Best Buy/Money worth on the Dining plan

STLDisney_Freak

Proud Marching Band, Winter Guard, Choir Mom
Joined
Feb 12, 2007
We have a small trip planned May 2017...Memorial day weekend. I have to pick out 5 table services. It will be my husband, myself, and two daughters (age 14 and 12). My 12 year is not an adventurous eater. I am hoping to use the table services for 4 dinners and 1 breakfast. What dining locations are the best to get your money worth on the dining plan?
 
How do you measure worth?

Cost of meal?
Quality/Variety of food?
Volume of food?

If you want to "get your money's worth" on DDP using pricing as your indicator, go to character meals and buffets. The most expensive are Akershus and the Fantasmic! dining packages. Breakfasts are usually the least expensive of the character meals.
 
I agree. "Worth" varies by person.
In my opinion the most important thing is the meal the satisfies you and your family
 


I agree. "Worth" varies by person.
In my opinion the most important thing is the meal the satisfies you and your family

I agree. If the only measure you use is cost per meal, you may end up very disappointed.

I look at the menus and choose the restaurants I think my family wil enjoy. I will run a quick math crunch to see if I am in the ballpark for at least breaking even with the DDP, and go from there. Once we get there, I never look again, (although I admit is was really hard not to bellow over to my daughter that the flatbread as her entree was NOT a good valuse on the DDP)

I never choose restaurants based on cost. I choose the DDP after I choose our restaurants.

With two girls, I would look at Akershus for breakfast. The Princess Storybook meal is expensive, and it is lovely, IMO, and is a really good use of a TS credit for breakfast.

If you want good value for CS credits, look at BOG in MK, both for breakfast and lunch. The food is kind of pricey, but if you are using a credit it is worth the cost. I know BOG does not get a lot of love, but we like it, and honestly for breakfast or lunch you could easily share two credits for all four of you, and just purchase two extra drinks, unless some of you like water. This meal gets you into the Castle.

BOG dinner is nice as well. The girls should found something on the menu they like, and you meet the Beast.

Another pricy meal that I think the girls may like is 1900 Park Fare. The evening meal features the Tremaine Family, and is hysterical. The food is good for a buffet.

If you plan on seeing Fantasmic consider Mama Melrose for the Fantasmic Dining Package. It is one TS credit, but it includes an appetizer with the meal. You wil get a voucher for preferred seating for the show. MM is a favorite of ours. I love the oak grilled steak. WE tend to book this as a late lunch so we have a nice cool place to relax, and hen we donot need to rush to see the show. I will say that Fantasmic can be intense for youngsters, but you do not need to actually see the show. If we decide to leave the park we give our vouchers to a family we come across.


We also like to book Narcoossees for dinner. It is 2 TS credits, but we often share meals. If you time your ADT you can see Wishes from the veranda. The last time we went there were three of us, all women. We used 4 credits between the three of us, and it was plenty. We had enough to eat and did not leave feeling like we needed a crane to get us out.

We actually did this throughout the trip. I hate to waste food, so we woudl often start with two meals (CS especially) to share, knowing we could order more if we were still hungry. WE never were.
 
The best value with the dining plan is usually the expensive character meals. I am not sure if your girls would want to do character meals. BOG is a QS lunch option that I would definitely do. If your girls are not adventurous then coral reef might be another interesting restaurant but with a menu they might like. If it were me i would love Boma or Sanaa, but with picky kids that probably wouldn't be a good option. Mama Melrose at HS was great and if you want you can book a fantasmic package so that you can get better seating for the show.

I guess with picky kids your best bet is to take time, print out the list of restaurants on the plan and spend some time looking at the menu options.

If you want value out of TS credits-- do not use it for a breakfast -- save it and do a dinner. That is where you get the best "value". If you paid out of pocket for the breakfast you were intending to us the TS credit or just did a QS breakfast then you could look at doing one of the 2 credit restaurants. There are options, but I have read and i have seen it for myself that the dining plan saves you a little money if you have "disney kids" and do a number of character meals. Once kids become "adults" the plan isn't as much of a savings.
 
We ended up booking:

Garden Grill for Dinner
1900 Park Fare for Breakfast and Dinner
Cape May for Dinner
Via Napoli for Dinner

Rest of our food options will be QS and we never pick those until we get in the parks, but I'm think of trying Peco's Bill, Restaurantosaurus, Cookes of Dublin, and ????
 


We ended up booking:

Garden Grill for Dinner
1900 Park Fare for Breakfast and Dinner
Cape May for Dinner
Via Napoli for Dinner

Rest of our food options will be QS and we never pick those until we get in the parks, but I'm think of trying Peco's Bill, Restaurantosaurus, Cookes of Dublin, and ????

I really enjoyed Pecos Bill last tiem we were there. We Alan's enjoy Flame Tree BBQ in DAK< Tangetine Cafe and SUnshine Seasons in Epcot,
 
At Disney Springs Wolfgang Puck Express in the Marketplace & Cooke's are 2 of our go restaurants. We don't get the dining plans so I can't say what is the best value. Although based on their prices I would say Puck is
 

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