want to try some of the more expensive places at WDW it certainly can pay off.

 

[KNJWDW]

We just returned from WDW and did not use any dining plan and I am glad we didn't. It seems that every time I was checking out at a CS restaurant, the people in front of me were having trouble understanding the plan they were on. I talked to one of the cashiers about it and she told me it can be cost effective, but if you want stress-free dining, don't bother with it!