Meal packages - good deal or not?

Avatar for trevsmomm
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Meal packages - good deal or not?
16
Tue, 12-13-2005 - 1:10am

Hi all!

First of all, thanks so much to all of you who replied to my other recent message about the right time to take a child to Disney. Based on the responses we received, we are planning full steam ahead to go sometime in February. Any suggestions/opinions about that time of year? Let me know please. Any and all advice welcome!

My next question is about the meal packages. My husband was reading about this stuff on the Disney web site. According to our tally, it will add $500 to our total tab for the week (for all 3 of us). That sounds pretty reasonable considering what is included. However, I can't help but wonder if we will use it all. I mean, we're not *big* eaters, and I don't like being "told" where I have to eat (the words "selected locations" appeared frequently with regards to where the package could be used) so I'm wondering if it's worth it. Also, if we trade 2 table service dinners for one signature dinner, is it a formal evening? Too stuffy for a 4 yr. old? Can we still wear casual resort-wear? And, if we trade another 2 dinners for the Hoop-ti-do show, is it worth it? I don't want to make the mistakes of either wasting 4 dinners on this stuff, or missing something we should have given up the dinners for. Also, can the package be used for room service? I'm sure there will be at least one night we just want to chill in our hotel room and maybe order room service. Otherwise order out (Dominos pizza or something), however I realize the package could not be used for that. That's why I'm wondering if it's worth it or not.

Thanks again for your responses... seems I found a new favorite message board on ivillage!

~Linda

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Avatar for carolejd
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-13-1999
Tue, 12-13-2005 - 8:40am

I would say yes. We used the meal package for the first time on our October trip this year and I would definitely plan to use it again.

Despite the fact that it says "selected locations" there are very few places where you can't actually go (can't think of any offhand but I'm sure there are some)

It's alot of food actually, especially the counter service meals, and if you have small kids who are not big eaters you can easily split a counter service meal between them. We also used some of our snack coupons to get chips,fruit, milk etc from the cafe in our hotel and kept them in our room fridge for snacks and quick early breakfasts a couple of days.

I've never been to the Hop De Doo, but I've heard it's a lot of fun and well worth the 2 coupons.

Carole

Carole

Avatar for superbmom
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 12-16-2005 - 12:16am

I'm gonna go the other way here and say I'm really glad we didn't get the meal plan. It would have cost us $125 a day or so (3 at 10+ and 2 kids) there is no way we came close to spending that kind of money on food, most days it was closer to $55. Granted we didn't really try to make eating a focal part of the trip but as first timers I am really glad we did not have commitments with priority seating. The parks were much more crowed than I expected and planning getting to them who have been a huge hassle. Also I was not impressed with much of the food I tried, tho again we didn't try anything that really tried to be good.I just can't imagine how I would have kept track of all the snack credits for all five of us at the different levels.

But if it's just 3 of you maybe...I dunno..If you are not big eaters it might not be worth it for you.

We did consider doing Hoop De Doo..but the seatings I tried to get were all full. Sounds fun! Also as for the list of participating restaurants, the one I looked at when considering seemed very good, so I wouldn't worry so much about that. I think it's more a matter of figuring out your timing/scheduling habits and your projected food intake is going to mesh with the system.

Avatar for carolejd
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-13-1999
Fri, 12-16-2005 - 8:15am

There were FIVE of you and food cost you around $55.00 a day?! how in the world did you manage that at WDW? LOL!

Carole

Carole

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-15-2005
Fri, 12-16-2005 - 8:51am

I also think the dining plan is worth it as we like to eat at one table-service restaurant a day (either breakfast or dinner) and usually get counter-service for lunch or dinner.

Val, Co-CL Disney Vacations

Avatar for superbmom
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 12-16-2005 - 12:44pm

>>There were FIVE of you and food cost you around $55.00 a day?! how in the world did you manage that at WDW? LOL!<<

Well being sick helped, for sure. And $55 is a rough average since we did spend over $100 at Chef Mickeys and like $65 at The 50's Diner. Also $55 does not include what I brought from home,which helped so much. We ate b-fast in the room (stuff likeGoGurt, string cheze and intstant oatmeal made from the coffee pot water) and I had FruitGummies and Nuts and some M&Ms and kisses in my bag. When we got back to the room the kids would eat some dried fruit and whole grain cereal, a little fiber, LOL. So yes I think if I averaged food cost for the week it would be highter.

