Dining Plan Worth It?

K O

Earning My Ears
Joined
Nov 22, 2016
Hi...my family will be heading back to Disney in March. We went two years ago with our children who were 4 and 1 at the time and we didn't have the dining plan, although we did do a lot of character dining so it may have been worth it. This time around the kids are 6 and 3, but neither one of them are big eaters at all. When we go out to eat they either share a meal or leave their plates untouched. Also, we booked our trip so late so we don't have many character dinings planned. The difference for our trip with/without it is about $800. I am just not sure that we will spend $800 in dining/snacks. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
If you are ordering mostly a la carte and/or doing QS, even with kids it is unlikely to "pay off" unless you're ordering adult QS for the kids.

It's the fixed-cost meals and buffets where DDP can become a value with kids.
 
Got it. Couldn't help but feel like I was making a mistake but I think I'm going to keep it as is. Thanks.
 
I would say go without the plan. It sounds like you could make out better with the little ones sharing a meal or eating a little bit of yours. The dining plan makes the most sense when you have a few "disney kids" and you do a number of character meals.

If you wanted take the time to just do rough estimate of what you would actually prefer to order at your TS reservations (all the menus and pricing are on the disney website) and add in some sample QS meals you might order (probably most are between $12-15). Throw in $5 per person/d for a snack you could estimate if the dining plan would make sense. At 6 and 3 you could probably just pack some snacks so that could save you a little money there. You really need to know if your family is the type to always order a beverage aside from water and if you always order dessert. My family doesn't and we felt stuffed the last trip we used the dining plan.

You could also put $800 on a gift card and use that as your dining plan. money left over could be for souvenirs.
 



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