Meal plan or not???

[Disney Daddy]

We are thinking about getting the meal plan for out trip in May.

Our ages:
Me (32)
Wife (29)
DD (3)
DD (1)

I know my youngest eats free for the most part. In my mind, I am thinking without the meal plan, we would spend about $150 a day on food. The meal plan would only cost me $638 for 1 snack, 1 QS, and 1 TS. I would still need to come out of pocket for some meals.

The grand daddy of meal plans would be a waste for us because we don't want to spend too much time sitting at the dinner table.

What do you all think? Buy the meal plan or not?

--Buzz

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

The previous two times I went to Disney I had the free dining plan, but didn't when I went this past January. Financially, I think I would have broken out evenly based on what I spent. However, I would have saved money if I had the dining plan ONLY because of desserts...which I didn't have when I paid out of pocket. So you do save some money. If you don't normally order a dessert then I would say don't get it, because you might end up spending slightly more than if you'd paid for the same items out of pocket. If you normally get a dessert, than I say get it, because you will see savings (of course it all depends what you order).

I discovered that the free dining works as incentive to buy the dining plan on the next visit...I never realized how disgusting Disney's counter service food was...those chicken nuggets can't possibly be made out of chicken!

The biggest gripe is that we are more of an appetizer family than desert, so thats why its become more of a menu examination and spread sheet job rather than hell yeah lets go for it.

As for the cicken the clues in the name its meat from the males nuggets,

 

[sueuk]

I agree with Dwarful, tipping from now on will be on an individual basis - if the service (or if the food) is too bad they will get either a reduced tip or none - with an explanation if necessary.

 

[Craig & Lisa]

Try this, if you don't want to have a table service every day there are some places in WDW that take 2 swipes of the cards, so you'll have one less while there, but if you want something that will keep the kids entertained, Teppon EDO is a good place, Character meals are good too. Coral Reef Cafe is good too, if you get one of the first meals, (lunchtime that is), ask if you can be seated next to the aquarium, they will never be bored there, ( and the foods good too) :animwink::slurp:
Hey I passed 1900 posts!!

 

[NewfieFan]

Increasing the food prices definetly makes the Demon Dining Plan appear attractive. The Mouse is merely devious, not stupid.



It still amazes me that they eliminated the appetizer from the table service meal, and eliminated the tip. Those two things are a big chunk of change. Yet people still rave about the great savings. Oh, I forgot, they lowered the cost of the plan by $1.00.

Does anybody remember the variety of food choices you use to have at WDW? Does anybody remember when the food prices were merely high, not outrageous? How about making same day PS (ADR)? Remember when dining was a real experience at WDW with food that was actually very good? Yes, the DDP has done wonders for my WDW vacation experience. I can now pay in advance for mediocre food that I will schedule to eat 3 months from now.

Zip-Ah-Dee-Doo-Dah!

I know that they removed the appetizer and tip and only dropped the price by a dollar but I think the price of the dining plan would have went up that year anyway... so maybe we can say that they dropped the price by more than a dollar (but not enough to cover the appetizer and tip, I'm sure)!

I thought that before the DDP a lot of restaurants had really low numbers. I guess one good thing about the DDP is that the restaurants are filled most of the time and that means more money for Disney (which is a good thing for the parks).

I don't mind making ADRs 3 months out and I found most of the food on my last two trips to be quite good!

Sorry for the thread drift...

If I want to eat at a TS at least once a day I usually get the DDP! I've crunched the numbers and we come out on top. We're a family of two adults and two children. We usually do a lot of character meals/buffets and some of those can be quite expensive. We use the snacks to buy breakfast and we spend very little on food over and above the DDP!

 

[JWG]

We did the Dining Plan this past trip last week. The normal (snack, counter, table) plan for $39.99. This was for four adults.

We came home leaving 3 counter service and 7 snacks on the table. For us it was too much food. We don't ever do desserts so the dessert with counter service and table service was too much food.

Also, the full heavy meals of buffet or high-end meals (portion size and type) is more than we're used to. I had meat 7 meals in a row and that's unusual for me. Having NY Strip, followed by Ohana, followed by Chef Mickey's buffet, followed by duck at France, etc. was just abnormal eating for us.

