MYW Dining... anyone decide not to use it?

[vicb]

Just curious if anyone going soon has decided not to use it and why?

Still trying to figure it all out.

TIA

 

[Kaycee]

I won't be using it for my solo trip next month, and I don't plan to use it for upcoming family trips. The reasons:

I think it's a better deal for children than for adults, and my DS's are teens now so I won't be traveling with children.

We are not big eaters. We don't order appetizers and rarely get dessert with our meals. The plan would be a waste for us.

We eat quite a bit of counter service with just a few planned table service meals each trip.

We like to snack on Dole Whips, pretzels, fruit, etc. when we're at WDW. These items aren't included in the dining plan.

Each person/family needs to evaluate their eating habits to determine whether the plan is right for them. It can be a great deal for some people, but not for others (like me).

 

[needmyears]

We are going in a month and decided not to use it. We think it's a great deal, but we're not sure that we want to have a table meal everyday. Our 2 DS's are 3 and 7 and they would prefer McDonald's to a restaurant any day. If we weren't planning on a break each afternoon at our resort I think we would definitley want to have a nice sitdown meal to relax. But, I think after relaxing at the hotel the kids aren't going to want to head back to a park and then have to sit in a restaurant. We have PS's for Sci-Fi, 50's Diner and one other one, I think that will be plenty for us. I doubt we'll come out ahead money wise, but we'll have the flexibility. However, this is our first trip with the kids and we could be completly wrong! We'll have fun no matter what!

 

[lillygator]

sine we have the DDE card and visit frequently usually only making one PS per day for dinners we don't plan on purchasing...

 

[dismom9761]

We have decided not do it because we are going to Sea World one day. Also we may go out of WDW to eat a few times.

 

[missypie]

1. We are splitting our stay between YC and CR. Seemed confusing to work with dining plan and split stay.

2. Middle daughter is a very picky eater and eats very very little...would have hated to pay for her as adult.

3. DH HATES to waste food. We would have had to order all the courses for everyone, and we'd either have to stuff ourselves to the point of sickness, or be carrying to go boxes around the parks all day.

4. Kids would want snacks other than the ones permitted.

5. I have $968 in Disny Visa dollars that I plan to use to pay for our meals.

6. Got a great AP rate on the room. Even with the cost of an AP over the regular 10 day ticket, I'm over $600 positive.

I have an AP and the DDE card. I do, however, plan to total our food costs when we get home, to see if we paid more money for what we ate than if we would have used the dining plan.

 

[CleveRocks]

We are going in a month and decided not to use it. We think it's a great deal, but we're not sure that we want to have a table meal everyday. Our 2 DS's are 3 and 7 and they would prefer McDonald's to a restaurant any day. If we weren't planning on a break each afternoon at our resort I think we would definitley want to have a nice sitdown meal to relax. But, I think after relaxing at the hotel the kids aren't going to want to head back to a park and then have to sit in a restaurant. We have PS's for Sci-Fi, 50's Diner and one other one, I think that will be plenty for us. I doubt we'll come out ahead money wise, but we'll have the flexibility. However, this is our first trip with the kids and we could be completly wrong! We'll have fun no matter what!

I could have written this post myself, almost word-for-word. My kids are 5 and 2-and-a-half. We have PSs for each dinner, but except for a character lunch and maybe a character breakfast, we aren't really planning on sit-down meals (the daily dinner PSs are a sort-of insurance policy, just in case). The other thing is, if my 5 year old sees something he really wants (and is an otherwise reasonable request in terms of nutrition, timing, etc.) I don't want to have to tell him "No" because that place is not on the Dining Plan list. I know I wouldn't have to tell him No, I could just pay cash, but then that "eats into" (sorry) the savings of the Dining Plan in the first place. Just like Needmyyears said, it's all about flexibility.

-- Eric

 

[agnes!]

