tammilip821
Registered: August 2012
Location: Langhorne, PA
Posts: 2
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Review Date: Thu August 23, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? No
| Rating: 5
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Pros:
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No worries about money
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Cons:
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Too much food with too little flexibility
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We stay at DVC so we pay for the dining plan. After adding up what we spent for DDP plus the additional food costs (i.e., apps, drinks) and all of the desserts we would not have gotten if not included we decided we would not do the DDP again. May try Tables in Wonderland instead.
Also, I don't know if this is a result of so many ppl eating on site due to the DDP but we were there celbrating a very special birthday. This was confirmed at the time of booking, by the hotel concierge and at every podium. Most restaurants said they were not made aware even though it was clearly printed on the seating receipt. Our reservations were all messed up as well and had to be straightened out by concierge. Very dissappointing this time!
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Ed
Registered: August 2012
Posts: 2
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Review Date: Sun August 19, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Pretty much all our meals were paid for, lot of food
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Cons:
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Plan has been changed over the past couple of years
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Prices for plans have been steadily increasing over the past 3 years. They've also be cutting the value of the packages.
When we went in 2010, a table service meal included: appetizer, entree, dessert, n/a beverage.
For 2011, appetizer was available only for kids 3 to 9.
Last year,2012 appetizer eliminated for everyone.
I would check carefully to see if the meal plan you choose is still worth the money.
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jennifermckelvey
Registered: July 2012
Location: Greenville, SC
Posts: 4
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Review Date: Fri July 20, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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savings, selection
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Cons:
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none
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We love the dining plan! Otherwise, we would spend a small fortune feeding our family in WDW. We found that the deluxe was way too much food for us, so we now stick with the typical dining plan. We usually have enough snack credits at the end of our trip to grab some bagged goodies for the plane ride and to have at home. Be warned: Dining reservations are a must! We usually go in the off season, and we have found that the more popular restaurants are booked even with "low" crowds!
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amylynnmo
Registered: July 2012
Posts: 4
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Review Date: Tue July 17, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes
| Rating: 8
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We used the Dining plan May 29 - June 4 and were so glad we did. We made reservations far in advance and were so pleased with our savings.
Only suggestion: allow guests to choose between an appetizer and a dessert. We did figure out that the resort was much less picky about this - we could choose a side and count it as our dessert. Not sure if this is actually allowed, but it worked out well to our advantage.
Also, we had one child and figured out that quick service is the same if you get a child or adult meal.
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OhioMom
Registered: June 2011
Posts: 17
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Review Date: Mon July 9, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Food was pretty good, character meals very fun
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Cons:
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Difficult to get reservations, So much sugar
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We couldn't get reservations at 'Ohana or Chef Mickey unless it was past 9:30 at night. Had to split up our party to get everyone in at a reasonable time.
I did not like the desserts will every meal. I wish you could pick an appetizer or something else. At times difficult to understand what was on the snack plan.
Epcot still has the best options for sit down meals. Kids loved the character meals.
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MelRedDis
Registered: July 2012
Location: GA
Posts: 12
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Review Date: Wed July 4, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Saved $
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Cons:
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Too many desserts!!
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Here's where we ate (two adults and two children ages 12 & 8):
Table Service: House of Blues, Hollywood & Vine, Garden Grill, Crystal Palace, Tusker House & Rainforest Cafe
Quick Service: Pepper Market for breakfast at Coronado Springs Resort, Pizza Planet, Sunshine Seasons, Columbia Harbor House, Pecos Bill's, & Pepper Market at Hotel for dinner.
Loved them all! Great food and a great variety.
Didn't like to have to pay a tip at for a quick service meal at the Pepper Market at our hotel though.
After crunching the numbers, we definitely saved money, but we left over $200.00 in tips so we only saved over $200.00.
