Should we do the dining plan?

[sdteacher]

We are headed to DW in Jan. We have two children - 9 and 11 and will be there for a week. We did not get the dining plan when we booked our trip as we thought we could eat for less than what the dining plan was if we made sandwiches a couple of days. We are also planning going to the ocean to see it and possibly a day at Universal. Would you do the plan? I know we could eat really well at some nice restaurants, but I also don't want to plan my vacation around dining reservations. Please give me your thoughts.

 

[mickeystoontown]

For two of our last three trips we did the dining plan and absolutely loved it!!!! This past trip, we didn't do the plan as it was a semi-spur of the moment trip and I didn't really have time to plan my ADRs. We had a good time but we were soooooo tired of eating quick service meals.

I understand that you guys will probably be spending a day or two offsite but keep in mind that you can combine the "unused" table service credits and see one of the Disney dinner shows which are definitely worth the two credits.

You could also use the "unused" counter service meals and eat a couple of breakfasts with those credits.

We aren't breakfast people so we skip breakfast, use our counter service credits for lunch and our table service credits for dinner. Snacks are used for purchasing ice cream, water, etc. for a mid-day snack.

I suggest you head over to www.allearsnet.com and check out the menus. Just click on Dining and scroll down to Menus. Click on Menus and up pops the menus for every Disney restaurant.

Once you have the menus in front of you, make a chart. The chart should have columns for each day of your stay. Using the menus, write down your food choices and their price. Do this for every day. Remember that almost anything under $4.00 is considered a snack credit. I would suggest you use your table service credits for dinner as you get the "most bang for your buck" that way.

Also, keep in mind that it doesn't matter when you use your dining credits just so long as you use them prior to your departure. So, on the days you aren't at Disney, save those credits for a breakfast, extra snack, dinner show, etc.

After you have it all written down, tally up your daily totals to see if the dining plan would be worth it for you guys.

We aren't park commandos but we do like to have a plan. So, I plan all of our ADRs for the park we are in for that particular day. On our "down days" (non park days), I save those credits for our dinner show day.

We have found that, by evening, we are ready for a nice sit down meal. I make our ADRs for 7:00 p.m. or a little later. Table service meals take about 1 to 1 1/2 hours meaning we still have time for the meal AND the night time entertainment.

You may find that the plan would actually work for you.

 

[choirfarm]

I would never buy the dining plan, only get it if it is "free". I don't think you would utilize it enough to pay for it. You will need to plan some though to get your ADR's. You will definitely save some money doing it on your own. Example: Day 1- MK eat a TS Day 2 Epcot- eat a TS Day 3 beach on your own Day 4 Universal- eat there Day 5 Animal Kingdom- just CS Day 6- MGM TS. It would be really hard for you to use up all of your credits. WE had a hard time and we stayed on property the whole week.

Christine

 

[MVA]

thanks for the good info.

 

[mickeystoontown]

thanks for the good info.

You are quite welcome. I really think you should do the chart and the math and see if it would work out for you guys. Like I said, we don't really like to plan our days around ADRs but, for us, it's nice to sit down in the evening to a meal. We aren't those kind of people who say :where did you eat on vacation". We are the kind who say "what all did you get to do on vacation".

If you are breakfast eaters, the plan still may work for you. You could use your counter service meals for breakfast. Your snack credits could be used for extra drinks (you could even take those with you offsite) or for a late night snack.

We never ever have a hard time using our meal credits and we stay for ten days and have a few "down days".

 

[SarahD]

thanks for the good info.

I just cancelled our Disney Dining Plan. I looked at the menus for specific restaurants and the kids' choices were terrible. Places like Pinocchio Village Haus in MK that offer pizza on the menu, but kids can only choose from pb&j or mac & cheese - not pizza. Another place (Cosmic Ray's in MK) that has hot dogs, but not for kids. Kids' choices are salad, chicken nuggets or pb&j. When you're on the dining plan, if a restaurant has a kid's menu, your child may only choose from that menu. It might be fine of you have toddlers, but my kids are 6 & 9 and don't want pb&j or chicken nuggets.

You can see the menus for every restaurant on Disney property on this website: http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I just cancelled our Disney Dining Plan. I looked at the menus for specific restaurants and the kids' choices were terrible. Places like Pinocchio Village Haus in MK that offer pizza on the menu, but kids can only choose from pb&j or mac & cheese - not pizza. Another place (Cosmic Ray's in MK) that has hot dogs, but not for kids. Kids' choices are salad, chicken nuggets or pb&j. When you're on the dining plan, if a restaurant has a kid's menu, your child may only choose from that menu. It might be fine of you have toddlers, but my kids are 6 & 9 and don't want pb&j or chicken nuggets.

