Just returned from a 12 night stay with the deluxe dining plan. We ate some great food, saved a lot of $$$, and learned a lot of tips/tricks about using the plan. Thought I'd share our experience.
We did a split stay with 4 nights in 2 rooms at All Star Music, then moved to BLT for the next 8 nights. For the first 4 nights, I got the dining plan for 1 room (me and daughter 4yo, 2yo son free) but did not get plan for my parents in a separate room. At BLT we all had the dining plan (4 adults -- me, husband, my parents -- and 1 kid).
Questions we had about the plan:
Can kids order off the adult menu? Universally, yes. My 4yo daughter frequently ordered either a full adult meal or mixed/matched adult app, adult entrée or adult dessert with items from the kids menu. Every place we went (see restaurant list below) allowed her to do this without question.
Can you substitute dessert for soup/salad? Answer was mix of yes/no. We aren't huge sweet lovers so often asked about this. It seemed the Disney Springs (non Disney owned) places do NOT allow substitutions, as we were not allowed to sub at either Boathouse, Paddlefish or Frontera Cocina. All the Disney park/resorts we dined at said yes. For example, at Yachtsman you can get cup of chicken noodle soup, cup of lobster bisque, or small salad instead of dessert. Flying Fish allowed small salad.
Can you use kid credits to pay for adult meals? Can you use credits to pay for people not on the plan? Universally yes. We did all kinds of combinations of things, especially the first half of the stay when only half of us had the dining plan. We paid for 3 adults meals with credits, then paid for kid out of pocket. Paid for 2 adult meals with credits then ordered a random extra adult entrée and a kids meal out of pocket. We let people at an adjoining table order dessert with our credits when we were too full to eat it. The servers never batted an eye and we were never told no.
Do kids under 3 really eat free? Yep! My 2yo was entirely free at all the buffets and family style meals. We ordered him milk at every meal and were never once charged for it. Several restaurants brought him his own meal for free -- Aksershus, Cindererella's Royal Table and BOG. At other restaurants (cali grill, the Disney springs places) he ordered a kids entrée and we were charged for it but just paid out of pocket. We did not find that the kids entrée portions were large enough for our 2yo and 4yo to share, but my 2yo eats a lot.
Were there any restrictions on what you could order? No. The only things you couldn't order were things clearly labeled as "For 2" or "For 4". At Cali grill, every item on the soup/salad/starter/sushi list was eligible as an appetizer. At Boathouse, you could get 4 oysters from the Raw Bar for an appetizer; Paddlefish gave 6 oysters.
Is it cost effective? YES, with the strong caveats that having kids with a way cheaper plan helps tremendously, and you have to put a lot of planning in to ensure you are eating at high cost places and using snack credits wisely. We saved about $1100 from the actual cost of the food because we had a ton of super expensive character meals and signature meals and used some kid credits for adult meals. We saved $420 first half of trip, primarily because we used all of my and my daughters credits to buy adult meals. The second 8 nights, we still saved ~$650 and we didn't even maximize the value of the plan (rarely ordered nonalcoholic beverages and usually shared 2-3 desserts per table, and we had a few leftover credits at the end).
Was it too much food? Too much time spent eating? Not for us, because we only did 2 sit down meals a day -- usually a late breakfast or early lunch and a 2 credit signature dinner or show.
We used a lot of snack credits for quick breakfast in the room prior to parks -- cereal/milk/fruit, croissant, bagels, etc. My kids are still very little and like to stick closely to their mealtime and bedtime routines. They really needed the break to have a nice sit down meals 2x/day. Plus, for us, eating on vacation is half the fun, so we loved trying out all the new restaurants.
I do think 3 table service meals per day would have been way too much time and food. We never did 3 full meals in one day.
Meals highlights and rankings:
Best character interaction: Bon Voyage breakfast
Best food of the trip: Cali grill dinner. So good we went there twice
Best ambiance: Be our guest. The castle really is a must see. Cali Grill has amazing views -- with a 7pm reservation we saw the 8pm Castle lighting nightly and also the fireworks for Jingle Bell Jingle Jam. Flying fish is also really beautiful inside
Best steaks (per my dad, who had steak 5 times): Cali grill > Yachtsman > Boathouse = Paddlefish > BOG
Best seafood: Cali Grill for their sushi items. Boathouse was also really solid
Best Buffet: Tusker House with the 1045 am booking-- we got breakfast and lunch. The lunch offerings were better but it was nice to have both. The wave breakfast buffet was also really solid.
