dining vs no dining

[jlm]

We have traveled to Disney 3 times in the past 5 years! We have done the regular dining plan in all our past trips. Our kids were younger and we did a lot of character dining!

They are getting older now and not as much into the character experience. I know breaks my heart!! Anyways-with 2 kids now considered 'adult,' the dining plan costs us just over 1500.00 for a week! Worth it??

Quick service? We plan on doing Tusker House for Bkfast and Fantasmic package....but that's about it. We are thinking counter for the rest.

For those of you who do not do the dining plan....do you share meals, bring food in? I'm not thrilled with the idea of caring a backpack into the parks!

I have ordered from Garden Grocer in the past for snacks/bkfst food which works great! We are planning on staying at Beach Club so will have fridge.

ANY input would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!
Jen

 

[chartle]

We have never done the DDP.

We just all eat CS and have one maybe two special TS meals.

You can do everything you listed only you know your family's food needs. Don't worry you aren't going to stave to death or anything.

I just wouldn't bring in an entire meal unless you were really short on money or had special food needs.

 

[sharonabe]

We have traveled to Disney 3 times in the past 5 years! We have done the regular dining plan in all our past trips. Our kids were younger and we did a lot of character dining!

They are getting older now and not as much into the character experience. I know breaks my heart!! Anyways-with 2 kids now considered 'adult,' the dining plan costs us just over 1500.00 for a week! Worth it??

Quick service? We plan on doing Tusker House for Bkfast and Fantasmic package....but that's about it. We are thinking counter for the rest.

For those of you who do not do the dining plan....do you share meals, bring food in? I'm not thrilled with the idea of caring a backpack into the parks!

I have ordered from Garden Grocer in the past for snacks/bkfst food which works great! We are planning on staying at Beach Club so will have fridge.

ANY input would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!
Jen

No, you don't have to share and you don't have to bring in a backpack full of food.

We order what we WANT to eat, and we still come in way under the DDP price. But, we don't want desserts with every meal, and QS desserts aren't known for the yumminess anyway. We'd rather have a sweet or savory snack later in the day instead of with our meal. Only two of us drink sodas (one is our DS and he's not allowed to have soda with EVERY meal), so we save on drinks too.

Start looking at menus for QS now to know where you want to eat. Don't overlook some of the cheaper TS either....Plaza and Liberty Tree (lunch) at MK, Sci-Fi and 50's at HS, Via Napoli at Epcot CAN be done cheaply if you share a pizza and an app or two.

Look at it as a new culinary adventure sans character meals!

 

[TDC Nala]

You've already noted that you won't be doing character meals, or at least so many character meals. Do you still want to do buffets or family style restaurants? Everyone pays the same price at these restaurants and the prices have gone up rather precipitously.

If you're going to be doing lots of a la carte restaurants and you want the possibility of saving money, decide what you'd all order. It might work out if most of you would want to order the most expensive entrees, if you want desserts for everybody with each meal, and if you want specialty beverages like smoothies at every meal (not every restaurant includes these beverages, YMMV) rather than soft drinks, coffee or tea.

In addition, to fully maximize DDP it's recommended to use all your TS meals for dinner (not breakfast or lunch).

Same for the quick service. If you have any interest at all in maximizing its value you need to pick the more expensive restaurants, and probably you all need to want desserts and sodas with every meal.

There's also a heavy psychological component to the dining plan, a lot of users report that they love having the meals prepaid, as it gives the impression that they aren't spending money on the trip itself.

 

[StacyMarie]

I am kind of interested to know how it compares in cost to paying for the dining plan versus paying out of pocket. We have 5 adults and the dining plan is ridiculously priced; however, I just don't know how to figure out if paying as we go would be cheaper. Does anybody know if there is any posts on the DIS that has a breakdown, one versus the other??

 

[TDC Nala]

I am kind of interested to know how it compares in cost to paying for the dining plan versus paying out of pocket. We have 5 adults and the dining plan is ridiculously priced; however, I just don't know how to figure out if paying as we go would be cheaper. Does anybody know if there is any posts on the DIS that has a breakdown, one versus the other??

This can really only be usefully done by each individual party, as every group's dining preferences and habits are different. Use the online menus to get a ballpark price and figure what you will be spending.

 

[chartle]

I am kind of interested to know how it compares in cost to paying for the dining plan versus paying out of pocket. We have 5 adults and the dining plan is ridiculously priced; however, I just don't know how to figure out if paying as we go would be cheaper. Does anybody know if there is any posts on the DIS that has a breakdown, one versus the other??

Since its different for each person/group there are no set rules.

