To Dine or not To Dine

So the latest and greatest offer out for Walt Disney World has several opportunities to take advantage of their free dining offer when you book a package at a Disney Resort now through October 29, 2011.  The valid dates for this offer are between October and May.  So what if your stay dates are beyond those valid dates?  Well the good news is that as long as you arrive on one of the valid dates, even if you stay beyond the date timeframe the offer will carry through for your entire stay.

The question many people ask is "is this a good deal?" and the answers will vary from family to family or person to person.  First you have to understand that this is not an open-ended all-you-can-eat offer.  With the Disney Dining Plans you are given a bank of dining credits that can be used however you decide during the course of your stay.  The good news is that there is plenty of flexibility in doing it this way.  For example, if two adults are dining at a Disney restaurant, but one adult just wants to order an appetizer and a salad while the other wants a full meal the adult with the meal can use their dining credits to cover that portion and the other adult can pay out of pocked for the salad and appetizer, thus saving their table service meal credit to use at another time.

Many people find that the dining plan is way too much food and they feel like they are obligated to eat more on this plan, since each table service credits includes a drink, a main course and a dessert.  The counter service credits also include a dessert option, where most people ordering at a counter service would not even bother to order dessert.  A great tip regarding this is that if you have the option, package the dessert and save it for another time.  If it's a brownie or cupcake in the park at a counter service, have it wrapped up and eat it later for a snack.  Table service restaurant diners can just get their dessert to go and take it back to their room and store it in their refrigerator for a late-night snack or, even better, BREAKFAST the next day!  Who wouldn't want to eat cake for breakfast, right?

In all of our Disney trips, we have taken advantage of the dining plan only two times.  Back then, it was a little bit different and it included an appetizer as well.  Both of these trips were shorter trips, so it was more a little more affordable for us at the time.  While we enjoyed it I can't say that we have really missed having it for our other trips.  We do tend to do most of our eating on Disney property but we tend to get an annual pass and purchase the Tables in Wonderland card instead.  This gives us a 20% discounts on all of our table service restaurants, and includes any alcoholic drink purchases as well.  We find that we easily recoup the value of the card on a few table service meals and we don't feel restricted on what we eat using it.

Currently I am contemplating a few upcoming Walt Disney World trips, as usual.  While the free dining options is once again available for my dates, I've decided instead to hold off and wait for a discount on my room rate instead.  With a decent room rate discount and my Tables in Wonderland card, I think I'll do even better on my trip than to book a package with the dining plan.