Which Dining Plan with kids ages 13 months 2 yrs and 5.5 yrs

[jacksmom2009]

I am trying to figure out which dining plan to do during our stay at disney in march 2010. Would You do the quick serve dining- considering that i have young ones that meltdown easily when having to wait for food. Or would you do the disney dining that has the sit downs too- are these worth it for the cinderella dinner. and is that even worth it for my kids age. or chef mickey. and if i am going Feb 28- march 6 is it to late to book either of those and which would be better for my kids age.

[egoldber]

You can call Disney Dining or book on-line yourself. I would do that now. You can decide on the dining plan later.

I am not a fan of the plan for many reasons, but it can be cost effective for some people. My main issue is I don't like being tied down to reservations weeks/months in advance that don't allow me to make changes on the fly based on what we feel like doing any particular day.

[hillview]

I am sort of the opposite of Beth. I like to have a sit down meal 2 times a day and prefer reservations to wait and see/no plan at Disney. I am a planner and my kids will typically sit for a meal. It is also what gets DH to get into Disney (down time with a beer). So I'd say it depends on your style :)
/hillary

[Tinkerbell313]

I am trying to figure out which dining plan to do during our stay at disney in march 2010. Would You do the quick serve dining- considering that i have young ones that meltdown easily when having to wait for food. Or would you do the disney dining that has the sit downs too- are these worth it for the cinderella dinner. and is that even worth it for my kids age. or chef mickey. and if i am going Feb 28- march 6 is it to late to book either of those and which would be better for my kids age.

You should be able to add the dining plan at anytime before you go. However, getting meals to certain restaurants at the time/day you want may be the difficult part...Chef Mickeys can be tricky. You should call up now...make ressies and then decide if you want to add the plans at a later date.

Here is link to menus to help you decide which restaurants and the costs... http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm

First, you do not need the dining plan to make reservations. At certain times of the year (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter Week, etc), reservations are a must (irregardless if you are on the dining plan or not)...or you will not be able to get into lots of the sit down restaurants. Also, although you make ressies in advance...you can always change them all the way up to right before your meal (if there is availabilty); you can also just cancel them if you choose not to want to do a TS...we did on several occasions. The only times you have to be careful are the reservations such as Cindy's Royal Table, or the Polynesian Dinner,Backyard BBQ, etc...where there is a penalty for changes made within a certain time frame. But, the majority of restuarants have no penalty and you can make changes at any time...provided they have availibilty.


If your kids are not 3 by the time you go, you do not pay for them on the Dining Plan or for admission tickets to the parks...they just eat off of your plate or off of you older child's plate. For buffets, it really works out great.

The Dining plan is not worth it for Cinderallas Dinner...you use up 2 dinner points per person for one dinner (you get one TS per person for each day you are there...we were there 8 days...we had 8 table services per person...Cindy's Royal Table takes up 2 table services leaving you with 6 table services...). IMO, Cinderella's dinner is also not worth the price you pay out of pocket either. The food was not very good and neither was the service and neither was the interaction with the characters. We preferred the meal at the Akershaus in Norway...in Epcot. We got to see all the princesses including Cindy and it included the picture with Belle. And, the princesses came around twice (we were there 2nd week of june). But, that is my opinion. I beleive you can also see Cindy at 1900 Park Faire as well.

My children were 2.5 and 5 when we went this past June. They are well behaved and will sit down for 2 to 3 hours at a time...they are just used to that as we have always brought them out to dinner from birth. We just make sure they are occupied...which the coloring menus provided by the restuarants worked well for us. Therefore, for us, the dining plan that had table services worked well for us... we went to Jikos, Crystal Palace (for breakfast), Akerhsus, Flying Fish, Yachtsman Steak House., Tusker House The quick serves we used for lunch...we are not big "fast food" type people...more so because it just feels too heavy in our stomachs and makes us so uncomfortable. We did use the quick service at the Columbia House and some other places that were not just hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken.

You do save money on the dining plan. Some people say its too much food. I would have prefered an appetizer over a dessert...but for the adult TS meals dessert is included. For kids TS meals, both the appetizer and desserts are included. What I liked about the kids meals...it wasn't just hot dogs and nuggetts...they had broiled chicken, pork chops, fish, etc. I used my snack for breakfast (bagel, muffin, cereal and milk, etc). I used my counter service for lunch. I used my table service for dinner. We had to pay for alcohol and for tip. Tax was included on the dining plan. Therefore, for $40.00 a day per adult, it was well worth it IMO For my 5 year old, the price was definitely was worth it for us...we only paid $10.00 per day for her...and a kids meal for dinner was about $8.00 not including tax.

We are a big water family...so we just asked for cups of waters to quench our thirst when we were in the parks outdside of our meals...cups of water are free...and its filtered so it doesn't taste as bad as the water from the faucets in the hotel room.

We are not a big snack family...so we never did any of the traditional snacks that people seem to do at Disney...Dole Whips, Rice Krispy Treats, etc... Again, that's because we just are not big snack people. If the kids got hungry (which they seldom do)...I just had the prepackaged grapes or raw veggies left over from their lunches. You can use the snack portion of the DP for the above mentioned items...but we rather use it for breakfast. You can also use it for items at the bakery on Main Street for breakfast.

I hope you were able to get some info on how the plan worked for us. Good luck and have fun.