pros and cons to dining plans

[hollyc23]

Hey everyone. I am new here and hope this is not a topic that has been posted recently.

I am debating on whether or not to choose a DDP or not. I really do not want to do much cooking during this week for obvious reasons but will stock our room with snacks, breakfast, drinks, etc. Would like your thoughts on the subject. If I do chose a ddp, then most likely will choose either quick service plan or regular dining plan.

 

[DormaNesbit]

I like the dinning plan because everything is paid for in advance--meaning the meals, you still have to pay for adult beverages and tip, but I've paid for the bulk of the trip before we leave. I book my ADR's as soon as I can, if we plan really early I have to wait until 180 days out, and I always have the family pick more places just in case I can't get somewhere they originally planned on. I always end up on the last day getting all the unused snacks and we enjoy those on the plane. I hope this helps!:wave:

 

[blackthidot]

If you like to eat and feel like you'll spend $34 per day per person then do it. You'll gf to experiance all the cool places Wdw has to offer for you to eat. Ontop of that you don't have to eat according to the price of the entrée. I really couldn't see going to wdw and not buying the dining plan.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

It all depends on whether you're taking the Dining Plan just so you don't have to cook, or whether you're doing it as you're actually going to eat big and save some money

 

[twosiamesecats]

I tried the DDP once. I'd recommend it if you have big eaters in your family. Also, it was nice not to worry about the menu price. However, I don't use the DDP anymore for two reasons. The first reason being it's too much food. The second reason being that I don't want to gain extra weight. Both the cs meal, and the ts meal includes desserts. That's my weakness.

 

[disneytopdog]

I love the dining plan, I love to eat and try things that I would not normally get if I was paying full price for. It is ALOT of food as others have said. It also takes alot of park time out of your day to do the table service meals. Plus it does kill alot of your park hopping ability since you need to plan your touring around your table service meals.

I have never tried the new counter service plan and am debating using it on my next trip in December 2009 as opposed to the regular dining plan. Some other questions to take into consideration: How may people are going? Are they real picky eaters?

If they are picky eaters I would go with the Counter service plan. If you have over 5 people they add an 18% tip on your bill. Last September we had a group of 6 and at a few of the table service places the service was not worth paying the automatic 18%. For the most part when service was great we tipped 20-25%

 

[wdwmomof3]

I am another one for the dining plan for a few reasons. First, I love having everything paid in full before we leave. Second, I feel like we save money. Third, I really enjoy eating at the Disney Resort for all of our meals. :slurp:

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Its not as clear cut as some on here are making out. It depends on your eating habits, choice of dishes, venues. etc

As Ive just put on another similar thread, the dinning plan seems to have lead to reduced choice, limited dishes, poorer service, and is not always a money saver.

Each to their own, but unless your a counter service fan or a big buffet user I think its merits are extremely limited. Take the time, look at the menus for each venue, look at the prices, and do the figures. Yes some folks have said its nice to know its covered, but what happens if you want an appetizer or a couple of beers? Lets be honest, the deserts you get with counter service, Id never have purchased them to begin with. And what happens if you want a breakfast one day? does that mean you have to go without a sit down dinner?

It works for some, just not for us.

 

[disneygirl76]

Hey everyone. I am new here and hope this is not a topic that has been posted recently.

I am debating on whether or not to choose a DDP or not. I really do not want to do much cooking during this week for obvious reasons but will stock our room with snacks, breakfast, drinks, etc. Would like your thoughts on the subject. If I do chose a ddp, then most likely will choose either quick service plan or regular dining plan.

We are for the DDP! We really like it! For my DH and I, part of vacationing is the experience of meals and for at least a couple of dinners, we like TS meals. By the time you add up what you would spend on a couple of TS meals, you have paid for the DDP. We are not huge bfast eaters - grabbing a bagel at a bakery and a coffee. When do eat bfast, then we like the Character Dining, and we can use a TS for that. When we travel, we try to check in the evening before so we have an extra day of meals b/c we leave late afternoon on our final day. I bring a box of granola/breakfast bars to have on hand, and we also bring bottles of water and I a diet coke junkie so I bring bottles of that too. We bring a bottle of each and a couple snacks with us each day. Also, I like how everything is paid for before we get there. It makes budgeting easier. I know that now all i need to pay for is souveniers, a small breakfast and drinkipoos. I think it is a great savings and value. Have a great trip!! :wave:

 

[H20Babie]

I tried the DDP solo last year, and thought, while I like having my meals paid for in advance, I will never do this again. I had excellent service, tried restaurants I hadn't before, but there was also too much food and a loss of spontaneity. Then, while planning this upcoming trip, my good friend and her children decided to come along. She's on a bit of a budget, and to feed each child for $10.99 per day was too good to pass up (2 boys and 1 girl). They are also all Disney first timers, so we have 3 characters meals this trip as well.

