Hello all. This year was my first time trying out the dining plan. My mother and I went down during F/W and stayed on points at SSR so I thought what a great time to give it a try since there would only be 2 adults for 3 nights.
I liked and disliked the dining plan.
What I liked was not having to look at the bill and worry about spending any $$.
What I didn't like was that it seemed like entirely too much food. We ate at all character meals for our TS so we didn't have to worry about that appitizer, meal, dessert part. (Reviews of restaurants to follow). We ate 2 out of our 3 counter service meals and let the other ones expire because we were leaving and just didn't seem to have enough time to try to get them in.
We also ended up with 2 snack credits left each at the end of our stay but grabbed some rice krispie treats for the plane ride home, more on those later.
TS -
Our first stop was at the Garden Grill for dinner. Love this restaurant. Everything was great. Some changes that weren't there when we visited last time was the apple chutney on the pork. Instead we had some cranberry stuff. I don't like cranberries
But everything else was good. I was looking forward to that nice trio of dessets but instead we received some bread pudding. Which really stunk because neither my mother nor myself like bread pudding - go figure.
Our next TS was at Ohana for breakfast. The characters were really great. LOVE LOVE LOVE the pineapple bread. I thought it was served to us kind of warm last time but I could be wrong. I did notice that the raisin bread was quite hard and wondered if it was an old batch. They also started a new juice about a week before we got there and it was great. Couldn't tell you for the life of me what was in it but trust me i'ts good
Last was LTT. LOVE Thanksgiving type food. Great service, great characters and yummy food. Plus a dessert I liked Apple cobbler and not cherry!!
Too bad I was soo full I couldn't eat it. 
Counter service we took advantage of both meals at SSR. I had a pepperoni flat bread and my mom had some BBQ flatbread. I didn't try hers but it sure looked good and mine tasted great. We got the LARGE chocolate chip cookie and the large M&M cookie and shared. YUM. We sat at the tables by the pool and enjoyed.
Next was for breakfast at SSR (Artist Pallette). I didn't like mine very well only because the staff was very busy and understaffed and mine was slightly cold by the time it had got to me. I had some croissant bacon egg thing. But it wasn't their fault and the CM's were doing great, although they seemed frustrated.
Snacks, we used one set to get some pop from DTD during a shopping trip and then we snagged 2 rice krispie treats each for the plane ride home. YUCK!! The ones that you can buy in the gift shop with the candy coating and sprinkle things on them. Both of us took a bit and threw them out and gave the other 2 to my boys at home. I did NOT like those. I much prefer the ones at Goofy's Candy Co in DTD.
So overall I am glad we tried it but it was too much food for me. It also could have been due to the weather, it was quite warm and I tend to lose my appitite in the heat. Plus food and wine so we all know we eat around there
I may give it a try with my family (myself, hubby and 2 boys) but I think we much prefer the DDE.
I liked and disliked the dining plan.
What I liked was not having to look at the bill and worry about spending any $$.
What I didn't like was that it seemed like entirely too much food. We ate at all character meals for our TS so we didn't have to worry about that appitizer, meal, dessert part. (Reviews of restaurants to follow). We ate 2 out of our 3 counter service meals and let the other ones expire because we were leaving and just didn't seem to have enough time to try to get them in.
We also ended up with 2 snack credits left each at the end of our stay but grabbed some rice krispie treats for the plane ride home, more on those later.
TS -
Our first stop was at the Garden Grill for dinner. Love this restaurant. Everything was great. Some changes that weren't there when we visited last time was the apple chutney on the pork. Instead we had some cranberry stuff. I don't like cranberries
But everything else was good. I was looking forward to that nice trio of dessets but instead we received some bread pudding. Which really stunk because neither my mother nor myself like bread pudding - go figure.Our next TS was at Ohana for breakfast. The characters were really great. LOVE LOVE LOVE the pineapple bread. I thought it was served to us kind of warm last time but I could be wrong. I did notice that the raisin bread was quite hard and wondered if it was an old batch. They also started a new juice about a week before we got there and it was great. Couldn't tell you for the life of me what was in it but trust me i'ts good
Last was LTT. LOVE Thanksgiving type food. Great service, great characters and yummy food. Plus a dessert I liked Apple cobbler and not cherry!!
Too bad I was soo full I couldn't eat it. Counter service we took advantage of both meals at SSR. I had a pepperoni flat bread and my mom had some BBQ flatbread. I didn't try hers but it sure looked good and mine tasted great. We got the LARGE chocolate chip cookie and the large M&M cookie and shared. YUM. We sat at the tables by the pool and enjoyed.
Next was for breakfast at SSR (Artist Pallette). I didn't like mine very well only because the staff was very busy and understaffed and mine was slightly cold by the time it had got to me. I had some croissant bacon egg thing. But it wasn't their fault and the CM's were doing great, although they seemed frustrated.
Snacks, we used one set to get some pop from DTD during a shopping trip and then we snagged 2 rice krispie treats each for the plane ride home. YUCK!! The ones that you can buy in the gift shop with the candy coating and sprinkle things on them. Both of us took a bit and threw them out and gave the other 2 to my boys at home. I did NOT like those. I much prefer the ones at Goofy's Candy Co in DTD.
So overall I am glad we tried it but it was too much food for me. It also could have been due to the weather, it was quite warm and I tend to lose my appitite in the heat. Plus food and wine so we all know we eat around there
I may give it a try with my family (myself, hubby and 2 boys) but I think we much prefer the DDE.