Since it was our first time, I'm glad we did it. We enjoyed the character buffets! tusker House was the best. If we were to do it again, we would do the quick service plan or just pay on our own and skip desserts. Again, like other posts, would love to have an appetizer instead of a dessert - too many sweets!!!
We had a lot of snack credits and tried to use them up the last two days of the trip - ended up bringing a few for the trip home. It is a lot of food and you won't go hungry!!
If it's your first time - do the Dining Plan and make character buffet reservations well in advance.
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mizlipp
Registered: July 2012
Location: Florida
Posts: 6
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Review Date: Tue July 3, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Do your homework and you will eat at great places
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Cons:
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What a great deal! Be sure to do your homework or you will lose money on these plans. We booked three lunches on the DDP. Crystal Palace, 50's diner and Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. We used all table service and quick service credits. We did spend additional money on breakfast but I was ok with that, could have used snack credits at the hotel for pastries but my husband likes a big breakfast so we set aside money for breakfast, didn't spend more than $20 on breakfast each day. We got our moneys worth out of the plan. Great choice of places to get snacks. I would like the option though to choose between dessert and appetizer. Most snacks are like dessert, well for me at least so even for me there was a lot of sugar going on with desserts and snacks. I think if you have the time to plan and research to make sure you get your money's worth then go for it. If you don't take the time to plan don't bother getting it. Oh and one more thing I planned lunches and liked it, looking back though I would plan dinners this way your day isn't broken up as much plus dinners usually cost more so you know you're getting a better deal. When you plan lunchs you usually don't want to wait in line too long at a ride because you may end up being late for lunch. If you plan dinner most of the time you are ready for a good sit down and have seen a lot of the park by then.
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undertheseas
Registered: June 2011
Location: mid MO
Posts: 24
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Review Date: Sat June 23, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes
| Rating: 7
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Pros:
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allows you to try new places
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Cons:
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time consuming
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This year we had free quick service so we paid to upgrade. This has gotten more expensive and now that tax and tip aren't included, appetizers aren't included, etc., it can add up fast. I need to crunch the numbers to see if it really saved us money. We wouldn't eat dessert with every meal and if we paid out of pocket there would be more meal sharing. That being said, we love eating well on vacation and this allows us to eat at places we wouldn't otherwise. Table services are very time consuming, plan on 90 minutes minimum not including travel time.
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jbald
Registered: June 2010
Posts: 11
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Review Date: Thu June 21, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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convenience
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Cons:
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too much food
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Please add more healthier options for both the adult and children's meals. It was very hard to find healthy options at times. Some days we just needed lighter meals.
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hello12345
Registered: June 2010
Posts: 42
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Review Date: Mon June 11, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes
| Rating: 6
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Pros:
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Lot of food, paid in advance
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Cons:
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Lot of food, not flexible
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I have done the dining plan 3 times since 2008 and one time without. Disney has increased the price of the plan over the last few years which has made it very hard to eat your money back. It is hard to eat almost $52 worth of food everyday even at Disney. The only way to do it is hit a big buffet every night that you have to reserve 6 months in advance. Who eats a dessert at lunch and dinner? Giving me a cupcake sized cake at lunch that Disney charges $3.69 for and that I would not have got in the first place is not a deal in my opinion.
The dining plan is a smart choice for a Disney first-timer who wants to experience character buffets. I just see it as too much food now. I am also paying for stuff that I would not have ordered in the first place like that piece of cake at lunch.
I might have came out $50 or less ahead even after eating at, Tusker House (lunch), Akershus (Breakfast), Cape May (Dinner), Liberty Tree Tavern (Dinner), T-Rex (Dinner), Biergarten (Dinner), and Garden Grill (Dinner). I had 14 snack credits to use on the final day because we were never hungry after eating big lunches and dinners. So I ended up getting more junk food to take home with me.
I guess it is up to your personal eating habits if this plan makes sense. I think I will pass on it next time. Buying some Disney gift cards makes just as much sense if you don't like to use case or credit cards.
