For us, we ate at a lot of places we might not normally been able to afford. We would have NEVER splurged at say Chefs de France and ordered an appetizer, entree and dessert if we were paying out of pocket! But with the dining plan, we gave it a try (and are going back this year to eat there again!)
We did not have any service problems last year, but maybe we got lucky.
Yes, it was a better deal last year and a lot more value for the money but we are still getting the dining plan again next month and looking forward to trying some more new restaurants!