2009 Dining Plan Poll and Comments About This Page:

[kelly4me]

We opted not to do the dining plan for this visit because we wanted to get the Tables In Wonderland card instead. It ended up being a good thing that we didn't get the plan because both DS and DH ended up getting very sick, so table service meals were definitely out for a couple of days.

I'm mulling over doing the QS plan for my trip in May, then just using the TiW card for table service meals when I want one. I'm not sure that I will for two reasons - I don't need dessert with every meal, and I don't always want to order a kid's meal for my son. Sometimes it works out better to have him just share my meal. We'll see.

[Eeyoresbestfriend]

I find that most times it is better not to use the DDP as we are more the 4 to 5 small meal type people. We eat a little something only when we get hungry. My DH to be has hypoglycemia. He can't always wait for a TS to seat us or to try and find the QS we were scheduled to eat at. We play it by ear. When he needs to eat we just find a place and do so. When he isn't traveling withus then I do the DDP.
I am useingthe basic DDP for my Aug. trip this year and possibly the Deluxe DDP next year.

[truenancy]

We were there in Sept 08 with DD7 & DS5. We did some special TS meals, like Hoop-de-Doo & the Fantasmic Dinner Package. We're going again in September, and unless they come out with free dining, I 'll think we'll pass. My kids just don't care about sitting in a nice restaurant, and don't really care about the character meals. We did Akershus & CP, and they enjoyed it but don't need to do it again. Their only request is T-REx, which I don't think is on the DP anyway. As nice as it is to have someone serve us, my DH & I can make the "sacrifice" for CS meals. We'll just make a point of going to nicer CS places.

I had heard that the Quick Service wasn't worth the money (or was just at the break-even point), but it sounds like I need to look into this more closely! Thanks!

[dworldluver]

Got back late Mar. 6th from our latest trip dgd2 "coming of age" birthday trip. We did dddp because we wanted her to experience different dining experiences where she would dress etc.. It did go well but we also had a baby in tow and that proved to be more of a challenge than it is with just adults or adults and preteen. We are considering whether we want to do basic or deluxe when the whole family goes in Sept. as we are planning on having 2 meals with all 18 together and ages are from 80 to 7 months the three table service meals scheduling etc. may be more than we want to deal with. My consummate planner dd3 Hope still wants to pursue the deluxe but she is the only one without children of her own.

[amymarie78]

Just got back... and good and bad with out basic dining plan this time.

It was me, my husband, our son, my mother and mother in law. The adult meals we're all great... fantastic food, great savings at sit down and counter. But my son who is 7 was different... he was annoyed at the limited choices at sit downs and the small portions.. the boy can eat more than 5 chicken nuggets and a few grapes? Now on the other hand the counter services don't keep track of child or adult so I could order him an adult portion which was better with more choices.

I would use the plan again esp condsidering that by the time we go again my son will be counted as an adult.

[dolphin041599]

Okay, we did the QS dining plan. I picked that I loved it, but that isn't quite right. But, I might or might not do it again.

While I don't like sit down meals, and Disney has plenty of options for QS dining, I do wish we could have had one or two sit down meals. Also, we had brought snacks, so there were too many snacks. Had I known, I would have brought less snacks and used more in the parks. We ended up with too many on the last day and ended up bringing home a bunch of fudge!

One thing I didn't like is that the adults get a dessert with every meal. Ugh! That was just too much food. Along with two snacks? Yuck, too much! I don't think we really saved all that much, but it was nice to have it prepaid. And, my daughter squeaked in (by less than 2 weeks) for the kid price. If I'd have had to pay full price for her, I'd have never done it. I guarantee that would be wasted food. She didn't even finish the kid meals, but the carrots make a nice take-along snack (another snack!).

I do like the variety. We had pizza, fish & chips, salad, chinese type food, taco salads, baked chicken, etc. It wasn't all burgers and chicken strips.

If my daughter ever gets to the point where she actually can eat a full meal, as she is now 10, I'd consider it, but until then, nope.

[gbkab4]

We have used the basic dining plan three times thus far and will use it during our July trip. We enjoy having our meals paid for in advance. I only wish dessert was not included with the QS or TS. We much preferred the appetizer with the TS and would love another snack credit during the day rather than a dessert with QS meal. Again it is great to have the dining portion of our trip already paid for though so we will continue to buy into the basic plan.

[knzyzach]

This is what i voted for since I was happy with the Basic Dining Plan.

I used the Basic Dining Plan and give it a thumbs up.

However I think another option would have been helpful..
I used the Basic Dining Plan but needed more Table service meals. Will get Deluxe Next time..


Looking forward to Deluxe Dining In August!! Cant wait to have Table Service Breakfast and Dinner!

