Will I benefit from the Dining package? What are the advantages/disadvantages?

[lisabees]

There will be 4 adults/4 kids (ages 3, 7, 10, 13). Only the youngest two will want to eat off of the kids menu.

Is having the packages too limiting, as far as the number of restaurants/kinds of food etc?

We like good food when on vacation.

Lisa

 

[deide71]

If you like good food you will love the dining plan. There are many restaurants to choose from, so I doubt you will feel limited. The only caveat I would add is with the ages of you kids two of them will pay the adult rate of 38/day.

 

[PottersMom]

I can not say enough times how crazy i am about the dinning plan! Practically every restaurant in the parks is on the plan- i can't think of one that isn't Plus restaurants at many resorts and even in DTD. Plus you get tons of food! Every person gets and app, entree and desert at Table service, you even get desserts at counter service meals. Plus, your meals are grouped together, so although you pay less for teh kids under 9- its still the same # of counter, table service and snacks. So , If you wanted to, you could pay cash for whatever the little kids order, and use Their table service meals with your own for a "signature" dinning or character breakfast., (just make sure the waiter knows what you are doing before you order). PLUS drinks and tax AND tip are included- so already you shave 25% off your dinning budget. It's really a lot of fun trying out all the different restaurants. Kids love the San Angel Inn in Epcot- its just about the only thing I remember from my first trip to WDW.

 

[pat fan]

Just my 2 cents here. We have never used the dining plan but I was considering it for our upcoming trip so I did a little research.

I went to Deb Will's site and priced out the usual food we eat in a day, plus added on stuff we don't normaly eat so it was on the high $$$ side, and it was still cheaper NOT to be on the dining plan! Now, you may eat differently than we do and it would be a good deal for you. My suggestion is to price out what you think you will eat, round up a little and see where you stand.

 

[indigoxtreme]

Its only cheaper not to be on the dining plan if you don't eat. If you want to eat good and have a TS a CS and a snack per day you cannot go wrong. If you always take lunch and breakfast food with you to the rooms and fix this for your family then you will not benefit from the DP. We take a few breakfast items for part of the days and share a few CS's for lunch and breakfast, you can also use the snack options for fruit, donuts etc so this can add to the shared CS meals for 2 or more. Go to allears net and price out the meals you want to eat. Don't forget the DP has tax and 18% gratuity already included. OOP you have to include the tax and gratuity. We have had the DP 3 times now 2 free and 1 OOP, I will not go back without it. When my children were young we never could afford to eat at the TS restaurants in WDW now my DGD and older children can enjoy this. We had to eat Breakfast and Lunch in the room and then maybe a counter meal or offsite meal. GO FOR THE DDP

 

[dance2874]

We recently booked our trip and I added the dining plan. I dont normally eat really well when we go to places like this...but being that it will be my daughters first trip and she is 4, I KNOW we will want to do alot of character meals. So if you were to pay for those OOP, one of them would be close to the price for a full day of food on the dining plan.

I think it depends on you and your family. If you want to do any character meals or really nice table meals, than I think it is really worth the cost. And I love the fact that I relaly will not have to worry about paying for much more than our souveneirs when we are there. I think it will help us enjoy it a bit more not having to worry about how much we are spending per day on food.

 

[Linda 441]

I can not say enough times how crazy i am about the dinning plan! Practically every restaurant in the parks is on the plan- i can't think of one that isn't Plus restaurants at many resorts and even in DTD. Plus you get tons of food! Every person gets and app, entree and desert at Table service, you even get desserts at counter service meals. Plus, your meals are grouped together, so although you pay less for teh kids under 9- its still the same # of counter, table service and snacks. So , If you wanted to, you could pay cash for whatever the little kids order, and use Their table service meals with your own for a "signature" dinning or character breakfast., (just make sure the waiter knows what you are doing before you order). PLUS drinks and tax AND tip are included- so already you shave 25% off your dinning budget. It's really a lot of fun trying out all the different restaurants. Kids love the San Angel Inn in Epcot- its just about the only thing I remember from my first trip to WDW.

Are you suggesting that you pay for kids meals and use them for adults meals?

 

[kath1210]

Are you suggesting that you pay for kids meals and use them for adults meals?

Let's not start THAT debate again!

 

[Linda 441]

Sorry, as you can see, I'm new here and didn't realize it was and "old" debate. I was simply appalled at the suggestion and had hoped I had misunderstood to original poster.

 

[JayCT]

Whether the Dining Plan is worth it or not depends on your circumstances. We did it on our January trip and we amazed at how much food it involved, however, I question whether it really paid for itself because we had to pay an adult price for the plan for my 10 year old son who ate off the childrens menu all the time. I believe we paid $37.50 per day for my son. DW and I ate well but we had a few counter service credits and a lot of snacks credits left over. We used them to bring home microwave popcorn packages that we are still using. I am not sure if we will be adding the Dining Plan to our August trip. DW and I will need to discuss it further. Jay

 

[Linda 441]

Whether the Dining Plan is worth it or not depends on your circumstances. We did it on our January trip and we amazed at how much food it involved, however, I question whether it really paid for itself because we had to pay an adult price for the plan for my 10 year old son who ate off the childrens menu all the time. I believe we paid $37.50 per day for my son. DW and I ate well but we had a few counter service credits and a lot of snacks credits left over. We used them to bring home microwave popcorn packages that we are still using. I am not sure if we will be adding the Dining Plan to our August trip. DW and I will need to discuss it further. Jay

That's the key...how you use it. My kids - 10 & 13 - will be "adults" and both can eat more than me. For us, we will eat more sit down meals at pricier places than we would have not being on the plan, but our overall food budget will only be slightly higher than without the plan. So for us, it is worth it. If I had 2 kids that were small eaters, than maybe not.

