For those with small children, do you buy the Dining Plan?

[TinkGirl]

I would try the dining plan now, while your kids are still at the children's prices. We don't even consider it worthwhile now that our three children are 10, 11, and 13. There is no way they could eat nearly $40 worth of food each in a day. You have to eat, so why not. We have found that there are many restaurants that are entertaining or have characters and are suitable for kids that are not always perfectly-mannered little diners. A few kid-friendly ones we like are: Whispering Canyon Cafe, Teppanyaki, 50's Prime-Time Cafe, Sci-Fi Dining Theater, O'Hana, Garden Grill, Rainforest Cafe, and Liberty Tree Tavern. They all have fun desserts that are great bribes, too.

 

[CapeCodFam]

Dinner at Boma and other one price dinners is 11.99 for kids. The 10.99 per day/child more than pays for itself for our kids.

 

[momtosydneyntodd]

I have a two year old and a four year old. My four year old will cooperate and is very well behaved in restaurants when we are home, as in Pennsylvania. However, after a long day of swimming and walking through MK/AK/MGM/EPCOT--the last thing my children want to do is go to a restaurant to eat. Spare yourself the headache! Cook in your room--esp. if your hubby is willing to cook.

 

[OurDogCisco]

Wow you guys sure spend a lot of time at sitdown restaurants. 2 Hours.... Yikes I won't even sit that long. We are usually in and out of restaurant in one hour. What do you do for 2 hours?

Now back to the OP, if your kids can't sit for 20 minutes at Dairy Queen I can only imagine it would be worst at a TS. I'd skip it and eat in the room or counter services. I love the counter service at Sunshine in Epcot. It feels like I'm eating an adult meal instead of fast food. GL...

 

[CRSNDSNY]

We have a 7 year old and a 3 year old. I am so torn about the dining plan. On one hand, I know it is a great deal if you will be eating at restaurants alot. On the other hand, I know my children are very antsy in restaurants. We had them at Dairy Queen on Saturday and they were all over the place. At the end of the meal, I looked at my plate and realized I didn't enjoy anything I ate.

IMO, I'd skip the dining plan, then and just try to eat most of my meals either counter service or in my villa. If your children are not ready yet for sit down dining, don't put yourself through all of that stress and wasted money.

We did the dining plan last trip with our 1yo and although we tried to choose mostly character dining to keep her entertained while we ate, it was still pretty tough.

 

[LisaAP]

My husband and I often travel to WDW with my family which includes one little prince and one little princess. On their first trip to WDW, my nephew was 4 and my niece was 2. We have gone every year since and have always used the dining plan and found it to be great at every age. These two are generally very well behaved in restaurants, so we really didn't have any problems, but there is one tip that I do have that seemed to work really well. We used a few of our TS meals for breakfast. In the morning, the kids are generally in better moods and are not tired and cranky after a long day in the park. There are a number of character breakfasts which they really enjoyed and it gave us a little more freedom in the evening in that we didn't have to stick to a schedule. Also, our kids were more apt to eat better at breakfast. Sometimes by the time we would get to dinner, they would have had so many park snacks throughout the day that they really weren't interested in their meals.

In terms of making advanced reservations, it is true that a lot of the restaurants book up. I am the ultimate planner, so that is not really a problem for us. Soon after we make reservations, we sit down and make our schedule and decide where we want to eat and I make reservations very early. I understand that some people like to do things more spur of the moment and if that is your style then making reservations months in advance is not really an option. For me, I would rather plan it in advance and know that I will be able to go where I want, when I want.

 

[mnasf]

We have used the dining plan twice and plan on using it for our upcoming trip. We have 3 children DS-12, DD-7, DD-2. They are usually very well behaved when eating out and they look forward to it (especially character meals).

However, if I thought that my kids would have a difficult sitting through the TS meals, I would skip the dining plan and eat in the villa. It is too expensive and time consuming to do the DDP and go to TS meals and not enjoy them.

I hope you have a great trip.

 

[ktbugsmom]

While I haven't tried the dining plan yet, I am quite sure we are going to try it in January. However, my kids are 12 and 6 - so I will need to get 3 adult plans and one child plan.

