Will basic dining plan be enough?

[tmccullough]

Ok... so we did the basic dining plan in 07 and it was plenty of food because there was an appetizer included... I'm wondering now with appy not included, do you feel full? DH & I are not Pooh sized by any means and I'm not too worried at the buffets because you can eat until the cows come home, but what about places like Coral Reef or 50's Prime-Time? I know I can pay OOP for an appy but I really am trying to save money... hmmmm.

 

[MyCathryn]

We normally dont order an app so I am not concerned with not having it. We dont normally eat dessert either but I am happy to eat that there. LOL. I would say see how it goes. You can always eat another snack before dinner. 4 bucks is cheaper than an 8 dollar app.

 

[Faldred]

It's a pretty subjective question. The best answer might simply be to try it -- if the DDP saves you money over OOP costs not including appetizers, then adding the appetizer OOP when you feel like it is a wash.

If you find you're getting enough food without the appy, then there's no extra cost at all. If you aren't, then it really doesn't matter if your DDP or OOP in the first place, right?

 

[disney4us2002]

We haven't tried it yet as we're going in June. In our planning however, my dh and teen sons think it is NOT enough as they are concerned about only 2 meals. I have a feeling we will be paying out of pocket for some resort bkfts and/or extra snacks. I suppose I can't really complain about that though since we got a pin for free dining so we're aren't paying for the DDP for five of us for 10 days!!!!

 

[cdrn1]

We have done it both with and without apps, and with the apps it was WAAAAAAAAAY too much food for us (and I love to eat!) and without, it was still too much. So really, still worth it for us.

 

[septbaby]

I know I can pay OOP for an appy but I really am trying to save money... hmmmm.

Will you need $30 per night per adult and $10 per child in appetizers?

Someday I hope to do the Deluxe Plan, but now is not the time for my wallet either.

 

[caroline1851]

I found that at each meal it certainly was enough food because i found most portions to be on the larger size. Sometimes we didn't order dessert because we were full. but...we still had to spend money oop for snacks,. etc.
For example, if we had Pepper Market CS breakfast at 8am and then a dinner adr at 6p, well, one snack in those 10 hours certainly wasn't enough. We paid $600 for the ddp and got $800 worth of food. OOP expenses were an additional $150 (for dh, me, ds6 and dd2)

 

[Tiger926]

As others have stated, it all depends upon how you eat. If you snack a lot during the day and fill up on junk food like pop, chips and ice cream, then you might not eat a lot for your meals, and you might be ok. If you eat 3 meals a day, with limited snacks (and the snacks you eat are fruit, juice, water, with an occasional ice cream, etc.), then you might find it's not enough food. This is us - we usually have to supplement OOP when on the regular DP (we've only done it 1x as we don't prefer CS as much, but it is starting to grow on us).

We struggle with low blood sugar, and so we eat 3 meals per day with healthy snacks, as mentioned above, plus we have allergies/sensitivites. We aren't huge breakfast eaters, but we find that counter service isn't quite enough as we don't drink pop and we can't eat many desserts. For this reason, we really like the Deluxe plan as we can pick and choose what we are going to eat or not eat, but 3 TS is just a bit much as we normally eat 2 TS meals per day while at Disney - sometimes we eat in room for breakfast so this helps.

It really depends upon how you eat, but we don't find that Disney serves huge portions and that there is tons of food as you don't have to order everything. For us, the regular DP isn't quite enough - we would love to see a 2 TS Dining Plan.

Good discussion. Happy eating, Tiger

 

[Tara922c]

We are doing the basic dining plan, but are paying for 3 extra meals out of pocket. It may be only 2 extra meals, because after driving for 16 hours with a 2 year old, I am not sure I am going to be up to going for a sit down meal on our first night. I did the math, and after paying oop for 3 extra meals, we would still have to pay almost 200 more dollars for the deluxe dining plan. I thought about upgrading it, and after making a plan, I would still have 5 TS credits left over, plus 2 snacks a day. I know there is no way that we would be able to eat that much. I think we are better off sticking to the regular plan. There is only a few places that we are eating where I might want an appitizer, and we will probably just share one. I think if you have big appitites you may have to pay for more food. If you are looking to save money, I would stick to the basic plan, and pay OOP for a few CS meals. If budget isn't an issue, then I would upgrade to the deluxe.

 

[wishtdream]

We use the basic plan and we like it. We also bring breakfast foods and familiar snacks with us for during the day. We have only left 2 restaurants hungry and both on the same trip back when the app was included, those were CRT and Coral Reef. We also had snack credits left at the end which we used to bring home a little extra magic in the form of Mickey lolie pops for the kids. We do not like the QS plan as we like a sit down meal each day. We are 2A and 2C.

 

[maverick61]

We rarely snack during the day - in the past I used to use a snack credit buying a big box of donuts we would share for breakfast but alas Disney has eliminated that option.

because we don't snack between meals, the old plan with appetizers for dinner was just enough food. The exact right amount. The new plan without appetizers will not be enough food but I plan to pay OOP for some apps at certain meals. I do wish though they would bring back the appetizers for the DDP - or give you a choice between apps and dessert. We could always delay dessert til late that night and use a snack credit - can't do that with appetizers

 

[kcashner]

We had the basic DDP, and still had WAY too much food. The only thing that I bought separately was 1/2 gallon of milk, and I brought a bowl of DD's favorite cereal along (we had a fridge).

In fact, we had extra snack credits left as we were getting ready to leave, so we went to the Boardwalk Bakery and got some munchies for the car trip home.