Is it worth it?

[Forensicmom]

DH and I are planning our first trip to DIsney in October with our 4 kids. We've spoke to two travel agents and a few people who all insist the meal plan is worth it but it's $1400 something, roughly $200 per day.

We are staying in a club level room that offers continental breakfast daily, afternoon snacks, and dessert in the evenings. The dessert/snacks will only work if we are going back to the hotel during those times.

My 3 girls don't eat much at all, including my 7 year old picky eater, who rarely eats dinner, other then a roll/bread. I can't eat much either and can be satisfied off the kids menu. Someone else mentioned that unless we're going to sit down restuarants and order the most expensive things, we won't get our money's worth. They did say we could take our desserts back to the hotel but that's only if we are going back there and not to the parks after dinner.

Is this true?

 

[Nadjalu]

I can tell you our experience.

It is just DH and I, we go to 1 TS meal per day (dinner), we eat lunch at a CS and usually split breakfast or eat a granola bar from home and we come out ahead by buying the dining plan.

On average DH and I spend (when we add receipts up) $120-150 per day EVERYDAY.
Food at Disney is expensive.

You should take a look at the menus and the prices...allears.net have the most current.

My niece's family, her, husband and 2 girls, never go to Disney without the dining plan. She learned her lesson early on she said.

Of course the plans aren't for everyone, it does depend on your family and how they eat. But if you eat lunch or breakfast in the park along with a TS dinner.....you WILL save money. And you don't have to be eating the most expensive thing on the menu.

 

[TDC Nala]

I think Disney reps have been instructed to hard sell the dining plan. The answer is it is worth it if you use it properly. If you don't do buffets, order cheaper entrees and aren't really interested in dessert at every meal it might not be the thing for you (unless the whole prepayment thing has some value to you). If you're going to use the club lounge for meals you may want to plan out how many restaurant meals you want to do.

All you can do is look at the menus and decide where your family might eat and what they might order. If you have a bunch of kids under 10 and want to do several character meals the dining plan can pay off, because everyone pays the same price at character meals no matter how much they eat.

 

[vicki_c]

We don't do the DDP and probably never will, but I definitely would not do it when staying club level. When we stay club, we use the lounge for most of our breakfasts, usually use the evening offerings for at least a few nights' light dinners, and have less TS reservations overall.

Others though stay club and don't really partake of the food offerings as much, because they may not be at the resort when food is out - they are in the parks instead.

With a TS meal and a CS meal in a day and some miscellaneous other snack purchases, my family of 4 would easily spend $200 in food per day most days. Other families are more frugal and don't come near that, it's all so individual.

 

[mousegear]

It really depends on personal preferences and eating habits of the family when on vacation. Our family usually like to eat light breakfast, fast food lunch and nice seat down meal for dinner. That being said that regular dining plan works wonderfully (despite the dessert at every meal). However, when we stayed CL at Poly, we didn't get any dining plan and paid out of poket (OOP). We ate our breakfast the CL lounge and grabbed light dinner and snacks during our afternoon breaks. We only got CS meals for lunch and maybe paid a few TS meals during our week stay. If we had gotten DDP at that time, it would have been definitely too much food and waste.
But everyone is different!

 

[Wendy5055]

Last year when we stayed at the Poly, I toyed with the idea of CL. However, we ended up just booking LV as there was no GV left...we actually ended up with a view of the castle.

However, when toying with CL I had decided if we did this that we would do the DDP (one ts and one cs). We normally do the DlxDP but I figured we would not need a breakfast. Snacks in the CL in the evening would be great!

I felt the DDP would give us a couple of meals per day (even though I am NOT a fan at all of CS) in addition to the CL offerings. Otherwise, we would spend an hour alone just figuring out what to do for food at every meal...

 

[havoc315]

It's definitely not worthwhile for everyone. For guests staying on club level, it doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense.
You really need to be ordering desserts, snacks, and high end entrees to make the DDP worthwhile. If I was staying at club level, I would skip 90% of the restaurant snacks and desserts.. Use the club level for dessert at night, for extra beverages and snacks.
Yes, you will still eat lunch and dinner somewhere. But are you really going to want desserts with both those meals? Really going to need a big dinner, when you get appetizers and desserts at the club?

 

[DisneyFive]

For kids who eat two meals a day, the DP is still a good value. This year, the dining plan is about $12/day for kids (9 and under). Most counter service and sitdown kids meals are $9-11, so if your kids eat two a day, they come out ahead. Character buffets are $16-$21 for kids. So yes, the DP is worth it most of the time for kids.

Now, for adults, it breaks down to $46/day this year. Character buffets alone will cost you $35-40 per adult. Now, if you are going to a regular, no character sit down restaurant, you can find meals in the $15-$25 range easily. You may have a hard time finding reservations at character meals if you are going in Oct. anyway. Many reservations have been used. Counter service for adults will run about $11 per person with a drink.

If I were you, I would check the Disney site and try to make a reservations at some of the restaurants you are interested in and see if there is even any availability. If you can't get in anyway, then the DP may not be your best option anyhow.

With the price going up next year though, I don't think there is much value with the DP no matter how you look at it. IMO.

Dan

 

[Disneyhenry]

I think it is worth it for my family, but idk about yours. I took a look at the menu's they have online and figured DH and myself would spend over $125 on food and for us the DP is somewhere around $90 so yes worth it. DH loves his steak and seafood. Plus the prices for character meals, a lot are included in the DP, so we can take our 2 1/2 DS to those.

So take a look at the menus is my suggestion. Also if your kids share meals often then it probably wouldnt be worth it. But if you want to hit character meals it will be, those things are pricey.