Dining Plan????

[Jeff Becker]

My wife and I are planning our first family visit to Walt Disney World. I did my first post looking for advice on staying at either the Polynesian or Beach Club. I got lots of great feedback people. This is a GREAT site for newbies like us. We are leaning towards the Poly. We will be going in June 2018. Our daughters will be 5 ad 3 years old at the time of the trip. We will also be celebrating my wife's 40th birthday. After receiving advice from other people, we are leaning towards a club level room. Should we also purchase a Dining Plan when we book our trip? Friends have told us that we should make advance reservations for meals. Does that require us to have a dining plan? We appreciate any advice on this topic.

 

[GillianP1301]

Opinions on the Dining Plan go from one extreme to the next and people have very strong feelings about their opinions on this topic.

First to answer your specific question... you do not need a dining plan to make an ADR (advanced dining reservation). You don't even need a vacation booking, anybody can book a dining ADR at any time 180 days or less. The advantage to staying on property, like you are planning, is you can book your entire vacations worth of dining when you are 180 days from the first day of your vacation. Often referred to as 180 days + 10.

When you're trying to decide in dining plan, the first thing to figure out is how you want to dine. Are you a family that will want 1 or more table service (TS) meals a day? or are you more the grab a quick bite types who will be eating mostly at quick service eateries (QS)? There are 3 levels of dining plan QSDP (3 QS a day + 2 snacks), DDP (1 QS, 1 TS + 2snacks) and DxDP (3 TS or QS + 2 snacks). Generally speaking it gets easier to "get your money's worth" the higher the dining plan you get, i.e. it's very hard to break even on the QSDP. That being said, since you are planning on club level, then I see no need for the DxDP because you will likely be using the club level to substitute some meals and/or snacks. That leaves the DDP, which I would still suggest you consider if you do plan on doing TS, most especially if you are planning on character meals because kids under 10 and character meals are by far the best bang for your buck on the dining plan.

 

[sharonabe]

You can make advance dining reservations (ADR) without the plan; you can also make them without any kind of resort reservation. You can start making ADRs 180 days before your first day at WDW. If you are staying onsite, you will be able to make ADRs for up to 10 days past that 180 days. If you're staying off-site, you can only make them for that one day and will have to wait for the next day to make the following day and keep doing it day-by-day.

Purchasing a dining plan depends on how your family likes to eat and where you plan to eat. You don't need to purchase the plan when you make your initial resort reservation, so you have some time to do some math. Start looking at the restaurants and making some decisions as to where you want to eat. Once you have that done, come back and let us know where you're eating and ask if a dining plan makes sense. With two little ones in the mix, it very well may be a cost saver for you, but staying club level does put a twist on it. If you think you will take advantage of the breakfast and cocktail hour offerings there, you probably won't be hungry for too many TS meals.

 

[Jeff Becker]

Thank you for the quick replies. Since we are staying on the club level, I imagine we will take advantage of the contential breakfast. We will most likely try for 1 TS meal each day at the most. I should have probably done the research on this before asking, so I apologize, but what is the biggest advantage of the dining plan? Does it reduce the cost of the meals?

 

[danielocha30]

Dinning plan isn’t a must but if you like the feeling of getting into your vacation knowing everything is taking care off is the way to go. Take into account how much your family eats, usually dining plan takes away the flexibility and you have to stick to whatever is included. Being your first time I would suggest NOT to get the DDP because you will be in a position to schedule every meal and plans can change once you are there and maybe you won’t feel like having certain meal at a certain time and having already paid for it will put pressure on you. DDP don’t save yoh money and isn’t needed to make ADR. Have a great trip!

 

[GillianP1301]

Thank you for the quick replies. Since we are staying on the club level, I imagine we will take advantage of the contential breakfast. We will most likely try for 1 TS meal each day at the most. I should have probably done the research on this before asking, so I apologize, but what is the biggest advantage of the dining plan? Does it reduce the cost of the meals?

The advantage can be cost savings, depending on the ages of your party and what you order. If money savings is your priority, then your best bet is to plan out where you are going to eat, check menus and calculate the costs to compare to the dining plan cost. Another advantage for some is having all their food pre-paid and not having to worry about sticker shock or watching menu pricing during vacation. Disadvantages can be that you order more food than you would eat if you were paying out of pocket for everything. For example, each TS meal comes with a beverage (in 2018 this will include an alcoholic beverage for the first time) and dessert. If you normally drink water and don't eat dessert, then the value isn't the same as if you were a soda/beer drinker and liked desserts. Some people also feel there is less flexibility with the dining plan. For example, if you want an appetizer as your meal, that wouldn't be covered with the dining plan.

