Okay. I've given this some more thought after reading responses and contemplating. I also sat down and did the math on where we ate and what we spent. Ok....
The answer is NOT black and white, but I will provide the brief analysis and some personal observations FWIW
For where and what we ate, including tax...we would have spent approximately $254 per adult on items included in the plan for the week. Our actual cost was $273 for the plan for 7 days (38.99, right?), so about 19 went unused ( arguably). We still spent more money than the plan because of drinks and appetizers and add-ons not included. For my 4 year old, a small wasteful eater...it was actually quite a deal. $10 per day is 77 dollars for the week and her meals were about $168 and far more food than she could ever eat.
We made some mistakes. We were traveling with 2 14 month olds and so I also stocked the room with groceries upon arrival ( gardengrocer.com, if anyone is interested....great service) so that I would be sure the babies had food that they like and quality that I was comfy with..... We overstocked...babies were fine finding food SOMEtimes at the restaurant ( pasta, fruit salad, bread, cheese , veggies ( and usually this was at no cost that was in addition to the DDP, since we always had too much food anyway)
Con- you eat more than you otherwise would. We actually got tired of eating. We felt forced to sometimes because we would risk wasting credits.
For us, character and signature dining ( usually requiring 2 credits) was both good and bad. Bad in that it is not the most economical use of your credits. you only get one meal for 2 credits, but GOOD in that it used up 2 credits so we didn't have more huge meals we felt compelled to eat.
All that eating is exhausting. We had so many leftovers that we always had dessert in the room for later or snacks or whole meals. Wolfgang pucks seved a whole chicken ( 18.95) as a meal and it was a WHOLE full sized roasted chicken. My nanny was so shocked when she saw it she lost her appetite and had it wrapped to get home. Well guess what? That chicken she shared with us the next day and was a whole lunch for the whole family!
Food was a bit mediocre, but not sure we would have eaten anyplace much differently..except breakfast. We prefer to eat fruit and cereal in the room in a liesurely fashion, generally and not have to schlep out to the restuarant.
In any event, we could have done some things better and I have to say, with older teen kids it is probably worth it. We just all consantly felt like we were on food overload, but we just took unwanted desserts and snacks to our room, put them in the fridge and ate them later when you didn't feel like going anywhere, so we made it work.
So I retract my vehement recommendation against it with small kids. 10 makes it pretty economical for them and if you enjoy eating out everyday and accept that it it s alot of food. You could even share entrees at the restaurant and take one to go for later. Then with one dinner credit you could also be taking home a lunch. You could really make it VERY economical.
The key to me after crucnhing the numbers is dinner. If you sit down for a table service dinner every night ( well maybe one lunch) then you will be well ahead. With a conservative entree of $17, plus drink $3, plus dessert $7. That is 29 ( if you include taxes) daily and you could easily spend more than that, but trying to be conservative, you have 10 left for a $2-3 snack each day and quick service lunch or breakfast.
QS meals I find are mostly in the $12 range ( entree $7, plus drink $2, plus dessert $3).
So to total:
$29 Table Service
$12 Quick service
$ 2 Snack
$43 total
Conservatively marginal. But this I think would be an average experience. So you could really stretch it and remember...if you are a light eater, you are taking alot of snacks and desserts home for later, so you may not have much additional spending outside the plan.
Just some thoughts. spent too much time already and have to run.
Hope this is helpful for soemone who is contemplating the plan.
Cheryl
Happy planning!
