Dining Plan Question

[jcldtrek]

just wanted feedback if ya think its worth it to get the dining plan or not. I'm takin my mother, so its 2 of us in May.we def want to go to 3 restaurants, chef mickeys, biergarten, crystal palace, and possibly a rest in mgm. I could go without brk but she can't so was just contemplating for the xtra cash if its just better to get the plan and then won't have to worry about paying seperately and the food would be paid for already. would appreciate any feedback anyone would have.

 

[DisneyMarg]

just wanted feedback if ya think its worth it to get the dining plan or not. I'm takin my mother, so its 2 of us in May.we def want to go to 3 restaurants, chef mickeys, biergarten, crystal palace, and possibly a rest in mgm. I could go without brk but she can't so was just contemplating for the xtra cash if its just better to get the plan and then won't have to worry about paying seperately and the food would be paid for already. would appreciate any feedback anyone would have.

You'll find LOTS of posts - for and against- in the Dining forum. In summary, I'd say more people are in favor of it than opposed. Those opposed usually say:
1) I can eat more cheaply than $39/day (true, but not as well)
2) It's too much food for us
3) It doesn't fit our eating style (i.e. we only eat table service meals or we never eat table service meals)

We personally love it for these reasons:
1) $39 is a steal for the amount and quality of food you get
2) It enables us to try out more expensive restaurants we would be reluctant to pay for out of pocket
3) Since it is all prepaid, you don't have to wince at the menu prices at every meal.

 

[MPitzen]

The best way to think about this is take and look at the menus on allears.net and add up the prices of the things you would get, add in tip and tax and see how that compares to the $38/per person per night cost of the dining plan. Also remeber that the plan is for the # of nights you are there. It includes 1 table service, 1 counter service, and 1 snack per night. It is only worth it if you eat at the right places, would normally get an appetizer / dessert/ or an expensive meal. Also, if you were planning on doing your TS meals for breakfast it is normally not worth it.

There are dozens of other threads on this topic, if you scroll down five of the most recent will be listed.

 

[swimmom]

One of the reasons why we got the Dining Plan for our next trip is my mother-in-law. We usually eat only a couple of table service meals during our trip and mostly counter sevice meals. But I am hoping that if we do a table service every night that my MIL will get enough of a break to keep going for a few more hours after dinner. If taking a break to sit down and eat dinner is what's going to keep your mom going, then I would say that would be worth it.

 

[Cinderella1976]

Yes I do think the dining plan is worth it. We are a family of five and it saves us so much money and we dine at places we wouldn't normally because it can be expensive. I am a big fan of the dining plan, so I have to say go for it! Have fun :wave:

 

[L Fisher]

My family and I are going to do the dining plan for the very first time this November. When my hubby and two kids went a couple of summers my mom met us there to go to the parks. At several restaurants my mom and I shared an entree and also shared a salad. We had more than enough to eat just by splitting our meal. Basically we both only spent about $12 each for food and drinks. Our meal for instance at Liberty Tree Tavern was about $16 and then a salad on top of that. There really was more than enough. Just tell the server that you are splitting a meal. They will not care. You however cannot split meals with the dining plan. Just think about how much you eat and go from there!!!! HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!:wave:

 

[k.hunter30]

I say it depends on the type of Disney guest you are. Take for example me, and then some good friends of mine:

Me: I love good food. While not very many restaurants on Disney property are four- or five-star quality, it is rather good - especially if you're not used to going to really nice, non-chain restaurants. The the whole environment really adds to the experience as well. For people who don't feel the need to rush all day every day, the DP is VERY worth it. B/c of it, we're going to more nice table-service restaurants than we would have without and we'll be ordering more extravagant things than we would without.

My friends: When they go the WDW, they go for the rides and the characters. The DP wouldn't be worth it to them - the table service would just take up their time.

So I think it depends...

 

[parker kim]

Hi we also debted this in oct. and decided not to but chaged eveything to our room so we could have a print out of what we spent. We only ate 2 table services meal CRTB( was alreay paid for) and OHOHA for dinner the rest counter services and still spent round the same amount as the dinning plan would of cost and I thought a few of our counter meals seemed like real bargins for there. So we will do the dinning plan next time. If your going to eat at table services it would be a big savings.

 

[scan_man]

My Favorite option

every time I have gone down once I learned about the dinning options, I have always gotten the meal plan makes it nice you can go to one of the resturants, select what you want and walk away totally full. Though it was limited how long I could stay back then to 3 nights having to stay at the Moderate and Higher resorts, but was Excited now that they moved the meal packeages to the Value Resorts. Love the Meals and Recreation plan.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

If its a money thing, then yes its value for money.
If its a food thing then no, the menus have reduced choice, venus are busy and theres an increased likelyhood of having tired kids to contend with.

 

[yazmin182]

My family and I are going to do the dining plan for the very first time this November. When my hubby and two kids went a couple of summers my mom met us there to go to the parks. At several restaurants my mom and I shared an entree and also shared a salad. We had more than enough to eat just by splitting our meal. Basically we both only spent about $12 each for food and drinks. Our meal for instance at Liberty Tree Tavern was about $16 and then a salad on top of that. There really was more than enough. Just tell the server that you are splitting a meal. They will not care. You however cannot split meals with the dining plan. Just think about how much you eat and go from there!!!! HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!:wave:

Actually, you are able to split meals if you are on the dining plan. Just as long as it's a regular restaurant and not
1) all you can eat style
2) buffet

Dining plan is great, I will never go without it. It's worry free and 18% tip is included.

 

[yazmin182]

You'll find LOTS of posts - for and against- in the Dining forum. In summary, I'd say more people are in favor of it than opposed. Those opposed usually say:
1) I can eat more cheaply than $39/day (true, but not as well)
2) It's too much food for us
3) It doesn't fit our eating style (i.e. we only eat table service meals or we never eat table service meals)

We personally love it for these reasons:
1) $39 is a steal for the amount and quality of food you get
2) It enables us to try out more expensive restaurants we would be reluctant to pay for out of pocket
3) Since it is all prepaid, you don't have to wince at the menu prices at every meal.

Couldn't have put it better myself! Excellent job! My fave part is not worrying about the cost of each appetizer/entree/dessert and just ordering what you want. I can't do that anywhere else.

 

[maryt01]

dining plan

this is more than worth it. you will have paid 38.00 for an evening meal. try lecellier in canada, mama melrose in mgm ohanas in the poly, kona in the poly. they are some of the best meals in disney. even if you try to eat less expensive for 2 meals and one snack a day; you could not get the quality of these meals in these rest. the atmosphere is wonderful in these rest. we will return to wdw in dec 2007.

 

[Dwarful]

we have done it once with a grand gathering. LOVED it! Doing it again in August. The wait staff will either love us or hate us (group of nearly 40). I didn't even give the families the option of not having the dining plan. I am taking a Girl Scout troop and families to WDW for a week. I figured have everyone on the meal plan, that way I knew every girl was getting at least one sit down meal per day and a snack.
You can split like the above posters said, and often times we did this..even with counter service meals, getting the double cheeseburger and cutting it in half that way we could have a light breakfast and a light lunch and a big dinner.
We would get up early, hit the parks early,ride for a few hours, then get our next fastpasses, split some breakfast platters, plan out some more things, then get the next fastpasses just before using the other ones. Am I making sense? Then we would do the same for lunch.
Before the meal plan our counter service meals NEVER included dessert (we just would never need them) so that also makes spliting easier to do as well.