DVC Dining Plan

[Jen D]

It is a lot of food-- but even if you don't order it all you usually still come out ahead.

We did it recently on a 2 night stay and that was stressful because we really did feel like we couldn't miss our ADRs or change plans without risking wasting credits.

But for a week stay I don't think I'd worry so much--- if we decided to skip an ADR and stay in I'd try to squeeze in a signature meal to use the credits later in the week (Citricos? Go ahead, twist my arm!)

During our recent visit-- we were onsite 2 days with the dining plan and offsite a week without. Although we made a few ADRs before leaving town, many were made that that week, that day, sometimes within an hour before our seating. Maybe not possible in the busy season, but we had no problem making short notice ressies. Of course you have to be willing to be flexible.

But it does sound like DDE is right for you. Also, if you like to have a drink with your meal... DDE is great.

 

[allshookup]

I know people say that you don't have to order it all even though you can. Just keep in mind that the servers make a gratiuty percentage off what you do order, & they really push you to order EVERYTHING. At least that was our experience at many of the restaurants. Even though I still didn't eat everything, just trying a few bites of this & a few bites of that really did make me sick at times. I actually had to leave DQ & meet the rest of my family back at the room because I was feeling so ill after a huge meal at Wolfgang Pucks. We have the DDE card now & I much prefer to eat when & what I want when I feel hungry. However, my DH just LOVED the dining plan & wants to get it again if we go for Thanksgiving week. I am considering it since we will only be there for a few days & now that we have DVC, I can pack leftovers & desserts to save for later.

 

[Beca]

Sammie...I am totally with you on this one...we just don't eat that much food!!! This is especially true if the weather is warm (or hot). There are many, many times where we will have a light bfast in the room, and split a CS meal for supper....that's it. Then, we come back to our room, we might cook some popcorn, or eat some cheese and crackers with fruit...but eating too much in WDW is a sure-fire way to get sick...too much rich food, and not enough fiber.

If we do eat a TS meal, that is most certainly our "one meal for the day". There is just no way the dining plan would make sense for us.



Beca

 

[NMW]

Well as for the three meals a day thing, I can just tell you about my family. We had previously done the Gold plan which was 3 TS meals a day (app, entree, dessert). We decided to do it instead of the silver we had always done before because of our DD age (23 mos). We wanted the sit down in a cool place break every day. It did seem like too much food. Not the dinners, because we always eat a TS dinner with apps and sometimes dessert. Not the breakfasts either-we like a character or resort breakfast. It was the full lunches. I simply could not eat an app, entree and dessert for lunch every day. This was in Dec, so heat was not a factor. I imagine it would have been 10x worse in high heat.

Our on Dec 2005 trip as DVC members we had no meal plan, but we did have the DDE card. I kept really good track of our spending, because I knew the meal plan was coming for DVC. We made our usual ADR's for TS dinners at all our fav places and ADR's for 6 character and 2 resort breakfasts. I had figured that our kids wouldn't really be hungry for lunch and we'd probably just grab a snack, whenever anyone asked. It was very cool and my kids 3,7,and 9 did a lot of walking. Around lunch time my 3 year old was begging for a cheeseburger, my sons were telling me they were "starving to death" and DH was usually hungry too. Now maybe it was because of our meal times. We ate breakfast usually at 8 AM and our dinners around 7:30. We ended up eating CS almost every day of our trip.

That CS cost us around $45-50 every time. We also bought a water or soda every day for the five of us, about $15. None of that was covered by the DDE card. Now we did use it for breakfast and dinners and we do drink alcohol, so that was nice. However, we would have saved so much more if we had been able to use the dining plan. Just our dinners alone were about $140 WITH the 20% taken off! At that time the dining plan would have cost us about $107 a day. We would have saved just on our dinners alone! Not to mention that we would have also gotten CS lunch and a bottle of water every day!! For our family it is really worth it. You can also use the CS for breakfasts, which we may do a couple of times and eat a TS lunch that we pay oop for. We love getting cobb salads for lunch at the Brown Derby!