Best Tips: Garden Grill PPO breakfast works like a charm for getting onto Soarin. We checked in at 810 for our 825 reservation and were seated right away. Saw all characters at least once and were out the door at 850, first in line for Soarin ahead of the rope drop crowd.
Worst wait: 25 minutes at Boma to be seated. Otherwise we never waited more than 10 minutes
Worse service: Again Boma. Our waitress took our drink orders, brought half of them, then literally disappeared. We had to flag down a random server to get our check.
Excellent meals (would repeat next trip):
California grill, flying fish, yachtmans steakhouse, Boathouse, Paddlefish, frontera Cocina
Very good meals (likely repeat next trip):
garden grill breakfast, BOG breakfast (we all really liked the food, more so than dinner in fact), boma breakfast, Hoop de doo, Cinderella royal table, the wave dinner, the wave breakfast buffet, tusker house brunch (we went at 11 and got breakfast and lunch food)
Good food -- (we all liked our food but wouldn't rush back):
Tony's parade package lunch (food was standard Italian, but was cooked well, served hot, and was not excellent but solid), crystal palace breakfast, 1900 park fare dinner, Akershus lunch, chef Mickey breakfast
Disappointing meals: BOG dinner -- both my husband and dad ordered the steak and disliked it. The mussels were way over cooked. The French onion soup was really greasy with a giant blob of melted mozz cheese. But the castle was so extraordinary and meeting the beast amazing, so I would still recommend the dinner at least once; just have low expectations about the food
Sci-fi: totally average bar food. But the environment was super cool. Worth doing one time to see the set up but wouldn't go there for the food.
And ohana. Sorry, I know people rave about it. But it was the only meal all 6 of us universally disliked. The salad, bread and dessert were good. But the noodle/dumping/veggie platter was greasy and flavorless -- think bad Chinese food. The shrimp skewer was ok but the beef was tough and the chicken super salty. Would not go there again.
We did a split stay with 4 nights in 2 rooms at All Star Music, then moved to BLT for the next 8 nights. For the first 4 nights, I got the dining plan for 1 room (me and daughter 4yo, 2yo son free) but did not get plan for my parents in a separate room. At BLT we all had the dining plan (4 adults -- me, husband, my parents -- and 1 kid).
Questions we had about the plan:
Can kids order off the adult menu? Universally, yes. My 4yo daughter frequently ordered either a full adult meal or mixed/matched adult app, adult entrée or adult dessert with items from the kids menu. Every place we went (see restaurant list below) allowed her to do this without question.
Can you substitute dessert for soup/salad? Answer was mix of yes/no. We aren't huge sweet lovers so often asked about this. It seemed the Disney Springs (non Disney owned) places do NOT allow substitutions, as we were not allowed to sub at either Boathouse, Paddlefish or Frontera Cocina. All the Disney park/resorts we dined at said yes. For example, at Yachtsman you can get cup of chicken noodle soup, cup of lobster bisque, or small salad instead of dessert. Flying Fish allowed small salad.
Can you use kid credits to pay for adult meals? Can you use credits to pay for people not on the plan? Universally yes. We did all kinds of combinations of things, especially the first half of the stay when only half of us had the dining plan. We paid for 3 adults meals with credits, then paid for kid out of pocket. Paid for 2 adult meals with credits then ordered a random extra adult entrée and a kids meal out of pocket. We let people at an adjoining table order dessert with our credits when we were too full to eat it. The servers never batted an eye and we were never told no.
Do kids under 3 really eat free? Yep! My 2yo was entirely free at all the buffets and family style meals. We ordered him milk at every meal and were never once charged for it. Several restaurants brought him his own meal for free -- Aksershus, Cindererella's Royal Table and BOG. At other restaurants (cali grill, the Disney springs places) he ordered a kids entrée and we were charged for it but just paid out of pocket. We did not find that the kids entrée portions were large enough for our 2yo and 4yo to share, but my 2yo eats a lot.
