Need help deciding which dining plan to use..?

[DisneyBliss7]

What Dining Plan would you recommend for us? It will be DH and I w/ our 5 kids ages 11,9,6,6,& 2. We will be staying in a condo on Disney w/ a kitchen and ordering from Garden Grocer. I'm really only curious for the dining plan on the days we are at the parks and we plan on doing at least one character meal possibly two. Last time we spent so much money in the parks for meals, we did 5 parks and are probably doing the same but all 5 park days won't a full days w/ lunch and dinner. We always have breakfast in our room unless we have a character meal scheduled.

 

[reindeer]

I would go with quick service with 5 children if you are only going to do 2 table service meals. But the only way to really decide is check out menus do sample orders then compare the amount with daily cost of dining plans. I always do dining plan but it is just 2 adults and we love Disney dining. I keep track of how much we would have spent out of pocket and find that the dining plan is usually a few dollars more but I like the convience of having everything prepaid.

 

[Sheaboys]

We have 5 kids, 14, 12, 10, 6 and 3 (at time of travel). We are getting the Regular Dining Plan. We sit down as a family every night for supper. I want to be served, have a hot meal and someone else clean up. We have a table service meal planned for every night we are there. I did not book buffets, because with little kids, I would be spending time going back and forth for their food, and the others would be going back and forth as well, I just do not find that a relaxing meal.

 

[graceesmom]

With 4 Disney Children (for tickets and dining plan purposes) I think you will find that the regular dining plan is a good value. Approx. $15/day for children. That more than pays for itself with a few character meals. Plus it will give you the option to have a sit down meal each day that you are not responsible for cooking or maybe do a show or signature meal. It will also give you a CS meal which we generally have in the parks or at our hotel for lunch and a snack per person per day.

Even without character meals or park meals, you can find fun or relaxing table service meals at the resorts and DTD.

 

[DisneyBliss7]

With 4 Disney Children (for tickets and dining plan purposes) I think you will find that the regular dining plan is a good value. Approx. $15/day for children. That more than pays for itself with a few character meals. Plus it will give you the option to have a sit down meal each day that you are not responsible for cooking or maybe do a show or signature meal. It will also give you a CS meal which we generally have in the parks or at our hotel for lunch and a snack per person per day.

Even without character meals or park meals, you can find fun or relaxing table service meals at the resorts and DTD.

Where did you find the prices for the regular dining plan? I looked on the Disney website but I can't prices anywhere....How soon before our trip should I set it up? Thanks

 

[kaygee10]

Where did you find the prices for the regular dining plan? I looked on the Disney website but I can't prices anywhere....How soon before our trip should I set it up? Thanks

I found these current prices through the DVC Website:

The price of the Disney Dining Plan is $51.54 per night, per Guest ages 10+ and $15.02 per night, per Guest ages 3-9.

The dining plan must be purchased for ALL members of your party for the ENTIRE length of your stay (except kids under 3). If you plan on eating meals in your room the dining plan may not be for you. But, do a price comparison between eating out and buying groceries. Allears.net has current menus and pricing for every eatery at WDW.

Personally, I love the dining plan because everything (except the tip) is included. But, we do find ourselves overeating sometimes; but that's what a vacation is for.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Here is a good link for dinning plan info

http://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-dining-plan.htm

OP are you staying at a Disney resort? I am asking because you said you were staying in a condo but Disney doesn't have condo's.

 

[tinkerpea]

Hi
How many days are you going for and which Disney condo are you in? are you going around the time of Free dining?

I ask about how long because for me it would depend on how long i was going for and how many counter services i could bare to eat lol..........I love being able to experience disney food, I have 3boys aged 7,7,9 but have taken them to disney every 2 yrs from the age of 4 months, i dont think that TS with kids is a hassle at all in fact i find it more like speacial family time when we sit and eat with somebody else doing the running around:rotfln and we use the time to chat about the things we loved the most and what we woud like to do again :........theres so many amazing places to eat wether in the parks or in the resorts!

I ask where you are staying as each area has diffrent number of restaurants like board walk area,Epcot area brilliant if you have hoppers! as theres so many places to try,DTD area as that also has plenty of places to dine....

Will you be getting hoppers? as this would also be a small factor-you could visit one park then go eat in another and just do a few rides after or fireworks(depending on park) charecter meals to me with the aged kids i have are priceless IMO as no queing to get pics and autographs!!! and you get more time with each charecter

The kids menu is pretty much the same at most places with the exception of maybe one dish at each place so i would look at menu's too and see what you would eat,I dont eat the most expensive item because i feel i have to on the plan to get my moneys worth i pick it because the most expensive item is normally the one i want with that in mind i feel i can order that with out thinking should i really have that at that price? then dessert some say its too much food but with a condo or a fridge you can take anything you cant eat bk with you! If your feeling full before dessert then get it boxed up for later they are always happy to do this and im always happy to EAT IT when i get bk to the room.

All in all its the best option for our family,for the reasons above! we dont just get it because its free as the 1st time we went to Disney with me being the parent(how easy it was as a child to just demand demand demand)
we didnt get any sort of DP i didnt even know about them 6yrs ago lol as id always stayed off site with my parents!!
we ended up spending nearly all our money on food! and we didnt do that many meals as i never knew about booking ADRS i had not found this site yet..... and so the next time it was our wedding and honeymoon we made sure to buy the DDP for all the family all i can say was WOW it was soooo brilliant not having to spend our money all on food and to book so many amazing places and eat all that great food i was in heaven so was our wedding )
we agreed after then (dh and I) that we would never do Disney again without the DDP (not QDP) and when we booked in 2010 it was FREE and it is again for us this yr!

hope this helped sorry for the long post once i talk Disney i dont stop!!

 

[cvjw]

Disney does have condo style villas - the DVC 1 bedroom and 2 bedroom villas have full kitchens. If you are staying on DVC points, you can add the dining plan up until 48 hours before you check in. With the ages of your kids, I would not do the deluxe dining plan - it would be too much time spent waiting for your table and actually eating. When we spent a week on the deluxe dining plan, we felt like we didn't have much free time to spend in the parks, we were always eating - and we aren't very big eaters.

If your kids are OK with eating at a table service restaurant, then I would pick the regular dining plan. In order to get my money's worth, I would make sure to book some of the more expensive character meals - like Chef Mickey's, which cost almost as much as the price of the dining plan for the day.

I would not recommend paying for the quick service plan unless your family are really big eaters. We find that our family of 4 can order 3 counter service meals and share - it is the perfect amount of food - no waste, and we aren't all stuffed after eating. If your family can share meals, it would be much cheaper than buying the quick service meal plan.

 

[DisneyBliss7]

Here is a good link for dinning plan info

http://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-dining-plan.htm

OP are you staying at a Disney resort? I am asking because you said you were staying in a condo but Disney doesn't have condo's.

Yes we are staying on Disney property. We are using a timeshare,not DVC...Our exchange company is RCI so we have to choose three resorts and what ever comes in first we get. We are requesting AKV,BLT, and Beach Club. I guess I should have called it a villa not a condo oops?