Kitchens in Room vs Dining Plan

[Sullivanj]

My DH, DD and I are hoping to stay in a 1BR at BWV and are curious if other DVC members who have been there done that feel it is worthwhile to get the dining plan when there is the availability of a kitchen in the 1BR. How frequently have you found yourself cooking and would it make the dining plan unnecessary? Any feedback is appreciated for this first timer!

 

[Chuck S]

We rarely cook, we usually have a nice table service meal at lunch, and a light sandwich or salad for dinner. We have a simple breakfast in our room. However, we never get the dining plan, we never spend as much $ on food as what the plan would cost us. We like appetizers rather than desserts, the Dining Plan is not flexible. I prefer to eat as we wish, rather than what Disney wants to feed us.

However, with a child 9 or under in the mix, the Plan may be decent deal, unless your child gets tired of chicken nuggets and the other kids menu items.

 

[Donna M]

We have stayed in one and two bedrooms often and have used the kitchen for breakfast every day along with many lunches and dinners since we don't go to the parks all the time anymore.

Check out allears.net (I think it's .net) they have menus. You can add up what you would want to get and see if that works for you.

I have seen a lot of people say the plan has too much food. It doesn't work for us because it's too expensive.

 

[ChelleinNC]

The only time we've used the DDP was when we were staying in a 1BR at BWV. It was also when the DDP still included appys & tips. The kitchen was used for making coffee and storing leftover goodies like eclairs from the bakery.

For us, the DDP doesn't work well. Both of our kids are "Disney Adults", with one not always eating like an adult Not huge CS fans most of the time either.

We don't cook in the room, DDP or not. We will take leftovers back and heat them up, (which was very useful on our last trip when people kept getting sick ) I find the kitchen to be convenient for leftovers, sodas, snacks and breakfasts in the room. I'm not going to leave the park (or golf course )to come back for lunch or to make dinner. We may take a trip at some point that we will do more meals in the villa, but that'll probably be if we take the inlaws who won't be up to doing a lot in the parks and will be more of a non-park trip.

We much prefer the TiW (formerly DDE). We like the flexibility, it saves us as much or more than DDP.

 

[DisDaydreamer]

We prefer to use the kitchen mostly. It is less expensive and much more convenient and comfortable for us. It is just the two of us now, so making meals is not a big event for us. I can certainly see how for a family of four or more it could be real time consumer to make so many meals throughout the vacation.

I remember when our kids were young and before we owned DVC we couldn't afford to do many meals at restaurants that required reservations so we ended up eating a lot of fast food stuff that really wasn't balanced nutrition.

I think the answers to this will be across the board. You just have to figure out what is best for you.

 

[wrighter]

Count us in the "use the kitchen" group. Not only do we save money by ordering groceries, but we don't feel like we have to back ourselves into a corner with too many ADRs. We have "normal" breakfasts in the room, CS lunches at the parks, and most dinners in the room. (DH loves to cook, and rarely gets a chance at home, so this is his chance . . .)

Probably the biggest benefit for us is that we eat much more healthfully than we would on the Dining Plan. Fresh produce!!!

 

[TosaTrio]

I wouldn't say we "cook" in the kitchen however we do use it. We mostly make sandwiches, Chicken Nuggets, Pizza etc...

We LOVE the big fridge for soda, water, fruit, veggies, and left overs.

The dining plan does not work for us. We prefer to eat breakfast in (toast, cereal, milk etc), i pack healthy snacks for the parks and we eat lunch or dinner on the go. If we are back at the room during any of the meal times we generally eat in the villa. We also tend to only eat two -three TS during a week trip at most.

We don't make it a point to eat in for lunch or dinner (breakfast we do) but we do eat in if we happen to be back for a rest, to swim or for what ever reason.

Really for what we eat, we probably could make it in a studio but we like the space of the kitchen and actually having a place to eat without feeling like we are eating in a bedroom.

