Should I upgrade to Disney Dining Plan

[Grace1987]

hello everyone,

So we are booking our Disney World honeymoon the end of the month. We are probably going to stay at CB as well have fallen in love with it. We have the QS meal plan included but should we upgrade it to the DDP?

 

[adisneyaunt]

I say yes, you ll get one sit down meal per day to enjoy, and alcohol is included. The counter service u can use for lunch or breakfast and of course the snack, yum. Others im sure will jump in with further specifics.
I think the Deluxe is Overkill unless ur true foodies and don't mind spending a ton of time eating.
So Yes, I'd do it... otherwise you ll be eating burgers, salads, and repeat meals day in and day out.. all day long.
Having an earlier sit down dinner is a great way to rejuvenate and return to enjoy more rides or firework show!
Enjoy and Congrats to u both!!

 

[peg2001]

Would need much more information before advising. There are pros and cons to each dining plan. There is actually tremendous variety in the quick service meals if you look at menus and plan where to eat. You can go your whole vacation eating quick service without repeating the same meal.

 

[sharonabe]

I say yes, you ll get one sit down meal per day to enjoy, and alcohol is included. The counter service u can use for lunch or breakfast and of course the snack, yum. Others im sure will jump in with further specifics.
I think the Deluxe is Overkill unless ur true foodies and don't mind spending a ton of time eating.
So Yes, I'd do it... otherwise you ll be eating burgers, salads, and repeat meals day in and day out.. all day long.
Having an earlier sit down dinner is a great way to rejuvenate and return to enjoy more rides or firework show!
Enjoy and Congrats to u both!!

Alcohol is NOT included until 2018, and OP didn't say when they were going.

There is also much more to eat at QS than burgers, salads, and repeat. We had five days with just QS and I didn't eat even one burger.

hello everyone,

So we are booking our Disney World honeymoon the end of the month. We are probably going to stay at CB as well have fallen in love with it. We have the QS meal plan included but should we upgrade it to the DDP?

Is your honeymoon next month or are you just booking it next month? If you're actually going next month, my advice is to see if you can get the ADRs you want before adding the plan. It would be sad to spend the money and not be able to eat where you want. You can upgrade your plan to DDP as late as 72 hrs before you arrive.

 

[squirrel]

You didn't say how many nights you are staying. I would work out the cost upgrade and see how many TS meals that covers. Then decide if that is enough TS meals for you. If not, then upgrade. Just remember that if you pay out of pocket for a TS or two over upgrading to the DDP then you actually will have more food.

 

[Grace1987]

Hello we are going 24th September 2018 for 21 nights. The upgrade cost is around 580. Are the table service restaurants worth the upgrade? I know they seat you but do you get a choice where? Thanks for all your help.

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Hello we are going 24th September 2018 for 21 nights. The upgrade cost is around 580. Are the table service restaurants worth the upgrade? I know they seat you but do you get a choice where? Thanks for all your help.

Generally, no choice where you sit (though, you can always make a request, and they will try to honor it, if they can, but no guarantees.

As to whether they are worth the upgrade depends on what you like to eat, and where you end up eating. Some TS restaurants only cost a few dollars more than a QS restaurant (such as Plaza restaurant, Sci Fi diner), some cost a LOT more (such as Akershus, Fantasmic dining packages).

Disneyworld.com has a listing of all the restaurants, both QS and TS. Take a look at the menus and prices. Decide then if these restaurants appeal to you. With 21 nights, you would get 21 credits. Some restaurants ("signature restaurants"), and the dinner shows, require 2 credits. This info is available online also. With so many credits, and it being your honeymoon, I would absolutely look into some special dinners!

If you do get the dining plan, you want to make your reservations for the first 11 days of your trip at exactly 180 days before check in, as some of the most popular restaurants book up before 180 days! After that, each morning you'll be able to make reservations for one more day (a rolling 180+10 day booking window).

Are you in the US? If so, you can only book a package (dining plans result in it being a package, even if you get your tickets elsewhere) for 14 (maybe 15?) nights. However, you can book back to back reservations, and add the dining plan to both. I don't know if this applies to those from outside the US.

 

[Nancyg56]

Why dont you plan your meals and then decide? I am not a fan of teh QS dinign plan, but my family likes the regular DDP as well as the DxDDP occasionally. I think the best way to decide value to to decide where you want to dine and what you think you would order. After that you have a better idea what the costs will be.

 

[sharonabe]

Hello we are going 24th September 2018 for 21 nights. The upgrade cost is around 580. Are the table service restaurants worth the upgrade? I know they seat you but do you get a choice where? Thanks for all your help.

Where did you get your quote of $580. 21 nights for two adults upgrade is $965.58.

Are you paying for the QSDP or are you somehow getting it for free? If it's a free QSDP, then the upgrade cost is definitely worth it as you're paying about $22 per person for a TS meal. If you're paying for the QSDP and wanting to upgrade, then you need to do the math by looking at restaurants and seeing how many TS you really want and where those meals might be.

 

[danielocha30]

and please add the cost of tips for your servers, they make most of their incomes from tips

 

[sharonabe]

and please add the cost of tips for your servers, they make most of their incomes from tips

Good point. When jumping from QSDP to any other plan it's not just the cost of the plan, but also the cost of your tips. So just an estimate for OP on 21 TS meals for two at an average of $75 per meal could add another $300 to the cost just for tips.

