To Dine or not to Dine?

[stitchlover]

We have never been to DL before and are planning a June '08 trip. I think I almost have myself convinced to stay at the Candy Cane Inn, have read so many good things here about it, but my question is should we do the dining plan or not? Is there really that much benefit to it? We will have 3 full days to spend there before we head to Hawaii. What is your opinion, recommendation? We usually do Dining at WDW but that is really a whole different experience in my understanding. Would really love some suggestions from you DL vets.

 

[bumbershoot]

If you price out what you get to what you pay, you see there's very little benefit. While pricing it, I found a bit of a benefit, depending on what charcter meal you might choose, but other than that, it's pretty much just pre-paying. Which is a good benefit if that's how you want to budget food, but it's not like you're getting a terrific deal.

Also, the way it's been explained to me and others is that the plan is vouchers, which are used in place of cash. But you don't get change for the vouchers, so you either have to somehow plan perfectly, or you end up losing the value of a voucher, or pay cash to get over the value of the voucher (for instance, you either buy one lemonade with a $5 voucher and don't get change back, or you get 2 and pay extra (assuming the lemonades are more than 2.50, LOL)).

 

[blackjackdelta]

I would concur with bumbershoot, really not a value in my opinion.

Jack

 

[joseph821]

We have never been to DL before and are planning a June '08 trip. I think I almost have myself convinced to stay at the Candy Cane Inn, have read so many good things here about it, but my question is should we do the dining plan or not? Is there really that much benefit to it? We will have 3 full days to spend there before we head to Hawaii. What is your opinion, recommendation? We usually do Dining at WDW but that is really a whole different experience in my understanding. Would really love some suggestions from you DL vets.

You will save money and eat better (and have more food choices) by NOT doing the dining plan. First off, I am not sure but I think the Candy Cane might serve a continential breakfast. WDW has a much better variety of dining option than DL does.

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

Your hotel does have a free breakfast in the morning, which will save you a ton right there. So I agree with NOT doing the dining plan, it's simply not worth it for DL. Although I understand it's very different and very worth it at WDW.

By not doing it you will not only save money but you'll have more options (like eating at DTD. The Rainforest Cafe is a must for us every trip).

 

[Crazy4Disney72]

I did the dining plan on my last trip to DL 1/06. I only really did it as a way of prepaying meal costs, but it really is not a very good value. As other posters have said, it's vouchers with dollar amounts, and if you spend under that amount, you get nothing back. Also, the $5 vouchers are labeled snack vouchers and only good at certain places. We ended up eating way more snack type foods than we would have, just to use the vouchers. The only thing that was somewhat of a good deal was the character breakfast vouchers, as the apparently include the tax and gratuity. I asked the server if tax was included or not (assuming that gratuity was not included) and he told me that all I needed to leave were the vouchers, taxes and gratuities were included. In contrast, the 'breakfast in the park' vouchers were really a poor value, DS and I at at the Riverbelle Terrace and neither one of us ordered the most expensive breakfast or anything extra and I still ended up owing money.

I would not do the dining plan again at DL.

 

[NVDisMom]

We don't do the dining plan either...we like having the flexability of eating where and what we want. We almost never buy snacks in the park...I keep a couple of granola bars in my purse. But we do eat two solid meals, big lunch and smallish dinner, and take advantage of a continental bf if it is available. When we stayed at GC, we hit up WhiteWater Snacks(thanks DISboards for that tip). I buy my Character Meals at Getawaytoday.com at a discount or plan to use a AAA or coupon for 10% off.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

How do you buy just the Character Meals from getawaytoday.com? How much of a discount do you get?

 

[NVDisMom]

http://www.getawaytoday.com/TicketListing.aspx?dest_id=2

to Getawaytoday's dining at DL. It does include gratuity and tax.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Thanks for the link!

 

[GailT]

I akwaysget the dining plan at DW but I have only goneonce and I didn't getthe dinning plan, it wasnt like DW and I just did all of that on my own. It seemed to work out the best, we are going back next month and again no dining plan, I like it that way much better. Have a FUNtastic trip nomatter what your decision, you are infor the treat of your lfe and might chnage your mind about DW like I didm I love DL