To DDP or Not to DDP? That is the question!

[DeeCee735]

I'm looking into our January trip and can't decide if we should DDP or not.
The basic dining plan doesn't seem to have enought to it - leaving the CS as a must each day, not my fav. And the Deluxe seems to be too much with 3 sit down meals a day (or 2 if using a Signature dining restaurant), there's too much food.

But, when I did the budget for the trip I realize that we'll spend more than this, (not much, but more) for all of us, so I'm tossed.

What would you do?

[ClarabelleCow]

I really liked the old DDP, but the new one I'm not going to bother with for our February vacation. It will be interesting, I'm going to keep track of every single food purchase, then figure out how much more we spent - or saved!!!

[dianeschlicht]

WE did save with the old plan (2007 version), but even this year it was a tossup with no gratuity included and no appetizers (we don't do desserts). Next year it will be even worse for us, since we rarely eat counter service except for Flame Tree and Starring Rolls. On the old plan I always had way too many counter service credits go unused. Then taking 2 credits for our favorite sit downs meant I HAD to use counter service for a couple of days. That's when we did Starring Rolls and Flame Tree. I think I'm going to just stick with our DDE card from now on.

[snykymom]

I decided that neither DDP would work for me on my January trip.
1) DDP wouldn't work for us because we often like appetizers, in addition to or instead of entrees, or 2 appetizers & dessert, or some other odd combination. We wanted to be able to do that without thinking, "But we're not getting our moneys' worth!" And we often share a dessert, so by not ordering a dessert for everyone, we'd be leaving money on the table.

2) DxDP wouldn't work for us because there's too much food! We rarely can eat an appetizer, entree and dessert. Again, unless you would otherwise order everything that comes with the plan, it's not going to be a bargain.

3) We might just decide to eat somewhere that doesn't accept the plan. Or eat off-site. I want that flexibility.

Without a DDP, we're going to eat what we want, when we want, and only pay for that which we order. I'm going to keep track of what we actually spend, and how many credits that would be on the plan, and what would have been OOP on the plan anyway, and see how it comes out. My guess is that we'll probably save a couple of bucks by not doing the dining plan.

[rstackjd]

We used it in April and probably won't again. Between the clear shortage of sti-down restaurants (we had ADR at the 180 day mark, but when we wanted to make a last minute change of either time or restaurant we were told NOTHING was available) it limited our flexibility. We acutally like the CS and do a lot of those so it was ok that way.

It just seemed like a lot more bother than it was worth and didn't feel we saved very much overall. And the weight gain - as someone else said - way too much food - we don't normally eat that much, but since we "paid for it, we were going to use it"

my 2 cents

[GoofySon'sMom]

We just got back from 9 nights to DxDP spread over 10 days. We only had a couple of days that we had 3 meals a day and we did a few signature meals. We loved it! I much prefer an appetizer over dessert. Some meals we skipped dessert, some we shared and once we took it back to the room. We still saved money. We did only pay the upgrade since we went during free dining but we would have saved even if we paid full price.

We enjoyed taking the time for an air conditioned sit down meal in the middle of the day. We only ate CS once (Pizzafari where we shared a meal).

It definitely worked for us. We are foodies and part of the enjoyment of our vacation is trying new restaurants. We don't really plan a rest break to swim or relax at the hotel so our mid-day meal was our rest break.

[Picabo]

I'm looking into our January trip and can't decide if we should DDP or not.
The basic dining plan doesn't seem to have enought to it - leaving the CS as a must each day, not my fav. And the Deluxe seems to be too much with 3 sit down meals a day (or 2 if using a Signature dining restaurant), there's too much food.

But, when I did the budget for the trip I realize that we'll spend more than this, (not much, but more) for all of us, so I'm tossed.

What would you do?

That's the prediciment I'm in now as well. The dining plan WILL save us money IF we get desserts instead of appetizers. However, in general, both of us would choose appetizer over dessert. As well, we have a 3 yr old and we calculated that her meals would cost about $10-12/day MORE without the dining plan since we plan to do several character meals.

I think I will try it this time around and see how we like it. I have to admit I do like the idea that it's all pre-paid (aside from tips) and I can get what I want and not have to worry about the cost.