Pros and Cons of Dining Plan About This Page:

[PeggyB]

We have an offer for 20% off the dining plan and I'm wondering what everyone thinks about this deal. We've never done the dining plan before and just not sure if it's a good deal, but w/20% off I'm curious now. It is just my husband and me and this will be our 7th trip. We do have ADR for Crystal Palace dinner, Fantasmic package at Hollywood and Vine and The Garden Grill.

[TMWIlson7196]

We love the dining plan. Everything is paid for before you go so you don't have to worry about money for eatting. Except for tips. You can order anything you want on the menu. We always come out ahead. With 20% off it sounds like a good deal to me. You do have to allow about 2 hours for each table service. Do you want to spend park time eatting? There are several things to consider. I am sure others will come along and give you there thoughts.

[HollyH]

That sounds like a good deal. I've gone both with and without the dining plan and these are the pros and cons of my experiences. The biggest pro is having your meals prepaid and not having to worry about prices in the restaurant. If you manage your credits well, you will probably save some money. As for cons....it is a lot of food (would you really have dessert with every meal, including counter service?) The other con is being tied down to ADRs and the pressure to get your money's worth. For example, one day after touring the parks, your group may be tired and want to linger at the hotel, making getting to your dinner ressie on time difficult. Or you oversleep and miss your breakfast ADR. If you have the DDP, then you have lost $ (the meal is paid for, after all) and you have to get another ADR so you can recoup your loses. If you're paying OOP, no biggie. Pick up something at the food court. One more pro/con -the cost for the dining plan for children under 9 is very small and easily pays for itself and more, especially if you are planning on any character meals. The negative side of this is that children under 9 have to order from the children's menus and we found them to be lacking, particularly at the counter service locations. Hope this helps you make a decision.

[happyhedgehogs]

We love the DDP! I would take this deal any day!!

With the DDP, we spend about as much on food as if we had just paid on our own. The difference is that if we were paying out of pocket per meal, we would be much more likely to choose yet-another-chicken-entree, share entrees, and split one dessert between the four of us (and only twice on the whole trip). With the DDP, we can order filet mignon and steak for every meal. We can have dessert for every meal. (My personal goal is to try every version of creme brulee offered at WDW!) If we find that we are not hungry for dessert or some other part of a meal right then, we find a way to take it with us and enjoy it later. (Not really "doggie bags", but we might have them box up dessert with plastic forks, so we can eat it as we wait for Fantasmic to begin, or we might have the kids choose carrot sticks and ranch for their side, and stick it in the backpack for a snack later.)

[jenjen1127]

I love the Dining Plan. To me it is peace of mind when I am there not to worry how much we are spending in restaurants. We like to eat table services for dinner and it can be very pricey if you pay out of pocket. I always do the math after vacation and we have always saved a bundle using the plan. You are very lucky to have gotten a promo code for 20% off the Dining Plan. I've never heard of a code for that.

[PeggyB]

This gives us a lot to talk/think about. One biggie....We don't always want a lot to eat every day. It sounds like a lot of food and I'm just not sure if that's what we want. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. We already have 3 ADR and I'm not sure that I want eight of them. I like not having everything so scheduled.

[Pax]

The dinign plan is priced to be roughly break-even on costs, for typical people and what they typically order. With careful planning, you can actually leverage those credits, and get meals that would have costyou a lot more out-of-pocket than the plan did.

The biggest benefit IMO, though, is ... peace of mind. You know that your meals, or at least most of them (two a day), are paid for before you even check in. There's no risk of a check bouncing, and leaving you without the money to even pay for food for a few days. There's no cash or travellers' checks to lose. There's no CC to misplace (forcing you to cancel that CC# and await a replacement).

"Paid in Full" is just such a wonderful sensation all it's own, that I really cannot understate it's value.

...

Now, if you're worried about amount? Stick with the Basic plan, or even the Quick Service plan if you'r enot much for sit-down dining.

But even if you go whole-hog on the Deluxe ... remember that just because you could have the appetiser and dessert, per person ... doesn't mean you must, nor even that you neccessarily should. Just order what you're hungry for, and enjoy knowing that you won't ever leave a meal "still hungry" unless you choose to, for whatever reason.

