Dinning Plan: Deal or No Deal

[eliza61]

I think it's a great for adults and a great deal for kid's 3-9, but it loses value to me if you've got kids 10 to 12 or 13. I wanted to get it for my upcoming trip, but my niece just turned 10 and there is no way it'd be worth it for her, she barely finishes a kid's meal let alone enough to make the daily adult price worth getting the plan.

I totally agree but for different reasons. My sons are 12,14 & 16 and all 3 eat like linebackers for the NY giants . The snacks and counter service meals were a joke (the only thing a ice cream bar does for my sons is make them mad) and unfortunately even when they were smaller we couldn't split meals. It was nice, not having to look at the price of dishes before deciding what to order. This year for our vacation in August, I'm going to get a DDE card that will save us ~20% off all our meals, hopefully save us a few bucks

 

[tabrizia]

It is a deal if you were paying rack rate for your rooms already and need to buy tickets. Which is why we are doing it. It lets me and hubby (only the two of us) eat at 3 more sit down restaraunts then we would be able to without the plan for the same cost (I did a spreadsheet). However, we are upgrading our tickets while we are there to APs. Which means that the next 3 times we go after that it is no longer as good of a deal, since we would have to do rackrates and get a 1 day ticket each which neither of us will use. Which means we are getting the DDE card for the 20% after we get back from the vacation since that is a better deal with the AP from what we can tell (especially if you can get the AP rate on your room).

 

[Priorityonecb]

I think it's a good deal for my children's ages. We have 9 and 15. Both of my girls are adventurous eaters. Dd9 will be happy with a kids menu while being able to share bites of our appetizers and meals as well. Dd15 will be thrilled to be able to order off the adult menu and get whatever she wants. Dh will be able to eat in peace without worrying about the cost of the meals.

Having dh not stress three times a day about food costs...priceless!

 

[DMRick]

Does the dining plan include breakfast? I guess I didn't realize that. I thought people were using their ts or dinner coupons (for chef mickey) for that.

It's no deal for us, even if we didn't have AP's, since we seldom order appetizers or dessert, and only do so when we had the old certificates. Breakfast is usually oatmeal (to start the day right LOL) and a piece of fruit that we get at the market. We often share a lunch (the lunch of the day at France, along with a second soup..and we do have the DDE) and seldom want to take the time for a full sit down meal. We've proven using the certificates, that we "save" a lot, however we only save if we would have bought all that food in the first place. We always gained weight when we had the certificates, and now that they no longer offer them, we don't. And I don't miss the desserts at all. We love eating at the campground, and that's one of Disney's really reasonable meals.
With the AP's and the room discount and not having to buy tickets, we really wouldn't save at all.

It's definately a deal for us. We all eat 3 meals a day and usually it breaks down like this

Bfast: $7.00
Lunch: $10.00
Dinner: $35.00
---------------
Total: ~$52.00

Saving about $15.00/person = $60.00/day



On a side note:


YOu can book a package deal through AAA and get the dining plan included. The only difference is taht AAA books your entire pakcage. Essentially the package price is the AAA room rate + tickets + dining.

 

[Priorityonecb]

Well, it *can include breakfast if you distribute that way. We are light eaters until dinner. We can easily share 2 CS credits for a quick breakfast at the food court, and share 2CS for lunch in the parks. Then we will plan an early, large sit down 4 TS a night. So in this way, using the DP, we can get breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

[HayGan]

Having dh not stress three times a day about food costs...priceless!

That is the number one reason we are going with dining plan again this year! Well, that along with the tremendous savings that we get out of the plan!!!

 

[rgf207]

Does the dining plan include breakfast? I guess I didn't realize that. I thought people were using their ts or dinner coupons (for chef mickey) for that.

It's no deal for us, even if we didn't have AP's, since we seldom order appetizers or dessert, and only do so when we had the old certificates. Breakfast is usually oatmeal (to start the day right LOL) and a piece of fruit that we get at the market. We often share a lunch (the lunch of the day at France, along with a second soup..and we do have the DDE) and seldom want to take the time for a full sit down meal. We've proven using the certificates, that we "save" a lot, however we only save if we would have bought all that food in the first place. We always gained weight when we had the certificates, and now that they no longer offer them, we don't. And I don't miss the desserts at all. We love eating at the campground, and that's one of Disney's really reasonable meals.
With the AP's and the room discount and not having to buy tickets, we really wouldn't save at all.

Well i should have been a little more specific. We sometimes use the DP for bfast and sometimes we split the entrees for bfast and lunch. In total, last trip we saved about 15.00/day per person.

My explaination wan't specific, sorry about that. The DP includes 1 CS, 1TS and 1 Snack per day per person

 

[PatMcDuck]

I read a post that it is not a great value for kids over age 9. Well, it becomes a value again when they are teens. I have 3 boys, 20-18-16 and they can EAT. Also, my 14 yr old daughter, now sits down at restuarants and will order ribs or something. $$$ ! (All kids thin and active, we are not gluttons).

