Having second thoughts about the dining plan...

[KristineN]

I never did a comparison in prices for us...I have no idea how much we would have spent without the plan...we never felt "ready to explode"...we ate til we felt full.

 

[lucincia]

First time with 2 girls in Disney World and we decided to let them try as much character dining as possible. Rather than stand in line and wait to see characters in the park, might as well be sitting down, snacking on food, and wait for the characters to come around to you. Much more relaxing

We only had room ressie. But after we made all the ADRs, plus figuring out the cost of food we want to buy to stock the fridge in order to save money on breakfast and lunch, we found that if we get dining plan, we would have saved couple hundred dollars. AND with dining plan we can go to couple more character meals than the original room-only ressie plan

YMMV

 

[Hopefully]

For several reasons I believe that the Dining Plan will work for us when we go in two weeks. First of all we are 3 adults. We have been to WDW many times in the past and we go at a slower pace (No more Commando touring for us!). We spend a lot of time in Epcot and we enjoy eating in World Showcase restaurants. We enjoy one TS meal a day. I researched the menus on allearsnet.com and looked at the restaurants we were interested in and added up the prices of what we would normally order - not trying to maximize the value of the plan - what we would likely order. I then compared the cost of the plan versus the likely expense based on the menus we were interested in and I determined that we should come out ahead on the Dining Plan.
I am comitted to not worrying about it at this point. I did my research, discussed it with my family and we made a decision. At this point I am just going to go and enjoy myself.
We are even going during the Food and Wine Fest. I factored in two evenings where we will "Nosh Around the World" for our dinner, paying OOP, and we still felt it was a good deal for us.
Whatever you decide, I suggest that you do what you are comfortable with and then "Let it Go' as the saying goes.
Good Luck!

 

[Dukesmom]

We have been to WDW many times in the past and we go at a slower pace (No more Commando touring for us!).

I think this statement sums it up perfectly for dining plan value. Just returned yesterday from a 10-day, first ever trip to WDW and we found that it was more important for us to experience the parks and maximize time than it was to maximize meal credits. We left with A LOT of unused TS credits, and even cancelled an ADR at Cali Grill! We just weren't willing to lose a couple hours of park time just to eat, and just ate CS meals when we felt like it. I agree with previous posters that the dining plan is way too much food, and I have a pretty healthy appetite!

Maybe next time (and there WILL be a next time! ) we'll want to spend more time experiencing the food since we now know what parks and attractions we like most.

 

[missypie]

since you must have 4 adults , 1 child i am just wondering how you managed to eat for $11 a piece including tax and tip at ts? when husband and i split a meal we do good to keep it under $30 for lunch sit down, cheaper than dinner, most of our 2 entree only dinners are about $50+even at places like wcc(looked at our receipts from last trip)
the bd pack would have been around $190, since you included snacks( allowed $2 per person per day except for child, allowed them same as meal plan of $10 for 2 meals, no snack) that would bring your total even lower.) did you split meals a lot? counter i can understand that price ( cheapest thing would probably be around $6-7, $2 for a drink then tax)

You probably hit the nail on the head when you said "4 adults, 1 child." Of our three kids, one is 14 and eats more than me. Under the dining plan, we would have to have paid for the middle daughter as adult and she eats next to nothing. She ordered off the kids' menu. She split several meals with me and several with her sister...I doubt that she ever ate $10 worth of food a day, much less $35. That was probably the difference right there.

 

[Teacher03]

We are planning a trip to Disney in December of 2006, and we are on the dining plan. We went this past July without the dining plan, and I found myself really watching what we were ordering in order to save money. This time I want to relax and not worry about money because it will all be paid for before we go. Plus I am taking my mom as a surprise, and I know she will insist on paying for her own food if I don't take care of it beforehand. So I don't know if I will save money or not, but we plan on eating until we burst!

 

[Pedler]

I find it interesting how so many people are thrilled to save $200-300 on the latest MYW Discount package. However, we will save a little more than that by not getting the dining plan. No we won't have as much food, but we won't walk around ready to explode from eating so much, either. We eat one table service a day. Breakfast in our room, snacks/sandwiches from our fridge the rest of the time. He have plenty to eat, and eat at all the top spots ('Ohana, Crystal Palace, LeCellier, Boma, etc.). Our dining will come in around $800 while the dining plan was $1100.

Two quick comments. First there is a cost to eating sandwiches and such from your fridge and some folk, those that flew and do not have a car or did not make a food stop, may not have the option of eating lunch in the room regularly.

Second: I do take issue with inference that by having the dinning plan people are overeating and walking around ready to explode. I am normal weight, within the BMI index for my height, used the dinning plan and did not gain a pound. I also did not walk around feeling like I was going to explode.