Personally, I have done the deluxe dining plan for the last 3 trips with my son (he's under 10 so a "child" in the Disney dining world) and we do a ton of TS meals (2 - 3 a day). I always go during a free dining promo and just pay the upgrade to deluxe so it's very easy savings for me. Next year he will be 10 and for the first time I won't be upgrading to deluxe because he's now adult pricing and the money savings isn't there. I'm also wanting to see if I enjoy the flexibility of some out of pocket dining.

It's definitely a lot to research when it comes to the dining plan. I agree with the suggestion above that if you aren't sure, book your trip without it and take your time to figure it out. You can still make ADRs without a plan and you can take your time to see if you want to add it or not. You have up until a few days before your trip to add it on (I think it's 3 days, but don't quote me on that).

 

[foodiddiedoo]

Thank you for the quick replies. Since we are staying on the club level, I imagine we will take advantage of the contential breakfast. We will most likely try for 1 TS meal each day at the most. I should have probably done the research on this before asking, so I apologize, but what is the biggest advantage of the dining plan? Does it reduce the cost of the meals?

I'm in the same boat as you, staying at CL for the next trip, and I will be taking advantage of the breakfast, and possibly evening snacks/drinks. Since I don't plan on coming back to my resort in the middle of the day unless absolutely necessary (I like to maximize my time in the parks), I opted for adding the dining plan to our trip. We like to do one sit down meal a day so we got the regular dining plan. Do be aware that you have to tip still so when you "maximize" the money spent at a TS restaurant (order the most expensive drink, dessert, main course), you will be paying more in tip. I love the convenience of having pre-paid for the food, and not having to worry about what I'm ordering at each restaurant. I also enjoy the snacks because I don't feel bad about wasting 6 dollars on a cupcake.

 

[JFox]

I am a dining an convert.

We had our first DP experience last November. We qualified for the Free QS Dining for our trip. There were 7; 5 adults and 2 kids that eat like birds. I charted out our credits per day including ADR's we had scheduled. We would have to cover breakfasts out of pocket. For this trip we came out ahead for 2 reasons. 1. My 2 youngest often times shared an adult meal so I was able too bank a credit for each meal. 2. We had a day at US and also banked those meals. 3. Snack credits were used for items $4 or more. When we came home I took all my receipts and ran the numbers. We definitely came out ahead.

Last month my fiance and I purchased the DDP. I never would have considered this before because it was so much food and I didn't want to be in a restaurant all day. Well, it worked out since we had ADR's at several Signature restaurants. I'll be the first to admit that when I am eating at a restaurant I will be more apt to order a more expensive item to get my money's worth. While we were able to use all our meal credits we did have snack credits left over after the trip. We brought home snacks for the kids.

For future trips this is how I will decide if a DP is good for us. We will schedule ADR's we are interested in. Once those are finalized I will determine if one of the DP will be good for us and go from there. I don't anticipate purchasing every trip.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

The dining plan only works if you eat exactly as it's structured, otherwise, IMHO, it can be a little restraining. For example, if you are staying CL and will eat breakfasts in the lounge, you will most likely be considering the regular dining plan (aka DDP on these boards). This plan includes 1 quick service credit (entree or combo meal plus beverage), 1 table service credit (entree, dessert or full buffet plus beverage) and 2 snack credits per person, per night of your stay (which will be pooled so you can use as many credits as you want per day), plus a refillable mug per person. In 2018, alcoholic and specialty beverages will also be included with each meal credit on this plan.

Here's why it doesn't work for us. Neither of us drink alcohol, the "specialty drinks" (mostly milk shakes) or even soda, so we don't really want to pay the DDP upcharge WDW added in 2018 to cover these items nor do we need a refillable mug. We ALL love appetizers and sometimes I'll order two appetizers for my meal which I can't get on the DDP. We would never eat enough snacks to use up the snack credits. I don't want to spend my vacation worried that I'm not effectively using meal and snack credits to their full value, so, we just don't purchase it. I would rather order what we want, when we want it and pay from there.

If I were you, I would make a list of where you think you'll want to eat and then do some calculations from there. Know that if you do book club level, along with the breakfast, they will have snacks and bottled beverages (and alcoholic beverages) available to you throughout the day.

 

[rwdavis2]

Dining plans are not designed to save money although it is possible. I would never pay for it. We just pay out of pocket. IMHO, it's much simpler that way. If you can afford club level then any dining plan savings would not be worth the trouble trying to maximize it's value.

