Who else hates the Dining Plan

[MICKEEP]

Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that the MYW DP saves money but I hate having to make ADR's so far in advance and for each and every meal.
Dining has always been an important part of my families experience at WDW. We always, even before the DP, ate at one TS per day. We loved the spontaneity of waking up in the morning, calling Disney Dining, and seeing which restaurants were available for that evening. And then planning our day around that. Or even just walking into a restaurant and seeing if they had a table available right then. I recall once walking up to the podium at Cindys in the Castle, without an ADR, and getting a table for nine after just a ten minute wait.

I would give up the money saving feature of the DP, in a minute, to regain the spontaneity we used to love so much.

 

[Tiger926]

Spontaneity may work for you, but for those of us with health issues: low blood sugar, Diabetes, etc. who need to eat on a regular basis, too many spontaneous people always means that people have to wait a long time to be seated, or be turned away. This causes a health problem for me since I'm Hypoglycemic, so we love being able to walk up and be seated as our ressies have been made well in advance. Also, just the mere fact that you have thousands upon thousands of people all trying to eat at the same places on the same day, necessitates ADRs.

Since I am so not a spontaneous person, I love the Dining Plan and being able to make ADRs so early. We go to WDW to enjoy ourselves - and eating is a big part of our vacation (we pretty much only do TS - so counter service on DP is a new thing for us!), so waiting around in lines, and stressing about which restaurants have tables open costs us precious vacation time.

Love ADRs! Tiger

Tiger

 

[formernyer]

I love the DDP. I don't care about being spontaneous at all and I wouldn't eat at any of the TS restaurants if the DDP didn't exist.

 

[bicker]

I also don't care much about spontaneity. In a way, one of the biggest problems with WDW is that it is so large, and so vast, and there are so many dependencies between various aspects, that it is difficult to know what is best to do. Having some measure of planning, if even just knowing once per day that you're going to be at a certain restaurant at a certain time, helps cut through a lot of the dependencies and makes planning the rest of the trip so much easier.

 

[swimmom]

I hate it because I think it really encourages gluttony. I am not a health nut, excersize fiend etc... Just an average mom with average kids and I can't tell you the number of times during our last trip I saw families struggling through dessert "becasue they paid for it already" - its crazy. How many posts do we see with people figuring out ways to stock up on rice krispy treats becasue they
have snack credits!!

 

[bntlyclg89]

I have to agree with swimmom here, we did the DDP last year on our honeymoon and decided this year NOT to do it. Yes, we saved money but it was way too much food---and trust me me and DH are not health nuts!

This year we have made ADR's (which we did previously) and that's fine but we will be able to just order dinner (no app/dessert) if we want to and not think we are losing money if we don't.

This is the decision we made for us and our needs. For others, especially those who want to know with certainty the cost the plan is great!

Happy Dining Everyone!

 

[Spook]

Slightly off topic - I am having huge difficulties getting my family to agree on just one TS meal at Disney as we are staying offsite and just grab something for lunch and eat dinner elsewhere. Reading about everyones ADRs is freaking me out because I reckon by the time I get round to phoning everything is going to be booked up

 

[ZerasPride]

I'm so glad to see this post! I thought me and DH were all alone in not thinking the dining plan was so great. Between us both, we have lost over 150 pounds and with our current style of eating, we would never eat an appetizer, meal and dessert at any restaurant here at home so I know we would not on vacation. We voted down the dining plan for our upcoming trip for the potential gluttony factor. I know if I "paid" for an appy, entree and dessert, I would be tempted to order all that food and then feel bad if I didn't eat it all. I could just see myself coming back from vacation either heavier than before I left or at the very least I fear I could be setting myself up for some bad habits when I get back home.

I also have figured out our food budget to come out about even with the dining plan considering we are DVCers and can utilize the kitchen some (but not too much) while on vacation.

We are also traveling with another family and I was thinking it might be a bit of a hassle to have to deal with the dining plan, all those credits, six people and two families. I could just see a problem if we do things separate and the other family didn't quite understand the plan and used some of our credits. Yikes. They are good friends of ours and I would hate to see a tiff over "you used some of our TS credits", "no you used some of our TS credits". It might not happen but being the annal person that I am, I just as soon not have the headache. I have several days planned with no TS ADRs at all. We don't mind counter service for dinner a couple of nights to save a bit of money. I think this program is great if it fits your family's needs. This trip, I just don't think it will fit ours.

Edited to add: pumba - I totally agree with your comment below. I am pretty concerned that all the TS restaurants will be booked up with people using the plan so I made sure to get us TS ADR's when and where I knew we would probably need them. I'm not much of an "on the fly" type of person and don't want to be disappointed that we have no where to eat if it came down to it.

 

[pumba]

Just a heads up. I tried to be spontanious this year also. AND>.........NOT a sit down restaurant that we wanted to eat at could be found. We ended up one night being able to get ressies at Biergarten. We always have been able to call dining in the morning and say is such and such a place available and just get in where it is just my husband and myself.
So if you are going ........call and make reservations. Whether you are on the dining plan or not. Call ahead of time .......we could not even get to Le Cellier for our one and a half week vacation unless we went at one thirty pm.....

