Disney Dining Plan - Is it worth it?

[maggieb9975]

My adult DD and I did 5 days deluxe dining in October and found it to be too much food and time....we lost money on it because we had some meals left......

One of my triplets age 16 and I are going again in March and she is paying her own way

She likes nice meals and especially dessert! So we are doing the basic dining plan.

As many Dis'ers haver said ,I figured out what we would order at each TS meal plus added $15 per day for a CS meal and $3 a day for snack and we came up with an average of $52 per day each....so for us it is worth it......we like steak

Some ADR's are for the higher cost places...we are eating at
Liberty Tree dinner
Coral Reef dinner
Le Cellier dinner
Wolfgang Puck Cafe dinner
Yak n Yeti lunch
Turf Club dinner
Chef Mickeys dinner

We would be eating at these restaurants even without plan so didn't addin tips......we are getting the 4/3 deal and the $200 gift card which should pay nicely for the tips and a few drinks......

 

[AustinTink]

For us the DDP just doesn't make sense. We do one TS per day, one CS and a light breakfast. The thing is my DS10 and I always split a meal. The portions served at Disney are just too large for one person. I mean half a rotisserie chicken for one person, really? At home my son and I could eat on that for two days!

So my husband gets his full meal, he's a big eater. My son and I split most meals. And we eat all the Mickey ice cream we can along the way. After doing the Math, we still spend $30 less per day than we would on the DDP. And, we don't have to carry around that "too full" feeling all day. That's what works for us now. I'll let you know when my son is a teenager!!

 

[Ron from Michigan]

We will be doing the Dining Plan for the first time next month. We will have all three daughters and there husbands with us on this trip so we juct thought the dining plan made more since.

 

[mooneyda]

I think the dining plan is definitely worth it especially if you do a TS a day. I actually kind of glad they got rid of the appetizer so I can save some room for desert.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

I love the Dining Plan. We have used it several times. This past trip we did a split stay at POFQ & AKL..For the 2 days we were at POFQ we paid OOP for everything and I was miserable. I couldn't wait to check into the AKL and start using the Dining Plan. We will never go to Disney and not use the Dining Plan.
When paying OOP, even though I had plenty of money budgeted for those days, I found myself 'stressing' over what I wanted to order and how much it was. When we are on vacation I don't want to worry about things like that. The dining plan does save us money, but more importantly it gives me the feeling of more flexability and peace of mind. I also love having my meals & snacks paid for before we arrive.

 

[PrincessCaitlin]

For the sit down dining plan

it's worth it if you plan enough sit down meals to make it worth it

The dining plan is definitely worth it but you dont think you can plan enough sit down meals I would suggest the counter service only one

 

[Hopefully]

We love the DDP and have done it on several trips in the past.
I was, however, rethinking it for our upcoming trip. As others have said we were spoiled by the original plan which includes appetizers and tip.
However, last week I read in the Unofficial Guide that their research shows that the average person saves $4 - $7 a day. Not a huge savings, but a savings non the less.
The DDP fits our style and I am doing it again.
Good Luck

 

[Bree]

For MY family the Deluxe plan is worth the price. It will save MY family money. You really do need to do the math based on how you eat on vacation. I had all our reservations made before I decided to add it. Even without a dining plan I would be going to character meals & signature restaurants for dinner. It's just a bonus for me that I can get it cheaper by paying for it up front. It cost me $1300 to add deluxe dining for 7 nights. I have 13 ADR's scheduled (7 breakfast 5 signature dining dinners) and my estimate for the meals w/ tax is $1371.42 (and that is without desserts - we hardly ever order dessert). I still have 5 credits per person to use for CS lunch, 56 snack credits & 4 mugs. So you can see for my family we are coming out ahead.

But like I said, do the math based on how your family normally eats on vacation. It may or may not be a good deal for you.

 

[avantrease]

I have debated this question myself over and over. I have decided NOT to do it, again. Reason being, my DH and I eat kids meals most of the time because we are hot and busy and don't want a lot of food making us feel yucky. Also, I don't want to have to be at a reservation somewhere when we are having fun and not too hungry. All of the advanced planning and having to be at an ADR didn't make sense to us.

If someone who has done it feels differently, let me know. We are going in June and I have a friend who keeps trying to talk me into it.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

I have debated this question myself over and over. I have decided NOT to do it, again. Reason being, my DH and I eat kids meals most of the time because we are hot and busy and don't want a lot of food making us feel yucky. Also, I don't want to have to be at a reservation somewhere when we are having fun and not too hungry. All of the advanced planning and having to be at an ADR didn't make sense to us.

If someone who has done it feels differently, let me know. We are going in June and I have a friend who keeps trying to talk me into it.