 

[hllb]

We are doing the dining plan. I've done the meal by meal calculation for my family (4 disney adults, 2 of which are actually teens, and one 7 yr old). If we paid OOP, we would save a few hundred dollars vs. taking the dining plan. However, we would order differently on the dining plan. If paying OOP, we wouldn't order drinks other than water most of the time, we wouldn't get dessert at every sit down restaurant, we might order a less expensive meal, we wouldn't do the refillable resort mugs, and wouldn't get two snacks each day. While we don't really need the extra food, my kids will think it's awesome to order pop or milkshakes and dessert. That said, if I were staying in club level, I would definitely not opt for the dining plan. You have drinks and breakfast covered every day, and if you're back at your resort in the afternoon, you'd have snacks too. I'd pay OOP for meals if staying CL.

 

[steph12]

If you are doing club level I would definitely NOT do the dining plan. We stayed at Poly club level and would eat our breakfast in the club and come back to rest in the afternoon and eat the evening food in the club and never wanted dinner. If you are staying club level you definitely want to take advantage of everything that is offered. If you find that you are going to be at the parks all day, then I definitely wouldn't do club level.

We have never found the dining plan to work for us. Depending on when you are going, you may find that you don't eat as much as you think. We just got back from our trip in October. The weather was so hot and sticky that we never wanted to eat, or even have snacks in the park. We really wanted ice cream, but when you stand in line for it and the people in front of you get their cup and it's already melted b/c of the sweltering weather, it really becomes unappetizing. Even when we went last December and had free dining we found that we couldn't use all the credits. The last morning I was trying to spend 6 snack credits and 4 QS credits. No one even wanted to look for snacks to use the credits b/c at that point we were so sick of eating all that food that nothing looked good. That is around $90+ that would have been wasted if we had bought the plan.

 

[Haley R]

The dining plan only works if you eat exactly as it's structured, otherwise, IMHO, it can be a little restraining. For example, if you are staying CL and will eat breakfasts in the lounge, you will most likely be considering the regular dining plan (aka DDP on these boards). This plan includes 1 quick service credit (entree or combo meal plus beverage), 1 table service credit (entree, dessert or full buffet plus beverage) and 2 snack credits per person, per night of your stay (which will be pooled so you can use as many credits as you want per day), plus a refillable mug per person. In 2018, alcoholic and specialty beverages will also be included with each meal credit on this plan.

Here's why it doesn't work for us. Neither of us drink alcohol, the "specialty drinks" (mostly milk shakes) or even soda, so we don't really want to pay the DDP upcharge WDW added in 2018 to cover these items nor do we need a refillable mug. We ALL love appetizers and sometimes I'll order two appetizers for my meal which I can't get on the DDP. We would never eat enough snacks to use up the snack credits. I don't want to spend my vacation worried that I'm not effectively using meal and snack credits to their full value, so, we just don't purchase it. I would rather order what we want, when we want it and pay from there.

If I were you, I would make a list of where you think you'll want to eat and then do some calculations from there. Know that if you do book club level, along with the breakfast, they will have snacks and bottled beverages (and alcoholic beverages) available to you throughout the day.

We use our extra snack credits that are leftover to get souvenirs to take home. For example, we get snacks we can take on the plane or bring back for family members.

 

[gharter]

Hope you enjoy your trip.
As others have mentioned:
I would suggest planning your trip in detail and making your ADR at the 180 day window.
The dining plan is hit or miss. We did it once, and for us, we found it was WAY too much food. We actually gave away several meals at a quick service as we didn't use them based on where we wanted to eat. You can get really strange looks when you want to give something away for free. And some of the restaurants that we wanted to eat at, were not included. I've read reports form others, that they loved it. If you can get it as a freebie, great, if you are paying for it, play with the number to see if its worth if for you.

 

[Pumbaa_]

I am not a fan of the ddp. I find it very restrictive. You can become obsessive w trying to get the best bang for your buck

With club level you have unlimited beverages. So mug is basically useless. YC had an awesome coffee maker, express, cappuccino etc. plus tea, juice water soda etc
What is it now, $18 per mug?

Snacks are often used for pastries for bfast, drinks and ice cream. All but ice cream is available in the lounge.

The evening offering can be used for a light meal.

With all the lounge offers, make use of it. If your beverages, snacks, bfast and evening snacks or light meal are all covered, what value does the ddp have for you?

Save the ddp money and pay out of pocket.

And I like BC over poly. Your kids will love the sand okay area. So very cool! Walking distance to Epcot, boat to the studios. But I can see the appeal of being close to mk. But you do then bus to3 parks. Something to consider. Especially w how frequently the monorail goes down.

 

[nighttowll]

Book your meals. Then when you have them fairly set, add up the cost and compare that to the cost of the dining plan. If it works out about the same or less and you feel the plan will make things less stressful, (this seems to be the biggest argument for doing it), call and add the plan.

