"disney dining plan" is it worth it?

[y2khardtop]

Haven't tried this yet. We eat A LOT in the parks, and often the nicer restaurants. I guess you can't carry points from day-to-day etc, to save up for the 2-pt restaurants??

$38 seems expensive, but I don't really remember prices. I'd love to hear any feedback, as well as what you guys think of the "disney dining experience", the 20% discount plan.

Thanks!

 

[dianeschlicht]

It's a personal issue depending on how you eat and tour. We find we would not use the counter service or dessert options, so we likely wouldn't find the dining plan as helpful for us. We usually have breakfast in the villa, eat a main meal at one of the nice sit downs at either the parks or the resorts, and sometimes fix an evening meal at the villa. We do have the DDE card, and we find the 20% off is a good value. We are toying with the idea of trying the dining plan for our December trip, mostly because our guests would like to do it. I understand we can actually combine the two plans, so things not covered on the dining plan (like beverages) would be covered on the DDE discount.

 

[ZerasPride]

The dining planned worked well for me and my husband when we stayed at SSR about two weeks ago. Another couple went with us and shared our 2 bedroom villa. We recieved 20 counter service credits, 20 snack credits and 20 table service credits right away to use any way we so pleased. We stayed 5 nights.

We used our snack credits for chips and dip and milk and "goodies" (including cake slices, water, etc.) at AP. We would eat a light snack in the room in the mornings and then hit a counter service place in the afternoon. Counter service meals came with a drink, entree and dessert. Sit down dinners included an appetizer. We are not gourmets by any means but did enjoy a nice meal at the Grand Floridian Cafe and one at Fulton's. Our favorite counter service had to be Wolfgang Puck Cafe. We ate a ton of food. I came home 5 pounds heavier but that was my choice.

All and all, I'd say the dining planned worked great for our needs and I would consider using again on a future trip. I'm not so sure we saved a great deal of money but it was very convenient.

 

[MinnieGirl33]

We have NOT used the DDP, only the DDE.

Due to the ages of our kids & how & where we like to eat, when i do the math, DDP just doesn't seem to be a big bargain for us.

My understanding is that you get a pool of credits when you check in & can use them how & when you like during your stay.

DDE allows a discount on alchohol, DDP would be OOP. We generally don't eat CS so that throws things off for us too.

We normally don't eat an appy, entree & dessert either. If all that food was put infront of me I would feel compelled to eat it or I wouldn't be getting my money's worth. Yes, I know, these are my own personal food issues. Given that I normally come home 3-4 lbs heavier as it is I think I would gain almost 10 lbs per trip on the DDP!

That being said, while we will not be getting the DDP for our Sept trip we are considering trying it for our long weekend in Jan to see if we are really missing the boat here.

 

[lovinthemouse]

We have used it. First off let me say it is a lot of food. If you like the more expensive restaurants it might be for you. Make sure how many credits it takes for some of the restaurants. We used some of ours for the Luau at the Poly. It can be worth it if you utilize the better places to eat. For the counter service meals they all pretty much have the same thing. It really just depends on how and what you like to eat. I will say you will never be hungry.

 

[thelobstershanty]

We just used the DDP and thought it was wonderful. We thought $38.00 was very unexpensive considering what we got. We always eat dinner at a sit down restaurant so this plan fit right in with our traveling style. Our dinners alone were much more than $38.00 per person. We used our DDE card to get 20% off of any drinks we had with dinner.
Yes you can save up credits and use 2 in a day for the higher end restaurants. We did this with: Yachtsman Steakhouse, Narcosses, Citrocos, (SP)and Artist Point. The only one we did not think was worth 2 credits was Artist Point. They have a dinner special at Artist Point that is much less expensive then using 2 TS credits. At all the other 2 credit restaurants our meals with tax and gratituty would have cost us each well over $100.00 per person, so to us $76.00 per person was a great deal, plus we still had our counter service lunch that usually ran about $13.00 - $15.00 a person and our snacks @ $4.00 per person.
We definitely thought the DDP was worth it. We have already booked it for our Oct and Dec trips.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We prefer to eat our main meal at lunch time, (Cape May Cafe is one exception) and for us the DDE is better. We've both had take-home leftovers from our lunches that serve for dinner one night with bits added on.
When I have planned, I have always thought about DDP and we rehash the pluses and minuses, but we've never come up with a time that it would work. However, once again, we are considering it for our December 5 night trip, if the CP dinner could be included, even at 2 credits, that just may make it worth it for us.

Bobbi

 

[*elaine*]

We thought it was worth every penny. We fed our family of four for $100 per day and had snack credits left over by the end of the stay (picked up a bunch of mickey rice krispy treats to bring home). We end up spending more than that if left to our own devices.

 

[y2khardtop]

thanks so much, it sounds like it would work for us. HOWEVER, is there a "points chart" anywhere?? For instance, is an appetizer/snack/dessert/drink 1pt, a burger/pizza/entree 2pts, etc??? OR is is much more complicated.

I've been in line behind people using the plan at walk-up counters, and it really seems to get complicated at times?

