Meal plan or not to meal plan?

[Loritlc3]

This is my first trip to Disney and we are going with my brother and his family. He really likes Universals Meal plan as it is unlimited in regards to number of times used and he thinks that when looking at the Disney meal plan compared to the menus that it is pretty much the same and you are not getting much of a deal. He wants me to find more information concerning this so we can make a decision. Help anyone?

 

[NJFabFour]

It depends a lot on each individual family. We priced it for our family of four for each of the two trips we've taken and found that we could spend a lot less on food than what the basic plan cost (especially in our case with two kids who eat very little). However, I just priced the plan for my friend who has a family of six and it worked out to only be around $120 - $130/day for them - with six people, that's at least what they'd be spending anyway, most likely though, a lot less than out-of-pocket! So for them it was a good deal. Calculate what the basic plan would cost for your family (you may want to also calculate the other plans as well with more options) and determine if you think you'd spend that much each day on Bkfst, Lnch, and Dnr. And there's an offer now for free dining which could make all the difference!

 

[kristinw3girls]

I think you really need to take into account your family's vacation style. Yes, you COULD eat cheaper(bring your own things, counter service, share meals,etc.), however for us, this is our vacation too. If saving $ was an issue, don't pay for the plan. However, my family loves a big breakfast and another sit down dinner. Lunch is usually light. On previous trips I have always written down the actual cost for our meals so I can track the $ saved. In 3 trips, 1 with delux dinning, 2 traditional dinning, both save our family of 5 hundreds of dollars. We saved less on the delux plan obviously, but there was still savings. Go on some websites with the menu's and add up what your family would probably spend. Do this for 3 days of meals, then do the math. You may realize that the dinning plan dosen't save a huge amount of $ but the confidence of having pre-paid for all of the meals is a huge point for me. It helps us budget and plan accordingly.

 

[Darcy03231]

As PP have pointed out, it really depends on your family's vacation style. If you like lots of character meals/sit down meals the meal plan is definitely the way to go. I took my niece last fall for her first trip and did the DDP. There is so much food on that plan! We used the snack credits for breakfast, had CS for lunch and TS for dinner. Most of the time we didn't eat our dessert at lunch and just saved it for a mid-afternoon snack. For TS meals we did Chef Mickeys, Crystal Palace, 1900 Park Fare, Askerhaus Princess Breakfast and Coral Reef. The cost of eating in those restaurants was about the cost of the meal plan for me. That meant breakfast, lunch and snack each day was free. Big savings for me! I spent very little out of pocket on food/snacks while we were there.

 

[princessmom29]

It does depend on your family's vacation style, but we found that unless we were planning on eating just about every meal in the room and doing no sit down at alll the DDP was a much better deal. We like a sit down meal in the evening, and we stopped counting on the 3rd day out of 5 when we were already $200 over what we paid for the plan. We are 2 adults and a child so the DDP was a little over $400 for the three of us. Dinner at the Coral Reef alone went over $150.

 

[avamadison]

Like others are saying - it really does depend. BUT if you plan to eat nice dinners and do any character dining it is worth it. We travel there with our twin 2 yr olds and it is worth it because we see the character dinners and eat a sit down nice dinner every night. Have fun. I mostly like it too because it is all paid ahead of time and we don't need to fuss with money each day. Love meal plan!