I enjoyed the regular dining plan. We FedExed 2 boxes to our room at Wilderness Lodge. It was filled with Entenmann's, cereal bars, etc. We had breakfast in our room, got drinks with the cups they include with the plan and paid cash if someone wanted a hot breakfast item. 1 QS and 1 TS a day plus snacks was perfect for us. We did Hoop dee doo review which was a 2 credit meal/show which we loved. We ate at Liberty Tree, 1900 Park Fare buffet, Epcot in Italy. And we ordered like we were on vacation and had an app and dessert with meals and didn't regret the extra calories at all. Even using the 2 credit meal on one day, it was plenty of food and worth it for our vacation.
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Totally lost in which dining plan to select--help!
- Thread starter mdcpr
- Start date
We did "free" dining once, and used the DP... it was convenient, not hard for us to use all our credits, and I get that "all-inclusive" feel element... but in a dollar-for-dollar scenario, the only way a dining plan makes sense to me is if you're using the DP during "free" dining with 4 Disney adults in the room. And that's two real adults and two teens. If you have real adults, they offset their food loss with the additional adult fees.
Spoon full of Sugar
Active Member
We did the dining plan (standard) our very first wdw trip and LOVED it! We loved the freedom that we "felt" while on the dining plan, ie: never needed to look at prices, always had more than enough food...always (and I do mean always) felt full. We have since stopped using the plan and started paying OOP. Why? The dining plan is alot of work. It began to feel like the plan was in control. We love to eat at WDW - so much great food, but when you HAVE to eat because you've got to get those credits in, well, it feels a bit constraining. We also found that we could really save money by not using the plan - and still be able to eat all that we want, where we want, ordering what we want. We still do one table service and 2 counter service meals everyday (plus snacks) and we save at least 300-400 (or more) every time. We used to justify the extra $ spent on the dining plan for the "convenience" of it, but realized that this reason also fell through when we compared the freedom we felt when using and then not using the plan. The food at disney is one of our favorite things - snacks, restaurants etc...and it took a while before we could give up the dining plan and not feel like we were "missing out" somehow....but when we finally did, we felt more free to eat, snack, just "be" and enjoy disney rather than run from reservation to reservation. We stopped planning around meals and started planning around family fun.
danyoung56
Well-Known Member
I only used the dining plan once, back when it included a lot more than it does now. I'm not sure whether I saved any money or not, but I didn't like the added burden of using all my credits and trying to get my money's worth. And now that the plan doesn't include appetizer or tip, but DOES include dessert, it's just not set up for my style of dining.
DreamalittleDisney
Well-Known Member
Personally family of 3 QS was just ok but we wished we had more choice did standard plan last year and thought it was a good balance
Booked via UK free dining for next year got QS free and have upgraded to standard.. did a few loose thinking sums and deluxe wouldn't stack for us it would be too much food planning to get our monies worth we need a step between standard and deluxe 2 x QS a day with 1 Table Haha
Booked via UK free dining for next year got QS free and have upgraded to standard.. did a few loose thinking sums and deluxe wouldn't stack for us it would be too much food planning to get our monies worth we need a step between standard and deluxe 2 x QS a day with 1 Table Haha
WallyWorld
Active Member
I found the dining plan hinders spontaneity and flexibility. More than we realized, we had to adjust what we felt like doing due to reservations. (And it's too much food and isn't cheaper)
IMHO
IMHO
heliumalias
Member
Back in January my sister and I did the deluxe plan on an 11 night stay. We had never done any of the dining plans before (partly because we had always previously qualified for some kind of discount AP, CM etc).
We opted for the plan for several reasons:
- not having to think about money. Most previous trips I pick my food based in part on the price which ultimately somewhat affects my enjoyment of the meal
- the deluxe plan includes all three courses, the regular plan does not. We found when we looked at the menu there were a lot of appetisers that we wanted to try.
- we normally would eat mostly quick service with the odd table service meal (because they get expensive quickly) and we wanted the trip to allow us to try every restaurant we’d wanted to try.
- we went in only wanting maybe 1 or 2 quick service meals the entire trip.
A few things to note.
We had the mentality of a snack credit is worth $5. If we wanted something that was going to end up priced beneath that we paid cash. (Festival of the arts was on so we mostly used snack credits to try various things there).
We ate at nearly every character meal going. I think we only lined up to meet characters maybe once or twice the entire trip and that was because we couldn’t meet them at a meal.
We also tried out a few 2 credit meals (BOG, SoA, CRT). Advantage: tip included. Disadvantage: the food was typically not as good or level with 1 credit meals.
Because we had a split stay we got 2 mugs each. Because of the validity technically we only needed one so this was a little strange.
We took advantage of dinner packages such as fantasmic, RoL etc.
Many hours of our day were spent eating. Each meal typically lasted 1-2 hours, depending on what it was.
We both walked away being glad we did the deluxe meal plan but that we would probably not do it again, just for the sheer amount of food that it was. 75% of our meals were booked prior to the trip and we never had an issue getting a last minute res (on the day, sometimes 1 hour before) somewhere (typically at a hotel or the springs).
We have just signed up for a trip on the regular plan (topped up our free quick service one).
HOT TIP: Sanaa was BY FAR the best value meal credit. The bread service counts as 1 appetizer and the build your own type entree included 2 meats when using a deluxe credit. I have never seen so much food without a buffet being involved!!!
Also some restaurants actually allowed us to have a “premium” drink (ie milkshake or alcohol) in addition to a fountain soda.
We opted for the plan for several reasons:
- not having to think about money. Most previous trips I pick my food based in part on the price which ultimately somewhat affects my enjoyment of the meal
- the deluxe plan includes all three courses, the regular plan does not. We found when we looked at the menu there were a lot of appetisers that we wanted to try.
- we normally would eat mostly quick service with the odd table service meal (because they get expensive quickly) and we wanted the trip to allow us to try every restaurant we’d wanted to try.
- we went in only wanting maybe 1 or 2 quick service meals the entire trip.
A few things to note.
We had the mentality of a snack credit is worth $5. If we wanted something that was going to end up priced beneath that we paid cash. (Festival of the arts was on so we mostly used snack credits to try various things there).
We ate at nearly every character meal going. I think we only lined up to meet characters maybe once or twice the entire trip and that was because we couldn’t meet them at a meal.
We also tried out a few 2 credit meals (BOG, SoA, CRT). Advantage: tip included. Disadvantage: the food was typically not as good or level with 1 credit meals.
Because we had a split stay we got 2 mugs each. Because of the validity technically we only needed one so this was a little strange.
We took advantage of dinner packages such as fantasmic, RoL etc.
Many hours of our day were spent eating. Each meal typically lasted 1-2 hours, depending on what it was.
We both walked away being glad we did the deluxe meal plan but that we would probably not do it again, just for the sheer amount of food that it was. 75% of our meals were booked prior to the trip and we never had an issue getting a last minute res (on the day, sometimes 1 hour before) somewhere (typically at a hotel or the springs).
We have just signed up for a trip on the regular plan (topped up our free quick service one).
HOT TIP: Sanaa was BY FAR the best value meal credit. The bread service counts as 1 appetizer and the build your own type entree included 2 meats when using a deluxe credit. I have never seen so much food without a buffet being involved!!!
Also some restaurants actually allowed us to have a “premium” drink (ie milkshake or alcohol) in addition to a fountain soda.