We wouldn't do the dining plan with the changes. We did it for half of our trip this past month, and while we really like the convienience of it, and being able to eat at places we normally wouldn't, I just cannot justify the cost of it when you add on the gratuity and take away the appetizer. For us I think it will work out much better to do what we did for the second half of the vacation....save up as many Disney GC's as possible from SR and use them towards our meals. This may actually work to our benefit bacause we might actually take advantage of the teacher discount at the Swan/Dolphin next time we go and get away with staying for a little bit less as well. This would also allow us to buy our tickets ahead instead of with the plan, which would also save us money.

So all in all, while we like(ed) the dining plan, and I'm really not happy about the changes, they actually will probably save us money in the long run.