Food at Disney

[Guest]

Im currently planning our 1st trip to Disney and im confused about the best way to buy food! Whats better...Stay on site and get the Disney meal plan or stay off site, pay less and buy food everyday. I guess im thinking we would be very limited with the plan as its only counter service and the kids will want to try the themed restaurants anyway? What your experiences? Thanks

[loves2plan]

The dining plan you get with Disney, depends on the hotel (if you're thinking of the free dining offer for 2019). Value resorts get free breakfast, moderate resorts get free quick service and deluxe resorts get free Disney dining plan which includes character meals and table service restaurants. If you're paying for it, then you can choose whichever plan you please, regardless of the level of hotel you book.

We've done both the qsdp and ddp and like both for different reasons. We like the flexibility of the qsdp as you did not need to book anything in advance (other than breakfast and lunch at be our guest), and it's definitely not limited in the variety of food you can get. I wrote a food report during our April trip that you might find helpful to look at - shows everything we got, plus photos. The link is in blue at the bottom of my signature.

The Disney dining plan is great for all the character meals and themed restaurants, but it does take a fair bit of planning 6 months in advance and you also need to budget for tips.

If you book the free dining offer and decide to go for a moderate resort with free qsdp, you can pay the difference between plans to upgrade to the ddp (the same applies if you book a value resort with free breakfast). Or, you can do what we did last time and keep the qsdp and just pay for a few table service meals so you still get to enjoy some without having them every day.

We personally love staying on-site for the ease of everything and find it do relaxing. I like having everything paid for upfront so I'm not worried about the food budget and keeping my eye on menu prices etc. We also prefer not to drive on holiday, do the Disney transport suits us, and we just use uber if we venture off-site, which is really easy and cheap too

[Dorsetdisney]

we think the dining plan (for us) is the best option. Even if you dont get it in the deal prices, it still makes sense for us to buy it upfront and then once the holiday is all paid for we dont have to worry about the dining again... until the 180 when we book our favorite meals

our last trip nov-dec 2017 we had three or four nights which we didnt prebook and just made sure we went to a restaurant we wanted to eat at a hour before we wanted to eat and had no problem getting a table!(an hour-hour half wait time) even though was mega busy in the parks

[Noodle500]

I prefer QSDP. I found booking table meals in advance and planning to get somewhere at a specific time allowing an hour to get there such a faff. Then you still would wait half an hour to get seated. Took up too much of our time. I recommend that you try one of Port Orleans resorts with the boat to Disney Springs. They have more places to eat on the QSDP. Loved Wolfgang Puck Express. You pay or scan your band when ordering then you are served at your table. Great no waiting for the bill, can just dash off (we do leave a tip).
We decided we would plan 3 table service meals but when it came to it DH and DS weren't fussed. I'd done my Be Our Guest breakfast so we cancelled our ADRs.
We did a split stay with 8 nights on-site at Disney and then 7 nights at the Rosen Plaza on I drive. Best of both worlds as could do all my table service meals on I drive.

[blades]

We did the DDP plan for the first time last year as we were at the yacht club and with the Food & Wine festival been on it worked brilliantly. We spent 2 half days using our snack credits/counter service credits going around the worlds and had some fab food. With out the dining plan we wouldn't have eaten at some of the restaurants we did and we found the extra planning paid off for us (this was only for a week and 2 adults & 2 teens)

[nquart]

We have stayed off site and found it loads cheaper than on site (but we're staying on site anyway this year for the experience despite the extra cost) but we didn't spend much on food actually inside the parks. We took a picnic for one meal and then ate out the other.

The eating out meal was either a character meal (did 3) or a restaurant off site. We did buy an ice cream most days in the parks but used our own water bottles and filled them at the water fountains.

From reading stuff on here over the years it is a very personal choice, also choosing QSDP or DDP, I'd recommend reading trip reports, look at restaurant menus and see what budget you have and then decide.

[nquart]

I think it was actually loves2plan's trip report that sealed the deal for us to try on site this year

Definitely worth a read