Is the dining plan worth the money?

[SaraMc]

DH and I are on a tight budget because I dont make a lot of money but we still like to go to Disney world every year. Its our thing. We use our CAA/AAA discount on the room, Got a cheap flight but we are torn if we should get the meal plan or not.
We only ever get tickets now with the My Way with the hopper option. We eat breakfast yet I normally have a kids meal. Table service usually for lunch since its cheaper but we dont go crazy, we have had dessert once and that was on our honeymoon when money wasnt really a worry.

So My question is , should we go for the plan or will it be more than we would spend each a day. When we went in Feb it was about 60 for both of us in food a day, sometimes less. Sometime more..

Very confused on what to do.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

Seems to me the nice thing about the plan is that you know you won't have to worry about what you are spending because it'll be $70 per day. In that respect it'll make your vacation a bit more of a vacation...you'd be able to do table service for dinner if you so choose. That's $10 higher than your average per room day...which means for a trip that's seven days in length you will average your sixty dollars anyway....I think you can spread your plan meals around over the length of your stay. For you it might just be worth it.

 

[Free4Life11]

Does anyone know how much the meal plan actually costs? I did it on the website, but ti doesn't "itemize" the charges. How much do they add on per night for each adult?

 

[christianweecare]

I believe the price for 2005 is $35 per person per night. For 2006 it is $38 per person per night.

 

[Danemom]

We're also on a tight budget. When we priced our trip we got the same rate for a stay at a moderate without the dining plan as a stay at a value resort WITH the dining plan. Seemed like a no brainer decision for me. I'm excited that everything will be completely paid for before we leave!

I'm also excited about ordering anything I want off the menu when we do eat out. I'm not a big eater either (since you normally get a kid's meal) so I don't usually want to order a big, adult meal since I'd hate to pay a lot to eat half of it. That means I never get to order certain menu items.

You don't say what resort you're staying at but you might want to consider trying the value resort with FREE dining (yes, I know it's not really free, but that's how I look at it!).

 

[indigoxtreme]

Don't forget the dining plan included the tax and tip all for 35 adult and 10 for children 9 and under

 

[mickeysaver]

The MYW dining plan is great, but it's just not our style. I went to www.allearsnet.com and created a menu plan within the MYW plan guidelines for our entire trip. I added the tax and the tips. When I added in things that I knew we would need in addition to the plan's provisions, extra fluids/snacks/and the occasional 3rd meal. I found it was not as great of a savings as I had hoped that it would be. I found this out because I went back and created our usual style of dining complete menus with tax and tips and low and behold, the price was cheaper than the dining plan. Not vastly cheaper....we are talking $10 over the course of a 6 night stay.....not $10/day, but $10 total. Also, I prefer not to have to pay everything at 45 days out. I prefer to settle the room bill at check in as a room only ressie. We prefer CS overall. There is so much variety with all the salads, wraps, burgers, hotdogs, pizzas, subs, sandwiches, BBQ, rotisserie chicken, noodles, egg rolls, turkey legs, and more that there is no chance that in 6 days that we would get bored with only CS food. The MYW dining plan would allow us to eat more TS, but we don't do enough TS to make it worth the booking. Now, this is not to say that we will not eat any TS. We have plans for a couple of places, but not enough to justify the MYW dining plan. Maggie

 

[poohj80]

Since we usually eat one big meal a day (late lunch/early dinner) while a WDW, we don't think the meal plan will work well for us since we would feel liek we'd have to eat more than normal every day to get our moneys' worth. Instead, we invested in the Disney Dining Experience so we are discounted whenever we eat without feeling like we have to eat a certain amount to get our money's worth.

 

[MayMom]

Does anyone know how much a child's dining plan will cost in 2006? The adult was raised from $35 in 2005 to $38 in 2006, but what about a child?

 

[CheapMom]

The dining plan is not for us. You will lose out on your AAA discount because you will have to switch from room only to a package and you will have to buy at least a one day ticket on your pkg. I already have passes. I think I would not like having too maning PSs. I don't like to have a rigid schedule on vacation.
BUT for people who are going with a package anyway and enjoy several table service or character meals per trip I think it is a very good deal.

 

[CheapMom]

Btw- What Is The Tax On Restaurant Food At Wdw?

 

[Hoosier Mom]

I'm excited about the dining plan. I have all the restaurants & counter services picked out that we want to try. I love the fact that if I want a big juicy steak, I can get it! It almost seems like a cruise in that you can order whatever and not worry about the price.

Last time we were at WDW was 1991. We took our own cereal and had breakfast in our room. Will probably do that again and use all our paid meals for lunch and dinner.

 

[agotta]

Dh and I went back and forth about this too. This is what we came up with. We checked all the menus on allears and it turned out we would save almost $400. Now these are not restaurants we would normally eat at, but that is part of the fun. I mean sure, we could eat in the hotel room and eat counter service for lunch AND dinner, but this sounded way better and for only $35 a piece!! The key is planning ahead!!

 

[nrsldy]

We are going at the end of Sept. I changed our dates of travel because I found out I would save around $350 or a little more for the 4 of us with the meal deal. I will not use it when I go back in Dec for my DGS and myself, we do not eat that much and we can share meals.
Good Luck

 

[thelionqueen]

First of all, I think the dining plan is fantastic for our family. That said, not everyone has the same needs as a family of 2 adults & 2 kids. So, with that bias, I offer my opinion.

For $35 per day instead of $25 ($10 more) you can eat wherever you want, whatever you want and not have to pay. You get a snack, TS & CS.

Even if you went to only one TS per day, likely that would be much more than the daily cost of the dining plan. Example, LeCellier or Concourse Steak house dinner for 2 would easily top the $100 mark. If you didn't go to a TS at all, and just got the counter service and a snack, you could also easily use the majority of the daily cost.

In any event, for an extra $10, you have the freedom to try things you might not have normally tried, eaten places you would be hesitant to try, and venture new experiences at no additional cost.

I vote for the Plan, it's GREAT!!!

 

[mafibisha]

Wow, this is great information! THanks everyone. One question, how is the dining plan added, through the plastic card key, along with everything else? TIA!