Loved the dining plan

Sherri

DIS Veteran<br><font color=deeppink>I never though
Joined
Feb 2, 2005
I hope its an option when we go again.
I can't believe what a great value it was for our family. We wrote down what the cost of diner was each night and for the four of us, the $38.00 per night paid easily for dinner, so to us it was like getting a lunch and snack for free.
My only thing was that we had come over from two nights at the Pop Century to the WL (which we LOVED by the way) and the size of the snacks at the food court were huge. You get get a whole family pack of donuts or whole family size of chips with only one snack credit there compared to the smaller sizes and selection at the WL. Probably had I not gone to the pop century first then we would not have known that. But as far as the dining plan goes, I can't say enough good things about it.
Loved all of our places we ate with the exception of Coral reef. The waiter acted like he was doing us a favor by letting the children order off the childrens menu, mind you we paid adult prices for them since they are 13 and 14. The coral Reef surely wasn't losing money on that. Also, when I told the waiter about being a vegan, he said its not like I would die if I ate dairy. Every place else was over and beyond our expectations. What a fun and reasonable way to experience different resturaunts.
Getting back to reality is going to be tough.
 
Sherri said:
I hope its an option when we go again.
I can't believe what a great value it was for our family. We wrote down what the cost of diner was each night and for the four of us, the $38.00 per night paid easily for dinner, so to us it was like getting a lunch and snack for free.
My only thing was that we had come over from two nights at the Pop Century to the WL (which we LOVED by the way) and the size of the snacks at the food court were huge. You get get a whole family pack of donuts or whole family size of chips with only one snack credit there compared to the smaller sizes and selection at the WL. Probably had I not gone to the pop century first then we would not have known that. But as far as the dining plan goes, I can't say enough good things about it.
Loved all of our places we ate with the exception of Coral reef. The waiter acted like he was doing us a favor by letting the children order off the childrens menu, mind you we paid adult prices for them since they are 13 and 14. The coral Reef surely wasn't losing money on that. Also, when I told the waiter about being a vegan, he said its not like I would die if I ate dairy. Every place else was over and beyond our expectations. What a fun and reasonable way to experience different resturaunts.
Getting back to reality is going to be tough.

Here lies the problem with the meal plan for me. Eating at all the different restaurants for me was once the big plus about WDW, now they are filled to the brim with people that never used to eat there on a regular bases, the menus have suffered, and you can not just walk into a place anymore without a reservation, even in January. It is a big negative for me, I rather have no meal plans and be able to order from great menus and get excellent service, not pre-paid service.
 
I'm glad you enjoyed the dining plan. I've been keeping a list of confirmed snacks on the restaurant board & this is what I have for Roaring Forks. Is there anything else to add? TIA
ROARING FORKS:
All ice cream $2.39-$2.79
brownie
bag of chips
fruit $2.99
Muffins $2.29
Donuts $0.99
Cereal
fruit bowls
Yogurt with fresh fruit
Sm. Pbj sandwiches
 
:banana:
We loved the dining plan during our may of 05 trip. We are going back this sept for free dining. :cheer2: I love having most of our food pre paid and eating at a table service rest almost every day of our trip. We just made our adrs and plan on sticking with them. THe service we had last year was overall great and was the same as it was during previous trips before the ddp. :)
 
I have to agree with you - I hope they continue to offer this dining plan (or something VERY similar) for a long time to come.

It fits our eating habits perfectly and I found service / selection to be excellent at the restaurants we selected both last Dec. and last May.
 
Pa@okw95 said:
Here lies the problem with the meal plan for me. Eating at all the different restaurants for me was once the big plus about WDW, now they are filled to the brim with people that never used to eat there on a regular bases, the menus have suffered, and you can not just walk into a place anymore without a reservation, even in January. It is a big negative for me, I rather have no meal plans and be able to order from great menus and get excellent service, not pre-paid service.

Sour grapes.
It really is not that hard to plan ahead a little and make an ADR.
Disney has always made frequent changes to menus, I don't think the DDP is to blame. I have had excellent service on the DDP and horrible service while not on it, it has nothing to do with the DDP, and everything to do with the server in question.
I remember when attendance at the parks was so low there were rumors some of the parks would not be open 7 days a week. I am happy Disney is doing so well at filling the hotels and restaurants.
 
Pa@okw95 said:
Here lies the problem with the meal plan for me. Eating at all the different restaurants for me was once the big plus about WDW, now they are filled to the brim with people that never used to eat there on a regular bases, the menus have suffered, and you can not just walk into a place anymore without a reservation, even in January. It is a big negative for me, I rather have no meal plans and be able to order from great menus and get excellent service, not pre-paid service.


You can make ADR's at 180 days, just like every one else. I admit you are right about the restaurants being crowed and walk-ups impossible at most places though. We used to do the old dreammaker gold/silver plans which were quite a bit more money and included all 3 TS meals (gold) or 2 TS meals(silver). I never noticed these plans effecting the restaurants the way MYW DDP does. Of course, this dining plan at $10.99 and $37.99 is a much better deal cost-wise. I'm sure a lot more people can afford it or just think it's a better dollar value than the old plans were.

I have to say that I didn't notice a difference in service since the inception of this plan. We were there in Dec (not on the plan as it was not available yet to DVC members). It seemed like everyone was on the plan except us! We were asked everytime we bought a water, snack, CS ot TS meal if we had the plan. Some CM's actually asked us why we didn't get the plan. It seems insanely popular. I know some DVC members are not use to making a lot of ADR's. Whenever I can, I suggest ADR's before leaving the house. We saw too many people with out ADR's in Dec get dissapointed to find no walk-ups were available.
 
Overall the Disney has gone down a bit in quality but I don't think that has anything to do with the DDP as you see it in all areas.

That aside we still get the best service BY FAR that we get anywhere else. Even when Disney is a little off it's game it's still better than anything else!


WDWO
 
I loved the Dining Plan too and will continue to purchase it as long as it is offered. It was wonderful to try different restaurants that we might not have splurged on otherwise, given that we have two young children. We couldn't have been happier! :thumbsup2
 
Pa@okw95 said:
Here lies the problem with the meal plan for me. Eating at all the different restaurants for me was once the big plus about WDW, now they are filled to the brim with people that never used to eat there on a regular bases, the menus have suffered, and you can not just walk into a place anymore without a reservation, even in January. It is a big negative for me, I rather have no meal plans and be able to order from great menus and get excellent service, not pre-paid service.

I think that is unfair. The dining plan gives people the option to eat at restaurants they could otherwise not afford. I am one of those people. There is no way I could afford to eat at a table service meal every night of my vacation. The dining plan is giving me the chance to try places I could have not been able to try any of the restaurants whether or or not they got good reviews or not.
 
Sherri said:
I hope its an option when we go again.

Loved all of our places we ate with the exception of Coral reef. The waiter acted like he was doing us a favor by letting the children order off the childrens menu, mind you we paid adult prices for them since they are 13 and 14. The coral Reef surely wasn't losing money on that. Also, when I told the waiter about being a vegan, he said its not like I would die if I ate dairy. Every place else was over and beyond our expectations. What a fun and reasonable way to experience different resturaunts.
Getting back to reality is going to be tough.

Sorry you got a less than pleasant waiter- His tip is based on the total meal price so although the restaurant did not lose money by your children ordering off the child's menu - he did. His comments were uncalled for however so a smaller tip was probably deserved. Hope we don't get him in September.
 

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