Is the Quick Service Dining Plan Worth It?

[busymama04]

I would like everyones opinion on the qsdp. I have a family of six picky eaters and in the summer not so hungry. Me, DH, DS12, DD9, DS6 and DS3. What should I do? We are driving to Florida and bringing food from home or stopping at a grocery store. Also being that we have a car we can eat anywhere. We are on a budget and there is a big difference in prices with and without the qsdp. We are booked for Aug7 to 13 at ASMu Family suite.

 

[dizneechic]

I would like everyones opinion on the qsdp. I have a family of six picky eaters and in the summer not so hungry. Me, DH, DS12, DD9, DS6 and DS3. What should I do? We are driving to Florida and bringing food from home or stopping at a grocery store. Also being that we have a car we can eat anywhere. We are on a budget and there is a big difference in prices with and without the qsdp. We are booked for Aug7 to 13 at ASMu Family suite.

The QS dining plan (or any dining plan) really doesn't save you money, it's more of a convenience thing because you have all of your meals paid for in advance so don't really need to worry that part while on vacation. That said if you typically eat a meal including dessert at each x everyone in your family it's worth considering.

For our family it's not worth it at all. First my kids aren't big on the selection of kids meals and prefer to split an adult meal or do some variation of what's on the menu. Secondly we don't eat dessert with every meal, or if we did get dessert we would tend to share because we just wanted a bite. Several desserts at a single meal would be wasted on us.

If you like the thought of prepaying but don't want to be limited to the requirements of the dining plan you could always put the funds onto a prepaid visa or Disney gift card. This way when your trip is over if you have left over funds they are yours to use elsewhere and you don't end up with 18 snack credits and bringing home a pile of mickey rice crispy treats.

Also considering your in a family suite and have access to a fridge, it would probably be worthwhile to plan on some breakfasts in your room. Cereal is quick and easy and you will get to the park a lot faster each morning not having to make stops for breakfast. Not to mention the savings.

FWIW, I do think the refillable mugs are worth it if your a soda drinker and close enough to the food court that it's not out of your way to go refill.

 

[busymama04]

The QS dining plan (or any dining plan) really doesn't save you money, it's more of a convenience thing because you have all of your meals paid for in advance so don't really need to worry that part while on vacation. That said if you typically eat a meal including dessert at each x everyone in your family it's worth considering.

For our family it's not worth it at all. First my kids aren't big on the selection of kids meals and prefer to split an adult meal or do some variation of what's on the menu. Secondly we don't eat dessert with every meal, or if we did get dessert we would tend to share because we just wanted a bite. Several desserts at a single meal would be wasted on us.

If you like the thought of prepaying but don't want to be limited to the requirements of the dining plan you could always put the funds onto a prepaid visa or Disney gift card. This way when your trip is over if you have left over funds they are yours to use elsewhere and you don't end up with 18 snack credits and bringing home a pile of mickey rice crispy treats.

Also considering your in a family suite and have access to a fridge, it would probably be worthwhile to plan on some breakfasts in your room. Cereal is quick and easy and you will get to the park a lot faster each morning not having to make stops for breakfast. Not to mention the savings.

FWIW, I do think the refillable mugs are worth it if your a soda drinker and close enough to the food court that it's not out of your way to go refill.

Thanks for the advice. No QSDP it is..

 

[asmit4]

I second the last response. Not worth it IMO for all the reasons stated.

 

[SweetMissy]

It is convenient but whether it's worth it is up to how you all eat. Like the previous poster said. We had the free dining last year and it was great! You do get a lot of food because you get a dessert too, which we rarely eat in the real world, plus at the time it was 2 snacks/day (now it's only 1). We decided to get the dining for our next trip mainly out of convenience....plus since it's vacation we indulge on a dessert or a few, lol.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

The QS dining plan (or any dining plan) really doesn't save you money,

In 2009, 11 of us, including 3 children and 1 too young to be on the plan, went to Disney on the dining plan and got $1,000 more in food than we paid for on the dining plan. That was over 7 days, so I think it was like getting $14.29 of free food per person per day.

But, oddly, this year it doesn't look like we'd save money.

You can look at menus to see how much you would spend out of pocket and see if you end up saving money or not.

Regardless, my family doesn't like the QSDP. The quick service food can be very repetitive, especially the desserts. And we like going to a table service every day for some down time.

