Dining Plan

[friendz4eva]

We are heading off to WDW in early May. This time it will be me, my mother, DD1 6 yrs, DD2 5 yrs and DS 2 yrs. The past two times we went we never purchased a dining plan.  We did take advantage of it about 3 years ago when we went in October and they offered a Free Dining Plan. 

So, I was a little late planning this time and am unable to get character dining reservations, except for Ohana breakfast (my kids loved it) and Chef Mickey breakfast.  I am considering doing the quick service meal plan.  I don't think the Disney dining plan is worth it for us, considering I really only would want it for character dining since my kids are young and my oldest is a picky eater.  Anyone know if I can use a quick service meal towards those Ohana and Chef Mickey and pay the overage fee?

Any thoughts?  TIA!

[littlemermaid]

I've always had to use my "sit down" meals for the character meals we attended

[curbsideprophet]

I would assume that no, you could not do that. However I don't know for sure.

[tinkerbell]

You can't use quick-service meals to pay for table service ones.

[friendz4eva]

Thank you for the replies! Looks like no dining plan for us.

[tinkerbell]

In case anyone hasn't seen this yet, there's a site that helps you figure out whether or not it's cost-effective to get the dining plan.

www.distripplanner.com

[fancefpp]

I just used the above calculator and got sticker shock! Is it really 1700 for a family of four (minus the baby) to eat for six days?

I put in a bunch of the places I'd like to try for dinner and a few quick service for lunch/breakfast. My boys will be 3 & 5 when we go and are very picky eaters. They don't eat very much when we go out to dinner.

[bronxgirl]

we did the dining plan in 2013 and we definitely saved money than if we paid OOP, but there were a few mitigating factors. the big thing was that DD was a little under three so she was free, but we were still able to feed her, almost exclusively, with the dining plan. The reason we decided to do it is because we anted to do a lot of character meals. (this was our first trip) All of out TS credits were character meals, so DD got to eat free at all of these. Some of the items she wanted for lunches when we had QS were considered snacks and b/c the portion sizes are pretty large in general we were able to share a lot of our meals with her. We were at DTD one night and went to Wolfgang Puck express. It's pricy, but still considered QS so we got a $30 meal (roast chicken with mashed potatoes, beverage, crème brulee) that was big enough to share for one QS credit. When we went this past May the plan would have been much more expensive and not worth it to us. We would have had to pay for DD and weren't interested in doing a lot of TS meals.

[thebulldog]

Fwiw you still need to pay tax and tip i believe on table service so there is still some oop costs.

Sent from my SM-G900P using proboards

[gardengal]

Mar 10, 2016 18:56:41 GMT -5 fancefpp said:

I just used the above calculator and got sticker shock! Is it really 1700 for a family of four (minus the baby) to eat for six days?

I put in a bunch of the places I'd like to try for dinner and a few quick service for lunch/breakfast. My boys will be 3 & 5 when we go and are very picky eaters. They don't eat very much when we go out to dinner.

Eta: disregard my info re 3yo. I misremember how old my child was when we went 

The 3yo can't have a dining plan bc it's tied to your ticket & 3yos are free. So a dining plan would be 2 adults & 1 child.  

We we used snack credits or shared off our plates for my youngest. It worked out. 

I also rec considering eating breakfast in your room. You can get grocery deliveries (there's a fridge). Breakfast is expensive for what it is, tbh. We'd have a muffin & fruit or use our snack credits to load up on pastries from France in Epcot the night before. For us, it made things less stressful instead of scrambling to get a a restaurant in the AM. Our hotel gave us a refillable mug so we got coffee that way for free (no milk though for kids). 

[bronxgirl]

Mar 10, 2016 21:54:20 GMT -5 gardengal said:

Mar 10, 2016 18:56:41 GMT -5 fancefpp said:

I just used the above calculator and got sticker shock! Is it really 1700 for a family of four (minus the baby) to eat for six days?

I put in a bunch of the places I'd like to try for dinner and a few quick service for lunch/breakfast. My boys will be 3 & 5 when we go and are very picky eaters. They don't eat very much when we go out to dinner.

The 3yo can't have a dining plan bc it's tied to your ticket & 3yos are free. So a dining plan would be 2 adults & 1 child. 

3 year olds aren't free. Under 3 is free.

[gardengal]

Mar 10, 2016 21:58:25 GMT -5 bronxgirl said:

Mar 10, 2016 21:54:20 GMT -5 gardengal said:

The 3yo can't have a dining plan bc it's tied to your ticket & 3yos are free. So a dining plan would be 2 adults & 1 child. 

3 year olds aren't free. Under 3 is free.

Yeah I just edited

[alleinesein]

Mar 10, 2016 18:56:41 GMT -5 fancefpp said:

I just used the above calculator and got sticker shock! Is it really 1700 for a family of four (minus the baby) to eat for six days?

I put in a bunch of the places I'd like to try for dinner and a few quick service for lunch/breakfast. My boys will be 3 & 5 when we go and are very picky eaters. They don't eat very much when we go out to dinner.

Yup!  The basic dining plan (1 QS, 1 snack, 1 table service) runs $61.82 per adults and $20.98 for kids.  The Deluxe plan starts at $111.73 per adult and $32.56 per child.  So you can spend $993.60 to $1731.48 for 2 adults and 2 child plus tax and tip. 

We have never used the dining plan because we are DVC members and up until a few years ago the option for the dining plan was not available to us.  We do get the purchase the Tables In Wonderland dining card and that gives us 20% off dining at almost every table service location at WDW and the discount includes alcohol.  The card pays for itself after 2 dinners out!  

[friendz4eva]

Mar 10, 2016 17:48:16 GMT -5 tinkerbell said:

In case anyone hasn't seen this yet, there's a site that helps you figure out whether or not it's cost-effective to get the dining plan.

www.distripplanner.com

Thank you!