Is the dining plan worth is? How much is food?

[java]

Another dumb question..do you get the 10%AAA discount on the meal plan as well? I need to find my DDE card and see when it expires- if it is before our next trip I may need to do the mealplan. My only concern is that my DH doesn't like to be limited with what he can order- do they allow you only certain menu items?

 

[LSB]

We traveled with my mom and dad and brother in October and used the dining plan. We felt like royalty being able to order anything on the menu and have it all "taken care of".

One of the biggest advantages for us was not having to argue over the checks with my parents (we had purchased their dining plan in advance and put notes in their birthday cards).

We ate like royalty too! We ordered everything that was included on the voucher- it was a lot of food- but it was all wonderful! It was fun to try new foods, and enjoy finer entrees than we typically order.

Just out of curiousity I kept track of our bills and by the end of the week our party of 7 had gotten 100% of the value of our dining plan purchase plus about $700 worth of "free" food- although that was not our goal by any means.

 

[G. Fite]

We are a family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids – 2 of them qualify as adults) and we used the dining plan in December 2005. For one day of the dining plan, our cost was $160.

6 counter service meals: $56.10 (Electric Umbrella)
6 buffet character meals: $121.94 (Crystal Palace)
6 Mickey Ice Cream bars: $18.00

Total: $196.04 (This does not include the tip, which is also included with the dining plan)

So for one day, we have “saved” $36 – actually more because of no paid tip. We saved even more when we went to fancier restaurants, like Le Cellier, where the bill for just 2 of us was $111.00.

Even if you don’t plan on ordering an appetizer or dessert with every meal, you still save money and it gives you the freedom to try many places and have many nice meals. We loved it!

I know this is an old post but I am reading through them all!

anyway,, How do you find the time to do so much eating on the DP? My family of 5 (3 kids-10, 7 & 5) are planning to split our days between 2 parks and rest in between. I honestly don't see where we will have the time to spend all of our credits!

Are the character dining meals the best deal? We were hoping to do a lot of sampling but I can't see how it will all work!

I am thinking
breakfast at the hotel
4 hours in the morn.
lunch
back to the hotel to rest/swim
5-6 hours at night.-dinner at the park (TS)

Is it possible/advisable to visit 2 TS in one night and share meals? Say at 4:30 and then again at the last seating of the night?

Thanks!!

Gina

 

[spa101]

We did the dining plan and would never do it any other way, we saved so much money. The food in disney is not cheap. I would highly recommend it. It is just enough food, the only thing we had to pay for were a few soft pretzels throughout the week, other than that it was the perfect amount of food for us. I would do it if I were you. Our dinners for a party of three were at least $100 each night. Some were closer to $150.

 

[WantToGoNow]

Given the restaurants you have chosen, I think you would come out ahead. We have a family of 6 -- 4 adults, 1 child, 1 free. I made a spreadsheet showing each restaurant we were planning to visit -- I had each adult go through and look at the menus and pick what they would want to eat there -- if they didn't want appetizer or dessert, they didn't add it on. We came out saving about $700.

 

[My2Cinderellas]

2 things jump out at me when deciding whether to get the Dining Plan.

1. figure out what you would typically order if paying out of pocket. Remember to add on tax, and gratuity on TS meals. Does this equal or exceed the cost of the dining plan? if Yes, then it's up for consideration.

2. can you get any discount on the room price? Dining plan is based on paying rack rates for the room, the only exception is to go through AAA, which gets you the AAA discount on the room portion, you still pay the full price for the DP and tickets part of the package. If you can get a room discount of some kind other than AAA, add that savings to the cost of the dining plan for your visit. do you still come out ahead? then book the package to include Dining. If not, book the room only with your discount, and pay out of pocket for food.

we booked the Dining plan on a package through AAA. I love not having to worry about the cost of food for our trip. even if we break even $$ wise, having it prepaid will be wonderful. I've done some calculations based on the restaurants we have ADR's at, and we usually break even or are already ahead after the cost of the TS meal each day, before you figure in the CS and snack credits.