Our goal is to have least one meal where my DH and I will have a nice evening dinner at a Signature restaurant - thus using up 4 TS credits for one meal. We will get the kids CS meals that night and either get a sitter for them or have them go to the kids club. If that works, we may even try that again - thus not subjecting the kids to long sit downs every night and giving us some adult time.

And just so I don't get flamed for using children's credits on an adult meal - I won't be. I will make this up another day by sharing a meal with my 12 year old (who needs an adult package - but eats like one too!) at someplace like ESPN on the Boardwalk. That way, we would only use 1 TS credit for two of us. The appetizers are SO huge there, they are big enough for a meal anyway. And, if we run out of TS credits, I can always buy a CS meal someplace - right?

So - you can make it work and the price for kids is reasonable enough. I can't get my daughter a CS meal for under $6 at Disney anyway (when you include a drink and a dessert) and then she will get a snack credit (and she loves her snacks!)- so basically that covers the price of her plan and TS will then be a bonus - almost free.

If the kids get antsy at a sit down restaurant, box it up and take it back to your room. We have done that many times... maybe not quite as nice, but better than cooking- in my opinion anyway!

Good luck with your planning. Only you know what will work best for your family - but the opinions of people who have tried it always helps - right?

 

[melk]

I would try it, as another poster said, while you're children are still under 10. I think the price for kids is reasonable. I would like to, but our oldest is 10 and she just doesn't eat enough food to justify the adult price. Also looking at some of the menus, I'm not sure she would want the adult meals.

I would agree with others that suggested character meals. We've found that even with our picky eaters they would munch on what was in front of them happily while waiting for the characters to make the rounds.

 

[EnviroChick]

That way, we would only use 1 TS credit for two of us. The appetizers are SO huge there, they are big enough for a meal anyway. And, if we run out of TS credits, I can always buy a CS meal someplace - right?

Do they let you share a TS credit meal?

If the kids get antsy at a sit down restaurant, box it up and take it back to your room. We have done that many times... maybe not quite as nice, but better than cooking- in my opinion anyway!

This is a good idea. And there are a lot of other good ideas in this thread.

We'll be going with 4 adults and two children, 4 and 6. The kids have good restaurant days and bad restaurant days. Our plan is to eat breakfast in the villa, go to the parks, come back and swim/eat lunch at noon and eat supper out. I'm planning on some fun places like O'Hana, Whispering Canyon and Cinderella's Gala Feast at 1900 Park Fare. While fun, I doubt they'll eat much of their meals at these places. We also have booked a couple of regular dinners and a couple of adult only dinners. I've pondered the dining plan and done the math re: DDP vs. AP and DDE. It comes out about even cost wise. The bonuses are the CS (no lunch in the villa) and snack on the DDP vs. 20% off alcohol, minature golf, Disney Quest etc... for the DDE.

As we get closer, we'll make a final decision, but we're tending toward no DDP.

 

[ktbugsmom]

EnviroChick -
I have heard mixed messages on sharing meals. However, again, I don't think that is cheating the system, so I can not imagine why that would be a problem. I can not eat an appetizer, meal and dessert at ESPN and would hate to have it go to waste. I suppose if they give us a problem, we can both order our full meals, and I will just eat my appetizer, box up my meal and take it back to our room. I can have it for breakfast or something!

Again, the plan probably does not work for all families. I have rented a studio for a friend, her husband and 5 year old son. They have already told me they won't do the dining plan because they just don't eat enough and will try to cut down on meal costs by eating breakfast in the room and making sandwiches for lunch some days.

For us - we are big eaters - my 12 year old step daughter eats more than most adults I know! My husband is 6'5" and loves a good meal! Even my 6 year old is a good eater - so we will try it out. It will be fun to tell them to order whatever they want without worrying about price.

Also - I will admit, if we had APs - I would probably seriously consider the DDE. Why? The 20% off alcohol would be well worth it. (Not that we drink that much - but at $5 a beer and more for a glass of wine - it adds up!) But, if I buy APs, that means I will end up going to Disney again in 2007 which of course will cost more than the savings... so I don't think I can talk hubby into that one!