Disney dining plan

Is it worth it? We are going for 3 nights, staying at Saratoga Springs in a 2 bedroom villa with kitchen First night we (me and DH) will probably eat somewhere at Downtown Disney, we won't be going to any parks that day. My sister will get there is the afternoon with her DH and their 5 kids, she can't afford to eat out at every meal.

I looked into the character meals, and they are crazy expensive for a buffet That's what prompted me to look into the dining plan. Also, I am very close to being vegan (no dairy, occasional seafood and steak) sister is vegetarian, her kids are really picky and DS has several food allergies (dairy, tree nuts, peanuts, egg, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and pineapple).

Do you think it would be worth it for all of us price wise and convenience wise? WWYD?

Re: Disney dining plan

Well, if you do DDP, you have to get it for every member of the party. How old are the kids?

If the kids are under 9, it's really reasonable for them, so I think that makes it more worth it.

If you stick with 1-credit character meals, and using the Table Service for dinner and QS for lunch, I think it can definitely be worthwhile.

Do you have any ideas regarding where you want to eat, how many sit down meals on your trip, etc?

If you have some idea, we can crunch the #'s.

Disney World is an amazing place to vacation for people with food allergies and or vegans/vegetarians. Just make sure you put the allergies and needs on the ADR and remind the host at the restaurant as well as your waiter. They will accommodate any needs. They have pretty well established vegetarian menus at the table service restaurants, and at buffets, the chef will walk you around the whole spred to tell you what you can and can't eat based on your needs, allergies, etc. If there isn't enough that you want, they'll often offer to make you something else. I've been asked by the chef many times "So what do you feel like eating?" because of my vegetarianism and milk allergy.

My new favorite place to eat as a vegetarian is Boma. There are SOOO many vegetarian options in the buffet and it's all interesting stuff, not just pasta primavera. Boma's also fun for the kids since during the day it has a beautiful view and you can go to see the animals while you're at AKL.

Even though 'Ohana is a meatgasm, the chef made me a DELICIOUS tofu meal and I got my own appetizers and sides as well.

LOVE it.

if the places you like are on the expensive side, and the kids are under 9, you'll do really well with DDP.

Kids under 3 don't have to pay and can eat off of parents' plates for free. This works well at buffets, etc.

Re: Disney dining plan

It would be 4 adults, and the kids are 9 and under except one will be 13. She can put away a huge steak though at every dinner, so she would be worth the money. The only issue is we had to leave one kid off the reservation because our room sleep 8 plus the baby (my DS), so we'll have to sneak the 8 year old in and I guess pay cash at meals? Would it send up a red flag if everyone at our table has the dining plan and not him? I don't want to get kicked out of our room, lol.

Re: Disney dining plan

I have NO idea where we would want to eat. There are so many choices, it's overwhelming I'm trying to research it, but I don't even know where to begin. We won't be getting the park hopper this trip so Epcot restaurants are out of the question. But we like expensive meals, so long as there are options for picky kids also. My DS will eat whatever I eat, and I'm accustomed to his allergies because I BF him the entire time so my food choices were limited.


ETA: we will also have our cars, so eating off site isn't an issue if we need to. I'm not sure though that we will want to waste time away from the parks since we're only going for a few days.

Message edited 2/14/2012 1:34:04 PM.

Re: Disney dining plan

What kinds of food do you like? Do the kids sit well at restaurants?

They won't question it at all.

For table service, let's say you have 5 kids, 5 adults on the plan, and it's 3 nights. You get

15 adult table credits
15 child table credits.

It doesn't reference how many people you have on the plan, just how many meals you are allotted.

You can use them however you like. I'm not going to advocate breaking Disney rules and fire code by having the extra person BUT what you could do in your situation is use the dining plan for everyone in the room at the big expensive meals, and you will be short some credits at the end because of the extra person, so just play for one cheaper meal in cash for everyone, or for however many people you're short.

You will have trouble with EMH since you won't have enough room keys for everyone.

Is there a Treehouse Villa available for your dates? Those sleep as many as 3 bedrooms but cost the same as a 2. That makes them harder to get, but depending on your dates, it might be possible

Message edited 2/14/2012 1:48:02 PM.

Re: Disney dining plan

Also, Quick Service meals are NOT allotted by adult/child, so you can use them all for adult meals technically and pay OOP for the kids to stretch the budget.

Re: Disney dining plan

Message edited 2/14/2012 2:17:33 PM.

Re: Disney dining plan

Posted by OrganicMama
ck.

ETA: the treehouse is available, but not at the 30% discount so can't do it

Re: Disney dining plan

Posted by JenniferEver

Posted by OrganicMama
ck.

ETA: the treehouse is available, but not at the 30% discount so can't do it

Oh, so you're booking through Disney. for some reason I thought you were renting. Do you already have a travel agent?

EMH is Extra Magic Hours. Every day a certain park is open either 1 hour early or 3 hours late for resort guests only. You need to show your KTTW (Key to the World- basically your room key) to get in and get on rides at that point.

Re: Disney dining plan

I FMed you. Also, this link shows how the DDP works. if you look on the left side, there's a receipt that shows how the entitlements show up and are used

Linky