So, as Pumbas said, I have to agree ... whether the DDP will work for you all depends on your eating habits, choice of restaurants, etc.

Here's a great link to decide whether the cost will be worth it: http://www.intercot.com/infocentral/dining/diningplan/estimator.asp

 

[mousefan1972]

We are fans of the DDP. We never leave with unused credits and I enjoy planning and making our ADR's. Also, our kids are young (5 and 3) and we like knowing we have a sit-down meal each day to give them a break. We can only take so much counter service. One drawback to using the DDP is you must make ADR's as early as possible, so you are eating at places you want to eat. As Pumbas stated, it is not for everyone, but it works for us.

 

[coltow]

We feel that if you plan to have 1 TS per day and do mostly TS dinners then you should ablsolutley go for it. If you plan for mostly breakfasts or not sit down for a meal every day than it's not worth it.

 

[jim1051]

We usually opt for the DDP because we enjoy a nice table service dinner daily. Because of this, it makes sense economically. We also like to try some different places each trip.

 

[slappy magoo]

The first few years the plan was available, the plan made much more financial sense. Tips and appetizers were included in the Table Service meal. My wife and I do prefer sit down meals, taking a breath and enjoying our food, so we wound up having enough extra table service credits to buy a bunch of pre-wrapped sandwiches and desserts that we ate on the 20 hour car ride home, doling out little bits of WDW every couple of hours. And my wife and I often would split a dessert and either let one go to waste, or ask a random family next to us on line, "hey, your kid want a cookie or brownie, we've got a free dessert we're not going to eat."

Now, you're not getting nearly as much bang for your buck. You can still save a few bucks on the Dining Plan, but not as much. I'd be much more keen on it if the table service meal allowed you a choice of an appetizer or a dessert, instead of just a dessert. And as others have stated, WDW has been cutting corners by limiting, AND homogenizing, the choices of food at the restaurants. By not having too many choices, they can cut back on the supplies they order, and if that means every restaurant starts to look like they're serving the exact same meals but on slightly different plates, so be it. In fact, hey, maybe when it comes to replacing the plates, we should get them all the same plates. And when it comes time to redecoration, let's just paint them all the same color, or get the same wallpaper. Heck, why not just buy bulk furniture at Ikea and get the international cast members to put it all together? Bland 'em all together so you're not even sure where you're eating. That's the sort of experience Walt would've wanted, I'm sure.

Back on topic, if you don't mind doing a little bit of homework, checking out menus and prices, I'm sure you'll figure out if the plan is worth it for you. You should, at the very least, break even, and this way most of your dining costs don't have to be a worry for you. But you may also find, depending on what you'd like to order, if you'd rather split appetizers and desserts with your family, whether or not you want TWO potentially big desserts during the course of your day (plus what could be a potentially fattening snack), maybe you're better off buying what you want as you go. Sure, there's no law that says you HAVE to eat every dessert, and that they must be awful for you. But again, you're probably not going to save much of anything if you don't, so you may decide it's better not to get the plan.

 

[disney4life2008]

I have had the Disney Dining Plan in the past - and it was WAY TOO MUCH FOOD! By the end of our 12th night (we were basically trying to give the food away). It seems expensive but at the same time - it depends on how much food you really eat. And also if you plan to eat more than spend time on rides.

I have also had the Universal Meal Plan (Universal Studios). I LOVED IT!!! I liked the fact that I could eat food all day whenever I felt like it.

 

[cemeb4dk]

O agree with the two posts above mine. We used to be fans of the DP. But I just cancelled it for our 11 day trip over Thanksgiving. I used to love the idea that everything was paid for, and you could eat anythign you want.

But now I have a different view of it. One since you have to make your ressies so far in advance it makes it feel like you are planning your trip around dinner or lunch plans. I didn't care for that last time we went. Also it just is too much food, granted this was with the old plan, with the tip and appetizer included. Now with the current plan no app and no tip included it doesn't seem to be the great value. Where as on the old plan we almost felt liek we had to get the most expensive thing since it was pre paid. But now the more expensive of an item you buy the more the tip will have to be. and also you may not order a dessert but on the meal plan you get one so add that 18% ontop of the bill.

