DDP More or Less Stressful??

[kkayluvsdis]

My family is thinking about taking our second Disney trip of this year in November/December to see the Christmas decorations. We have been curious about trying the DDP for a while now and wonder whether we should try it out this time. Does anyone have any thoughts to whether the DDP relieves or creates more stress on a trip? Do you feel like you have to eat all the time? Or does it encourage you to try new things that you maybe would have not thought to normally? For those of you who aren't big eaters, did you feel like it was a waste of money? Thanks so much for your opinions. I know you all are the pros!
-Kelly

 

[ENSOCK]

We love the DDP. I like having the sit down dinners, but my sons are big eaters. My DS9 eats more than me so I get the child's menu and he gets the adult menu. My husband requested the DDP this trip because he likes to take a break from the parks and sit at a meal. I know some peoples will say that using the snack credits for water is a waste but that is what we do. On the last day we always have extra snack credits left over so I get snacks to bring on the plane or to go home with.

Look on allears.net at the menus and see if there are places that you would like to eat at. You could use the table meals to try things you might not otherwise try. Good luck planning!

 

[PrincessTiffany]

My family is thinking about taking our second Disney trip of this year in November/December to see the Christmas decorations. We have been curious about trying the DDP for a while now and wonder whether we should try it out this time. Does anyone have any thoughts to whether the DDP relieves or creates more stress on a trip? Do you feel like you have to eat all the time? Or does it encourage you to try new things that you maybe would have not thought to normally? For those of you who aren't big eaters, did you feel like it was a waste of money? Thanks so much for your opinions. I know you all are the pros!
-Kelly

We love, love, love the dining plan. Even before Disney offered the current dining plan, we still had at least one sit-down meal per day. So, if you plan on doing at least one table service restaurant per day, I think it's a good idea. We do the basic dining plan and feel it is just the right amount of food. We usually eat a quick breakfast in the room, eat counter service lunch around 11:30 a.m. and eat dinner around 6:00 p.m. Also, it just dawned on me the other day that we will be in Disney from Dec. 12 - 21, so all of the holiday pricing will be going on for a lot of the restaurants and character meals. Well, since we are on the dining plan we don't have to pay that extra fee, so that's just even more money I am saving. We will be saving a total of $325.00 by using the dining plan, as opposed to paying out-of-pocket for our sit-down meals. We also like the convenience of having everything (except tips) paid for in advance. We will just charge the tips back to our room and before we check out I will pay them off with my points from my disney rewards visa. Also, if you are really planning on going during the timeframe you posted, you really need to go ahead and make your ADRs (advance dining reservations) ASAP. We are arriving Dec. 12 and our 180 days out reservations opened up on June 15, so your reservations for the time period you are talking about going probably opened up more than a month ago.

 

[jellybeans0607]

it all depends if you like to eat in the park or not. if you always eat in the park then you are already are making ADRs, so the only difference is you are paying for it ahead of time.
if you are someone who hates to make ADRs and would rather fly by the seat of your pants, and you tend to eat out of the park often, than it isnt for you. as you would be tied down with ADRs.
we always use the ddp. yes it takes more planning, but i like the convienence of knowing when we will eat and where. plus its am expense i dont have to think about.

 

[kaybird]

We vote less stressful!!! Love the idea of having the majority pre-payed, very little "sticker shock" Find the TS relaxing, and usually for us eliminates the need for rest breaks away from the parks. We think of the whole ADR system as a fast pass for eating, so we are on board all the way!

 

[bytheblood]

I think a lot less stressful. I already have a place to dine for dinner and I don't have to worry about carrying my Credit Card with me everywhere.

 

[Disney8704]

I havent done the DDP but have to say the reason why we ARENT doing the DDP because it does seem more stressful. To have to constantly watch your credits....and then when they screw it up (which seems to happen A LOT to A LOT of people) then you have to take your precious time to go and get it fixed at your resort. The DDP is only there to save you money and thats it. And then thats another reason why we arent doing the DDP. If we dont eat snacks everyday and just our meals (which is a HUGE possibility) we will either come out even or spend less OOP then on the DDP. Just because DH loves to eat meals every 4-5 hrs doesnt mean Im gonna feel like eating so I might just grab a small snack and call it my lunch. So that right there could save us money and come out on the cheaper end then being on the DDP. It all depends on how much you can eat and how often. If you can eat a lot during the day, then the DDP would probably work for you.

 

[JimMIA]

I think it depends entirely on how you like to eat when you go to WDW. If you like to eat one TS (or character meal) per day, you're going to have to make ADRs anyway, so I don't see how DDP would be more stressful. Unless you're a person who would worry about how much extra the tips are going to cost, and how you're going to pay them. That could be stressful for some.

If the tipping question doesn't bother you, I'd take a realistic look at the costs and benefits and make a sound financial decision -- it might save you money, it might not. For many, buying DDP and realizing halfway through the trip that you're NOT saving money would be very stressful!

