I'll be staying at the Pop Century resort at Disney in October for 4 nights. They are offering me a meal plan for an extra $300 (thats for myself, wife and 1 child).

Does anyone have any experience with the meal plan at Disney. They tell me that I can use it at over 100 restaurants, but i want to make sure that its worth it.

Any help would be appreciated!!!!

First of all, don't feel any pressure - you can easily upgrade w/ Disney. Cancelling a service isn't so easy, especially if you are w/in 45 days of your scheduled arrival.

Next - what do you have in mind for dining? Do you already have dining reservations? If you are planning several special dining experiences, the plan can be very worthwhile. If this trip is mostly about visiting the parks, the dining plan probably won't be worthwhile.

Here is a link with some great information: http://www.allearsnet.com/pl/packages06a.htm

The dining section at www.allearsnet.com also has an extensive menu section for the restaurants and it includes prices so it is pretty easy - if a bit time consuming - to figure out whether you'll come out ahead by using the dining plan.

Also, have you seen this discount:

"Seasons of Dreams" Package Special - Walt Disney World has announced a "Season of Dreams" package special for guests vacationing between October 1 - December 23, 2006. Enjoy a 5-night, 6-day package for as little as $355 per adult, $217 per junior (ages 10-17) and $176 per child (ages 3-9), based on adult double occupancy at a select Disney Value Resort, standard room. This Magic Your Way Package includes accommodations and theme park tickets and must be booked by September 30, 2006. The number of rooms available at these rates are limited.

If you are w/in 45 days of your scheduled arrival, there will be a penalty for changing the reservation so you'll have to do the math to see if this is an advantage. Call 407-WDisney and they can help figure it out.

The meal plan is worth it if it is the 1 sit down, 1 counter meal & 1 snack plan. Don't use the plan for breakfast. The counter meal includes a dessert, drink & tax. The sit down includes appetizer as well as soft drink, dessert tax & tip. Many of the good restuarants are included. I suggest Boma, a buffet in Animal Kingdom Lodge. Of note: check out what is being dropped from the "sit down" restaurant list as many of the "countries" in EPCOT will not be included.

Whether it is worth it or not would seem to be a function of your meal time preference.

If what they are offering is the 1 sit down, 1 counter meal & 1 snack plan, is that something you want? Do you care about waitress service or are you fine with a counter service for each meal? If you're trying to stay within a budget, that fixed cost would seem to help with that goal.

We just got back from WDW with our two children but didn't get the meal plan. Our preference is for more than one sit down meal a day so that aspect doesn't make that plan appealing.

You really need to go on allearsnet.com and look at the menus and do the math. It's great if you like to eat a LOT. For dinner, do you normally like to order appetizer, entree and dessert? When we were eating at the parks, we got impatient after a few days...we didn't want to wait to eat three courses when DISNEYWORLD was out there!

They've now lowered the age for "adult" prices to 10 and over. My 10 year old AND my 13 year old order off the kids' menu. The 13 year old is very picky and hardly eats anything. We'd really lose money on her.

Maybe someday when all of our kids actually eat like adults, we'll go and get the dining plan.

Basically you're paying $75 a day to eat....usually a good bargain since the food is pretty good, but not a good idea if you, say , arrive at 9pm on your first day. The dining for that first day is shot.

There are some great restaurants, but you have to make reservations and pretty much stick to the times you're assigned. If you're good at sticking to schedules, it's a good plan. But I think when they offer this plan, Disney figures that a lot of people will pay, and plan fine dining....but on the day of their reservation they'll not want to trek all the way to their reserved restaurant and will opt for fast food instead.

If you take the plan, choose restaurants that are easy to get to from the park that you've chosen for that day, or easy to get to from your resort. Some of the most popular are OHANA, BOMA, SPOODLES, KONA CAFE, LE CELLIER and with kids, CHEF MICKEY'S.

Also, when you're figuring out whether or not it's worth it....remember that the taxes and an 18% tip for the waiter is already included in the plan. So it's $85 a day for the 3 of you to eat lunch, a snack, and a fine dinner with appetizer and dessert.

the fact that tax AND tip are included make it a very tempting and logical solution for anyone thinking about sit down meals.

if i am correct, you can have these meals in any order you please.. two sit downs one day.. or two stand ups another..

my brother bought it and he has been going there for years and did feel it was worth it. there were four adults, and only two kids, so maybe the fact there were more adults makes it a much better option.

one of the entrees they got was $24 on the menu. no restrictions.

Oh my, Ryan! TWO sit-down meals a day? We recently returned from WDW and after a few days were questioning whether or not the meal plan was that great an idea....we thought we would burst from eating so much.

We had juice boxes, bananas and maybe a snack bar for breakfast in our room. OFF TO THE PARKS! For lunch we'd have our counter meal which could be burgers, pizza, sandwiches, wraps, even rotisserie chicken or grilled salmon. Drink and dessert too. Late afternoon we'd have an ice cream, or fruit, or pastry or bag of chips...then our dinners were usually not until about 8:30 and the food was incredible.
Mahi Mahi in the Coral Reef restaurant surrounded by the Living Seas Aquarium! Steak and Lobster one night at Capn jacks in downtown disney. Oak Fired Salmon. Incredible buffet with an African theme at BOMA. OHANA Polynesian which was shrimp and chicken wings appetizer (all you want) followed by salad, potatoes and four kinds of meat carved tableside. Dessert was a bread pudding with banana foster sauce and ice cream -to die for.

There are some finer-dining places that require you to use 2 of your meal tickets for one dinner. But usually these places are in the more luxurious Disney resorts and share the kitchen with some upscale coffee shops at which your meal plan is valid. Kona Cafe and Grand Floridian Cafe are two excellent places that come to mind and they're right on the monorail.

We did see some people looking around for mac & cheese or fried chicken everywhere...if you're not adventurous I wouldn't go for the dining plan. Most of the restaurants, at least the ones we ended up at, did not serve diner specialties they were more upscale. But the online menus mentioned above by another poster will give you a great start regarding what to expect.

If you're just fish-n-chips, burger or sandwich folks then you can find plenty of this at the fast-food counters and don't need to waste $38 per day per adult on the meal plan.

Also, the meal plan requires reservations so you have to watch the clock and pull the kids away from the rides at pre-established meal times for the most part.

Highly recommend the dining plan if you love to dine out! Also, so great to just eat, thank your server and leave without having to wait for the check and without having to see the damages!

I would like to clarify something someone posted earlier. You are given dining credits based on the number of nights you are staying at a Disney resort. If you arrive late in the day, it won't matter - your first day is not "shot". You can use your credits anyway you want. If you were staying four nights and wanted to use all your credits in two days, you could do that!

I have never used the dining plan, but am considering it for our trip in January. I think my family could definitely get our money's worth.

Go to disboards.com and click on Disney Restaurants. At the top is a thread for the Dining Plan - tons of information there!

Also keep in mind that the reservations fill up quickly and now is not too early to make them for an Oct trip.

As mikesmom states, these are credits. Some of the upscale restaurants, (Calif. Grill for one) requires 2 sit down credits. On our last visit, we arrived late. We used 2 sitdown credits @ the Calif Grille for a dinner & we used a counter service credit on our last day for lunch before we left. Unless your children eat very very little, you won't loose. But: Make dinner reservations for all of the sit down meals. You can always cancel. The reservations create a daily plan, that you can always change.
After visiting annually for the past 18 years I've found this the best way to plan your activity.