Though I've been to the world several times, my family's never done a
DDP.
I'm considering one for our next trip in February 2010, and I was wondering if people could share their dining plan success or failure stories, pros and cons of being on a plan or testimonials to help me decide if its as great as people make it sound.
Thanks in advance!
Last year was our first trip with a dining plan and we purchased DxDP (deluxe), so I'm not sure how helpful this will be if you're looking at the basic DDP, but:
PROS:
Convenient - everything is already paid in advance, except tips and alcoholic beverages (sort of like an all-inclusive resort or cruise), so you're done, you just pick what you want from the menu and enjoy!
Not thinking about price - some restaurants have exceptionally high prices for some meals...like I personally think that Coral Reef for lunch is very high price - but it's a 1TS restaurant, so eating lunch there --- if you were going to try to anyway --- is great because you don't have to worry about how much it costs, it's included in the plan. Same thing with snacks - if your kids want something like a $4.00 way too big lollipop, you'll probably let them get it if you're on the plan more readily than if you weren't, so that leads to...
Experience - I think the dining plan adds to the whole Disney experience because it fosters trying things you might not otherwise try if you hadn't bought the plan, let's you have dessert you might not order if you're trying to stay in a budget....on DxDP includes the appetizer too and an extra snack each day.
Flexible - Now I haven't purchased or used the basic DDP, but the DxDP is fairly flexible - if you want a CS meal, you can have it and will be comped an additional snack credit since there is a price difference between TS and CS meals. I think the DDP allows you to exchange a CS for two snacks too? With the DxDP it's pretty easy too, to use snack credits for breakfast to keep breakfast light and then do a 1TS lunch and get to eat in a lot of signature, 2TS restaurants for dinner while you're there!
Value - highly subjective, but for the adults, either the DDP or DxDP IMHO is a really good deal IF you don't eat mostly at character meals, but prefer the table-service restaurants. Kid's meals, on the other hand, in the TS restaurants are standard pricing, so they have no fluctuation and what you pay for a child on the DxDP is pretty much what you'd spend out-of-pocket unless you eat at a lot of the character meals, which tend to cost more for the kids (the adult price, by comparison to the kid price, is very close and less a value).
CONS
Food Quantity - with the DxDP, it can be way too much food to reasonably eat in a day....with each meal being complete, ie three course, it is a lot to try to eat day-in day-out if you're there for longer than a few days.
That said, it's also nice to have that much, I'd think, if you're a big eater!
Time to eat - it takes longer to eat sit-down meals, so the DxDP can mean more time sitting in a TS restaurant than if you'd gone with a CS meal. We prefer eating at TS restaurants, so for us it's great - but if you're not up for the time-out, you may not like the time needed to eat in a TS restaurant.
Scheduling - if you go with ADR's, be careful not to plan meals too closely together, which is easy to do by mistake.....I did that last year and we managed, but some days weren't much fun having to run between reservations and parks!
At this point, I can't imagine doing Disney without the DxDP....but that's me!
)