You pretty much have to go to the menus either here or on allears.net, figure out where and what you would eat and then "Do the Math".

 

[North of Mouse]

We have traveled to Disney 3 times in the past 5 years! We have done the regular dining plan in all our past trips. Our kids were younger and we did a lot of character dining!

They are getting older now and not as much into the character experience. I know breaks my heart!! Anyways-with 2 kids now considered 'adult,' the dining plan costs us just over 1500.00 for a week! Worth it??

Quick service? We plan on doing Tusker House for Bkfast and Fantasmic package....but that's about it. We are thinking counter for the rest.

For those of you who do not do the dining plan....do you share meals, bring food in? I'm not thrilled with the idea of caring a backpack into the parks!

I have ordered from Garden Grocer in the past for snacks/bkfst food which works great! We are planning on staying at Beach Club so will have fridge.

ANY input would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!
Jen

We have never done the DDP because it would cost much more than OOP for us. We are light eaters (one large meal a day) and prefer to eat some snacks during the day which we couldn't do otherwise, also don't drink sodas, prefer water. Another biggie is we don't like to be tied down to ressies everyday. We do eat some TS but not all the time. We sometimes share TS meals so we can get desserts later in the parks. We don't think about the cost and eat exactly where and when we want, but I do save receipts and never come close to the DDP cost. This year we are getting the TIW card as we will have the AP's and will go 2-3 times, so that saves a bundle depending on your length of stay and how many times you go. It's definitely an individual family dining preference that fits your needs - everyone is different

 

[staceycanada]

We wouldn't dream of doing Disney without the dining plan. Our party is dh and I, Dd18, DS13 and dd4.

We really enjoy being able to eat in all the wonderful Disney Restaurants. Skip the character meals and have dinner in say Boma.

 

[dragonfly08]

I have two DDs, ages 4 and 7 on our last two visits.

We never do the DDP. Paying OOP is much more economical for us, even compared to the QSDP. That's because I bring a lot from home - peanut butter, bagels, bread, crackers, pretzels, cereal, juice boxes, grapes, apples, bananas, granola bars, etc. I get milk, jelly and cream cheese as needed from the food court. My girls like to eat pretty soon after waking up and don't like a huge meal, so breakfast is always in the room. Then we pack snacks and sandwiches for lunch. Dinner is usually a CS meal, but we don't do apps or dessert. Cost is definitely a factor, but also a consideration is that my older DD has a bit of a nervous stomach. She does best on familiar foods that aren't high in fat or sugar. Trust me, I've seen the results of a trip when I didn't plan for that and it wasn't pretty!

 

[lc1965]

Personally, I am not tempted by the DP. I don't enjoy more than 1 sit-down per trip & usually just graze as the mood strikes.

Having said that, when I was a travel agent, my clients were split about 50-50: some wouldn't do w/o it & some wouldn't bother again. My friend loves sitting down to eat, even at a counter svc place, & her husband is a hot-dog-on-the-run type. She said by the end of their trip, even she couldn't bear to look at another full meal & just wanted to grab a piece of fruit for lunch. So, it's really about how much time you want to take over the meals & how often.

HAVE FUN!!

 

[dragonfly08]

I have two DDs, ages 4 and 7 on our last two visits.

We never do the DDP. Paying OOP is much more economical for us, even compared to the QSDP. That's because I bring a lot from home - peanut butter, bagels, bread, crackers, pretzels, cereal, juice boxes, grapes, apples, bananas, granola bars, etc. I get milk, jelly and cream cheese as needed from the food court. My girls like to eat pretty soon after waking up and don't like a huge meal, so breakfast is always in the room. Then we pack snacks and sandwiches for lunch. Dinner is usually a CS meal, but we don't do apps or dessert. Cost is definitely a factor, but also a consideration is that my older DD has a bit of a nervous stomach. She does best on familiar foods that aren't high in fat or sugar. Trust me, I've seen the results of a trip when I didn't plan for that and it wasn't pretty!

 

[Karabee]

I priced this out last time I went down. There were only two adults for that trip, but the cost of the DDP was way more than what we would have had. For example, we would prefer an app rather than dessert, which means that we would have to go up a plan, and waste a dessert since I can never eat that right after a meal. Also, we don't drink soda, so the free mugs would have been worthless to us.
A couple years ago my sister, Dad and I went down and we had a free plan. We ended up with 7 quick service meals left. For me at least, it seems to be a waste. I know other people love it.
We never bring food or really share food either. It just ends up being cheaper eating what we want, when we want, and not wasting the sweets they always give. Most of the time for breakfast and even some lunches that were QS I ordered the kids meal anyway! Price it out, you may be surprised what you save by not using it, especially if you're getting rid of the more expensive character meals that take two TS points away.

