To Dine or Not to Dine...

[Halloween Baby]

We are going to WDW August 15-24th. We arrive on the 15th around 11:30 AM and have a Fantasmic Dinner Package at Mama Melrose that evening at 6 PM. We also have a lunch ADR at Biergarten in the middle of the trip and a Chef Mickey's ADR the morning that we leave (but do not actually fly out until 5 PM. While we are staying on property, we will be going on two separate days to US/IOA.

So here's my question: Would it be worth getting one of the dining plans? I had been hoping for free dining so I didn't have this dilemma, but oh well...

The way I see it, the Quick Service plan would be affordable but is there value in it or would it be just as easy to purchase as we go. And for that matter, the regular dining plan is only a few hundred more dollars and we are going to spend that alone on the 3 ADRs that we already made. My concern for that is we will have to spend a lot out of pocket on tips...

Please give me some advice!!

 

[Halloween Baby]

Anyone have any suggestions??

 

[Minne's Friend]

Even on the dining plan you are responsible for tips. So that should really not play into your choice. If you are going off property for a couple of days, I can't see where the dining plan would be good for you, to many wasted credits

 

[Lynne G]

I don't think there is value in the QS plan, unless you are really good at scoring the most expensive meals and eat all the desserts. With the regular dining plan, you would have 1 TS credit. That too, may not be a great deal, unless you eat the most expensive things every restaurant. However, with the prices of the buffets being very high, you really have to do the math for your family.

For us, I most likely would not pay for the dining plan if I had a better room discount. We like to eat a TS a day, sometimes more than 1. But, we don't generally order desserts and not always the most expensive meal. However, if the free dining discount is better than any room discount or no other discounts are offered, we do like having the free Plan. It gives us flexibilty, and even if we don't order the exact dollar amount of food the Plan is valued at, it was still a discount to our vacation.

There are general prices on allears website, allears has all the restaurants, quick and TS. Take a look, see what you would think you would be ordering, and where, and total the prices for your meals. Then see if the plans are a good deal for you or not. Of course, at any TS meal, you would be paying tip OOP or with the Plan, so that would be a wash in the TS meals you were going dine at anyway.

Have a great vacation! We loved SW, Aquadica, Discovery Cove, BGT, and US and IOA. That was last year's fun. This year's disney and US. We may do the Busch parks in place of Disney next year too. We liked the other parks that much.

 

[rafiki14]

How many are in your party? That can help determine a lot as the buffets can get pretty expensive.