My Disney Dinning Plan Experience

[lorax123]

After getting back to 'normal' (no more holidays, a full work week ) I've totaled up all the food receipts I could find from 9 days at Disney. This is our first time with a package deal from Disney (usually we just piece things together from different sources), so it was our first experience on the DDP.

Off the bat we got a 40% code, so adult DP's were $37.99 and the child DP was $9.99. So, saved a few bucks there. All together it was $1400 and change for 4 adults and one child. Now all the receipts I could find totaled up to almost $1600! There were 9 snack credits and 10 CS credits I couldn't find (I think those were the ones the inlaws had). So I rough estimated SN's at $2.50 each and the other CS's at $10 a credit. So, the grand total was in the $1700 range. Over all, it saved a good $250. That's really good.

But, if we weren't on the DDP, would we have eaten so much? It did seem like a lot of food sometimes. A few times we shared a counter, since dinner wasn't that far away. And always being saddled with a dessert was a pain! It would have been nice to trade two desserts for one app. to share!

But it was very nice not having to put out the $$$. Whip out the card, leave a tip and gone! Plus it was so nice having our day mapped out and where and when we were eating. No debate, no wondering or roaming the park with 4 adults arguing about where to go next and just wasting hours.

Over all, I think we will do this again. It's really nice to just get the $$$ for your food out of the way. Plus we did a lot more TS than we ever did on a trip to Disney.

 

[cathie1327]

We went in September (ended up getting free dining, but didn't know we would when we initially booked the trip) and used the DDP. WE LOOOOOOOVED IT!!!

The thing is, we're a very frugal couple when it comes down to it. So if we had not gotten the dining plan, we probably would have NEVER eaten at most of the table service restaraunts that we did. I think our most expensive meal was at Akershus. DBF picked up the receipt and his eyes got HUGE and he just said "wow, thank you dining plan" I think it was maybe around 70 or 80 dollars for the two of us, I'll have to dig up the receipt. So needless to say, it was wonderful to be able to eat meals that would have been quite expensive, for much cheaper.

Not only that, but it made it so much easier to budget the money we needed to take with us. We set aside a certain amount for tip for each dinner, but other than that, it was nice not to have to think "okay, can I spend this twenty dollars on a souveneir or do we need it for food?"

We decided we are never going without the DDP!!!

(Hmmmmm I sorta sound like an advertisement don't I lol............)

 

[ragtopday]

Count me as another Dining Plan lover!

Planning and preparing meals is the daily chore I dread the most! So vacation to me is as much about not having to worry about where our next meal is coming from as much as anything else.

Would I eat that way without the plan? Definitely not. But I do love the "set it and forget it" mentality that you enjoy on the plan. And planning where we'll eat each day ahead of time is part of the fun for me!!

 

[connie1042]

We are going in Sept. I want Narcossee's, Chef de France, Spoodles, Ohanna's and Calif Grill. How much money should I put on a Disney gift card to cover tips and some drinks. Do you think 250.00 would be plenty.

 

[ADP]

After getting back to 'normal' (no more holidays, a full work week ) I've totaled up all the food receipts I could find from 9 days at Disney. This is our first time with a package deal from Disney (usually we just piece things together from different sources), so it was our first experience on the DDP.

Off the bat we got a 40% code, so adult DP's were $37.99 and the child DP was $9.99. So, saved a few bucks there. All together it was $1400 and change for 4 adults and one child. Now all the receipts I could find totaled up to almost $1600! There were 9 snack credits and 10 CS credits I couldn't find (I think those were the ones the inlaws had). So I rough estimated SN's at $2.50 each and the other CS's at $10 a credit. So, the grand total was in the $1700 range. Over all, it saved a good $250. That's really good.

But, if we weren't on the DDP, would we have eaten so much? It did seem like a lot of food sometimes. A few times we shared a counter, since dinner wasn't that far away. And always being saddled with a dessert was a pain! It would have been nice to trade two desserts for one app. to share!

But it was very nice not having to put out the $$$. Whip out the card, leave a tip and gone! Plus it was so nice having our day mapped out and where and when we were eating. No debate, no wondering or roaming the park with 4 adults arguing about where to go next and just wasting hours.

