Why I like the DDP

[estherhead]

I've decided to start a thread on why I really like the DDP (when it's free especially )

My stats are thus: I love Disney World. I'm a working mom & wife in the midwest who isn't poor but has to pinch pennies to stay out of debt. I watch Top Chef but do not have the money to have ever tasted foie gras and truffles. I have 3 kids who love eating. I have a dh who loves eating out but doesn't have enough money to do it all the time.

My reasons:

1) I like planning my days around ADR's. It forces my dh who loves racing around like a maniac to take a nice break, have a drink, and take a chill pill.

2) My children love eating steak, it's their favorite meal. This makes it so we can afford to let them eat steak.

3) I've never eaten at Ruth Chris as I live in a small town and don't have a lot of money to spend on eating out and therefore have only Outback Steakhouse to compare Le Cellier to. Le Cellier is way better.

4) I can order what I really want on a menu, without price being a factor.

5) I can let the kids get a snack whenever they want, without saying we don't have the money.

6) I can book character meals so we don't have to "waste" time waiting in lines to meet characters.

7) Free dining at a Value means I can take my family on two vacations a year and makes Disney one of our very best vacation options financially.

8) I can then use my Disney Rewards points on souvenirs & alcohol instead of food, making the package cost & tips the only other money we spend.

9) I like dessert.

10) It turns Disney World into a cruise. I like cruises.

11) I don't have to carry in a cooler with snacks. I just bring a few bottles of water, which makes me (the family pack mule) MUCH happier.

12) A well fed, well rested in air conditioning, money still in pocket family, is a happy family.

Anyone want to share why they like the DDP?

[pooch]

don't know why but it always seems like a status thing to not like the DDP.

This will be our 4th free ddp trip & we love it. Ok, I loved it more with appie & tip included but I still love it.

1. We love TS dinners & couldn't do CS every meal.

2. We only go once per year so APs don't make sense for us and we've NEVER gotten a 40% code.

3. DD & I don't mind POP although I think we might splurge on AKL next year and I'd need a 40% code to give me more than an $80 (or whatever DDP for 2 costs now) per day discount. And, yes we would spend that much OOP so its a valid comparison.

4. Free dining coincides with my b-day!!

[jenga1030]

I agree with everything you said, even the part about Top Chef!! Free dining has been so great for my family, we too have to pinch pennies and don't go out to fancy restaurants too much. I grew up in Florida 2 hours from WDW and my whole life until free dining had only ever eaten at the CS places. We have done free dining every year since it started, and it has been wonderful for us!

I know the dining plan gets beaten up alot around here, but being able to go to the character meals and luau and try so many restaurants has given us some great Disney memories! I'll never forget the first year on free dining, being able to take our kids to Chef Mickey's was so special to us. I'll never forget how great it felt for all of us.

Why I love the dining plan...(let me count the ways...)

1. I love planning and doing the dining plan has given me more to plan!!! I love making ADR's at 180 days out and then reading the menus for months and months!

2. I love having a break every day to just sit in the air conditioning and talk with my family and try each others food.

3. I love knowing the food is paid for up front and we can order whatever we want. In the real world, I'm not like that.

4. I love letting the kids (and myself and DH) get snacks, we have tried so many new things these last few years.

5. I love seeing my kids faces at character meals. Pure magic!

6. I love trying new restaurants every trip and finding favorites we go back to every year. (Chef Mickey's, 'Ohana, Boma, Sci-Fi)

7. I love dessert! So do my kids! I love chocolate cake and Mickey bars and rice krispy treats and Main Street bakery cinnamon buns...

8. I love pool days and knowing we have an evening ADR somewhere. I don't know why, I just love that. Knowing we have to leave the pool and get ready and dressed for dinner by a certain time.

9. 'Ohana...our evening there is so special and so much fun and we probably never could spend $100 to eat there. Our tradition is to go there and eat, then DH and I find some lounge chairs on the beach and let the kids build sand castles and we watch the boat parade and Wishes and then ride the monorail around. One of my favorite evenings.

The dining plan has changed (for the better) the way we vacation at Disney World. We used to be commando people who only made short trips there. Now we stay for 2 weeks at a value resort and explore every part of WDW. We look around resorts and ride the monorail just for the fun of it in the evenings, we play on the beach at the Poly and watch Wishes from different places besides just MK, we go to the Boardwalk and DTD.

