QSDDP your thoughts

[almburr]

If you have done the QSDDP tell me your reviews please. I am trying to plan a quick trip for myself DD16 and DD12 in the next year DD16 will be a senior and DD12 will be an 8th grader kind of a special trip).

We (myself, DH, and DS6) just returned from a great trip and had the DXDDP and loved it. We have done the DDP and The DXDDP but not the QSDDP.

This trip it will not be as long so really no time to sit and eat so many times.
My thinking is do the QSDDP and oop for one sit down. This way when we are hungry we eat and not have to wait for ADRs. Its more of a lets have fun trip and see where we end up to eat.

Any info would be great.

 

[kaybird]

We are LONG time DDP'ers, and tried the QSDP in July. We absolutely LOVED it. There are so many options and a wide variety of foods. We generally split meals so had many chances to try lots of different foods. The snacks were great, and we enjoyed the refillable mugs.

We love TS, but find on short (or hot) trips we don't eat as much. Don't know if I would say there was less food, but it seemed easier to manage. We still do both, nice to have this option!

 

[almburr]

We are LONG time DDP'ers, and tried the QSDP in July. We absolutely LOVED it. There are so many options and a wide variety of foods. We generally split meals so had many chances to try lots of different foods. The snacks were great, and we enjoyed the refillable mugs.

We love TS, but find on short (or hot) trips we don't eat as much. Don't know if I would say there was less food, but it seemed easier to manage. We still do both, nice to have this option!

Hello fellow Kansan. Ive read over the menus and see that we wont be eating burgers all the time, Im glad for that. I like Cosmic rays combos 2 people can share a meal there.

 

[Liltx]

We loved it too! We have done the ddp previously and felt so tied down to TS meals.
QSP is wonderful! We ate when we were hungry, let the kids snack away, and paid OOP for three meals (coral reef, crystal palace, rainforrest) and still saved money over paying for ddp for 8 nights.
There are sooo many cs choices that we only had pizza and burgers once. Look at the menus so you have an idea of all the options but then just follow your stomach.
Your dd are probably past caring too much about the character buffets which to me was the only benefit to us for the ddp over the qsp.
It will be plenty of food, we had 6 cs left over which would have filled the meals we ate OOP but we still enjoyed a few ts meals (minus desserts).

 

[Sandisw]

WE have done it a few times now and it is a great plan. We really liked not having to be tied to ADR's.

The past two trips, we were able to do a combo of plans because we are DVC and with a split stay, it worked out.

Next summer, we have decided that we might just pay OOP by putting money on a gift card instead of doing the QSDP. I just don't eat that much food---however, for my children and DH, it worked out wonderfully.

I think for the short trip and some of the meals being plenty big to share, it is a great plan to cover all your meals. We used snack credits for a bagel or muffin for breakfast, usually got fruit for our dessert at lunch and saved that to eat with breakfast the next day. Doing it this way, we had very little in OOP expenses for additional food--only spent money on a few waters and some smoothies that were not covered.

 

[dmoore718]

We did the QSDP in 2009 and are doing it again..in 26 days!! We have 3 kids 5,4 and 1, so they would not be up for sitting down everyday. We love being able to eat when and where we feel like and are very excited to try new places this time!! I'm going to Wolfgang Puck express at DTD for sure!! We are paying OOP for 2 meals, one at Akershus ( a must with 3 girls! and one at O'Hana with my parents and aunt and uncle). As they get older, we might opt for the DDP, as they will have more patience for restaurants. LOL! It is nice to be free to decide where to go and what to do, not being based on your ADR's.
Enjoy!

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

We did the QSDP in 2009 and are doing it again..in 26 days!! We have 3 kids 5,4 and 1, so they would not be up for sitting down everyday. We love being able to eat when and where we feel like and are very excited to try new places this time!! I'm going to Wolfgang Puck express at DTD for sure!! We are paying OOP for 2 meals, one at Akershus ( a must with 3 girls! and one at O'Hana with my parents and aunt and uncle). As they get older, we might opt for the DDP, as they will have more patience for restaurants. LOL! It is nice to be free to decide where to go and what to do, not being based on your ADR's.
Enjoy!

