Our last trip was the first time we opted for the meal plan. Up until this trip I had left over tickets from when I worked for Disney so I never opted for purchasing tickets which you have to do in order to get the meal plan. This year we didn't really have any plan to return to Disney, but when I ran across the free meal deal that Disney was offering, it was too good to pass up. Basically, the deal was that you got the deluxe meal package for free if you came during peak hurricane season (i.e., late July - early September) Incidentally, most families can't go during this time because of school so it's also low attendance because of that, too. We home school our kids, so we have the luxury of vacationing whenever we want.
I kept track of what actual our meal expenses would have been had we been paying for them out of pocket. Granted, we probably wouldn't haven't eaten nearly as much, but even so the food at Disney is expensive. Even a basic breakfast at the resort counter service will run you $10 or so for an adult. You can get by for about the same at lunch if you are careful. Table service meals are another matter. We tended to hit the more popular places like O'hana, Boma, Whispering Canyon, and California Grill ($$$) for our table services and those easily were more than the cost of the meal plan by themselves. So from a purely financial perspective, if you are staying at the resort the meal plan is a no brainer.
There are a number of cons to the plan, though. First was the planning. I have to admit that I love planning my Disney trips. However, because of the meal plan I soon discovered that I had to plan this trip in way more detail than I like many months in advance. Because the meal plan has become so popular, you have to make reservations months in advance. That meant I had to essentially make decisions about which days I would be in what parks at what times (it wouldn't make sense to eat at Le' Cellier in EPCOT on Tuesday evening if we weren't planning on going to EPCOT Tuesday night, would it?) To make things more complicated we were traveling with family members so were trying to co-ordinate schedules. It was crazy.
Second, we discovered that this trip was about eating. We saw a lot less of the parks because we spent a lot more time getting to dinner. We didn't see Fantasmic (my favorite closing show) because it was choice between getting into the restaurant we wanted or getting to the show (which we've seen before). We ended up staying up later than the kids could handle because that's the only reservations available (and I started calling 4 months before our trip).
Finally, we ate too much. Even though our meal plan included 2 meals a day, we found that splitting breakfasts and lunches still left us with too much food. Part of the reason for that is that our oldest daughter just turned 10 and was considered and adult. She certainly doesn't eat like an adult yet. I think once we have 3 teenagers we would do better at taking advantage of the amount of food offered. As it was, we were basically sick of food by the middle of the week.
So, while we loved hitting all the fancy restaurants, the next time we go we are planning on going back to our strategy of staying close to, but not on, Disney, where we can prepare some of our own meals and take some time off from the sensory overload. We can still hit our favorite eating places and enjoy them rather than feeling like we have to focus on food in order to get our money's worth.
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