Which Dining Plan?

[DKFamily]

We are planning a trip - me, DH, DS (7) and DD (5) to DW at the end of April 2011 and are staying at the Beach Club. Still deciding if the Dining Plan is worth it. Any input? Also, if it is worth it, which plan is best? Thanks.

 

[disneystick]

Do you like to preplan your meals and make res. in advance or do you prefer to just wing it?

QS gets you 2 QS meals plus 2 snacks and a refillable mug, no res required.
Vs. Basic D, 1 CS and 1 TS and just one snack, but you do need ADR

I would imagine the Deluxe plan would be too much food for your liitle ones, but hey if you want 3 meals a day and it also come with apptizers and a refillable mugs and 2 snacks.....GO for it. Recommend ADR on most of your meals for this plan too.

We did the Basic plan and it worked well with my kids and 6 yr old niece. But then again they had no problem sitting longer for dinner at a TS and enjoying the dinner after walking all day at the parks.

 

[mjp12831]

For July 10 trip, I priced the DDP out based on where our ADR's are for the TS using an average meal cost for that place, and figured in $3 per snack credit and $8 per cs (2 adults, 3 kids).

Our ts (all dinner except where noted) were: Momma Melrose, Donal'ds Safari Breakfast, 1900 Park Fare, Akershaus, LeCelier, Chef Mickey's, Boma. These are more expensive per plate, then most 1 ts places on property.

Cost oop for this would have been $1,427 - the dining plan added $930 to our trip. That's a 34% savings over cost.

In 09 we did DxDP - I didn't price that out, but I doubt the savings was this high - we used 2ts credits for dinner and ended up eating at some cs lunches, so I dont think Dx would price out to as much of a "value".