Dining Plan???

[Disney87]

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[plotmom]

Yes, if you play your cards right and you want to try some of the sit down restaurants. It is roughly $37 a night per adult for one CS, TS and snack. You could use your CS for breakfast at your hotel (oop would be approx $10) your snack for a light lunch (it can basically be used for any item under $4) and have a sit down dinner at a nice restaurant and order shrimp cocktail, filet mignon, and an awesome dessert without worrying about cost or tip (oop could be about $50-60 a person). You could also switch things up a bit and do a snack credit at breakfast (obviously with a little oop to beef it up) have a sit down lunch and eat a quick dinner at a quickserve spot.

 

[dopeynme]

I agree. I think it is totally worth it if you like to eat in the more expensive restaurants. Last trip, I was with 2 big eaters and we found it to be plenty of food. Good luck!

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

I guess that I'll be the one to disagree. The DDP is a bargain for anyone who does TS meals everyday. But I think that you can definitely each cheaper without the DDP.

Each adult on the DDP will pay $39/night. You could bring breakfast foods to eat in your room, and do easily do CS meals for lunch & dinner for under $30/day. CS meals average around $10. Over a week's time, that adds up to somewhere in the neighborhood of $70 per person.

You also have to book a package with Disney to get the DDP. If you book just a room and buy the tickets yourself, you may pay less than you would for a package. You can get a room discount if you're a AAA member (20% off the rack rate of a value resort room during January) and discounted tickets, like thru UndercoverTourist.com.

I would check the menus and food prices at DIS Dining & Menus to get an idea of what the food would cost. And then I would compare the cost of a package with DDP (you can price it out at Disney's Official Website ), to the cost of doing room, tickets and food all separately. It's probably the best way to see which would work best for you.

ETA:
It's not that I don't like the DDP. I actually really like it a lot. It's just that I'm not convinced that it is the cheapest way to eat while at WDW. Knowing how college students can live on PB&J for a week before they switch to mac & cheese the next, I think that the OP could probably find a way to survive at WDW for less than $39/night.

 

[dancin Disney style]

If your budget is really tight I think you can eat for less per day than the cost of the dining plan. But, you will need to be able to go to a grocery store and have a fridge in your room.

Last year my family of 4 spent $500 on food for a 9 day stay at CSR. We stocked up on drinks, snacks, breakfast items, fruit etc. at the grocery store. We ate breakfast in the room every day and a few lunches. We had dinner most nights at the food court in the hotel. We never had and fancy meals. We also did a fair bit of sharing at dinner---mainly because the portions were large enough to do so.

If you can't get groceries and you are big eaters than the DDP is probably the way to go. It is also good if you want to have meals at the TS restaurants. Also, it might be helpful for your budget if your food costs are fixed and pre paid.

 

[Plantlady]

You can definately eat cheaper if you don't do the dining plan, by skipping TS meals, eating in the room, ect.

BUT, the dining plan allows you great savings if you like TS meals, and allows you the opportunity to try all sorts of new places to eat.

We did the dining plan and loved it. But, if we go back again, we would probably skip it, and just eat more CS meals, to save money.