To Dining Plan or Not to Dining Plan? That is the question:{

[ajvaca]

Hi All Disneygoer Families

I am such an anal planner and now am doubting myself as to whether or not I should purchase the dining plan, ahhhhhh.

I have rented DVC points and have the option to purchase the dining plan upon arrival. I will be staying in a two bedroom villas which has a full size kitchen. It will be myself, DH, DD6 and DS4 and another family of 4 DW, DH, DS5 and DB2months; I usually ship snacks down and other stuff so we are set for breakfasts in the morning and snacks throughout the day but I don't see us going out of our way to return back to the room to make lunch and/or dinner often. I know the portion sizes they serve can be adequate enough to serve two people. To purchase the Disney Dining Plan for 6days would cost my family around $612, now in your opinions is that a deal. I was set to purchase it but keep thinking, would we really eat that much monies worth of food there???? We would probably do sit down dining at least once a day and I know they are fine with you splitting your meal.

What to do, what to do and I need to figure it out soon so I can start saving for that portion Help!!!

disneydanserr

DH DW DD6 DS4

 

[nicki.momof3]

I LOVE THE DDP. With your kids ages a bunch of cool kid places would be fun. We just returned and our kids (4,5,6) loved all the character meals and dine in theater and so on. It is a nice break to plan a fun dinner somewhere and jsut relax and slow down.

I would not purchase it there though - to make it worth you while you need to make ADR's for everysite down meal. You do not want to be waiting wit young kids.

 

[RocketCityMama]

Def worth it for us! We know we ate over the amt that it cost us per day.

We use the DDP (1 snack, 2 cs 1ts) and it was perfect in Dec for the 3 days we were there. We selected it again for this May week long trip. I would say look at the restaraunts you want to eat at, figure the cost for your family and then check it against what it would cost for the DDP plan and go from there. I love being able to get 1 snack a day paid for (usually ice cream).

Ok so I double checked the price, for 2 adults/2 kids its basically $102 a day for the one we choose. In Dec we ate at Maya Grill for dinner one night. The total bill was $100 plus dollars for DINNER only... so based on the DDP plan we ate our c/s and snack for free that particular day. I would never spend that kinda money on a meal and we were disappointed with the food anyway, so that would have been a waste of $.

$39.99/2 - $10 a meal in reality that's not bad, I would pay that or more by just going to Applebees, etc here where I live.

Get it!
Just my opinion!

 

[RMulieri]

My family of 3 always does the DP. We stay in a 1 bdr villa as well. We generally breakfast in the villa, CS lunch, and a Sitdown dinner. We use the snack credits in the evening. It works out well for us.

 

[ajvaca]

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I would not purchase it there though - to make it worth you while you need to make ADR's for everysite down meal. You do not want to be waiting wit young kids.

I didn't think I needed to purchase the Dining Plan ahead of time inorder to make ADR? Am I wrong?

disneydanserr

 

[tinkermom23]

We did the DDP and Loved it!! It was definately worth it for us. DH says he will never go without the DDP now!

We checked into renting DVC points and if I'm not mistaken, you cannot buy the Dining Plan until you actually check in when you are renting DVC points from someone else. I would check into this. I think you can make all your ADR's without the plan though, and just tell them when you check in for your ressie that you now have DDP.

 

[PatsMom]

I didn't think I needed to purchase the Dining Plan ahead of time inorder to make ADR? Am I wrong?

disneydanserr

You do not need to purchase the dining plan prior to making your ADR's. We've made ressies and then added on the dining plan at the last minute.

We don't use the dining plan since they dropped the appetizer. We also found that it was just too much food for us. We ended up using snack credits at the end of the week to buy candy to bring home and the deals you can get on that stuff aren't that great anymore.

Whether it works for your family is probably a function of what you would eat. I like the suggestion of looking at the menus and figuring out what you would order and seeing if you save money.

 

[catherines_mama]

I've been to WDW many times and this next trip will be my 1st with DDP.

This is how I figured out to go or not. I planned our ADRs, and knew which parks we'd be in which day. I then grabbed Excel and tossed in the prices of the meals based on the menus avail online.

The total of OOP dining was MUCH higher then DDP for my family.

Like PP said - just one meal (TS) will likely pay for DDP each day.

Just do the math and decide on what is best for you & yours. Good luck!

 

[RMulieri]

We did the DDP and Loved it!! It was definately worth it for us. DH says he will never go without the DDP now!

We checked into renting DVC points and if I'm not mistaken, you cannot buy the Dining Plan until you actually check in when you are renting DVC points from someone else. I would check into this. I think you can make all your ADR's without the plan though, and just tell them when you check in for your ressie that you now have DDP.

The DVC owner has to book the Dp for you no later than 48 hrs before your check in date. You pay for it when you arrive at the resort.You do not need to have the DP to book adrs, only a resort reservation number

 

[ajvaca]

The DVC owner has to book the Dp for you no later than 48 hrs before your check in date. You pay for it when you arrive at the resort.You do not need to have the DP to book adrs, only a resort reservation number

Our DVC owner has us set up to purchase the DP, I guess I just need to figure out where we will be dining(which I had planned on doing) and estimate if I think it is cost efficient

Disneydanserr

 

[TKL SHOP]

The DVC owner has to book the Dp for you no later than 48 hrs before your check in date. You pay for it when you arrive at the resort.You do not need to have the DP to book adrs, only a resort reservation number

I don't think you need the resort reservation number either. Last year we stayed off site and they made adr for us without one.