Poll: FD / dining plans experiences

[dopeyone]

We like the DDP, it lets you experience a variety of restaurants. We've paid for it and done the free dining. It dosen't really save us all that much $$ when we pay, we love the convienience of having our meals paid for. I wish they would let you choose between appetizer or dessert....we would never order dessert if not for the plan..much rather have the app. We have the TIW card also, which we use for appetizers,drinks, and dinners (we usually do a couple signature dinners using DDP, which leaves us short ts credits the TIW card come in handy for this

 

[JJsmama]

We loved the DP - even though we paid for it- not FD. I do wish they would offer a plan that is 2 QS meals and 1 TS meal plus snacks a day. Most Americans do eat 3x a day whether we need to or not...

 

[Swimalie]

We loved the DP - even though we paid for it- not FD. I do wish they would offer a plan that is 2 QS meals and 1 TS meal plus snacks a day. Most Americans do eat 3x a day whether we need to or not...

I agree. Or offer no dessert with the QS meal and instead offer 2 snacks per day.

 

[J3nn78]

I have never done free dining, but we have used the dining plan on the last 2 trips and we LOVE it. It allows us to eat at places we would never pay out of pocket for. Of course we can eat much cheaper as we have in the past, but we get tired of chicken fingers and shared meals. It is nice to try different foods and have a little break each day.

 

[ROEDISNEY]

Love the dinning plan and love free dinning

 

[mkymouse4ever]

anyone else,

 

[Kurby]

we did it one year and most likely won't do it again.

they changed it and we don't like the changes. first - the fee increased but they took away appy's.

we don't usually get desserts or if we do most likely we will split one - maybe if they gave us the option of appy or dessert

tip isn't included so it means we always have to bring extra money for tips which defetes the using one card for tickets, room key and dining.



now that dd is old enough that we would have to pay for her we don't find it worth it since i usually share my meal with her since she doesn't eat that much

 

[squirrel]

I'll take the DDP when it's free.

I wouldn't pay for it as it's too much food. I do enjoy going to all the TS meals, but if I were paying for it I wouldn't be going to one every day.

 

[PrincessBelle39]

If it was more flexible and I could order what I wanted, I'd be happier with it. ie: appetiser instead of desert. We did FD last trip and certainly wouldn't pay for the dining plan. It just didn't suit the way we wanted to eat. We were paying for appetisers and leaving deserts uneaten. Quite a waste really.

 

[WAHMto5]

Free Dining or not, we will never go without the dining plan Makes everything so much easier and great value.

 

[Pink Mouse Ears]

I think the poll needs one more option: FD is worth it, paying for DDP is not.

Getting a full dining plan (with a TS, CS, and snack) ends up being more than most hotel discounts, esp. if you have more than 2 adults in a room...or kids that would get adult plans. So that is definitely worth it.

Paying for the DDP, as a PP said, is really just like prepaying for your food. Only, you are limited on what you can get many times. You have to pay OOP for most appetizers. You have to get dessert at the restaurant where you eat (or pay OOP for it/use a snack credit elsewhere.) Many restaurants limit your choices on the menu. I would say the DDP is most worth it if you are doing a lot of character meals (since these are already $30+ and the dining plan is only $40.) I just prefer to have more flexibility- I can get an app instead of a meal, DH and I can split an entree, or I can choose to do dessert elsewhere (or pick a dessert that isn't offered on the DDP.)

 

[dvc at last !]

TIW works best for us.

 

[Ela1972]

To start I love food and eating - my ideal job would be a food critic!!!!

We tried the ddp on our latest holiday.
It was OK - a bit confusing at first also we had 2 rooms so 1 room had 2 adults on and the other had 1 adult and 1 child. This caused quite a bit of confusion for us and our servers.

Also - don't know how we managed it but we had 4 CS meals and 2 snacks left as we departed. (Had saved them for sandwiches for way home but they had sold out at our resort due to a big conference) - this was our bad planning though.

I have added up the costs of all food purchased via ddp since our return and we were $100:00 plus taxes (got prices from menus on line) plus all snacks better off.

We did find that we were getting and eating deserts we didn't really want, but how much this would have saved i don't know.

May not use ddp again as we would like to dine at more signature restaurants next time, we find the quality is so much better than the parks.

Would definitely use ddp if we were eating in parks or doing a lot of character meals.
As we are from UK we are at WDW for 12 nights so this is quite a long time to arrange so many meals for.
Hope that this helps someone.

 

[Donaldswife]

We have done the Deluxe Dining twice, and the Premium Plan before the Deluxe Dining was introduced, and we LOVE the Deluxe dining Plan. I like that everything except tips is all prepaid, I don't even look at the prices on the menu and just order what sounds good (I would NEVER do that if I was paying OOP), and that the deluxe plan gives so much flexibility. We have plenty of credits to do the two credit experiences if we want to, we have snack credits to cover goodies and beverages in the parks, we have our free mugs to cover drinks at the resort. We also love to do sit down meals as that is our "down time" where we can relax in air conditioning and rest up for more fun at the parks!

It may not work for some, but our family it makes our vacation so much more relaxing.