To Pick or Not Pick a Dining Plan

For my wife and I, it typically depends on our length of stay. As you might have figured out or heard from Cathie, we tend to be foodies. So, with that being said, here how or what we choose. If we are staying between 1 - 3 days, we found it best not to get a dining plan and just pay as you go. If we are staying between 3 - 5 days, then we will typically get the My Way Plus Dining (or what is sometimes called "Regular Dining Plan"). This includes the refillable mug, 2 snacks per person per day, 1 quick service and I table service per person per day. If we are staying longer than 5 days, we tend to get the Deluxe Dining Plan. This includes the refillable mug, 2 snacks per person per day, 3 meals per person per day (either quick service or table service). We chose this plan for longer stays because we would typically eat a breakfast, snack for lunch and then a signature dining option for dinner. With the Deluxe Dining Plan it is easier to do signature dining because you combine the meal credit for lunch with the meal credit for dinner (as it takes two credits for signature dining).

I hope this helps but all-in-all it is more of a personal choice so there is no right or wrong answer.

Because I live local and go for a day, we never use the dining plan.....but when my son, wife and granddaughter come down for their week stay in Sept 20-8 we are talking about whether or not to use a dining plan because we will stay in a DVC 2 bedroom 2-1/2 bath with a complete kitchen.....so still discussing dining plan or not just to utilize some more of the specialty dining/character meals....I'm going to screen shot Docs reply and send it to daughter in law cuz I can't explain it any better than that!

We buy Tables-in-Wonderland. Its available to DVC, Florida residents, and Annual Passholders.
~20% off food and beverage including alcohol for parties up to 10 people.
~Complimentary Resort Valet and Theme Park parking for Dining purposes.
~It's 150$ and good for 13 months. Last 4day trip for 2, saved us 160$. So its already paid for.
~Also has automatic 18% gratuity. (which saves me money)

Having Tables when the kids were here back in Sept....that trip alone I recouped the expense,plus I had added Sara onto the card for $50 extra so if she's over without me, she can use card too.....sometimes I'm home with Milo while she and her sister go together....usually that's twice a year

Lol! Doc, my husband is the "word" person and the spell check....I guess it comes from years of being on radio and "rip & reading" the news. One misspelled word or grammatically incorrect word could totally change everything! Anyway...my comment was first and didn't want to be the one leading people astray!

I liked all your comments on the dinning plan, I wasn't going to add mine but thought why not.
When our children were young we drove and brought food with us, ate at quick service only, never had the opportunity for a sit down meal.
My wife and I started coming back to Disney 8 years ago without the children who were now adults.

The meal plan was offered for free and we totally enjoyed eating at different restaurants. We looked forward to eating at all the different sit down meals. Our problem was we were now forced to be at a certain park or resort at a specific time. Our entire life was spontaneity we changed our minds and did whatever we wanted to do when we wanted to. For the first 3 years we had a great time eating at sit down restaurants, we thought the signature restaurants (2 dinners) was terrible and would not do them.
I always check receipts to make sure I am not being cheated and finally one day I added up the receipts and what we would have paid if we had no meal plan and found that getting a free meal plan was not worth it. We would not eat that much food if we did not have the plan, some nights I ate two quick serves because my wife couldn't eat anymore. Growing up I was told that it was a sin to waste food and I wanted to use the entire free plan. It's a wonder I'm not a lot bigger than I am.

So, now we use the signature meals to get rid of 2 each.

Last but not least, Disney's main ingredient is SALT............now that I remember this I need to complain to them. Our meal at Le Cellier was so salty we couldn't eat it. I asked at Tony's to have my dinner without salt and they said it was already in it. Maybe it was our server who didn't care, I will find out.

Put that in the area reserved for allergies....low sodium diet or salt free options.....however you word it and the chef will treat it as an allergy and come out to your table