 

[twinsmamma]

I know this is an old post but I am reading through them all!

anyway,, How do you find the time to do so much eating on the DP? My family of 5 (3 kids-10, 7 & 5) are planning to split our days between 2 parks and rest in between. I honestly don't see where we will have the time to spend all of our credits!

Are the character dining meals the best deal? We were hoping to do a lot of sampling but I can't see how it will all work!

I am thinking
breakfast at the hotel
4 hours in the morn.
lunch
back to the hotel to rest/swim
5-6 hours at night.-dinner at the park (TS)

Is it possible/advisable to visit 2 TS in one night and share meals? Say at 4:30 and then again at the last seating of the night?

Thanks!!

Gina

You might want to think of not park hopping so much and them it makes it easier to plan yu meals and you dont have travel time. Saying this you can still plan lunch in one park and dinner in the next. have c/s for lunch , t/s for dinner etc. the best bang for your buck is not the character meals but if the characters are what you want to see then it is worth it. character meals tend to be buffet or platter style meals and are not the best qulaity food. i would suggest going to table service places like boma, le cellier, etc most bang for your buck,

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

The dining plan is part of the package and is for each night you are staying. You can not buy extra or just purchase it for a select part of your stay. Kind of the all or nothing thought behind it. Sorry.

Ahhh but there's a work around. Simply book a split stay. We drive and therefore have to depart early. So we book a package through thursday night, and then book a one day hotel only for Friday night. Upon Checkout Friday morning, we check in for the one night stay at the same time, and our meal plan expires midnight Friday (the day we checked out). So that covers us. Saturday we're leaving early anyway so the plan would be useless to us that day.

 

[jezabel_007]

I think it was worth it. We went 3 nights. First night was Boma and that bill came to $52. Next day we ate at Tusker House and that bill was $16. Dinner that night was at Downtown Disney at Wolfgang Express, and that bill was $20 I think. Breakfast was at the Mara next morning and that came to about $15 and dinner was at Narcoossee's and that bill was $190. The plan was something like $230 for two people, so it was definetly worth it. Some of the CS stuff could have been shared because the portions were huge.

Oh and about snack credits...I don't think it has to be under $2.50. I wanted to get chocolate bars at the Mara and they said they were not included in the plan, so I'm not sure how it all works.

 

[twinsmamma]

the snack credits are marked ont he boards with a purple DP logo you can get almost anything fromt he snack carts around the parks. At hotels it is most snack type things, fruit, drinks, icecream, chips etc. At our hotel you could get desserts for a a snack item. It doesnt hurt to ask maybe you will get what you want

 

[plutospup]

Sorry, maybe I missed it, but how much is the dining plan? Adults/Children? Thanks for your help!

 

[suzimar57]

It's $37.99 per adult, per night and $10.99 per child, per night

 

[huey578]

Hi
I'm trying to decide if the Dining Plan is worth it for my family.

It will cost us 603.00 for a family of of 6 for 3 nights.

Wondering if anyone can tell me what the following might cost me:

snack items

Ice Cream
Water
Pop
Popcorn
Fruit

Counter Service

Hamburger meal
Hotdog meal
Chicken meal

Table Service

Le Cellier Steakhouse
Brown Derby
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Cinderella Royal Table
1900 Park Fare
Chef Mickeys

Also does anyone know a site that will tell me what restaurants are included in the plan and if it takes 2 table service "tickets" to eat at them.

Thanks so much!

Just with table service you guys will come out ahead. Go for the meal plan.

 

[twinsmamma]

Just with table service you guys will come out ahead. Go for the meal plan.

If you go to this site it will tell you all the resturants in disney and whether they are dining plan rest. all that are label quick service are your c/s meal places. Those labelled signature dining or dinner show are the two credit places, any theamed or character dining are one credit t/s meal places.
you xcan sort these rest by location, cuisine and rest type
this site also tells you price points for the rest. most sit down meals with cost around 50 per adult per meal. for example me and my 12 yr old twinsd went to le cellier and all had apps, and entrees ony two desserts and soft drinks and our bill was 160 Most of the sit down meals will more than cover the cos tof the plan. don't hesitate get the plan it is more than worth it.