Over all, I think we will do this again. It's really nice to just get the $$$ for your food out of the way. Plus we did a lot more TS than we ever did on a trip to Disney.

One questions...If you didn't have the dining plan would you have eaten as much as you did? I find the Dining Plan saves money, but it makes you spend more than you normally would if you were paying out of pocket.

Just curious and thanks for the info.

 

[cocowum]

Count me as another Dining Plan lover!

Planning and preparing meals is the daily chore I dread the most! So vacation to me is as much about not having to worry about where our next meal is coming from as much as anything else.

Would I eat that way without the plan? Definitely not. But I do love the "set it and forget it" mentality that you enjoy on the plan. And planning where we'll eat each day ahead of time is part of the fun for me!!

I complete agree. I like the dining plan for the convenience. Is it a good value, maybe, maybe not. If we weren't on the DP we would probably eat at mostly CS locations. DH prefers TS, so the DP works for us. I'm a planner, I know which park we are going to be in 180 days from now. So for me it's part of the fun.

 

[lorax123]

ADP, I think you are right to an extent I'd say. You can always find a way to eat cheaper. But if you plan on a TS for at least 3/4 of your dinners during your stay, you may as well go with the DDP.

Figuring it out for myself, the wife and our 4 yo (plus a free 1 yo that shared our meals) it was $86 a day. That's really not bad to eat out for 2 meals and snacks. The inlaws paid $76 a day. I'd say those numbers are pretty close to what we spent for 5 days of meals last year out of pocket.

We really tried not to be credit concious either. We typically ordered what we wanted and just didn't go after the most expensive thing. The only thing we would have passed on, usually, is the dessert. We all agreed we'd rather have an appetizer. A few locations we did order an app in addition to the meal or add an alcoholic drink. But that was our pref. Plus we did trade in a few 1 TS for 2 credit dinners. So a few times we shared counter and paid OOP for one lunch at the Wave and for our Hoop Dee Doo. The only thing I would change is we would have paid OOP for our Brown Derby (since it really wasn't more expensive than any of our single credit meals) and used those credits for the HDD. But we just had to try those places. We also did Narcoses and used credits for that, but that was really pricey!

 

[lorax123]

We are going in Sept. I want Narcossee's, Chef de France, Spoodles, Ohanna's and Calif Grill. How much money should I put on a Disney gift card to cover tips and some drinks. Do you think 250.00 would be plenty.

I would think that would be more than enough! But how many people are in your party? I think our Narcosse tip was almost $50 since we had 5 eaters.

I'm just thinking a $150 average for 5 meals, 20% tip estimate for simplicity, $150 total? But really depends on how many people. But you should be more than fine!

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

I'm another DDP fan. We just really enjoy being able to order whatever we want. We'd always be looking for lower-price options if we were doing it out of pocket. Plus, with small children, we hit as many character meals as we want and don't worry about the expense (though sometimes Mom and Dad wish our picky eaters were a little LESS into the characters and more into the food).

It just feels so much more like a treat when you know you can open the menu and order anything that looks good without having to worry about the price! Makes for a fun addition to the vacation.

 

[Kristina]

We have used the dining plan 4 times now but I'm wondering if we will get it for our next trip. There were just so many times that we had a sit down dinner coming up and we weren't very hungry and we felt we had to avoid treats in the parks so that we would be hungry for a TS. We ate late too, often at around 8:00pm or 8:30pm but that was my fault, I over planned because of Mousefest . I did the numbers before we left and figured with tips added we would save about 170 dollars, nothing to sneeze at. However now I'm wondering if we wouldn't have saved more since we would have skipped a few meals.

Watch, we on our next trip we won't get it, and I'll come home crying because we spent so much !

 

[klam_chowder]

lorax123, interesting thread cuz it invariably comes up now and then with posters wondering about the breakdown/value, etc.

We got it in 2007 and even tho we just ordered what we wanted (i.e., didn't order the expensive stuff just for the sake of it) we definitely 'came out ahead' - by a whopping $360 for just 2 of us! However with the change in the plan that eliminates the appetizer and tip, I don't think it's a good deal for us anymore. Well, at least on shorter trips where I don't want to spend all my time at TS meals. For longer trips, it's good cuz I use those TS meals as 'rest breaks' for DH so he can keep on going.

