Which Disney Dining Plan Will/Did You Choose?

[disney_mommy]

I looked back a few pages and didn't see a similar poll, so I thought I'd take a shot at it...

I am going in January and trying to decide between the quick service plan and the "regular" table service plan. I have researched and priced and taken tons of notes and am just curious about what others have decided to do.

I am not talking about the free dining plans that were offered for this year. If you had to pay for a dining plan, which one would you choose, and if you feel like sharing, why did you choose that one?

 

[Colleen27]

We choose the deluxe plan because it is more in line with the way we eat when we travel.

I don't eat fast food at home, so I certainly don't want counter service every day on my vacation. My kids are as far from picky as you can get (sushi is my 11yo's favorite food), and they really enjoy having the better options of table service rather than the extremely limited kids' options at the counter service locations. As the mom and coordinator, I enjoy never having to stand in line to order, balance a tray while keeping an eye on the kids, or hunt for a table.

Plus we all love being able to eat better than we can at home, since we're from a small town with very limited options for dining out. At Disney, we're all about ethnic options, signature restaurants, and enjoying things like sushi and lobster that are once in a blue moon, drive an hour to the restaurant, only for a special occasion dinners here at home.

 

[nel79]

We chose the Regular Plan.....It will be enough food for us

 

[clanmcculloch]

When we pay full price for food, we like the QSDP. Because of food allergies, we always have to wait for chefs to come out and everything has to be custom made for us. As wonderful as this is, it does take a lot of time. TS meals take us at least 2-2.5 hours once we're actually shown to our seats. That's a huge chunk of time. Yes, QS meals take longer for us than for most folks as well, but it's still a lot less time than a TS meal. We're more QS type of people. We've had some amazing QS meals that aren't junk food; you just need to look around at your options if you're concerned about having just a bunch of fast food types of meals. We ate REALLY well on the QSDP.

I also like that the QSDP comes with 2 snacks instead of the 1 that comes with the DDP plus I like getting the mugs.

QSDP just works best for us. We've got the DDP for our upcoming trip because we got the adults at kid prices PIN and that was only valid for the DDP at moderate resorts which is what we wanted to try this time. We're thinking of doing a few signature meals that cost 2 credits each and at the end paying for extra QS meals if we need any. I think we'll likely also supplement with a few turkey legs during our trip as well.

 

[TDC Nala]

I have quick service booked for one night on a split stay because I was thinking of buying a mug anyway.

Normally I do not use any of the dining plans. I find them too restrictive (as far as which restaurants you can go to, and which courses you can order).

 

[purplevalentine]

Just came back last night. I choose the QSDP for my 17 yr old nephew and I. It was plenty of food for us. Actually we were scrambling yesterday to use all of our credit. Ended up loosing 1 Counter service meal credit. We just couldn't eat anymore. I was worried about eating burgers the entire trip but that wasn't the case at all. We stayed at CSR. Pepper Market was awesome. Counter service place but felt like you were at a table service restaurant. I had everything from Tuna Steak to Roasted Pork Loin to Burgers to Roasted Chicken. We ate there several times during our trip. Also ate at Sunshine Seasons at the Land in EPCOT. Another great place that is counter service but you are getting REAL food an not burgers and fries. Although we have done TS places in the past (not on a dining plan) it does take up a lot of your time. It's really up to you and what you want to do on your trip. We wanted to do the parks so food was a pit stop for us and not always an "experience".


KAREN

 

[aubriee]

I've done the basic DDP ever since it came and loved it when it included the appetizer (and tip). It's still a good deal, (just not as good). However, we prefer the TS restaurants over CS. We also really like having the appetizers. For my May '08 and our Sept '08 trips we did the DxDDP and loved the flexibility of it. We also like having the extra credits to play with. This past May ('09) I went back to the basic DDP and really missed the appetizers and the extra meal credits. WDW has some good CS places, but I would have preferred the TS restaurants and didn't really enjoy my CS meals near as much. For my Sept/Oct trip I used the AP discount that came out yesterday and purchased the DxDDP again. I plan on using the extra snack credits at the F&W Festival kiosks and also plan on dining at at least four or five of the 2 credit Signature Restaurants. If I had gone with the basic DDP I would not have had enough credits to do that. Again we just prefer TS over CS, so the counter service plan holds no appeal for us at all.

 

[grace&philipsmom]

We have always done the deluxe. With little kids we go to all the character meals and they really need the breaks to recharge.

I do think though as the kids get older and we focus less on the characters (and they have more endurance) I would like to try the quick service.

