Should we do the Dining Plan?? (long)

[LindsayDunn228]

Hubby and I are going in Dec. Here is our food itenerary:

Sunday (day of arrival): Dinner at the Pepper Market- wether we eat in the dining room or get take-out will depend on how tired we are.

Monday: Breakfast at the Kona Cafe
Dinner at O'Hana

Tuesday: Breakfast at Pepper Market or Maya Grill
Lupper (between lunch and dinner) at the Sci-fi Cafe

Wednesday: Light breafast at La Tienda (probably bagel and fruit)
Late lunch at probably Nine Dragons
Ice cream sandwich or something as a snack

Thursday: Lunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe
Sundae at Ghirardelli's
Snack from La Tienda if we get hungry later on

Friday: Breakfast at Boma
Dinner at the California Grill (we were planning on using our Disney Rewards for this)

Saturday: Breakfast at Pepper Market or Maya Grill
Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern


Ok here are my questions. We are never done the dining plan before. Could someone experienced w/ this tell me if we should pay out of pocket for these meals (w/ the exception of the CG) or go ahead and get the dining plan??

Thanks!

 

[LindsayDunn228]

Come on you guys!! 55 views and no responses?! Please offer some advice!!

 

[Mermaid02]

Well, the dining plan would cost you $70 per day (that includes tax and tip)... do you think you would spend more than that? Personally, I like the idea of it all being taken care of- not having to think about how much our meal bills are.

 

[Purrrrfecta]

I think the reason why no one responded was because the only way to tell if the DDE would work for you would be look at each menu of the restaurant where you plan on dining, and get a general idea of the cost of each meal. Then you add the totals.
If the cost of the meal is more than $70 then you should consider the DDE plan.
You also have to factor in your hotel cost. Are you paying rack rate, or do you have a discount code, (Annual Passholder, etc.)

Go to WWW.allearsnet.com

click on dining and check out the menus.
That should help you decide.

Hope this helps

 

[golfgal]

Our experience with MYW dining was that the table service meals alone payed for the plan. Our meal at CRT for dinner was over $200, not including tip, for 4 meals. Most of the entrees were in the upper $20 range, $28 or so, add tax and tip to that and you are over $35/meal. If you add a CS meal and a snack to the plan, you come out ahead. Plus, it is SOOOO convienent to just hand them your room key, you don't have to carry cash or a credit card in the parks. The only way I wouldn't do this is if I lost a GOOD room discount, like a good AP rate, on my room. The savings in dining might not make up the difference in the lost room discount.

Like others have said, go to allears and price out what you would normally order and see if you will save money, but don't forget tax and tip.

 

[makelab]

today, you might look at the menus, and choose something light, cheap, whatever. who knows what you may feel like on the actual day. you might just want that filet mignon, and a huge dessert. one day you might want to go to hoop de doo, have a laugh, and load up on beer or sangria. the next you may want to have a nice sit down at california grill.

my point is that you have that flexibility. make ADR (PS) just in case. you never know. i don't think you can "lose" money on the plan, unless you don't eat anything at all.

 

[shellybaxter]

You seem to have a lot of table service meals, and not as many counter service. This is the reason DH and I don't get the dinning plan. We are AP holders and have DDE. We like to eat better at table service. We really don't enjoy the counter service expirience. Last time we did counter service was at Pecos Bill's. The wait in line was about 35 mins to get food. This was longer than we waited for any of the rides that day. We don't think we'd like the dinning plan because we want to eat where we want to eat. Most of our favs are signature resturants. I'm sure we spend way more on food then $70.00 most days, but you get what you pay for, and we'd rather pay more to have what we want.

Shelly

 

[heather360]

I am going to agree with previous posters and advise you to look at the menus of the individual restaurants to decide if the dinning plan makes sense for you. IMO I think that you'd do better without the plan especially because you are planning to use your Disney rewards money on California Grill.

Having said that, I've booked the dinning plan because to me it makes my vacation more of a vacation (if you know what I mean). I rarely eat out at home and to go to Disney and not worry about the cost of meals is a real treat.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Hubby and I are going in Dec. Here is our food itenerary:

Sunday (day of arrival): Dinner at the Pepper Market- wether we eat in the dining room or get take-out will depend on how tired we are.

