For Those Who Got the QSDP Pin...

[Emme]

Are you keeping the free QSDP or upgrading it? Can you please share the reason why you are doing either. I am still on the fence about upgrading... Thanks~

 

[zuzu310]

Well we booked the FD BB offer when we were there last September. We have upgraded it before and we have done one stay where we didn't. I think there are pros and cons to both. Our main reason for not upgrading this year is that we will be taking our 17 month old son with us and I would rather not fool with having to be anywhere at a certain time and entertaining him through dinner. Regardless, I think the main pro of QSDP is that you can eat at whatever time you want. The con of course is that you are essentially eating fast food type stuff (which some is better than others of course if you do your research). The main pro of the reg DDP is that you get to experience some relaxing dinners and in theory better quality food after a long day at the parks. However, last year we felt like the restaurant quality of food had come down significantly so this is another reason why we are ok with doing QSDP this year.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

We are a family of 6 and we always get 2 connecting rooms at a value resort. We rotate all of our annual trips around Free Dining promos and we always pay the upgrade from quick service to the basic DDP. It's only a few hunderd dollars for us to upgrade, so we are basically getting a couple of thousand dollars worth of food for about $300.00.

 

[DisneyDiva2006]

For the first time we are keeping the QS plan.....we decided to do this so we would not be tied down to a lot of reservations. For us it was going to be almost $500 to upgrade plus tips....so almost 700 with tips. I just decided I would book our favorite at Le Cellier pay one dinner out of pocket and be happy I get to just eat free for a week.

I may regret not upgrading but we shall see.......

Good luck deciding!

 

[la_la]

I haven't booked just yet, but when/if I do I'll be upgrading. I love the sit down meals because it is a great way to get a picture with the characters (if you choose character meals!), and it keeps the kids entertained while us adults eat! It's a nice break in the day as well to be able to sit down and eat.

 

[brat5063]

I just got a pin for QSDD and am thinking of upgrading to DDP. Who am I kinding, I am upgrading, but haven't changed my reservations. I was able to get ADRs at some spots I was interested in. (But most are for lunch or have us eatting around 4). I still think I am going to keep the reservations and upgrade. I like to do character meals and though I have sat down yet to figure out exact costs, I think it would be worth it to upgrade (though I need to remember the additional costs of tips.)

It costs me about $120 to use the free QSDP. I lost a 15% room rate I had on the room for part of the trip and they told me I had to upgrade from a standard room to a standard pool room (which I am not sure I like). And it's $270 more for us to upgrade to DDP. $390 is cheaper then what it would of cost us for the QSDP (I think it was around $550). And I probably need to set aside $150 for tip money.

 

[vwaller72]

We upgraded last year and will be doing so again this year. The meals, especially with characters, are part of the fun of the vacation for the kids.

 

[LSUDis]

We have not done sit-downs in a while (too expensive for us), so we upgraded this time b/c it was a cheaper way to try some restaurants. Otherwise, we wouldn't do the DP. We're pretty satisfied with QS (until this year when they cut a snack!).

 

[MickeyEars]

We received the free quick service dining pin code and we upgraded. We love to have a sit down meal each night. It's nice to sit and relax after a long day of walking!!!

Carla

 

[Lees3rwe]

Hi! We have been twice and have our third trip booked for June.
On our previous 2 trips, we have kept QSDP and will be keeping it for this trip as well! I would say that if you are traveling during peak times and also during really hot summer days, I would stick with QS.

We found that we were not very hungry at all in the heat and the parks were busy so it was nice not to have to rush to get to an ADR. We ate when we wanted and what we wanted.

There really is a good variety with QSDP... we are all on the South Beach Diet right now and I was just looking over all of the QS menus... though we won't stay on plan the entire time, we actually have some pretty healthy options that we can choose from!

I think a lot of it depends on your family's style of "doing Disney"... QS works for us.

 

[dancin Disney style]

We had the QSDP last year and it took a lot of thought as to if we would upgrade or not. We had previously only ever had the DDP. In the end we decided we would like to try something different and kept the QSDP. There were really only 3 or 4 TS places that we REALLY wanted to go to and since we were staying 12 days it was less expensive to just pay OOP for those meals.....I think the savings was about $500+tips.

In the end we cancelled all the ADR's we had as I had made a detailed list of CS places that had great options....way off from the burgers and fries. In fact, we had burgers only once totally by choice. We had a lot of great food and completely enjoyed the freedom of eating when ever and where ever we wanted. We have a FD PIN right now that we are contemplating using and if we do we know we will be totally happy with the QSDP......I will miss the second snack though, we used most of them to bring treats home(we had 32 extra snack credits).

 

[MinnieMO]

Did you receive the pin via snail mail or email. Hoping we get one for our trip in April. Come on pixie dust !!

 

[MinnieMO]

Did you receive the pin via snail mail or email. Hoping we get one for our trip in April. Come on pixie dust !!

 

[Corjack]

I always receive mine via Snail Mail! Although I got thsi last pin to my husband at my mother in laws address. WHen I went online and put in my pin and varified my address it was OUR address online. WEIRD!

 

[Corjack]

I will keep the QSDP. I have small kids and I just cannot imagine predetermining when they will be hungry months ahead of time!!! We have done the QSDP twice before and if you relaly take time to look at menus you will find LOTS of great food options(besides fast food type stuff).

 

[tink20]

Got the free QS pin. Staying at a moderate, keeping QS pin.

Reasons:
DS is 10, and doesn't eat alot, reg. dining would be too much food
I don't feel like trying to make alot of ADRs
I like being flexible with my schedule.
I made 2 ADRs for lunch OOP TS, which gives us 6 QS credits, that I will use at the resort for breakfast for the 3 of us. (my DD isn't going this trip)

We had QS free dining 2 years ago, and I will miss the other snack credit.

 

[2Tiggies]

We got free QSDP for our September trip and kept it.

Reasons:
We don't eat a TS meal every day and are happy to pay OOP for the odd one as we see fit
We are at WDW for 18 days this year and there is no way I want to make 18 ADRs, never mind stick to them
We have used the QSDP 3 years running (this year being the 4th one) and it suits our touring style

It's a keeper for us

 

[Zuzu03]

Keeping QSDP. We aren't big eaters and TS plus a CS on the same day seems to be too much for us. DD and I did this on one of our trips and it was way too much food for us! We're happy with QS for our trip in April - we'll pay OOP for 1 or 2 meals, if we want once we're there (I have a $25.00 gift cert for Garden Grove, so prob use that).

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

This time we are upgrading. Honestly, we have done both DDP & QSDP and although we enjoyed both, we prefer DDP. On this trip we have young kids but we want to do a couple of character meals with them. By the time we would pay OOP for the character meals, we would have paid enough to upgrad to the regular dining plan. Usually we bring a few breakfast items with us and eat in our room for breakfast to maximize our credits. We are big eaters though. If you only want 1 or 2 sit down or character meals the QSDP is great.

 

[mudman]

Keeping Free QSD and paying OOP for our one favorite must do table service meal.

Reasons:

#1.
I just can justify the $400 it would cost us to upgrade and then pay tips on top of that.
Plus nothing tastes better than FREE food I've got in my head that If I upgraded it would be discounted, not FREE.

#2.
I am the vacation planner in the family and I really have no idea where we will be at any given time and having to make ADRs would stress me out and make things more structured than we want.

I do, however, need to do some homework on where we can get some of our best QS meal choices before we go so we'll be prepared to make better choices....Anyone have recommendations for each park?