I am trying it with family this summer, for 6 of us. (All adult rate)

 

[PrincessTrisha]

And it still may be worth it with a 10, 11, or 12 year old if you are doing character lunches or dinners as you still need to pay the adult price for them no matter what.

 

[Sammie]

I would have to agree with the others. I think the people who have children in the 10 and up range are getting the worst end of the deal.

And this segment is probably covering the cost of the great deal for those with kids that are younger, if adults are eating those meals.

Unless your children 10 and older are adventureous eaters, I can't see this being good for this age.

Personally I am not even sure the adults in our group eat that much food.

 

[hmeadq]

Couldn't you help with the value issue in kids 10-12 who wat kids meal by eating at a Sig Restaurant with the adults each using 2 TS credits an the kids order off the kids menu and pay OOP?

 

[DisOrBust]

I don't mean to burst bubbles but....

How many of us really order an AP and dessert at every TS. How many REALLY order a Dessert with their CS meal???

How many Mickey bars can one person eat???

 

[DisOrBust]

I don't mean to burst bubbles but....

How many of us really order an AP and dessert at every TS. How many REALLY order a Dessert with their CS meal???

How many Mickey bars can one person eat???

I used vouchers in the past and found yes you saved money IF you ate alot,lol!!


The DP is good for that I don't have to worry about cost "feeling". How much you really save is another matter.

When you look at AP rates and DDE it gets way more complicated.

J?ust IMHO.....

 

[4MYBOIZ]

Hi!

After reading most of the replys it seems the disney dining plan works for hearty eaters only.

We have it with our package!

 

[Tink_Fan]

We went last May and paid for the dining plan, it was definately a deal for us!! We are going again this May and we booked the plan again. What we really loved was that we knew we didn't have to worry about carrying a lot of money with us or even credit cards most of the time. I know we went to restaurants that we wouldn't normally have because we had the dining plan. It was so nice to pre-pay for everything, all we did was have light breakfasts in our room before we left in the morning. We always tipped extra and just found it a great deal for our family.

ETA: I'm not sure what we will do at the end of the year when our DD turns 10, she is such a light eater that I don't think the dining plan will be worth it for us at that time. The only thing I don't care for is that they offer desserts at both CS and TS meals, because we rarely eat dessert with any of our meals. I usually just chalk that up to being on vacation, but if we were at home we'd never do it.

 

[pdarrah]

We will be trying the Dining Plan this June for the first time, so I don't have real life experience here - HOWEVER, what I do have is all my receipts from 2 WDW trips per year for the last 10 years! Before deciding whether or not to try the dining plan, I went back over all those receipts and figured out what we actually spent (including tips) on meals and tried to fit those meals into the dining plan. My calculations actually came out VERY, VERY close to the cost of the plan. We usually do a few TS meals and a character meal and at least one CS per day. Even not using ALL our TS meals we would come out about "break even". Since we are doing Hoop Dee Doo this trip (we've been waiting for DS to get old enough to really enjoy it - he'll be 7 this time) which uses 2 TS credits and already had TS ADR's at France, Great Brittain, Fantasmic pkg at Mama Melrose, and breakfast at Cape May (which is a little more than usual) I think we will come out ahead. If we decide to use those 2 other TS meals (8 day trip) we will DEFINITELY come out ahead. Actually, none of my calculations even included the snacks - so we might come out even a little further ahead with that....

pdarrah

 

[Fionasmommy]

No deal for us.... In booking our hotel (Beach Club) we got the AAA rate of $259 + tax per night.... IF I wanted to add the dining plan, we would not be able to use the AAA discount and would have to pay the rack rate on the room since we would have to do a "package"....

You can book an AAA package and add dining, you just need to use an AAA agent to do it. We're saving almost $300 on our rooms at POFQ with the AAA discount, and are looking forward to saving more on the DDP!

 

[mrackleff]

Hello. I'm new here - could someone please explain what a TS and a CS is? I've managed to figure out DP and AP and DH (dear husband?), but I guess I'm a little out of the loop on a few of these. My fiance and I will be taking our honeymoon at Disney World and we are thinking about buying the dining plan. My only concern is that we won't have the options and variety we would have if we payed for it without the plan. How restricted are you to what you can and can't eat on the dining plan? Any advice would be well appreciated. Thank-you.

 

[Priorityonecb]

CS= Counter Service

TS=Table Service

There are only a select few TS restrictions...like adding the "add ons" such as lobster to your meal. You still *can add it, but you would have to pay OOP (out of pocket). Another TS restriction would be, that you cannot get the glowing ice cubes in the drinks without paying extra. That's about it.

 

[kittythepoohbear]

My boyfriend refuses to go back to WDW without the DP after we got it for free in Sept.! I think it is a great deal and allowed us to eat without worrying about the price, something I have never been able to do at WDW.

ETA: After reading some more replies, I just wanted to add that I agree it may be a better value for big eaters and not too great for those who usually eat lightly/children. My bf and I always order at least 3 courses at TS meals, which we wouldn't be able to do at WDW without going completely broke. In this way the DP really allowed us to enjoy some great meals. However, with the new children over 9 are adults policy, I don't know how well it work for families.