We still plan to renew the DDE card for breakfasts and alcohol and anything else that comes up-like extra drinks at the POLY. I can understand Sammie's point about eating in the summer. While we've never gone at that time of year, heat does make me really not very hungry. That's why I couln't imagine doing all-inclusive in Aruba, even though DH liked the idea, I can't imagine treking in from the beach in the heat to eat a big lunch. A fruit plate and a margarita are more my speed.

Also, I do think many CM's like it when you order everything you can and more expensive items, as their tip is included. At least it was that way for us with the gold/silver plans. I never ate so much add-on lobster with an entree in my entire life! When we sometimes didn't want dessert, some servers practically begged us to take them to-go. Now, this plan is different-no lobster add-ons unless you pay the add-on price. But, I bet they still try to get you to take the dessert!

 

[Twingle]

I was under the impression that you could only purchase the Dining Plan when you booked a reservation at an on-site resort. Is this not the case? I thought that since I was a DVC member I wouldn't be "allowed" the Dining Plan, but from reading other posts, I'm not sure if this is the case.

If you could point me in the right direction, I would sure appreciate it!

 

[TDC Nala]

I'll be in a DVC room, with a fridge. If anything's left over it's doggy bag time.

 

[FOTM_Ring_Bearer]

We are staying with the DDE card. We compared the cost of the DP versus what we spent last year with DDE, and DDE was cheaper for us. Plus we don't eat all that food in one sitting. If I eat an app, entree and dessert, I'll have to go lie down somewhere. I would much rather order my cocktail and entree and get 20% off, then buy the DP and still have to pay for my cocktail.

 

[Coloradomom]

We did it during our October trip. We enjoyed it but will not do it again, because it was too much food. We did have an extra day's worth of meals tacked on due to late flight arrival, but even with that we did Coral Reef twice, which we like. We were able to use the snack credits at Food and Wine Festival,even with that the 3 of us (DH, me and DD age 16) agreed it was an awful lot and more than our usual eating habits.

Now that we are DVC (1st trip to SSR end of March) we'll get getting APs and the DDE which will be better for us.

 

[unixadm]

Yes, you can get the dining plan for trips starting April 1st and later.

We booked it for our trip April 2nd-April 7th.

It costs $37.99 for adults, and $10.99 for kids. You reserve it, and pay for it when you check in.

 

[Chuck S]

The Dining Plan will be available for point stays at on-site DVC resorts beginning April 1st. The cost is $38 per adult, $11 per child (9 & under), for each night of your stay. It must be purchased by everyone in your room for your entire length of stay. You must make arrangements for the dining plan through member services prior to your arrival as it must be linked into you reservation. You pay for the plan when you check-in at your DVC resort. There is no park ticket purchase requirement like there when staying on a package through Disney. You can not get dining added to non-DVC resort stays, even on points, nor can you add it to stays at Vero Beach or Hilton Head.

 

[NMW]

I'll be in a DVC room, with a fridge. If anything's left over it's doggy bag time.

Oh, I so would have been taking those desserts with me if we had been staying in a DVC villa! We had those tiny fridges they give you in the deluxe resorts and they were filled with my kids milk and juice-no room for takeout containers. I would have loved to sit on my balcony with my kids asleep and have my dessert a few hours after dinner. Maybe in Oct when we get the meal plan as DVC members!

 

[Sammie]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I thought about getting some of it to go, but then that means going to dinner; then back to the villa to put it in the frig, another huge waste of time as we would plan our evening FS meal around which park we were going to.

Our summer plans are very much like Beca's. We have a late breakfast in our room and make our plans for the day during that time. Then we either have a CS meal for dinner or an early 5pm FS meal then it's off to the parks. We would never have a large CS meal and a FS meal in the same day. The heat just makes us want to eat lightly and and not any heavy meals. Appetizers are usually share between 2 or maybe even 3 people and even desserts are usually shared at FS meals. Not only would I hate to waste my money it would really bother me to waste food and pick at it just because its included in my plan. I could see myself going around WDW giving away food.

