Magic your way + dining - worth it??

[csaag]

Going to the POR this August with a family of 5 (only 1 would qualify as a child from what I see about the plan). For 6 nights it seems to cost about $900. From what I read it gives you a table meal & a counter meal. The snack meal seems like a waste as it is only an ice cream bar or a bag of popcorn.

I'd be more thrilled if it covered 2 sit down meals, i.e breakfast & dinner.
So is $35 a day worth what you'd get from 1 table & 1 counter meal?
Haven't been to Disney since electricity was discovered (or close to that) so I realize food is much more than it should be, but have people found it worth being tied to the selected restaurants? The 2 kids paying adult prices are picky eaters so I don't know if they'll eat enough to justify it.

How much does a 'typical' breakfast/dinner cost for an 'average' adult?

thanks

 

[califred]

All of the menus are on www.allearnet.com so you can compare prices.

With your sit down meal you also can get an appetizer and desert.

And if you have a child under 10, there is no way you could feed them for 10/day. One character meal is 10 bucks for a child.

Really, check out the menus and what you'd normally order and see if it's more than that. They've added most of the Epcot restaurants so now there are more choices too.

 

[jrsybell]

We just got back and used the dining plan. It was well worth the price for us. We had 2 adults a 5 year old and a almost 2years old. Most dinners were over 100 for the 3 of us. We didn't make any PS and still got into wvery place we wanted to eat at with about 20 minutes wait. We got a refill mug at our resort and filled that every time we were there and got milk for the little ones with our dinner points.

Linda

 

[bellarella]

It depends on how you eat. We just got back and did not do the plan. It was the right decision for us. We spent a little over $100/day on food for 2 adults, one 4 year old and one 2 year old. While that is more than the $80/day the dining plan would have cost us, the way we ate, we would have had expenses on top of that $80/day and also would not have gotten our money's worth out of th $80 because we don't eat three courses in one sitting.

For example, for us we had two room service breakfasts -- would not have been covered. We ordered our younger DD her own meal at some of the restaurants, also an expense that would not have been covered. We chose to do appetizers as a light meal several times rather than counter service, so we very often had two "table service" meals in a day, which would not have worked under the plan. Taking all of this into consideration, we would have "wasted" much of what the dining plan offered and then had to pay on top of the plan to eat the way we wanted to, so for us, the way we ate on this trip would have cost more on the dining plan than it did off.

If your main goal is to be saving money, then you can definately do that by working your meals around the dining plans rules. However, if the set up does not fit with the way you would normally choose to eat, then it can be less expensive to stay off of it.

 

[csaag]

Where on that site?
It seems to be just a bunch of links to other websites.

 

[vascubaguy]

The dining plan can be a really really good plan. I know it will be for us (group of 7 adults, 1 child). Some in our group are light eaters, and a couple of heavy eaters too. We are planning on doing a sit-down dinner each night and some of the entrees alone are $35+, and you add an appetizer, dessert and drink, and it's easily $60 per person for dinner. Not to mention, some of the lighter eaters can share a meal and use a table service for brunch and only have 2 meals that day.

The snacks... I think they are expanding what you can get with the snacks. I heard a lot of people indicating that they get things like the rice krispie treats and have them in the rooms (or pack them for the return trip).

For us it is worth it because we are going to experience dining at some restaurants that we wouldn't normally visit. AND, more importantly, we won't have to worry about looking at the price and fearing the sight of the bill...

 

[vascubaguy]

Where on that site?
It seems to be just a bunch of links to other websites.

http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm

That's the direct link to the menus. NOTE: Check the date of the menu as some of them are a little old, so menu items and prices have likely changed. I, specifically, was looking for Wolfgang Puck's menu and it was from 2003, so I went to http://www.wolfgangpuck.com/rest/cafe/orlando.php for the latest.

Enjoy!

 

[jjohnson]

Where on that site?
It seems to be just a bunch of links to other websites.

Here you go:

http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dining.htm

 

[bellarella]

http://allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm

 

[califred]

Here you go: http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dining.htm

Down the side you can click on the links to get the menus at the parks and resorts

 

[sc9500]

I just got back and did not use the plan, but found it amusing that some times when I got a water or snack to hear the CM's and Dining plan user trying to figure out what they could get under the plan. It seemed that no one knew what was allowed, ect and there was some confusion/agravation going on.

