Is Disney Dining Plan Worth The Money?

[TommyGirl9574]

My family & I are planning on giong to WDW in December 2007 for 6 nights/7 days. I was wondering about the food prices and if the Disney Dining Plan upgrade is worth the extra money. If you and your family went on this plan did y'all end up buying food and using the plan? Also, how many meals/day does it pay for? Are the restaurants good that are included in the plan? Thanks! I would appreciate your thoughts about this.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

My DH, DM and I just returned from a 8 day/7 night trip to WDW and I would not think of going without the dining plan. You get 1 snack, 1 counter service, and 1 table service per night of your stay. You can mix and match the way you use these credits, for example I made sure to use all on the table service credits, because they cost more per person. We did 3 character meals and 4 other table service meals. My mom and I shared some of the counter service meals, because you get a lot of food. I used our snack credits to get rice krispie Mickey's and candy apples to bring back home. We took a small cooler and brought drinks with us from the room so we didn't have to use our snack credits for drinks or spend more money out of pocket. If we had to pay for all of those meals out of pocket we would have spent alot more money. I watched people around me just buy a sandwich and drink and spend alot more than we did on the plan. For our table service, I find it most valuable to do the buffets. It does all depend on how much food you family eats each day. We don't eat breakfast most days, but we did two character breakfasts and usually shared or skipped lunch and had a larger dinner. There is a large selection of restaurants and the only complaint about the food was the Rainforest Cafe at AK. Hope this helps and if you would like to PM me, please do. I know it is alot of info but there is alot to share Have a wonderful trip

 

[Ms.Mouse]

We decided against the DP a couple of times because of many negative posts. We figured we went without it when there was no dining plan so what's the diff??? Then we decided to try it because we went with other family members who were on it. Now, we won't go without the DP. We think it's great and we're sure to break even with most days saving lots of money for using the DP instead of paying out of pocket.

 

[tndisneyfan]

To me the big question if you're trying to decide on the DDP is, do you plan on eating at least one table service meal a day? If the answer is no, then I say it is probably not for you. If you say yes then it is probably worth the money. The best thing to do is figure out what places you want to eat and find what you would normally order and crunch the numbers.

 

[MagicMe]

I agree that if you plan to eat at a TS at least once a day (this includes those character breakfasts and dinners) then it is definitely worth it. We always ate a TS for dinner (it's the one time everybody gets together) and used the dining plan on our last visit. There is plenty of food and we loved it! We will definitely incorporate this in our future trips. The one thing I especially loved was that we didn't have to worry about $$ for meals (including at the end of the trip when those $$ are usually spent).

We definitely found it worth while.

 

[bytheblood]

I think so. I will never do Disney without the DP again....well, until the change it and make it worse.

 

[pcgmom]

If your family likes to eat, and if you will eat 1 table service meal a day, the plan is worth it. I know the dollar amount is staggering, but when you break it down and include 1 TS meal a day, it is a good deal. We had 2 kids' meals on our plan, and that was a steal for about $12/day. Make sure that you use all of your TS credits. Sharing the counter service meals is a great idea because portions are big, and there is so much food included in your table meals. We would even take dessert back to the room and have it for breakfast (healthy, huh?--it's vacation!). I was put off by the idea of planning out our meals before we went because I had heard so much about crowds and having to have ADR's. That turned out to be our best move. I just told everyone where we were eating dinner that night, and there was no time wasted trying to figure it out. Do make sure that everyone knows how and when to use the plan, or you will end up trying to buy snacks before you leave to go home.

If you have picky eaters, or if you do not get into food that much, the plan might not be for you. Regardless, food is not given away at WDW.

 

[KERdad06]

I liked the DP, we always had more than enough food and sometimes would bring the counter service desserts back to our room to eat later.

We also didn't have to worry about how much we were spending to eat, made eating more enjoyable for us not to worry about what every meal cost. We also didn't have to tell the kids 'no', we would tell them what they could get with the plan and they knew exactly what their choices were!

 

[bicker]

I did a comparison to what we would have paid for food without the Dining Plan, making the most pessimistic assumption: That we would order no appetizers and no desserts. And the Dining Plan still came out saving us money (about $6-$7 per person per day).

Here's the computations:

http://brianandrobbie.com/DiningPlanEstimatedCostsNoAppyNoDessert.htm

 

[MauraAndIainsDad]

To me the big question if you're trying to decide on the DDP is, do you plan on eating at least one table service meal a day? If the answer is no, then I say it is probably not for you. If you say yes then it is probably worth the money. The best thing to do is figure out what places you want to eat and find what you would normally order and crunch the numbers.

I couldn't agree more. We just completed our first day on the plan and it is already saving us money (probably $30-40 on Day 1). But the highlight of our trips are almost always the TS meals and we eat at one every day.