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdwi/en_CA/dining/diningFinder?id=DiningFinderPage

 

[drogerstn]

I figure we spend around $22 for table-service, $9.50 for counter-service, and $3.00 for snacks. This is a total of $34.50. We do not average one table-service per day. This plan would force us to spend about $200 more on food for a 7-day period.

We conserve on our food budget by occasionally eating in our room. We make sandwiches if we are taking an afternoon resort break. We often eat breakfast in the room while someone is occupying the sink and shower area which saves us time at the start of the day. Eating like this is more convenient than dealing with the decision of where to eat and making PS or waiting in line.

The dining plan is good value and I'm still considering it for our next trip. However, we don't normally order appetizers (certainly not one per person) or desserts during our meals. Over a 7-day period, we probably have 3 or 4 table service meals, not 7 and not at an expensive place.

 

[tinkerbell211]

we booked the Dining plan on a package through AAA. I love not having to worry about the cost of food for our trip. even if we break even $$ wise, having it prepaid will be wonderful

I booked AAA rates through WDW. Do you know if I tried to add on the dining plan w/ WDW, if they would still honor my AAA rate; or do I need to try to get the package directly through AAA?

 

[jl]

Husband & I just used dining plan for 7 nights....we probably would not do it again nor would we recommend it specifically to the 1 or 2 family/friends with upcoming trips.

We did TS @ Concourse Steakhouse - the server was rude & bored with the Dining Plan, prime rib & steak was ok, the lobster bisque was lukewarm, the bill was $97. I would not have wanted to pay that out of pocket.

Cape May was OK - the dessert buffet was great (oreo bon-bon's) - again I would not want to pay out of pocket.

Boatwright's Valentine's Day - prime rib was ok....by 3rd evening DP was not so exciting....chocolate fudge cake, carrot cake, cheesecake not much choice (we don't order dessert as a rule).

The best was Le Cellier - server was wonderful as was the prime rib & potatoes & the creme brulee was fabulous.

Chef Mickey's for dinner on Thursday - this was awful. Sorry - we knew it was character buffet having done it last in '99 - food was blah - character interaction was great though & desserts on buffet were good - mickey domes (?)

Used our TS Friday for breakfast @ Boatwright's. Food was OK but for some reason our server insisted that we could not have appetizer...I wanted strawberries w/cream - she said I could have a fruit smoothie - 2 drinks (??)...well I already had orange juice & didn't care for the raspberry smoothie. It was too sweet. I would have liked it if it were more like raspberry sherbert....this was way too sugary. Although there were many empty tables she hurried us out.

On our last night (Sat.) we did Boatwright's for dinner & it was better than a few days before - Prime rib was good but the potatoes were not so great. "Boatwright potatoes" were escalloped potatoes with quite a bit of onion. the server said they were "au gratin with parmesan cheese - NOT - the different person who brought our dinner said "scalloped potatoes". This time we were offered the "mickey sundae" which hit the spot for dessert.

The DP was way too much food for us. We don't usually each order appetizers or dessert. We did with the dining plan. & We missed having a "regular" tossed salad & there were no vegetables. The dinners consisted of appetizer like shrimp cocktail (these were huge-easily shared), soup, crab cakes & generally the "meat & potatoes" part. Also, we were looking for real yeasty type dinner rolls or french bread - got tired of the corn bread & bread sticks.

We did fine splitting CS for breakfast & lunch & actually had 7 snack credits left. We got a couple of waters, chips, mickey rice crispie things. 8 AM (had to catch ME @ 9) is not a good time to get cookies. They don't have them until 11 AM or so & we had nothing (like a ziploc baggie) to keep them fresh from the day before.