 

[flyball]

Not to mention, some of the lighter eaters can share a meal and use a table service for brunch and only have 2 meals that day.

I've been debating adding the dining plan, but wondered how it would work if we wanted to share meals. We often cannot eat a full meal, so we split appetizers/entrees/dessert so that we can sample a variety of yummy stuff while we're there. How would one go about sharing a meal on the dining plan?

 

[vascubaguy]

I just got back and did not use the plan, but found it amusing that some times when I got a water or snack to hear the CM's and Dining plan user trying to figure out what they could get under the plan. It seemed that no one knew what was allowed, ect and there was some confusion/agravation going on.

I'm guessing this is relating to the snacks on the plan. I had read a few threads indicating that the snack part of the plan was an issue for some because they wanted to use it for fruit or something. I intend to get lots and lots of

 

[JudicialTyranny]

It was worth it to us because our 3 kids were under 10. I question the value of $35/day for a 10 - 12 yr old.

A few points:

- Counter breakfast can range from $3 for cold cereal + milk to $8 or $9 for a breakfast platter and drink. We used almost all of our counter service credits for breakfast and skipped lunch. When you use a counter service credit for breakfast, you also get a big muffin or danish with your breakfast. We were usually too stuffed to eat these and kept them for snacks at lunch or at night. The breakfast bill (if we were paying cash) usually came out to $35 - $45 for the five of us.

- Snacks - keep in mind that your snack credit can be used for drinks also, which will run you $2 each in the parks. 5 sodas/waters per day @ $2 = $10.

- Sit downs - we are not big eaters, and having the dining plan kind of pressured us to make sure we got our money's worth out of the plan and have a sit down dinner each night. There were probably one or two nights where we would have been OK to just get a sandwich or something and hit the pool, instead of making sure we were at a specific place at a specific time for a PS at a sit down restaurant. On the other hand, picking out the various restaurants for sit downs was fun.

 

[vascubaguy]

I've been debating adding the dining plan, but wondered how it would work if we wanted to share meals. We often cannot eat a full meal, so we split appetizers/entrees/dessert so that we can sample a variety of yummy stuff while we're there. How would one go about sharing a meal on the dining plan?

Well, if you had a group of 4 adults, you could use 2 TS. In which case you would get 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, 2 desserts, 2 drinks. If you are all light eaters you could easily leave very full and might only need to "buy" 2 drinks *unless you get water*

After looking at some of the menus, I know there is NO WAY I could eat an appetizer, 20 oz ribeye with side items, AND dessert! I would explode! and we won't have a fridge in the rooms so no "to-go" boxes for us. So, splitting meals seems to be the most ideal thing to do. (for our group at least)

 

[sc9500]

I'm guessing this is relating to the snacks on the plan. I had read a few threads indicating that the snack part of the plan was an issue for some because they wanted to use it for fruit or something. I intend to get lots and lots of

HA! Yeah I meant the snacks..

 

[flyball]

Well, if you had a group of 4 adults, you could use 2 TS. In which case you would get 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, 2 desserts, 2 drinks. If you are all light eaters you could easily leave very full and might only need to "buy" 2 drinks *unless you get water*

After looking at some of the menus, I know there is NO WAY I could eat an appetizer, 20 oz ribeye with side items, AND dessert! I would explode! and we won't have a fridge in the rooms so no "to-go" boxes for us. So, splitting meals seems to be the most ideal thing to do. (for our group at least)

This definitely makes the plan worthwhile for us, as we love to eat at some of the nicer restuarants. Do you know if they frown upon sharing? Thanks for the very useful information!

 

[csaag]

Thanks to all for the link and sharing your experiences.

 

[TNKBELL]

This definitely makes the plan worthwhile for us, as we love to eat at some of the nicer restuarants. Do you know if they frown upon sharing? Thanks for the very useful information!

I wouldn't see why they would care at all, I mean it's not like you are getting extra food or anything or stuffing 12 people into an AS room

 

[vascubaguy]

The only thing about the sharing is that the "tips" that the waiters get are based on the price of the food you order. So by sharing they are getting less in tips. However, I haven't heard anyone really complain about servers not wanting to allow for sharing. I have even heard of some offering suggestions on how to maximize the benefits of the plan.