I didn't mind having to figure out where to eat months in advance - we're not really, "I don't feel like xxxx tonite" types, and I'm an excellent eater With dessert at every CS and TS meal, we definitely ate more than we normally would.

I took a look at the CS plan and don't think that's a good value. Being a micro-planner, I'll track our costs on our next trip and see how it compares. However, I've just learned of the Grey Goose Slushies so those might do me in

cheers,

 

[ms*mountaineer]

The dining plan has worked for us - mainly because I already had restaurants in mind. I knew how much I was going to be paying for the TS meals we wanted to do - then it was just comparing the numbers. I think it really works out to a good deal with kids in your party. The dining plan for a child is so much less than the child's cost of a buffet like Akershus - so it ends up saving money there.

 

[lorax123]

I'm glad others have responded. I like hearing what others experienced with their plans. We were nervous that it would have just been a waste and when I started totalling up the costs, I really thought we would be WAY under the price of the DP.
I will say it was one heck of a great deal when it included an App and a tip! That's a ridiculous deal actually!

I can see and understand why the tip is not included. That is not fair to the servers. I can see they may have lost a lot of wages under that system. That may be why customers got poor service when using the DP. I didn't notice anything that made us feel like 2nd class bargin dinners.

I really wish they could figure out a way to let you get an App instead of the dessert tho. That's my only complaint. After hearing so much love for LeCelliars cheddar cheese soup, I had to have that!

I will say we are in the process of booking another trip and we are including the DP. Any suggestions on where to eat? Like others said, planning your ADRs is part of the fun.

 

[cathie1327]

We have used the dining plan 4 times now but I'm wondering if we will get it for our next trip. There were just so many times that we had a sit down dinner coming up and we weren't very hungry and we felt we had to avoid treats in the parks so that we would be hungry for a TS. We ate late too, often at around 8:00pm or 8:30pm but that was my fault, I over planned because of Mousefest . I did the numbers before we left and figured with tips added we would save about 170 dollars, nothing to sneeze at. However now I'm wondering if we wouldn't have saved more since we would have skipped a few meals.

Watch, we on our next trip we won't get it, and I'll come home crying because we spent so much !

Not being hungry was also something we were worried about, what good is a really good meal if you're not hungry for it?! So there were a couple of things we tried to do.....not sure if this would work AS well with someone with kids, but I don't have any either soooo....I won't assume to know what I'm talking about there

Firstly, we had the regluar dining plan so that means one counter service, one snack, and one table service. We usually used the snack for a bottle of water to share, or each got a muffin or something in the morning for breakfast. Makes for a light breakfast. If it was a large muffin, the two of us shared it. We very rarely used our snack credits on actual "snacks" (except for the Dole whip...heaven....).

We would eat lunch early. Like as early as they would let us, as some of the buffets don't put out lunch food until a certain time. Then we ate dinner late. Most of the time, as late as they would let us lol. We made sure especially to do this on days that we had reserved two table services for the day.

We tried to use only one table service per day. Because of the fact that we used no credits the day we arrived, we had one "extra" and ended up doubling up on a couple days because of the where we were for the day, etc. But for the most part, having one counterservice and one table service per day made it a lot easier for us to not feel like we were overeating, especially if we had a buffet for our table service.

Hopefully this helps anyone who's worrying if it's too much food.

I'd rather eat a little more and save tons, myself! lol but we are a frugal people

 

[LilGMom]

I guess me and my family are in the minority in that we don't really care for the DDP and find it too constricting. I did like it when it included an app., entree, dessert and tip because my DH is an app guy and not really a dessert guy. And it was super convenient to not have to figure in gratuity. We've always planned for one nice TS meal each day, and did so pre-DDP, so that first time of using the DDP it cost us about the same as without the DDP but we were getting more food. With our youngest having just turned three we had to now pay for the DDP for him too but there were times when he and his older brother could have shared a meal and been fine since they are on their air diets right now.

