To do the Dining PLan option or not???

Bama4life

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jul 19, 2007
Messages
4
Hi Everyone, I am new to this site and this is our families first trip to Disney World. We have been considering doing the dining plan option, what are your thoughts on this?? My husband seems to think we can eat much cheaper than this because our kids don't ever seem to eat that much. We are planning a trip for the 13th of July- the 18th. Anybody have any good suggestions? I am lost, this is all so overwhelming and that is why I am on here to read and get lots of good information and help!! Thanks:cool1:
 
Welcome!

How many and what are the ages of your children?

Where are you staying?

Are you planning to visit each park and do you have park hoppers?

Do you want to take them to any character meals, if so how many?
 
is what type of dining are you going to be doing, i.e. table or counter service. On our last trip we decided to more CS meals because our kids got very anxious to get back out to the parks. We did three character meals which do keep their attention and one other TS meal. I did a quick estimate and the DDP plan was not for us. Maybe in a few years our dining habits will change making the DDP, or my preference the DxDP better for us.
 
Also, consider what you wish to do -- buy whatver you want or need separate, or with a package.
Generally a DDP requires a WDTC package purchase. Most packages MYW tickets and a booking of WDW resort room is required. Then you can book a WDTC MYW package with DDP, Dxl DDP, etc.
Package vs. Room Only have different payment and deposit requirements.
 

It really is a personal decision based on your families eating habits & plans but for us, we LOVE the dining plan! I think we could eat cheaper (being a family of four but all over the age of ten, Disney adults) but I for one just do not want to be getting hung up over prices while on vacation. I just know that if we paid OOP, we would not be doing as many TS meals (which we all enjoy) & when we did, I would be wanting to control the budget by not allowing any ordering of the more expensive items. What fun is that?

I love having everything pre-paid so that I don't have to worry about it. A Disney vacation is the one time that we try not to worry too much about a budget & more about just enjoying our time.
 
Welcome!

How many and what are the ages of your children?

Where are you staying?

Are you planning to visit each park and do you have park hoppers?

Do you want to take them to any character meals, if so how many?

Hi! Well the kids are 12(son), daughters 11, and 8, we are planning on staying at Riverside and we aren't really sure about having the park hoppers but we are planning on visiting every park for four days (heading down on Sunday the 13th and heading back up on Friday the 18th-We are in Alabama) I haven't really thought about character meals, I am sure my 8 year old would be in heaven!
 
Hi! Well the kids are 12(son), daughters 11, and 8, we are planning on staying at Riverside and we aren't really sure about having the park hoppers but we are planning on visiting every park for four days (heading down on Sunday the 13th and heading back up on Friday the 18th-We are in Alabama) I haven't really thought about character meals, I am sure my 8 year old would be in heaven!

Alright I am assuming 2 Adults 2 Kids that are Disney Adults and 1 Child.

The Basic Dining Plan will cost $161.95 per night ($809.75 for your 5 nights).

If you don't plan to eat anay Table Service meals or character meals you can probably feed your family for $120-140 per day. That number assumes you eat 2 counter service meals each day for an average of $10pp each time. The extra $20-40 would be snacks and breakfast items.

The Table Service or character meals are really part of the Disney experience and I'd strongly suggest you book at least 1 or two of those. You have to decide how you want to eat. What you can afford and pick a dining strategy. My family really appreciated the flexibility of the DP, enjoyed our meals and loved having it pre paid (ie. price was of little concern).
 
Hi Everyone, I am new to this site and this is our families first trip to Disney World.

I would not recommend the Dining Plan for a first trip unless you get it for free which will not happen in July.

The Dining Plan will definitely pay for itself if you eat in a Table Service restaurant every day but to do this you need to plan in advance and book all of your table service meals. This is very difficult to do as a first timer.

I would recommend you skip the Dining Plan for your first trip. Pick one TS meal, something like Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom and book that now. Eat counter service for a few dinners and maybe offsite for one meal.

Next trip when you have some experience you can go for the Dining Plan.
 
I was doing the same thing you are about 3 weeks ago. We have 2 adults, 1 child (adult ) and one child (child).

We have 6 nights. My oldest (16) is very excited because I have informed her that since we are doing this she can order whatever off of the adult menu. Usually we go, and she gravitates to the expensive and we are like - uh NO!!! So, she is pretty happy. However, at the age of your children, this might not be as big a deal. And they might prefer to eat off of the kids. However, if you go to a buffet... at their age they will be required to pay adult, despite their lack of eating, so the DDP would really benefit then.