If you normally would eat that much, it is absolutely a deal. We found we spent nearly the $39.99 at the table service alone. So it was worth it against the retail price.

For us, we just would have eaten a lot less if we'd not been on it and thus would have spent less on less food.

IN SHORT:
If DDP matches your eating habits, it's a good deal and will save.
If DDP is more than you'd normally eat, not such a good deal potentially.

Ultimately, it's so close that it's almost personal preference. It was better when it included tip because you could just pre-pay like an all inclusive. Now, you're still paying tip at each meal so that convenience is gone.

 

[Rob562]

We came home leaving 3 counter service and 7 snacks on the table. For us it was too much food. We don't ever do desserts so the dessert with counter service and table service was too much food.

A tip for people who don't want dessert with their Counter Service meals... Ask for a bottle of water as your dessert, then save it for later.

You can also do this if you're eating at your resort's food court but you have a refillable mug. Get a bottled beverage as your drink to use later.

-Rob

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

I don't normally eat that way either, but its a holiday, a time for doing something different. I would rather a breakfast than a counter service lunch, but what offered at breakfast is often poor quality and very limited choice.

Its not thatr theres too much food its just that much of it is bloated empty calories rather than a good food experience.

 

[nibblesandbits]

We did the Dining Plan this past trip last week. The normal (snack, counter, table) plan for $39.99. This was for four adults.

We came home leaving 3 counter service and 7 snacks on the table. For us it was too much food. We don't ever do desserts so the dessert with counter service and table service was too much food.

Also, the full heavy meals of buffet or high-end meals (portion size and type) is more than we're used to. I had meat 7 meals in a row and that's unusual for me. Having NY Strip, followed by Ohana, followed by Chef Mickey's buffet, followed by duck at France, etc. was just abnormal eating for us.

If you normally would eat that much, it is absolutely a deal. We found we spent nearly the $39.99 at the table service alone. So it was worth it against the retail price.

For us, we just would have eaten a lot less if we'd not been on it and thus would have spent less on less food.

IN SHORT:
If DDP matches your eating habits, it's a good deal and will save.
If DDP is more than you'd normally eat, not such a good deal potentially.

Ultimately, it's so close that it's almost personal preference. It was better when it included tip because you could just pre-pay like an all inclusive. Now, you're still paying tip at each meal so that convenience is gone.

You left 7 snacks?

Here's a tip for what to do with extra snack credits...use them to bring either souvineers home to family (you can get those bags of Mickey's Candy I believe with the snack credits) or get things like rice krispy treats or what I do...I get a box of fudge. Each piece is a snack credit...so I get a whole box of fudge and bring it home. That way, I have a nice treat for when I get back. And it makes the vacation last a tiny bit longer...since it's food you got at Disney.

Snack credits I never let go to waste. You can always use them in some way.

 

[Dwarful]

On our last trip we had 2 counter service meals left. We stopped off in the food court before leaving and grabbed two 'to go' meals. The kids got the mickey rice krispie on a stick as the desserts and bottles of water to drink. We also got candy and treats for unused snack credits.

I think if you are going from May - July 11 when Disney is doing the "holiday pricing" then it is def. a money saver or at least a break even. As I noted previously, one character buffet is $34.99 adult and $16.99 child (child is more than the cost of the child's dining plan). If you are going when prices are lowered you have to sort of crunch the numbers. Also, for the counter service meals a burger and soda is running about $9 now w/o the dessert.

 

[kimmychad]

You left 7 snacks?

Here's a tip for what to do with extra snack credits...use them to bring either souvineers home to family (you can get those bags of Mickey's Candy I believe with the snack credits) or get things like rice krispy treats or what I do...I get a box of fudge. Each piece is a snack credit...so I get a whole box of fudge and bring it home. That way, I have a nice treat for when I get back. And it makes the vacation last a tiny bit longer...since it's food you got at Disney.

Snack credits I never let go to waste. You can always use them in some way.

and if you have leftover sitdown credits they can be converted to snack credits, we did this at goofys candy company in downtown disney.