MYW Dining Plan Question

[HeatherPage]

Does the dining plan actually (possibly) save people money or is it just a convenience thing where you can prepay for the meals?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ncbyrne]

Depends on whether or not you would normally eat $35 worth of food a day. For DH and I, it will definitely save us $. We always eat at least one sit down meal and ay and that alone can use up the $35. If you normally eat counter services meals on the run....perhaps it won't save you anything, but may be still worth it for the convenience.

 

[Nora94]

If you want to eat like you are on vacation - yes!
If you don't mind making your own food/grocery shopping/figuring out what to easily fix while on vacation - maybe not.

We like to eat like it's vacation and not worry about it!

Nora

 

[HeatherPage]

Oh yes we can definitely eat $35/per person per day. Alas we will be staying offsite on our next visit (blasphemy I know) but for our next onsite visit this sounds great

 

[estnh]

If you like to eat, it absolutely saves you money. Posted this on another thread as an example.

For example, go to the Concourse Steakhouse and order a shrimp cocktail ( $8.99), an 8 oz. Filet Mignon ($ 27.99) , a cheesecake for dessert ($ 6.99), then add on a coffee for $ 1.75. Totals $ 45.72. Then add on the tip (15%--$7.00 and the Florida Tax around $3.00. Your total for that ONE meal is $55.72. For that day, you have paid only $35.00, and on top of the dinner you had for $ 55.72, for lunch you had a counter service for around $10 and a soft drink in the parks for $ 2.00. For the day, you got around $ 68.00 worth of food for $35.00.

 

[HeatherPage]

That sounds awesome, I'll definitely check into it next onsite stay.

 

[nluvwithmickey]

I think that with tip included it is a great deal.

I really like knowing that mymeals are paid for in advance, gives me more of an idea of how much money I will be spending on the rest of my vacation.

i feel it is not worth it if your child just turned 10 and doesn't eat for 35.00 /day. They should have priced it differently for tweens.

 

[henrylovespooh]

It was definitely worth it for my family of four a few weeks ago. One one day, our lunch CS meal totalled $28 and our dinner at Kona Cafe totalled $120, and we only paid $80 for the day on the dining plan (2 adults and 1 child and one child under 3). We will definitely do it again. We tried some great restaurants we wouldn't have otherwise gone to and saved at least $150 on food for the week.

 

[MomofKatie]

For us, it is a combination of both convenience and savings.

Would we eat as many sit down meals without the meal plan? Probably not. But, in the past we have always done two or three day commando-style vacations, and we were always very concerned about prices and time spent eating. This year we are finally going for a full week (Woo hoo!!!) and we want to fully enjoy all Disney has to offer- including more Table Service dining.

We crunched the numbers, and if we compared meal-to-meal, we absolutely save $$$. We even compared how we usually eat ( counter svc lunch, table svc dinners one out of every three days, counter svc most often) and we STILL come out about even!

So, we are doing the Dining plan. We will enjoy the convenience of having the meals prepaid. We will also love not worrying about how much to spend- or not spend- on what we want to order at restaurants. Plus, having tax and tip taken care of is great, too! Sometimes that can add a lot onto the budget.

 

[princessknb]

I'm looking at it this way even if we just break even, I still think it's a good plan because food is one less expense I have to worry about on trip. There is no way my dh would let us do 5 character meals without the plan. I don't have to worry about what this meal or that meal is costing us.

 

[Minerva]

Does the dining plan actually (possibly) save people money or is it just a convenience thing where you can prepay for the meals?

Thanks in advance!

I looked at the menus at the places we want to eat and knowing us pretty well I can guess what everyone is going to order. I kept track of all of the sit down meals and figured in tax and tip that are included and all of the counter service meals figuring in tax and didn't even bother with the snacks and came out ahead with the meal plan. I've told my travel agent that if a general code comes out that will save me $200 or more on my room I'll switch to room only and pay for meals out of pocket but not for anything less than that. We probably won't save quite that much with the meal plan but the few extra dollars are worth it to me for the convenience.

 

[SeattleMark]

You can also see some sample breakdowns and examples here: http://www.themouseforless.com/tripplanning/discounts/myw.shtml

For us, I think it will save us quite a bit (two adults, two teens). We're definitely going for it.

 

[stacie_d]

Saving us money? No. We usually end up living on ham and cheese sandwiches in our room. And when we would go to some of the sit-downs, I would end up choosing the cheapest thing on the menu, even if there was something else I really wanted.

We are sooo excited to get to try some of these great restraunts we always hear about on here!