Disney Meal Plan

[MommeeOfAPrnzess]

Hi
We are going back and forth on this -
Is the Disney Meal Plan a good deal?
What is your experience - good or bad?
We are good eaters on vacation - it will be dh, myself and our (will turn 5 in Nov) dd - we are going in December.
Thanks!

 

[tiggercrew]

We were having the same debate that you are. I finally looked at the menus at the restaurants we were planning to eat at to figure out if we would save money using the DDP. For us, we decided not to use the plan because we don't normally order appetizers or desserts and, if we do, we usually share a dessert. Another factor for us was that our children are 14 & 10 and are considered adults at Disney and they don't eat enough to make it worth our while.

Good luck with your decision... I know that lots of people love doing the DDP.

 

[mtmbyck]

We did the DDP last Feb for our family of 4 (me, DH, DD6 and DD9). It was WELL WORTH IT!

We dined with characters almost daily, got to see the Luau, bought snacks at our leisure....we were never worried about the price because it was ALL INCLUDED! Even the tip is covered. They give you and actual receipt of your meal and I think ours was paid for in 2 days. We did steak and Lobster one night at DTD at Cap'n Jacks and my DH and my bill was $120!! As for the kids, they loved it too since there was always a dessert option!! Our second favourite was 1900 Park Fare at GF for dinner with Cinderella. This buffet is awesome!!

The snack vouchers come in handy since you always need a bottle of water or an ice cream while waiting for a parade. Are you adding this all up in your head?? We dined at exepnsive 2 point restaurants twice since we liked the idea of having days where we could just do counter service and not plan our day around a reservation.

The ONLY downside is you gain a few extra pounds as you end up eating like royalty all week! Let's face it - you have to eat.... and the food at Disney is not cheap...but on the meal plan you are saving $$$$$$$ plus you know exactly what your trip is costing you up front. Rest assured you will easily be dropping $100-$150 on meals and snacks during the week so I would rethink it!!

The other great thing was that we printed the dining plan list of restaurants, made our Priority Seating Reservations and then printed the menus of the restaurants so months ahead we knew what we were going to be eating!!!

 

[MommeeOfAPrnzess]

thanks for the info
sounds like a good deal - I think we are going to go with it.
I was "planninig" about $40 a day for dh and myself and that isn't much there so, with the plan it sounds like we won't go hungery!
dd is a great eater for being 4 so, I think she will like it too!
lobster and steak area always a winner for me!!
thanks again!
December 7--15, 2007

 

[disneyfanfamily]

Not worth it for us. Now if we were going to do a character meal everyday, and our children were under 9. But I have 2 sons 10 & older along with DH & I that would need adult meal plans. That is about $130 (not sure how much the meal plan is now), plus DD would be an extra $10 or more. We do not eat $140 a day. Cheaper for us not to have it.

 

[Allison]

It's not a plan that fits everyone so to answer if it is a good deal for your family you need to sit down and calculate how much the meal plan would cost versus how much you would spend for food if you did not have the meal plan.

Then you need to assess other factors:

Is this the way you like to eat? An appetizer, entree and dessert for each person in my family would not be the way we would want to do things.

Do you want to invest the time? The amount of time spent at a table-service meal might be a factor for some people.

Do you want to give up a possible discount on a room and pay rack rate to save money on dining?

It's a great deal for some people and not the best for others. You just need to look at your individual circumstances.

 

[Harvest02]

We are debating this same thing!! We went in June and did not use the DDP. We averaged about $100 a day for the four of us(me, my DH, my DS 9 and 5). We only ate a few TS, and LOTS of CS!!! To tell you the truth, by the end of our week at Disney we were very tired of sandwiches, burgers, and fries!! I am seriously considering the DDP for our October trip this time. I already have a room only reservation for POR with our AAA discount. I am debating booking the package with dining through AAA so I can still get our room discount. I am back and forth on the entire thing still...I am so indecisive!!!! Hopefully I can make our decision soon!!! Any other opinions would be welcomed!!!! My kids will be 10 and 7 on our trip in October!!!

 

[Tosie]

100% worth it for us.

 

[kellyg403]

100% worth it for us.

For us too...we love the meal plan! I also think the ability to book the character meals is a huge benefit, especially for the younger kids. Not having to worry about the stress of sticking to a budget for the older ones is an even bigger benefit.

Kelly

 

[fairestoneofall]

I plan to do it next time we go back. When we stayed at SOG, we couldn't do the DDP. But it would've been worth it. DH is super frugal and I was tired of splitting counter-service meals with him by the end of the week. I just wanted to eat my own, full meal after walking all day long.

Also, we like to do some character meals as well.

I just like having it paid for in advance and not having to think about it.

 

[jessica52877]

It is not worth it for our family. We have a son whom just turned 4 (still always just eats off my plate) and then husband and myself. We just went this past weekend and not being on the plan we saw how it really isn't worth it for us BUT we don't order appetizers or desserts. Sometimes only eat a TS a day with snack in the room for breakfast and another at night. We don't buy ice cream bars, etc and usually only one drink per day at the parks.

That being said, we will NOT eat any character meals right now, mainly because I am not paying $15 for my son, did it once, never again. When we have free dining (past two years) we enjoyed it but often felt we were just always eating and didn't even use all credits or order app. and desserts at all meals. It was nice to try new places with it but not worth the cost to me.

 

[MommeeOfAPrnzess]

It will be nice to have it paid for and not worry about paying for meals and getting the app and desert will be nice esp on vacation.
Its looking like a good deal
because we have split the meals on earlier trips and it will be nice having my own dd who will be 5 has her days that she eats a lot then not so, have to play her by ear but we can take hers to eat along the way - or at the hotel so, not to worried about her
just going in to eat "expensive" will be a treat! hehe

I will proably gain some pounds but all that walking will help too!

 

[Sxofus]

When I'm at Disney I want to act like a kid again just like everyone else does, but I also want to be able to take a breath, sit down, relax, and have a nice meal that's served up with a smile.....everyday......at least once. It's well worth it for us.

 

[MommeeOfAPrnzess]

that is what i am thinking - time to sit with dd who will be 5
relax for me
and have meals we normally wouldn't have because of the price
i was alotting @ $90 for all of us and that was mostly grab and go - might as well get the better meals for about the same price!!
sounds yummy to me

 

[laceemouse]

Really depends on your family. We also have 3 kids who are adults at WDW so it would be major $$$$ for us. Also, we don't want to do so many character meals (which is a good way to get your $$$$ worth) because our kids are older and also they take a lot of time. Also, I can not even begin to imagine having 6 appetizers and 6 desserts delivered to our table! That sounds crazy. We will get one and share, if even that, normally. Of course we don't HAVE to order all the plan offers, but then is it saving $$$? If I just had one or two "little" kids I might do it though. Now if it is free next time we go !

 

[Atchley]

Will never do Disney without the DDP again! It is great for us! Well worth it even if we wouldn't usually order appetizers or desert. I just love that all of our meals are covered before we even get there. No worries about holding back to make sure that we have enough money to eat.

 

[mattoxtr]

We LOVED the DDP! It was great. We did not have to worry about prices or tips. (tips are included) You can order anything off the menu and there was always plenty of food. We will never do without it again. I can't say enough about.

 

[#1 Pocahontas]

We loved it!!

Last trip it was me, dh, dd 4 and dd 12 months. We normally only eat one or two character meals and that's all the sit downs we do. So I wasn't sure how I'd like having to sit down at least once a day. I enjoyed it so much!! I also enjoyed knowing I had a table waiting for me (well sorta, adr) and that I had to just sit, eat, and leave. I didn't' have to worry about the bill one bit. How nice is that? It made it so relaxing!!

There is WAY to much food. We didn't even try to eat it all. You don't have to order an appetizer or desert if you don't want to, or they can package your desert up for you to take with you.

We were able to do 6 character meals with the ddp. The kids and I were in heaven! That was so much fun to do. I didn't tell dd about any of them so she was so excited to see new characters at each meal.