ALSO, how about fine dining. I see in one of the restaurant lists, that you can use the plan at many of the nicer placer (Artists' Point for instance). It takes "2" meals instead of "1". Again, how does this work? Entree takes 4 points instead of 2, for instance?

In case you can't tell, I'm an Engineer, and really like to understand these things before I commit!

Thanks so much!!!!

 

[BCV23]

It is very easy to use. There is a whole subforum on the DDP in the Restaurant forum of the DIS. There is a sticky at the top with tons of info on the plan.

I think if you enjoy eating either dinner or lunch out once per night of your vacation, you will save. When you do your calculations, remember that tax and gratuity are included as someone said. That in itself really adds up.

And as lobstershanty said, you can still use your DDE card for drinks or other meals not covered. Of course, each time you use the DDP you get a bit less value out of the DDE card so factor that in your long term plans.

We did it in May, used most of our TS for lunches because of some changes in plans and still saved around 20% just on TS so the CS and snacks were "free."

 

[MinnieGirl33]

There is a spread sheet on the member site.

Go to:
Just for members
What's New
scroll down & click link that says "Disney Dining Plan now available to members"
scroll down & click link that says "100 selected Quick Service & table Service restaurants"

Voila! Lists all as CS, TS, snack or Signature Dining. Signature dining takes 2 TS credits per person.

Hope that helps.

 

[BCV23]

Oh, your two credit question. For any table service restaurant, the plan includes an appetizer, entree, dessert and nonalcoholic drink. Most restaurants use only one credit per meal. The Signature restaurants require two credits.

When you purchase DDP you will get one table service, one counter service and one snack per person/per night. But you can use them in any order you wish and any day of your vacation you wish from checkin to midnight on the day of checkout.

 

[unixadm]

For us, it was DEFINITELY worth it.

Read my DINING PLAN AND RESTAURANT REVIEW from September of last year.

In September we did the "free" dining plan (before it was offered to DVC members). Ate over $1200 worth of food.

We did the dining plan again in April of this year as DVC members. Paid $586 for 6 nights and got approx $1000 worth of food.

Even had some counter services left over, so we got a bunch of sandwiches from the Boardwalk, and took them to my parents for Dinner when we were leaving.

 

[DebbieB]

I see 2 sides of it. I used it last week with my 12 year old niece. It was her first trip to WDW and we used all the table service credits for character meals (Garden Grill, Liberty Tree, Cape May, Crystal Palace, 1900 Park Fare). The character meals themselves pretty much covered the $37.99 per day, so the counter service & snack were basically free. The flip side to it is my niece is a very picky eater and ate hardly anything. If I had to do it again, I would have only done a couple character meals and the rest fast food or order a her a kids meal off a menu. She didn't eat anywhere near $37.99 worth of food per day. I wish they had a junior price, most 12 year olds don't each that much.

 

[YoMickey]

We used the DDP last spring. We ate way tooo much food.

I have a question about a future trip next spring. We're staying for 9 days. No dining is booked right now and no ticket packages are booked. We probably will only go in to the park for half the days we are there. When you get the magic your way dining and park hopper can you get it for a portion of your stay or do I have to get all 9 days? We plan to use the pool and maybe shoot over to Universal for a day.

 

[spiceycat]

trying to decide myself....

to buy just one meal for 6 or get this for one night...

and yes I can do it because I am only staying one night at BWV standard view in 2 studios for Sept.

I have the DDE and that is what I though I would use.

 

[castleri]

We did the DDP for 1 night in April and it was well worth it. We did Mama Melrose for supper the first night (TS credit), ice cream bar at park (S credit) and then went to Pepper Market (CS credit) for supper second day before leaving to drive to Tampa. We are doing it for 10 days in September and I am worried we will have too much food but it is the easiest way for us to do it based on the group we have going and not wanting to have to ask for different checks and worry about who orders what etc. We also have DDE card for any adult drinks or other OOP expenses at the participating restaurants. This is another of those perks that everyone must look at and decide if it makes sense for them. Normally I don't like having to plan my days around where I am going to be for a meal but this really makes sense for this trip for us - maybe wouldn't make sense for our December trip- still haven't really discussed it with the ones going on that one. May you all have wonderful trips.

 

[simpilotswife]

I've been debating this myself. I think that we'll wind up slightly ahead and so have pretty much decided to go that route...I just need to think about it a bit more.

 

[Purrrrfecta]

We used the DDP last spring. We ate way tooo much food.

I have a question about a future trip next spring. We're staying for 9 days. No dining is booked right now and no ticket packages are booked. We probably will only go in to the park for half the days we are there. When you get the magic your way dining and park hopper can you get it for a portion of your stay or do I have to get all 9 days? We plan to use the pool and maybe shoot over to Universal for a day.

You can not get it for only a portion of your stay.
Are you staying in a DVC resort or do you mean you will be staying at a non-DVC resort?

Becuase if you are staying at a DVC resort using points you can make two separate reservations and have the dining plan on one reservation and not on the other. When using DVC points you do not have to purchase the passes.

 

[Lenc324]

After all the money we spent at VB for food, having the dining plan in Nov for F&W is a bargain.