Is the dining plan worth it IF...

[tunaman68]

Hey everyone -

Down to a week now - CAN'T WAIT!

I originally passed on the dining plan for a few reasons,

1) We don't sit down for that kind of meal more than twice in a trip (just too much time out of the day)

2) Kids are more into the stuff served at the counter service places anyhow (I know they have kid's menus at the sit down, but again to point #1)

3) We eat cold cereal in the room for breakfast so we can be at the parks for rope drop.

4) I would assume that it's too late now to get any priority seating (especially for a party of 9)

Would we really be saving money after all?

What I'm wondering is if we can trade the sit down vouchers for more counter service and snack things. We have a reservation for Fullton's DTD one night (are they on the plan?), and would like to eat at Alfredo's one night. Other than that, it's like Flame Tree, Burgers in Tomorrowland, and Burritos outside at Epcot for most of our meals. We're there for 7 full days.

Anyone have any thoughts? I suppose I should call the reservations department and ask them, but I think they will try and get me to buy it. Looking for unbiased advice!

Thanks all!!

 

[kennygman]

I would only use the DP if I was planning to eat a sit down meal EVERYDAY. Otherwise you'll come out cheaper buying burgers and such. CS meal with large drink runs about $10 with tax. Also, several of their CS meals are large enough to share and save a few bucks too.

Kids meals are the same pretty much wherever.

As for getting ADR's you didn't mention when you are going to DW, time of year greatly affects that. Off times you can call in later or sometimes even walk up to TS restaurants.

We've done the DDP twice for free and it is a LOT of food per serving.

 

[Monty]

Partly depends on how long your trip will be...

If you're there four three nights - then it'd be worth it.

If your there for a week - probably not.

The savings were great for me, but we used all our TS/CS/Snack credits.

If you don't eat that many TS, chances are you wouldn't save much if anything. It really depends on what you'd order would cost without DDP vs what it costs for DDP between all three types of credits. Our TS meals alone comfortably cost more than the full cost of DDP, so the snacks and CS were all free to all intents and purposes. In your case, if you order fairly expensively at your TS, use all your CS credits [I think if you run out of CS credits, you can use extra TS credits for CS meals, but only on a one-for-one exchange - but that might only be during the free DDP period] and all your snacks, it might still be cheaper overall, but you need to research the menus to determine that.

 

[natalia1681]

Fulton's is not on the Dining Plan:wave:

 

[Lucky]

You say you're going for 7 full days, with only 2 sit-down meals. Then there is no way the dining plan would save you money.

 

[Kadee]

The way I figured it from our last trip, the dining plan would have ended up costing us more. If you really use it to the maximim.......getting everything you are allowed, you should come out ahead. But most people do not even come close to eating that much. My husband is a REALLY big eater and can not eat as much as they offer on the dining plan. We did not skimp, skip meals or eat CS every meal. We ate what we wanted, where we wanted, when we wanted. We even ate at LeCellier (our favorite place) a couple of times. Seriously, though.....who would normally get a whole appetizer, a huge entre, and a desert every day? That is WAY too much food.

 

[Tara Stone]

Fulton's is not on the Dining Plan:wave:

We ate at Fulton's on September of this year on a dining plan...did it change since the last week of September?

It was great meal:slurp: