Do we pay for disney dining plan?

[angel659]

Hi

Not sure whether to book this or not. Thinking about the prices and how much we would spend on food. I know I would rather have a breakfast in the morning and one dinner at night. Perhaps a light snack in the afternoon whether an ice cream or something.

On all ears its $38.99 for a adult per night and $10.99 per child for 14 nights.

If we wanted to book character meals, i.e Le Celliur, San Angel etc I am still not sure whether it would cost more to book this seperately or pay for the dining plan.

Has anyone else paid for the dining plan or did you only choose the dining plan because its free.

 

[jtlover]

I have had free and paid - if you want to eat at disney all the time then it saves a bundle and we tend to eat at restaurants we probably wouldnt if it wasnt for the dining plan

 

[wideeyes]

It depends on how you plan to eat, and if you want to eat a table service everyday or if you are happy with just a few table service meals.

I have it for free however not sure if I would buy it as I would probably book fewer ADRs if I was paying for the food. A few of the ADRs I have booked just because it is free, I would not have booked them all otherwise.

 

[lisaj]

We don't do DDP because we tend to eat table service breakfast and dinner and not a lot else, DDP only caters for one table service and one counter service. Firstly, if you're not into fastfood you won't get your moneys worth, secondly, although DDP is a bargain if you eat everything on offer if like us you will only eat one course at some restaurants then you don't get big savings. People that eat everything on offer on ddp do really make a profit from the posts on this and other websites. To be fair we don't really go on holiday to save money which is probably why we only have one holiday a year!

 

[grandad_p]

Hi,
Just a thought for our 2008 Disney trip.
How easy is it to eat "off-site"? We intend renting vehicles for the stay, y'know to visit "other" attractions. Alamo are on-site at Disney, so Tania at AKL tells me, so we will likely get a transfer via Murray Hill Transportation and rent the vehicles when we are on-site. Are there many reasonable eateries within easy reach? Has anyone done this before?
Thanks.
Martin

 

[paulh]

Hi

On all ears its $38.99 for a adult per night and $10.99 per child for 14 nights.

Thi price is if you paid direct with disney or with a usa TA.If you were getting it througth the uk you have to pay UK prices.Also you have to factor in a one day Park ticket minimum to get it so thats a extra $70 therabouts.
We have done it free last year and thought it was good.This year were paying for it for 7 nights at dvc,as we dont have to buy a park ticket to get it.And doing it for 5 nights free at pop.Booked directly with disney and got a ticket each for one day.
Would we pay for it for a full 2 weeks,Yes we would, at dvc or another disney property as even paid it is good value
And if they offered Free dinning next year would jump on in a flash
Paulh

 

[wayneg]

Hi,
Just a thought for our 2008 Disney trip.
How easy is it to eat "off-site"? We intend renting vehicles for the stay, y'know to visit "other" attractions. Alamo are on-site at Disney, so Tania at AKL tells me, so we will likely get a transfer via Murray Hill Transportation and rent the vehicles when we are on-site. Are there many reasonable eateries within easy reach? Has anyone done this before?
Thanks.
Martin

Hundreds of places to eat off site, we only eat lunch in parks, prefer offsite for evenings. there are places for every budget. there are voucher books everywhere giving you 10-15% off a lot of places. 3 adults dining off site at Easter cost us between $16(all you can eat pizza) to $53 for steaks.
We had chance to stay onsite this year with free dining but staying off site again as we prefer to be away from parks in evenings.

 

[crabbie1]

Hi

Not sure whether to book this or not. Thinking about the prices and how much we would spend on food. I know I would rather have a breakfast in the morning and one dinner at night. Perhaps a light snack in the afternoon whether an ice cream or something.

On all ears its $38.99 for a adult per night and $10.99 per child for 14 nights.

If we wanted to book character meals, i.e Le Celliur, San Angel etc I am still not sure whether it would cost more to book this seperately or pay for the dining plan.

Has anyone else paid for the dining plan or did you only choose the dining plan because its free.

We paid for it last year and I though it saved us a lot of money as we ate in some really nice resturants one signature restursnt would of been $298 for 2 of us-that was with a bottle of wine though.
The year before we didn't have the plan and stayed off site and ate in some nice places for a good price,but personally I love the dining plan as we book all our ADR's asap and know it would cost a lot lot more if we had to pay for where we eat-plus its one time of the year we like to spoil ourselves.

 

[UKDEB]

Jen, first of all, neither Le Cellier nor San Angel are character meals. Just thought I'd mention that in case that changes your plans.

