Meal Plan not worth it anymore.

[Belle5]

I also like that those credits DO roll over, it goes by credits not days.

This is incorrect information. Your credits may roll over--but will expire at midnight the day you check-out.

 

[jenseib]

This is incorrect information. Your credits may roll over--but will expire at midnight the day you check-out.

I think that is what she meant. Just didn't word it properly.

 

[Ka' eo]

I have gone without kids and it was worth it. Adult leisurely time at meals, really was a major focus of the trip. It has not been worth it for our kids. We much prefer the room discount. We are lucky we have $700 Disney accrued for our trip. That will cover most everything for us!

I have to say, I felt full and bloated all the time eating all that food. I also did not like having to be somewhere every night. The spontaneity is lost.

We will be there 8 days and nights. We are probably going to eat TS 3 or 4 times. We'll fill in with CS meals, and a few snacks and water that we'll bring (or get).

I have cooked many times on my vacations. I DO NOT want to do that.

We also would have had to buy unneeded 1 day tix to get the dining plan. That really made it not affordable. Next time we go, we'll need tix, our kids will be over 10 and perhaps it might make sense.

 

[TDC Nala]

All dining plans, including the deluxe, go by the rule that you receive all of your credits as soon as you check in, and you have until midnight after you check out to use all of them. There is no requirement that you must use 3 deluxe dining credits per specific day of your stay.

Probably what was meant is that you receive 3 credits per person per night, and if you don't use them all during your trip, then you don't get refunds - they're just gone.

 

[stogs2]

We are all booked for another great trip in June. As we always have, we booked the meal plan. After thinking about it and looking at menus/prices, we realized that it is not the great deal it once was.
We will end up paying less for our food if we just pay out of pocket. We would never buy a chocolate cake at every lunch, we never use up all those snacks.

When the plan first came out it was great. As they have increased prices and removed things, it is simply not worth it. Does anyone else feel this way or am I just crazy? HaHa

We definitely feel it is not worth it anymore. We did the plan the first year it came out when it included appetizer/entree/dessert/drink and gratuity. Now that it does not include appetizer or gratuity it's not worth it. There are also a lot more "Signature" options than there used to be. Cinderella's Royal Table used to only take one credit.

 

[TDC Nala]

We definitely feel it is not worth it anymore. We did the plan the first year it came out when it included appetizer/entree/dessert/drink and gratuity. Now that it does not include appetizer or gratuity it's not worth it. There are also a lot more "Signature" options than there used to be. Cinderella's Royal Table used to only take one credit.

and Le Cellier and Coral Reef used to be two.

 

[honeydiane1953]

I do not want the Plan. Making the dadgum ressies then hurrying to prob another park or resort to make it. Not a vacation to me. My daughter and I will eat at Earl of Sandwich, and a couple of nice places but this hurry up and wait is w o r k

 

[cjsm&d]

We are all booked for another great trip in June. As we always have, we booked the meal plan. After thinking about it and looking at menus/prices, we realized that it is not the great deal it once was.
We will end up paying less for our food if we just pay out of pocket. We would never buy a chocolate cake at every lunch, we never use up all those snacks.

When the plan first came out it was great. As they have increased prices and removed things, it is simply not worth it. Does anyone else feel this way or am I just crazy? HaHa

I agree. I actually sat down and figured out what we paid for package vs what we would have paid on our own for our week. Saved $210 on what the meals would have cost us out of pocket. However! If we take away the $5+ deserts at all those meals (we don't do desert at most meals), the savings was negligible. Plus, I feel like we spend too much time focused on meals and ADR's and whatnot.

Also, our son is 9 and gets extremely bored with the same kids menu at almost every restaurant. You can only eat som much mac n cheese, and chicken fingers....

We are skipping the dining plan this year. I'll post back to see if my figures are correct.