 

[disykat]

The only reason I would do QSDP if it wasn't "free" for a promotion is if I were traveling with teens that might be eating on their own a lot. We went during free dining last year and had QSDP. It was great for my teenaged sons since they could just use their room card, eat whatever they wanted, and know it was already taken care of. It really was freeing. That said, we still had tons of leftover credits!

 

[North of Mouse]

In 2009, 11 of us, including 3 children and 1 too young to be on the plan, went to Disney on the dining plan and got $1,000 more in food than we paid for on the dining plan. That was over 7 days, so I think it was like getting $14.29 of free food per person per day.

But, oddly, this year it doesn't look like we'd save money.

You can look at menus to see how much you would spend out of pocket and see if you end up saving money or not.

Regardless, my family doesn't like the QSDP. The quick service food can be very repetitive, especially the desserts. And we like going to a table service every day for some down time.

From what I've heard and seen from those that get DDP's most people order the most expensive things on the menu to "get their money's worth" (exceptions, of course with everything) But, you also have to pay tips on those high prices. Wonder just what most people's true dining cost is for their trips counting all tips, snacks and drinks purchased OOP. We eat when and what we want, but save our receipts and at the end of our trip add them up. We have yet to come close to the cost of DDP for us. We cannot stand to be stuffed, and that's what we'd be if we ate desserts at every meal, or we'd end up wasting food which I cannot stand to do. Not knocking it for those that enjoy it, but just curious to see if anyone eats just what is on the dining plan and no snacks (extra) or drinks in the parks. I'm always hearing that people use their credits, then pay OOP for some meals - never have understood how you could actually need or want additional food

 

[badblackpug]

From what I've heard and seen from those that get DDP's most people order the most expensive things on the menu to "get their money's worth" (exceptions, of course with everything) But, you also have to pay tips on those high prices. Wonder just what most people's true dining cost is for their trips counting all tips, snacks and drinks purchased OOP. We eat when and what we want, but save our receipts and at the end of our trip add them up. We have yet to come close to the cost of DDP for us. We cannot stand to be stuffed, and that's what we'd be if we ate desserts at every meal, or we'd end up wasting food which I cannot stand to do. Not knocking it for those that enjoy it, but just curious to see if anyone eats just what is on the dining plan and no snacks (extra) or drinks in the parks. I'm always hearing that people use their credits, then pay OOP for some meals - never have understood how you could actually need or want additional food

I think it depends on your eating habits. We are adventurous eaters. We like different things, and with the exception of the 3 year old who would eat pizza for every meal if it were offered, we enjoy a variety. For lunches we will opt for cookies or brownies as dessert, and the kids can eat them later if they don't want them then. ...but, again, we are eaters. We have never bought any food or drinks out of pocket in addition to the DDP (other than the years my younger ones were on formula) We enjoy a sit-down meal, too.

I think that QSDP works if your family are picky eaters, in that they are the burger, hot dog, nuggets, pizza, fries kind of picky eats. I know we get tired of that.

 

[North of Mouse]

I think it depends on your eating habits. We are adventurous eaters. We like different things, and with the exception of the 3 year old who would eat pizza for every meal if it were offered, we enjoy a variety. For lunches we will opt for cookies or brownies as dessert, and the kids can eat them later if they don't want them then. ...but, again, we are eaters. We have never bought any food or drinks out of pocket in addition to the DDP (other than the years my younger ones were on formula) We enjoy a sit-down meal, too.

I think that QSDP works if your family are picky eaters, in that they are the burger, hot dog, nuggets, pizza, fries kind of picky eats. I know we get tired of that.

I understand where you are coming from, that's why it works for some and not others, and evidently you are not the ones that I have heard and seen with the issues I mentioned above. We, too, are adventurous eaters, we just do not eat as much, nor even large meals every day. And unfortunately for me, I am a chocoholic and if I had that type of dessert choice facing me I would not have the discipline to order just a cookie Then, of course, I'd be stuffed from my own lack of restraint I can be my own worse enemy for sure when I try to watch my food intake. If it's "out of sight" then it's "out of mind" for me. I do enjoy a nice dessert w/coffee sometimes there as a meal replacement. We all eat differently on vacation for sure and I'm not nearly as strict with my "impulse moments" there as I am at home, after all, it is vacation

 

[badblackpug]

