The meal plan is vouchers. You get vouchers for character meals, dollar amts ($15, $10), snack vouchers & breakfast in the park vouchers. You do not save any money & actually could lose money on them if you don't use them carefully.
On the dollar amt ones, you would not be given change back, so you would need to spend the full amt & cover the balance in cash. We found we spent a lot of time trying to figure out which voucher(s) to use so we could cover the majority of the meal.
This year we decided to "pre-pay" our meals by purchasing Disney Gift Cards. Don't have to worry about the amts this way.
If they were a bargain, I'd deal with them, but since they are not & if you don't use the character meal vouchers at Goofy's Kitchen (which is the most expensive meal) you actually lose money on that one. They figure it at the highest priced one.
Keep watching for package deals, they'll come up with one before you need to book. My son thought he heard a deal on the motels (pay for 4 nights & get 3??? free) but he couldn't be 100% sure he heard right. He might have just heard the pay for 3 & get the 4th night free which is the current promo.
Good luck & have fun planning!!!
