Okay - Give me the Good, Bad, etc on the Dining Plan

[Laurajean1014]

I'm a Disney Veteran but never tried the Dining Plan. Do you like it?

We are a family of three, that likes meals at CA Grill, Jiko, Spoodles, Olivia's and Flying Fish.

Can we not use a TS or Snack and apply it to dinner?

Any opinions on the subject is welcome and appreciated.

 

[rgf207]

The Dining plan is great for some but not so great for others. My opinion is it is very good for Adult Travelers without kids or Adults with younger kids. When the kids are 10yrs or older they have to pay the full price which may not be worth it if you are a picky eater.

We love it because it saves money but it can also be annoying. You get A LOT of food often too much to eat and you are always stuffed. Since the TS meals come with Appetizer, Entree, Dessert and Drink you often are not hungry to enjoy some other snacks that are not offered on the plan and you feel like you are wasting if you choose not to eat dessert. I love the DP but my wife can do without.

Next year, the Plan is changing though and it will not include Appetizer or Gratuity.

The restaurants you mentioned are Signature dining restaurants which require 2 TS credits per person.

 

[TINKERIFIC]

PROS:

Prepaid
You do not have to worry about cost of menu food
Experience restaurants you normally would not pay OOP for
Great value if you use all credits properly i.e. TS for TS, CS for CS
Excellent value for kids under 9 who actually enjoy the child menu food

CONS:

The childs menu is the same no matter where you go so if your kids do not like the menu you are out of luck...you must use kids credits for kid menu

The opposite...if your child is older than 9, but still enjoys only child menu items, you end up paying adult DDP price for child (approx. $40/person), but use the adult credit on childs menu, which is usually only about $8 on average.

If you do not preplan your TS credits with ressies you may get stuck not being able to use them at all or not able to use them where you want and end up "wasting" them on CS.

You do not use all your credits...you may be "throwing away" money...depends

Preplanning your meals forces you to schedule the rest of your vacation around meals...not good if you are spontaneous.


IMO:

I love the DDP. Although (until the end of 2007) the tip was included..we always tipped on top of that if we received excellent service. I did experience some lack of service because we were on the DDP, but not enough to raise my eyebrow at. Our DD is now 10. Last visit she constantly complained about the childs menu. I ended up eating her childs menu and she ate my adult food. This time since she both hates the childs menu and is an adult we are foregoing the DDP. She will not eat a whole adult portion so we will probably share. When she was younger and loved the childs menu it was a great value for all 3 of us. It was a cost that was already paid for that I did not have to worry about once we arrived. I do not mind having to preplan my schedule around meals. We know how important it is to make ressies far in advance to get what you want. We always seem to have fun with our schedule and are never stressed to make our ressies.

 

[druidia]

We used the DP on our last trip, but will not use it again.

Just 2 adults, no kids, and it was WAY too much food for us. As a PP said, you feel like you are wasting food if you don't eat the dessert or appetizer that comes with your food. I think it makes some people feel compelled to eat it when they really don't want it.

We also typically eat at a lot of the 2 TS locations, and didn't feel it was a good use of the credits that way.

We felt like we broke even on what we spent vs. what we normally spend using our DDE card.

 

[USA41018]

This year we are doing the DIsney Dining Plan at Christmas. OUr party is myself, DH and 21 year old DS. This works out very economical for the guys, they like to eat.

Last year we also did the dining plan - had the above same people along with our 11 year old grandson who is a big eater. Can't beat the price for the meals you get.

It's the only way for us to go.

 

[Mickiethepooh]

I'm a Disney Veteran but never tried the Dining Plan. Do you like it?

We are a family of three, that likes meals at CA Grill, Jiko, Spoodles, Olivia's and Flying Fish.

Can we not use a TS or Snack and apply it to dinner?

Any opinions on the subject is welcome and appreciated.

It is not clear what you are asking here, are you asking if you can use Counter service and snack credits toward Table service credits? if so then No you cannot, if you mean can you save credits and use two table service on one meal then yes you can you get a set number of credits of each type for the number of nights you are there and the number of adults and children in the party You can use them any day or night up to midnight of the day you check out.

 

[inaminute]

I've used the DDP twice. The first time on a solo trip, the second with family.

I won't use it when travelling with a group again. It was really hard to plan the trip before we left, and then to make sure we actually made it to all of our reservations. I didn't enjoy running my vacation around where we were eating that day.

I would use it when travelling solo--if I ever were to stay at a Disney resort again, that is. Then again, with the new changes coming in 2008, I might not.

 

[mickeysgirl17]

My family of 3 loves the DP.
Whats good about it:
You get to try new restaurants
You get to eat like Kings on vacation
You can order anything off the menu no matter how expensive.
You don't have to carry any money unless you plan on buying souvenirs

What's not good:
If you don't eat a lot, you'll waste a lot of food.
You must plan where you want to eat in advance.
Kids meals have small variety and all kids under 9 must eat off the kids menu.

If you plan on eating at the signature restaurants such as CG, Jiko, etc, and your going in 2008, I would suggest trying the deluxe dining plan so you can eat at the fancier places. This comes with 3 sit down meals per day and 2 snacks. If your family can't eat 3 sit downs a day like mine, just do 1 meal for breakfast and use 2 meals for a signature dining.

If you go with the DP, you could do a snack for breakfast (works out great), the counter service for lunch and the table service for dinner to get the most value of the dp.

Here is a link to more dp info:
http://allearsnet.com/pl/packages07a.htm
and for the deluxe dining:
http://adisneyworld.disney.go.com/m...cific/eng/nontheme/tickets/08DeluxeDining.pdf

 

[pepperw23]

We love the DDP and will use it again, even in 2008'. My DH and DS (19) are big eaters. DD, believe it or not, does not like the TS meals (she is 16), but she usually finds something to eat wherever we go, or she fills up on the CS and Snack credits...hey it's vacation so what the heck. She can have Cake for dinner for all I care lol.