I weighed out our 6 table service reservations we have and a counter meal each day at $25 for the three of us to eat. We where still cheaper than the meal plan. And we could come and go as we want. Instead I decided to buy the discount meal card where you get 20% off entire bill. I will calculate at the end of our next trip but I really think I will come out ahead not being on the plan.

Now next years counter service meal plan maybe the perfect inbetween, but time will tell.

The big question is just ask yourself what your family wants and what will work for you. are you big planners and have all your meals planned out, and now when and where you will want to eat 6 months before your trip. Or do you want to make a few special meals and then just grad a meal as time permits. That was our choice and we will see how it works in 30 days from today.

 

[sbkline]

In my opinion, a "pro" for the dining plan is that it WILL save you money if you do it right. You're not liable to save much money if you eat at 20 dollar buffets everyday, or if you order the 16 dollar entree. But if you eat at places where your entree is, say, 25 bucks, you can definitely save money. Think 25 bucks for the entree, 3 dollars for the drink, 6 dollars for dessert and that's a total of 34 dollars for the table service alone. Last I knew, tax was still included, so add another couple bucks to that and you're at 36 dollars for your table service. If the DDP costs you 38 bucks a day, then that means that, for the extra 2 dollars, your counter service and snack are covered for that day. True, it's not quite as much bang for the buck as it was when gratuity and appetizer were included, but as I just showed, it's still a pretty good savings...again, assumming that most of the time, you get stuff such as the 27 dollar steak at Le Cellier and not the 16 dollar chicken parmesian at Mama Melrose.

On the con side, you may not like having your vacation so structured that you "have" to eat at certain kinds of restaraunts in order to use up your dining credits. First off, you may not like having to preplan in advance what restaraunt you will eat at each day. There's always the possibility of not planning this at all and just picking your restaraunt that day, allowing some room for spontaneity. However, not only are you unlikely to have good results with that on every day of the trip, but you may also not like feeling like you "have" to find a table service every single day...perhaps there are days when you would be just as happy to grab a quick bite at a burger joint, but instead you have to eat Table Service just to get your money's worth on the DDP. Maybe that's not a con for you at all. Maybe you don't mind having that much planning and structure. But lots of people here have mentioned how they don't like feeling like they're planning each and every day around food. And after our most recent trip, I can kind of see what they mean. While it's nice in one sense to know what restaraunt to look forward to on each day, on the other hand, I think on our next trip, I would like to have a little more spontaneity; just to go where we want on a given day and just decide on the fly where to eat, rather than having the whole day planned based on where we need to be by supper time.

 

[fauna]

The only other thing I would bring up is the fact that any child 10 or over will be on the plan as an adult.

We used the DDP once, 2 years ago, when DS was 9. I think it was a pretty good value. But now he is 11 and he is still a picky eater. He mostly orders off the kids menu anyway, which makes the plan NOT a good value for us.

This year we are trying to pinch some pennies by doing only one character meal, having almost all of our TS meals at lunch, bringing our own quick in-room breakfasts and snacks, and making good use of the Spoodles pizza window (my family eats one pizza - an under $20 meal!).

 

[fosse76]

Its not as clear cut as some on here are making out. It depends on your eating habits, choice of dishes, venues. etc

As Ive just put on another similar thread, the dinning plan seems to have lead to reduced choice, limited dishes, poorer service, and is not always a money saver.

Each to their own, but unless your a counter service fan or a big buffet user I think its merits are extremely limited. Take the time, look at the menus for each venue, look at the prices, and do the figures. Yes some folks have said its nice to know its covered, but what happens if you want an appetizer or a couple of beers? Lets be honest, the deserts you get with counter service, Id never have purchased them to begin with. And what happens if you want a breakfast one day? does that mean you have to go without a sit down dinner?

It works for some, just not for us.

I agree. It depends on what you are looking for. Were you planning to have 1 Table Service meal per day? Do you normally have a dessert with a quick service meal? You may be saving money based upon what you order, but would you have ordered it were it not included? If not, then you actually are spending more money and not saving anything. For me, when I had free dining, I did some calculating. Based on what I would normally eat, I would have lost money by being on the plan. Not only based on what I would eat, but by the fact I wouldn't have had a Table Service meal nightly...and I certainly wouldn't have had a dessert with my counter service meal.

My suggestion is that if you can go during free dining then do it. Then on future trips you can see whether or not it would be worth it.