This is good to hear. I started a thread inquiring about families' experience doing QSDP with young children, primarily because we don't want to commit to so many ADRs or do a TS meal everyday; and we'll need as much flexibility as we can get with our four kids (especially since this will be our first trip as a family).

 

[DisneyTravelers2008]

I really like the plans that include a table services better....they are not that much more expensive but imho you get more for your money that way. The plan with 1TS and 1QS and snack is just $10 more per day.

 

[llqool]

We have done the DDP several times and the QSDP once (and are planning on doing the QSDP again in January).

We found the QSDP worked really well for us. There was plenty of food for 2 adults and 2 semi-picky girls ages 8 and 5. We tend to eat at the more expensive counter service places (such as Wolfgang Puck Express and Tangierine cafe), so we more than broke even on the plan. Maybe it didn't save a *ton* of $$, but it was nice not to have to say "no" to everything (my kids *always* want various snacks and the resort mugs). And it was also nice not to have to make extensive plans based on TS ADRs like we have in the past.

I think it will save us even more on our upcoming trip since we are flying in for the first time and NOT renting a car, so we won't be able to bring very many snacks with us. I am going to put some Starbucks Via packets in my suitcase, tho, so I don't have to suffer the resort coffee in my mug!

 

[tndisneyfan]

We done QSDP several times over the last year or so. We loved it. We used to do the DDP but I hated being tied down to an ADR every day. This way we can eat wheverever we want whenever we decide we want to eat. It also leaves us enough flexibility to make one or two ADR's that we pay for OOP. Also love the extra snack per day.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

It seems like a lot of people have been won over by the QSDP and are choosing this particular dining plan again on their upcoming trips.

 

[disneymom06]

I did the QSDP with 4 children, 3 of them teenagers. It was Easter week last year and it was great. No pressure about ADR's and we ate wherever we happened to be. I did scout out a few places that would be good locations and I really liked the freedom. I would do it again.

 

[MinnieGi]

We just came back yesterday from a Christmas trip of 8 days on the QSDP and loved it!! We have done the DDP before and enjoyed it, however since we knew we would be facing hoards of Christmas crowds we did not want to "waste" time waiting for ADR meals. Plus our kids 10 & 6 are not big on sitting down to dinner EVERY night. The QSDP worked perfectly, we ate wherever we were and when we were hungry. I honestly only ate one hamburger the entire stay and no pizza! There were so many delicious options. We were very impressed with the selections. And my kids were in heaven, when they wanted a snack my answer was always "yes"!! Having the snacks also freed up my park backpack which is usually loaded with snacks for the day!!

We did pay oop for one sit-down - our Christmas dinner at HDDR (which was awesome).

We were very glad we had used the QSDP when we saw the waiting lines for restaurants b/c even with an ADR you still have to wait for the next available table. Using QSDP we had loads of time for fun and ate when we were hungry. We will use this plan again.

 

[Eeyore's Wife]

The QSDP is a great option. In the morning, I can use my mug for what passes for coffee or grab a hot chocolate and use a snack credit for some fruit or a muffin. Lunch and dinner are at one of the great spots around the world.

I love Tangerine Cafe, Captain Cooks, Wolfgang Puck, and Starring Rolls.

A nice snack in the evening, and I feel pampered.

We really enjoy eating at Hoop Dee Doo Review, but it is not a very good use of sit down credits on the regular dining plan, because it requires two credits. So, that meal is usually out of pocket anyway.

I enjoy knowning that all the meal costs are covered and I don't have to guestimate how much I need to budget for tips.