I understand and accept that the dinning plan is not for everyone for a variety of valid reasons. I don't accept the characterization that the plan is designed for glutons and encourages overeating. From what you described the only difference in eating on your trip and ours was we ate lunch in the parks and you ate it in your room.

 

[disneyjunkie]

I never did a comparison in prices for us...I have no idea how much we would have spent without the plan...we never felt "ready to explode"...we ate til we felt full.

My son and I did the same thing. There were many times we didn't bother to order a dessert because we were full after our main course. As a matter of fact during our 9-night trip, I only ordered dessert with TS twice.

We never felt restricted by the dining plan. If we wanted fudge or funnel cakes we just paid for them. It didn't matter that they weren't covered by the plan.

Since we only travel when school is closed (peak times) the parks are always opened late. This allows us to have a relaxing dinner or lunch without worrying about missing park time.

We take advantage of both morning and evening EMH hours. By the time lunch or dinnertime rolls around, we're more than ready to take a break. After our meal were relaxed and ready to hit the parks once again.

By using dining plan, our meals are paid for before we leave home. No matter how much I save and plan, I'll never be able to pay $70.00+ for lunch. Since we were on the plan, I just signed the slip and didn’t give it a second thought.

 

[BeccaGrace]

Wow--I never expected so much of a response!!!!
I've been looking at all the pros and cons listed and how they apply to our situation. I think we are going to keep the plan and really appreciate all the help given!!!!

I followed the advice of adding up rough estimates from the menus on allears and by the time we hit the amount of the dining plan we were only through 1/2 our itinerary--that was a good selling point

Thanks again for all of the advice

 

[lisaviolet]

We just did the dining plan.

We shared one voucher a lot of the time. So didn't feel like we were going to explode.

And we got fruit with every CS breakfast. We used the MYW dining for every breakfast because we had so many vouchers because of sharing.

And fruit for 80% of the snacks. So you don't need to feel stuffed or that you can't make some healthy choices.

And I still ate and loved the chocolate cake at the CSs!!!

Have fun and enjoy.

 

[tmanaster]

With 2 year old twins who were not on the plan, the extra app and dessert helped balance out not ordering extra food for them. They also used both DH and I's snack credits. I assume your younger DD is not on the plan. This could work for you as well. That being said, it was sort of stressful planning every meal! I had even planned what CS meals we would have! I ended up not following my ideas at all about CS and was more flexible. TS plans were actually nice because we knew we had PS for when we planned to eat.

I will use the plan again in the future!

 

[dpic]

Two quick comments. First there is a cost to eating sandwiches and such from your fridge and some folk, those that flew and do not have a car or did not make a food stop, may not have the option of eating lunch in the room regularly.

Second: I do take issue with inference that by having the dinning plan people are overeating and walking around ready to explode. I am normal weight, within the BMI index for my height, used the dinning plan and did not gain a pound. I also did not walk around feeling like I was going to explode.

I understand and accept that the dinning plan is not for everyone for a variety of valid reasons. I don't accept the characterization that the plan is designed for glutons and encourages overeating. From what you described the only difference in eating on your trip and ours was we ate lunch in the parks and you ate it in your room.

A couple of quicker comments. I guess I compare it to home. We must eat at home, too. So, yes, stocking the fridge costs money, but I'm not paying someone to prepare it for me. Next, I did not mean to imply that people who use the dining plan are out of control gluttons intent on stuffing themselves into an early grave (the term "explode" was hyperbole--sorry for the confusion). My intent was to suggest, one counter meal with dessert, one table service meal with appetizer and dessert is an awful lot of food, irregardless of BMI index. BTW, when we were in our room, we also napped. We weren't so cranky that way.

 

[LoveWDW]

I wonder if we could just ask the server to ask for us to have smaller portions? (2 adults). We are going to be there 4 days and have the dining plan and reservations made.

 

[dawnball]

We just got back from 10 days at WDW with the dining plan. We ordered the same things we normally would, with the exception of CS meals, where we tended to over order (They wouldn't let me buy *just* a drink and a yogurt for breakfast, you had to have an entree). When we got home, I put it all in a spreadsheet. If we had paid for the dining plan (we got it free) we would have saved $220. If we bought DDE instead of the dining plan, we'd have saved $300. We didn't attempt to "maximize" the plan, but we didn't track child/adult credits either. (We weren't paying for child meals OOP, but the little ones frequently slept through the TS meals). We came home with a slew of extra credits left too.

The free dining was a *very* good deal, paying for the dining plan would have been a better deal than paying cash, but not the best available deal.