 

[goofy4tink]

Here are the costs for 3 adults..our various choices, based on the ADRs we have already made for our 8 day trip this summer (I haven't heard that DVC gets to pay less, so I'm figuring on the upped price)...
Cost of DDP for all three (dh, myself, and 16 y/o dd).....$1152, add to that 18% tip for TS meals..you have $1274. Then add the $100 I will be paying for two oop meals....$1374.
Okay...
OOP plan, with TiW card (which will be bought just prior to this trip and then used for the next year).....
TS costs...$783
C/S costs...$288
snacks...$120..for a total of $1191. Add the $75 for TiW card...$1266

So, it's $1374 for the DDP vs $1266 OOP with TiW, a difference of $108. No tips are included in the oop costs because they are offset by the 20% TiW discount.
It's almost a wash....It will most likely be even a greater difference simply because we don't usually do snacks during the day..but I put in a snack for each of us, every day, so the comparisons would be correct. But, in all reality, the snack costs will more likely be about $50 not $120!

Yes, I liked it when the DDP was all inclusive..tip, appetizer, entree, dessert, beverage. And it was a lot cheaper then. I don't use it nearly as much when traveling with the family now..it just isn't worth it for all three of us..dd just doesn't eat enough to offset her cost. The TiW card works better for us, in most cases.

 

[Tammy296]

We're on the fence right now.

Last 2 years we have gone with the Full Service MP. It has always seemed beneficial. In 2007, it was a GREAT deal and well worth the money spent as appetizers were included as well as desserts, drink and your meal. In our 2009 trip, a lot got cut out and we had to pay tips. If we had not had the gift card from the 4/3 deal to use we probably would not have made out good. This year, there is no real spectacular spring deal going. The current deal isn't that great compared to years past. And a lot more has been cut as far as what's "included" Goofy's treats are no longer included like they were last year (March 2009) So I'm not sure we'll go with it this trip. I'm considering for us to pay OOP. We'd never eat a dessert at every meal normally and John would be happy with hot dogs and hamburgers (like he is at home). I'm really the only one who likes to eat "well portioned meals" (my size would never tell you that though ) In any event, I'm going downhill on my thoughts with the Disney DDP.

Question is: How much should we set aside for $ to pay OOP for dining? I'll be figuring that up soon!!


Tammy

 

[Danislee]

My parents have been coming to Disney for a long time, and when we kids came along (4 of us) they continued to come. During the first year of the dining plan when appetizer and tip were included it was absolutely a homerun for all of us. Mom and Dad aren't sure about the current Dining Plan. Had it been around when we were kids, they probably wouldn't have done it, I was the only big eater, although a turkey leg was plenty. We never ate TS meals except if we went to the HDDR for a special occasion. So, they also feel very tied down just for a meal.

Now, my husband and I like the dining plan, but both times we've lucked out with free dining. I like food, and I can eat quite a lot, but I would never order a dessert at TS or QS if I were paying out of pocket, and I would probably go to one TS type meal per trip and stick to QS.

 

[Earlylite16]

We went to WDW 4 years ago when my older daughter was 8 and though my husband was on the fence to start....by the end of the trip we more than got our money's worth and ate very well......we do not go on vacations every year (though the next 3+ years I will be attending a doctoral program in FL so it's more likely) and I hate to worry about counting pennies and not being able to order what I want due to cost.

Since then our family has grown with the addition of another daughter who will be 3 in June...I planned the trip before she was 3 because she eats like a bird....her sister will be considered an adult but, at $126/day for the four of us to eat is very reasonable. We are planning to do Cindrella's Castle and will also do the Rain Forest Cafe so we'll have to pay out of pocket and use 2 TS for the other but, all in all...it should work out well.

 

[fireman1]

We've did it both ways in the last two years, with and without. For us, it's much easier using it. For example, I look at things on the menu for myself that I normally wouldn't look at because of price. With it, I don't have to worry about the price and can just relax. It is a vacation after all.
Yes, I know in the end the price may not be much of a difference, but by paying up front you don't worry about the little things, like menu item prices.
I guess the ones who don't like the DP will continue not liking it, and the ones that do like it, will continue to do so.