People who wouldn't normally use their allocation of TS credits have never been good candidates for DDP, although a lot of them have bought it.

People who like to "wing it" are certainly not prime candidates for DDP because they stand to lose credits, or get forced to bus across WDW to a restaurant where nobody else wanted to eat, because they don't have ADRs.

 

[DCDisney]

It really depends on your family. If you absolutely definitely will eat a TS meal each day then the numbers usually work out especially if you have kid aged kids. If you have kids willing to eat from the kids menu's at all the meals then it's not stressful but if you have a kid who wants a burger or pizza at CS that isn't included on your plan it gets stressful deciding on how many extra meals you want to pay for OOP. Personally we like the plan but it is always stressful finding places my kids would eat the kids meals and then at some point in the week they've just had enough mac and cheese and we end up needing to buy things OOP for them. Deciding when to use and not use snack credits based on the cost of items gets stressful. Financially it doesn't pay to use the credits on cheaper things but if you want a mickey bar then you should have one so I do stress a bit about getting our money's worth. We have always come out a bit ahead of what we paid but we also found ourselves going to a few meals where we weren't technically hungry and probably would have been fine canceling and having more pool time (and ultimately would have spent less than we paid for the DDP just cutting that one meal).

 

[JimMIA]

We have always come out a bit ahead of what we paid but we also found ourselves going to a few meals where we weren't technically hungry and probably would have been fine canceling and having more pool time (and ultimately would have spent less than we paid for the DDP just cutting that one meal).

You did one thing most people don't do. In your analysis, you are using REAL comparisons, not the misleading DDP vs menu price comparisons most people use. If you're talking about money, you used the most accurate way of looking at the cost.

On our most recent trip, we declined the DDP and just went OOP. That decision was partly because the plan no longer made financial sense for our family because of the changes, but also because after using DDP the last 5-6 trips, we'd gotten pretty tired of the standardized Disney food and really wanted to try some of the better restaurants offsite.

As a result of not using DDP, we found ourselves getting a lot more snacks and an occasional CS lunch. We only ate 2 CS lunches in six days, but we bought a lot more snacks than we would usually get. Some of the snack consumption was because the temperature was low 90's every day. The only TS we did was a character breakfast at Norway.

I didn't do the math, but I suspect we spent a little more than we would have spent on DDP. But that's because of the offsite restaurants where we chose to dine. If we'd eaten at everyday restaurants, we would probably have spent slightly less than DDP would have cost.

 

[Dizneydaz]

I enjoy using DDP. We've done it 4 times now and will be doing it for the 5th time in Sept. Only the first time (Jan. 05) did we pay for it.

We go in Sept. anyway, so getting DDP for free is a no-brainer. Prior to having the dining plan we ate at very few TS locations. Since using DDP we have discovered a few new favorites.

I don't find using it stressful, at all. We've only had our credits messed up twice. First time we caught it at the restaurant (first time using it, the plan was pretty new) and we took care of it there. Second time was on our last night and I failed to notice that they deducted for DD's meal (2TS) even though we paid out of pocket for her. This was easily corrected the next a.m. so we could have our last meal-at Park Fair on our last day.

I really like having DDP. My mom feels it's a little more restrictive than she likes but since I make ALL the plans, too bad!! DD8 loves it as well. One nice benefit is that if DD doesn't finish her meal I don't stress over it-after all, it's all the same price, isn't it?

We have tried some restaurants that we normally wouldn't have if we didn't have the plan. Some are now favs. Kona, Narcoossee's, California Grill, LTT, are just a few. We use our TS mostly for dinner, except on the last day, we do a sit-down breakfast-Park Fare, or 'Ohanas. Also 2 places we probably wouldn't have tried without DDP.

Would I get it if I had to pay for it-no, I don't think so-not with the changes they've made plus my DD will be turning 10 next Sept. and I would never pay adult pricing for her-she eats too little. Now that they've eliminate appetizers and tip it's not as good a deal unless you are planning on having a sit down meal everyday. When we are not on DDP, we eat very frugally. Pretty much like we do at home.

 

[GC&S]

The planning can be stressful, but actually we like figuring out the places we want to try. Once we get to the world, it's less stressful, We've done the DDP 5 times and have never ever had a problem with the credits. We always do a TS each day because that's our "down" time and we love to relax in a nice restaurant. So the DDP makes sense for us. As for people saying it's too much food, I disagree. You don't have to eat every single morsel on your plate. We like to try new things and we love our dessert so we love the DDP. Do we eat like that at home??? No. But on vacation we do splurge and the DDP takes away the stress of "how much is that" and "can we afford 3 mickey bars a day?".

 

[GC&S]

I also can't understand people who have never done the DDP making statements like it's too much food or too much of a hassle. If they haven't done it, they can't really know how it works.

