dining plans

[lilpeople]

are dining plans really worth it. i have two picky eaters. thinging about eating breakfeast in room and will be leaving disney during day to rest. thinking about skipping dining plan and eating outside of disney for lunch and eating dinner at disney. please help. we are new at this and need lots of help

 

[princesslily]

I love the disney dining plans, but have never actually paid for it! I think if I was going to leave disney during the day, I wouldn't purchase it. When we go we are in the parks from opening to close! Each person is different, but I would not get it if I were you! Have a great trip!

 

[Redheaded Sunshine]

There are some people that swear by it and others that say it is a waste.

I swear by it....and I have DS 8 and DD 6 (who only eats macaroni anywhere we go )

What you should do is look at restaurants that appeal to you and what you think you would eat. Look at the costs of the meals and see if your appx. OOP cost is outweighing the difference of the DDP. You could also consider the QSDP...it's great b/c everything is paid for and things like food costs can sneak up on you quickly.

 

[3pletprincesses]

For us it's worth it, for others it's not. I like worry free vacation and having everything pretty prepaid before the trip. gives me peace of mind and not have to worry about $ while on vacation

 

[akcire]

I'll be the contrarian.

To me it has way too much dessert and empty beverage calories. No matter if it is the quick service plan, the regular dining plan, or the ultra-mega deluxe dining plan--I just don't eat dessert at every meal. In addition to all the meal desserts, it comes with a ton of snacks.

If I go to disney for a week. I don't need to eat 14 desserts, and 28 snacks. I am not saying I don't enjoy a snack, but if I eat a meal that is enough food. If I want a snack a couple hours later, I will buy one and probably split it with others.

From a financial standpoint, it can work out to be a cost savings if you would normally order a beverage, and dessert at every meal, in addition to ordering the most expensive item on the menu. If your family eats like mine, it may just be a break even (or even a loss if you need to buy new pants when you get home).

Finally, our first trip with the meal plan had us "shopping" at the hotel food court on our way to the airport. We actually flew home with close to 20 unused snacks, mostly Mickey ear rice crispy treats.

 

[Pembo]

Another vote against...I have picky eaters, we don't do a lot of sit down restaurants. However if you are planning on a lot of character meals, then it's a consideration. Check out the menus and prices on allears.net and price it out.

We did use the QSDP in the summer. I loved being able to get bottled water all the time. I did price compare once we got home and the savings wasn't all that big plus we wasted a lot more food. My 2 younger kids would have shared a lot of meals and we never usually get a drink per person.

Our last trip we had a gift card loaded with $$ that we used to pay for our meals. That way we didn't have to carry cash or have a large credit card bill when we got home.

Best of luck in your planning and welcome to the DIS.

 

[Darcy03231]

With picky eaters and planning on going off property I wouldn't get it.

We get the dining plan every time (unless its an offsite trip), but we've had multiple trips to WDW so we tend to tour at a very leisurely place and like to have a sit down dinner every night. While I probably doesn't save me money, I like the fact that all of our meals are paid for before we get there. I tend to be pretty frugal so I would definitely be looking at the menu prices. This way I just order what a want and don't worry about the cost.

 

[brymolmom]

It depends a lot. I think you can save a ton of money by NOT getting it, if that's what you want - by eating in the room and bringing drinks and snacks (and sandwiches too) to the parks. Moderates have frig's in room so that makes it easier - you don't mention where you're staying.

I will say this - if you haven't been to WDW a lot - I find eating offsite when staying onsite to be kind of a pain except for maybe once maybe twice total when on the trip. Now when I'm staying offsite - I enjoy catching some takeout or stopping somewhere on teh way back to the hotel. But when staying onsite...I just find it so much easier to eat onsite too. So for convenience you might want to consider it.

I think the best part about it is the convenience of having everything but tips paid for and planned out beforehand. But some people hate that so it's a personal choice. If you are planning on eating a few sit down meals/character meals anyway - I would figure out the costs to compare.