 

[Cinderella3]

I think that the dining plan is worth it, it was alot easier when everything was in the packet but nevertheless, I feel it is worth the money.
We always try to do a character meal for ts, so it saves from having to stand in line to get those characters to sign the autograph books.

 

[aussietravellers]

We did the dining plan last trip and loved it. I really want to do it again, but DS is 10 now and he still likes the kids menu so it will just not be worth it for us this trip

We are big TS eaters, not big eaters just enjoy TS meals, we like to take the time to have a break, sit down and relax. Sometimes we may just have an appertizer, not an entree say for lunch or even dinner, but still like to sit down at TS and we are not really big dessert eaters. Last time we had the DDP and found that we had to pay for an extra TS meal each day as we usually ended up having two TS and a QS daily and sometimes one of those TS meals was a Signature, so we didn't have anywhere near enough TS credits. So if we were to do it again it would be the DxDDP. But again with DS being 10 he will not eat over $70 a day!

So whilst I love the idea of the plan, it just doesn't suit us this trip and we are going for 21 nights, so we are going to do OOP with TIW and we will actually save much more than getting the DxDDP.

 

[Cinderella3]

can you tell me what TIW is

 

[aussietravellers]

TIW is Tables In Wonderland.


Here is some info
http://www.wdwinfo.com/disneydiningexperience.htm

 

[jacksmom]

I do not believe that DVC members are charged the usual surcharge. We are not being charged one and we will be going during the summer. Good Luck and call DVC member services!

Thanks!

 

[bluenosemickey]

I've done the DDP when it was much better back in 06 and all of our kids were considered kids. Once our oldest turned 10 and they removed the tip, it made the decision really difficult. We still used it but found that we didn't really save any money. We just ate more!

So we went without DDP and found that to be great. We had only 3 adrs and ate when and where we wanted with some of the better CS locations. I found that a lot of the time, at least one meal was shared and supplemented with a snack or dessert instead of ordering a full meal. I still worried about what we spent, but that's worth the sacrifice for the freedom of eating what and where you want for CS.

Then they introduced the new QSDP, I found that it can be a good value to us and just add in the TS that we would like. Our kid have done DDP many times and therefore don't need to see those characters as much anymore. We are not that into TS dining at this stage of our family lives. Someday.... but just not now. For now, it's about the rest of disney and the food is a very small part of the experience. I know some don't feel the same, so it's an individual thing.

The best compromise I have found so far is to do split stays with DP of some kind for the first part and to stretch the credits over the last day of the plan (departure day of first resort). Therefore getting an extra day out of it to increase the value to us. We are AP holders and DVC so we don't have to worry about the ticket issues. So we get to do some TS dining, and then save some money at the end of the trip with OOP dining and enjoy the freedom of no adrs. On QSDP we get to buy up a lot of snacks on the last day to last us for a few more days (like cakes and pastries) out of our room fridge. And at the front end, we buy the stuff that needs to be eaten right away like icecream and dole whips. Once I get my fix I'm usually good for the rest of the trip.

So as you can see, we have tried it many different ways. There is no perfect answer at least for us. We just mix it up from trip to trip. Next year my second kid turns 10 and so I suspect that will spell the end of the DDPs of any sort. There's no way our family of 5 would need to spend that much on food every day. Some days, yes, but most days, no.

Sorry for the long post

 

[2Tiggies]

We still used it but found that we didn't really save any money. We just ate more!:

This is exactly what you need to decide to see whether it will work for you. As soon a you are working to make it work, you can take that as a confirmation that the DDP is not right for you. Ideally, all factors need to be weighed up for each trip as families change as do our habits and needs on a coninuous basis. What works great in one year may be completely unsuitable in the next.

For now, it's about the rest of disney and the food is a very small part of the experience. I know some don't feel the same, so it's an individual thing.

I feel the same. It is a season. I am making the most of it so I dont' miss out. In the years to come, I am sure DD and I will enjoy many wonderful restaurants together.