 

[mmcguire]

This our first time doing DDP ,and even though we don't go until mid-August, I can already tell it's LESS stressful.

Instead of agonizing over which 3-4 table service restaurants to go to, we got to choose 7! We got a couple of old faves and several we might have been reluctant to try if paying out of pocket.

It will also be a nice change not have to convince DS (14) to select something less expensive.

 

[TaylorsDad]

We have done the dining plan twice now and although we actually spent more on the dining plan in April than we would have oop, it wasnt stressful. We actually got to try a few nice restraunts that we normally wouldn't. The only done side with the TS credits is having to plan months ahead where, when, and how you want to eat.

 

[pooch]

3rd time on DDP. No stress, no hassles, easy breezy. We love a TS for dinner. Since we don't leave the parks for a break, this is our recharge time. I plan the TS around which parks we will be in that day and I base THAT on the park calendar. I know what DD and I like to eat and when so making ADRs 6 months in advance is no problem. We split all of our CS, sharing 1 for breakfast and 1 for lunch, plenty of food for the 2 of us (DD is 23). Never had a problem with credits being screwed up.

I say, give it a try!!

 

[bkfree]

I also can't understand people who have never done the DDP making statements like it's too much food or too much of a hassle. If they haven't done it, they can't really know how it works.

I tend to agree with you. Dec. will be out 3rd trip using the DDP and it defintely lessens the stress on many fronts.
My husband loves that our food, for the most part is paid for well before the trip.
I love knowing where we will be having dinner each night without all the on the spot decision making, then wondering will we get in or will the wait be forever and what will plan B be if we can't get in to put First Choice. That is just too much stress on Mom.
Part of the fun of anticipating our trip is deciding on our 7 TS restaurants. Which favs will we return to and which new places do we want to try. I have never had to wait on hold or not gotten every ADR we wanted.

I also cannot see why anyone would have any issue "keeping" up with credits.
We usually pay OOP for breakfast, usually less than $10 for the 4 of us, CS for lunch and the our TS dinner.SC are used when and where we want. I love being able to tell the kiddos "YES" each time they ask for a special snack. Hubby and I usually share, so we end getting to try so much stuff that we would not if we were constantly paying OOP. If we run out of SC before our trip is over, then so what. Although that has never happened, no matter how hard we try.
It is fun, on the last day to spend the leftover SC on goodies for the flight home.
We don't over eat, but hey if you do, it's vacation for goodness sake. And with all the walking, we have never gained an ounce at WDW.
Last trip I kept up with every single reciept and our DDP saved us almost
$500.
Disney has such great Dining spots and our trips would not be nearly as much fun without being able to try so many of them out on our trips.
DDP allows us to do just that!

 

[catne]

I havent done the DDP but have to say the reason why we ARENT doing the DDP because it does seem more stressful. To have to constantly watch your credits....and then when they screw it up (which seems to happen A LOT to A LOT of people) then you have to take your precious time to go and get it fixed at your resort. The DDP is only there to save you money and thats it. And then thats another reason why we arent doing the DDP. If we dont eat snacks everyday and just our meals (which is a HUGE possibility) we will either come out even or spend less OOP then on the DDP. Just because DH loves to eat meals every 4-5 hrs doesnt mean Im gonna feel like eating so I might just grab a small snack and call it my lunch. So that right there could save us money and come out on the cheaper end then being on the DDP. It all depends on how much you can eat and how often. If you can eat a lot during the day, then the DDP would probably work for you.

Disney makes very few mistakes on the DDP...and you can get them corrected immediately at the restaurant (you don't have to get it done later at your resort.) We had No mistakes on 2 different rooms, 4 people, in 7 days of dining. Every time you use your DDP, the receipt tells you exactly how many you have left...you don't actually have to keep a running tally yourself. If you dont eat the snacks, you can always use them up at the end buying specialty treats to take home as gifts or snacks for the ride home.
Whether it saves you money depends on whether you plan on eating at least one table service & one counter service meal per day...if you think you will do than, then DDP will usually offer at least a small $ savings per day. And it is convenient to have it paid in advance.

We loved the DDP, and found it far less stressful. You do have to plan in advance, but that's part of the fun for us...and the value lets us try restaurants & dishes we might be reluctant to pay OOP for.

 

[estherhead]

I say less stressful. As a matter of fact, it was so much less stress that when we go this year & stay off property (and therefore can't have the DDP) I'm going to try really hard to not look at prices. If a kid is hungry, I'm going to ask them what they want and keep my eyes shut to the money. I LOVED never looking at the price. Simply looking at what we wanted. It was like a revelation to us.

We're going to save money by eating off property a lot since we're staying off property, but when we do eat on property you won't see me looking at prices!

 

[notafan]

Less stressful. DW and kids eat what they want and I don't stress over the price.