We've been considering DDP for our August trip and we've spent quite a lot of time looking at the places we're likely to eat and what, in reality, we'd be likely to order. No matter how we look at it, we can't make it work for us, but (and it's a big "but") that's only because, if we don't buy DDP, we will purchase the DDE card. That gives us 20% off our entire check, including alcohol. If we didn't have the DDE card, it would be a closer call. Disney has been very canny with the pricing. If you think you'd eat a 3 course dinner each day, and a 3 course counter service, it's probably worth considering. We know we wouldn't. We'd never eat dessert with a counter service meal and only occasionally with a table service. Also, if we wanted to use 2 TS credits (which we undoubtedly would, on more than one occasion), that leaves us having to pay for a meal on another day.

Two other things which we have factored into our decision not to do DDP are:

• It's restrictive and just too controlling for us - way too much planning and not enough flexibility. If we decide we want to grab lunch at, say, Crew's Cup Lounge, we can't just do it, we have to consider how it fits in.

• Cruise ship mentality. We've been on two cruises and, because the food is "free", we've eaten way more than we wanted. Even with that knowledge and the best of intentions, you soon slip into "eating because you've paid". I just know that I would end up ordering three courses at every opportunity because I'd feel I'd otherwise be wasting money. We know, from experience, that we seldom order 3 courses in the normal course of events.

The way we look at it, assuming we were going to eat a counter service each day (and that's doubtful, so the "restrictive" card immediately comes into play), we could say that would cost us $10 per head ($7ish for the meal, plus a drink). Add on another $2 for another drink (snack credit) and that leaves us effectively paying $27 each per day for a table service restaurant. We've looked at loads of menus (both one and two credit) and we just can't make it cheaper to do DDP than paying for what we think we'd order without it (less the DDE discount). I'd recommend doing the same. Take a good look at your itinerary and work out what where you think you're likely to eat, then look at the menus and work out the cost of what you'd like to order. Without the DDE card, it'll probably be a closer call, but for us it just doesn't work.

 

[paulh]

. Without the DDE card, it'll probably be a closer call, but for us it just doesn't work.

Dont forget you will have to factor in the cost of an annual pass to get one.With dvc is good value as you get discount on the DDE card as well(think you do, not been on dvc website for a while)
Paulh

 

[jonkatony]

Paid for the ddp last year and it was great for us. Disney has some great resturants to try. With two adults and two kids it is hard not to save money unless you only have c.s.

 

[Cyrano]

• Cruise ship mentality. We've been on two cruises and, because the food is "free", we've eaten way more than we wanted. Even with that knowledge and the best of intentions, you soon slip into "eating because you've paid". I just know that I would end up ordering three courses at every opportunity because I'd feel I'd otherwise be wasting money. We know, from experience, that we seldom order 3 courses in the normal course of events.

Great advice here Debs. I'll remember this for the future

 

[angel659]

Great advice Deb. We wouldnt eat a three course counter service and then a full meal. We hate walking around the park feeling full and have trouble moving. We want to eat at Royal Table and Mickeys BBQ, which is 2 credits. As you say that would then leave us to pay for another meal. I think we will leave it. Thanks for all your advice.

 

[fizz13]

Just wanted to add that I have done dining plan last year, and when I got home and added up what we would have spent on what we actually ate (as I hardly ordered dessert at all, and never ate counter service dessert) that there was only $20 in it! I have to say we left 3 counter service credits behind as well as we were just too full to use them, so IMHO not worth it for us, expecially when you factor in the 1 day ticket. This year I'm gonna go for the annual pass/DDE option, much better value for us, and Michelle I'm sure you'll get the benefit too in August

 

[grandad_p]

Hundreds of places to eat off site, we only eat lunch in parks, prefer offsite for evenings. there are places for every budget. there are voucher books everywhere giving you 10-15% off a lot of places. 3 adults dining off site at Easter cost us between $16(all you can eat pizza) to $53 for steaks.
We had chance to stay onsite this year with free dining but staying off site again as we prefer to be away from parks in evenings.

Thanks wayneg, We have stayed off-site a couple of times in the past and usually eaten a hearty breakfast cheaply before hitting the parks. Then grabbed a bite for lunch in the park and maybe an evening meal elsewhere. Do you guys and gals consider it worth eating away from Disney? Or should we delay booking and hold out for a free dining plan? I just want to reduce the financial commitment for our 2 daughter's and their families as much as possible, save for paying for EVERYTHING ourselves. (We are picking up the travel / accomodation costs )
Martin