 

[Grace1987]

Sorry I am from UK so kubnumvers are in GBP. I think we are mainly worried we will get board with QS as we do eat fairly healthy normally. We get the QS meal plan free as part of a package.

 

[Disney_traveler]

When we planned for Christmas, we had the quick service dining plan free. We were excited for that because the QS meals to us are large and we wanted to split several meals throughout the day. We also had some dream TS character meals we weren't sure we would get reservations for and we were just going to pay out of pocket. After lots of searching we ended up with ALL the table service we wanted and it was cheaper to upgrade (and get another table meal out of it) than pay out of pocket. As for tips, with my calculations for the 4 or 5 times we have done DDP, all of our TS required a $20 tip.

 

[loves to dive]

I wouldn't upgrade. Here is my thought process: you are getting the QS for free (not really but we'll go there) so if you throw in TS restaurants every so often and not use your QS meals, it's no bit deal. Also, you said you'd be there in Sept. which traditionally is F&W time so you are probably going to want to sample some booths. In the past, and no one knows if this will continue even this year, you could use your snack credits at the booths and you could use a QS meal credit and get three things from the same booth. For the length of time you are going to be there you are going to want to mix it up but I feel like if you pay to upgrade you are going to feel like you have to use those TS credits and there are going to be days, especially if you are taking advantage of F&W you just aren't going to want a TS meal.

 

[Disney_traveler]

I wouldn't upgrade. Here is my thought process: you are getting the QS for free (not really but we'll go there) so if you throw in TS restaurants every so often and not use your QS meals, it's no bit deal. Also, you said you'd be there in Sept. which traditionally is F&W time so you are probably going to want to sample some booths. In the past, and no one knows if this will continue even this year, you could use your snack credits at the booths and you could use a QS meal credit and get three things from the same booth. For the length of time you are going to be there you are going to want to mix it up but I feel like if you pay to upgrade you are going to feel like you have to use those TS credits and there are going to be days, especially if you are taking advantage of F&W you just aren't going to want a TS meal.

Ooooh, thanks for pointing that part out! Yeah, if you can still use the snack and QS credits and food and wine, KEEP QS!

 

[sharonabe]

Sorry I am from UK so kubnumvers are in GBP. I think we are mainly worried we will get board with QS as we do eat fairly healthy normally. We get the QS meal plan free as part of a package.

My gut says doing the upgrade from free dining is going to be your best bet. You can still use snacks and possibly QS for F&W. You would then have the credits to either do some signature dining on other days or do both breakfast and dinner TS meals. If we estimate $40 per person per TS meal, you only have to eat 12 TS meals just to break even on your upgrade.

So are there at least 12 TS meals you want to do in your 21 days?

 

[squirrel]

I say keep your QSDP and add in a few TS meals that you want to try. This gives you a few extra CS meals so you could enjoy a hot breakfast every few days instead of a snack credit breakfast. You will probably save $ on upgrading and you won't get tired of all the ADR's. There are quite a few different options for meals at QS locations. I suggest looking at allears.net and checking out menus and prices.

I'm doing a 10 night stay with FD this year. To upgrade myself and my niece (a disney adult) would have cost quite a bit of extra $ plus all the extra in tips. I booked one meal that I have had before in previous trips that I wouldn't mind paying out of pocket for. I was also able to get it with the RoL dining package so that was a bonus.

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Look at the available restaurants (at the theme parks and at the resorts) and count how many you would like to eat at.

Don't count the ones that are inexpensive (entrees you would most likely choose are less than $25 or so)

All fixed price restaurants should be counted.

Count signature restaurants and dinner shows twice (as they use two credits).

Are you close to, or over, 21? If so, upgrade to DDP, as you'll use (and make good use of) the TS credits.

 

[OttawaDisGirl]

Hi!

My husband and I were just crunching the numbers. We're staying at WL and we're thinking we'll get the Disney Dining Plan as we love the convenience of it. We're going January 1-5. Myself, my son (15) and my husband.
We know the parks are going to be super busy! We also know that you can order ahead using the MDE app but we can't use meal plan credits.

Since the parks are going to be so busy, we were thinking we'll have breakfasts at the Roaring Fork (hopefully shorter lines) to use our QS credits and pay OOP for lunches using the MDE app and do TS dinners.

However, we realized we might be missing out on our alcoholic beverages at breakfast for our QS credits!

Do you think they'll let us get a breakfast platters and a beer or whatever out of the cooler? We'd like to use up the alcoholic beverage entitlement part of our QS? My son is 15. Do you think we could get 3 beers for 3 breakfasts if he's not standing with us? We'd just bring the beer back to our room for later in the evening.

I realize how lush-y this sounds but I did wonder...

Open to your kind comments!

Thanks!

 

[peg2001]

Hi!

Do you think they'll let us get a breakfast platters and a beer or whatever out of the cooler?

My son is 15. Do you think we could get 3 beers for 3 breakfasts if he's not standing with us? We'd just bring the beer back to our room for later in the evening.

The fine details will probably come out as folks start actually using the 2018 meal plan. Here is the current link to official WDW info:

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/disney-dining-plan/

Reading that, it does specifically include an alcoholic drink choice with breakfast with both QS and TS. I suspect that you will only be able to get one alcoholic drink per adult presenting their ID at the time of purchase. Since you are allowed to use your credits at any time, I don't really see anything stopping one of the adults from going through a second time to pick up a second breakfast meal and drink. Good luck!