 

[Keyser]

If you use all (or even almost all) the credits included it will almost certainly be worth the money. Last year, we saved 32% by using the DDP. However, had we not had the DDP, we probably wouldn't have eaten at as many sit-down restaurants. I'd guess that in total for us, it came out to about the same price as we would have paid otherwise, but we got to eat at much nicer places.

 

[Dancing_Caylin]

Are there a lot of counter service breakfast places that you can use the DP with?
Also do you have to use a certain number of tickets a day. Say my daughter and I wanted to share a counter service meal (since I've read they're big) can we use the other counter service ticket on the next day?
Thanks for the help, we're newbies planning on staying at FW the first weekend in March.

 

[bicker]

Are there a lot of counter service breakfast places that you can use the DP with?

The resorts all have one either in the resort or nearby.

Also do you have to use a certain number of tickets a day.

No.

Say my daughter and I wanted to share a counter service meal (since I've read they're big) can we use the other counter service ticket on the next day?

Sure but what you can get on the next day (assuming, for simplicity, a two-night reservation) depends on how old your daughter is. If she is a young child, then "her" credits will be only valid for child meals.

 

[MickeyMaz]

I agree that if you plan to eat at a TS at least once a day (this includes those character breakfasts and dinners) then it is definitely worth it. We always ate a TS for dinner (it's the one time everybody gets together) and used the dining plan on our last visit.

We just got back from using the DDP the first time. First, I disagree with the One TS a day thing. We went to the Hoop Dee Do revue which is two TS per person and a Character breakfast which is one TS all on the same day. I was dubious if the double TS for the revue would be worth it, but it was big time. So we burned three TS's on a 6 day trip in one day.

It takes a couple of meals to get the whole idea down. There was four of us. Don't count on using all four meals every time you sit down. We covered the missed TS meals with CS meals we did not use. An example: Cosmic Ray's has a chicken a rib combo that is $13.00 or so. It counts as one CS and DW and I shared it with no need of me getting anything. Same at Toy Story Pizza, we had two pizzas and salads that fed all four of us for a cost of 2 CS's.

You gotta know how much your guys eat and plan around it.

Maz

 

[kt-scarlett]

I did a comparison to what we would have paid for food without the Dining Plan, making the most pessimistic assumption: That we would order no appetizers and no desserts. And the Dining Plan still came out saving us money (about $6-$7 per person per day).

Here's the computations:

http://brianandrobbie.com/DiningPlanEstimatedCostsNoAppyNoDessert.htm

Bicker, could you please explain the computations? I don't understand how the total columns were derived. For example, reading across the entree at the Tangierine Cafe cost $ 9.96, the drink $ 1.95 , tax was $ 0.77 but the total is $ 50.74.

Thanks!

Mary

 

[bicker]

Sorry... the trip is for four adults, so the totals were multiplied by 4.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

Sorry... the trip is for four adults, so the totals were multiplied by 4.

Oh....you forgot to add that bit of info LOL. I had NO IDEA what your numbers were. LOL (no similies)

 

[kt-scarlett]

Sorry... the trip is for four adults, so the totals were multiplied by 4.

bicker, one other question. For your computations did everyone really order the exact same thing for lunch and the same dinner entrees or did you just use this assumption for the ease of computations?

I am still crunching numbers in deciding on whether to buy the DDP for our trip next month. While my DH and I would definitely come out ahead using the DDP, it is when we throw our 15-yo DD and her lighter eating habits into the equation that the monkey wrench mucks things up.

I've gone so far as to print out the menus from the restaurants where we have ADRs and have each of us select our meals (non-binding of course) just to see what the totals *might* be. It's close to the cost of the DDP. Very close.

 

[bicker]

bicker, one other question. For your computations did everyone really order the exact same thing for lunch and the same dinner entrees or did you just use this assumption for the ease of computations?

I deliberately chose the second most expensive item on each menu, to simulate what typically happens with our crew.

 

[dianemb]

For us the best part was no need to spend money, it's already taken care of. We could plan the trip and have that part of the deal also paid for before we got there. We also have a 11 year old who has previously ordered off the kids menu and this time he was handed the adult menu each time and choose from there. For me the money was the big issue. I tend to look at prices then choose a meal based on what's the cheapest this way I could get exactly what i wanted. As far as too much food, we just ate one early meal around 11 am and then another meal around 6 pm. We would get a snack in between if we got hungary. At breakfast we had the mugs so we got drinks each morning and we had a snack basket delivered to our room as a gift to our son with a couple goodies for each of us if we needed something in the morning. A couple times we used our snacks in the morning. After all was done and said we saved about $275 with the plan and ate at alot of great places that we would not have without it. We would never of eaten at that many TS without it.