Is quick service dining worth it??

[ongomom2]

I just received a PIN for Disney Quick Service dining. My family has never purchased a dining plan, is it really worth it....or will we have to spend a lot of extra money?

 

[sau418]

We also have never done the dining plans and received a pin. I am doing a girls trip with my sister and a friend as a budget trip. Once we worked the price out as we were now paying rack rate for the room, it worked out to $40 per person for a 4 night stay at POP. We will each have two CS meals, two snacks per day, even if we are still hungry, the way I see it is that a small amount out of pocket is still worth is as there is no way I could eat for $40 for the 5 days we will be there.

 

[dizneechic]

I'm assuming since it's a Pin its for free qs dining, so if your planning on a trip anyway free is free! Extra money you would *have* to spend would be for travel, hotel, and admission, which you would be paying anyhow, so a Free QSDP saves you the cost of food.

QSDP includes 2 counter service meals per day and 2 snacks. Outside of that you would have to pay for extra meals, but that might be more than enough for you. Easiest thing to do is have a breakfast in your room (muffins, pop tarts, fruit, etc) and then use the CS meals for lunch and dinner.

For us, we prefer a room discount over free dining but that's because we like a mix of CS and TS. We are AP holders with a Tables in Wonderland card so the DP doesn't help us too much. Plus we do a lot of meal sharing, so typically 3 CS meals easily feed 5 of us. But for many people the dining plans are great options and work very well for them!

 

[extremesoccermom]

Usually to get the free dining you have to book the room at rack rate so check the prices. Really it depends on how your family eats. We do use the plan when DH and DS20 come with us because they are big eaters and can help DD15 and I finish our meals.
When it is just DD and I we pay as we go. I guess I am not much help but it really depends on your eating habbits.
When DS20 and I went alone last time we used the plan and ended up bringing home 6-8 left over deserts. We were sick of the sweets half way through our week. But the meals were great.

 

[Justsyd2]

DH and I did great on the QSDP. We shared a large breakfast every morning, then split a large lunch (like at Cosmic Ray's, Flame Tree, or Tangierine Café) and then we each had our own entrée at night, plus we each had two snacks per day, and a refillable mug.

 

[puffkin]

We are doing the QSDP in a few weeks!

We are DVC, AP and TiW holders so the dining plans don't really work out well for us. However, we need to do an extremely budget trip (short story, job loss just occurred and except for dining the trip won't cost us anything so we are still going) and I didn't want to spend the whole vacation worrying about every little cent. I could handle the up front cost of the QSDP and felt it would be enough food for us.

I am really looking forward to this trip. We don't have any ADR's or set plans. WE can just get up and do what we want each day and stop to eat whenever we are hungry with the QSDP. I am sure we will also put the mugs to good use at the pool. Sounds kind of refreshing to me and a change from our normal trips!