For most of of the days we hit a counter 2 times with one being closer to $20 (say 3 kids meals at $4 and DH and I split a salad) and the other closer to $30 (kids meals and DH splitting a salad and a burger) We ate a lot of fries and chicken strips! A couple times we got two adult sized chicken strips with fries which is like $16 which we all picked on and it made a nice quick lunch. This was good at MK where the kids were too excited to eat really anyway. We got a pizza at POR one lunch that fed us all, pretty cheap. One big thing was I cracked down on the pop. We did get a little popcorn here or there and I had some coffees. Some frozen lemonade to share. DH went and spent over $30 on candy to watch Wishes!

But over all I was very pleasantly surprised at how little we managed to spend on food and we came in about $350 dollars UNDER what we budgeted for food and trinkets across the week.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 12-16-2005 - 6:15pm

We went at the end of August when the dining plan was free....can't beat that with a stick! We decided that if the dining plan is available when we go again, we'll definitely get it, even though we'll have to pay for it.

The one thing we decided was that we could have planned better and used all of our meals. We had one sit-down meal and 7 counter service meals left. There weren't very many places you couldn't use the dining plan, except some of the restaurants in the World Showcase at Epcot. I don't know if that's changed or not, seems like some of them were more than 1 dining credit, but it wasn't any place we ate.

There were times that DH and I shared the adult meal and our boys (4 and 2) shared the kids meals. It worked great, they give you so much food at these places, we barely finished it all sharing the meals. We did tip a little extra on top of the dining plan when we shared the meals.

Steph

Avatar for momtojoeybear
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 12-18-2005 - 9:20am

Granted, we got the meal plan as a bonus included in our September trip... but I can honestly say that I will NEVER go to Disney without the meal plan... we never had a problem with menus and the selected entrees typically meant if you wanted the x with the lobster tail, you would get the x, but would pay the extra money for the lobster tail... this was not a big deal to us at all... my little boy always found something he liked to eat...

We used two of our table service meals at Coral Reef and went in with just our normal park wear, and never felt out of place... the food was amazing and my little boy got lost watching the wonders of the aquarium that was right in front of his face... it was amazing...

We would get bills for most of our meals (some of them just ran your card)... some of the biggies were over $200 for table service... most were more than $70 (table service again)... the counter service selections were great too... the desserts were included, which meant sometimes, if they were wrapped, we had snacks for back at the hotel...

We wound up with 11 snack coupons left on our last day, so we went down to the food court and got a mess of snacks for the trip home...

Good luck with your decision, but I highly recommend it!

Julie

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-31-2005
Mon, 12-19-2005 - 12:30pm

We used the dining plan in October and we will definitely use it again.

Summer Siggie

 

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Avatar for shelb31
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-12-2006
Wed, 12-21-2005 - 10:14am

I have no advice on the meal plan, but I do about going in Feb. We have been twice in Feb. In 2003 and 2005. In 2003, we came in on a Sun., and the next weekend started President's weekend. The first part of the week was fine, and even Fri. wasn't too bad. Sat. was horrendous! We hadn't planned to go to MK on that day, but dd got sick for 2 days and we weren't able to go anywhere. So, Sat. afternoon we went. It was wall-to-wall people. We got FP for Buzz Lightyear and had to wait 2-1/2 hours to come back. We did so right after SpectroMagic. Apparently everyone else wanted to go to Tomorrowland then, too. Dh and I held on tight to the kids. We still had to wait over 20 minutes to ride. I vowed then and there we'd never come back during that weekend!

This year, we went the first week of Feb. It was much better crowd-wise. However, I strongly advise not going to MK on a Monday. We thought we were in for it all week, but it turned out that what I've read is true: don't go to MK on Mon.!

The thing I don't like about going in Feb. is the weather. You have to take winter clothes and some short sleeves. The kids were able to get in the pool once or twice but only because it was heated. It was very cool when they got out. I just hate having to take so many clothes, and such a variety! We're shooting for early May next year.

You will have a wonderful time! Make the most of it and don't dwell on the negatives. Attitude is everything!

HTH

M'Shel

Disney 2010
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-22-2003
Wed, 12-21-2005 - 9:16pm
My family went in September.

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