Need Help Deciding on Dining Plan!!

[DisneyBound2007]

Definately need some input on this. It is pretty much the only factor of the reservations that I have not been able to decide on yet. So here is the scenario: Its going to be me and my DGF. (First off, this trip is pretty much for our 3 year anniversary and my graduation from college, so can anyone see us getting any kinds of special treatments if we listed this on our reservation. Of course I know we arent married, but just wondering if Disney would look at that and laugh it off since we arent married and also do they really care if I grad from college) Sorry that wasnt with the dining plans but I'm getting to that now. So it will be the 2 of us for 11 days/10 nights at POP Century. We are looking to try and cover almost everything in all the parks. I think I'm a little more of a disney commando (I think thats what you call it) than my GF, but once we are there hopefully I can get her into it. I'm one to come back to the hotel at 2 am and spend another hour planning our exact park entrance route for the next morning. Anyway, I'm not big on eating. I eat to live, not live to eat but my DGF enjoys having a nice diner at a nice place every once in a while. I did my homework and based on the 2006 rates which I'm sure may increase slightly we were looking at about $760 for the both of us to have a total pool of "20 snacks / 20 CS / 20 TS" Will I really spend $760 in cash if I opt not to get the dining plan. If I can get her to accept like one sit down dinner at an epcot restaurant and have the rest come from counter service and grab snacks everyonce in a while. Maybe order a room pizza or something. Also my resort doesnt have TS available so anything we ate there would have to be form CS. This would mean I would have to make many ADRs and I'm afraid this would begin to run the way we would have to park hop based on where we are gonna be eating and I dont want the food to dominate my trip (I could personally last for 10 days on granola bars....lol....I really could) So if anyone could let me know how fast you can rack up $760 in food over the course of a stay, please do. And lastly, if I opt not to get the dining plan, I can still use my key card as like a credit card and rack up the total bill of anything we purchase and pay it back at my hotel (to avoid having to carry alot of cash for eating) Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[frayedend]

I haven't done it yet, but it depends on your eating habits and you need to ask GF if she wants a lot of TS. I agree that ADRs can have a effect on your planning. Some people like to plan everything, some don't. But here is an idea...

CS estimate 10 bucks per CS meal.
TS estimate 19 bucks per meal (that's the very low end with no app or dessert or drink or tip, so it makes up for the CS price if you do cheaper.
Snack estimate 5 bucks per snack.

Total is $34 per day X 2 people =$68 X 10 Days = $680. Not too far off from 760 right. And I think I gave fairly conservative estimates, especially for TS. All in all I think it works out about even depending on how you use it.

So since you want freedom to park hop, you don't want to have too many sit down meals (but again, check with the GF because you know you have to do what she wants) and you want to try going Commando maybe you should skip the dining plan. But remember to check with the GF and to make ADRs for any sit downs you do whether the DP or not.

I bet others can give more accurate prices.

 

[LizinSTL]

Definately need some input on this. It is pretty much the only factor of the reservations that I have not been able to decide on yet. So here is the scenario: Its going to be me and my DGF. (First off, this trip is pretty much for our 3 year anniversary and my graduation from college, so can anyone see us getting any kinds of special treatments if we listed this on our reservation. Of course I know we arent married, but just wondering if Disney would look at that and laugh it off since we arent married and also do they really care if I grad from college) Sorry that wasnt with the dining plans but I'm getting to that now. So it will be the 2 of us for 11 days/10 nights at POP Century. We are looking to try and cover almost everything in all the parks. I think I'm a little more of a disney commando (I think thats what you call it) than my GF, but once we are there hopefully I can get her into it. I'm one to come back to the hotel at 2 am and spend another hour planning our exact park entrance route for the next morning. Anyway, I'm not big on eating. I eat to live, not live to eat but my DGF enjoys having a nice diner at a nice place every once in a while. I did my homework and based on the 2006 rates which I'm sure may increase slightly we were looking at about $760 for the both of us to have a total pool of "20 snacks / 20 CS / 20 TS" Will I really spend $760 in cash if I opt not to get the dining plan. If I can get her to accept like one sit down dinner at an epcot restaurant and have the rest come from counter service and grab snacks everyonce in a while. Maybe order a room pizza or something. Also my resort doesnt have TS available so anything we ate there would have to be form CS. This would mean I would have to make many ADRs and I'm afraid this would begin to run the way we would have to park hop based on where we are gonna be eating and I dont want the food to dominate my trip (I could personally last for 10 days on granola bars....lol....I really could) So if anyone could let me know how fast you can rack up $760 in food over the course of a stay, please do. And lastly, if I opt not to get the dining plan, I can still use my key card as like a credit card and rack up the total bill of anything we purchase and pay it back at my hotel (to avoid having to carry alot of cash for eating) Any input would be greatly appreciated.

