To do or not to do dining plan?

[karlacorley]

We would probably just do the quick service, I have myself, hubby ,16yr old boy and 3yr old son. They are fast foodie type, hamburgers, hot dog and chicken strips and pizza type. I want to do what will save the most money as of right now we are going in Feb 2012. I am needing to book so I am asking..Of course if free dining was offered we woukld take it ! TIA!

 

[Cafeen]

The QSDP in 2012 is ~$35 per night per adult. On it you get 2 QS meals and 1snack per person per night, plus the mug. QSDP, especially in 2012, has the thinnest margin of them all, making it a bit more difficult to save money on it.

This $35 per night translates into about $16 per CS meal (using an average $3 snack) just to break even. If you think you (as a party) will easily hit that mark with entree, drink, dessert (yes, you get dessert @ CS meals) then it's likely a good idea. If you don't think you will, or are uninterested in parts of the plan (skip dessert, drink water, etc), then it's probably best that you skip the plan and just pay OOP. To get that "pre-pay" feel, pick up a gift card or two for the cost of the plan and pay with that (ideally, charge to the room and pay that charge off with the GC, it's easier).

Also as a note, if you are still undecided you can go ahead and book anyway. Up until 45 days out, there is no fee for changing your reservation. After 45 days, there is a nominal fee charged for changes that's often waived if the package is increasing in price. Starting about a week out there is a steeper fee (~$50) for changes that is rarely waived either way. You must decide to add/remove/modify a dining plan by at the very least 72 hours out. After that mark, you're locked in.

 

[everythingALICE]

Personally, I wouldn't.

I don't think it saves that much money. Plus, many of the desserts at the CS locations are pretty mediocre, and there's not a ton of variety (I personally can only eat so many chocolate fudge cakes). Obviously this isn't everywhere - particularly CS restaurants in Epcot will have different options.

Since it's not saving a ton of money (IMO), I would pay OOO for meals, and then you can use the money to buy desserts of your choice elsewhere.

 

[PinkEars]

I would pay out of pocket you would save more doing it that way. You can check out the menu and prices of things on allears.net and see what you think.

And i thought i just read that you dont get the mug with the QS plan next year?? but they are adding it to the regular?

 

[ciera321]

The mug is still included with QSDP next year...

 

[magpomom]

We did the QSDP on our last trip. It seemed like a good value - in 2010 you got the two CS credits, 2 snacks and the resort refillable mug. At the time, it worked well for us because our 2 year old wasn't on the dining plan and we were able to pool some our credits to make sure he had enough to eat.

But the more I think about it, the more I think that it really isn't a good value, especially now. It really depends on how you eat. Sure - if you go by the amount of food you get, it seems like a good plan (and this was even when there was the extra snack - it's down to 1 snack for 2012) But if we hadn't been on the dining plan, we never would have ordered all those desserts, for one thing. Often we were so full we'd take a single bite and toss the rest in the trash. Or save it for later and never get around to eating it. It was so wasteful. And then there's the size of the meals themselves - they are really big, and I can't help but think that if we hadn't been on the plan, there are plenty of meals we could have shared and been completely satisfied. Again, it felt really wasteful to me.

It's definitely worth evaluating your family's eating habits. For us, we never would have eaten like that had we not been on the dining plan, so I'm not sure if it worked out to be the best deal for us.

It seems to me, particularly with the loss of that extra snack credit, it really isn't worth it anymore. Of course, like you said, it's a whole different ball game if it turns out to be free.

 

[Hootch]

get the QSDP. I think it's a worse deal the the regular dining plan.

We just came back from a seven night trip a couple of weeks ago. We did five TS meals over the 7.5 days which left us with bout 10 CS meals. I think we averaged about $30 per CS meal for my wife, son, daughter and myself. My son is 12 so he wouldn't eat enough as your son but our daughter is 8. I think the QSDP would have cost us about 20% - 30% more than we spent.

The highest cost meal we had was at Wolfgang Puck Express, but we could have gone over to Earl of Sandwich and had a really good meal there too for less.

Our average meal would have been cheaper, I think, had I remembered to tell them to leave off th french fries a few times. We almost always had too many.

 

[LeahA]

I think you would be better off paying for your meals out of pocket. I think you would spend less. What we do it look at the menu's and guess what we would get, and total it up. We always spend less and still get what we want when we haven't used the Dining Plan.

 

[amylevan]

If you're looking to save the most money, you can do better than the QS dining plan, imo. Of course, my DH doesn't eat dessert, so that's a savings right there for us. And I'm not a huge eater, so I can share meals with my DS 2.

Plus, for comparison, there's a whole thread on this board about eating for $40/day INCLUDING a table service option.

My suggestion is to go over to the menus at allears.net and price out what you think your family would eat in reality. Compare that cost to the dining plan cost and make the best decision for how your family eats.

 

[karlacorley]

Thanks, I think I am going to search the menus and start pricing, we are staying at CBR in the Pirate rooms so the mug wouldnt be refilled a whole lot and we will have a fridge and can bring bottled drinks..

 

[Stinky_Pete]

My suggestion is to go over to the menus at allears.net and price out what you think your family would eat in reality. Compare that cost to the dining plan cost and make the best decision for how your family eats.

This is the most important concept in my opinion to determine if any dining plan is best for your group.

To remove it from the often emotional DDP discussions, I will go back to the '90's. I did the "Food and Fun Card". It included a full breakfast and full dinner, and unlimited "fun" - boat or bike rental, etc.. I think it included tax and tip but don't remember.

I saved our receipts and we would have broken even on the food. $50/day vs OOP. But we never would have ordered like that if it wasn't included. We certainly wouldn't have done TS breakfasts every day (even though we did love the Pooh & Friends breakfast at Artist Point).

Now, I have since done the DDP but it was in '08 when appetizer and gratuity was included on DDP. I won't do it again. Again, I wouldn't have ordered like that if I weren't on the plan. So the question to ask yourself is if you would spend that money OOP.

 

[erocrobro]

I don't think my family will do it next time. I took my parents on our last trip and it was nice to have it then so there was no fighting over the bill at the end of the meal and they were free to order whatever they wanted without having to worry about how much it cost, but if it is just my children and I, it won't be worth it. We would never order dessert with our meal, but we do sometimes order appetizers and they aren't included. Also, with the lack of variety in kids menus, I felt bad for my children sometimes having to choose between chicken nuggets or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I would have liked to just order them something off of the regular menu sometimes and it wasn't always an option. I know you can upgrade, but then it really wouldn't have been worth it because there is no way they could ever eat that much.

 

[MrsLS]

With the way you want to eat, I wouldn't do a dining plan. Just pay as you go and you will probably spend less than you would with the dining plan or at least break even.

 

[rentayenta]

If you eat dessert with every meal and drink soda then my guess is you'll break even. It seems to be more of a convenience than money saving tactic.