Just our recent experience....glad we tried the DP - we would not do it again as it wasn't so great. Also, we did not go to any 2 TS places like Yachtsman or some of the other 2 TS places. Also ADR's were great as we tried to change midweek to add Le Cellier on for our last Sat. night. no luck as they were booked full plus the girl said they were 30% overbooked - don't know if this was usual for Sat. night or because it was the beginning of President's week.
We surely saved $$ - we did get our money's worth but we ate more food than we needed/wanted & quickly tired of Disney food We did not have car so we would not have gone off Disney property anyway. I think we would have just eaten more CS, chef salads, taco salads, burgers.

 

[My2Cinderellas]

I booked AAA rates through WDW. Do you know if I tried to add on the dining plan w/ WDW, if they would still honor my AAA rate; or do I need to try to get the package directly through AAA?

you can book AAA discounts on room only through WDW, but to get the AAA discount on a Magic Your Way package, you must book through AAA.

HTH!

 

[G. Fite]

Husband & I just used dining plan for 7 nights....we probably would not do it again nor would we recommend it specifically to the 1 or 2 family/friends with upcoming trips.

We did TS @ Concourse Steakhouse - the server was rude & bored with the Dining Plan, prime rib & steak was ok, the lobster bisque was lukewarm, the bill was $97. I would not have wanted to pay that out of pocket.

Cape May was OK - the dessert buffet was great (oreo bon-bon's) - again I would not want to pay out of pocket.

Boatwright's Valentine's Day - prime rib was ok....by 3rd evening DP was not so exciting....chocolate fudge cake, carrot cake, cheesecake not much choice (we don't order dessert as a rule).

The best was Le Cellier - server was wonderful as was the prime rib & potatoes & the creme brulee was fabulous.

Chef Mickey's for dinner on Thursday - this was awful. Sorry - we knew it was character buffet having done it last in '99 - food was blah - character interaction was great though & desserts on buffet were good - mickey domes (?)

Used our TS Friday for breakfast @ Boatwright's. Food was OK but for some reason our server insisted that we could not have appetizer...I wanted strawberries w/cream - she said I could have a fruit smoothie - 2 drinks (??)...well I already had orange juice & didn't care for the raspberry smoothie. It was too sweet. I would have liked it if it were more like raspberry sherbert....this was way too sugary. Although there were many empty tables she hurried us out.

On our last night (Sat.) we did Boatwright's for dinner & it was better than a few days before - Prime rib was good but the potatoes were not so great. "Boatwright potatoes" were escalloped potatoes with quite a bit of onion. the server said they were "au gratin with parmesan cheese - NOT - the different person who brought our dinner said "scalloped potatoes". This time we were offered the "mickey sundae" which hit the spot for dessert.

The DP was way too much food for us. We don't usually each order appetizers or dessert. We did with the dining plan. & We missed having a "regular" tossed salad & there were no vegetables. The dinners consisted of appetizer like shrimp cocktail (these were huge-easily shared), soup, crab cakes & generally the "meat & potatoes" part. Also, we were looking for real yeasty type dinner rolls or french bread - got tired of the corn bread & bread sticks.

We did fine splitting CS for breakfast & lunch & actually had 7 snack credits left. We got a couple of waters, chips, mickey rice crispie things. 8 AM (had to catch ME @ 9) is not a good time to get cookies. They don't have them until 11 AM or so & we had nothing (like a ziploc baggie) to keep them fresh from the day before.

Just our recent experience....glad we tried the DP - we would not do it again as it wasn't so great. Also, we did not go to any 2 TS places like Yachtsman or some of the other 2 TS places. Also ADR's were great as we tried to change midweek to add Le Cellier on for our last Sat. night. no luck as they were booked full plus the girl said they were 30% overbooked - don't know if this was usual for Sat. night or because it was the beginning of President's week.
We surely saved $$ - we did get our money's worth but we ate more food than we needed/wanted & quickly tired of Disney food We did not have car so we would not have gone off Disney property anyway. I think we would have just eaten more CS, chef salads, taco salads, burgers.

