thoughts on 2009 dining plans About This Page:

[hall0731]

I once considered buying the plus dining plan for our trip in june 09. I decided against it because I figured we would eat more at counter services. Now for 2009 they have come out with the counter service dining plan. I am still torn as to buy this or not. What do you guys think? Opinions greatly needed. Will I really save money going for either the plus dining or the counter service dining? How much "park time" do I loose in eating at table services vs counter services?

[njsmama]

This is my favorite example:
We went to WDW in 2006. Me my DH and 2 DS. We bought the dining plan. We were there for 4 nights. The dining plan was around $400.00. We ate ate the Coral Reef, and our bill was almost $300.00! Then we ate at the Poly Luau...it was $150.00 if memory serves me correctly. We also ate at Sci Fi which was about $80.00. plus we had 4 quick services which were around $35.00 each, plus a snack for each of us each day.
Soooo....for us it saved ALOT of money. It is still a little less of a value now that it doesn't include dessert or tip, but still saves money in the long run.
My kids like to take breaks from the action and enjoy sit down meals, if they didn't I would try that new counter service plan.
Oh, I forgot, we don't loose but about an hour of park time for each sit down meal, but our feet are always glad for the break, and it gives us time to talk about our day!

[samrutster]

All of the character dining are table service, so if you are like us and really enjoy the character dining, then I am not sure how much you would like the quick service meal plan or how they will work that sort of thing into the new dining option.

[minushka72]

I haven't done the math yet, but I am thinking of the new CS plan myself. We usually only do 1 character meal (occasionally 2) so we can just pay for that OOP. The CS plan uncludes a resort mug so that is handy too.

[wendybell]

If you are wanting to do CS more than TS dining; i would pay OOP. I think that the $29.99/day for an adult is about breaking even, not much of a huge savings and if you aren't one to induldge in dessert at every meal, it would cost far less.

If you decide that you would like TS dining daily, then i'd get the DDP. It's a fairly big savings despite having to cover the tips OOP. We find that TS dining is a MUCH NEEDED break at dinner time to relax, cool off and enjoy a meal. It doesn't take much away from touring time if you do dinners. I wouldn't have too many TS breakfasts though...i want to be in the parks in the mornings!

Good luck deciding!

[hall0731]

I know we are only doing one character dining. That will be chef mickey's the day we leave. Other than that I guess I need to see what resturants we really want to eat at. My son and I are very pickey and some of the menus I didn't care for. lol but on the other hand loved the counter service meals. but I need to compare prices I guess of what I think we would eat at a counter service and compare it to the price for the counter service plan. ?

[Colexis Mom]

I don't think the CS plan is much of a savings I know we eat a lot of CS, and would find it hard to justify the costs so we'll just continue to pay OOP

[lukeandbrookesmom]

We always come out ahead with the Basic Dining Plan. The New CS plan doesn't look it would be easy to come out ahead without some serious planning and strategy.

[Pax]

I think the new CS plan is more for the convenience, and having your meals pre-paid. (Don't forget that you get two snacks per day, and a refillable mug. If you can do, say, a bagel and a piece of fruit for breakfast ... those two snack credits will cover your third meal of the day, right there.)

OTOH, if you plan on as many Table-service meals as we have ... the Deluxe plan starts to look like a good idea. Here's my counting-of-value-vs-cost for the various plans, based on the ADRs we have made. These umbers ar per-person, for a 9-day, 8-night stay ... paying OOP in the most efficient way possible.

Credits Allocated / Needed

• S x ? ($3)
• C x 12 ($15)
• T x 8 ($30)
• SOA x 1 ($60), TT
• CRT x 1 ($50), TT
• FDP x 1 ($40), TT

(26 meal credits total: 12C,14T)

QS Plan; $30/day

S x 16
... covered
C x 16
... waste [4C]
T x 0
... pay $390 OOP

(total OOP = $390)
(plan = $240)
TOTAL COST = $630

Basic plan; $40/day

... buy mug $12 OOP
S x 8
... pay $24 OOP
C x 8
... pay $60 OOP
T x 8
... pay $150 OOP

(total OOP = $246)
(plan = $320)
TOTAL COST = $566

Deluxe plan; $70/day

S x 16
... covered
24 credits
... pay $30 OOP (for two CS meals)

(total OOP = $30)
(plan = $560)
TOTAL COST = $590

$25 for 9 days, is a price worth paying for the convenience of not having to worry or even THINK about how our meals are paid for.