 

[crisi]

It isn't the loss of spontenatity that I hate - we always made ADRs in advance anyway. Its that all the restaurants have gotten overcrowded, that Disney Dining is overbooking them knowing there will be no shows. And, because meals where the appitizer and dessert are included take longer than meals where the diners get an entree and then have a Mickey Bar in the park for dessert, the logistics aren't good. IMO, Disney is overselling the dining plan. They need fewer dining plan guests, or more restaurants.

 

[Mackey Mouse]

Count me in for spontaneity.....I am not a planner, which is unusual for a Capricorn person, but I just like to go where the day takes me.. There are a lot of reasons for this, life is too short to just plan everything to the absolute minute...so I too am feeling the crunch of the plan. I am an AP holder so I do have the Disney Dining Adventure and am also a DVC person so I am not going to be doing the dining plan......I am feeling the squeeze from the plan.

 

[Mommy Poppins]

I don't mind making the ADR's as I always plan out the meals in advance anyway so that we're not waiting an hour to eat with 3 hungry, whiney kids. But having just come back from our two week trip with the dining plan--we wouldn't do it again--unless it was free. It was way, way too much food. My DH is one of those people who feels that "we paid for it, we have to eat it". But it was just so much food, dessert, etc. that we wasted a lot of stuff. When we checked out we had 10 counter service meals (5 people) and 8 snacks left. We ended up getting a counter service for each of us and water/chips to use up the snacks and taking them along to the airport. So, we still wasted 5 counterservice meals.

Luckily for me, I came home having lost 2 lbs. My DH, on the other hand, gained 10!!!

 

[superdiz]

I love it.

 

[Christine]

Well, I've never done the dining plan because I stay at Shades of Green which is just too good of a deal to pass up.

But, I have to say that the dining plan definitely impacts me with the extra crowds in the Disney restaurants (which is, afterall, their goal). I found that I waited longer to be seated than in the past and that, if on my trip, I wanted to make a dining change, I couldn't. And that was last year before it was as popular as it is now. I will never do the dining plan and will always be paying but, on my next trip, I will NOT be happy having to make ressies 180 days out. Heck, I may not even plan my trip 180 days out.

Dining is a huge part of my experience but I don't want to have to plan it 6 months in advance. If I cannot get into the restaurants I want within a REASONABLE time frame (and I think 90 days is reasonable) then I may have to rethink future trips.

 

[Ardenne]

A suggestion, for those of you with credits left over at the end of your trip -- treat a family to a snack with your leftover snack credits, or offer to 'pay' for the people behind you in line at a counterservice, or some such. It's a great way to spread the Disney magic I think we really made one family's day last year when we 'paid' for their lunch!

 

[DizGeek]

Count me in as one who loves the dining plan. We always make reservations anyway so a spontaneous meal is irrelavant...we find that scheduling our meals is another part of the fun. Also, the dining plan is fairly new, you cant blame that on the wait...theres always been a wait for dining at Disney if you dont have reservations...unless you decide to eat at 3pm.

If you go to Disney, expect a wait....for anything.

 

[melomouse]

I agree with you about the loss of spontaneity, but I'll let you know how it goes with our upcoming trip using DDP for the first time.

Last fall's trip, DDP resulted in crowded restaurants, overwhelmed CM's having even those with ADR's waiting and NO walk-in's anywhere - at least where we were - but Disney's able to fill up those restaurants and resorts now with the plan, so it makes sound business sense.

I, too, suspect it's WAAAY too much food - and I'm an eater - but, again, we'll see....
There's a down side and an upside for every new offer - this one is a bigger one than most, and the full impact maybe hasn't even been felt yet. I think it's good that some are recognizing that going for the DDP is just not in their family's best interests, instead of manipulating the plan every which way to force it to work for every possible scenario!

 

[Christine]

Count me in as one who loves the dining plan. We always make reservations anyway so a spontaneous meal is irrelavant...we find that scheduling our meals is another part of the fun. Also, the dining plan is fairly new, you cant blame that on the wait...theres always been a wait for dining at Disney if you dont have reservations...unless you decide to eat at 3pm.

If you go to Disney, expect a wait....for anything.

I was talking about a wait WITH ADRs. I used to just walk up at my alloted time and I was always, always seated right away (it helps that I dine early). Not so last year, even with early dining ADRs, I often sat 15-30 minutes waiting to be seated. That was last summer.

 

[NeedaVacation03]

I am really looking forward to using the plan. I like to plan everything out and have everything paid in advance so this works great for me. I was able to get a DING on southwest lowering my airfare so I was able to buy my sister a plane ticket with my credit, then thanks to priceline I was able to get her a room at ASM for $36.a night. So we are now going to pay for her meals using our dining plan. It seems like so much food that we figure we will have more than enough for everyone. I was also able to call and get most of our ADR"S changed to include 7 people- even Cindy's castle for lunch. So I think the pixie dust was working big time on this one. My sister is very excited about her surprise trip to Disney( she has never been) and I am excited to be able to take her with us.
And before anyone says anything, we ARE going to tip based on 7 people in our party. We are not going to expect extra work for the same $$. Our wait staff will be taken care of

 

[superdiz]

I gained 10 lbs on the dining plan in 10 days. That 1 lb/day. This time, I am not getting all of the desserts! lol