Disney Dining Plan, possible changes?

[jonkatony]

Having read various comments about the dining plan are reductions in menus for those on the plan, being treated differently from others not on the plan I am concerned wether the plan is for us as a family. We will be staying 14 days and will have to pay the adult price for both our children. I have done the sums and its just about o.k for our family, but if changes occur it will not be value for money. Anybody have any information?

 

[swilshire]

For such a long stay, I would probably be sick of eating about half way through. At a minimum, I would do a split reservation and only get it for part of the time.

I am in a similar situation since my 11yo who eats like a bird is also considered an adult. We are doing the dining plan for four days and I think we can eat enough to make it worth it by taking some cs carryout with us at the end.

You might eat better on the dining plan, but could probably save money and calories by just skipping it. Only you can judge which of those is most important to you.

Sheila

 

[flea1267]

We had the dining plan for our 8 nights and there is so much variety we didn't get sick of it...and we weren't treated any differently that anyone else. I still think it's a great deal and if your child doesn't eat as much as you would then you can get their dessert to go or take their appetizers to go and save for a late night snack or something. Just my 2 cents. Have a great trip!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

If you are staying 14 days you might look into at least one person getting an Annual Pass. Then get a room-only reservation, very possibly with an AP discount. In addition, spend the $50 to get the DDE card which will give you 20% discount on food and beverages at all sit-down restaurants (including character meals) except Japan, as well as food courts or counter service where there is no sit-down restaurant and the lounges.

 

[jann1033]

they used to offer meal vouchers that were pretty much the same as the dining plan..over time they "tweaked" them to not include some more expensive items but you still made out ok...if you compare the menus I think most places will still be a good value even if they stop allowing you say surf and turf. i don't think they will limit things so much you only have a couple choices if that is what you are concerned about since disney wants you to use it and their dining places.

once the free dining is over i think most of the waiters will want you to get as much out of it as you can so they get a bigger tip..i am guessing most of the "attitudes" come from those few servers who have attitudes already ( we came across a few while paying oop) and just would rather not earn their money...free dining has given them an assured tip so they don't bother to be nice and then probably gripe cause they don't get better tips

 

[jonkatony]

Thanks for all your advise, I think I will wait and keep reading the forums.

 

[SB in KY]

I am sure the free dining stressed the entire system at TS establishments....but and I think people tend to assume any bad service was a result of the fact that they were on free dining....but as a previous poster stated.... we have had lousy service every now and then when paying OOP. So I am not convinced the 2 are totally related. I tend to think if you have a less than motivated (read: lazy) server who is forced to work with capacity crowds you will not get good service whether he/she is guarenteed your "tip" or not.

 

[needAcruise]

Paying full price for children who are considered adults, but who eat like children does not sound like a good deal.

We ended up with a lot of counter service meals at the end of our vacation. So just before we hopped on the Magical Express back to the airport, I went to the resort counter service restaurant and picked up 3 whole meals and 2 snacks (this is what we had leftover). My kids ate so little that splitting the counter service meals for them was quite enough. They had prepackaged meals that survived the 2 hour plane trip home (plus 2 hour wait in the terminal). Carry-on of course. I had sandwiches, salad, chips, fruit salad and drinks galore. No cooking for dinner that night!

And I agree that bad service is not really affected by the dining plan. A lot of times, they do not know you are on the dining plan until the very end and you are paying with the KTTW card.

 

[abacobaby]

We have a 2 year old DD and will be using the DP during our trip. I think the DP will be really great for us since we are two adults who can eat quite a bit of food and a toddler who does not get charged for the dining plan. If my DD still does not eat a lot next year, I will have to think twice about getting the DP once I have to pay for her. Personally, once your child hits that "adult" category, it seems like a steep price to pay for a child who really does not eat the amount an adult can. If you have older kids who can eat more than $35/day, I would definitely go for it. If I were you, I would seriously take your kids eating patterns/amounts into consideration before spending all of that money on the DP.

Just thought I'd give you another perspective....

 

[Gillian]

We have a 2 year old DD and will be using the DP during our trip. I think the DP will be really great for us since we are two adults who can eat quite a bit of food and a toddler who does not get charged for the dining plan. If my DD still does not eat a lot next year, I will have to think twice about getting the DP once I have to pay for her. Personally, once your child hits that "adult" category, it seems like a steep price to pay for a child who really does not eat the amount an adult can. If you have older kids who can eat more than $35/day, I would definitely go for it. If I were you, I would seriously take your kids eating patterns/amounts into consideration before spending all of that money on the DP.

Just thought I'd give you another perspective....

We have a 2 year old as well, who eats a lot, and a 5 year old who doesn't. So we figure they can split 1 kids meal most times.

 

[Jaime]

We just got back and I would recomment it, as long as you plan it out. You could do some of the nicer 2 credit restaurants and dining shows. Since there are so many restaurants and choices to choose I don't think you would have a problem. We ate about $185 per day for 3 adults and 1 child and never went to any really expensive places and only ate dinner at table service 3 times the rest was lucnh and breakfast.

 

[sanibelover]

I don't think it would take long to pay for itself - We ate at Le Cellier to the tune of $85 for 2 - no alcohol either. Shared an appetizer and dessert. If you are planning to do many sit down meals, it might well be worth it.

One the other hand, if you think your kids won't eat much - they may have to order off the adult menu at sit down restaurants (some may let you do the kids menu route) - it might work out better to do a split ressie. All I know is that money at WDW evaporates faster than water in the FLA sunshine. It might be nice to not have to worry about the food budget all the time.

Also, if you can get a good room discount (we got $99 at the Swan), it might not be worth it to do the dining plan. We couldn't justify paying rack at a Disney Deluxe just to get dining when we got such a great room rate.