Just can't decide...Dining plan or not?

[eaglesdare]

i just figured out another day for us, cosmic ray's at lunch and the lecellier for 6 and garden grill for 3. (could not get us all into lecelliers)

but for this day, i am saving way over $52.39 plus i still get the snacks, and drinks and dessert is included. so if you think about it, it does come out to a savings of way over the $52.39.

this is kind of fun seeing my savings. lol

and like i said, this is getting the dinning plan for 6 adults, 3 kids.


oops, i was looking at lunch prices, so, with the dinner prices, the savings actually is over 64.39! gotta love a savings. lol

[Anne]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I think I am just going to do it. With two kids under 10, it does make it a good deal. It's just hard to see my disney balance go up again.

Right now I have three ADRs set up and just looking at those three meals, I will already come out ahead on two of the days if we order what I think we would order. And DH likes the fact he can order steak every day.

[luvdisney00]

Does anyone know if they add in the tip or if you just leave it? What about the buffet meals? It was really nice when it was included, although we usually tipped a little something anyway, there was no pressure or set amt. Just curious to hear from someone who's done it recently.

And Anne, I think you made the right choice. Even if it's close to even, I still think it's nice to have it all taken care of up front. ENJOY.

[T1nkrules]

The dining plans are definitely worth it! We didn't have one for dinner the first night we arrived and my bill for 3 adults and 1 child was over $100! AND I had to add a tip! Besides, it definitely gives you the chance to sit and breathe and have a "taste" of different dining experiences (China was awesome!) and to top it all, my experience with Disney is their customer service is above and beyond regardless of getting a tip or not. That's what sets them way above and apart from other parks. So, yes, the dining plan is soooooo worth it and I highly recommend it to everyone. So, in just under two weks, Chef Mickey, here we come! And we are trying the Hoop de Doo Musical Revue which I hear is hilarious. (and the tip is included in this one)

[arob414]

I think if your children are under 10 or it is an all adult group, this is a no brainer. However, my children are in Angela's kids age range and I don't think they will eat enough. Still, we are haven't made a definite decision. DD12 might eat her money's worth, but DD10 usually eats cheesesticks from the appetizer section. Also, while they like to eat, they like small meals, often and aren't old enough to get into the fancier offerings. DD12 can eat one chicken sandwich after the other. But, if it has a vegetable or looks funny (fancy) forget it. She does like salads, Anna doesn't, she likes desserts.

[hmdelf]

We are going to try it this year. @ adults, 1 child, 1 infant.
In 2010 we go with our extended family, so I want to work out hte kinks and see if it's worth it to us.

Any thoughts about the DDP vs 20% off with AP?

[schaery]

I've been debating the DDP myself. Got it last year with DH, and it was well worth the money as we ate TS meals at some of the restaurants we could have never afforded to go to, plus DH definitely thinks he has to have a nice sit-down meal once a day. However, we normally don't eat appetizers and dessert so we were really stuffed.

This year I'm taking 17yo DD with me and I'm not sure that the dining plan will save us money, although it is nice to know that everything is paid for. She doesn't eat bfast at all, and grabbing a bowl of cereal in the room is okay for me. I looked at the menus and added up all the places we'd be eating at (and what I think we'd order) and figured I'd save $150 without the DDP. That does include tips but not ordering desserts.

Too much decision for my one normal, sane brain cell.

[eaglesdare]

don't forget when you are adding up the dinner prices to see if you will be saving money or not: you must take into account what else you get with the ddp: ie snack per person per day, plus your beverage is included in your meals, both counter service and table service.

even if you think you do not need to eat during the day, a nice drink during the day is wonderful also, especially when you don't have to pay for it.
an already paid for dole whip float is wonderful!



the tipping was included in our reciepts. so when we got the bill we had to come up with the tip money. which in our case was 18%. we charged that to our room, then had to pay it off with our debit card. the castle's tip is also included in the ddp (thank God). but all the other places we ate at we were told the amount of tip to charge.

i am sure you could have just left money on the table, but if you do that, then i would watch out for them automatically charging something to your room.

i haven't figured it out yet to see if we in fact saved on the ddp, when we had to pay the 18% tip out of pocket, but i think we still did. but overall with not having to worry about what someone ordered and how much that cost, that was worth it right there. especially with such a wide taste difference that we had. if was wonderful to have everyone handed a menu and tell them all to order whatever you wanted.

we ate at mama melrose one night with the fantasmic package. it was great, the waiter told us that mama wanted us to be happy and she was letting us order appy's also. he even brought my hubby 2 appy's and doubled up on the kids appy's also. it was great.


i am a big fan of the ddp, however, my son and i said the next time we go, we are only going to do 1 or 2 table service meals, the rest we are going to wing it. we did not like being tied down to being somewhere at certain times. and we wanted to eat other things, which then we would have had to pay, like turkey legs, (unless they are considered snacks?) but anyway, next time we are not doing ddp.

[JDarling]

I've done the dining plan for a group of 4 adults. While it was a great value, we all felt like we were over eating! It was FAR too much food! I had no problem with booking things in advance, but the portions are HUGE! Even for a combo at counter service... it was all just too much and felt wasteful. We would have spent roughly the same amount of money, if not less, since we found we could really share 1 credit for 2 people (CS or Sit down) and be fine.

[rumrunnergirl]

Our kids are 7 and 9. After doing the math over several trips, it makes more sense for us to use the DDE card and get 20% off our TS meals than to pay for the dining plan.

With buying the DDP, we end up with too much food. Our last trip we had 12 CS credits to use up, so we ate breakfast at the food court twice and got lunch to go for the drive home. We also had snack credits to use and got muffins to go. And we brought home lots of unopened juice and apple sauce, LOL. Now, we are healthy eaters, but it still ends up being a lot of food (we like character meals and buffets), and not really any savings over paying OOP for CS and getting 20% off TS, since either way we have to pay the tip.

The DDP isn't much of a 'savings' when we order desserts we wouldn't normally order, and we wouldn't have bought all the CS meals and snacks had we not paid for the plan.

Free dining is best, even buying a 1-day ticket which we save for later since we're passholders.

Next year we bounceback for free dining and DD will be 10, so that works out great! She is soooo tired of the kids meals.