-Eeyore's Wife

 

[patsal]

Love QSDDP especially for shorter trips. When we do the big 14 night vaca in the summer it still ends up being too much, but for the 3 to 5 night trips it rocks. I Since I'm a DVC person, I find that QSDDP is great for the DVC's attached to deluxe resorts and not so good at the stand alones. I love OKW, so for the long 14 night vaca at OKW no DDP works best for us while at a resort DVC I love the QSDDP.

For us each vacation is a bit different so this year no DDP works best for us--we have a cruise following hte 14 nights at WDW--with all the wonderful meals on the cruise, I dont' want to be fooded out before we board. I'm loading a gift card for each person with the amount the QSDDP would have cost and letting them have at it for the duration of the vacation. We shall see how that works!

 

[blessedby3]

We love the CS plan and have found that for the price we can choose it and pay oop for two TS meals and still be under the cost of the regular plan. We love the 2 snacks per day per person...you get to try so many more things than if you just have one snack, and we love not being tied to ADR's and sit down meals that would take us away from the rides and shows. I also dont find the TS meals to be that tasty. We usually do the 2 oop ts meals as breakfasts---you usually cant mess that up too bad. The refillable mug per person is also a great thing. We have 6 in our family...and that adds up to lots of money if we all got one. There are lots of options for CS meals...not just burgers and chicken nuggets. It also helps since our dd3 isnt a great table sitter. She really doesnt like to eat and so there isnt much to hold her attention at the table. Its nicer to grab a quick CS meal and be out of there. Check out the menus on www.allears.net:thumbsup2

 

[marcyinPA]

We did the QSDP in June 09 and really liked it a lot. We've done the regular DDP a couple of times, but the QSDP was a nice change. We loved not being tied down to reservations, and we ate really well. Our favorite is Wolfgang Pucks, and we ate there twice. Fantastic food!!! It was hot when we went, and it was nice to eat light. I don't like eating rich, heavy food when it's 90+ degrees out!

 

[GAGirlInVA]

We really enjoyed it!

We went with four kiddos (only two on the plan) and two adults. We were happy with how flexible it made meals given our children's ages.

We mainly did breakfasts at the resort with the kids eating fruit cups and then part of our breakfast platter.

We did cosmic rays (got 2 meals and split.) That was a great meal! Wolfgang pucks twice and Peppermarket twice. It felt like we were cheating. LOL!

Alot of the snacks we picked were bigger. Funnel cake, coke float, popcorn, etc. That allowed us to get cinnamon buns at Magic Kingdom for breakfast one day.

At this stage with the ages we have I don't see us doing anything else.

Now the adult only trip we are planning? Sit down dining and ADRs will be utilitzed.

 

[Willa]

We are using the free QSDP for our trip next week, but in a different way and for a different reason than most.

It's just DH and I on this trip, and we are both vegetarians. We plan to use our counter service credits for 2 meals each day, and pay OoP for one TS each day.

I know it sounds like we ought to upgrade to the regular DP, but I did the math, and the with way we like to eat at TS restaurants, it came out a little cheaper this way. Keep in mind that vegetarian entrees are usually significantly less expensive than meat based meals. Also, we often order one appetizer and one entree and share, and we don't want dessert at every meal.

Also, we aren't fond of the idea of using snack credits for breakfast, so this way we can both have a full CS breakfast each day, followed by a TS lunch the way we like to eat, and a CS dinner. It will be interesting to see if we manage to use all our snack credits!

 

[Good Ol Gal]

we really liked the QS plan.

We are a family of 6, 2 adults 4 kids (age range 10-15).

We drive down so we have our car and am able to enjoy some of the resort CS that we wouldn't do if we didn't have one.

The kids still talk about Pepper Market and it's been 2 years since we ate there!

We've done the DDP many many times and the DX plan for a couple of nights. I just can't see myself paying $40 a day for my 10 & 11 year olds to eat chicken tenders.

We are going back in March for my DS's 16th birthday and are still trying to decide if we're going to do the QSP or not.