You can see the menus for every restaurant on Disney property on this website: http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm.

The original poster's children are 9 and 11 so the 11 year old can order off the adult menu. When my 11 year old son eats, he can eat like a horse!

 

[mfd25wife]

We had no problem using our credits. We also knew nothing about ADR and we did not have a problem in finding a place to eat. We were there in June. We decided to be flexible and just asked the concierge to check available rest for a particular day. We picked from them and he set up the ressie's for us. We left it open for any park, any resort, and DTD. We got to eat at Wolfgang Puck, the French rest., the rest at Moracco, the rest at AK, Mayan Grill, Captain Jack's. I forget the names of some of them so please forgive me on that one. It may not be that DDP is for you, but it was great for us. we got to try places we probably would not have for fear of cost. For us, the cost of the TS meals if we had paid would have equaled the cost of the DDP. We basically got the CS meals and snacks free. But, we ate really well and had two teens to feed (but they are girls). I will get ADR the next time just because I do want to try a couple of places that are harder to get into, though.

 

[TDC Nala]

Do the math. Since you plan on spending time away from Disney property, you need to make sure you can use all your dining credits. You don't HAVE to use all the dining credits, but if you don't the value of the plan drops precipitously, especially with the more DDP adults you have in your party. I'm assuming that you are staying at a Disney resort and planning day excursions to places outside of Disney property.

 

[Tricia1972]

I think that being that you'll be off site for two full days and because you're only there for a week, you can eat very well without the plan, for less than $690 ($130/night - 6 nights)

Though you will need to do the math for yourself. I have a spreadsheet around here somewhere, I'll try to find the link.

 

[Tricia1972]

Here's the link. Look at the menus. What would you order if money were no object and you were eating wherever you wanted.

http://personalpages.tds.net/~rb/DIS/MYW%20Dining/DisneyDining%20Template%202009.xls

 

[mickeystoontown]

It may not be that DDP is for you, but it was great for us. we got to try places we probably would not have for fear of cost. For us, the cost of the TS meals if we had paid would have equaled the cost of the DDP. We basically got the CS meals and snacks free.

It was the same for us. We find that we are more apt to eat at different restaurants and try new foods when we are on the dining plan.

 

[Tricia1972]

It was the same for us. We find that we are more apt to eat at different restaurants and try new foods when we are on the dining plan.

That's why I say that everyone should look at what they want when comparing numbers DDP vs no DDP.

We compared the number, ordered the steak and we saved without it. We felt NO guilt ordering whatever we wanted, we knew that this way was cheaper for us than doing the DDP.

This doesn't work for everyone, so every group needs to run the numbers for themselves.

 

[mickeystoontown]

That's why I say that everyone should look at what they want when comparing numbers DDP vs no DDP.

We compared the number, ordered the steak and we saved without it. We felt NO guilt ordering whatever we wanted, we knew that this way was cheaper for us than doing the DDP.

This doesn't work for everyone, so every group needs to run the numbers for themselves.

That's exactly what I suggested above!

 

[AnnetteF]

We were just there in August. We had done the dining plan the previous two years but decided against it this trip because we were tired of feeling like our vacation was being driven by ADR's and if we wound up eating in CS restaurants a lot then so be it.

I was curious to see how we would do money wise so I kept every receipt for meals or snacks. We did not go off property at all, nor did we eat anything in our room. We were there for 8 nights. In the end, we wound up spending only $145 more than the dining plan would have cost us.

We ate in many TS restaurants including CRT (this one I had an ADR for, as well as just a couple of others), Artist point, WCC, Garden Grill, Cape May Cafe, Biergarten and twice at Beaches and Cream. That would have been the equivalent of 10 TS meals. Yes, B&C is cheaper, but it was convenient for us because we were at BC and it didn't require ADR's. We also had 16 Counter service meals and only 4 snacks (we're not big snackers). We only had a couple of desserts and we did have a couple of appetizers. Also, our DD is 4 and when the kids choices at CS restaurants didn't appeal, we got her adult meals (this happened several times - how can CHH not have chicken tenders for kids?).

My point is we ate where we wanted when we wanted, for the most part. There were some places we couldn't get into without ADR's, but everything worked out just fine and we alwaysfound something. After this experience, we are finished with the dining plan.

 

[disneycrazy2004]

I would only get the dining plan if it is for free. Don't take me wrong - we absolutely love it and the food is great everywhere we ate. The think is my kids are 10 and 8 and don't eat near as much as what comes with their meals. My 10 year old loved the kids menu a lot more than the adult menu and ended up ordering from the kids menu most of the time. I just don't think it is worth it for kids.....But we loved it and doing it again next year.