disney dining plan

[gracie98]

I was curious as to whether the disney dining plan is worth it for a week long stay for 2 adult and a child. Can anyone help me out?

 

[OneMoreStitch]

We did the dining plan last year and it was ALOT of food! We even packed about 7 of our snack credits to bring home or eat on the plane. It's not something I would do every trip but we did enjoy going to a nice place to eat every day and not worrying about the cost of what we were ordering. Plus we could indulge in dessert and I didn't feel bad if I didn't eat every bite.

 

[kdkbrebel]

I haven't used the DDP yet, we are using it for the first time in july. That said what I did was looked at the menus of the places we would like to eat and picked out what we would probably order and added up the cost, don't forget to add the tax and gratuity for the TS meals. Then you can guestimate the cost of counter service and snacks. I figured 3/snack/person/day for snacks. Just with the snacks and TS's i had reached the cost of the DDP. So that would mean all our cs would be free . so for our situation it sounds like a great deal. By the way we will be 3a's and 1c. Hope this helps.

 

[CW4DW]

I went to DW in September with my DBF and the dining plan was offered free at that point - so yes it was definitely worth it. But you do get an unusual amount of food, so go to every meal hungry because you don't want to waste anything. I probably gained 10-15 pounds eating so much food while I was there. It is a great thing though and you would probably all really enjoy it because when you are on the DDP you tend to order the most expensive things that you normally wouldn't order. I say go for it and enjoy...

 

[The Sweetness]

I think if you would like to have a table service meal daily (buffet or otherwise) than the plan will be worht it, even if you don't go to the most expensive place you can find and order by value rather than appetite, as some have reported doing. I think with tax and tip inc, the DDp pays for itself on a TS and snack, leaving you with a CS meal daily (B, L, or D) on them If you and DH are light eaters and share CS, you could get one breakfast and one lunch or dinner to split, leaving one big TS meal per day If you dont plan on using the table service credits (it can easilly take 2 hours to enjoy a TS meal)than skip the plan

 

[Vickibean]

We just returned from 3 nights on DDP with 2 adults and 4 children. It was fun, but plan on revolving your schedule around your meals. I'm a compulsive planner, and it was even too much planning for me. It was fun once, but I don't think we'll do it again.

 

[mom2aredhead]

plan on revolving your schedule around your meals. I'm a compulsive planner, and it was even too much planning for me. It was fun once, but I don't think we'll do it again.

This is what I'm worried about. I kind-of did the math and added up the places where we would likely eat (mostly character buffets and Mickey's Backyard BBQ) + breakfast/lunch daily and the cost was ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME, with the exception of tax/gratuity/drink being included on DDP. So I figured, OK, we'll give it a shot and see how it works for us this trip. Fast forward to making ADR's, I find myself making reservations at different places we wouldn't have considered going to all in the name of trying to "get my money's worth", and have completely re-arranged the loosely planned schedule I had in mind to now revolve around eating dinner. UGH! Even worse, we live in 1 of NYC's 5 borough's, so it's not like we don't have easy access to (or fairly regularly go to) some REALLY good restaurants here at home. Why am I driving myself crazy then? Beats me!
We're not going until May, so I have a feeling DH may give me a reality check by then. (I think I need one) I may also end up canceling and re-booking DDP several times between now and then. My AAA travel agent is going o love me!