Walt Disney World With Kids (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [8]
Going through the exercise above has probably done two things: given you sticker shock and overwhelmed you. Still, it’s a good introduction to the Disney vacation experience, which involves an almost staggering number of choices. Your best bet is to go to www.disneyworld.disney.go.com, click on the pricing bar, then start tweaking, eliminating, or downgrading options, changing the dates of your visit, etc., until you arrive at a price you can live with.
Before you go to the site, however, you also need to decide whether or not to add a dining plan, which ups the package price by about $130 a day for a family of four.
Should You Add a Dining Plan?
The standard dining plan includes, for each day of your trip, one full-service meal, one counter-service meal, and a snack from a list of the 100-plus participating Disney restaurants, which are scattered throughout the four theme parks and on-site hotels. Note: You need to decide yes or no on the dining plan before you leave home—unlike ticket upgrades, you can’t add it once you get to Orlando.
Is it worth it? If you have big eaters in the party, since the standard plan can save you about 30% over the individual cost of meals. But, if 6-year-old Katie eats nothing but cereal and 3-year-old Danny grows so restless that sit-down dinners are a nightmare, it’s unlikely they’ll eat enough food to justify the cost of the standard dining plan.
Certain experiences, like the dinner shows, some character meals, and the “signature” (i.e., most upscale) restaurants, are worth more than your daily full-service meal allowance. For one of these exceptional dining experiences, you must swap out two of your regular full-service meals. But the swap can still save you a bundle on what would otherwise be a very expensive dinner. One mother wrote, “By eating at counter-service places for a couple of days beforehand we saved enough credits for dinner at California Grill and it was superb.”
Another mom wrote that “the Disney Dining Plan makes a lot of sense if you want to take in multiple character meals. We were able to attend three: at Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey’s, and 1900 Park Fare, and we could not have afforded all this without the plan.”
A father from Texas added, “I’m a little compulsive, at least according to my wife, and I ran a tally of what we would have paid if we’d ordered menu items on our own versus going with the dining plan. Trust me, the dining plan is a great value.”
One family of foodies from New York opted to upgrade to the Deluxe Dining Plan, which allows sit-down dining at every meal and further added the “Wine and Dine” option. “For us, it was worth it,” said the mother. “We had some terrific meals which were, thanks to the plan, reasonably priced. And our kids are old enough to enjoy the ambience of the restaurants, which are actually as full of Disney atmosphere as the resorts and parks.”
On the other hand, a couple from Georgia with three children under age 10 said that the standard meal plan wasn’t for them: “In our opinion,” said the father, “adding meals to your package only makes sense if you’re prepared to eat 6,000 calories a day and spend three hours a day in restaurants.” A mom from New York added, “We considered it a hassle to have to plan all our full-service meals in advance and make reservations. Normally we’re pretty flexible on vacations—but not this time.”
To make sure you get your money’s worth on the dining plan, follow these steps.
1. Start at www.disneyworld.com/dining. There are four options but most people traveling with kids can safely eliminate the premium and deluxe plans, which include so much food you’ll spend your entire vacation in restaurants. The vast majority of families go with the Quick