This is why we are sharing the DP. We have 2 rooms booked and Dad and 2 DD are on the plan and mom and DD (10) are not on the plan. This saves us $608.00! We figured we could order salads and items not on the DP and make out much much better. I would have gone ahead and done all of us if DD 10 was not considered a Disney Adult but she wants kid meals not adult food! And this way we don't have way too much food to eat! Me and DD will pay OOP for the few character meals we do (or use the TS credits?) but either way it is better for my family to have 24 TS and 24 CS credits to share and pay out of pocket for anything else.
Dad is the only huge eater in our family and so he will get his money worth out of the DP but since the rest of us are vegetarian it just did not make sense.
Thanks to the folks for suggesting this!

PS-This is not to take advantage of the DP (not really) but to do what is best for us. If only Disney was not sooo expensive!

 

[PoohHappens]

Husband & I just used dining plan for 7 nights....we probably would not do it again nor would we recommend it specifically to the 1 or 2 family/friends with upcoming trips.

We did TS @ Concourse Steakhouse - the server was rude & bored with the Dining Plan, prime rib & steak was ok, the lobster bisque was lukewarm, the bill was $97. I would not have wanted to pay that out of pocket.

Cape May was OK - the dessert buffet was great (oreo bon-bon's) - again I would not want to pay out of pocket.

Boatwright's Valentine's Day - prime rib was ok....by 3rd evening DP was not so exciting....chocolate fudge cake, carrot cake, cheesecake not much choice (we don't order dessert as a rule).

The best was Le Cellier - server was wonderful as was the prime rib & potatoes & the creme brulee was fabulous.

Chef Mickey's for dinner on Thursday - this was awful. Sorry - we knew it was character buffet having done it last in '99 - food was blah - character interaction was great though & desserts on buffet were good - mickey domes (?)

Used our TS Friday for breakfast @ Boatwright's. Food was OK but for some reason our server insisted that we could not have appetizer...I wanted strawberries w/cream - she said I could have a fruit smoothie - 2 drinks (??)...well I already had orange juice & didn't care for the raspberry smoothie. It was too sweet. I would have liked it if it were more like raspberry sherbert....this was way too sugary. Although there were many empty tables she hurried us out.

On our last night (Sat.) we did Boatwright's for dinner & it was better than a few days before - Prime rib was good but the potatoes were not so great. "Boatwright potatoes" were escalloped potatoes with quite a bit of onion. the server said they were "au gratin with parmesan cheese - NOT - the different person who brought our dinner said "scalloped potatoes". This time we were offered the "mickey sundae" which hit the spot for dessert.

The DP was way too much food for us. We don't usually each order appetizers or dessert. We did with the dining plan. & We missed having a "regular" tossed salad & there were no vegetables. The dinners consisted of appetizer like shrimp cocktail (these were huge-easily shared), soup, crab cakes & generally the "meat & potatoes" part. Also, we were looking for real yeasty type dinner rolls or french bread - got tired of the corn bread & bread sticks.

We did fine splitting CS for breakfast & lunch & actually had 7 snack credits left. We got a couple of waters, chips, mickey rice crispie things. 8 AM (had to catch ME @ 9) is not a good time to get cookies. They don't have them until 11 AM or so & we had nothing (like a ziploc baggie) to keep them fresh from the day before.

Just our recent experience....glad we tried the DP - we would not do it again as it wasn't so great. Also, we did not go to any 2 TS places like Yachtsman or some of the other 2 TS places. Also ADR's were great as we tried to change midweek to add Le Cellier on for our last Sat. night. no luck as they were booked full plus the girl said they were 30% overbooked - don't know if this was usual for Sat. night or because it was the beginning of President's week.
We surely saved $$ - we did get our money's worth but we ate more food than we needed/wanted & quickly tired of Disney food We did not have car so we would not have gone off Disney property anyway. I think we would have just eaten more CS, chef salads, taco salads, burgers.

Sounds more like you just did not like the food. We had a salad as an appetizer many times. There are really not any limitations on the menu when you are at a participating restraurant. Now if you would preferr to only do CS then I could undertand. The brochure does mention the limitations if using you credit for breakfast.