2020 dining plan worth it?

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robl45

DIS Veteran
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Sep 7, 2014
I haven't done dining plan since they added alcohol. Is it still worth it for someone that doesn't drink? I have a 9 and 11 year old. Previously it was 2 kids on plan. It seems it may really not be worth having 11 year old on it. We will probably do chef mickeys but I'm not sure what other character things we might do.
 
I think you will need to look at your restaurant choices, as well as the meals your kids will choose to order. There is more to determining the value of a plan than the alcohol component, and for your children, it may be that they prefer kids meals or that they will order the less expensive options. There usually are specialty drinks they could have in place of alcohol, but again, will they want them?
I like the dining plan, but I know how my family, even the young ones will use it. You may want to do the math before making a decision because that is the most effective way to see how much your family will "spend" and if the plan is worth it to you.
 
Dining plan value ALWAYS depends on how many Character Meals you want. If you are doing less than 4, I would pay OOP. Esp when you say that you dont drink!
 
How do they know the age of the kid? When I went before both kids were the kids age. my older kid eats off the kids menu wherever we go. Can I just get the kids one for him? Otherwise I guess I'll just have to go out of pocket as its kind of a huge waste for him.

We would do Chef Mickeys and potentially a couple of others. 4 or more i don't know. Maybe a character breakfast but we really only like Ohana breakfast and since we aren't staying at the Poly, I don't know that we would do it. typically we do Chef Mickey, the sci fi diner, the ketchup place at wilderness lodge, we used to do be our guest, but with it being a 2 credit restaurant, i'm thinking we probably skip that now, we would do the hibachi at epcot but the food was terrible so we started doing the chip and dale harvest thing. Usually try to get to Trex in downtown disney but we may skip as its a big waste of hours. Then maybe Ohana or chefs de france.
 


How do they know the age of the kid? When I went before both kids were the kids age. my older kid eats off the kids menu wherever we go. Can I just get the kids one for him? Otherwise I guess I'll just have to go out of pocket as its kind of a huge waste for him.

We would do Chef Mickeys and potentially a couple of others. 4 or more i don't know. Maybe a character breakfast but we really only like Ohana breakfast and since we aren't staying at the Poly, I don't know that we would do it. typically we do Chef Mickey, the sci fi diner, the ketchup place at wilderness lodge, we used to do be our guest, but with it being a 2 credit restaurant, i'm thinking we probably skip that now, we would do the hibachi at epcot but the food was terrible so we started doing the chip and dale harvest thing. Usually try to get to Trex in downtown disney but we may skip as its a big waste of hours. Then maybe Ohana or chefs de france.
If you kids choose the kids menu whenever possible I would skip the plan.
 
I think it depends on your group. When our kids were teenagers it worked out great for us. They ate like crazy, loved the desserts. Now we typically travel with DGS and do mostly character breakfasts or table service, with possibly a QS at the resort once or twice. If we get a snack then we usually all three split it. We drink mostly water but enjoy a cocktail or wine with dinner. We recently did a couples trip with free dining during F&W and didn’t come close to using our snack credits. We like apps and it seems we paid a lot out of pocket. If I was going with my adult children I’d probably buy it again but it’s better these days for us to pay out of pocket for what we want!
 
I think at 78 a day it will be hard to use enough unless of course we go to lots of character meals. I'll have to throw in a spread sheet of the prices and figure it out. If I could do both kids on the dining plan, I would probably do it, but 1 kid as an "adult" with what he eats would likely be a huge waste.
 


You know what I always say....

It’s a math exercise! Set up the spreadsheet and do the math. Serves 2 purposes, figure out if it’s worth it and if not you have a decent food budget figured out
 
Just wanted to check, so if I do the dining plan, I understand my son who will be 11 will need to be an adult. If I don't do the dining plan, can he be a kid or will he still be considered an adult at any of the buffet type restaurants? Like if we go to chef mickeys, will they consider him a kid? I don't know how many of those we are doing, but if not, it might make sense to suck up the dining plan.
 
That's what I figured. How do they know the age? Do they get that from the magic band?
 
That's what I figured. How do they know the age? Do they get that from the magic band?
If you've been before, they likely have their birth date. It certainly is on your resort reservation which is tied to your dining plan. They will know how old your kid is.
 
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