If I had it to do over again, and yes, it really is ALOT of food

[Delaware Mike]

I have to respectfully disagree. WDW has some wonderful dining reservations and its something DH and I really look forward too. Also eating an ice cream and watching the crowds go by on Main St is one of the simple pleasures of a WDW vacation. I guess everyone has different ideas about what is important on their vacation.

I agree....there are wonderful dining experiences at WDW however eating is not the focus of my vacation.

And I'm glad you had fun watching the crowds.... maybe we don't disagree afterall.

 

[DiszyDeanette]

If I remember right it seems that all the kids choices aren't just mac and cheese and nuggets.

My daughter had a nice steak off the kid's menu at LeCellier. Not sure about any of the other restaurants listed.

 

[BluOrchid2]

I've arrived at the opinion one must keep sight of the original intention of a WDW trip. It's about having fun, relaxation, time with loved ones, and time to recharge from life's everyday pressures.

We were constantly rushing, rushing and we just didn't get up early enough to eat breakfast. Snacks were too time consuming. We nerver wanted to waste the time to sit and eat an ice cream, or stand in line for other snack items.

Your "vacation" sounds like anything BUT a vacation to me. Geez. I wouldn't pay for the dining plan either, if I were you. Got a meal in a capsule? You could pop that in your mouth as you're running from ride to ride. Disney isn't just about the rides. It's SOOO much more, and great dining, excellent food enjoyed with family IS a part of it for us. I wouldn't bother vacationing at WDW if I thought sitting down on a bench on Main Street USA to eat a Mickey Premium ice cream bar was a "waste of time."

 

[lovesdumbo]

I recently returned from a trip with free dining and can understand what the OP is saying. While I didn't have any disappointing meals we too had way too much food and I honestly think we spent too much time eating. It takes a long time for a party of 7 to eat a 3 course meal. And frankly my kids (7,5,and 3) would have been happier eating CS than sit through a meal. If Disney offers free dining again next summer I would probably take advantage of it but book mostly buffet TS. This certainly wouldn't maximize the value of our dining plan points but it would maximize our enjoyment and if dining were free it would still be a good value. I figure we spent about $500 in lost annual pass discounts for a package with free dining and we probably got about $2000 in dining. So next year if we still "paid" about $500 in free dining we'd still be ahead if we got $1000 in food yet we'd have a better trip for us if we got more park time.

 

[kcrew]

Your "vacation" sounds like anything BUT a vacation to me. Geez. I wouldn't pay for the dining plan either, if I were you. Got a meal in a capsule? You could pop that in your mouth as you're running from ride to ride. Disney isn't just about the rides. It's SOOO much more, and great dining, excellent food enjoyed with family IS a part of it for us. I wouldn't bother vacationing at WDW if I thought sitting down on a bench on Main Street USA to eat a Mickey Premium ice cream bar was a "waste of time."

You missed the point of my post. I wasn't condoning any sort of vacation style, merely pointing out my experience with the dining plan. I can see you have made multiple trips to Disney, even in the same year. I also never said the point of our trip was relaxation. That is not my family's vacation style. We can sit around at home at our own pool for free. This was our first trip and may very well be our last. We CHOSE to experience as much as possible. If I were to return next year I would probably skip 50% of the attractions that we did because we didn't find alot of things worth repeating. This would certainly give us more time to "sit on a bench" and absorb the Disney experience,

 

[princesssonny]

Just a note on the snack credits. If you have them left over you can use them last day at your resort getting the rice krispie treats or anything else you want and take them all home with you. Its nice to get home and have a flavor of Disney with you.

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

I knew there was a reason 4 of our 5 meals were buffet style meals. Just kidding. We found this easier with a toddler and we can control the pace of the meal. Maybe try that next time.

 

[Debbie]

We did the DP in August, myself DH DDs 12 and 15. Just this week the girls pleaded...."Please don't take us to Disney on the food plan again!". They hadn't been in 3 years, and eating does take time away from the parks. You wouldn't believe what we didn't see. DH on the other hand, doesn't particularly like WDW and would go back in a New York minute--for the food.

I think if I were to do it again-with or without the girls-I would make sure to have some buffets to break the "monotony" of TS. Their favourite meals were Chef Mickey breakfast and Hollywood and Vine. Their least favourite was Grand Floridian Café where it took 2 hours to feed us.

The best thing (other than the fact that it was 'free') was that we got to experience restaurants that we've never done....Sci Fi Café (which we all liked), GF Café, Concourse and Le Cellier (girls hadn't done it before, and it was the best meal and the best interaction for them). We also did DD15's favourite-Prime Time. AND I loved having everything paid for in advance. It was truly relaxing for that reason alone.

 

[Mabila]

I'm honestly surprised at how many have negative things to say about the Dining Plan! We went in March and had (paid for) the dining plan, and it was fabulous for us! We're going again in December, and I'm already having fun planning our meals.

I would have worried so much about the cost of a TS meal anywhere, that we probably wouldn't have done any, and if we did, I would have agonized over each thing we ordered. As it was, we *were* sort of forced to try things, and it was great. I had thought my kids wouldn't be that interested in character meals, but they were one of the biggest hits of our vacation, so I ended up juggling our PSs halfway through the trip so we could eat at the Crystal Palace, etc... We also had a Cinderella dinner at 1900 Park Fare and Liberty Tree (and Marrakesh, which was fabulous though very mild cuisine, and Rose & Crown which was mediocre food but an amazing spot for watching IllumiNations as we ate our dessert)... We mostly planned our meals for slightly "off" times and mealtime became a nice respite from our rushing-around at the parks.