It depends. We didnt' park hop at all to eat our meals. I planned them based on the "best days" guesses for each park and used our TS meals at or near those parks.

Could you spend $760 on meals in 10 days? Absolutely. A cheeseburger meal w/ a coke is $10, mix it up and do a chicken wrap and that's $11. Want breakfast? $8 for pancakes and juice. That's just at the pop food court. If you toss in a couple snacks you are looking at up to $60-70 day for the 2 of you in just counter service meals. That's not a wide variety of food either.

10 Table service meals too many for you?
You could compromise and plan a couple 2 TS meals like Jiko or California Grill. Then you wouldn't feel compelled to do a sitdown every day. We actually found it worked well for us to do an early lunch and late dinner twice on our trip. That way we just had CS meals a couple other days and could really zip through the parks. The rides are much less crowded during typical "meal-times".

We used Pop counter service for both breakfast and lunch quite a few times. (Try the flatbread sandwiches) If you aren't a big eater, you can grab a box of donuts and use that for your breakfast a few times with a single snack credit.

I know that tastes vary, but I don't recommend the pop pizza delivery. We threw away almost 2 entire pizzas...

 

[KelNottAt]

If you're going for 10 nights, I'd recommend at least 2 signature dining experiences. This way, DGF gets her fix of "nice" meals and you're definitely increasing the probability that you'll get your $760 worth.

Of course by eating Sig Dining twice, you'll have to budget your remaining TS & CS meals. No prob. You'd be left with 8 snacks, 8 CS, and 6 TS on the days that aren't signature. With healthy snacks, creative sharing, and doggy bags you'll definitely get your money's worth.

BTW, I'm like you. I merely eat to live. To me, food is just starvation prevention. But, I'm looking forward to the convenience and variety of the DDP. Without it, I'd be cooking in the villa or we'd be stuck with at least 2 CS per day...maybe one TS.

 

[pperfectmom]

Oh, I definately think you should get the plan for your girlfriend's sake. I agree with the poster to do several of the 2TS credit places that are supposedly very nice. That way you will have several days without ADR's that you can be spontaneous. I think $700+ for 10 days of great food isn't bad at all. You might end up spending a lot more if you don't do it or put any thought into your eating plans. One thing you definately need to do even if you don't do the DDP is to call Disney Dining and make reservations for ANY TS meal you might want. You can always cancel most of them if the situation changes without a charge(CRT and the shows being the exception to this and then only if it's less than 48 hrs in advance).

 

[TruBlu]

We were at Disney for the first time a couple of weeks ago and did the dining plan. Because we are park commando's as well, we felt a little restricted by the plan. We had TS dinners each night and the ADRs always seemed to be at a time that we could get a fast pass or there was a short line for Mission Space, etc.!!! That being said, the food there is very expensive, and had we not been on the plan I think we would have only eaten hamburgers or popcorn the entire week. Because of the plan we took time to eat in some really good, fun places that we would have missed. Most of the TS places took us and hour or two for dinner, but since we stayed to close down the parks each night, it was a break that we really needed. I think you sould do the plan.