Were there any restrictions on what you could order? No. The only things you couldn't order were things clearly labeled as "For 2" or "For 4". At Cali grill, every item on the soup/salad/starter/sushi list was eligible as an appetizer. At Boathouse, you could get 4 oysters from the Raw Bar for an appetizer; Paddlefish gave 6 oysters.
Is it cost effective? YES, with the strong caveats that having kids with a way cheaper plan helps tremendously, and you have to put a lot of planning in to ensure you are eating at high cost places and using snack credits wisely. We saved about $1100 from the actual cost of the food because we had a ton of super expensive character meals and signature meals and used some kid credits for adult meals. We saved $420 first half of trip, primarily because we used all of my and my daughters credits to buy adult meals. The second 8 nights, we still saved ~$650 and we didn't even maximize the value of the plan (rarely ordered nonalcoholic beverages and usually shared 2-3 desserts per table, and we had a few leftover credits at the end).
Was it too much food? Too much time spent eating? Not for us, because we only did 2 sit down meals a day -- usually a late breakfast or early lunch and a 2 credit signature dinner or show.
We used a lot of snack credits for quick breakfast in the room prior to parks -- cereal/milk/fruit, croissant, bagels, etc. My kids are still very little and like to stick closely to their mealtime and bedtime routines. They really needed the break to have a nice sit down meals 2x/day. Plus, for us, eating on vacation is half the fun, so we loved trying out all the new restaurants.
I do think 3 table service meals per day would have been way too much time and food. We never did 3 full meals in one day.
Meals highlights and rankings:
Best character interaction: Bon Voyage breakfast
Best food of the trip: Cali grill dinner. So good we went there twice
Best ambiance: Be our guest. The castle really is a must see. Cali Grill has amazing views -- with a 7pm reservation we saw the 8pm Castle lighting nightly and also the fireworks for Jingle Bell Jingle Jam. Flying fish is also really beautiful inside
Best steaks (per my dad, who had steak 5 times): Cali grill > Yachtsman > Boathouse = Paddlefish > BOG
Best seafood: Cali Grill for their sushi items. Boathouse was also really solid
Best Buffet: Tusker House with the 1045 am booking-- we got breakfast and lunch. The lunch offerings were better but it was nice to have both. The wave breakfast buffet was also really solid.
Best Tips: Garden Grill PPO breakfast works like a charm for getting onto Soarin. We checked in at 810 for our 825 reservation and were seated right away. Saw all characters at least once and were out the door at 850, first in line for Soarin ahead of the rope drop crowd.
Worst wait: 25 minutes at Boma to be seated. Otherwise we never waited more than 10 minutes
Worse service: Again Boma. Our waitress took our drink orders, brought half of them, then literally disappeared. We had to flag down a random server to get our check.
Excellent meals (would repeat next trip):
California grill, flying fish, yachtmans steakhouse, Boathouse, Paddlefish, frontera Cocina
Very good meals (likely repeat next trip):
garden grill breakfast, BOG breakfast (we all really liked the food, more so than dinner in fact), boma breakfast, Hoop de doo, Cinderella royal table, the wave dinner, the wave breakfast buffet, tusker house brunch (we went at 11 and got breakfast and lunch food)
Good food -- (we all liked our food but wouldn't rush back):
Tony's parade package lunch (food was standard Italian, but was cooked well, served hot, and was not excellent but solid), crystal palace breakfast, 1900 park fare dinner, Akershus lunch, chef Mickey breakfast
Disappointing meals: BOG dinner -- both my husband and dad ordered the steak and disliked it. The mussels were way over cooked. The French onion soup was really greasy with a giant blob of melted mozz cheese. But the castle was so extraordinary and meeting the beast amazing, so I would still recommend the dinner at least once; just have low expectations about the food
Sci-fi: totally average bar food. But the environment was super cool. Worth doing one time to see the set up but wouldn't go there for the food.
And ohana. Sorry, I know people rave about it. But it was the only meal all 6 of us universally disliked. The salad, bread and dessert were good. But the noodle/dumping/veggie platter was greasy and flavorless -- think bad Chinese food. The shrimp skewer was ok but the beef was tough and the chicken super salty. Would not go there again.
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