Meal Plan: Yes or No?

[PhillipV]

We're going back to the Floridian in June. We've never purchased the Disney Meal Plan. Is it really a good deal? If so... why doesn't everyone use it?

 

[mickeyfan2]

If you like a sit-down meal everyday, I think it is worth it. For us, we only do a sit-down meal every 3-4 days, so it is not worth it. Too much food and too much time for us.

 

[AnimeArtist]

Well it all depends on how you eat while in Disney if the plan is good for you personally. IMHO I will never go without it again I did it this past September for the first time and when I go in December I already have it booked It saved me over 900 in food. Its about $38 a day for adults and i believe in the high $20s for children. That being said- if you like to eat at a variety of places (ie Coral Reef in Epcot, Hoop De Doo Review in Fort Wilderness, or even just Mrs Potts Cupboard in Magic Kingdom) It will save you. Our bill for Coral Reef was over $200 (we had the lobster one week b4 it left the menu!) and we paid nothing out of pocket. Our Hoop amount was over 300 (we had 5 people in our group) and we paid nothing out of pocket! The snacks are wonderful- I found a trick of buying the refill mug, fill that up b4 u go to the park and get a bottle of water with one of the snack rations and it worked for me! I personally recommend doing the plan but its all in how you eat. I find with the meal plan I plan out better meals because I'm not so focused on the price and we get to enjoy a variety of food. Hope that helps!

 

[pennyplanner]

It was well worth it for us.

My DH stayed home so it was me, the crazed DisneyMOM , and my two teen DSs.

We do one table service per day, usually for our dinner and we like high end dining experiences. Wolfgang Puck's at DDD, Le Cellier, the old style Cindy's for dinner, 1900 Park Faire (character breakfast), California Grill (2 TS), etc.

As for snacking, my DSs would grab an evening snack from Roaring Forks at the WL and head to the pool. And this was after a substantial dinner! They are fit kids with that incredible teen metabolism.

Snacks like frozen lemonades or cokes were a light treat in the afternoon or an occasional bottle of water.

Weigh your options and your dining preferences. We like to take the time to have a sit down dinner and be waited on. We would breakfast in the room, counter service at lunch, break for a swim in the afternoon and back to the parks or a resort for dinner.

Either way, you're going to Disney.

Enjoy!

--penny

 

[jonimce]

We would never go to Disney without it. This will be our third trip with a meal plan and it so nice not having to worry about paying for food. Our DS just goes off on his own and we never worry about him having enough money for dinner or a snack. We go-go-go all day long, so we need a sit down dinner to unwind.

 

[patsal]

It kind of depends on your eating habits. Basically if you eat one CS, one TS and enjoy a snack or bottle of water per day and spend at least $32.00 per day on food per adult than I think it is for you. If you eat CS most of the time, always bring in your own water, rarely order dessert/app., don't eat at buffets, order water, one double cheeseburger and an extra bun and opt to share fries as well, then no.

 

[P-Dust]

Before the dining plan, we would eat 1-2 TS per trip. Now we can be adventurous and explore all resturaunts! We LOVE the plan! The only draw back that we can see in having all the ADR's is having to loose spontaneity. (Small price to pay)

 

[Lewisc]

We're going back to the Floridian in June. We've never purchased the Disney Meal Plan. Is it really a good deal? If so... why doesn't everyone use it?

The plan is a good deal for most people but to answer your question:

1--You normally have to book a rack rate or AAA discounted hotel room through a AAA TA in order to purchase dining. Guests who have to forgo a deeply discounted hotel rate (CM, AP or Fl resident) have to think twice.

2--The plan doesn't work as well if you're in a "commando" mode or for other reasons prefer to eat CS meals and have no interest in TS meals.

3--You're doing an Orlando trip and plan to spend a lot of your vacation outside of WDW.

4--You have kids under 10 who like to eat adult meals or kids over 10 that eat very little. Even then the plan might work but you have to do the math.

5--You like to eat 2 or 3 TS meals per day and hate CS meals. Even then the plan might work but guests who have no use for the CS meals have to do the math.

6---You're staying in a home away from home resort and plan to have a lot of meals in your unit.

7--You want to use your TS for breakfast, CS for lunch and you tend to eat very little at dinner time. The TS credits aren't a great deal for most breakfasts.

Even if you don't order any appetizers or desserts the meal plan will still save you money.

 

[cdntourguide]

IMHO the DDP is the best deal Disney has ever had.
this plan allows me to eat at restaurants that previously would have been too expensive for me to even consider eating at.
Additionally, even eating two CS meals and a snack at Disney would set me back nearly $30/day, so the additional $9 paid is well worth it.
I see this plan as a way of expanding my Disney experience.

