disadvantages to dining plan

[KnK]

I have to agree with alot of what's been said on both sides.

My husband and I decided not to use the plan, but had tried it in the past. We also like to eat at the high end choices that took up 2 choices, that meant several of the days we still had to come up with meals. Also, we like to share items and don't always get 2 full meals.

Even with counter service options it just was not worth it. One of our favorite lunches is to share a turkey leg (yummm) and share an order of cheese fries. Then in the afternoon we could have a Dole Whip or ice cream. We would still have to pay for this on the dining plan.

The other issue is those of us who have AP's. When I did the math, we still saved a lot more by using the room discount as well as the Disney Dining Card.

I am one of those folks who records every cost of Disney vacation. I make a chart that list each of the days, record where we ate and how much we spent. Overall, still came out cheaper to feed ourselves and not use a plan.

 

[Yellow Shoes]

Just What You've Been Waiting For!!

MY opinion!

We will be using the plan on our next trip, but only because it is free.

We probably would not buy the plan, because we can save $ by ordering wisely. Generally speaking, we like to order an appetizer, then split an entree, which leaves us room for all the wonderful and unique snacks we find tucked away at each park.

 

[DigitalDisney]

You absolutely need to plan ahead if you're going to use it. You really need to be prepared to eat good and eat often.

If you just eat reasonably in the parks for lunch and dinner and the occasional snack, it will cost less than if you used the dining plan.

Most people get the dining plan for convenience, or just because it exists. For example, when I was last at WDW, I saw a ton of people with the dining plan that had no idea what they were doing. People walked up to the cashier with a light sandwich and a water, and were told that they had to get a dessert if they wanted to use the dining plan. So, they spent many minutes while the whole family looked over the desserts and picked things they weren't going to eat. There were many people that intentionally got something healthy or light and didn't want to get the dessert (or vice versa).

If you're not going to take full advantage of the dining plan, then don't get it. The less or cheaper you eat, the less of a value it is to you. But if you use it at places like Yachtsmans, Ohana, etc. Also keep in mind that the places you'd probably want to use it at are almost all outside of the parks, which takes more time out of your day at the park.

 

[mattfz]

My wife and I always get an early flight in and a late flight out (most recently, 5 days/4 nights) meaning you get 4 days worth of food. But if you are there for 5 days worth of meals, you have a chance to use up all of the meals on the plan without a problem. And pay out of pocket for the other couple of meals.

 

[MadMax11]

i haven't done DDP yet.

what's the price, per day, for 2 adults, one 6 year old and one 1 year old (he'll be ALMOST 2)???

and if my sit-down meal for the day is at Mama Melrose's for pizza...am I really saving money?

 

[shoppingnut]

i haven't done DDP yet.

what's the price, per day, for 2 adults, one 6 year old and one 1 year old (he'll be ALMOST 2)???

and if my sit-down meal for the day is at Mama Melrose's for pizza...am I really saving money?

It is $38 per day for an adult, $11 for a child and your 1 year old is free at buffets (and some have reported at sit downs too). Okay, why would you have pizza when you have so many other choices and besides the point I think the pizza in wdw is awful. Here is a website that lists all the menu's with the prices, so you can see what you'd consider ordering and the cost. www.allearsnet.com

 

[AkiraRaptor]

I'm of two minds on the dining plans.

In the past we used the Wishes every year. And most of it was use on the places to eat we liked. It saved a ton of money because we mostly eat at the finer restaurants.

With the new Dining Plan they offer now, it's not as adventagous as before for us.

We stay at AKL on concierge, so we can get all the snacks we want. We almost never eat at counter service except for Casey's Corner (it's tradition ). And most of the places we eat for dinner are either signiture, or not even on the list.

For example, here's are dinner list for our up and coming trip: Le Celler, Bistro De Paris, Narcossesses, Victoria & Alberts, Coral Reef, Flying Fish, Callifornia Grill. Plus two sit down breakfasts at Kona Café and Boma.

