Disney Dining Plans. Worth While?

[JonFozz]

Hi question from a Newbie on here so please be gentle.

We have booked to go to New Orleans Riverside for Christmas & New Year 2010/2011 as both myself & my wife will have 40th birthdays while we are there. We were speaking to someone yesterday and they were advising us about the Disney Dining Plans.

With Virgin we are looking at £160 a day for Delux plan for 2 adults, 1 child at 11 and the other 8. Seems alot. Is it worth it?

Being a tight Yorkshireman I want to get m' monies worth tha knows

Good or Bad??

Thanks

 

[2Tiggies]

First of all, welcome to the DIS!!!

Dining Plans CAN save you money, but it really depends on how you eat. As you have seen your older child is considered an adult by Disney when purchasing a dining plan. You may not necessarily need or want the Deluxe. It is a lot of food and it also depends how you usually eat.

You will get a main course entree) or combo meal/buffet plus a dessert plus one non alcoholic beverage per person per meal credit. If you have the regular DDP, you each get one CS and one TS (sit down or table service) meal per person per day plus one snack per person per day. Credits are worked out per night of your stay so if you stay 15 days and 14 nights, it will be 14 days worth of credits that you are entitled to.

Do you order dessert with every meal? (All plans)
Do you like at least 2 full service sit down meals per day? (Deluxe)
Are you willing to schedule those meals 6 months in advance and allow them to dictate what park you will be at on what day?
Does each person drink a full beverage with each meal - the drinks are large.
Have you considered that for every sit down meal you do, you are going to add 18 to 20% for tips onto the cash value of that meal?

A good starting point is to go to www.allears.net and click on their Dining tab at the top of the page. At the top left you will see Menus. There is a f airly up to date list of all the menus on there which will give you a general idea of what it would cost OOP (out of pocket) vs using the plan which is prepaid.

I know this doesn't really answer your question, but if you keep posting more questions and giving us feedback on what you are thinking, you will end up answering your own question - with some friends.

 

[wayneg]

Welcome to DISboards,
I think Lee has covered it really, try working out what you want to eat from All ears or here on DIS http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/diningmain.cfm#disneydining For us I would not buy any dining plan but least of all the Deluxe. Most I would want is regular DDP. Got it last year free (and again this year) its more than enough food, we like our food but Deluxe would be too much of it.
Saying that I would not dine onsite if not doing DDP, we enjoy offsite more if paying OOP. Onsite is expensive so if you are sticking to onsite price up some meals and see if worth buying DDP.

And don't go spread rumours we are tight in Yorkshire, we are thrifty and like value for money

 

[luke]

And don't go spread rumours we are tight in Yorkshire, we are thrifty and like value for money

You say 'potato', I say 'potato'...

Hang on, that doesn't quite work in text form

 

[wayneg]

You say 'potato', I say 'potato'...

Hang on, that doesn't quite work in text form

Nope certainly doesn't.

 

[howlongtillsummer?]

Hehehehe

I am really looking forward to trying DDP for free next month for the first time. If you are a planner who will have their meals sorted and booked early in advance you should enjoy it. If you like to "wing it", it is unlikely to be for you as it is very hard to get a table without a reservation.

 

[howlongtillsummer?]

Oh and very welcome to this wonderful board!

 

[dixonsontour]

Hi we did DDP last year and are doing it again this year.

The normal DDP is alot of food and more doable imo for a family.

From spending too much time on the restaurant board the ones who go for deluxe seem to be couples going for a short trip and wanting to eat at the 2 credit signature restaurants each night.

Also for this xmas, dining reservations have been open for booking since mid June (180 days). You may be struggling to get the adr's you want for the times you want.

 

[torsie24]

We considered it for part of our upcoming trip, but decided it really isn't worth it for us, here's why:

We get cereals/bagels/snacks/water delivered to our resort, tend to share CS meals as touring the parks on a full stomach isn't our idea of fun, and don't have 3 course meals in the TS places. We share a starter and I rarely get a dessert (had one last trip).

This trip we are gettign Annual Passes, so will purchase the table in wonderland card which will give us 20% discount, so yet an extra reason not to get DDP.

I wish I could eat loads of Disney food and not feel ill, if I could I would love to get DDP and I believe it is worth the money if you eat everything on offer, but we could never manage it, so can;t imagine us paying for DDP.

 

[cherjp]

We are trying it for the first time ever this year , so hopefully it will work out , we got it free so like the others dont think I would pay for it. I know already it will be probably be too much food and as my Dh and I have been dieting and lost 4 stone between us I dont want to ruin that so will have to choose carefully, but like Lee says its good to look at the menus and see what would you would eat .

oh and welcome to our very friendly forum

 

[gemmybear83]

We paid for it last year (had the buy 14 nights pay for 10 deal instead which worked out better value for us than free dining), and we thought it was fab we saved lots of money and we love the freedom to pick what you way and not worry about the cost (bar tips!). I could not eat all the desserts either so I swapped them for extra drinks or fruit most days.

We liked having a table service meal everyday, we eat out a lot at home and I couldn't eat counter service most days.

I would never do deluxe dining though - the regular ddp was more than enough for us!

