DVC DDP-please explain!

[Simba's Mom]

The last time I used the DDP, the appetizer and gratuity were included, and there was only 1 type of plan. Now I see there are 3 plans (quick service, standard, and premium), and not surprisingly less is included. I'm looking in to it because I read somewhere that it may be financially advantageous for our trip during the F&W festival, since so many of the booth options are considered "snacks". So tell me about what's available for DVC members. Do we have a choice of the 3 plans? And how much does it cost? And does each person get a refillable mug? Any comments about cost-effectiveness during the F&W festival? Frankly if given a choice I might like the QS plan, because there's no planning involved (ADRs). One reason we stopped using the DDP years ago was that it made us slaves to day-by day planning, and making ADRs. We're really not planners.

 

[dgaston]

Copied from the Dining Board
Quick-Service Dining Plan (2 quick service, 1 snack per night)
(price for full year)
$37.58 per night ages 10 and up ($2.59 increase per night over 2012)
I believe all the plans include mugs now. I don't think this is worth it for F & W, but others will weigh in. We just eat our way around the Showcase, starting in different directions on different days, asking CMs for their best recommendations.

Our plan for F & W is to buy the wrist band cards and put $50 on two of them. It helps us budget our spending over our long weekend at F & W. We usually book one or two special events. This year it was the Tequila Tasting, which we really enjoyed. We find we can no longer eat enough to feel the price is worth it for Party for the Senses, but really like the French Regional Lunches (this past year it was the Italian Regional Lunches, but we couldn't get into the small venue).

HTH

 

[bumbershoot]

You get access to all three plans. There are PDFs showing the costs on the member site.

All plans get the mugs now.

When not getting "free" dining (aka, when getting it on a DVC stay, of course), you have to run the numbers to make sure it'll work for you. Later today I have to do that for part of our stay (we have stays that are split between resorts so we can put the plan on one part of the stay...if you stay in the same room/resort you can't do that), to see if having the DDP would at least work out even for us. I would just like to do it *once*, to know what the experience is like. But I haven't been able to make it work financially for us yet!

 

[Simba's Mom]

we have stays that are split between resorts so we can put the plan on one part of the stay...if you stay in the same room/resort you can't do that

Yes, that's one reason why we haven't done it during the F&W. DH comes down to stay with me during part of the stay, and they won't let us buy the dining plan just during those days. However, this year we're hoping we can. That's because on the days he's there, we'll be in a 1 BR, then after he leaves, I'll move to a studio. So I'm hoping that means there'll be two separate reservations-1 for the 1 BR, another for the studio, and we can get the DDP for the 1 BR portion. The QS plan sounds great, I wasn't sure we could get any of the 3 plans, or just the standard one. Thanks!

 

[Dean]

Yes, that's one reason why we haven't done it during the F&W. DH comes down to stay with me during part of the stay, and they won't let us buy the dining plan just during those days. However, this year we're hoping we can. That's because on the days he's there, we'll be in a 1 BR, then after he leaves, I'll move to a studio. So I'm hoping that means there'll be two separate reservations-1 for the 1 BR, another for the studio, and we can get the DDP for the 1 BR portion. The QS plan sounds great, I wasn't sure we could get any of the 3 plans, or just the standard one. Thanks!

Yes, you'll be able to get the plan for one portion and not the other or different plans for each. As a rule, it does take planning and effort to get a value out of any of the plans. It's most difficult to almost impossible to do more than about break even on the QS plan. The deluxe is potentially the best value cost wise. I don't have a lot of experience using the snack credits at the F&W festival, maybe others will pitch in with direct experience. In general it's about impossible to get much value from the QS unless you go heavy with WPE, PM or the combo meals such as AoA & Cosmic Rays about the best you can do otherwise is break even. IF you plan, you can get a pretty good value from the deluxe if you use it mostly for sit down esp character meals and sit down mostly at 1 TS credit locations. Disney is very close to pricing themselves out of the market like they did with the Food n Fun and it's successor option.