We plan to do approximately one table service a day (givie or take). When we are going at the parks, it makes it nice to know that for one hour or so, we will be sitting in an air conditioned place and relaxing. This is especially true if it is the middle of summer and if you are NOT going to park hop. You will want to sit down and relax. Characters adds to it. Park-hopping, well, typically people go back to the hotel for a couple of hours and rejuvinate, so maybe not as important as this. We are park hopping though, and still do this. I just like the idea of one relazed (or relatively) cool meal.

Passporters has some numbers in their book. Counter service - average price is 12.50, Table Service between 33 and 40 for dinner. So for your average adult size person, if you do a Table Service and a Snack (less than 4$) on average, you get a free Counter Service Meal a day.

If you do only Counter Service, then it doesn't pay I don't think. That has been my calculations.

For kids it actually pays a LOT better than that if you do a buffet TS meal a day. Essentially everything after that is paid for.
 
I would not recommend the Dining Plan for a first trip unless you get it for free which will not happen in July.

The Dining Plan will definitely pay for itself if you eat in a Table Service restaurant every day but to do this you need to plan in advance and book all of your table service meals. This is very difficult to do as a first timer.

I would recommend you skip the Dining Plan for your first trip. Pick one TS meal, something like Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom and book that now. Eat counter service for a few dinners and maybe offsite for one meal.

Next trip when you have some experience you can go for the Dining Plan.

I really don't agree with this. Everyone has to eat while at Disney. Even w/o parkhoppers this family could plan TS meals. Possibly try one at their park of the day or any resort. They'll spend money to eat either way. If TS is part of their vacation plan the DP can really help their budget.

Now, I am right along with you for choosing Deluxe vs Basic DP for first timers. Too much time away from park activities in trying to fit in 2-3 meals daily.

Last year I was kind of a first timer: first time on site, first multi day visit, first time to AK and first DP experience. DP really enhanced our stay. It was not a pain plan meals, make ADRs and follow through with those ADRs once we were there. We cancelled one ADR while there and were quite late on another (thank goodness they still took care of us). My mother wasn't a first timer at all, but had never had the DP: she absolutely loved having the plan.

My suggestions/comments for a TS at any park:
MK: Crystal Palace (B, L or D)
Epcot: Coral Reef, not too babyish for your "cool" kids
Animal Kingdom: We ate after leaving the park, took a very short bus ride to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and had dinner at Boma, loved it
Disney Hollywood Studios: We ate at Hollywood & Vine, many on these boards don't like it, it was just fine for us; Sci Fi or 50's are others to consider

Resort Restaurants
Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Fantastic character meal for the whole family, close to MK (Breakfast or Dinner)

There are plenty of others, but I'll stick to those I've been to or plan for our next trip.
 
It's not necessarily about how much your kids eat, it's about where do you want to eat. If you want to do the character meals and sit down food once a day, then you can't beat the dining plan.

I know some people don't do the restaraunts, due to cost and time, but for us, if we are going to do the trip, we are goign to enjoy the whole thing and that includes eating at fun places and not always having counter service (which isn't cheap either) or eating at the hotel.

But, everyone is different!
 
You can certainly eat cheaper at WDW than the daily total for the Dining Plan. We've done it many times. The question is whether doing it cheaper is how your family wants to eat on this vacation. On most of our trips, we ate only CS - no TS meals at all. We usually shared CS meals, as there's a lot of food. We'd share one soda between two people, because it was enough. We don't generally eat dessert (included on the DP). And we'd spend more on snacks for the kids than the DP allows (meaning we'd have additional OOP cost if we were on the DP). We did not eat this way to save money, as we could easily afford the DP or to eat every meal at a TS restaurant. We did it because we didn't feel the need to overeat and we preferred to focus on rides and attractions, not food, and wanted the flexibility of not picking where we would eat a particular meal until we were hungry and ready to eat that meal. On our upcoming trip in November, we're considering the DP because we're planning a trip where we'll check out some of the more popular WDW restaurants and focus on decorations, dining and the little things rather than the rides and attractions, which we've done over a dozen times. I ran the numbers and based on eating in those restaurants, the DP will save us money. The only reason we're considering the DP is because we ARE changing the way we eat on this trip. Consider how you want to eat, run the numbers and the answer will probably become obvious.
 
