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[sue81]

Just having a look at the dining plans and I can't make up my mind as to whether they are worth it or not. I don't think we will get the value out of the full board dining plan as I can't see us having 2 big meals a day.


Our son will be under 3 when we go so we have to pay separately for his meals. As we are doing this, I plan on doing a couple of buffets.


When do the dining plans become good value?

[Rapunzel1]

We never use a dining plan. We believe it is too expensive (we are a family of six). We eat breakfast in our hotel. Then a simple lunch and a real dinner or a real lunch and a simple dinner.


This year we had a late lunch/ early dinner on the day we arrived at Colonel Hathi. The children loved it there. The next day we had lunch at Hakuna Matata and dinner at Inventions. The next day we had lunch at The Rainforest cafe (great for children) and dinner at Casey's (just a hotdog). The day we left we had a late lunch at Colonel Hathi again and then we went home.


We always stick with menu's and I calculated but find out that diner plan's are not cheaper. And although we enjoyed inventions we do not like buffet's that much. I do not like it when the children get up from the table all the time. And often we are still eating starters and the children are already picking things for desert. Just food on the table works best for us.

[polar vixen]

Allot if it friends what your child's appetit is like, my 2 year old needed his own meal so buffets were always best for us, as he could eat free. We trend to eat well at breakfast, then have a buffet around 3 or 4. +a love the buffets as there is so much choice we just insist that kids easy well for Mains before they're allowed dessert. Both my hubby and I have a good appetit so we wouldn't share a burger meal. Consider if you are eating at buffets you also get a free tea time treat and snack during the day, so you probably wouldn't need to buy anything else good wise.

[gemma2806]

I've also never bothered with the plans. If your child is under 3 then they will eat free wherever you go apart from counter service restaurants. Buffets are the best options as your child can have their own plate and eat what they want from the buffet. Table service restaurants do provide free food for under 3s but the quality of food on offer varies greatly. For example Walt's gave our son who was just under 3 at the time his own little 3 course meal for free but Blue Lagoon only offered him a plate of salad or a plate of chips!


It also depends where you want to eat. We always eat at Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe, Earl of Sandwich and sometimes King Ludwig's Castle and these are not on the dining plans.


Every year we've been we stock up at breakfast, have a counter service meal at lunch (usually burger and chips) and then a full meal at dinner but this always meant that we never actually finished a meal we just sort of picked at what we got. Last year we did things differently, we stocked up at breakfast, had a main meal at lunch and then either had a snack or we just weren't hungry come the evening! We saved a fortune this way and we ate more healthily than we had done on previous visits without even meaning to!


It really does depend on your eating habits as a family but for my family they have never been worth the cost.

[sue81]

Looking at the menus on the website it looks as though most of the dining plan menus are under 30 euro which makes it not worth it. The only thing that makes these worth doing I think is the fact some of them come with unlimited drinks.
From what you guys have said the buffets for 2 out of our 4 night stay are the best bets and we'll get some good value.
Never thought about having a main dinner at lunchtime, seems like it will be better that way.
Thanks guys 

[WalkerboyUK]

We went Half-board on both our previous visits and for our visit next week have decided not to repeat.
The kids would eat tons of breakfast in the hotel and we'd also turn that into a pack-up for lunch.
Because of the amount of breakfast eaten we wouldn't want lunch until around 2pm and dinner until 6/6.30.
Unfortunately it seemed that the restaurants in the park tended to close before then so we were eating purely for the sake of using the vouchers.
This time we're going with cash in hand, and if the park restaurants are open later (seeing as it's 11pm closing) then we'll use them, and if not we'll go into the Village instead.
We're also going to spend a day in Paris and have the Wild West Show & Meal booked for Tuesday, so makes even less sense for us to take up a dining plan.