Dining Plans

[dcentity2000]

So... are they worth it?



Rich::

 

[UKDEB]

I haven't ever bought the Dining Plan, so I'm not the best person to answer, Rich (although I do have an opinion ). Obviously it's a no-brainer if you can get free dining, but I'll hand over to those who have actually used it...

 

[Booknut]

I'm slightly OCD when it comes to dining plans so i'll give it a shot

The dining plan has been better value (they changed it for 2008 and removed the inclusion of 18% gratuity and appetiser at the table service meal) and is not necessarily a good deal if:

1. You are an annual pass holder. If you have an annual pass a DDE card may be better value as you get a discount of 20% at over 70 restaurants at Disney (the discount applies to alcohol as well). They will now add an automatic 18% gratuity but that seems the acceptable tipping level in the US anyway so you're still getting 20% off food and drink. Great value if you prefer sit down restaurants to the counter-service ones and you like to have drinks with your meal.

2. You don't like to waste your time in sit down restaurants and prefer to only eat a sit down meal 2-3 times a week.

3. You eat off-site a lot. If you have a lot of off-site favourites you want to go to then again the dining plan isn't such a great deal as you can get great value off-site at places like Ponderosa, Golden Corral, Applebee's, TGI's etc.

4. If you are going with kids between ages 3-9 they HAVE to order off the kids menu on the dining plan. From what i've seen of the kids menus I can safely say neither of my nieces would be that enthused by what is offered as they are used to eating what their parents eat and probably have never eaten a chicken strip in their lives Not a problem if you do lots of buffets but can be a bit limiting for chlidren used to eating a more varied diet.

If however you are going to be eating mostly on-site, want a sit down meal every day then I think you'll save the stated '30%' that Disney suggests by buying the dining plan. And its nice to be able to order anything from the menu without worring about price. The dining plan can be VERY good value at restaurants like Coral Reef, Tutto Italia, Le Cellier, Kona Cafe etc, all very good places btw

We are purchasing it for our trip in January because we will be eating mostly onsite and we're staying at Deluxes so that if our baby girl needs to go back to her room/is being fussy we can just eat at our hotel or order room service (which is worth 2 dining credits) so we're not stuck eating toasted bagels at night hoping she'll fall asleep

If you go to the main website of this forum, www.wdwinfo.com the dining section lists all the restaurants and menus, hope this helps

 

[Twilight Terror]

Well we had the free dining plan last year. However, we did make a note of everything we ate so we had an idea of how much we saved by having the free plan. The total came to $1,722.26, which at the time worked out at about a saving of £915.

Now, when you split that down between days and number of people (in our case that saving was over 14 days with 3 adults), the saving works out at £21 per person per day. So, if you can add the dining plan for £15 per adult per day, then I guess you've got a reasonable deal, especially if you eat at the more expensive places and always by the most expensive things off the snack/counter service menus. Generally we went for the cheaper end of the menu scale, so there is room for a few more savings.

Currently Virgin Holidays have the Dining Plan listed at £25 (I'm assuming that's per adult, per day)... Since only saved an average of £21 pppd, paying for the dining plan for us might not be such a great offer, although perhaps we might be able to break even. The other big thing is that these meals also included the gratuities and a starter for the table services meal, which the 2008 plan does NOT include...

I guess you have to weigh up the fact that if you paid out of pocket you are not restricted to getting through all your snacks, counter services and table services. Going to a restaurant every day can be a bit taxing and take time out of the park.

On the other hand, if you have the plan, you are guaranteed to have food for every day of your holiday and you don't have to worry about setting money aside because it's all paid for with the holiday, so you have some more spending money.

Unless you are having free dining offered, then there's really no straight forward answer! But if you have any other questions, then feel free to ask and I'll try an answer!

 

[Elise79]

We have just come back and used the dining plan.

We were 2 adults and like to eat a table service meal every day. I have added up what we ate and we saved about $10 per day per adult. We booked direct in the US so paid the standard dollar rate.

We only had five nights and table service restaurants were not necessarily the best 'value' use of our credits and we didn't have dessert one night either.

We ate at Maya Grill, Mama Melrose, Narocessee and Liberty Tree Tavern.

We use the plan to eat where we want and didn't try to get the best $ value as we had used the plan in the past and liked the ease of it and for us the convience is part of the value (although this is a little lower now the tip has been removed although that can be added on as room charge).

I WOULD NOT pay for it through Virgin Holidays as they are over-charging for it. I would only pay for it through Disney Direct.

Elise

 

[paulh]

have done the ddp 3 times,twice free and once paid.each time worth it,but that was before they changed it
Now its only good value if its free,with tip and app removed
It can dominate your trip
This year not doing ddp but are eating at a sit down,be it onsite or off.every outher day
Paulh

 

[Shooby doo]

Rich as other posters have said Free DDP takes some beating even with the supplement for staying on-site,if I had to pay for it though I would choose off-site every time.Obviously we will eat at some Restaurants that we normally wouldn't consider eg Cali Grill,but we have also eaten at some great places off-site.What I have found so far though (before even getting there!) is that because WDW recommend ADrs,the DDP plan becomes quite restrictive & less spur of the moment than we would normally be. Also since the changes,we are more "starter people" than "dessert people",so we will be paying oop for starters & eating dessert because it's on the plan! If you are staying on property & would have a sit-down meal everyday then it may be worth it but I would do my sums on what you normally spend v the cost of DDP.
HTH SD

 

[Lizzybear]

Pretty much echoing everyone else: If you enjoy sitdown meals and will use all the credits then yes, if not then possibly it wouldn't be good value. We got the 'old' DDP free last year and it was worth it for us and TBH we probably would have paid for it but with the revisions I really don't think we would, or at least not for a whole trip (maybe just one week) It was nice to experience the Disney restaurants but there are plenty of good value choices offsite, often with better kids meal options.