Monday: Breakfast at the Kona Cafe
Dinner at O'Hana

Tuesday: Breakfast at Pepper Market or Maya Grill
Lupper (between lunch and dinner) at the Sci-fi Cafe

Wednesday: Light breafast at La Tienda (probably bagel and fruit)
Late lunch at probably Nine Dragons
Ice cream sandwich or something as a snack

Thursday: Lunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe
Sundae at Ghirardelli's
Snack from La Tienda if we get hungry later on

Friday: Breakfast at Boma
Dinner at the California Grill (we were planning on using our Disney Rewards for this)

Saturday: Breakfast at Pepper Market or Maya Grill
Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern


Ok here are my questions. We are never done the dining plan before. Could someone experienced w/ this tell me if we should pay out of pocket for these meals (w/ the exception of the CG) or go ahead and get the dining plan??

Thanks!

An in depth analysis.
Sunday day of arrival. 1 counter no sit downs.
Monday 2 sit downs no counter.
Tuesday 1 and one or 2 and 0
Wed 1 sit down, no counter, 1 snack
Thurs 1 sit down, one snack.
Fri 1 sit down (the other on your rewards)
Saturday 1 and 1.

You have 7 sit downs in there. plus the one paid for with the rewards. Maybe 8. You're in excess on your sit downs. You're in defecit on your counters. I'm only counting 2 or 3. The rest aren't worth using one for.
Let us see how your plans would be have to be changed to take advantage of the plan.

Sunday No change. Dinner at the counter.
Monday, Breakfast at a counter. Kona would not get value out of the plan. And if you ate there, you'd end up short a counter and over on sit downs. Sorry. Dinner at O'hana
Tuesday. No change. But breakfast will be at the pepper market. Maya is ixne'd here for the same reason Kona was Yesterday.
Wed Upgrade your light breakfast to a counter breakfast. Late Lunch at 9Dragons. late late snack.
Thursday. Lunch at Whispering Canyon. Upgrade your snack to a counter. Have a sundae at Ghirardelli.
Friday. Breakfast at Boma (I'd use my rewards here) Dinner On meal plan at Cali Grill.
Saturday. No change.

Let us see where we are now. I am assuming you are leaving saturday? If not we'll have to change it again. 6 counters, 6 sit downs to use.
Sunday 1 counter
Monday 1 counter, 1 sit down (2 and 1)
Tuesday 1 counter, 1 sit down (3 and 2)
Wednesday.1 counter 1 sit down (4 and 3)
Thursday 1 counter. 0 sit downs. Pay for whispering Canyon with your rewards. 1 sit down. (5 and 3)
Friday 0 counter 2 sit downs(CG costs you two) (5 and 5) Pay for Boma with your rewards.
Saturday 1 counter. 1 sit downs (6 and 6)

A good way to think of it is $25 for the sit down, $10 for the counter+snack.
You will get full value out of the cali grill even using two sit downs on the plan to pay for it. Especially if you use the appetizer credit for Sushi. So instead of using your reward's here. Use them for your excess sit downs that won't make the $25 threshold.

Defintely put Boma at Breakfast on the rewards. That won't make $25.
And Definitlely put WCC at lunch on the rewards. That won't make it to $25 most likely either.

As to which way is more actual money out of pocket, hard to tell It's close. But you would be eating better on average on the plan, lighter off it.
If it were me, I'd get the plan. I'm not the heaviest of eaters but I wouldn't be classified as a light eater. If you're a light eater, it's a more difficult decision.

I also didn't count the snacks but you'd have one to use each day.

Hope that info helps with your decision.

 

[renessa]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just wanted to say that Cannotwait4disney's indepth anaylsis was wonderful.....and to spend that much time planning someone else's meals...........I love the DIS!!!

 

[DisneyJen0504]

Good job Cant wait for Disney.
You helped me figure out if we want the dining plan as well. Good job!

 

[Anewman]

Even if one goes over the TS meals included in the plan and have to pay out of pocket for a few on the last day or two, does not make the plan a bad deal.

But in this case, even though it is tough to know exactly how many nights you are staying it would be a waste(IMO) to get the plan.
Unless you redo your schedule a little to get the most value out of the plan, it would not take much.