 

[allshookup]

We eat breakfast in the room & eat out for our other meals, unless we are hanging around the resort then we might have a light lunch (soup, pre-made chicken, leftovers, etc.) or late night snack. The DDP doesn't work for us, because we don't all order dessert at lunch & dinner. We are usually too full from our meals, but if something looks good we might split a dessert. I don't think it's nearly the value it was when apps & gratuity was included, now we save money with the TIW card.

 

[jel0511]

Wait a minute, you mean to tell me that the kitchen actually "works"!!!! I just thought it was decoration!!!!!

We use it only for breakfast and leftovers storage, which sometimes we'll eat for lunch. We like the DDP, it fits exactly into what we like to do. I'm on vacation, I cook enough at home, I'm not doing it on vacation, when I'm already doing laundry!!!!!!!

 

[disneybride96]

Wait a minute, you mean to tell me that the kitchen actually "works"!!!! I just thought it was decoration!!!!!

OMG! Me to! LOL!
I am so looking forward to not cooking next week. Eating out is a big part of the Disney experience for us.

 

[disneynutz]

If we are in the mood for a treat, we will do a split stay and DDP for 3 or 4 nights only. We only eat at restaurants where the average bill is $50 per person. That way we get our most bang for the buck and we prepare our own food for the remainder of our stay.

 

[Castillo Mom]

We're using DVC for the first time this coming August. I don't anticipate doing much cooking, maybe a few breakfasts here and there but that's about it. We enjoy dining at the signature restaurants.

I'm still debating use of the Dining Plan though. It's not as good of a value as it used to be now that they removed the tip and appetizer. I have a feeling we'd end up breaking even with the plan vs paying out of pocket.

 

[crisi]

We use the kitchen for breakfast. We have intentions of snacks, pizza and a lunch or two - but it hasn't happened yet.

However, we don't use the dining plan - used it once when tips were included, and while it was a good value, it wasn't a good feeling. Now without tips, I'm not even sure if its a good value for us.

 

[Longhairbear]

We cook, because we like to. The DDP is way more expensive than getting groceries, leaves more money for other things. Such as a few really nice dinners out.

 

[logan115]

Add us to the list of those who don't really use the kitchen (except for breakfast). It's more about the extra space and washer/dryer in the 1BRs (and larger) than the kitchen. We've had the DDP our last two trips, and it seems like it's about break-even for us (me, DW, DS5). At times it seems like it's just added stress counting meals and determining what, where, and how much we can eat at our next meal.

As noted above, we do like having breakfast in the room before we go, and being able to make a pizza or sandwich for lunch/dinner in the room, but I think our next trip we'll pass on the DDP as I think we can do just as good paying OOP without the limitations. We're not really at WDW for the food, and our crew is just as happy eating CS most of the time.

Best advice I could give is to get out a piece of paper and pencil and do the math, how many TS meals do you want, how many CS, and see what's cheaper. If they're really close, maybe you're best skipping DDP and having the flexibility to do whatever you want.

Chris

 

[swhall]

We have used the DDP twice. Both times we felt we got good value for what we paid. We like to eat one TS meal each day and have found that the TS meal was usually close to what we paid for the day for the DDP. Add the snack and CS and we came out ahead. Granted we don't usually eat dessert but if we didn't want dessert we declined or "took it to go" and put it in the fridge for later.
I would take a look at the menus on allears.net and try to gauge whether it would work for your family.
We use the kitchen mainly for breakfast and evening snacks. Not much for cooking while on vacation.

 

[dianeschlicht]

IN 12 years of membership, we have done just about everything possible food wise. Our norm is to have breakfast and one other meal in the villa and eat at a table service of signature the other meal.

We tried the dining plan a couple of times, and it was okay, but it was WAY too much food, and we just couldn't use up all those counter service credits.

Our favorite plan is to buy the TIW (DDE) card and use it for one meal a day. Frankly, we rarely eat more than twice anyway, with a couple of fruit snacks thrown in inbetween. We definitely save doing that, and we will be more flexible that way too. I figure the TIW card is easiest to figure out too. The tip is already on there, so what you see as the price on the menu is basically what you pay with tax and tip included.