Mom And Daughter; Animal Kingdom
  • On Jul 18, 2012
    Anne from NJ Asked Note: This answer was provided prior to the change to planDisney and may still contain references to Disney Parks Moms Panel.

    Experiences, policies, pricing and other offerings are subject to change and may have changed since the date of this answer.

    Hi. We are booking for a stay in November, free dining is available but we were considering the deluxe dining. Is it worth is to pay for 10&11yr olds for deluxe dining if they eat mac and cheese? or could we use the kids points and pay for their meals?

    Hi Anne!

    Whether you get Basic Dining or Deluxe Dining, you still pay for basically 4 adult plates, since any child 10 and older get the same plate (and portion size) of an adult. If you and husband are hearty eaters, you could use their meal entitlements, but in the end you'll be paying more, and I'm big at saving a penny whenever the opportunity presents itself. :-)

    Remember, the difference in Basic and Deluxe is that with Deluxe, you essentially can get up to 3 sit down meals if you choose, but with Basic you only get 1 sit down (i.e. Table Service) per day. Even on Basic, you still will pay for 4 adult plates, although the meals may be minus an appetizer or dessert here or there.

    I would say, unless you're looking to do a few dinner shows (which cost 2 meal entitlements per person), try to make reservations at as many buffets or all-you-care-to-eat restaurants. These restaurants provide many more options, and allow for heftier mac and cheese plate portions for your children than, say, paying additional out of pocket for a kid's plate that has mac and cheese and chicken nuggets.

    Also, our family used to do Deluxe, but now we stick with Basic. To justify the added cost, we made tons of Table Service reservations under Deluxe. But we found our entire trip dictated by where we had to eat vs. what we wanted to do. Keep this in mind when figuring out how you want your vacation to go.

    So hope everything works out. Great choice Mom in taking advantage of the Free Dining! You saved a bunch of pennies! :-)
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