[joshuasmom]

We (DH, DS9 & myself) are going 11/30-12/8. We will be using the QSDP. Two years ago we had the basic dining plan. We did not enjoy 1 table service /day. We felt we spent way too much waiting to be seated, served and eating (I even made ADRs for all sit down meals). We are going to WDW to enjoy the rides & attractions not eat. I hope we are happy with the QSDP.

[vince730]

Another thumbs up for us for the Regular DDP from this trip!

We made sure to manage our snacks so we weren't left with 5 extra on the last day and everything worked out great!
I still wish that we could have had some TS Meals that were only an hour long, but I suppose when you are getting dessert you can't rush it

The only thing I do not like about the DDP is that you get dessert with your lunch/CS Credit.....Some places have fabulous choices (Like Sunshine Seasons) and others are just plain boring...I would much rather have another snack credit during the day than for the most part, a limited choice of a dessert at lunch

[oeshpdog2]

We just got back a week ago and we kept every receipt, wrote every food related cost down and then added them up to see what our food totals were for a 7 night stay. I then compared that to what we would have spent had we purchased the DDP. To get real comparative numbers...you have to make sure you keep track of every extra snack you buy (i.e. bottle of water, soda, etc), tips you pay on top of the meal cost at every TS restaurant and how many more CS meals you might eat in addition to the plan since the plan does not accommodate a 3 meal a day scenario, either CS or TS. I have included a link to a blog where I wrote an article discussing the benefits/non-benefits of the DDP. For the sake of taking up so much room on this post...I will just let you click on the link if you are interested to see our numbers. I would be interested to hear your comments and feedback of our little study. Now keep in mind that it is just my wife and I so the numbers are for 2 adults compared to what 2 adults would pay for the DDP for 7 nights. Dining Plan Comparison

Edit: The info on the link has been revised. I had some numbers entered wrong on my spreadsheet which over inflated the cost of the DDP so now the report is a true comparison between the plan and what we spent out of pocket. It is a money saver...bottom line. But not near a 40% savings unless you really work hard at making it that way.

[oeshpdog2]

Had errors in my numbers on my link in the previous post. Errors corrected so I apologize to those who checked out my analysis and saw that I had wrong data.

[WeRDisneyFanatics]

We just got back from 8 nights on the basic dining plan (we were there for 9 nights but the first night was room-only then we switched to our package at the Poly). It was me, DH and DD age 4.

We've done the DDP in the past for shorter stays (4 nights) and liked it, but I don't think I'd do it for this long of a trip again. We did a TS all but one day (we used 2 credits at CRT so that accounted for all our sit-downs), but without the plan I think we might spread out our TS a bit and enjoy it more. We're the type that start to not enjoy our meals after too many consecutive days of eating out--don't get me wrong, we love food, but too much of a good thing, kwim?

Also, on paper it seems like the numbers worked out in our favor but then I realized that if we'd been paying OOP we wouldn't have ordered all the things included on the ddp. Most notably the desserts--especially the CS desserts. The options at many locations are the same -- lots of packaged chocolate cake -- and really we don't each need/want dessert at two meals per day. If paying oop we'd likely share or skip, or get an appetizer instead. We also struggled to use up 24 snack credits so we ended up using them on things that were not a good "value" on the plan--twice we used them for 95 cent bags of Chip n Dale pretzles (the second time the CM pracitcally scolded us for it but I told her we were leaving in an hour and had to use 'em up). In fairness, I should add that we were upgraded to concierge so many of our snacking needs were taken care of that way. We'd planned to use alot of snack credits on breakfast items but that was included in the lounge. Not complaining in the least though!

[msnewfie]

last year my family used the basic dining plan ( 1 ts, 1 cs AND 1 S)
we found that too much food.
This year we will try the quick service plan. According to the menus online it will take some planning not to eat just fries and burgers for our trip, but it is possible.

To get the full disney experience, we did add on one sit down dining experience over and above the meal plan

Love the mugs -- they should be included with every meal plan -- that would all but eliminate the need some people have to share a mug!

[2poohbears]

Our trip included 2 adults, and 2 children (twins, age 5). We used the Basic Dining Plan for our trip in FEB 2009. We've also purchased this dining plan on 4 previous trips, since 2006. I would say when our boys were younger, the dining plan was a good deal because we did a character meal almost every day - which they loved.

This time around, dh and I didn't think the plan was worth it. We were both really disappointed in the food quality and service at both TS and CS restaurants this year. I'm not sure what happened, as we ate at restaurants we've been to before, but both of us thought the food was not nearly as good as in the past. Also, our boys are getting older now, so one character meal (TS) during the trip is enough for them. I think they could probably share one meal between them, instead of each ordering something - especially at lunchtime. I also think there are enough CS restaurants with different offerings that we wouldn't have to do TS as often to have something other than a burger or chicken tenders.

When we go back in OCT, we're planning to go without a DP - unless, of course, we could get FREE dining! ;-)