Dining plan questions

[jp19ml13]

Hello everyone,

My now wife and I recently got married and are taking a Honeymoon trip back to our special place. We are planning on going to Disney World in late January and are very new to the idea of the dining plan. We have been to the World numerous times, but we have never done the dining plan. It always seemed like the dining plan was more than the two of us would spend on food. We are not huge dining specialists as in we don't really do the high end table service restaurants and tend to eat more are the quick service locations. With this time being our Honeymoon trip and now with the discounts they are offering for the "Stay, Play, and Dine" promotion we are very much considering doing one of the dining plans. One question we have is it worth it to upgrade from the regular dining plan to the deluxe dining plan which gives us more credits to use in a day? I have a feeling that if we did do the deluxe dining plan we would eat at more table service spots since we have the credits to use. It is just a hard call. The regular dining plan is costing us about $700 and I have yet to get a quote back from our travel agent as to what the exact difference in price would be to do the deluxe plan. Another question we have is that is it easy to use the dining plan credits? I know there are some exclusions where and on what you can use the credits on like alcohol based drinks, but we do not drink so that wouldn't be an issue for us. Thanks in advance for the help it is greatly appreciated.

Justin and Megan
Married 9/21/13

 

[kasey1988]

We were also married September 21 this year and just got back from our honeymoon in disney!

We personally really enjoy the dining plan, and where it was our honeymoon it was nice to have sit down meals to unwind from the day, we did the flying fish (amazing!) and used 2 credits so we had one day with no meal (a day to relax with no pressure to be anywhere at a certain time).

We had free dining , and I added up our receipts , we would of paid $1200+ (for 11 nights) without the ddp. It is also very convenient to have your meals payed for before going, we didn't have to worry about what we were going to eat and what it was going to cost as it was already taken care of.

The deluxe dining plan is a lot of food. We had the regular (1qs, 1ts and 1 snack ) and were always full!

It's very easy to use your credits, snacks are clearly labled and the cast members are great at letting you know what each meal includes. However you may have trouble getting your first choice of dining if you haven't booked already for those..there wasn't really any limitations we came across in the restaurants either, you pretty much can order anything, except alcohol or meals that are labled for more then one person..some places even allow you to get milkshakes instead of soda

You can always look at menus online to and add up what you think you might spend to see if it is worth it for you

 

[Rob562]

I did a calculation of the regular DDP vs the Deluxe DDP a few years ago for my travel party based on how *we* would use the Deluxe DDP, namely doubling-up credits to eat at a Signature restaurant for dinner almost every night, a mix of Table and Counter service for lunches and using a Snack to grab a quick breakfast.

After crunching all the numbers, it came out to be a wash (i.e. it didn't save us any money). We would've gotten back almost the exact amount in food that we would've paid to upgrade the DDP to the Deluxe DDP. It also would have been a LOT of food and a LOT of time spent at Table and Signature restaurants.

You also have to be aware that since each meal credit can be used for either a Table or a Counter Service meal, the more times you use a credit to grab a counter service meal, the worse of a deal it is.

We ended up *not* going with the Deluxe.

Though like I said, those numbers were crunched a good 4 or 5 years ago. Things may have changed since then.

-Rob

 

[jp19ml13]

Thanks for the replies. I am thinking we are just gonna do the regular dining plan seems it would work best for us. Kasey1988 that's crazy that we both got married on the same day! Hope you had a good time on your honeymoon .

 

[Weather_Lady]

Congratulations on your wedding! I was also married on September 21st... back in 2002.