So if your counting, that's 10 sit down "points" you'd need to cover all of that and 2 of them are not even covered at all on the plan. Plus what about lunches? We do sit down lunches too, we just don't schedule them. We pick whatever we feel like at the time.
We're only staying for 7 days. So we have nowhere near enough points to cover all the meals.

So for us, it just never added up on this new plan. There is no doubt we'd save money on the places we eat that we'd apply the points to, but we'd be wasting alot (if not all) on the snacks and counter service part.

We just don't eat the way Dinsney has set up this plan. But if they are giving it away...well thats different...I'll take freebies.

 

[MadMax11]

It is $38 per day for an adult, $11 for a child and your 1 year old is free at buffets (and some have reported at sit downs too). Okay, why would you have pizza when you have so many other choices and besides the point I think the pizza in wdw is awful. Here is a website that lists all the menu's with the prices, so you can see what you'd consider ordering and the cost. www.allearsnet.com

because mama melrose's pizza isn't like the pizza in other places at WDW.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

At the risk of repeating earlier posts on the subject:

Choose where you want to eat, vist the on line menus to get a rough idea of choice and cost, get the spreadsheet out and do your sums!

Last year at FW, it made no sense for us as we were doing Busch gardens and Sea World and had the DDE card. This year were in the DVC so the cost of renewing APs against hoppers etc has to be factored in. This year the choice is not so clear cut. Like others Im not sure we would eat that level of food, but we are doing Jikos and CG so that helps.

Im still undecided, but what a problem to have.....:dazzle: :animwink:

 

[dandaman]

Disadvantages to the Dining Plan... hmm...

...I've got nothing. :lookaroun

 

[Computer Magic]

I enjoy the plan, but I like the the old plan better (where you could select special merchandise). I never ate counter service until this plan started as with the older plan it made no sense.

I found I like the counter service and the snack service has improved. We saved tons of money last year on the plan. Even if you don't take advantage of every ounce of the plan.

 

[Senderella]

We like the dining plan. The way we look at it is, we're going to be eating at least 2 meals every day. It may be a real breakfast and a light dinner or vice versa. We schedule our one table service meal every day and we don't worry about our counter services. We'll usually be walking around.. pass a counter service restaurant.. get a whiff of something yummy and realize we're hungry. As far as the snacks, my husband uses his on ice cream and I use mine on drinks. We have no problem using up our snacks. As far as feeling overly full... when we used the plan last May (first time) my husband & a friend of ours felt obliged to eat everything or at least attempt it. I went in with the attitude of "yes I'm going to order everything I'm entitled to but I'm not going to feel forced to eat it all. I want to sample everything". Keyword being sample. I never left a restaurant feeling sick or anything other than simply satisfied. It's fun (to us) to check out allears and look at all the menus. What we do is, we gather our sitdown choices and figure out what park we want to do on a certain day. Restaurants that are in certain parks usually dictate what park we're in that day (duh). We're going back in October (I need to fix my siggy) from the 7th to the 15th. we're scheduled for 3 in-park restaurants only. We've got 3 breakfast ADRs for about 10 so we can sleep in and not feel rushed. The rest are dinner ADRs for about 5/6 so we're eating early enough to be able to go back to the parks for the night time shows. We've used this system on 2 trips and it's worked well for us. We're using it again on our next trip. I really don't see how you cannot like the dining plan because if done in a way that works for your family, it's one of the most convenient things around.

 

[MadMax11]

One more question...SORRY!!

We're staying at OKW 6 nights in October. But we're only in the parks 5 days. My understanding from what I'm reading is that you have to buy a dining plan for each night you stay there...which means I'm paying for a day I'm not using.

Am I misunderstanding something???

 

[Kadee]

One more question...SORRY!!

We're staying at OKW 6 nights in October. But we're only in the parks 5 days. My understanding from what I'm reading is that you have to buy a dining plan for each night you stay there...which means I'm paying for a day I'm not using.

Am I misunderstanding something???

You GET a table meal, counter meal and snack for each night, but you can use them when ever you want during your stay. If you choose, you can use them all on one day. So, just use the day's meals that you are not going to be in the park for breakfast another day.