 

[stich1fan]

Yes, yes, yes...dining plan is a must. We love it and always get it. This year our DD is 4 and sh will be getting it also. I think it depends on where your family normally eats. We love eating at Disney and Epcot restaurants are a must. You can easily spend the cost of the dining plan in 1 sit down meal. But I guess if you are the fast food/counter type people I am not sure.

It is $39.99 for 1Q, 1T and 1 snack, that is totally worth it if you eat at a sit down place. The kids price is $10.99 plus I think they get an app too.

Then $29.99 for 2 Q and 2 Snack, and the kids are only $8.99 so it does seem worth it. Not sure where you can eat all day for only $8.99 for a kid?

I guess the best think is to try it one trip and see if it fits your family. We love it! Just make sure you make your reservations way ahead of your trip if you plan on doing sit down service so you don't get blocked out. Those restaurants very rarely have walk up ressies available.

Side note I think leaving the world to eat just wastes precious time and we never do it.

Also if you have picky eaters you can call ahead and the restaurants will make sure there is something your child will eat available. we have done this before.

 

[leadfootlevi]

We got ours "free" and I don't think I'd do it again. Too many desserts, too many snacks (unless you use them up at F&W - that would be worth it). Then again, I might consider it again, but use it differently. Instead of dessert, choose something that can be eaten for breakfast the next day. At most of the counter serve restaurants desserts were pretty yucky anyway. And, try explaining THAT to a 5 year old. Choose water to drink more often than soda. Many days we all didn't feel like eating a CS and a TS meal. We had a light breakfast in the room, we'd share a snack or two before lunch, many times we didn't feel like eating lunch but we'd force ourselves to in order to feel like we were getting our bang-for-the-buck on the "free" dining plan, then we'd do a TS dinner. Way too much food. We tried a buffet for breakfast one morning - we will not do one again. We stuffed ourselves almost to the point of being uncomfortable. I mean, who can resist Pooh's French toast!?

Here's what we'll probably do the next time we go:

Have breakfast in the room. Bring snacks. They should be high protein. Think CLIF bars, trail mix, PB sandwiches, apples and PB, bananas (put them in a stiff-sided ziploc type container to protect them), health-conscious granola bars, carrots and celery, etc. Take water bottles and fill them at the CS restaurants that give out free water (that water is filtered, the water from the fountains is not), take drink mix-ins like crystal light if you have picky children, eat a CS lunch at the park - sharing if possible. Buy a snack to share in the park. Do a late-ish dinner outside of the parks (utilize sites like groupon and restaurant.com to score some deals). If you are going to be eating TS meals in the park, lunch is usually cheaper than dinner. I don't believe CS meals change prices or menus for lunch vs. dinner.

I know you said you were going to leave during the day to rest. You know your family best, but for us it wasn't worth it. Of course, when we went the crowds were moderate, the weather wasn't too hot, and MK and DHS were closing somewhat early. Plus, our DS5 is not a night person. If you're going with heavy crowds, high heat, and longer park hours a break would be necessary.

Have fun!

 

[3boymthr]

Here's what I did - forget using the snacks for snacks use the snacks for breakfast. Fruit counts as a snack, bagels count as a snack, muffins count as a snack, etc. (toast was too cheap to use a credit for (89 cents)) so we had breakfast every morning using the DP snack credits, then we had lunch using our QS credits and dinner using the TS credits. The dessert that came with the QS was saved in a baggie as a snack; usually pre-wrapped cookies and brownies or at our resort QS restaurant (we stayed at the YC) they gave us a ticket to come back for an ice-cream when we were done with our lunch. We just saved that for later. We saved over $300 and I have two extremely picky eaters (One because he's just picky and the other because he has food issues as to texture - it's an OT thing). Their picky-ness limited MY choices somewhat as I had to choose restaurants that served food they liked and kicked Ohana out the door, but that would have happened DP or not.

However; if you are planning on going off site every day for a rest I would skip it though, the prices off site are much cheaper.

Ummm.... just a thought....are you actually staying at a WDW resort? 'cause why would you not just use your resort room for a rest? If you are not staying in a WDW resort but rather off site then the point is moot as you can't get the DDP if you aren't staying at a WDW hotel.

