DVC'ers and Meal Plan

[AEN]

How many of you DVC'ers have used the meal plan? And, if you have, what are your thoughts?

We are up in the air. Our issue is that we have a kitchen in the room we are getting. While some people don't like to cook on vacation. That was one of our considerations when buying points. We figured we can same some money by cooking sometimes in the room. Now with the meal plan, we will be spending more.

Thoughts....

 

[Lucky82061]

going to use the DDP for the first time in feb... seems like a great deal from all the planning but we will see I guess. We don't like to cook on vacation however and almost always eat at the parks so seems like it will work out great for us.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We used it in December and found that we couldn't use all the credits allowed. We ended up "throwing away" about 8 counter service credits.

The first part of our trip was with 5 people in two family groups, and it was a bit difficult to track with more than one family group. The second half of the trip was just the two of us, and while it was a lot easier to track, we just dont eat that much anymore to use everything. Now, that being said, we still probably spent less per day than if we had been eating without it. We love the table service places, and especially the signatures. We did decide to do it again for our upcoming May trip when it will just be two of us for 5 nights. We will NOT be doing it over Thanksgiving though, when we will have several young people and several family groups. We will definitely be doing more in the room cooking that trip. That will be both for economy and for ease of keeping track of things.

 

[Anthony1971]

We used it in December and thought it was a great deal..... if you like to eat.
The only problem we had was a few of us got sick mid week and we did not eat out for a day but made up for it by doing a sit down breakfast on th elast day and a CS lunch right before we left but still had one TS left. HOWEVER we still did make out but we would not normally order that much food and I specifically refer to dessert with lunch and both dessert and an apetizer with dinner we would normally only order one or niether and go elswhere for dessert later on. I do however feel it is a good idea with a group of people it takes the who pays the bill out of the equation and you can all sit down and have a nice meal and not worry.

 

[coasterbob]

How many of you DVC'ers have used the meal plan? And, if you have, what are your thoughts?

We are up in the air. Our issue is that we have a kitchen in the room we are getting. While some people don't like to cook on vacation. That was one of our considerations when buying points. We figured we can same some money by cooking sometimes in the room. Now with the meal plan, we will be spending more.

Thoughts....

If you have an AP, you might consider the DDE card. We had it in December and had 10 people in our crew!It is 20% off INCLUDING alcohol (yeah... ), for up to 10 folks so we save a bundle. And we're going to use it 2 more times this year....

 

[PaulaMurf]

how it works for us.

I was also up in the air, but we always do a few character meals, and a few sit downs bc I really dont like to cook on vacation - I think we will save money based on our usual eating patterns.

I always THINK I will cook in the Villa but really never actually do, maybe eggs in the mornings a few times, but that is about it. (I like to delude myself I guess! LOL)

 

[Delaware Mike]

For my DW and I, cooking and vacation are mutually exclusive....

While we weren't members in 2006, we did use DDP during our September trip. We felt we saved time by not leaving the parks to prepare a meal, eat, then return for "fun". We saved around $400.00 for two adults during a week at WDW. We didn't order more than we normally do, so our analysis was pretty accurate, in our opinion. Finally, when considering the snack credits, they were essentially free.

Hope this helps.

 

[bpmorley]

We used it last June. I would highly recommend it if anyone is going for at least a week. With the smaller crowds on weekdays it seems easier to get into places without ADR's. Dont' get me wrong, you have to plan some of your meals out. We were there for 8 nights and I think we made around 5 reservations. We used a couple of the 2 TS's also. There is plenty of food on this plan.

 

[Muushka]

We used it this past December for the first time. Honestly, I don't think we would get it again if we were in a 1 BR (which is what we usually get). But if we got a studio, yes, then it would be worth it to us.

 

[Chuck S]

We don't use the DDP, we use the DDE. I always compare the price of the DDP to what we actually spend at Disney restaurants after a trip(including gratuity and tax), and so far, for two adults, it wouldn't save us anything and would cost about $100 more.

It really depends upon your normal eating habits and whether your party is all adultsor includes children, as to whether ot not the DDP isa great deal.

 

[NemoMOm]

We have used the DDP before (but not as DVC owners). It is worth if you like TS. There is alot of food and we usually do not get dessert and most appetizers.