I understand where you are coming from, that's why it works for some and not others, and evidently you are not the ones that I have heard and seen with the issues I mentioned above. We, too, are adventurous eaters, we just do not eat as much, nor even large meals every day. And unfortunately for me, I am a chocoholic and if I had that type of dessert choice facing me I would not have the discipline to order just a cookie Then, of course, I'd be stuffed from my own lack of restraint I can be my own worse enemy for sure when I try to watch my food intake. If it's "out of sight" then it's "out of mind" for me. I do enjoy a nice dessert w/coffee sometimes there as a meal replacement. We all eat differently on vacation for sure and I'm not nearly as strict with my "impulse moments" there as I am at home, after all, it is vacation

LOl. I totally get where you are coming from. We splurge on vacation because the rest of the year I am nearly pathological about what I eat. ... but my lack of restraint has made for some uncomfortable waddles through the park! (we can't even discuss the cocktails)

 

[2binak]

I agree with the advice to look over menus and decide where you might eat. Add up the costs of what you would eat (including tax) at those locations & then do the math to see if it's worth it money-wise.

We've only used the QSDP once. We made an effort to eat at locations that offered items other than burgers & fries (though we ate some of those too) - Cosmic Rays, Wolfgang Puck Express, Tamu Tamu, Fairfax Fare, Starring Roles Cafe, Sunshine Seasons & Yakatori House.

After we got home, I added up what we would have spent on those meals had we paid cash & we basically broke even because we would not have gotten dessert with every meal. As it was, we often selected a dessert that we could take with us to eat later or we opted for yogurt or grapes.

 

[North of Mouse]

I agree with the advice to look over menus and decide where you might eat. Add up the costs of what you would eat (including tax) at those locations & then do the math to see if it's worth it money-wise.

We've only used the QSDP once. We made an effort to eat at locations that offered items other than burgers & fries (though we ate some of those too) - Cosmic Rays, Wolfgang Puck Express, Tamu Tamu, Fairfax Fare, Starring Roles Cafe, Sunshine Seasons & Yakatori House.

After we got home, I added up what we would have spent on those meals had we paid cash & we basically broke even because we would not have gotten dessert with every meal. As it was, we often selected a dessert that we could take with us to eat later or we opted for yogurt or grapes.

We eat at a lot of those places you mentioned, but don't get the desserts or the sodas, so our OOP there is very much less than the QSDP. Now we do eat some TS as we enjoy those occasionally, but again do not order desserts or sodas. We do like to get an occasional dessert between times, though, but it's what we want, when we want, not with our meals. We still usually don't pay the same or at least, no more, even with TS because a lot of time we split meals (DH & I) so we can get a dessert later and not be stuffed. We do eat what we want without regards to cost, just by choice, eat less.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

We opted for the room discount on this vacation so any dining plan we chose would have to be purchased OOP and so for us we decided that we did not wish to be tied into the dining plan requirements. We do not expect to save money over purchasing the QS plan but we do want to eat what we want and when we want. We have had two trips that we had
"free dining" and while discussing what to do for this trip we remembered that we excused a lot of food that was mediocre because it was "free". This time we are going to just purchase what we like. Also we have a about to be 3 year old and at travel time he would be on the dining plan and sometimes he eats a lot and sometimes he chooses nothing. We do not even order him anything at him when we eat out because he is so unpredictable he ends up sharing with us. It would definitely not be worth it to purchase a meal plan for him!

Good luck deciding!!

 

[Diegosmom]

Keep your eyes open for free dining. In Aug there is a good chance it might be offered...

for us difference between free dining promo and a room discount was about $20-$25 a day. So we went with Free dining because I knew we would spend at least that much.

For you I think you room is around $200-$250? (I tried to look it up but it seems disney site isnt working right now). So if you had a 20% off that would save you $40-$50. So that is what Free dining would cost you (if it is offered) so for that it is a good deal cause surely your family could eat $50 worth a food a day.

If free dining isnt offered not sure you would save money.

Although we just went with DS4 and he never seemed to want to eat when we did. So often we would get 2 adult meals and he would eat off of our plates. Later in the day we would get him something and most of the time we would just get an adult meal. All of your quick service meals are pooled together and they dont keep track of it seperate so as long as we werent getting more then 2 adult meals at a time it worked. Probably not what disney had in mind...and I am putting on my flame suit now lol...DS did get a few kids meals but I didnt worry about keeping track. Also it was very annoying that kids couldnt get the "good" desserts like adults could. Once in a while they would let you but mostly it was the standard kids stuff. So we probably made out pretty well.

DS and I love dessert but we really werent into a lot of the standard desserts so we loved eating at the food court in the hotel. You could get ice cream or popcicles or often times I would get a bag of candy or a rice crispie mickey to bring home to give to friends. And hubby liked that everynight they had some kind of steak. DS always got the pizza and loved to eat it at the pool.