We have Annual Passes for our entire family & bought a Disney Dining Experience membership (practically as soon as that program became available to AP-holders). The Magic Your Way/Dining Plan sounds like it would be too much grief/stress/whatever for us to use. Having to plan out exactly *which* meals are signature and which are table-service and which are counter and which snacks...ack! (plus WDW keeps on changing the rules). I'm *done* with planning when I finally get to WDW.
In our case, we used to eat at many of the buffets on-property quite a bit. But now that our daughter is 12 we pay an 'adult' price for her. The three of us can go to table-service restaurants, hubby will get an entree, she & I can split an entree with an extra salad or maybe extra appetizers. This way we have plenty for us to eat, little waste *plus* we get 20% off on our total bill. (At least, that's what we did sometimes the past two trips.)
We have our favorite places to eat & the 20% off the total that we get with our DDE membership is just fine with us .

agnes!

 

[amwhitaker]

Still trying to figure it all out.
TIA

Can you eat a counter service meal with dessert, a snack, and table service with appetizer, entree and dessert? It sounds like a lot of food, but if you have a light breakfast and early lunch and late dinner, it may work for you. It depends on how much you normally eat. It works out to be $35/day for the plan. Why don't you add up what you think you would normally eat at WDW and compare it to the $35/day and see what you come up with.

 

[Jan]

my family votes yes:

1) for some reason we got it supercheap! 7 nights CBR, 7 day Park Hopper, dining plan for 2 adult/2 kids (4,5) for $2100. Beautiful.

2) we like to eat - appetizers, dessert, the whole 9 yards

3) we are cheap

4) eating a lot and having it prepaid helps out on the cheap thing. now we can order anything off the menu and not be concerned about the cost. whew! now that is a vacation!! only the liquor will be out of pocket - and from i have seen, that will be a chunk of change.

 

[scrump]

We're not doing it on our upcoming trip (no kids) because we rarely eat counter service and never eat snacks, and would probably spend less than $35 at a sit down meal, which is where all our money would go if we were to do the plan. I think it's a great deal, and probably geared more towards families, and those who like the mix of counter, table and snacks.

 

[cyndylou]

What is this, and where can I find more info on it? Thanks.

 

[4forDis]

We are not doing it because we have a 10 year old son and it doesn't work out to be a good deal for us. I would have to pay the adult price for him for the dining plan. We plan on doing several character meals and go to Ohona's. For those meals you pay a child's price for kids 3-11. It doesn't make sense for us.

 

[Savin4Disney]

I am doing the plan for me and DS (14) I think it will be great for us. He is a big eater and will easily be able to eat all that food. Plus it is already paid for so I don't plan on spending much money on food.

Now it is just planning on where to eat.

 

[wright1baby]

Is there a threas somewhere on the Dis boards that goes into detail about the Dining plan? I have so many questions!! Are the vouchers only for one person on a certain day or can you do all your sitdowns in one day? not that i will, just curious as to the flexibility. Help! I think this will be a big savings for our family, but want to get the facts first!

 

[eblondie]

We're not doing it...simply because we just cant afford it for our 3 week trip. We might try it on a shorter trip tho in the future.

 

[Rootskate]

We are not using it because we will be spending a few days at Universal. If it weren't for that we probably would have.

 

[LAWalz23]

Wright1baby, if you do a search on these boards you will find lots of info. There is also a downloadable brochure at disney.com.
I wish I could do the plan but I just bought into DVC and you can't get the dining plan when staying on points. Thankfully, I have an AP so I got DDE.

 

[Snoopygirl]

My DH and I decided not to get the dining. I kept going back and forth on this. I am just not a big eater at all. I don't eat breakfast and to have an app. and dessert for both lunch and dinner just seems like too much food for us. Not to mention also getting a snack every day! I'm sure it works out as a great deal for some people.

 

[jenniskinni]

What is this, and where can I find more info on it? Thanks.

www.disneyworld.com/dineplan is the link the CM gave me last night. She explained it to me at $34.99 per day per adult and $9.99 per day per child. I looked at the restaurants that we plan to go to and they were on the list, so it makes sense for us to use it.