We did have force ourselves to use some of the credits. We had many snack credits left that we were trying to use up on the last day. I had read that happens and I didn't' believe it, I am a huge snacker at WDW so I thought I would use them fast. Nope, we had lots left.

My favorite part of the dining plan is that you are able to pay it off the same way you do your package. So you can send in a little each month, no trying to save up lots of cash for souvenirs and food. Then when you get to WDW you have no worries about making sure you have enough cash each day for meals. You are all set to go!

 

[Mari annie]

If you eat 3 meals a day, and want to eat three meals, and you don't have a car, I suggest it.
Meals at Disney are expensive, no matter how you slice & dice it!

If you have a car and love to seek out new places, don't.
You can always go on the bus and go to the other resorts to eat breakfast/lunch or dinner. If you have a car=that's even better.

We've been going to Disney for 18 years this month, 3 trips yearly, and in the very beginning we did the meal plan, once. Not worth it.
We don't eat 3 meals a day, and we always had a car, and we all get sick of the commissary type of food, and I am lucky enough to have a dd & ds that will try anything, so I d rather go exploring around looking for a ma/pa type Meditterean Resteraunt or just stay at Celebration and eat!

Happy Dining to all!

 

[bless7ings]

We are debating this same thing!! We went in June and did not use the DDP. We averaged about $100 a day for the four of us(me, my DH, my DS 9 and 5). We only ate a few TS, and LOTS of CS!!! To tell you the truth, by the end of our week at Disney we were very tired of sandwiches, burgers, and fries!! I am seriously considering the DDP for our October trip this time. I already have a room only reservation for POR with our AAA discount. I am debating booking the package with dining through AAA so I can still get our room discount. I am back and forth on the entire thing still...I am so indecisive!!!! Hopefully I can make our decision soon!!! Any other opinions would be welcomed!!!! My kids will be 10 and 7 on our trip in October!!!

You do have to decide for yourself, but IMHO it is well worth it! If you ask my children and husband what was the best part of the Disney trip, they would answer the dining plan as one of their favorite parts of the trip! The meals are big, so you could split them. I liked having the plan, because it was already in place and I didn't ruin my vacation trying to figure the money and trying to get my family to splurge and save at every meal! My husband automatically said, YES!!!!!!!!. Well because he knows me and being frugal and the first place I cut is food.

I think people who don't get the plan don't get the experience of having what they really would like to eat and enjoying trying new foods, new restaurants and all the character meals they would like to try. If you really figure out what you would spend(and it is probably on the frugal side that we figure- lets be honest) it is only a little less than what the food plan would have been and being on the food plan you get a LOT more benefits. Like one lady said, they spent $100/day on counter service, which she got tired of and she could have spent $140/day and had more variety. When I asked my mother if she wanted to go back, she said she did just for the fun of trying new foods and restaurants. Right now we are trying to decide if we can go in the fall and my husband has made the point that we really need the hopper passes like last time just to be able to go into one park for the morning, but to eat at epcot at night, because I prefer trying all the neat restaurants in the showcases and Epcot is not my favored park to be in for the day.

I say have fun and enjoy the food plan! I also say if your going to Disney, don't splurge there unless you don't like to eat, you don't like to try differant food, you like the same old hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken, you don't like ambiance, you would rather be on the run and doing rides and eating expensive counter food. Everybody says if I just eat counter food and one character meal or expensive meal it will be less. Come on live a little, is that all you reallllllly want to do or would you rather enjoy some shows, character meals a romantic meal or some ambiance even with your kids! Your at Disney. I enjoyed the character meals. My husband liked the character meals better, not because of the characters necessarily, but because he likes the buffets better. So did my teenage boys. Next time we go I might try more shows like hoop de doo or whatever it is called and some of the others. Now that I know the ropes of the dining plan I know that they are big meals and we can split the cs or sit downs that you order. Not the character meals or the specialty ones that specifically take one or two credits per meal. I then can save some credits to get more of the double credits and so forth. See then you can really try out what Disney has and its by using the dining plan to your advantage if thats what you want to experience as part of your trip. I could never have eaten and done some of the entertainment that we did without being on the plan.