If you weren't on free dining....

[DisneyWorldWisher]

...would you pay for the dining plan? And if you wouldn't, how many TS would you schuelde?

I don't think I would pay for the DDP, and would probably only have one or two TS.

What about you?

 

[dahirsh]

We did. We had one TS a day. And came out way ahead when all was said and done.

Deb

 

[tkitty]

If I didn't pay for DDP, I might do one TS, the rest counter service. I guess if I were to do a really low budget trip, I would skip the TS altogether. But vacations are to go all out! I'm going to enjoy my free DDP!

 

[Cookie Princess]

We did pay for the dining plan last year and thought it was great. We planned to pay for it again, but are going during FREE DINING! We can't wait...let the gluttony begin.

 

[jonimce]

We had already booked out trip for 7 nights starting on Aug 13 with dinning. When I came across the free dining, I called my TA right away to have it changed. With the money we saved we are now staying 10 nights for less money than the 7 would have cost us. This will be our 3rd trip on the dining. You used to get a lot more, and you payed a lot more.

 

[Amyrlin]

We would use DDE

 

[WAHMto5]

We paid for it this past Christmas and we are going on the free one this September! I would pay for it no problem! I really don't think we would go without it ever again

 

[BethR]

If they were not offering "Free Dining," we would be staying off site in a place with a lot more space and amenities. But we would definately have a couple of table service meals at WDW planned.

 

[missmun52]

I would pay but only if I could still get my AAA discount (I heard if you book through AAA you still get the room discount and they allow you to get dining )

Anyway...before free dining I planned about 5 TS meals for my 6 night stay. WE just planned what we were getting and decided where to eat with cost in mind so that meant more buffets ect. Now with the dining we can try a few more resturants and the more expensive meals.

I would rather pass up paying for dining and getting my AAA discount but when dining is free who can resist?

 

[indigoxtreme]

We had the free dining last sept and then in Feb we bought the plan. We have never been able to enjoy this side of Disney before as it was just too expensive to eat nice meals on top of the Disney cost. We always had to eat sandwiches for lunch, cereal etc in the room for breakfast and then eat off site for dinner. 1 or two times we would get a CS meal and split. So for the same money I would be spending in groceries, my time and driving off site to eat, we can have wonderful meals. It is the best thing DIsney has come up with and yes they are making money on it because people are not buying groceries or going off site as much to eat, they are staying on site and enjoying the parks and even buying extra souveniers because the meals are paid for up front. We even split a few cs meals so that we can have a small breakfast and lunch and then a nice TS meal for dinner. I will never go back without the plan again

 

[kapica3]

Actually if we werent on the plan.... we would have planned TWO table service meals per day; breakfast and dinner. We don't have the nerves for counter service and usually don't want to break up our day with waiting for lunch so we usually eat an early breakfast and an early dinner and hardly snack at all in between. So this time it will be a bit different for us.

 

[Aimeedyan]

If it wasn't free, no we wouldn't buy it because we get a significant room discount that is not applicable with the dining plan and free admission. We also get an additional discount at dining venues if we aren't on the dining plan. So it's def not worth giving all that up!

We wouldn't eat just a couple of TS - we always eat one a day and that doesn't change regardless of the dining plan or not.

 

[shondad]

We went last year (our first trip to Disney) during the free dining, and are going this year during the free dining as well. That was simply delightful. We had really limited funds around the time of our trip (life just gets in the way sometimes), and could not purchase as many 'extras' as we would have liked, i.e good souvenirs, photopass pictures, that I loved and so on. However, we never, never went hungry, even with the limited snacks that were offered at that time. We did buy photos taken during our brkfst meals at Donald's and Chef Mickey's, mixed drinks and popcorn in a souvenir bucket at AK though and my son's counter service meals at the time as he was only two and not on the plan. It made our premiere trip all the more memorable, having great meals and at no extra cost to us. Plus any leftovers were eaten for a late night or midday snack.

DH and I had decided on a trip for next June to Disney (but may be re-thinking that) and have decided hands down to purchase the plan for our family of four for ten days, instead of the five from this year and last. I feel it is the way to go, for us anyway. I love the idea of having a set fee to pay and then the ability to order just about anything I wanted from the menu without regard for price, or location, as in which restaurant and such.

 

[robinb]

I said "Yes, all the TS is too delicious to resist" even though we had planned to stay off-site on our August Budget Trip turned Grand Gathering with 12 people. I was very happy to hear that DVC now offers the DDP! We'll be paying for it in December because it is such a great deal!

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

We have went several times without DDP and have always had TS. We don't eat out a whole lot at home so this is one of our splurge times, granted we don't eat at V&A, but we always fit in a trip to Mama Melrose's, one charector breakfast, San Angel Inn, and LTT or Sci-Fi.

 

[sorul82?]

DDP for us! We tried without it in March and failed miserably!

 

[tabrizia]

We were paying for the Dining Plan before free dining came out, when it did we moved our reservations to get it, but yes we had planned on paying for it. We figured on our 8 day trip without the dining plan we would have done a sit down restaraunt 4 times, that plus the 12 CS and snacks we would have gotten was more expensive then the dining plan with 8 TS and CS we would have gotten with our first reservation so it was definately a good plan for us.

Of course with free dining we are actually paying $100 more for our trip then we would have been with paying for the dining plan, oops (that's the problem with adding two nights and having to go up a catagory at the hotel).

 

[munchkin bunchkin]

We went in January of this year and had the DDP(not free) and ate at CP, CM's,CRT ,and 1900 PF wouldn't go without it ...free or not!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I would if we were vacationing.

However we usually cannot take advantage of it b/c when we do Disney--we already have tickets and usually don't do packages.

We haven't "vacationed" at Disney in a long while though. Mostly just hops over.

 

[Disneynutbsv]

I actually had it booked prior that we wanted the dining plan, and then free dining came out and woohoo!