Most of the time the dining plan offers no great discount or real price difference between the plan verses paying out of pocket. Every now and then, Disney will offer free dining or discount packages. Keep an eye out for these, then do the math on if it would be worth it to switch to one. It really depends on where and how often you plan on eating.

This is what we always do. We have always come out better not doing the plan, even when free dining was offered as we would have had to pay rack rate for the room which we got a massive discount on worth much more than the cost of our meals each day.

We will be using the plan for the first time ever next trip. I couldn't believe it when I did the math and came out about $300 cheaper, not even counting the cost of the snack credits or the refillable mug as we don't normally do either. This is a first for us. I was able to book a discounted package. I then priced out UT tickets, a discounted room only rate, and the cost of the meals I knew we were planning on doing each day. That price came out $300 more expensive than the package which included the dining plan.

However, I'm not quite sure how I feel about the plan. On the one hand, it will be nice to pick restaurants solely based on if I want to eat there without worrying about cost, but on the other, I do worry about restrictions and keeping credits straight which seems more stressful to me than simply ordering whatever I want and handing over my credit card.

A few other things to keep in mind:

Everyone in the room has to be on the plan. With your children's ages, many people paying out of pocket might opt to have them split meals with others in the group. There might not even be a need to purchase meals for each child except at buffets, so the dining plan might work against you in that regard.

Secondly, for first trips, especially with younger children, many people recommend booking only a few table service meals. Definitely not the 1 meal a day the dining plan gives you. To me, the dining plan seems to work better for those willing to focus more on meal experiences than attraction experiences. Meals can take up huge chunks of time. For a first trip where there's so much to see and do, you really don't want to be eating up that much time each day with meals, unless sit down meals are your favorite thing. TS meals can last anywhere from an hour to 4 hours. I estimate 1.5 hrs in my planning, and I'm not counting the travel time to and from the restaurant in there. We once waited 2 hours to be seated at 50s Prime Time and then the meal took 2 hours! Not the norm, but it does happen. Then factor in that going to DS to eat, takes even more time, as there is no quick easy way to get there and back. A visit to DS, usually involves a 3 step transportation process which can take a few hours by itself. Again, do you really want to loose 4 or more hours just on a meal? Definitely keep in mind travel time and realistic meal durations when planning your sit down meals. Don't think you'll be in one park and just hop next door to eat at a different one a few minutes later.

Third
Check the menus for the TS restaurants. We've had issues with picky eaters and even my not so picky eater finding things to eat on the TS menus. Which I don't blame them as there isn't a lot on many of the menus I care to eat either. When the kids were younger, this greatly reduced the number of places we had available for us to eat at. I'm not sure I could have come up with one TS meal a day back then.

 

[KenHutch]

If you go out to the site allears.net you can look at the menus and get some pricing in mind. We use the basic DDP every trip but we do a lot of buffets and the can be pretty pricey. I see you have young ones. Are you thinking of some of the buffets with M&G's? Chef Mickey's, Tusker House and Garden Grill are good places to meet Mickey and his friends without having to spend a lot of time in the parks in lines. Akershus in Epcot to meet the princesses saves a lot of time and trouble. When my daughter was younger I sometimes planned a buffet a day just so she could meet characters she loved and having them come to you instead of lines really really saves time.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We use our extra snack credits that are leftover to get souvenirs to take home. For example, we get snacks we can take on the plane or bring back for family members.

That's great! I know, some people love the DDP. We would never eat those snacks so it just doesn't work for us.

 

[hllb]

That's great! I know, some people love the DDP. We would never eat those snacks so it just doesn't work for us.

Just curious....what do you mean you'd never eat those snacks? As in, those snack credits? Or as in, "snacks to take home"? Just asking because I'm worried we won't have enough snack credits since we can use them for drinks too. We could easily get 2 bottled waters a day with our snack credits (not something I'd do since it's not cost effective, but you could).

 

[Jessirip]

We are staying at a family suite with a kitchenette, so though not included, plan to order some groceries and have continental breakfast in our room most days. We elected the regular dining plan for this trip solely because our kids are 3 & 6 and we plan to hit up lots of character meals. I probably wouldn't pay for those out of pocket based on the food reviews for most, but due to their ages I am really looking forward to meeting lots of characters this way vs. waiting in line in the parks.

And honestly, even if we come out about even, I really like the fact that it is already paid for when we go on our vacation. It makes it feel a little "all inclusive" to me. That said this is our first experience with it, so hard telling if it will turn out to be a good value for us or not. I envision us spending snack credits on a daily treat like a Micky Bar or Pretzel, and Starbucks for us tired parents.