 

[vanessat]

We stayed at the Grand Floridian last year for 10 days, with the AP discount, and the meal plan was not at all a good option for us:

in order to get the meal plan, we would have had to give up on a huge discount on the room, I cannot remember the exact figures right now, but the AP discount allowed us to save at least $150 a night!

In short, if you stay at a deluxe resort and have an annual pass, I suggest you calculate exactly whether it is a good deal.

 

[budbeerlady]

It was a great value for us. But would not be if you dont eat TS normally. We look at it as paying for the ts and getting the cs and snack free. We saved over $400 vs paying cash for the food. But we wouldnt normally get 2 apps, desserts, etc. So it is a chance for us to eat where we normally wouldnt eat. And with DD she and I split a cs breakfast and a cs lunch. She is such a small eater!

 

[mainewmn]

YES, YES, and YES!

We went in January using the DDP, a bit apprehensive not sure what to expect. We usually would eat one counter and one table service a day. We normally order one appetizer to split between the four of us and we always brought soda/water.

We ended up having the ability to try resultants we would normally skip, experiencing foods we would normally skip on but the best deal for us was never having to worry about the price of the dinner.

Of course we would not have eaten the way we did have we had to pay for everything we ordered out of pocket and yes it is a lot of food but to us that was the pleasure of being on vacation.

DS and I are going back in September only because we wore able to get the free dinning plan. And DH announced that the next time we go in February he is sure he wants to do the DDP again.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

We eat 2-3 TS meals a day while we're in WDW and have never been impressed with the few CS meals we have eaten. We purchased the old dining plan in 93 and 96 where you pretty much get breakfast, lunch, dinner, wherever you wanted and however much you wanted to eat but we've found we save so much more money (and never feel like we have to overload on food) paying out of pocket. We also got the DDE card last time and saved about $300. Eating one CS meal, a snack, and TS meal works for some people but not for us.

 

[Ames]

I have no desire to try the plan. We eat maybe one TS during our stay at Disney. I don't want to waste my time on eating, there are more important things to do at Disney. Aside from that I can't eat that much food. lol. My mom & I usually split CS meals as well.

 

[Amyrlin]

We like to sit down to dinner each night, not always in disney, and not always large, but this does make it easier and also less budgeting to do.

 

[skdesign98]

I'll be using the DDP this August. It's included in the package we purchased. It seems well worth it for sure. Whenever we go out as a family with 6 people the bill can get quite hefty so we always have to be aware of menu prices. It will be really nice to go to restaurants and not have to worry about that. My only concern is making sure we use all our points up during our stay. We're going to try to pick more expensive place that we normally would not go to. We plaln to do Hoop De Doo which is 2 TS but we would probably never pay for something like that beacuse it would cost us close to $300. I need to research the snack part as well. I guess it's fairly limited as to what type of snack you can get.

 

[Butch50]

We are staying at Shades of Green on our next visit. We aren't elligible for DDP are we?

 

[mickeymousemom]

We love the DP, and while another poster stated that the cost for children is in the upper $20's, its really only about $12 per child per day. I think it just depends on YOU. We are a family of 5 and we love to eat. Before the DP, we used all the money saving tips from here and other sites to eat as cheaply as possible while there. When the free dining came out last year, we were lucky enough to be included in the dates. Now we've decided to pay for it because we get a chance to eat at such wonderful places everyday for a great price. Last year our bill at Le Cellier was $205 alone. This didn't include what we had eaten earlier in the day. Our Ohana bill was $180...same thing. What a deal. We have made our deposit on our October trip and will pay it down over the summer. When we arrive, our meals are paid for. I think of it as putting our meals on layaway and getting those wonderful meals at a greatly reduced price...and we can also use our snack credits on the food at the F&W Fest...With that said, even though WE love the DP it isn't for everyone. People with smaller families, those who don't eat much, and those who just don't want to spend much money in the parks for food won't care for this plan. it works out great for us because we're all food junkies and this gives us a chance to eat places we normally couldn't afford.

 

[drogerstn]

Lewisc summed it up pretty well. It depends on eating habits, plans, and priorities and is a good deal for some people.

WDW has inflated prices on TS meals so it seems that guests are getting a deal with the DDP. Eating out is not a big priority for us when we visit WDW and we can eat for a lot less than $38 a day even when we include a few TS meals during our stay. If we want to eat a nice dinner out, we can do it at home for 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of eating TS at most WDW restaurants. Also, the DDP would force us to be less flexible in our visit and we don't want to be "commando".

 

[Tigger&Belle]

My 18yo DD and I did the DP when we went in January and it worked out well. We shared some credits to stretch the meals further and because we couldn't otherwise eat all the food.

I'm not getting the DP when I go next week with my 6yo. I don't know if we're going to want to eat all those TS meals and I'm afraid that we'd waste a lot of food if I had to get an appetizer, entree and dessert each meal (plus my 6yo's meal). I don't think that he'd want to share the food with me like my DD did since he might not like the same food.