I really liked having the dining included. I know if we were paying OP I would have about dyed everytime DS wanted to have a personal pizza that cost about $9 with tax. I am used to getting little ceasars large pizza for $5 so yeah that would have been rough.

It was nice to have but with a large family you could probably get away way cheaper OP. Especially if you got take out pizza (even from the food court) once or twice.

I will say we had a car and we only drove once and only because we were at the resort and we were headed to the Poly for my Birthday dinner and we didnt want to do bus to MK then monorail to Poly and then same for back home. Plus I knew I was getting a custom cake and we would have to carry that home. It was so nice not having to drive anywhere so you might not want to drive much. Although there is a McDonalds right down the street from the All Stars so that is an option too.

 

[kwannabee]

We just got back two days ago and some of our favorite memories were the adrs we went to, i prebooked them in august. i cant say for sure i saved a whole lot but the memories were worth it. We were on the Dining Plan, originally we were on the free quick service promotion only, and know now that it would have been plenty, but i hummed and hawwed about whether we should upgrade to the regular dining plan to take advantage of the table service restaurants...and im SO GLAD WE DID!!!.

The table service restaurants were so very neat but paying out of pocket for all the places we ended up going to would have been impossible for us! Even having a reservation sometimes we had to wait a bit for a table, but the meals were actual events or dining shows so it became more then just a meal time.

Trying to figure where to go was the big issue...first i checked out park hours, figured out what park we would be at for that day, and plan the adr for that park. I alternated between breakfast one day, and dinner the next, and lunches were almost always quick service.

We booked the Spirit of Aloha luau, the Hoopty-Doo Musical Revue (a must see!), T-Rex Cafe, Rainforest Cafe, Supercallafragilistic Breakfast buffet at 1900 Park Fare, Chef Mickeys, The Garden Grill at Epcot (another must-the restaurant rotates and you eat with Chip and Dale), and the Biergarten at Epcot. The rest of the places we did were quick services and we just picked them...on the spot...the food was always plentiful and really tasty! Its hard to pick a favorite but definately i recommend the Biergarten, Trex and the Hooptydoo...but we enjoyed all of them...even my hubby who's mr picky-pantz when it comes to his food.

I am glad i had the park hopper though because sometimes after dinner we'd decide to go back to a different park rather then the one we spent most of the day at...especially if it had extra magic hours. And to get into some of them we had to leave the park to go to downtown disney and then return later, but they were on days the park was open extra hours. Sometimes the trip on the monorail or the boat or bus were a built in rest stop for my boys...they'd have a built in naptime and a rest from the craziness...and that helped alot!

Anyway good luck with your planning...its all so worth the effort you put into it!

ETA: just wanted to add that the quick service meals were very large, so we learned pretty quickly to space them apart from the main adr...otherwise you just couldnt eat or enjoy everything! Sometimes we just got two instead of 4 and shared them, and we had enough snack credits at the end to buy souvenir mickey treats for family and friends back home.

 

[6elginfans]

I like the meals plans mainly because You pay for everything before you go. No need to budget or worry about having to skimp late in the trip on food.
You can have light meals or if you want you can have a huge meal.
During the hot months, we usually substitute the dessert for a bottled water. For the 6 of us that's a $30.00 savings per meal.

 

[mdinme]

I understand the budgetary piece of it but when we're on vacation the last thing we want to do is shop, prep and cook meals, and then do dishes after it. For that reason alone we get the dp. If we get qs or regular dp we always have breakfast stuff for the room so we can get up and go. We save the qs or dp stuff for lunch or dinner and snacks of course.

If we go we have to eat at Ohana, out of pocket would be over $150 for that one meal, so to us we go dp.

 

[rt2dz]

If it is a matter of money, no matter what dining plan it is, you have to do the math. I always recommend Evaluating Disney's Dining Plans for a basic idea (numbers are out of date) on how to do so. The biggest thing to keep in mind is how your family eats--if it isn't what you would purchase if you could purchase anything, it isn't a savings. If you aren't going to buy all those snacks or refillable mugs anyhow, it's wasted money, for example.

I always run the numbers, but it has always come out cheaper to pay out of pocket--and that is with us NOT penny pinching. The plans just don't fit our eating style--not a one of them. I'm considering taking DS11 on a trip just him and I, and I almost bought the QS plan, but it still would have been more money than purchasing out of pocket.

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

More than likely not. I think the only meal that can save you money is the Magic Your Way plus dining.