 

[DVC Grammy]

Last October we used the DDP and the DDE for a split stay. We did the DDP in the first 3-4 days, and the DDE for the next week. We found the DDP to be too much food for just the two of us. Maybe because we paid for it, we felt obligated to eat too much. But even with bringing desserts "home" to have for breakfast the following mornings, and using it until midnight of our moving-resort day, we still found it to be a food overload. It was a good thing that we did it at the beginning of the trip and not at the end, or we would've felt like TweedleDee and TweedleDum rolling back to MCO! For us, the DDP will only be used when we have bigger eaters along.
For our usual trips, the DDE makes more sense for us.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

We stay in studios and we get the dining plan. Works perfect.

 

[disneybride96]

We love DDP, mainly because we don't worry about prices. I know is going to cost me $38.99 per day and I don't even think to look at menu prices anymore. If I want the steak, I order the steak.

Hey...we're on vacation. I am NOT cooking and with DDP, not worring about money!

 

[JimMIA]

We usually stay in one bedrooms, and we still love the DDP. (I once told DW that -- since we had the kitchen -- it would be great to have breakfast in bed. She said, "Cool. Make me French Toast!")

Anyway...I think whether you like it or not depends on the composition of your group and your normal Disney dining habits. For us, dining is one of the things we enjoy at Disney...although not as much as we did before all the menu standardization. We do one nice dinner each night or we do a character meal. There are three of us -- DW, DD4-going-on-24, and myself.

When I evaluate the DDP, I throw out the CS and snack credits. I don't really throw them out, but I disregard their value. I also only look at what we would REALLY order if we were paying OOP -- not appetizer, entree, and dessert at every meal. When I do the math that way, I come out with a modest savings and a lot of convenience with DDP. If I were to calculate the actual value of the CS and S credits, we probably save $200-300 on every 4-5 day trip.

I think if your dining habits are different, or your party includes several kids who are 10+, that greatly changes the equation.

I also have to tell you that -- with the menu standardization -- if we were doing a trip longer than seven days, I seriously doubt that we'd use DDP. We'd go OOP, do a few things onsite (probably just Le Cellier, someplace we haven't tried, and a character meal) and eat the rest of the time at one of the many good restaurants offsite.

 

[Zoom]

So its $38.99/day per person for breakfast,lunch and dinner?

 

[tara98]

We have used the DDP 2 times in the past 2 years, and we love it.. Then again, we love to eat. It is a lot of food, but seeing that we love to eat, it is well worth it for us. We do end up at the end of the vacation maybe having an extra counter service meal or two, depending on our flight times... but considering the price of character meals (which we enjoy), the DDP is the way to go for us. Last time we were in WDW, we stayed in SSR in a 1 bedroom, and thought we would not use the DDP as much, but seeing that I really do not want to cook on vacation... we ended up using it up! I think it is a personal choice depending on your eating habits. We enjoy our meals as much as we enjoy the parks, so this just made sense to us, and gave us the oppertunity to try a lot of different restaurants in the world that we would have never tried if not on the DDP.. Good luck!

 

[greenban]

So its $38.99/day per person for breakfast,lunch and dinner?

Not Quite Zoom:

For those 10 and older for 2007 $38.99 gets you one snack, one counter service meal and one table service deal per night of your reservation.

You can substitute a breakfast, but I don't know if it would consume a CS or TS....

I believe children 3-9 are $10.99 per night and children under 3, can share off your plate for free, or you can buy them a childrens plan.

The better restaraunts (Cali-Grill) and room service (where available) require 2 TS credits per usage as do the Hoop-Dee-Doo-Review and others.

-Tony

 

[Chuck S]

You can substitute a breakfast, but I don't know if it would consume a CS or TS....

That would depend upon where you eat breakfast.

However, at Olivia's it would be a TS credit, and for two adult we spent $28 total for breakfast on the morning we ate breakfast there, so if you get the dining plan, table service breakfasts are not a wise use of your credits.

 

[Sammie]

We did it last summer and have booked it again. We truly did not spend any money OOP on food the entire week. It was plenty for us with the one snack, one CS and one TS and we even did one Signature meal.

We used our snacks for breakfast and took them back to our villa. We also used our CS dessert credit to get muffins, etc for breakfast.

We love the convenience of not having to take money with us for meals and that everything was paid for upfront.

We found plenty of places to eat we like, and are looking forward to using it again.