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casino_bandit
Registered: September 2010
Posts: 19
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Review Date: Mon June 11, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Meals are prepaid, don't have to look at menu prices
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Cons:
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Dessert every meal can become a bit much
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We visited for 12 days in May, with 2 adults and a 9 year old child, giving us:
24 adult table service meals
12 child table service meals
36 counter service meals
36 snacks
3 refillable mugs
Notice that the table service is split between adult and child, and the counter service is not. This can be used to your advantage if your child wants the occasional adult meal, but it takes a bit of effort. On the card, it states that there are 2 adults and 1 child, so you could not just order 3 adult meals, but if you do it in two separate transactions, it can work. It may be a loophole, but it works. Sometimes he wanted something on the menu that wasn't listed on the kids menu. I believe we did this two times during our trip.
The daily cost to us was around $118. 9 of the 12 table service meals were over $90 (4 over $100), with only one under $80, meaning the cost of the table service meal almost covered the cost of the plan for the day. Now we did not go looking for the most expensive meal to maximize the value, but chose what we wanted without looking at the prices. At the end of the trip, we ended up saving $349.63. We could have saved even more if we had bought more expensive snacks, but we probably used half of the snack credits on drinks. Some of the snack items now top out at $5 or more.
Now of course the argument is did we really save that much? Would we order dessert every meal? Probably not, but even without the dessert added in, the value is definitely there.
Another argument is that there aren't any choices for counter service, except burgers and fries. Well I am happy to report that I only had a burger one time, and that is because it is what I wanted. We had salads, tacos, pizza, brats, BBQ ribs, chicken, etc. There are plenty of choices if you look for them.
We would purchase the DDP for every trip. We have thought about the DLX plan, but we feel that this plan is plenty of food.
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abrmama
Registered: June 2012
Location: Indiana
Posts: 18
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Review Date: Sun June 10, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Everything's paid for ahead of time; money savings
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Cons:
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How tipping is set up on receipts
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I really, really, really, strongly think that there's no point in going to Disney if you don't do the Disney meals! Everyone knows they're all overpriced, so there's no need to whine and if you go, just suck it up and go. Why not save money while doing it? And yes, I have run the numbers many many many times and come out hundreds of $ ahead with the DP every time.
We do think it's super awkward that we had to write in the tip amount and give it to the servers before they ran our DP card. Kinda weird, especially if we gave less tip and they know it, then they have to bring back your bill for you to sign... But whatever.
We thought we could save so much $ last time so we didn't get the dining plan. We spent about $200 MORE than we would have if we had had the dining plan! So this time we did it right - thank goodness!
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K0720
Registered: May 2012
Posts: 4
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Review Date: Tue May 29, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes
| Rating: 9
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I really like the convenience of the Dining Plan but have found that we do not need all of the food that comes with it. We do not need that many table service meals. I wish there was something in between that offered the option of choosing how many table service meals and how many counter service meals you wanted.
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tgrupa
Registered: May 2012
Posts: 10
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Review Date: Sun May 20, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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cost savings
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Cons:
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none
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We were very happy with the plan once we got used to it. We used every last bit on the card. We wouldnt go without it if and when we go back to Disney. It saved us hundreads of dollars. high recommended.
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BabieO
Registered: May 2012
Posts: 8
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Review Date: Sat May 19, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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everything
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Cons:
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I think there are changes coming
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Love love love it! Each meal we had at dinner would have cost us over $100 some closer to $200, but everything was paid for ahead of time. I wish you could pick either an appetizer or dessert though. I ate a years worth of dessert in 7 days.
We were stopped to do surveys 4 times while at the parks & they kept asking where we were staying ( pop century) & if we used the dining plan. I have a feeling changes are coming. My husband is speculating that they will only let value resort people but the counter service plan, which would be ridiculous & really make me reevaluate how they treat the guests, but that is just his guess.
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