 

[WETWHISTLE]

My DF and I love the DDP. I still don't understand how everyone says that it's too much food. I don't think I'll ever get that. We plan our meals so that we have a CS for an early lunch (noon) and then a TS for dinner (7-8pm). I really don't see how this is a lot of food. But that's just me.

Even though we're bummed that an appetizer won't be included, we'll get the DDP and pay OOP for the appetizer and gratuity.

We thought about getting the Deluxe DDP, but that's just way too many meals to have to make ADRs for. If we could do it and wing it, we might consider, but it's a pain already to have to make ADRs for our TS (one each night) and our Character Breakfasts.

 

[septbaby]

PROS:

CONS:

The childs menu is the same no matter where you go so if your kids do not like the menu you are out of luck...you must use kids credits for kid menu

IMO:QUOTE]

This is a generalization. You can go places that have pizza, pasta or mac & cheese on the kids TS menu, but some of those same places offer fish or steak too.

The CS meals also vary. Yes there is great availabilty of chicken nuggets, but PB&J, grilled cheese, pizza, mac & cheese, sub sandwiches are also available. There is probably the widest selection at the resort CS locations, especially at the Mods and values. The key is to review the menus before your trip so you can know where the things your family will eat are located.

OP asked about using credits: if a restaurant is considered a TS location only TS credits can be redeemed there. If you order something over and above what the dining plan allows for you will have to pay out of pocket for those items.

At a CS location you could use a CS credit for the meal and also redeem a snack credit for an item that is extra. An example for us is to order a pizza combo meal (pizza and salad) then add fries using a snack credit.

Happy dining!

 

[OKW Mom]

May, 2007 we had 4 at OKW. We knew the "rule" about buying a plan for EVERY guest for the entire stay. It miffed me because the 3rd and 4th guests were being listed only because they were using the Magical Express (and had to be on the reservation).
One of the 4 was not present all 6 nights and even though I had a heated discussion with the ridiculous rule of buying the plan for the entire time. I lost and had to buy for 4 if I wanted it. I was upset until a family member joined us at the last minute. She does not eat much - very picky and very small portions. We had to "hide" her in the room. I felt like a criminal (kind of). She had her own annual pass and we shared a room key.

At CS meals I walked up alone and our son carried the trays to the table. The math worked out just fine : the number of meals we all ate X the # of meals available left us buying just a couple of TS meals out of pocket. Only once did the server refuse to charge 5 TS meals to the plan, and then he graciously put the 4 most expensive meal combinations on the plan, leaving us the least amount OOP.

Considering the $$ we drop on DVC dues, Souvenirs, Photopasses etc. I do not feel dishonest taking advantage of the meals our absent family member would not have eaten. We paid for them.

Sept. 2007 just two of us visited. The plan was a dream because we got our site choices and had minimal waiting. We enjoy the appetizers, but can live without them. I'd buy them in 2008 if it was not a forced gratuity (like on extras this year)

We tried food we would not have "paid" for, we ate in restaurants we had never tried before. We were able to make good choices from the adult menu and I will probably be back in 2008.

I would like DVC to revisit their policy on forced buys.

 

[npmommie]

Hello all I have a question about the dining.
we will be there for 6 nights.
I only made reservations for 3 dinners. character dinners.
for the rest of the table serve meals we felt like being spontaneous. will we be out of luck for any table service sit down restaurant if we don't have a reservation? I hate planning my day around a meal reservation. so the 3 nights of res are already too much for me, but i wanted to make sure the kids got some character meals in. we will be there after thanksgiving, but well before xmas.

 

[septbaby]

We thought about getting the Deluxe DDP, but that's just way too many meals to have to make ADRs for. If we could do it and wing it, we might consider, but it's a pain already to have to make ADRs for our TS (one each night) and our Character Breakfasts.

We won't do Deluxe either, but if we did room service and Signature meals would work themselves into our daily plans!

 

[MissMagnolia]

npmommie -
If you don't make TS reservations ahead of time, you most likely won't get a table. Sometimes the restaurants get so busy they just won't take walk-ups and if they do, you end up eating dinner at 9:00 p.m. You can go to allearsnet.com to see the menus for the different restaurants. It is definitely not spontaneous, but if you want sit down meals, then it is really the only way to go.

 

[npmommie]

npmommie -
If you don't make TS reservations ahead of time, you most likely won't get a table. Sometimes the restaurants get so busy they just won't take walk-ups and if they do, you end up eating dinner at 9:00 p.m. You can go to allearsnet.com to see the menus for the different restaurants. It is definitely not spontaneous, but if you want sit down meals, then it is really the only way to go.

really?? even at the "slow" time of year..........oh my.........i told hubby this might be the case and he said he would eat counter service instead of sit down if he had to......he is really that against making more reservations.......but i do know he really wants to eat at the sci fi diner, i think i will make that reservation anyway.
table service can be lunch time anyway.......so maybe that will work better to do some in the day.

 

[MissMagnolia]

We've done many TSs at lunch. Our favorites are 50s Prime Time Cafe (MGM), Crystal Palace (MK), and Teppanyaki (Epcot) for lunch. I like 50s PTC lunch menu better, Teppanyaki has the same menu, and Crystal Palace has an excellent buffet no matter when you go.

Also, you don't get penalized if you make a reservation and don't show up. This isn't the greatest thing since it takes away from others who want to make reservations, but it helps out those that do want a walk-up!

We always plan out the parks we are going to see for the day and then plan meals around that. It certainly helps.