My older child has food allergies, and the TS places were *great* about that. He couldn't eat nuggets or burgers or pb&j (the kids' meal staples), but we had no problem asking for alternatives from the adult menu (or special items). Nobody really seemed to care if the kids ordered from the kids' menu...

We used our snacks for 24oz bottles of water most of the time, so we never had to carry water around with us (into the parks, etc), which I thought was *great*. (We bought a few Mickey ice creams too, and again, the time for eating ice cream on a bench on a hot day and watching the crowd was a great moment out of our otherwise frantic schedule!)

We did have more counter-service meals than we could use. Typically, we'd order two (adult) meals, and that would be more than enough food for the four of us. There was clearly no accounting for adult vs kids meals for CS...

Anyway, meal plan took away a lot of stress for me, and caused us to try places we wouldn't have otherwise. Yes, the *food* at a lot of the places we went was merely passable -- but the environment was so worth it.

 

[MagicMe]

I'm looking forward to our vacation this year and we have paid for the DDP. We went last year during free DDP but we weren't eligible since we were using DVC points at that time. We are five adults and we make a point of having a TS every night. This is the one time everyone comes together regardless of where they headed during the day. I find this very relaxing and we can sit in a beautiful restaurant and enjoy the experience and each other. Our ADR's are planned for some restaurants we've tried before and some new ones. What we are really looking forward to is not to have to "budget" food money while we are there.

 

[kcrew]

I knew there was a reason 4 of our 5 meals were buffet style meals. Just kidding. We found this easier with a toddler and we can control the pace of the meal. Maybe try that next time.

Yes, that's certainly what I would do. I think most families traveling with 3 children(6,8, and 9) do a majority of buffets/family style, but I intentionally avoided them. My thinking was that buffets are an inexpensive way to dine out at home, but that TS menus where my kids can order anything they wanted, including appetizers and desserts, would be a really "special" experience for them. I miscalculated. I also did not feel my kids would be particularly interested in characters, so that aspect didn't attract me to the buffets. However, it turned out that they did enjoy them! Not only would I do buffets next time, I would also spread my main meal time around throughout the week instead of committing every evening to dining,

 

[Brygida]

Your "vacation" sounds like anything BUT a vacation to me. Geez. I wouldn't pay for the dining plan either, if I were you. Got a meal in a capsule? You could pop that in your mouth as you're running from ride to ride. Disney isn't just about the rides. It's SOOO much more, and great dining, excellent food enjoyed with family IS a part of it for us. I wouldn't bother vacationing at WDW if I thought sitting down on a bench on Main Street USA to eat a Mickey Premium ice cream bar was a "waste of time."

I so agree with you. I find it truly alien whenever I hear that someone did not have time to have a sit-down meal at WDW? Where are there priorities?

 

[Brygida]

Yes, that's certainly what I would do. I think most families traveling with 3 children(6,8, and 9) do a majority of buffets/family style, but I intentionally avoided them. My thinking was that buffets are an inexpensive way to dine out at home, but that TS menus where my kids can order anything they wanted, including appetizers and desserts, would be a really "special" experience for them. I miscalculated. I also did not feel my kids would be particularly interested in characters, so that aspect didn't attract me to the buffets. However, it turned out that they did enjoy them! Not only would I do buffets next time, I would also spread my main meal time around throughout the week instead of committing every evening to dining,

I am a main-meal-at-lunchtime fan. If all my WDW faves were open at lunch, I would have done all my TS at lunchtime. Unfortunately, most resort restaurants are only open for dinner.

Hey! I just thought of another way Disney could handle the huge DDP crowd... open all the resort restaurants for lunch!

 

[bkfree]

Not only have I researched ad nauseum the restaurants and dining options for us but I also perused all the menus at the restaurants also. We have a 5 and 7 year old and some restaurants( including those you ate at) just did not have any thing my two would enjoy and some did not have things I would have either. I found knowing the menu offerings to be equal or more helpful than reviews of the food by other diners.It doesn't matter if the service is great or food fantastic if we won't enjoy the menu.Two of the places we have ADR's at we went to last year so I know we will love them because we did then, La Cellier and Crystal Palace. Our other ressies are at Chef Mickey's, Hollywood and Vine and 1900 Park Fare. I already know what we will all likely order. Likewise I have checked out places for CS and noted snacks we all will like. I am a Virgo planner and my pre planning blitz worked out great last time so I am hoping to bat 1000 again.
The menus for every restuarnat, resort,CS and snack cart can be found at allearsnetcom

 

[Merilyn]

Our family is looking forward to the dining plan. We even have to pay for it. We will get to try many places to eat that we would never try because of the price. We are eating at some really nice places and can't wait. It will work for us, we are all adults. I know for sure what we have spent at some of the places and this will certainly be a bargain at 38 a person. We have easily spent 38 at one place and didn't get as much food. You have to remember that tax and tip add a lot to a bill. Can't wait to eat!!!

 

[pamrob]

We just returned from DDP late last night and YES there is TONS of food. We were checking out on Saturday and as of Friday morning we had 29 CS and 22 Snacks. We managed to work through them. Saturday we had breakfast for CS, lunch CS and then picked up 11 CS grab and go meals and 3 snacks to eat on the way home. It was nice to not have to stop for food on the way home and just eat food out of the cooler.