 

[germ539]

We've never done the dining plan, don't like to have to "set" when we will eat especially for reservations. What if we're not hungry at that time. My sister in law and her family do the dining plan and like it, but she also makes the reservations each day for the TS meal. I'd rather bring the munchies, buy from the local "store" what I need and eat when I want to eat. We have an idea before we go down where we will be eating TS if we want to and how much it will cost, so the DP is not for us.

 

[sharonabe]

I am kind of interested to know how it compares in cost to paying for the dining plan versus paying out of pocket. We have 5 adults and the dining plan is ridiculously priced; however, I just don't know how to figure out if paying as we go would be cheaper. Does anybody know if there is any posts on the DIS that has a breakdown, one versus the other??

If you scroll down the restaurant board, you'll find a thread titled "$40 a Day.." Several of us took Rachel Ray's idea and virtually ate at Disney for $40 day including tax AND tip. That should give you an idea of what you COULD eat for $10 less than the DDP, and since we included tip, it would be even less than that since tip is not included on the DDP. It's a very long thread, but should get you started.

 

[msp2mco]

The more times we go to Disney, the fewer planned meals we do. It gives us so much more flexibility. I still make reservations at a TS restaurant several times during the trip though. As for the rest of the meals, we eat breakfast in our rooms and eat when we want at other times. Sometimes we share stuff; other times we all order at CS and sit down to eat together.

 

[MsGrandma]

If your kids aren't into it for the character meals, I don't think it's worth the extra money!

 

[jedi jen]

My kids are older and they still love Disney restaurants. We always do the dining plan, and now just visit more adult type restaurants. We actually like the deluxe plan and eat dinner at a signature dining place. I have "foodies" in my family and we enjoy sitting down and relaxing for meals. It helps us stay refreshed. We also like eating at the countries in Epcot for lunch, Brown Derby at DHS and visiting resorts for dinner.

 

[pepe of ohio]

Nor do we do TIW either....for TIW, you have to eat $375.00 to recoup your original investment and we would never reach that.....

We always stay deluxe at lengths of 9-12 nights....me and the wife share just about every meal....that's CS most of the time....

We enjoy breakfast each morning at the resort and share....coffee in the room before...we do a grocery stop in route and we pick up deli meats and cheeses, sandwich fixings of our liking, snacks and beverages....and always return to the resort mid afternoon and make sandwiches and enjoy a pool picnic.....dinner could be CS just about anywhere...different resorts have different meals so alot of choices....after 46 trips to WDW, the serving portions of CS meals are huge, easily feed two people and the TS restaurants just don;t interest us...medicore at best.....

The biggest why we don't like dining plans...is scheduling..we don't want our vacation run by a list of times or a clock..even if it did save money...I don't want to be on the " got to be here or there at such an such a time" scenerio.. or as others say, they like it paid for up front, never understood that...you still had to pay for it, either before or during, it's still your money...

Some days we rarely eat 3 meals, 2 most of the time...snacks fill in a good portion of a day with us....munch our way around it what we do....we don't eat fancy at home, see no reason to do that on vacation.....we don't budget for food but eat what and where we want and don't even come close to what the basic plan would cost.....but like I said: it's the ADR's we don't want...and who knows what they'll be hungry for or where and at what times 180 days out.....works for some but not for us and no money saver for our vacations....

 

[mommyrosa2]

I do think it depends on your family's dining habits. For our family of 4, the basic dining plan does still work for us and we do still come out ahead (I will say though that the savings are getting more narrow). BUT, we do tend to normally eat the way the plan is designed. We tend to use our snack credits for breakfasts (we're not big breakfast eaters), the CS for lunches (we like lighter lunches or quicker meals) and the TS for Dinners. My kids are older (17 & 13) but are "foodies" and enjoy anything from a good steak to seafood and when it comes to dinner, everyone wants to enjoy a sit down meal at a nicer restaurant. We've gone with and without the plan and without it, we spent more $$ OOP - but that's what works for us and everyone's different. To truly see if the DP is a savings, I would suggest you try figuring out where you'd like to eat, take a look at the menus and figure out what you would WANT to eat. Price it all out and you'll get a ballpark figure on whether or not it works for your family. If you're a family that likes to share some meals and prefer to graze and not really eat 2 or 3 meals per day, the DP may not be worth it, but perhaps the QSDP may be a better choice or you may find OOP works just fine. Again, I do believe it depends on your family's dining habits. Good Luck!