magic with dining worth it?

[beebles]

Just looking at the magic package and am confused. Is it worth it? Suppose you want 2 quick meals one day and not a sit down? Can you order anything on the menu or do you only have option of cheaper things??? Most of the places we want are on the list, though. We don't eat 3 large meals and was wondering how others view it. Haven't been to disney in many many years and the prices of the counter services, are they that high? We have a family of four, with a 7 year old and a 4 year old (very picky and eats nothing)!

 

[daretodream]

We leave tomorrow for the world. We are a family of 5 and trying the dining plan for the first time. To my understanding you can use your dining plan anyway you wish. If you want only CS one day or all TS. You can also share CS and TS. If you go to allears.net you can view all the rest. menus. All of them, even nicer ones offer simple children's meals. I plan on having my 3 and 6 year share some meals so food is not wasted. (frugal mom ) We were able to get free dining with a promotion. I don't know if it is something we would purchase because of the amount of food our children eat. As they get older I will certainly consider it because of the many choices. Also like the fact that everything is paid for in advance. No surprises once we get there!

 

[budbeerlady]

Hello, we are paying for the dining plan, (I wish it were free in December) to us it was a great deal. Since our DD is 4 I am hoping to pay for some of her kids meals instead of the table service credits for her, that would free up a couple of extra for our Yatchsman dinner. But either way my husband loves to eat the appetizers and a good steak or seafood. I figure he would cost us more like $50+ a day instead of the $35 the dining plan is costing. And I figured DD and I would share some counter service lunches and breakfasts, I figured at worst (seems unlikely) that we would break even with the plan, and I loved the idea that it was paid for before we got there, so I am not fretting over the money amounts. (And I have a hard paying $8 for a dessert with dinner, now I dont have to worry) Do a search for the dining plan on the boards here to see everyone elses ideas on the plan. Good luck!

 

[gigi1313]

Just looking at the magic package and am confused. Is it worth it? Suppose you want 2 quick meals one day and not a sit down? Can you order anything on the menu or do you only have option of cheaper things??? Most of the places we want are on the list, though. We don't eat 3 large meals and was wondering how others view it. Haven't been to disney in many many years and the prices of the counter services, are they that high? We have a family of four, with a 7 year old and a 4 year old (very picky and eats nothing)!

is it worth it? for our family, definitely! we had one sit-down meal that the bill totalled $180 and although we were on free dining, had we paid for the dining plan, it would have been $115/day... plus we still had cs and snacks to eat! LOL!

if you want all quick meals one day, all table service the next... no problem... once the credits are on your cards they are yours to use as you would like... you do not have to "eat tuesday's meal credits only on tuesday!"

can you order anything? yeppers! at least at most restaurants... there are a few that have limited the selections by not allowing "add-ons" (i.e. order the steak get the shrimp added on... although you can still add-on, just have it put on another check to be paid at the end of the meal... all add-ons, items not included (alcoholic beverages) etc are billed separately) but overall the entire menu is available to you!

you don't eat three large meals... good, 'cause you don't have to! LOL!

for your picky 4yo, you can either share off your plate or order a kids meal for your children to split, even grab him/her a pretzel or hot dog in the park instead of a meal... it's all up to you!

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

We've paid for the dining plan in Dec. also. Our AP's expired on Aug. 1st, so this is the first trip in a while that I've had the chance to book a package. (Used to be that the packages weren't that good of a deal, they are much better now in terms of value than they used to be.) What I did was go to www.allearsnet.com and look up the places that we frequent, pricing for what we usually order, add that all up, then subtract the cost of the dining plan. We really came out ahead!

 

[dyna]

YES it's worth it!!!!!

Just for DH and myself we never ate a TS dinner that was not over a 100.00 that was at the TS restaurants that only requires 1 credit. CS is gonna cost you a good 9.00 per adult per meal with a drink. Snacks cost at least 2.00 so you really really can't go wrong.

 

[DisneyMom5]

well, CS drinks are around $2, cookies the same, and an order of nachos supreme at Pop Century was $6.50. Mom's meal for the night, turkey dinner, 8.99.
There's $10+ (add tax) of your $35-38/ day that the plan will cost you. Kid's meals w/ drink and dessert = between $8 and $10 roughly. Their plan cost either $10 or $12, depending when you are going.
Snacks are things that are $2.50 or less, so that's up to $15 or so of your dining plan/day cost. Sit down's vary, but your average character meal is $22 per adult. So, if you are doing a sit down a day anyway, it definately is a good deal.
And we used 2 TS in one day, our CS for that day on another day.

Oh, and the basic meal plan (that I quoted the prices) is one TS (sitdown) meal, 1CS (fast food) meal and one snack. So unless you share (which believe me, is totally possible with this much food) it isn't 3 meals a day. I would NEVER pay extra for the extra meal, it would NOT be worth it. We couldn't eat it all as it was.
You could used half of your day's CS credits for breakfast, TS for lunch, and half of your CS credits for dinner, and probably still not use your snack or be hungry at any point in the day.
Have fun!