Dining Plan for 2 adults, 3 kids, ??

[chip91]

Looking into every avenue for our possible upcoming trip in 2007, I'm just wondering if anyone else out there has done the dining plan (not free dining last year, but paid oop for it) if you felt it was worth it?

Also, did you feel limited in your park time b/c you knew you had to get to an adr???

Last trip, we didn't stay on site, so what we ended up spending on any given day at Disney (usually only 1 meal (CS) & some snacks) was around $40-50.00 (it was Oct, extremely HOT so we ended up buying more water than we probably would have (the fountains were GROSS!, we refilled our bottles once while in line for Splash, DH took 1 drink almost tossed his cookies!)

I know if we do eat the one TS credit per day & choose wisely we could eat at some GREAT places & get our money's worth there alone, but did you feel like it was too much food & a waste of $$?

At time of potential trip our kids will be:
5, 8 & 9


TIA for any insight..

Chip

 

[3mickeys&me]

We paid for the dining plan this past Nov and for us it was so worth it. Lots of food!!! We were stuffed!!! It worked out well for the kids too. I would definetly do it again.
What we did for our ADR we picked out what park we would be at for each day and picked a restuarant in that park. Almost all our ADR were for dinner. We did one lunch in MGM (Sci Fi Diner) Like I said it worked well for us

Have fun!

 

[Pooh Crew]

We used the dining plan last year (paid for it) and are using it again this year. If you plan your ADR's right, you can definitely save money. I figured all the table service places we wanted to eat, got the prices for those places, added in an average of counter service and snack/another light meal and then figured out that we would do better on the plan than not. Obviously, if your crew only wants one or two table service meals, don't waste your money on the dining plan. I planned our ADR's then planned our itenerary around them so we were at the park (or closest to the resort) where we were having breakfast or dinner and did not have to rush around to get all the way across "the world". For us, it worked out great.

Also, we would usually grab a fast pass for a ride on our way to dinner so that we could walk right on when we left the restaurant.

 

[WAHMto5]

We also paid for the dining plan the past Christmas (our first time on it), and cannot believe we never did it before!! We will no longer go without it!! Everyone enjoyed it, especially me not having to worry about budgeting meals and eating where ever you wanted!!

 

[Nikki_Mouse]

We also did the DDP- for FREE!!- in Sept. We will definately always go with the plan from now on!! It was fantastic. I do not think that it took time away from the parks. We scheduled three character breakfasts around park time and loved it! It is well worth the cost!

 

[Tink_Fan]

We used the dining plan last May and will use it again this May (we couldn't go back when the dining was free) and felt it was worth it for us. Our DD is now 9 and I think it is great for her now but I wonder how well it will work for us at the end of the year when she turns 10. She is such a light eater, so we will use it this year however I'm not sure what next year will bring......

 

[thelionqueen]

Definitely a must for our family of 4 (both kiddos under 10). Saved a ton of $$ and another thing to consider.

By planning our park days and dining in tandem, it made our trip very well planned and wonderful! Taking the time to coordinate which TS in which park was well worth the effort and made our ADR's a non-issue.

 

[Tink_Fan]

By planning our park days and dining in tandem, it made our trip very well planned and wonderful! Taking the time to coordinate which TS in which park was well worth the effort and made our ADR's a non-issue.

This worked for us too!!!