 

[Rohais]

We're got the free QSDP for September 2011, and are currently debating on whether or not to upgrade it to the full plan

 

[wayneg]

We're got the free QSDP for September 2011, and are currently debating on whether or not to upgrade it to the full plan

That would be an easy choice for us, we like to sit down for a proper meal every evening. Also main reason we choose OKW over a moderate, similar price but includes regular DDP.

 

[Rohais]

That would be an easy choice for us, we like to sit down for a proper meal every evening. Also main reason we choose OKW over a moderate, similar price but includes regular DDP.

The only issue is that we're looking at going for 21 nights now, instead of the original 12...so that'd be a lot of meals. On the other hand, seeing as we'll be there for so long, it wouldn't eat as much time out of the day as it would say, on a 12 night trip. Oh, and the tips on top of that

 

[2Tiggies]

I presume, with the exception of those who have specifically mentioned the Deluxe, that everyone here is tallking about the regular plan. I am simply mentioning this to avoid any potential confustion as the OP made a specific mention of considering the Deluxe plan.

I think there is quite a big difference between DxDDP and regular DDP. The regular is very doable and if you like on nice sit down meal a day it is great. But you will notice a vast difference not only in terms of food quantity, but more so in the level of planning and structure you will have to your days and therefore your entire trip.

It would be unfair not to stress that although for many people the Deluxe is too much food and too much hassle, there are plenty of folk who ONLY use Deluxe and that is a major part of the enjoyment of their trip - booking several signature meals (meals which cost 2 credits) and having regular scheduled breaks. It's just good to keep in mind as someone mentioned that the window for reservations for December has already opened and it may be a considerable chore to try and secure reservations over the Christmas period at places you really want to eat if you need to book not one, but two or three meals a day.

 

[tinkandonaldfans]

We're got the free QSDP for September 2011, and are currently debating on whether or not to upgrade it to the full plan

If you are planning on going on a long trip I would suggest getting the upgrade. Only because when we have gone in the past and only ate at counter service places we got tired of it quite quickly and longed for a meal with vegetables!

There is a lot of food to be eaten on the normal plan but we found when we went last year (got free ddp) that we got pretty used to eating in the restaurants and ended up running out of TS credits!

 

[WiganTony]

A couple of points to note which may help (or hinder!!) your decision:

(1) Having to book Table Service meals in advance as you will be travelling at a peak time. As already noted above, the 180 day window opened some time ago, so you may find that even now it is difficult to find reservations at what are considered "usual" mealtimes. The problem is compounded with the Deluxe Dining Plan as you will potentially be trying to slot in three reservations per day.

(2) In line with the above, if on Deluxe DDP, you will probably have to plan which parks you are visiting on most (if not every) day to tie in with your reservations. It wouldn't be a good use of time if you were in say MK and had to get over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for a meal!!

(3) If on Deluxe DDP you could reduce the amount of planning by making a larger than usual number of signature restaurant reservations which use up 2 TS credits. This would at least free up the day between breakfast and dinner without you having to get to another restaurant reservation for lunch.

(4) We had chance of free DDP a few years ago when it was three courses at the TS meal, and it was way too much food even with only one TS per day. That said, it is likely that next year the TS at least on DDP will be reduced (again!!) to the entree only in non-buffet restaurants.

Personally, I would suggest just taking the regular DDP, and if you use up a couple of TS credits at signature restaurants, it will free up some days to enjoy a meal outside of Disney.

Whichever plan you choose, you'll definitely enjoy it.

 

[disneygymmom]

Hope it's ok for me to post here (from smack in the middle of USA). I just wanted to say that our family loves to eat!! We never get the Delux Plan. Even my husband, who could out eat just about anyone, has plenty to eat on the regular dining plan.Remember also most meals are US portions.Huge! You will leave most meals stuffed if you clean your plate.And then there's the buffets......We find it really slows us down after we eat our TS meals. You will also spend alot of time getting to your reservations instead of enoying the parks.Just my opinion. whatever you decide have a wonderful time!

 

[scojos]

Hope it's ok for me to post here (from smack in the middle of USA). I just wanted to say that our family loves to eat!! We never get the Delux Plan. Even my husband, who could out eat just about anyone, has plenty to eat on the regular dining plan.Remember also most meals are US portions.Huge! You will leave most meals stuffed if you clean your plate.And then there's the buffets......We find it really slows us down after we eat our TS meals. You will also spend alot of time getting to your reservations instead of enoying the parks.Just my opinion. whatever you decide have a wonderful time!

of course, welcome to the uk boards
i agree, dxddp would be too much for us, we struggled with the red ddp, and my family can eat too
welcome to the OP, we are a friendly lot, like a little dis family
tracy

 

[2Tiggies]

Hope it's ok for me to post here (from smack in the middle of USA). I just wanted to say that our family loves to eat!! We never get the Delux Plan. Even my husband, who could out eat just about anyone, has plenty to eat on the regular dining plan.Remember also most meals are US portions.Huge! You will leave most meals stuffed if you clean your plate.And then there's the buffets......We find it really slows us down after we eat our TS meals. You will also spend alot of time getting to your reservations instead of enoying the parks.Just my opinion. whatever you decide have a wonderful time!

We love visitors! You should pop around more often

The point you raise about big meals slowing you down is one of the biggest deciding factors for me. When I am full I just want to curl up and sleep so there is no point doing a big meal during the day. And as you say, tag on a good half hour before your ADR time to get there and report to the podium and doing that a few times a day takes a rather large chunk of time