Is the dining plan worth it?

[rgarcia21]

My family of 7, 4 adults and 3 kids, 8, 5, 3 will headed down to WDW this October for 7 days. The quick service dining plan is around $1000. Looking for insight and perspective especially from folks that have vacationed with young kids. I know that I can definitely eat 2 meals and 2 snacks every day but I'm not sure if kids would.

Thanks
Ray

 

[Marionnette]

My family of 7, 4 adults and 3 kids, 8, 5, 3 will headed down to WDW this October for 7 days. The quick service dining plan is around $1000. Looking for insight and perspective especially from folks that have vacationed with young kids. I know that I can definitely eat 2 meals and 2 snacks every day but I'm not sure if kids would.

Thanks
Ray

The snacks include many beverages. Even if the kids don't want their snacks, the adults would be able to use the kids' snack credits to get something to wash down their snacks. Snack credits are pooled together for all the people in one room. There is no distinction between child snacks credits and adult snack credits.

Whether the plan is worth the money is completely subjective. Some people would say that it is worth every penny. Others feel that they can eat more cheaply by paying out of pocket for only what they want. For instance, the plan includes both a beverage and a dessert with your quick service meal. Many people will state that they don't want or do not eat desserts with each meal. Others prefer to get a cup of ice water rather than pay for a soda or bottled water. If you look at it from that perspective, then the dining plan is not worth the money.

 

[purplepixiedust]

We are undecided.

You save a small percentage as opposed to paying out of pocket if you were to order all the food you would are alloted on the QSDP. However, we looked forward to our meals, but often would not be hungry enough to eat the dessert option (or care to) and those desserts usually run about $3-4.. You are very limited to what your choices are for desserts and by the middle of the week we no longer cared for/ were bored of the standard offerings at most counter service places dessert options and kids items. If your family eats a lot, then you may love this plan. If not, then I feel paying out of pocket and only buying what you are hungry for and where you want it from outweighs the savings of % off entree/dessert/drink...

We are considering the plan again for our next trip and will make a plan to dine in places with better options all around if we decide to go with the plan. We did well with the plan with help from reading this board before our trip, but we still could have done better.

Also check the menus for the kids meals, my kids were very bored with the same selections at almost every counter service place. There were many times that my husband and I agreed that paying out of pocket and letting them spilt an adult meal would have been a better option for all of us.

Hope that helps. Also now that I am familiar with the counter service locations, I know which ones have meals the kids can split etc. I have been checking menus of places we liked and adding up what we would order and snacks each day and it is really a toss up.. I did however like that I paid prior to my trip and was not counting money each time I ordered and thinking about how much we had left. I also think the snacks we bought with the plan were some of the best uses of snack credits but if we were not on the plan we would not have bought so many of them....

 

[Tony NY]

I would say yes espical if you are eating a Fine dining if you are only eating quick sevice I would say no

 

[stephgles]

For my family (myself, dh and dd 7) it is. I look at it this way. My meals are already paid for so that is one less thing I have to pay for while there. What I did this year is a went through the menus and priced out what it would cost us if we paid out of pocket and it was cheaper to pay for the dining plan that paying out of pocket.

 

[OhMari]

Food is very expensive at WDW.
Though I know of families were children and even adults shared Counter Service Meals. The portions are huge.
The parks tend to have the same things for C.S. meals, with a few exceptions.

I had the choice once between 40% off our room rate or free dining and I went with the 40% off. I saved my receipts and we spent over $50 more for the food than if we would of went with the free dining. But it really depends on what you are hungry for. At POFQ, the pizza counter saved us, because we would order pizza and take it back to our rooms-this was a huge savings. Otherwise I think we would of went with the Meal plan.

And, watch for Free Dining, sometimes it gets released for Oct.

 

[SunnieRN]

I have two 'grandmunchkins', age 3 and 5. For us the QS dining plan meets our needs. We will often share two breakfasts and one snack for breakfast and use our refillable mugs. We are a party of 5 with 3 adults and this is plenty. Each breakfast comes with two beverages and wegetsmart waters or iced coffee drinks for later.

