Mom And Daughter; Magic Kingdom; Cinderella's Castle; AA; Mickey Balloon
  • On Sep 25, 2008
    Andria from DE 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.

    wondering if the deluxe dining plan is much better than the regular dinging plan, family of 6-which do you recommend?

    It isn't a matter of better or worse -- it depends entirely on how often you plan to dine at table service restaurants, and whether or not you tend to eat enough to get your money's worth from the Dining Plan.

    I would recommend you plan in the following order:
    1) Figure out where do you would like to eat. www.allears.net (and many other sites) have fairly complete collections of menus to help you pick restaurants. Note: if it is your first visit, I would recommend reserving only one table-service meal per day, since you will likely NOT want to spend too much time sitting inside of restaurants, but instead will want to be out enjoying the parks and your resort.
    2) Figure out which parks you want to go to each day (at least a rough plan)
    3) As soon as possible, try to make reservations for the restaurants you picked.  Try to reserve them on days that match well with your park plans.
    4) Roughly estimate how much you might spend at some of the restaurants if you were to dine there without the dining plan.  Would you order dessert? Appetizer? Drinks (or just water?)? Etc.
    5) Compare the cost of the Dining Plan vs. what you think you would spend at the restaurants without it.  A rough guideline is that if you plan to spend, on average, over ~$25 per table service credit per adult (note: some restaurants require two credits), you will probably save money using a Dining Plan.
    6) If you end up reserving several restaurants each day (and/or lots of signature dining restaurants), and you believe you will eat enough to make it pay for itself, then the Deluxe Dining Plan is a great option.

    I should also mention that some people simply prefer the convenience of pre-paying for their food, and are less concerned that the Dining Plan "math" works out in their favor.  If this is your case, you should at least make sure that you can find enough dining reservations to take advantage of the Dining Plan you select.

    Hope that helps. ºoº

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Meet the Panelist: Bret,

As one of the dads on the panel, I have fun helping all Walt Disney World planners who want a dad’s perspective. Learn More About Bret

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