I said that we ate the same things we normally did - and that's true, the plan didn't influence what we ordered - however, we wouldn't have eaten *where* we did without the dining plan. We would have eaten fewer TS meals if we were paying out of pocket, even with DDE.

 

[lucincia]

A couple of quicker comments. I guess I compare it to home. We must eat at home, too. So, yes, stocking the fridge costs money, but I'm not paying someone to prepare it for me. Next, I did not mean to imply that people who use the dining plan are out of control gluttons intent on stuffing themselves into an early grave (the term "explode" was hyperbole--sorry for the confusion). My intent was to suggest, one counter meal with dessert, one table service meal with appetizer and dessert is an awful lot of food, irregardless of BMI index. BTW, when we were in our room, we also napped. We weren't so cranky that way.

Heck, when we go on vacation, I eat more than I do at home and I still do not gain any pound. It's all that darn walking!

Everyone is different. But, when I am on vacation, I don't want to feel like I am still at home and still have to "cook" and prepare meals. We save at home but splurge on the road.

YMMV

 

[DawnM]

I have heard it said that Disney doesn't mind if you share a meal. We are a family of 4 and our little ones are only 7 and 5 and it is a crapshoot as to weather they are truely hungry or not, plus DH and I normally don't even finish a restaraunt meal itself, much less adding appetizer and dessert!

My question is about drinks.....if we share will still need to buy 2 additional drinks right? I mean, we can't share drinks if they include free refills can we?

Anyone know?

Thanks,

Dawn

 

[bugbugmom]

I have heard it said that Disney doesn't mind if you share a meal. We are a family of 4 and our little ones are only 7 and 5 and it is a crapshoot as to weather they are truely hungry or not, plus DH and I normally don't even finish a restaraunt meal itself, much less adding appetizer and dessert!

My question is about drinks.....if we share will still need to buy 2 additional drinks right? I mean, we can't share drinks if they include free refills can we?

Anyone know?

Thanks,

Dawn

I would think that you would have to buy 2 drinks. My logic, is if it is free refills they would only allow that for those who initially purchased the drinks.

 

[donac]

We went in AUg with some friends. They had the dining plan and we did not. She spent a great deal of time worrying about where she was going to eat and the kids were full the entire time they were there. We ate when we wanted to and ordered what we wanted to but I and my 15 year are not big eaters. A couple of times we ordered the kids meals for lunch because we were not that hungry. It all depends on what kind of vacation you want and what kind of eaters you have in the family.

My friend loved it and I know it would not have worked for my family.

 

[Belle5]

I have heard it said that Disney doesn't mind if you share a meal. We are a family of 4 and our little ones are only 7 and 5 and it is a crapshoot as to weather they are truely hungry or not, plus DH and I normally don't even finish a restaraunt meal itself, much less adding appetizer and dessert!

My question is about drinks.....if we share will still need to buy 2 additional drinks right? I mean, we can't share drinks if they include free refills can we?

Anyone know?

Thanks,

Dawn

You cannot share drinks where there are free refills--just the same as eating at an all-you-can-eat buffet--you can't share one person's meal that is unlimited.

 

[hipporina]

We went a few weeks ago on the free dining plan and loved it. However, I would not do it again if I had to pay for it. We are a family of 6, 2A and 4K, so the plan would have cost about $110 / night. Some days we got almost $200 worth of food, so in that sense it was a great deal. The difference is that we ate completely differently than we normally would. Here are the things I would consider:

1. Do you usually share? - We almost always share meals, even when we go out to eat at home. There were many times that we ordered twice as much food as we typically would just because we could. Example - at Pizza Planet in MGM everyone got their own pizza deal. The lunch was about $75. Normally we would have shared 3 pizzas, skipped desserts, shared sodas, and all would have been happy. Yeah, we "saved" a ton of money, but we wouldn't have spent that much to begin with.

2. Do you usually order drinks or desserts? I almost always drink water with a meal, but usually got a soda because it was included. By the end of the week I was sick of it. Same with the desserts. It was just overload. If it is your usual way though, you will save.

3. Do you want to give up the park time for a TS everyday? We had 7 days in the parks and there were no crowds, so it wasn't a problem this trip. It does take a long time to eat and it definately controls your plans to a certain extent. On the other hand, it is a nice break in the day to have a good meal.

4. Do you mind paying at the time you eat? My favorite thing about the DDP was not worrying about how much the meal was when we ate. We all got what we wanted and I didn't stress (I stress about money a lot!), even when we got $75 worth of crummy pizza! It was wonderful to be "free" from that for the week.

There is no simple answer as to whether or not is a good deal. What you have to decide is whether or not it is a good deal for your family. We loved eating at new places and had a great time, but I wouldn't spend the $770 it would have cost me.