We usually get three lunches and share. It is plenty, depending upon where you eat. We often still have leftovers! As far as desserts, there is usually, but not always an option for an additional side item, including grapes, which both the 'grandmunchkins' love!

Dinner we often get a meal each, or if we were hungrier during the day, do four lunches and four dinners. Either way we always have plenty to eat.

On our first day, I buy a plastic popcorn holder. Both my kids like the popcorn and it can be refilled with snack credits. The boys want popsicles every day, two more snack credits and we will get special treats in each park.

It works for us, and then we try to plan one to three oop sit down meals. We can use a snack credit for dessert after! Hope that helped!

 

[HS3kids]

We thought so. (family of 5, only one considered a child) because we did a lot of character dining. If that isnt important to you, then I would price it out without the DDP) It was also convenient to not have to worry about paying for it all, since it was already paid for (except for tips)
I would do it again in a second.
Have a great trip!

 

[Vijoge]

We just returned from five nights/six days 2 adults 1 child (age3) no dining plan. We added up our receipts when we got home and we spent $20 more than we would have with the dining plan.

ETA that was $20 more than if we'd had the regular DP, not the QS.

 

[trustknoone]

For us (Me DH DD12) no it was not really worth it. Price wise it works out to about even for us either way. We do share meals mainly so we can try different things at different places. None of us would order a soda we're water drinkers and as for desserts we would rather get what we want from where we want when we want it.
We also felt very tied to only eating at WDW (we drive so we like to go other places too) and eating more than we normally would.

If it's the idea of "prepaying" you like look at the menus and get an idea of what you might want and get a Visa/MC/Amex giftcard and use that worry free and you can use it other places too.

 

[monorailsilver]

I have not done the dining plan (yet). The reason why I never did it was because my kids were little & I really did not want to spend the time sitting in a restaurant with them when we should be in the park riding things or seeing things.

Some people may say that is the down time for your kids, but we always take a mid day break & to have down time again would drive me bonkers.

We also don't tend to eat those heavy huge meals. There are times when dh & I would split a salad & sandwich & be full. For me to get the full benefit ($$$) out of it, I'd need to eat more then a 1/2 a sandwich & 1/2 salad. Sometimes we'd split a turkey leg for lunch as well.

I do eat at Chef Mickey's but I am willing to pay for that & we liked the Whispering Canyon Cafe & again I am willing to pay for that.

But since there is a QS dining plan now, I am pretty much sure I will do it. That one seems worth it to me just for the resort mugs. I wish the plan gave the option of adding a few sit downs to it, not one every day though.

 

[KELLY]

We added the QSDP to our kids free promo also. I don't know if it is the best deal. Last year it was beacuse we got free dining. But we thought we would go somewhere else this year. LOL So we didn't book before the fd promo was over.

But we get 8 snack credits a day and we use them for beverages and icecream and popcorn for the kids. I know you can get better snacks but in September I just want a bottle of water. We also go for 9 nights so we don't want to be tied down to alot of adr's. We are having a character breakfest and eating at t-rex. But the rest will be QS meals which work for us.

 

[disneyred]

i have also struggled with this question .. family of 5 adults staying at deluxe..
i have done the math .. (not so good with it ) as I still don't know which option is CHEAPER .. as anyone done this scenario .. can you share your views on this ??

 

[cjnix29]

It is totally subjective. For us, it isn't. We have never tried the quick service plan. But we don't like having to plan every single meal and plan our whole day around when we eat. We also don't eat a table service meal every day. It's too much food for us, plus, it takes too much time! The times we have done it, we got it during a free dining promo. The last trip, we didn't have the dining plan, and it worked well for us. We had some adr's, but weren't tied to anything. If we wanted ice cream for dinner, so be it. For some families, it works for them. But I don't think we will get it again. So you will need to sit down and think about how you want to see/do the parks, what is important to you. If you are doing a lot of sit down meals anyway, it is probably worth it.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

I look at it this way. My meals are already paid for so that is one less thing I have to pay for while there.

