We haven't done the dining plan since we had kids under 10 and I know we come out ahead. I have run the numbers and counted it every which way and cannot make it make sense for us, even with a teenager that eats everything not nailed down. On our trip last summer, every time we ate QS meals (which was most of them), we got 2 soft drinks and 2 waters. I almost always had water because I prefer it, but I would sometimes have a sip of my husband's soft drink. Sometimes when it was very hot, we got 4 waters and 2 soft drinks. We stopped in at QS places just to get the cups of water, too. We usually carry a few bottles of water each day, but as we drink them, then we buy the Dasani or get the cups from a QS. Another way we saved some money was by sharing fries. I like good French fries as much as the next person, but Disney fries are just so-so to me, so I would usually just order my entrée without fries. It saved a couple of bucks every time. I would mooch a few from each of my guys, and that was plenty. At least once I ordered a burger without fries and they were still in the basket when we got our food. We also share snacks a lot. The kids would get Dole whips and I'd eat a few bites of each one (they're used to me taking the "mom tithe" as I call it, lol, whether it's at Disney or Chick-Fil-A). We made good use of the refillable popcorn bucket during our week there. At the resort, we bought 2 refillable mugs for the 4 of us. One of us would go down to the food court and fill them up, and we shared back in the room. I will say that when it comes to entrees at both QS and TS restaurants, everyone gets their own. We don't share the main course. The afore-mentioned teenager, his brother the preteen (gaining on him in the food-eating department) and my husband are all big eaters. We do splurge every now and then, too. The boys got milkshakes at Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater (I got my obligatory sip of each). Our most expensive meal of the week was at the Trail's End buffet, but we agreed it was worth every penny. The teenager actually left FULL, and the food was really good. It was less expensive than most of the other buffets on property at $30 each for dinner. I wound up cancelling our other TS meal we had planned at Via Napoli because we changed our plans for which park on which day, but that's another one of our favorites for being fairly inexpensive. One of the $40 pizzas usually feeds all 4 of us. If you read the menus and prices (I use allears.net) you can usually figure out what you might expect to spend at each restaurant, and choose the ones that are less expensive.