In my planning madness for our last trip I set up a spreadsheet after we had our ADRs. DH & I sat down and guesstimated what we would order if we were using the DDP and if we weren't using the DDP at each restaurant. I plugged in the numbers, added an estimated gratuity & tax, added in snacks and CS meals. I had it figured that we'd save maybe $10-20 with the DDP if we used all of our credits. I also ran the numbers using the DDE just for giggles. The totals for DDP, no DDP, & DDE were all within $30 of each other so we did the DDP. On our last trip we found it hard to get rid of the CS credits (had the same problem the time before too) and actually had snack credits left at the end. When we got home I took all of our receipts and plugged them into the existing spreadsheet (yes I have a spreadsheet illness) and we were within the guesstimated totals. We could have saved money by paying OOP because there were times when we ate a CS only because we wanted to make sure we didn't have any CS credits left at the end of the trip. For our next trip we have our ADRs but won't be doing the DDP.

We are kinda the 'fly-by-your-seat' type of people and we feel like the DDP is too much work.

 

[klam_chowder]

I really wish they could figure out a way to let you get an App instead of the dessert tho. That's my only complaint. After hearing so much love for LeCelliars cheddar cheese soup, I had to have that!

I will say we are in the process of booking another trip and we are including the DP. Any suggestions on where to eat? Like others said, planning your ADRs is part of the fun.

I totally agree with the appetizer vs dessert, esp since most CS desserts aren't very good. Good thing DH gobbled them up - I was done after 2 forkfulls.

Many CS portions are very large and DH & I can easily share one so we're going to do that this trip. And, if we feel peckish we'll just buy some snacks since we prefer eating that way anyway. He likes all the junk food and I prefer to eat often but smaller amounts. DH doesn't scrimp (sometimes unfortunately so) when we vacation so I'm looking forward to winging it too. Winging it will work on our next trip since we're going in May, but our first trip needed more structure, esp since we were there the week btwn Christmas & NY and the craZiE bizzy crowds meant no walk up TS ANYWHERE!

On DDP we went to TS:

• California Grill - FAB
• Artist Point - would not go back
• Rose & Crown - time it to watch Illuminations - spectacular!
• Sci-fi - for DH was kitschy fun
• Wolfgang Cafe - good food, tho too many other places at WDW to try to warrant a return
• Coral Reef - loved it, tho I'm sure DH would have preferred it if I paid more attn to my food than the fish
• 50s Prime Time - went to see what it was all about, got a fella who wasn't a great server so I wouldn't go back
• Chefs de France - wonderful food & decor, tho a bit strange that they said they didn't have ANY honey in the entire restaurant (for my lemon honey tea since I was starting to get sick; EVERY other place I asked for it, they had some)

Have fun with your ADR planning!

cheers,

 

[lorax123]

I agree, many counter services, one meal can be shared! We did that a few times. But we were starving by dinner!

We were afraid to use up our snack credits and avoided using them for anything but food the first couple days. But by the end of the trip, we used them for anything! I really enjoyed having them. When we got home, I didn't like not having a snack credit to use at the local convience store. They actually wanted money! LOL

For 2 people and you aren't planning on TS every night, I'm sure you could come out ahead if that's your goal. For a family, esp. 5 of us, it was nice not paying the $40-50 ($80 at WGE!) counter service bill! A coworker has used the DP the past 2 trips and they have 7 kids. I can't imagine what their food bills would have been.

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

We have done it 3 times now and it is worth it IF you are a planner. Which I am luckily. Last trip we got the stomach bug so a few CS credits went to waste but otherwise we did fine. It was alot of food. This time around we are doing more 2 credit places and adding in some CS dinners so we are not so planned out each day. We will see how it works. It always saves us money. We have 2A and 1C. We did a short trip in July last year and our TS dinners cost more than the plan for the day just to give an example.

Edited to add we are a sit down dinner kind of family and this also makes a huge difference. If you dont want sitdown meals or breakfast is your big meal it may not be worth it.

 

[lorax123]

Well we are big into the TS experiences. We always look forward to that. While counter service is fine and can be very good. I really, really enjoy just being able to sit down. We aren't really even huge buffet people. Especially me, I just hate the getting up and down.