[chezp]

It sounds like a good deal to me. We've used the Deluxe version of the plan a couple of times and have always come out ahead using it.

[guerns17]

We love the dining plan. Like others we have done both and I really enjoy not having to think about paying for a single meal. You do have to take care of tipping, but you can just charge it to your Key to the world card and pay for them at the end of your trip, or just bring some smaller bills.

Good luck with your decision!

[B.M.]

At 20% off; I'd go for it. With the discount, it would be a good time to try it yourself and see how you like it! I think for the most part, the DP ='s what you would spend anyway- not so much a savings as a convenience. Now depending on individual families eating styles; this could tip it either way. Some families do the math and find they come out a little cheaper w/out the plan, since they would normally order differently. Some families, save quite a bit if they are big eaters. But, with 20% off; I think it would be a savings with most families/eating styles. I'd go for it!

[WeRDisneyFanatics]

What I love about the dining plan is that everything is paid for up front so at meal time we don't have to worry about how much an entree costs and that type of thing. I think it's a particularly wonderful value for kids and especially on trips when we plan to do lots of character meals.

What I don't like about the dining plan is that it requires a little more planning in order to make sure all credits are used. Once on site if we don't feel like keeping a certain reservation there's a chance of losing credits if we can't replace it with another ADR. I also think it's too much dessert (one with the CS meal and one with the TS meal). I wouldn't eat that much dessert normally and I wish you could sub an appetizer for dessert at the TS meal, but I know that's not allowed. Of course turning down dessert is always an option but there's often that feeling of, "welllll...I paid for it!"

[Ceara's mawmaw]

I agree with everyone else......the deal is good, the peace of mind of having it all paid for and that I can go for that great steak instead of a sandwich is worth every penny, we always come out ahead when I crunch the ddp vs oop, we do the deluxe dp we are big appetizer eaters, take dessert to go and most dinners are two credit places that way we only eat twice a day, the ADR at noonish is always a welcome break from the heat and activity, if you are using the basic that is average of 1 cs and 1 ts a day (although you can use them however you want) and appetizers are not included so that is not an overabundance of food for us when we are active all day and night, anyway IMHO I say go for it we do....

[happyhedgehogs]

Originally Posted by Pax

"Paid in Full" is just such a wonderful sensation all it's own, that I really cannot understate it's value.

Amen! I love having everything other than tips and souvenirs already paid for. No having to do budgeting in the middle of the afternoon parade!

[Her Dotness]

We definitely came out ahead as we prefer the upscale places.

A number of otherwise quite pricey restaurants such as Marrakesh in EPCOT are only 1 credit per person. We ate very well indeed at Marrakesh and took dessert back to the resort. If I recall correctly, Le Cellier was only 1 credit, too, and it was very tasty.

Keep in mind that you can use 2 credits per person for room service, regular food or pizza, so if you're feeling wornout or the weather is yicky, room service can be a big help. Our last day at WDW was this past Saturday when the weather was so horribly cold we didn't leave the resort all day. We'd skimped on breakfast often enough that we could do both lunch and dinner from room service. It was wonderful!

Ooops! Editing to add the cons. We both ate far too much fattening food. I agree that having to get dessert for both lunch and dinner even if you take it to go is too much. You can pick only one each from appetizers, entrees and desserts on the Deluxe, what we had. Many's the time I'd have preferred two appetizers, maybe shrimp cocktail with a small salad, and dessert but no can do.

By the time we got to the aforementioned room service dinner, we each declined dessert...we were desserted out and then some which is very rare for us as we both love sweets.

[HollyH]

Originally Posted by Her Dotness

Keep in mind that you can use 2 credits per person for room service, regular food or pizza, so if you're feeling wornout or the weather is yicky, room service can be a big help. Our last day at WDW was this past Saturday when the weather was so horribly cold we didn't leave the resort all day. We'd skimped on breakfast often enough that we could do both lunch and dinner from room service. It was wonderful!

This is a good strategy if you miss a meal and you have the deluxe plan. If you have the Basic Plan, this would not be a good way to manage credits for a missed ADR, IMHO.

If you really don't want a sit down meal every day and would rather stick to 3 or 4 ADRs, I personally wouldn't go for a plan with TS options. If the 20% code also includes the QS plan, that might be worth it. I would do the math.