So really, it comes down to: tally up where you expect to eat. Figure out the costs. Then decide which plan gives you the best savings-vs-convenience, and go with that.

[mariahnlily]

i was thinking about the same thing dh can not go on uppcoming trip and we are going back in january with just the four of us so we were going to stay onsite now with the new mealplan i think we are going to stay offsite. i personally would get tired of cs for all our meals

[tinker_me_happy]

I guess it depends on how much you eat and what you buy at the CS places. Based on what I spent last July (07) it looks like a break even to me. With DD and myself we spent under $20 for the 2 of us at every counter service meal we ate. TRUE we only ate a few, but as I look at it, even rounded up, that is only $10 each per meal (based on how we eat!). So for 2 meals and 2 snacks that's a break even. The mug can only be refilled at the resort so for me that's a wash. I think the plan is a great idea for people who like to budget it out and have it prepaid for, but I don't think it is worth it if you are looking for a huge savings. I am foreseeing this as being the thing disney will offer as their "free meal plan" for 09 - IF they offer one at all - come next September.

[MorenaSangre]

I think a lot of the DDP questions go back to 2 basic considerations:

• Do you like to eat TS, and do you do a full (appetizer, entree, dessert) meal?
• Do you vacation in a laid back leisurely way where you take a good bit of time for a meal, or do you want to be moving and cover the park to make your vacation worthwhile?

For example, my DH and I live 1.5 hours from Orlando, and when we go on vacation, it's a special getaway as a couple. We have day trips to ride the rides, etc. So for us, Deluxe Dining is the way to go on a "real" vacation. We want the leisure and luxury of dining TS. We like getting off our feet, out of the crowd, and feeling pampered. It saves us money, actually, and it really enhances our vacation experience.

My best friend is a mother of 2 whose family has never been to WDW. For her, a TS oriented dining plan would be stupid. Her kids aren't that interested in TS; their trip is a once-in-a-decade event, and they want to see all they can while they're here. They're not going to want to take the time for a full-TS meal. They've got better things to be doing! If they eat at TS for a rest, they can pay OOP because it's not something they're doing on a daily basis.

Yeah, it depends on how much food you think is too much, but more than that, I think the choice of dining plan depends on what kind of vacation you're coming for.

[kelleigh1]

For us, I just don't think we want the QS Plan. Not that it wouldn't work for us if we had to do it, but I can really only eat so many counter service meals.

We were on the old DDP last year and we thought it was great. Granted, if we didn't have the DDP, we probably would have eaten much differently. The previous year we went with gift cards and dined off-site quite a bit to save money. But the DDP allowed us to eat on-site (thus saving park time) and to try things we might not have done otherwise.

We're not going in 2009, but I'm still keeping an eye on the various dining plans. The Deluxe looks very good to us as we also like to splurge when on vacation and eat like we don't get to at home. As of now, we plan to get the dining plan on our next trip, and if they are still the same when that time comes, it will probably be the DDP or the Deluxe plan, depending on the budget at that time.

Oh, and we always going during value season, so the park hours are shortened anyway. And being that it's just the two of us, we never feel like we didn't have enough time in the parks. We go at a leisurely pace and just enjoy it.

[vfair]

Originally Posted by hall0731

I once considered buying the plus dining plan for our trip in june 09. I decided against it because I figured we would eat more at counter services. Now for 2009 they have come out with the counter service dining plan. I am still torn as to buy this or not. What do you guys think? Opinions greatly needed. Will I really save money going for either the plus dining or the counter service dining? How much "park time" do I loose in eating at table services vs counter services?

My concerns about the dining plans depend on the plan. For the new CS plan - I don't want to be tied down to eating only CS meals which we would probably need to do in order to use up the credits. For the other plans, we don't want to feel the need to always order full meals for all in order to make the $$ worthwhile. For now, I think we'll be sticking with our DDE card rather than any of the meal plans.