 

[jaminmd]

For our family it isn't worth it.

1. We don't like to be tied down to daily reservations.

2. We don't eat dessert with every meal and the desserts that come with the counter service meals are, IMO, gross.

3. Sometimes we like an appetizer (DD often likes these as her meal) and they aren't included in the dining plan.

4. We like to eat what we want, when we want. Sometimes I like a pretzel and they are big enough for a lunch for me.

We had free dining once & it was fun, but I'd never pay for it.

 

[aaarcher86]

I love the dining plan. We always get the deluxe plan. It frees us up from worrying about picking the cheapest thing on the menu or going over budget, and best of all we get try new deserts that we wouldn't normally try. If we didn't have the ddp we would almost never get an appetizer.

I enjoy the relaxation factor of it.

 

[cluvsdisney]

are dining plans really worth it. i have two picky eaters. thinging about eating breakfeast in room and will be leaving disney during day to rest. thinking about skipping dining plan and eating outside of disney for lunch and eating dinner at disney. please help. we are new at this and need lots of help

By leaving Disney to rest, are you saying you are not staying at a Disney resort? If that's the case, you are not elible to purchase a meal plan.

If you are Disney resort guests, then it really depends on the ages of your children and how you normally eat on vacation. If the kids are 10 or over and picky, it may not be worth having the plan since you will be paying the adult price.

I think the best way is to look over menus and think about what you are likely to order and figure out how much that costs then compare that to the cost of the meal plan along with what you get with the meal plan. If you prefer to have appetizers as entrees and split desserts, the meal plan will not work. If you are not big on snacks & desserts, the plan may not be a great deal.

I know DH & I could save money with the plan and get more food with it, but it's not how we want to eat. The one time we did go with the plan, I was sick of eating by day 4 and we left with a pile of excess snack credits going to waste.

I feel like purchasing the plan commits you to eating only in Disney and if you have a car, you may not want to do that.

 

[lilpeople]

we are staying at a resort. thought about going out to eat. when i say out of disney i mean out of parks. was thinking about getting qs ddp, stll not sure. think it would be cheaper to do it this way. also someone mentioned you could trade in snack credits?how do i find the menus for qs, i looked on disneyparks.com and couldnt find it. kids arent really picky, one likes chicken nuggets. dd8 has autism and textures can be a problem.

 

[akcire]

For menus go to allearsnet.com

The lady that runs that site keeps a pretty up to date list on all Disney dining options.

 

[disneyjunkie]

You can find the menus on Deb's site Allearsnet.com We used dining plan on our last trip and loved it. Have the deluxe plan booked for out next trip. I don't get the too much food comments. You're not forced to eat/order everything that comes with the plan. LOL

 

[Mom_Rides]

We took our first family trip last June. After much research and once we determined that we were staying on site, we decided that the dining plan was a must. We researched each plan, the cost and what was included and decided that the QSDP was the best choice for us. It was the most cost effective and we didn't want to be tied to reservations for our entire trip. We were at first worried about if we would tire of burgers and fries but then researched the menus at Allears and figured out that we had a good variety of selections available to us.

I was concerned that my DSS9 wouldn't have enough to eat being on the childs plan but the childrens menu seemed plenty for him and when he was still hungry he would eat whatever was left of his sisters meal. As far as dessert goes, we rarely get dessert when we go out to eat so eating dessert with our meals was a very special treat for my kids (and us!).

I also agree that we enjoyed the fact that we didn't have to worry about money and what we had left to spend. The kids knew that we would get 2 snacks a piece each day so if they asked for a snack, they knew it was one of the 2 they got for the day. And I don't think we ate 3 meals any day we were there! Between the heat and the timing of our meals (and the size of them!!) two meals were more then enough! Most of the time it was breakfast at the resort then a snack around 1-2pm and dinner around 6pm and then a snack in the later evening.

 

[lilpeople]

We have decided to go with Qsdp. Kinda of like the idea of everything being paid for. Thinking about bringing stuff for breakfast and renting fridge. Now just trying to find a place to get Disney dresses for girls. Both kids wear a size 12 and no one seems to carry anything that large.