Another way to "pre pay" for your meals is to purchase 1 or several Disney Gift Cards - if you buy just one you can add $$ to your DGC by calling DelivEARS ~ 800-362-4533 *you give the CM your credit/debit card info and they mail you the receipt. Last time I did this *a couple months ago* the $$ was on the GC the next day. *Make sure you write/send yourself an email with you DGC number(s) and possibly your PIN number(s) *the numbers hidden until you scratch them off with a penny - that way if it gets lost you can get it replaced

We never use the DLR Dining Plan - it is not a good idea at all, so to pre pay meals for those visits I use Disney GCs - we did use the regular *1TS 1 QS 1 Snack per night* Dining Plan for our WDW visit, it was *free*

 

[amylevan]

i have also struggled with this question .. family of 5 adults staying at deluxe..
i have done the math .. (not so good with it ) as I still don't know which option is CHEAPER .. as anyone done this scenario .. can you share your views on this ??

I've done the math for numerous scenarios. And the answer is - it depends. In general, there is very minimal savings one way or the other, so for us, we pay out of pocket so that if we want to just have a turkey leg for dinner, we can, without feeling like we wasted.

 

[cricketgirl]

Well, We paid for it the first year we went 2007. Loved it.

in 2009 we got it free. That was awesome.

For this year September 2011 we got it for free and upgraded to the deluxe.

It is just me and hubby and we like to take it slow and relax and enjoy Dinning at the Table Service. He loved yachtman's in 2009 and asked if there was a way to do 2 TS credit meals. I said sure. He said let's do that this time.

I love having everything paid in advance and spulerging on things I would never ever try any other time. Heck I ate a 22 oz steak last time. I don't usually eat beef much. It was fantastic.

Now the tips get kinda expensive, but hey it is vacation.

 

[mnrose]

Whether the plan is worth the money is completely subjective. Some people would say that it is worth every penny. Others feel that they can eat more cheaply by paying out of pocket for only what they want. For instance, the plan includes both a beverage and a dessert with your quick service meal. Many people will state that they don't want or do not eat desserts with each meal. Others prefer to get a cup of ice water rather than pay for a soda or bottled water. If you look at it from that perspective, then the dining plan is not worth the money.

This. For us (not big dessert eaters) this plan makes no sense financially. The "savings" comes only if you take full advantage of every item offered by the plan, every meal.

It is cheaper for us to eat what we want, when we want. Also, for me, I disliked that everything about my day revolved around the next ADR that I had. Which park I was at, and what I did at the park, felt "controlled" (or at least constrained) by my dining reservations. Some people aren't bothered by this at all, and think dining is part of the experience. I view dining as utilitarian in nature while at Disney, because (IMO only) the food is average and not all that special (ducking, as I know many disagree with this).

For other people, the plan is worth it because they like to know in advance what everything is going to cost and not "worry" about it while on vacation. I get that point of view as well.

However, for us, it is not a cost savings.

 

[Mrs. Charming]

We've always done the DDP whether we got it for free or paid for it with a discount off the room. In December, we went with a teeny baby and a 3 year old... we're *not* going to do it again until the kids are a little older. It just takes too much time, esp. with a 3 year old squirmy little girl who has no patience (which is normal for 3!) and apparently didn't give a hoot about princesses. LOL

I'm trying to decide on the QSDP and honestly, I'm not sold on it, I don't see the savings. I might just buy a gift card.

 

[allonte]

We do QSDP. It gives us flexibility so we're not tied down to a park or have to leave to be somewhere for a TS meal. I like that it's pre-paid and we don't have to worry about it. The biggest thing for me is that I won't chose the cheapest thing on the menu every.single.time. And I won't get mad (secretly) at DH when he picks something other than cheapest thing too. It makes for a more relaxed vacation for us.