 

[johde]

It's most difficult to almost impossible to do more than about break even on the QS plan. The deluxe is potentially the best value cost wise. I don't have a lot of experience using the snack credits at the F&W festival, maybe others will pitch in with direct experience. In general it's about impossible to get much value from the QS unless you go heavy with WPE, PM or the combo meals such as AoA & Cosmic Rays about the best you can do otherwise is break even.

After the 2013 price increase, I'd tend to agree. I checked in Dec31, 2012 and got a decent deal with the QSDP. But you need to use all the entitlements. We'll need to see as time goes on if price increases my the QSDP a better deal as the year goes on. For me, I did the following rough breakdown. QS meal $10.00 + Drink 2.50 + desert $3.00 + Tax $1.00 = about $16.50 each for the 2 CS meals. If you add in a $4.00 snack that brings you up to $37 for the day. Almost the cost of the plan and the mug is a bonus. Like you said, if you eat at more expensive QS places like WPE or places with better desert offerings, like Starring Rolls, Sunshine Seasons it can become a better deal. If you tend to eat pizza or burgers frequently it would be a worse deal.

 

[Dean]

After the 2013 price increase, I'd tend to agree. I checked in Dec31, 2012 and got a decent deal with the QSDP. But you need to use all the entitlements. We'll need to see as time goes on if price increases my the QSDP a better deal as the year goes on. For me, I did the following rough breakdown. QS meal $10.00 + Drink 2.50 + desert $3.00 + Tax $1.00 = about $16.50 each for the 2 CS meals. If you add in a $4.00 snack that brings you up to $37 for the day. Almost the cost of the plan and the mug is a bonus. Like you said, if you eat at more expensive QS places like WPE or places with better desert offerings, like Starring Rolls, Sunshine Seasons it can become a better deal. If you tend to eat pizza or burgers frequently it would be a worse deal.

As I noted, roughly break even if you maximize each component, mostly your getting the mug which some people value and others don't. If you do the combo meals, WPE, PM you can get the value up modestly. Given the risk of the DDP and the fixed nature, I think one needs a 20% savings and/or 20% extra value that is desired to make any DDP a reasonable choice. It was difficult to do that in 2012 and is even more so for 2013. The same principles hold for all the DP options.

 

[sleepydog25]

The last time I used the DDP, the appetizer and gratuity were included, and there was only 1 type of plan. Now I see there are 3 plans (quick service, standard, and premium), and not surprisingly less is included. I'm looking in to it because I read somewhere that it may be financially advantageous for our trip during the F&W festival, since so many of the booth options are considered "snacks". So tell me about what's available for DVC members. Do we have a choice of the 3 plans? And how much does it cost? And does each person get a refillable mug? Any comments about cost-effectiveness during the F&W festival? Frankly if given a choice I might like the QS plan, because there's no planning involved (ADRs). One reason we stopped using the DDP years ago was that it made us slaves to day-by day planning, and making ADRs. We're really not planners.

We did the deluxe a couple of years ago when we hit F&W since you can use the snack credits at all the booths. Further, if you tend to dine at 2TS places at night as we did, then the expenditure could be worthwhile. However, if you plan to visit more booths than the deluxe plan would accomodate (vis-a-vis snack credits), then you not only have to shell out more money, but you may also wind up attempting to eat more food than you normally would just to get the "value" out of the deluxe plan. Between those issues and the fact the deluxe plan has significantly jumped in price, it is no longer a viable option for us. If the quality of the dining options and their accompanying menus had advanced as much as the cost of the plan, perhaps the deluxe option would still be worthwhile, but both largely have stagnated in recent years.

 

[yensid2000]

We've done the DDP since 2006 and it has changed since then. We love the table service meals for the different experiences, foods, atmospheres, etc. But we ARE planners.

 

[Meggysmum]

We just about broke even with the standard plan this year on costs of meals alone and we did dine at WPE as a QS.

We also tended to get fruit cups etc when we could for dessert so actually didn't buy much food as we ate left over desserts and the fruit for breakfast. We also used our mugs a lot. I didn't factor in the costs of breakfast or the drinks throughout the day so we did make a saving overall.

I like using the plan to help us budget and since we were there over the holiday season we knew that we would be staying within the parks and wanted to eat TS. Normally we eat offsite a lot so the DDP becomes a tie.