Eating at different restaurants at WDW has opened our eyes to all of the wonderful (a lot of them free) things to do besides the parks and in the evenings after the parks.

[estherhead]

Jenga1030: I love you. Just thought you ought to know.

I also love looking at the menus for months. And picking out based on the food pic thread what I'm going to eat. And then staring at the menu for just as long as always looking at & imagining every option & then getting what I knew I would get anyway. And having it be just as great as everyone said.

Seriously, before the DDP I not only had only eaten at the Rose & Crown and Marakesh (and shared meals) but I had never had: schoolbread, dole whip, cream cheese pretzel, well, actually, no snack. I'd also never stayed on site because I couldn't afford to be a Disney captive food wise. We would eat breakfast at McDonald's on the way to a park, bring a small cooler of snacks & drinks, eat one CS meal for lunch, and leave when we were all hungry for dinner. Chevy's at Crossroads, for example, was a favorite. Or Outback on 192. Or, quite honestly, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, etc.

2007 was our first on site stay with free DDP. It was a dream come true for us. And we too went to O'hana & hung out in the hammocks & let our kids dig in the sand. It wasn't on purpose, we accidently got there super early, thinking it would take forever bus wise. But it is one of my most cherished memories of that trip. An unexpected transportation to Hawaii.

[Nadjalu]

Fantastic thread!
Since I have only been to DW once (going for #2 in Nov/Dec) it sure worked to our advantage $ wise and eating wise.

I think it is cool to go to a place get to order whatever and get dessert. Not only do we come out financially ahead (we like to eat) it adds "luxury" to our vacation. I too love the food network and fancy places and hey some may not consider CP to be fancy but I it is better than some at home!
It adds "magic" to the trip and to those who it doesn't work for I am sorry but for me and dh it is a blessing!

[palavra]

We've never had DDP before, but we have free dining for this trip in November. My family is really excited to be able to have a TS meal each day, including a couple of character meals. We have enjoyed planning our days and our ADR's. It will be nice to try different snacks in the parks as well.

[bookgirl2632]

Yay!! I love this thread! I'll join in too.

Why I love the DDP.

1. I like being able to eat at restaurants we normally wouldn't be able to try. I can't afford California Grill or Citricos. Heck, I'd be hard-pressed to be able to afford LeCellier.

2. I like being able to order anything off the menu, without having to worry about price. If I want the most expensive thing, I can have it!

3. I love dessert!!

4. I like being able to sit down for a meal and be waited on.

5. As much as I like many of the CS places, I couldn't possibly eat CS all the time. It would become very old, very quick.

6. It's really not too much food. We normally have a small breakfast in our room (a muffin, pop tart, or breakfast bar), our CS lunch, and our TS dinner. We, frankly, didn't use our snack credits until the end of our trip.

7. Speaking of snack credits, we used them mostly for bottled soda or water, rice krispy treats for home, or Dole Whips. Love the snack credits!

8. It's so easy! I love that everything is paid for upfront. I just give them my card and it's done.

9. I especially love it when it's free, but we have paid for it as well. I can't see going to WDW without it.

10. Economically, it just makes sense.

[scard192]

The DDP allows us to have ADR's at 1900PF, PSB and CM. This will be my 3 year old grand daughters 1st trip to Disney and there is NO way her parents would have chosen to pay OOP for 3 character meals :-) The DDP will make a little girls visit to Disney even more magical And her grandma will be along to watch it all.

[CanadianPaco]

I loved reading all these posts~ this is our first free dining trip and an't wait to experience the things you have!
THX!

[marciedoo]

I like to not think on my vacation. DDP makes it that way. We can afford to eat all the TS places OOP but I'd be my usual cheap self...and not order dessert. Or not get what I want because this other thing is $2 cheaper. That's not vacation to me, that's regular life. WDW is about a completely immersion in a fantasy life that allows me to let go of regular life stuff. DDP is part of that.

[Colleen27]

I'm with Marcie. I don't want to think on vacation, and without a dining plan, I'd be my usual frugal self looking at the prices before I ordered. We do the deluxe plan now, and that's my very favorite part of it - we can have a signature dinner every night, and I never have to think about the price.