Need Help With Disney Dining Plan

[makthompson]

Ok, i am having a bit of trouble understanding this.

One Table-Service Meal
Includes juice (breakfast), entrée, dessert (lunch & dinner), and non-alcoholic beverage, or one full buffet. Gratuity/service charges are NOT included. (Guests ages 3-9 must choose from a children's menu if available.)
Is this just one meal? or actually breakfast lunch and dinner or 1 character meal?


One Quick-Service Meal
Includes juice (breakfast), entree, dessert (lunch & dinner), and one single-serving non-alcoholic beverage, or combo meal plus one dessert (lunch & dinner) and one single-serving non-alcoholic beverage. (Guests ages 3-9 must choose from the children's menu if available.)


One Snack
Such as frozen ice cream novelty, box of popcorn, single piece of whole fruit, or medium fountain soft drink at select snack-cart locations, select Quick-Service restaurants and select merchandise locations

Is this just 2 meals a day and 1 snack???

 

[SSRFred]

2 Meals & 1 snack:

1 meal with server (does not include gratuity)

1 fast food meal

1 snack.

Note: There are some sit down meals that would use up 2 TS credits (California Grill for example)

 

[CraftyMouse]

Make sure you crunch the numbers to see if the DDP is really a good value for your family. We have never found that it saves us any money and, in fact, would raise our food budget substantially. Everyone is different and many love the DDP, just make sure you do the math before signing up.

 

[browniemtb]

Character dining whether breakfast, lunch, or dinner would be considered a table service. Some may need 2 table service per person.....but most do not. When you pay for the plan you will receive a brochure with all the participating restaraunts and what they offer. After every meal or snack you will get a receipt showning what you've used and the balance.

 

[makthompson]

2 Meals & 1 snack:

1 meal with server (does not include gratuity)

1 fast food meal

1 snack.

Note: There are some sit down meals that would use up 2 TS credits (California Grill for example)

That seems awfully high if you dont do the Charcater dinner.

 

[kristenrice]

That seems awfully high if you dont do the Charcater dinner.

Here's an example, based on the cost of 1 adult. This was an actual day for us on our last trip. I was STUFFED!

Breakfast ("snack"): Main Street Bakery cinnamon roll: $3.69 + tax ($0.24?) = $3.83
Lunch at Pecos Bill's: Chicken Wrap w/ fries, lg. soda, and carrot cake: $13.57 + tax ($0.88?) = $14.45
Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern: $28.99 + tax ($1.88?) = $30.87

Your total for one adult, if paying out of pocket, would be $49.15. The Dining Plan would cost you $39.99 for the same food. This would SAVE you about $10/day per adult. You can use that table service credit for ANY meal, but you "maximize the value" by using it for dinner. We used TS credits for breakfasts at Boma and O'Hana, lunch at Coral Reef, and dinners at LeCellier, 50's Prime Time Cafe and Liberty Tree Tavern. We had 4 counter-service credits go unused at the end of our trip. When I added everything up, even with the unused credits, we still saved money...and ate a TON!

Now, the thing you need to figure out is IF you would eat that much food if you were paying out of pocket. I don't normally eat dessert with a counter service meal. The portions are so big that I could've easily shared them with my kids, whom I had to pay for since they had to be included on the plan. The reason we still do the plan is because we know how much we are spending on food before we go. It is pre-paid and we can then feel free to order almost anything on the menu without looking at the prices. It also keeps us from "grazing". We don't stop at snack carts unless we have a snack credit to use. We don't "grab a bite to eat" unless we have a meal credit to use up. We still eat a lot, but our spending is limited to what we have already paid.

 

[thepops]

It depends on what you plan to have. I was looking at it for our trip, and if you went to Le Cellar Steakhouse for dinner, and got one of the steaks, that alone is $35. (the lowest entree would be $20). So it really depends on what and where you are going to eat. You really have to run the numbers (at least dinners and see what's left for the other meal) to see if it's worth it for you.

 

[dburg30]

And you have to buy the plan for all nights of your reservation, you cant just buy it for '4 nights' of a 7 night stay or anything like that.

One of the reasons we got DVC is to be able to have a full kitchen and make our own food. Now, we arent believing we arent going to stop eating at the parks! You just have to stop and eat SOMETIMES in the park, but we dont want to have to 'use' those credits.

 

[hellerjw]

The DDP can be a good value if you are willing to plan ahead, particularly with regard to the table service credits.

We did the Deluxe Dining Plan this past June and it saved us over $400. We did have to plan for a lot of table service meals and make reservations in advance to take full advantage of it. We saved a significant amount over paying out of pocket. However, we did kind of feel like we were just wasting time between meals because we did have so many TS dining reservations to keep track of and get to on time. If I did it again I would step down to the basic plan or even the new counter service plan they are offering in 2009 simply because you would have fewer TS meal reservations to worry about.

It comes down to a trade-off between flexibility and cost. If you don't like being tied to dining reservations then it might not be appealing to you. If you are more concerned about food cost then the savings can be worth it if you are willing to plan for it and stick to your reservations.

 

[makthompson]

Thank you for you help