Well I won't try and talk you into because I don't want to be held responsible if it doesn't work out for you. But I will say this..I do understand what you are saying about the heat and it affecting your appetite and the time involved. We travel in Sept and it is HOT and humid. By planning one sit down meal a day we are able to escape the heat and relax. We all need that cool down, rest and eat break every day. That being said we are very careful about where and what we choose to eat because of the heat. We had dinner at LeCellier on day 6 of our vacation on a 90 degree day. Bad choice. But I still feel that for our family, we need that 'break' every day. If we didn't take it, we would really run ourselves down and probably not enjoy the parks as much as we should.

 

[outstandinfarmer]

Ok everybody - you talked me into doing the dining plan, and here's the reason why - not because I was convinced that we would save money, but having the luxury of going out and just ordering without worrying about having to pay the bill at the end made me feel it was worth it. It's our first time using it, so we will see how we feel when the trip is over. My husband the whole time would have been like "What are we spending? What are we spending? How much is this costing us? Scam scam scam!" (It's his first time going to WDW, so he doesn't understand the magic like I do. He's convinced this is all a money scam, so I want to show him it's not) So for that reason, I want him to relax and enjoy what we are doing. I also cashed in the Disney dollars and we are getting the $200 gift card so we will have about $400 extra to use throughout the trip on other things we may want to get, like souveniers, or other things to eat, etc.

So I booked the 1 CS and 1 TS a day. We are planning on going grocery shopping when we get down there and we will pack a lunch and use the CS for breakfast at the resort and the TS for dinner. So I think it will work out! Thanks for the input everybody. You made me a LOT less scared about booking it. This is actually the first time we've ever booked a vacation package, usually we do everything separate cuz we can get it cheaper, so there is a lot of new things we are trying out.

Thanks everybody! It'll be a great time. I'm going to be 5 months pregnant, so I was nervous about that, but another thread made me feel better about going then too. So you all really help. Thanks!

 

[outstandinfarmer]

One more question, does the 1 CS, 1 TS dining plan come with refillable mugs at the resort too?

 

[Hardy]

It is definitely worth it for us. We have two kids both within the under 10 range, and you cannot feed your kid for $10 a day on Disney food, so we already end up ahead with that, plus we do definitely enjoy doing the TS every day. We make sure to recoup our costs with dinner alone every day, even if it was more food than we would normally order (like dessert) we did our best to eat it

We are going again in March, just me and DH, it isn't as great a deal without kids, but we feel we would just prefer to have it prepaid and enjoy ourselves and order what we want, instead of worrying about the bill racking up and all we are spending while there. We are going to enjoy ourselves, and having everything but tip prepaid takes a load off our minds. We would not eat at all these expensive TS restaurants without the dining plan, so yah, we could save a ton by eating cheaper and less, but the question is, would we want to?

 

[Hardy]

One more question, does the 1 CS, 1 TS dining plan come with refillable mugs at the resort too?

oh and no it doesn't.

 

[outstandinfarmer]

oh and no it doesn't.

I can't believe that. Why does all of the other plans include the refillable mugs? Crazy to me!

 

[amblackmon]

I have a question about the dining plan. Our family loves it, but we have a new dilemna now. My middle two children are now considered 'adults', which means that they would need the adult dining plan. Now, they are very light eaters and the adult plan is WAY too much for them. My questions is this: Do I have to buy the adult plan for them or can I go ahead and get the children's plan for them?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Hardy]

You have to get the adult plan. If your kids are light eaters I would recommend not getting the plan, because I don't see how it could be worth it for you financially considering it would $80 a day you are spending on two light eaters. It would be nice if they made some sort of option for the in between age.

 

[firsttime2disney]

We debated with the dining plan, but once I found out that you can't use it unless you stay onsite I decided against it. We booked a 3 bedroom condo for half the price of 1 hotel room onsite. We're trying to have the best budget trip we can and with half the price for lodging, I figured that could be put toward food. One of my ds's is the pickiest eater ever so we are planning to grocery shop and do breakfast and some dinners at the condo. I have never been and have always heard people say it is better to stay onsite than off, but for this time it just wasn't in our budget. Now I just have to find out how to book a few character meals within our budget. (Especially ones that ds's ages 7 and 9 AND dd age 2 will all enjoy).

 

[amblackmon]

You have to get the adult plan. If your kids are light eaters I would recommend not getting the plan, because I don't see how it could be worth it for you financially considering it would $80 a day you are spending on two light eaters. It would be nice if they made some sort of option for the in between age.

I was afraid of that. We won't be getting the dining plan until they are bigger eaters. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[dbarker]

For us, I crunched the numbers. I went to allearsnet.com and looked over the menus of where we would eat. I figured the meal price based on what we would order if we were not on the DP. Price wise, it was just about even. So, the big bonus for us was the fact that w/ the DP, meals were prepaid and that was one less thing to worry about. DH loves the convenience of the DP. This next trip, we will be on the DDP.