Dinning plan

[5kids4dis]

Worth it? b/c I gota tell ya I don't think we will eat 300 worth of food a day and with my family that is how much it will cost....2 adults with 5 kids all over nine but one....thanks Linda

 

[pezpam]

Easy way to tell.... head over to allearsnet.com and check out menus and prices. Look at what you think would be a typical menu for your family. Add on tax and tip! Add up your numbers and compare it to what the DP will cost you.

The plan works great for some, not for others. A lot depends on your preferences and eating habits, so noone can really answer the question for you. I could go on about how much we loved it and all the money we saved on our last trip, but that doesn't change your numbers.

 

[Mcbruns]

I agree with Pezpam - works for some not others. We have used it and will be using it again in June.

If you will be dining out a lot - I say it's worth it. Plus the snacks come in handy. I don't think we paid for one bottled water / snack while we were there last year.

 

[1of6]

We solved that problem by getting the dining plan for only one of our rooms. ( DH, 2K & I are in the room with the dining plan. Grandparents and our other 2K in the next room.) We will be there for 6 nights and so we have 12 adult TS credits, 12 K TS credits, 12 adult CS and 12K CS. We have 3 TS meals planned. (3 TS x 4 adults= 12 TS credits) We will share meals when we can to save credits, only CS because our TS are all buffets.

 

[Buckleigh]

Along with the price of food, and tip etc, I decided the ease of payment, and having all of it pre-paid factored into the cost too.

Buck

 

[CheapMom]

We solved that problem by getting the dining plan for only one of our rooms. ( DH, 2K & I are in the room with the dining plan. Grandparents and our other 2K in the next room.) We will be there for 6 nights and so we have 12 adult TS credits, 12 K TS credits, 12 adult CS and 12K CS. We have 3 TS meals planned. (3 TS x 4 adults= 12 TS credits) We will share meals when we can to save credits, only CS because our TS are all buffets.

This is a great idea. So, you can go into a restaurant with a mixed party and use as many credits as you want and then just pay the difference? This may work for us on a future trip.
This may be a great solution for the OP- If I recal the OP said they are planning on 2 rooms at AllStar Movies- so if they wanted to do 1 or 2 character meals they could do that pretty reasonably with your idea.

 

[starwood]

I have a ? If we arrive on Thursday and leave Sunday morning do we pay for 3 or 4 days? And if we eat at a signature restaurant and there are 3 of us can we just use credits for 1 person and pay for the others?

 

[Pembo]

4 days....WDW counts the days not the nights.

For us, 2A, 3K (9,6,2) it would definitely be a waste. Our kids don't eat that much and neither do we. Check out the menus on allearsnet. Consider how much you and your kids eat. Wdw gives VERY large portions. We very rarely each have our own meal. We always share.

 

[JennSaint]

4 days....WDW counts the days not the nights.

For us, 2A, 3K (9,6,2) it would definitely be a waste. Our kids don't eat that much and neither do we. Check out the menus on allearsnet. Consider how much you and your kids eat. Wdw gives VERY large portions. We very rarely each have our own meal. We always share.

I'm confused by your comment on WDW counts the days not the nights? I was told you get the dining plan for the number of nights you are staying.

 

[disneyvacalover]

We are doing the same as well for our trip in 2 weeks. I have 4 kids (11, 8, 5, 1). The 8 and 5 eat nothing. Although the 11 yo eats real good he still won't eat like an adult. As we have to get two rooms anyway we just put one room on the dining plan and plan to share meals. I just hope we don't have problems at the TS places.
ASnyone do this before with success?

 

[kpm76]

I'm confused by your comment on WDW counts the days not the nights? I was told you get the dining plan for the number of nights you are staying.

I thought it was nights too Anyone who has done it know for sure?

 

[paper1225]

bump!

 

[Hannahsmom]

The dining plan is linked to the number of nights, not days. The tickets are figured by days (obviously). We were there in September for 8 nights and 9 days. For the three of us we had 24 TS credits, 24 CS credits and 24 snack credits, and 9 day park tickets.

BTW, we loved the Dining Plan! My husband says he will never go to WDW without it. It was so nice not to have to budget during the trip. For the entire course of our trip we ate almost $1200.00 worth of food. It did teach us that it is possible to share, and that everyone could still be satisfied.

 

[Servants of Evan]

It's based upon Nights. Four days & three nights you'll get three credits, not four.

 

[Twende]

We are spiltting our party into two rooms also. One room with a meal plan and one without.

We are going to share meals. Meals are based on number of nights!

We shared meals on our last visit in December and it was not a problem You just need to use common sense. You can not share at a buffet or at a place that serves family style, like Ohana. For those each person needs a credit or two if it is Hoop Dee Doo.

We found that if we took our first and last nights and considered them travel days for us, that we could go to a place like Pepper Market and eat a very nice CS dinner and save that TS credit for things like Ohana or Hoop Dee Doo.

I literally charted it all out. First figured out where we wanted to eat and how many meals it would take at each of those places and then figured the credits needed.

It worked out super last time and every TS place (non-buffet & non-family style) was very accomodating about spiltting meals and most servers had great ideas on how to do it!

This time I found we were one TS credit short of doing what we want to do so we are going to pay out of pocket for one meal at the least expensive of our TS choices. I found that this way it is much less expensive than buying another park pass and the dining plan for one more person.

I hope this helps. I know it certainly works for us and we love being able to eat at so many different places and not having to worry about how much we are spending.

Remember too that server tips are included in that dining plan price but when ever we spilt meal I do leave an extra tip to cover the tip for the meals of people who are sharing. It is extra work for the server to wait on more people.

 

[1of6]

We will be there Wed. and come home on the 7th. I will post and let you know how it went with only 1 room on the plan. Our 3 TS are buffets so that will take all or our adult TS credits. We will only use 9 child TS credits (2yo is free).

I made 3 different calls to Disney before adding the plan. All of the CMs said it will work.

 

[bettyann29]

We are going in May for 8 nights/9 days.. while it would great to get it for 9 days, 8 isnt bad.. To add the dining it is an additional $996 I believe.. I went on to allearsnet and approximated what we would pay.. I found that we would spend approx 50 more if I remember right by paying ourselves.. When I figured if we pay ourselves I was figuring 3 straight meals a day and a total of 2 character meals.. Now if we do the dining plan we will only get 2 meals a day but we can do 6 character meals.. I have so much reading and everyone who does it says how they eat a breakfast bar, piece of fruit.. etc for breakfast.. Now if I was to go back and calculate us paying for all those character meals I am definitely getting a better deal with the dining plan and on top of that tip is included and I dont have to worry about carrying the money, etc..

 

[kaytieeldr]

I'm confused by your comment on WDW counts the days not the nights? I was told you get the dining plan for the number of nights you are staying.

YOU are correct. The Dining Plan is based on the number of nights of your reservation, not the number of days.

 

[TiffanyK]

In order to have dining on only one room, did you have to have two different reservations? I think this might work for us but wondered exactly how you booked it.

 

[TandyR]

My husband and I used the dining plan for when we were down there alone in May and I couldn't believe the money we saved by useing the plan. I figure if we could save money since we don't eat tons that it is just a good plan. So this time we are traveling with our girls and my in-laws. My in-laws are big eaters and my girls are average eaters.