Disney Dining Plan VS Disney Dining Experience

[VINN127]

We have the DDE card and have saved a lot of money over the past 5 months. We are going down again in September and now the Dining Plan is available to DVC members. To those who are familiar with both, which do you think works out better?

 

[Merriwind]

How funny you asked this. I am in the middle of calculating the same question for our trip in Oct. We love DDE, but are tempted now that DVC can get DDP. I can't wait to see some replies!

 

[mkymouse4ever]

I think it depends on how much time you put into meals. Remember not just a long nice dinner, but breakfast & lunch too not to mention snacks. Seemed like we where busy trying to figure out when we would eat, and then spending all our time in resturants. It is a lot of planning, and you get a lot of food. Also seems like few actually eat all there meals and have left overs. I think over all its a good deal, but I like to be a little more open, we go in the summer & its pretty hot for a lot of large meals.

mky

 

[ggdvc]

I've been trying to figure out the same things too...As I see it, each has it's own advantages, and it really depends on your eating (and drinking) habits. I'm more of a "grazer" - I eat small portions at a time, but eat quite often. So the dining plan, with the appetizer, entree and dessert, may be more than I can handle at one time. But then again, knowing where I ate on my last trip, I still would have saved money. For the DDE card, you need to either live in Florida, or have an AP (so there's an additional expense). The discount is on ALL beverages, which is nice, and I think I recovered the cost by the 3rd day. Now that the dining plan is available to DVC members staying on points, I'll probably give it a shot for my next trip.

 

[EEyorelover22]

Look at how you have eaten at Disney before.

We eat far too many TS meals for the dining plan to work for us. I figured it out for our June trip and we would get 40 TS credits...4 of us for 10 days. We need more like 80 We eat a character meal or a sit down breakfast (Boma) and then dinner at table service. The family will not change either so the dining plan isn't for us that's for sure! It would be great for DS and DH since they eat counter service in between, but DD and I don't...we are too full. We could bank our CS but then we'd have leftovers of those. It just doesn't make sense for us to use it for the 4 of us.

 

[clemsondisneyfan]

We just got back for 8 wonderful days and are already planning our next trip for the end of the year!

We used the dining plan and it saved us $425.00!

My husband kept ALL of our snack and meal receipts and we totaled them up to see what we saved.

We were very pleased!

The kids ate cereal every morning in the hotel room - before 8 a.m. - and then we ate a counter meal around 11:30 each day and table service at 5 p.m. each day. They ate a snack when we left the parks each night.

Worked out well for us. We will for our trip in December 2006!

 

[Kycha]

What restaurants can you use the DDE card? Are they only TS restaurants?

 

[clemsondisneyfan]

You do not have to all eat at one time. If 2 in your party are hungry at 10:30, they can sit down for a quick bite while the others go ride a ride or see a show.

The table service meals are very filling and we were glad we had them all scheduled between 5 - 6 p.m. We had plenty of walking time after we ate!

The counter service meals are a LOT. Sometimes my husband and I would split one at 11:30 and then grab another one at 9 p.m. when we were back at the resort. We normally do not eat until 8 or 9 at home, so that seemed normal to us. We were always up until 11 or 12 anyway, so that still gae us several hours before we went to bed - after we ate.

We found healthy meals at Epcot/The Land and at Animal Kingdom. A fruit plate in AK was great for a mid-morning meal and then splitting a chicken sandwich around 1:30 got us through until the dinner meal.

The kids had plenty of cereal bars, dried fruit, etc. We shipped a box of snacks and parmalat milk to the hotel 2 days before we arrived.

 

[Figment2]

We usually eat a big breakfast (TS) and then don't eat again until 5-6pm. We love the DDE card. Since we are there 3-4 times a year we rarely do much planning (only exceptions are when we are going to MNSSHP or something like that since we sometimes have 15 to 30 people). Since we are all DVC, our trips have become very laid back. Most times, we'll be at breakfast and decide where we'd like to go to dinner. Since we don't have to be a certain place at a set time we can be flexible when we call for an ADR. I don't think the dining plan would work well for us.

I wish the Fiesta Margarita stand took DDE. We spend a fortune there!

Cyn

 

[KristinU]

Perfect timing for this thread for me too!

Figment2 - no kidding on the margaritas! We, too, used to be pretty casual with planning our meals on the fly...but during our last trip (Sept '05) with the dining plan going on we had a super tough time trying to get in a lot of the places that had been a piece of cake for us before. Have you noticed a similar issue? Have you had to change your style a little since the dining plan push?

Cheers!

 

[VINN127]

I really appreciate all of the responses. We too like to eat a table service breakfast and TS for dinner, so maybe we are better off with DDE. I will say it has saved us a lot of money as we had my daughters wedding at WDW in January. We had 4 cards in our family and they were honored at all of the restaurants we went to. Ohana's let us use them for dinner for 30 people one night including beverages. Looks like DDE is the way to go for us but I'm still waiting for more responses.

 

[goofy4tink]

Well, I'm using both for my Oct trip. I will have to renew it anyway for that trip and then one in Dec...and I have already saved $40 for my HDDR reservations in Oct, so it's only going to be $20 to make up. We'll use the DDP for most dinners and lunches, but the DDE card for table breakfasts and any 'adult' beverages we have with dinners. I forsee a lot of wine being bought on this trip!! Just the two moms and the two dd's turning 13..yep, lots and lots of wine!!
I figured it out on paper and it's almost the same if I go with one or the other...so I'll combine. It's going to be an over the top kind of trip anyway.

 

[aubeone]

I agree...think about using both. I am planning on doing this during Easter Week. I am staying my first 3 nights at WL(AP Discount on room only) w/o dining plan. The DDE card will pay for itself in the first weekend. After moving to OKW for the next 6 nights, I will use the Dining Plan. But the DDE card will be used for breakfast and adult beverages. Even if I never use the DDE card again, I will save money. Of course, I might try to squeeze in one more trip before it expires!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!