My family will be staying at Caribbean Beach Resort for 6 nights in November. I’m debating on getting the TS Dining Plan for our stay. My kids are 10 and 12 so they won’t qualify for the free kids promotion but I’m still considering getting it for convenience. My wife and I will order alcohol with meals and we are planning on doing a couple character meals and sit down dinners each day. Does anyone have any recommendations on if we should get the plan or just pay as we go.
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I think the general advice is to usually put the amount you would spend on a gift card and use that to pay for your dining. That will allow you the flexibility to share entrees if you want or to order QS kids meals when you want. Regular servings can be very large.
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Here are a couple of dining plan calculators.
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We didn’t do the TS plan, but did just do the QS. We knew it would be a loss, but we like the convenience. That said, we’ll be doing the GC method next time in order to be more flexible. We wanted to try more snacks than we did and this was partially due to us being full from just the QS meals. Most of the time a kids meal would have been enough. I’m including a link that helps break down the math for the different plans. Also, keep in mind that the TS credits do not cover gratuity, so make sure you plan for that.
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My 10 year old was occasionally able to order off of the kids menu at TS and I don’t think we were ever asked his age. We definitely ordered him kid’s meals at QS. Paying an adult DP price (designed for alcohol drinkers) for him was where I drew the line! You will have to pay adult price at character meals but I also think the gift card will give you way more flexibility and less pressure.
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I did the math for our last trip (Dec) and the only day it was worth it was the first night/day b/c of the FREE refillable mug, after that it as a daily loss of money. How I calculated was going into the MDE and looking at menus and pricing out what we normally order. Math is good 
We found that we saved money buying food as we needed, plus we didn’t overeat b/c we didn’t feel pressured to eat it all or order certain things when we weren’t hungry.
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Yes, on my solo trip I did a 1 night:2 night split stay. I got the QS plan night one. I saved over $25 that one night and I only bought 1 alcohol drink. I then used the mug for coffee, water, and soda the next three days.
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Yay, math for the win!
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Do the math but it’s still only worth it if you eat everywhere you say you are. If you want to bail on a TS, you can’t on DPP. Want to share a QS meal - you can’t. Generally, any savings is mint and you could end up wasting credits. I like the flexibility of not being tied down feeling forced to eat certain meals.
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So, can you do this if you don’t have a split stay? That is, can you buy the DDP for a single night of a longer trip?
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I did the dining plan once years ago and am pretty sure we lost money on it so I have not done it since. If you know where you want eat and what you will order, you an do the math ahead of time and decide what works best for your family.
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We save a significant amount of money by not using the DDP. I know some folks make it work, but we have never been able to.
Some people are willing to pay for the all-included feel…but I would just buy Disney gift cards and use those to pay instead for a similar feel…but even easier because you then don’t have to think about handling tips and such separately.
Basically, I just see no circumstance when I would use the DDP.
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eat only an appetizer and a dessert (no entree) you can’t.
Or as my sister and I did, 6 appetizers and 2 deserts. 
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No, you have to book it for your length of stay. It would never work for me for two or more nights.
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If you like the convenience of an all inclusive feel without thinking about money during your trip and/or you do not need to get your money’s worth, the DDP can be the way to go! Your family can order whatever it wants.
But if you are one that feels the need to eat everything that is part of the DDP, the DDP may not be the way to go! Look at the adult TS menus online to see if your kids will eat what’s on the menus.
I think the DDP takes away flexibility. “I don’t want to sit down to eat. I much rather have two desserts. I much rather snack around than have two TS today.” You get the picture.
The unanimous voice here is no DDP with regards to value for the money and flexibility!
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No, no, no!
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That’s my dumb phone. Changes things constantly. Once I typed a word 5 (five) times and it still changed it. 
It’s almost as stubborn as I am.
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There are other factors than cost. Not everything is on the plan, especially when it comes to snacks. I prefer the flexibility of pay-as-you-go which is also cheaper for us.
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I will say that I looked at the QS plan because of a Flower and Garden discussion here. I only had one snack credits but I used it on an item that was just about $10 (with tax). I don’t think festivals will help with the TS calculations, but they can change the math on QS.
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Caveats about every family being different, of course, but I wouldn’t do it for that length of stay with kids at that age.
We had a 7 night stay in June, and my parents-in-law insisted on and treated everyone to the DDP. It was incredibly generous of them, but I would never recommend doing it that way. It was way too much food and we felt like we needed to make the most of it, so we’d often select dishes based on cost rather than what we really wanted. I’d much rather have a small entree or split and entree and maybe share a dessert; my husband would prefer a burger most of the time, but unless you can just put the DDP cost out of mind, it makes you want to beat the math. (Also, if you’re interested in any signature restaurant, they’re a waste of credits, and any lounges don’t accept it, so it’s limiting in those ways too.) In June, my kids were 9 and 5, so they were free, but there’s no chance my 9yo would have ever preferred to get something off the regular menu. He’ll be 10 for our next trip in the fall, and for about 30 seconds, I wondered if maybe we should consider the DDP (primarily because the trip is much shorter and we’re planning on doing the F! H&V package one day) but the cost for him alone made it seem silly for us.
All that said, when I told my BIL and SIL that we should talk my FIL out of it if we ever do a big family trip again, they thought I was crazy. They loved the all-inclusive feel of it.