Dining Plan/No Dining Plan

We are frequent visitors to DW and for the most part, it’s always just my husband and I! We always use the DP because it’s so easy and convenient. We just booked a trip for late April..again, tmjust the two of us. We have decided to try it w/o the DP since we feel we always eat way too much with the dining plan. Also, it seems the last few trips we are scrambling the last day to use a ton of snack credits since they changed the plan! I’ve made a few reservations, o’Hana breakfast Brown Derby for lunch and Plaza in MK for lunch. Anyone that has done it both ways, your thoughts???

For us (also just the two of us), the DP has never made much sense. We tend to share meals, choose appetizers over entrees fairly regularly, and drink mostly water (with the occasional iced tea). As for convenience, we've been using Disney giftcards for many years now. We just estimate our food expense and put that amount on a giftcard. Always have some leftover.

We make very few ADRs before we arrive - only some special ones or time-restricted ones (i.e. Brunch at California Grill). Everything else is a day before or day of ADR. Not only do we end up saving money, but the stress of making ADRs and then feeling locked into that schedule just isn't there.

Much simpler for us.

Steve

I will only get the DP if it is free. Paid for it once and it was too much food and wasn't worth the price. I don't normally eat at a sit down place everyday I am in the parks. Trip is more enjoyable when you just stop somewhere to eat when you get hungry, not because that is when you had made a reservation and have to eat.

We gave up on the dining plan a while ago! After going several years without the dining plan I did price it for our trip last Feb. and we quickly decided against it again. We are a family of 4, with two teen sons who eat more than us! The price for the dining plan last February was going to be over $1900. Keep in mind this did not include tips or adult beverages.

Instead we used a combination of a little cash we took with us and charging to the room. We did not sacrifice anything at all as far as dining goes. Actually we found we were better able to eat what we wanted when we wanted, rather than be confined to one quick service, one table service and the snack credits per day (which we always seemed to have many left over at the end of our trips when we did use the plan). We also purchased two refillable mugs for the boys. In the end our combined cost for food, tips, adult beverages, and even non food purchases was almost $100 less than the dining plan would have cost! We will never even consider the dining plan again!

We did our first non-DP trip last year, and I don't think we'll go back to it. We put our "food budget" on a GC, and it worked out great. We ordered what we wanted, shared what we wanted, ordered extra of what we wanted, and we still came out ahead of the DP cost.

If it is "free", then it may still be a better deal, but otherwise, we loved eating like normal people, not tied to the DP rules.

I'll do the DDP IF it is a 'freebie,' but I will not pay for it. I did that once and found the benefit was nil and scheduling and portion size was too much to deal with. Just made a trip 6 weeks ago and hit nothing but counter services and ate well, was not under any kind of schedule, and never felt overstuffed (except at Flame Tree -- a full rack of ribs on their rib platter!!!)

We've stopped getting it. For us we prefer signature restaurants for dinner, counter lunch and the occasional character breakfast, so the regular dining plan doesn't have enough credits but the deluxe plan has entirely too many credits. I just budget for food ahead of time.

Many years ago when the DP was worth it, we loved it. I still like the idea of having it paid for in advance but more recently it is not worth it at all. Going without it for years now and we do just fine. We have our reservations and pay for what we eat. We don't try to "cheap it down" either. We get what we want to eat and it is actually cheaper than using the plan.

Stopped getting it years ago. I always felt that all we were doing was walking to our next meal, and I always felt like I was going to explode at the end of the day.

We usually come out ahead of what DP would have cost us, because we tend to eat one big meal for lunch then get a treat in the evening, as none of us (except my teenage son) is really that hungry.

Doing the same for our upcoming trip.I've decided it actually creates MORE stress for me; tracking the credits and trying to make sure I get my money's worth. I think we can eat cheaper without it, but this trip will be the test of that!

We got the dining plan for "free" a couple of times (we all know it isn't really "free." We had to pay full rack rate on the room to get the "free" dining plan). Anyway, we hated it even with it being "free." I have done the math and if we had to pay for the dining plan, it would cost us substantially more than what we pay out of pocket. One problem is the amount of food and snacks that are included with the plan. There is enough food included to feed a buffalo. I couldn't eat all of that if I tried. We don't buy anywhere near all of that when we pay out of pocket. The next issue we have with the dining plan is dealing with all of the dining reservations. I find it to be an irritation trying to plan and schedule all of that 6 months ahead. Then once we are there it is stressful and irritating keeping up with all of it and planning the logistics and trying to decide if we have time to ride one more ride and still make it to a dining reservation. I don't go to WDW for restaurants, I go for the entertainment. Rushing around trying to make it to dining reservations is not fun.

So basically, no we do not do the dining plan, not even if they are offering it for "free." We will most likely never do it again.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Speedy1998

Stopped getting it years ago. I always felt that all we were doing was walking to our next meal, and I always felt like I was going to explode at the end of the day.

We usually come out ahead of what DP would have cost us, because we tend to eat one big meal for lunch then get a treat in the evening, as none of us (except my teenage son) is really that hungry.

---

I couldn’t agree more! The DDP is just a money maker. Save your money and your waistline. Someday they’ll be offering Fastpasses for the restaurants! Lol!

WOW! Used to, it was pretty evenly split on the DDP (free or not). Now it seems as if no one who is a regular visitor would dare do it.

When it first came out, we loved it. It came with an appetizer and had the tip in it. It was nice. Then they started stripping it down, and it was only worth it if you were able to get those awesome restaurants like Le Cellier, Chef Mickey's, and all of the other character meal buffets. Now that my kids are older and aren't that interested in characters (to my sadness), we would be happy at Tony's, SciFi Diner, or Marekesh...which is much cheaper than those other one. And then it wouldn't match up with the price of the DDP.

I suppose if it were free, it would save us a ton. But now that I have two kids over the 10yo age mark, the enormous mark-up from child to adult on the DDP is cost prohibitive.