 

[tnd]

We paid for the deluxe dining plan in January, and I think it was well worth it for our eating style. We don't love CS meals, with a few exceptions and we like character meals. Also, we would always be ordering appetizers, so it worked out better for us. Eating is a really important part of vacation for us and we like to try all different types of food. Finally, my son needs three meals per day, and we like to keep to a schedule for him, so we did eat three times per day pretty much every day. If we had done any other plan, we would have paid OOP for some meals.

A lot of times we did a large breakfast, lighter lunch (DH and I split a CS meal for example) and then we'd do a signature meal for dinner. Our son loves to go out to eat, so has no problem sitting through longer meals. We had 2 meals left over at the end (DH doesn't eat breakfast) and used up 10 snacks at the Main Street Confectionary, but we still saved several hundred dollars using the plan.

We liked it so much, we upgraded for our short free dining trip in August. I think we'll do it again in the future.

 

[MouseEarsJenny]

We're on the "regular" dining plan. We have many "must do" table service restaurants, so no QSDP. We're taking 11 people, so we can't afford the Deluxe Plan! Plus, I really like counter service places, so I'm not sure I could ever do the Deluxe plan in a cost effective way because I'd always want to eat at Cosmic Ray's, Flame Tree BBQ, Sunshine Seasons, etc.

The regular plan is REALLY working for us this time because we have three kids on the plan, it's seasonal pricing on the fixed price locations, and we're doing a ton of character meals, the Fantasmic! package, and family style places. The DP cost us $2191 and our meals would have cost about $2068 out of pocket (only one of our meals doesn't have a fixed price, so I could make a pretty good guess). That means we're paying $123 for ALL 70 of our counter service meals and all 70 of our snacks. When I'm eating steak at Pepper Market, I'll have to remember it cost me about $0.87!

 

[catne]

we usually do the regular plan. Last January, DH & I did the deluxe for 2 nights (parts of 3 days.) I swore "never again" but actually, now I'm thinking about trying the deluxe again next time it's just DH & I - just doing it differently then what we did in January (which was too many table service meals a day)

When we go with other people, the regular plan works well with counter service for lunch & table service for dinner. But we can't set aside that much "restaurant" time to use the deluxe. Next time it's just us going, now I'm thinking it'd be fun to do the late breakfast/brunch type table service & then do signature restaurants every evening...we'll see!

 

[Coconuts]

We do the regular DDP. This is usually the right amount of food for us, but of course we always seem to buy a little more(drinks, snacks, appys, etc). We don't buy too much more to justify buying the DxDDP. Also, our little ones would never be patient enough to sit down at all those TS meals on the DxDDP. I know you don't have to do mostly TS meals on DxDDP, but it would be silly to spend the extra money just to eat at CS locations, right?

 

[Ms.Mouse]

We've always done the Regular Plan and it worked out fine but I'm thinking of trying the Deluxe Plan this time.

 

[tndisneyfan]

We did the QSDP our last trip, we just got back 10 days ago. We really like it. We have done the basic DDP in the past, we also like it but we don't like being tied down to an ADR every single day. Also I liked getting the mug because we always buy one anyway.

 

[stetz69]

We have always done the basic dining plan. For our upcoming trip in December we decided to try the Deluxe plan. My kids love character meals so with the Deluxe Plan we can hit every one and still have credits left over for 2 credit meals (which we plan on doing several of).

 

[Cookie Princess]

We really enjoyed the basic plan when it include the appy so we have upgraded to the DxDDP this year. I can't wait!!

 

[BelleLovesTheBeast]

DxDDP - We enjoy being able to sit down and enjoy a nice meal. We don't go back to the resort so this is our way of relaxing. We do 2 meals a day and try some of the signature TS. We have found that it suits us well and we get to try foods that we normal would think twice about ordering. We use our snack credits on days we do breakfast and dinner and then use the remaining to take snacks home. We always have taken snacks home and with the DDP we now don't have to pay anything extra for them.

 

[Nadya]

I'd prefer regular dining plan, since I don't eat junkfood.

http://cruisedisne-y.com/disney-dining

 

[Pirate Me]

We always chose the basic dining plan. On this trip, we have booked the QS plan for 2 days at a different resort. The rest of the stay is going to be basic DDP.

 

[5boyz]

We chose the QSDP because we did not like having to make ADR's with the regular. There was no restaurant that we tried that we loved!We are not huge eaters anyway,we have eaten at enough different CSs that we dont have to eat the same thing all the time. Also all the waiting for our seats even when we had the ADR's. We have never had a hard time finding a seat somewhere to eat CS meals. The time eating is a factor too!!! Way I didnt realize I had so many reasons....