Our Dining Plan Experience

Elle23

DIS Veteran
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
We got the dining plan at a discount with a package and I went in confident it would be a "win" for us.

We just got back last night, and I have to say, it's probably the last time we will do it (if we ever get to go back).

It honestly was no harder to charge a meal or food to the room than it was to use a meal or snack credit. It was the exact same procedure!

And the way we ended up doing the parks, we were much more "snack around the park" types than big sit down meal types.

My kids literally picked at their $175 (including tip) breakfast at Akershus and then wanted snacks not long after.

It was also a pain trying to keep track of and juggling credits instead of just getting what we wanted when we wanted it.

This was probably one of the biggest surprises of the trip. I'm sure the dining plan is great for some families, but it definitely isn't for everyone, as we found out.
 
The DDP is a business decision if you strictly care about monetary value. Some ppl like it even though they do not realize the full value of it, or they actually lose money on it. From what I've read, it seems like some people enjoy it because allows them to pre-pay for their meals, and makes them feel like they are less stressed about paying for meals when the bill comes t the table. I'm cheap, so I'm on the flip side of that coin. I'm currently trying to decide if free dining is offered this year, if it will work for my family. IMO, it's a business decision. If I lose money on it, then it's not worth it. I have to carry a credit card or back my magic band with a credit card no matter what, so charging my food before the vacation or during the vacation, doesn't matter to me. The cost is the exact same. If you think about it, you should be able to invest the money you spend on the dining plan before your vacation to make some money on it. That's a whole different thing, though. For my household, the DDP has to be run through the number crunching and planning process to make sure it works, even if it is "free." If we have to pay rack rate for the resort, and wind up throwing away a ton of food, or we don't use the credits wisely, we might not wind up ahead.
 
I really depends on a lot of factors, it doesn't work for us either but we did use it in the past. A lot of people like the convenience of not looking at prices on the menu and then ordering the cheapest thing because you are worried about the price. Some people do a lot of character meal and buffets so it might make sense for them. Some people like to eat at signature restaurants and feel they can use 2 credits for them and not have to spend all the rest of their time at TS restaurants. We like to just go with the flow, we do eat at TS restaurants, we don't even look at the prices on the menu (no we aren't rich but why bother) we order what we want. Sometimes what I want is an appetizer and a soup, or two appetizers or a salad and a dessert, I'm not tied to thinking I've paid for the dining plan so I have to order an entre. There are days we just snack all day, especially during F&G and F&W. We also don't make advance ADRs, it really is on the fly for us while walking around the parks we decide we want to sit down and eat and hop on MDE and find somewhere. If we aren't snacking all day and actually eating real meals, we rarely snack between meals so snack credits get wasted.
 
We did 3 character meals and honestly found them to be distracting. And my kids are older so it basically was not much more than the characters stopping by for a picture.

I guess we did get our "value" from the DDP since we did several character meals, but in the future we will be perfectly happy skipping those and just doing 1 or 2 regular meals and saving all that money (and tips).

And honestly, with the exception of Garden Grill, we had better food at the quick service places.
 


I've done both with and without dining plans. We've done the basic and the Deluxe though never the All quick serve plan.
We found the Deluxe to be Overkill and would not ever repeat that choice. Too much food, too many time constraints, too much planning and way too much time away from rides. We gave away meal credits having xtras as we just didn't want to eat lol.
As far as the regular plan, it seems to fit our lifestyle better. There are days I'll grab a "snack" for bkfst and a counter serve for lunch with a sit down most nites for dinner
Tho some days we did our sit down for lunch n counter for dinner.
I guess there is a plan for everyone, or not! Last few trips I skipped them altogether and we still ( mostly) got to eat where n when we wanted. We tend to eat earlier rather than later which seemed to help.
Thx for posting ur experience/s.
 

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