 

[kath1210]

Sorry, as you can see, I'm new here and didn't realize it was and "old" debate. I was simply appalled at the suggestion and had hoped I had misunderstood to original poster.

No offense intended at all. It's a sore subject here, and leads to lots of nasty posts. Some do it, some would never do it, some say the CMs have suggested that they do it, etc.

 

[eliza61]

My family is the abnormal group that goes to disney. We are foodies (comes from growing up in the restaurant business) so we never eat CS (definitely do a sit down lunch and dinner each day). Also since my children are teenagers (sons) they is no way we can share any thing. I'm always envious of dissers who say they can split a meal with their children, I'd have a mutiny on my hands . On the Dining plan we would use up all our table services very quickly and still have to pay much OOP. Also my husband and I do like an occasional beer or wine with our dinner. So for us, it was more cost effective for me to get a DDE card. This give me 20% off my total bill including adult beverages just about every restaurant. Much more cost effective for us.

 

[Linda 441]

My family is the abnormal group that goes to disney. We are foodies (comes from growing up in the restaurant business) so we never eat CS (definitely do a sit down lunch and dinner each day). Also since my children are teenagers (sons) they is no way we can share any thing. I'm always envious of dissers who say they can split a meal with their children, I'd have a mutiny on my hands . On the Dining plan we would use up all our table services very quickly and still have to pay much OOP. Also my husband and I do like an occasional beer or wine with our dinner. So for us, it was more cost effective for me to get a DDE card. This give me 20% off my total bill including adult beverages just about every restaurant. Much more cost effective for us.

We're actually going to use both. We know we'll need more food than the DDP so we'll use the DDE card for the rest. My kids can't share meals either - My 13 year old can eat two himself! Heck, sometimes my 10 year old daughter can (and does!) eat 2 kids meals at Applebees! I'd also have a mutiny!

 

[Natalya]

You can only get a DDE card if you are an AP, correct?

I was thinking about getting one but since this will be our only Disney trip for a while I don't think I can justify paying for the AP just to get the DDE.

 

[Linda 441]

You can only get a DDE card if you are an AP, correct?

I was thinking about getting one but since this will be our only Disney trip for a while I don't think I can justify paying for the AP just to get the DDE.

Yes, you can only get the DDE card if you have an AP (or if you are a Florida resident).

 

[mmmears]

We thought we were big eaters (but dont ususally get appetizers and desserts each -- maybe one to share). We eat wherever we please (usually at least one sit-down per day). When we looked at the menus and priced things out the DDP did not make sense for our family. Too much food and too much money. If you eat that much food each day anyway, it probably is a good deal. Only you can decide -- check out the menus, prices, etc. and see what you think. We found the DDE to be much more cost effective for us.

 

[IDoDis]

The DDP is soooo worth it! I wouldn't go again w/out it. Had we eaten w/ out the dining plan it would have looked like this for a family of 4 (2A 2C):

CS Breakfast at resort - $33
CS lunch DH and I share something and the kids get kids meals (no one gets dessert but everyone gets drinks) - $24.00.
Mickey ice cream bar snacks for everyone - $12.00
CS dinner - everyone gets a meal & drink (no dessert), kids get kids meals - $43.00

Total for the day: $112 out of pocket. On at least 2 days, we'd have a character breakfast which would add another $55ish to the total making it $177

Day 1 -5 $112
Day 6&7 $167

Grand total: $834 (7 days) paying on our own, and this only includes 2 sit-down character meals and no appetisers or desserts. All other meals are CS where lunch is shared w/ DH and I.

Now, the dining plan would cost us $600 for the week and we'd get a sit-down meal every day. We'd still have to pay OOP for breakfast, but when on the dining plan, we ate cereal in our room and then had an early lunch. The DDP is more than enough food so we didn't feel deprived by not eating breakfast. However, just to compare apples to apples, if I subtract what we paid for breakfast to make things equal since we wouldn't eat breakfast w/ the dining plan, our cost out of pocket is still higher (would be $703).

You will see that one TS meal is almost double what you pay for one day of the DDP. It is very much worth it and you don't have to skimp and share meals. Also, when you factor in tax & tip, our sit down meals often had a tax and tip of $25 - $28 dollars that we didn't have to pay.

Hope this helps.

 

[laceemouse]

There will be 4 adults/4 kids (ages 3, 7, 10, 13). Only the youngest two will want to eat off of the kids menu.

Is having the packages too limiting, as far as the number of restaurants/kinds of food etc?

We like good food when on vacation.

Lisa

10 and 13 year olds are "adults" at WDW. You will have to pay the adult rate for them and they will not eat off the kids menu. I think having kids this age makes the plan iffy. Paying adult rates for them is not a good deal UNLESS they are really big eaters. That is my delimna as well, 3 of my 4 are "adults" but don't eat that much!