I guess the DDE card is the way to go,

 

[Cinderella]

Hi Sammie - we are doing the dining plan next trip too, simply because it is such a great offer. The thing i think we will struggle with is the dessert at counter service. For the snack we'll mostly get water. You should be ok. We usually eat one sit down per day because, to be honest - the sit down stuff available is usually a whole lot healthier than most of the counter service places.

I will admit - we do tend to eat more in WDW anyway. I usually check out the menus on Debs site. Most of the restaurants have healthier stuff such as seafood. And having one sit down a day will give you a break from the parks.

 

[aterriq]

I am disappointed with everyone who says its too much food.

You know you will a lot of walking at WDW so we all need to increase our walking before we go. So now everyone on the DP needs to increase your eating before you go so it will be easy to eat that appetizer, entree and desert with no problems.

I know you can all do it. we just all need to start by going to one buffet a day and after a month you should be able to handle two. Then you'll be ready for the DP.

 

[Sammie]

Hi Sammie - we are doing the dining plan next trip too, simply because it is such a great offer. The thing i think we will struggle with is the dessert at counter service. For the snack we'll mostly get water. You should be ok. We usually eat one sit down per day because, to be honest - the sit down stuff available is usually a whole lot healthier than most of the counter service places.

I will admit - we do tend to eat more in WDW anyway. I usually check out the menus on Debs site. Most of the restaurants have healthier stuff such as seafood. And having one sit down a day will give you a break from the parks.

Thanks for the insight, I guess one of the main reasons we are not sure it will work we don't take breaks from the parks anymore. Very seldom do we get up early, so when we go to the park usually early evening, we stay till closing. That is our major park time 4pm to closing. So I guess I see this having to eat a FS meal each day interfering with that.

On the day we would plan a FS meal such as Yachtsman' we would probably not even do a park that day. Just hang around the pool, etc, get dressed for dinner; then to a movie or something after such a full meal.

I guess as someone on the Restaurant forums said: the plan is not a great deal for everyone.

 

[gothmommie]

I have a question and please forgive me if it was already asked/answered and I missed it....

If we are staying at a Deluxe resort Friday - Sunday then moving to a DVC location for Sunday - Thursday, based on previous posts we could only add dining for our DVC stay. That's fine and exactly what we would want. Here's the question though - if I show up to the DVC location in the morning can I get my DP cards even though my room isn't ready? Or do I have to wait until after 4pm to get the card?

Anyone know?

 

[Dean]

I have a question and please forgive me if it was already asked/answered and I missed it....

If we are staying at a Deluxe resort Friday - Sunday then moving to a DVC location for Sunday - Thursday, based on previous posts we could only add dining for our DVC stay. That's fine and exactly what we would want. Here's the question though - if I show up to the DVC location in the morning can I get my DP cards even though my room isn't ready? Or do I have to wait until after 4pm to get the card?

Anyone know?

You can get it when you check in even if your room is not ready. That would give you all day the first day at a DVC to use the plan.

 

[gothmommie]

You can get it when you check in even if your room is not ready. That would give you all day the first day at a DVC to use the plan.

Great, thank you for the information. Much appreciated.

 

[Buckalew11]

I am disappointed with everyone who says its too much food.

You know you will a lot of walking at WDW so we all need to increase our walking before we go. So now everyone on the DP needs to increase your eating before you go so it will be easy to eat that appetizer, entree and desert with no problems.

I know you can all do it. we just all need to start by going to one buffet a day and after a month you should be able to handle two. Then you'll be ready for the DP.

Yep, stretch those stomachs!!

We ate a wonderful meal at Ohana Monday night. I was wishing someone would roll us back to our room. I can't imagine eating like that all week! Esp. eating lots of food and then hopping on ToT or RnR!!

 

[rocketriter]

There's another hidden problem in the dining plan if you have children.

When they discover that they can order anything on the menu, some of them will do so. The next thing you know, they'll develop a taste for filet mignon and lobster tails and prime rib and other expensive stuff. You'll spend the next 10 years saying "no" whenever you take them out to dinner and they try to order those $29 entrees. Believe me, it happened to us on the Silver Wishes plan. It's the gift that keeps on giving.