Considering canceling because no dining plan

[ShawneeDisneyfamily]

We’ve gone back and forth since the announcement on whether we should cancel our trip for late July because of the loss of the dining plan.

We’re a family of six, love using deluxe dining plan and have felt it does save us a good amount of money and gives us flexibility with dining.

I know the dining plan is always hot topic, but I’m curious what others are going to do without the dining plan?

Will you eat less meals and splurge on only one big one a day?

Will you bring your own food to save some costs?

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[kurts mom]

Canceling- going to Universal

 

[VandVsmama]

We'll just pay for the food out of pocket because it ends up to be about the same.

 

[yulilin3]

We’ve gone back and forth since the announcement on whether we should cancel our trip for late July because of the loss of the dining plan.

We’re a family of six, love using deluxe dining plan and have felt it does save us a good amount of money and gives us flexibility with dining.

I know the dining plan is always hot topic, but I’m curious what others are going to do without the dining plan?

Will you eat less meals and splurge on only one big one a day?

Will you bring your own food to save some costs?

Thanks for the feedback.

In July you'll have no clue what restaurant you'll be able to eat at. Some will be closed, all of the opened ones will have limited capacity so if you're thinking of coming you need to be very flexible in all aspects of the visit.

 

[Darcy03231]

We opted to cancel. One of the highlights of the trip for us was going to be the character dining (traveling with a 6 y.o. and 1.5 y.o.). With all of the reductions, have to wear masks, etc. we decided to wait and go another time when things return to some semblance of normal.

 

[mickey0624]

Im hoping they allow us to get the park reservations before the window for booking restaurants opens. why cant Disney just lay out the plan for everyone?

 

[DisLiss]

We never ever pay for the dining plan, but wound up with it free during the summer dining promotion. And that was nice, because it did save us money over a room only discount, but we were planning on going before we had free dining, so there's no reason for us to cancel just due to the loss of it. Now, there are other factors that will cause us to cancel, but we need to take a wait and see approach to those.

As for food, we always eat breakfast in our room and carry snacks, so that will remain the same for us. We're fond of healthier snacks by and large and while we don't mind sharing a treat or two, some of us actually get ill if we only eat heavy or sweet things in the parks. And what they charge for something like a few clementines or a banana is a bit nuts, so we bring some stuff of our own.

We're fine with just figuring out meals as we go as we have no issues with the counter service choices through the parks. We tend to graze rather than to sit down for meals, so that will work well for us if we wind up going.

 

[Krystal659]

We are in a wait and see place. We had ADRs with many table service restaurants and a few character meals. I do expect that we will have to be flexible, but we have decided that if it is only quick service or room service, then we may postpone again. It is just not something we enjoy on longer trips. I may be more okay with just quick service if it was a 3-4 day trip.

 

[westie55]

We lost the recovery free dining offer for July 23. I also had a backup trip scheduled for August 24. There are too many unknowns for July so we will not be going, especially with small children and no fastpass. If wait times for rides, buses, etc aren't reported as horrible when the parks open, we may give August a try IF indoor shows are open. We will likely do more quick service than usual because we normally do a lot of character dining for the kids and that has been cut. I'm hoping that by late August some of the restrictions might be loosened, but I doubt it.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

If we come in September we are bringing plenty of liqour in case we have nothing but QS available. Gotta compensate. All are welcome.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

We’ve gone back and forth since the announcement on whether we should cancel our trip for late July because of the loss of the dining plan.

We’re a family of six, love using deluxe dining plan and have felt it does save us a good amount of money and gives us flexibility with dining.

We're six, too, and I know we'll end up eating more in our room, less TS, more CS, more backpack snacks, and fewer Disney snacks. We tend to have snackapalooza because with so many people, you get enough credits to go somewhere like the Boardwalk Bakery and ask for one of everything. Then we split it and get to try a bite of lots of things.
Could you tell us more about your family's style, preferences, where you're staying, so we can offer (hopefully) better advice? Like, are you in a villa or cabin with a kitchen? Is the loss of character meals a big hit to your kids? Do you have a ravenous teen who needs those buffets to get full without bankrupting you? Can you enjoy eating more CS if you're used to a DeluxeDP, which I'm assuming got used for lots of TS? I'm concerned that ADRs for six will be hard to come by with reduced capacity.
It takes a lot of coin to take six people to WDW. It must be so hard, frustrating, heartbreaking to consider canceling a vacation this close to your departure and at a time that I'm sure the whole family could use a real vacation.

 

[Moliphino]

We do eat less, but that's because the dining plan is way more food than I need (or even really want) to eat. It's much nicer to not be stuffed at all times.

Take the opportunity to eat at places that aren't DDP eligible, like lounges and the food that's somewhere between a snack and a QS (nutella waffles at Sleepy Hollow, food at Choza de Margarita, etc.).

 

[littlebearfan]

Our plans really changed a lot over this whole mess! My brother and I have a DVC studio at the Floridian for a week in November (rented points) and purchased the Deluxe Dining plan. We have bought the DxDP for the last 3 yearly trips (prior to 2017 we hadn't been to Disney World since 1999). We really like to sit down for breakfast and have nice dinners when on vacation, so this plan has worked out great for us.

Our Sister had used her points for a week at BLT at the end of May - which was cancelled. Some of her points were going to expire at the end of September, so she was trying to figure something out before Oct 1st. Since we didn't think she would be able to go at the same time we were there, we went ahead and scheduled all of our dining plans for 8 days (several character breakfasts and signature dinners) when our 180 day window opened up.

A couple of weeks later, her points were extended until the end of November - the same day Tickets and ADR's were locked down. She got into Saratoga for 5 of the nights that we will be there (and another sister will be staying with her). So we thought to spend almost all of our dining credits at Signature places on the nights that all 4 of us would be there and eat quick service places or snack types of food for all other meals. And now the Dining Plan will probably be cancelled. Since I rented points, I can't see the plan - I can only wait to see when the money comes back to my credit card.

It all really depends on whether or not Disney will have the Dining Plans available for purchase this year or not. We really don't think it will be available, but we have a tentative plan for either way:

IF we can still have the Deluxe Dining plan (and manage to get the ADR's that we really want at 60 days out - not holding my breath on that either), then we will try to schedule Paddlefish, California Grill, Narcoossee's, Yachtsman's Steakhouse, and possibly Le Cellier. We all want to do Topolino's breakfast again; so we may try to get that one and then eat at a 1 credit table service somewhere else in Epcot.

IF we can't have the Deluxe Dining plan (or if the DxDP becomes available again but we can't get the ADR's above), then we don't feel the Signature restaurants are worth the money. We will still try to get Topolino's for breakfast and may schedule a few other table service places that we haven't tried yet, but the character breakfasts that we would normally schedule just are not worth the prices either. I would really like to try mostly grabbing food on the go this year. It looks like there are a lot of interesting items available at the quick service places, but we are always to stuffed to try any of those items.

I guess depending on how our vacation goes, Disney may be losing another advocate for "buy the Dining Plan".