 

[MouseearsDeb]

You GET a table meal, counter meal and snack for each night, but you can use them when ever you want during your stay. If you choose, you can use them all on one day. So, just use the day's meals that you are not going to be in the park for breakfast another day.

We're going for 8 nights at the end of Sept. and won't be arriving until late. We're going to use the extra table service for a nice sit down breakfast at Ohana's :slurp: and then just work the rest of the extras in as needed. I think it actually gives us a little freedom for the moments that you might want to order a couple of chicken tenders and fries and split them just to tide us over if needed.

 

[LaughingGravy]

Others here have mentioned that you may feel forced to eat more than you normally would to get your moneys worth.

We found this worked very well and also allowed us breakfast, lunch and dinner all on the dining plan.

We used a couple of counter services very early in the AM for breakfast, split those two between the 4 of us, got 2 counter services for lunch and split them as well. We also each were entitled to a snack each day.

That made for smaller breakfasts and lunches, snacks to supplement if necessary and pleasurable dinners. On some days we switched dinner and lunch to be the big sit down meals and did the split counter service for dinner based on 'must eat at" restaurants' availability and menus.

The smaller meals keep your metabolism going while you walk all day so it helps to prevent feeling overstuffed.

We ended up not having to really buy any food, aside from the refillable mug at the resort. No. We didn't eat the mug.

We were very spontaneous with the counter services.

 

[kachow]

I had the same question myself, "What am I missing here? Why wouldn't I want to do this?" And I think the big thing is what type of meals you typically would buy vs. what you're being sold on the plan. If the plan is dictating too much to you, then it's not a good deal for you. It was helpful for my wife and I to actually think through a likely dining scenario for our next trip in November, prior to deciding on the plan. We knew we wanted to hit things like the Candlelight Processional and Mickey's X-Mas Party and wanted to make sure we would actually use all the table service credits without feeling like we were being lead by our stomachs. Turned out, we're likely going to eat one MORE table service meal than our plan will cover, and even with the likelihood that we won't even use one of our counter service meals, the plan will likely save us about $50-$100/person.

 

[erasure fan1]

The big problem with the plan that we have is my wife and daughter will never take advantage of the plan from a cost standpoint. We have done what others have said and added up what we spend on food and what the dinning plan costs, and what we spend is always less. Now if just I could get it then it would be different.:lol: The other thing thats a problem for us is we stay in the DVC with 2 families (most of the time) and everyone in that group/room would have to get it, so if the others dont want it we cant get it.

 

[sbkline]

I haven't read the other posts in this thread, so someone else has probably said what I am going to say.

I am in the same boat your are in that I have never used it, but have thought about doing it this time around. Basically, what you have to do is keep in mind that the dining plan comes out, roughly, to $38 a person. Then you need to decide if your food expenditures for the trip would average out to that amount per day. If so, it is worth it, if not, it isn't. I think the dining plan includes tax and tip, as well as dessert and drink, and it only covers two meals a day, plus a snack. So, if you eat at a table service meal and spend a total of 25 dollars, that leaves about 12 or 13 dollars left for your other meal and snack. If you eat at a counter service place like, say, Pecos Bills in Frontierland, I doubt you will be paying 12 dollars per person. Probably more like 7 or 8.

As much as they talk up the dining plan, I have concluded that it probably just isn't worth it, unless you plan on eating at several of the higher priced table service places which still require one credit. (Some of the REALLY expensive ones require two credits, or don't participate in the dining plan at all) Otherwise, at best, it comes out about the same as just paying for the meals individually, in which case, there is no point in wasting your time with the dining plan. At worst, you are paying more per day than you would if you simply paid individually for each meal.

And, of course, it is only worth it if you plan to eat at a full service place each day of your visit. If you are just as happy to eat at the burger joints for every meal, then the dining plan won't do anything for you.

 

[kachow]

^^^And that's actually probably the key. If you aren't going to eat at any of the nicer restaurants, then it definitely is not going to work out to be a deal for you. My wife and I knew we wanted to eat at Flying Fish (2 credits), Spoodles, Le Cellier, and then probably a place downtown like Wolfgang Pucks. Those meals alone would probably average around $45 each.