I know that a lot of people are very negative on the meal plan, but we love it. Folks say that it's caused a decline in food quality since it's been introduced, but we don't know any different since it's been available since we've been going (2010) and we've had many fantastic meals every year. (maybe we just pick the right places
)
However, we've only done the "free" dining plan (one TS, one QS, and one Snack per day). As other's have said, it is the best discount we can get being that we stay at Mod and Value resorts. The room discounts don't save us near as much.
That being said, I would not pay outright for the dining plan, and would rather pay out of pocket if the free dining wasn't offered. It's for the same reason that other's have mentioned. We wouldn't order as much food; we would share deserts, drink more water rather than pop/juice, etc... We also probably wouldn't order so many entrees on the high end of the menu price (which the dining plan makes it very easy to do)
The only "bads" I can think of:
Thinking back to our first ever trip to WDW (with free dining), ordering the QS meals was very confusing. I remember standing in line with others behind us waiting, at first it was hard to figure out what was considered a "entrée" and what deserts we could choose from, what needed to be ordered(or not) on the child's menu... The TS meals were easy to order, no probs there.
After our third trip, we totally get it now
The other "bad" is that it does fill up the restaurants (even though we haven't' had problems with getting our seat on time), and can make it tough to get some reservations if you're not able to book 180 days out.
It also sets your park schedule once you've made your dining reservations. Being that the dining reservations can be hard to get, it really makes it a tough choice to change you park plan for fear of not finding another good TS reservation on the alternate park day.
However, I think a lot of this is due to the fact that we go when free dining is offered, so more folks are competing for the reservations.
Dan