We liked using the DDP on our first trip. I determined that it was worth it for us because there were certain TS meals I knew we wanted to do. When I added up the cost of those meals - it was about the same as the DDP. And with the DDP I was going to get snacks and CS with it! So for our plans, it made sense.

If you are not interested in doing many sit-down meals, it may not be worth it to you. You may be better off to just pay as you go.
 
We went with the dining plan last visit and I will not be doing it again. I don't think we really got our moneys worth and it was a pain to have to find restaurants that were part of the dining plan.
 
I think it has everything to do with your families style. We bring lunches and snacks with us into the parks and only do a couple of sit down meals a trip. Part of this is about cost, part about convenience. Take into consideration the work involved also in booking the trips worth of table service ADR's. You pretty much have to know many months in advance exactly what park your going to be in on every day (if your going to do TS in parks). There are ways around it. You can eat at the resorts after leaving your park for the day, or eat and go back.
 
We wrestled with whether we would continue doing the dining plan again and we all voted yes. It really does make it a lot easier. We did not do the dining plan for several years. We used to bring food and eat counter services etc. When the dining plan started several years ago (I think they had something like it before, but we did not know about it) it really enhanced our experience by adding character meals. (My husband gets so grumpy when he has to pay over $100 for table service, so we never went before the dining plan:) When I prepay them with the plan he doesn't really notice and enjoys the experience.

The one thing that I would suggest is that you go ahead and make your reservations so that you can be assured the table services that you want.

There is also a really good thread around that includes the confirmed snacks for 2008. I think it is really helpful.

For us, we do several charater meals ~ we feel that they add a lot to the trip. We like to hit the parks early and usually schedule table service dinners around 5:00. Our favorites table services are ~ Crystal Palace, Ohana, 1900 Park Faire, Chef Mickey's, and Coral Reef.

Whatever you decide. I know you will have a WONDERFUL time at Disney!
 
We are going on a short stay this June, 3 days and 2 nights. We decided to do the deulxe plan, not for 2TS meals, just to have enough meals for the 3 days. We get in at 8:30 in the AM the day we arrive. We plan on eating 2 meals a day. It is going to be so hot in June, that we thought inside will be more relaxing at the park.
Our MK day, we are eating at the Plaza for lunch and Tony's for a late dinner.

Plus i like the idea of having it paid for before we get there.
 
OP, go to www.allearsnet.com and check out the menus for the restaurants. You should be able to figure out where you want to eat and what your family is most likely to order. That can help you decide if you want to pay cash or choose the dining plan.

One suggestion would be to make a reservation for mid-afternoon, and just have a snack, i.e Sci-Fi Dine In at MGM. You could book for 2:30-3:30 and just have milkshakes and fries/onion rings or an ice cream sundae. It would give you the opportunity to sit down in air-conditioned comfort for a little break mid-day without having the expense of a full service meal. The Sunshine Grill at Epcot is all counter service, but has several options to choose from and all inside in airconditioning. There are lots of great options for having a cooling break (which you will need in July!)

I would consider parkhoppers because it will be very hot and crowded (Animal Kingdom will be the worst!) and you might want to have a little break in the afternoon and go to a less crowded park. Lots of people recommend one of the following strategies:

1) Either take advantage of the park with the extra magic hour in the morning, get there early when it is cooler and then head to a different park when the crowds get really bad (around 11:00 - 12:00.) OR

2) Avoid the park with early entry, and instead, go to the park that had Extra Magic Hours the night before. For example, if MK had extra magic hours on Monday night, then go to MK on Tuesday at park opening. The folks who were there late the night before will either be sleeping, or enjoying whichever park that has the extra hour on Tuesday mornigng.

In any event, I think that since you only have 4 full park days and it is your first visit, you will want the flexibility of being able to "cut and run" if a particular park is too hot and crowded for you to enjoy.

I am certain that I will be in the minority here, but I would also suggest that since you will have your own vehicle, you drive yourselves to the parks (parking is free for onsite guests anyway). If you are hot, tired and cranky you will want to get to the airconditioned comfort of your own vehicle and get on your way quickly, instead of waiting in the heat for a bus, and probably having to stand anyway. If you or hubby need or want to leave with one of the kids (illness, fatigue, meltdown, whatever) you could still split up easily and use the busses/monorail then.
 


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