Generally Negative Opinion of DDP?

[fallen_angel727]

For us right now, it works awesome! We hate carrying cash and cards in the parks so having our room key (or magic band in the case of next year's trip) is extremely helpful.

Now, I will also admit that whether it's worth it depends on how it's used and what restaurants you decide to eat at. When we went in may, we ended up spending about $200 more for the plan then for the food. HOWEVER, with that being said, when I went Sept. 2012 we came out about $100 ahead. In Sept 2014 we're trying the DxDP and we'll see how that works for us (mind you we're going solely for the purpose of eating rather then heavily touring the parks) so we shall see how that goes.

As others have said, the plan isn't for everyone, it depends on where you want to eat, how much you want to eat etc. It works different for every one, but for us the convienience is wonderful

 

[patsal]

Quite simply, none of the plans fit with the way my family or I eat. Nothing about the plan allows me to eat whatever I want whenever I want it. I do not ever order dessert with a counterservice meal. I do not order dessert with every TS meal. Sometimes I prefer two aps over an entree, sometimes I want ice cream only for lunch! Overall the dining plans cost more than I pay oop where I truely have whatever I want whenever I want it.

 

[SEA333]

The plan is bad news and Disney preys upon the uneducated with it (particularly free dining). Nobody will come out ahead with it. The cost models always factor in nonsense that wouldn't apply to 99% of the people - desserts at CS places for example. And gratuities never factor in; you're going to pay a lot more in tips while on the plan because to maximize the value of it the majority of folks will purchase the most expensive menu items.
If you want to do it for the convenience, dump that money on a gift card before you leave for vaca and use that for your food.

I still can never understand why people say this - The plan is bad news and Disney preys upon the uneducated with it (particularly free dining). Nobody will come out ahead with it.

Staying on-site for 5 days with 4 "adults" (Me, DH, DS13, DD10) and one child (DS7), at POR, with free dining. 20% Room only discount at $261/night is $208.80. 30% is $313.20. Without free dining, the bare minimum I would allocate to meals per day is $150, or $750/five days, for the 5 of us. DDP cost, not being free, is almost $1000. I totally see where paying for the plan is not a deal.

But it is FREE, even taking into consideration what the room discount would be, AND we can get snacks and desserts that I would be the bad guy with and say no (don't be the mom...it's never any fun being the one saying NO! all the time! LOL)

SO, can someone tell me HOW "free" dining is not the better deal for a family of 5???!!!

 

[nansmama]

It just depends how, what, and how much you like to eat. Reasons we don't use DDP:

1. COST.
The cheapest dining plan for my family (one adult, two teens) would be $114/day. At Disney, we average $100/day on everything--food, souvenirs, extras. So the DDP is not saving us any money. A room discount is worth more for us.

2. THE FOOD ITSELF.
At home we rarely eat out, and eat quite healthy, so eating "Disney food" (as my kids call it) for too many days makes us feel ill. When we eat sweets it's as a snack, not something that directly follows a full meal. We are also water drinkers by choice. My ds drinks 100% water, my dd about 85%, and me about 95%. So the non-water beverages with every meal would be total overkill for us. On long trips we order groceries to our villa so we have some "regular" stuff to eat.

3. THE AMOUNT OF FOOD.
My dd and I can share a meal and appetizer from a typical CS or TS restaurant and be full for half the day. Maybe if we ate like my 17 year old son we would come out ahead, but we don't.

4. THE NEED TO MAKE SO MANY ADRs.
During a one week trip we will have 1-2 ADRs, during a two week trip 3 or 4. We don't like being tied down by ADRs plus there's a limited number of Disney restaurants we love enough to sit down for at least an hour for.

 

[bmlr97]

We are 2 adults and 2 kids and the DDP works for us because we want to do most of the TS as character meals. Comparing the price of those meals to OOP the DDP saves us money.

 

[ncsastudent]

We get the DxDDP when we go, because eating lots of food is one of the number one reasons to go to Disney (for us that is... it may be different for you and that's cool).

My bf and I are foodies and we love to sample a wide variety of flavors even if we do not eat all of each course.

We do every meal as a sit down meal, and do a signature meal each night. We get every course offered on the plan and sometimes purchase ADDITIONAL courses such as cheese platters, sushi, extra apps or extra desserts just to sample or taste out of pocket as well.

Yes, there are better restaurants in NY, CA, and even Orlando. But a big part of the joy is eating on Disney property.

For us, dining at Disney is an attraction unto itself.

HOWEVER, if you are not like my bf and I, the DxDDP may not be for you.

It saves us money because we would be spending that money anyway and often spend on top of the plan. However, it would cost the average person more money than going out of pocket if all they were interested in was an entree or a meal between rides.

So... it depends on how you look at Disney.

If you look at it as:

Meals with some rides in between.... the plan is definitely for you!

If you look at it as:

Rides with some meals in between... maybe the plan isn't for you?

It is really all up to YOU. Nobody can tell you how to have a good time at Disney. Only you can decide that for yourself

I mean... I once knew a Disney vacationer who hated fireworks and always got out of the parks before them. I, on the other hand, would hate to miss them. Neither person is right. It is all an opinion.

 

[Happyjen27]

I don't like DDP because I travel with children who have good palates.

The DDP restricts them to kids meals, that are not very healthy, not delicious and not how they eat.

This next trip is our second trip, so we will be ordering an adult meal for them to split, or, if they can't agree, an adult meal that I will split with them. That will get them away from the constant stream of pizzanuggetsburgers that they ate our first trip. Also, DDP included dessert, and much to my daughter's dismay, we try not to eat much sugar. We will indulge, of course, because it's Disney, but, we don't need it at every meal.

It will save us money because we are using the Room Only discount of 20% off the CR, rather than free dining and paying rack rate. More important than saving money is that we can eat a little more like how we usually eat.

In the end, based on my calculations as to the meals we're eating, we're not really saving any money by going OOP. I can't eat a constant stream of QS, so we will have sit down meals, and the price of them will roughly add up to what we would pay for the DDP. But, by not paying "ahead" and going OOP, if I'm not hungry for a meal (this did happen last trip) I won't bother to eat, and so we will probably save money that way. We had so many QS credits left over last year because we were skipping meals. So, this time, we won't have pre-paid for them.

 

[TDC Nala]

Not everyone saves money. It completely depends on how you eat and what you order. Assuming that the dining plan will always save money is just as incorrect as assuming it will never save money.

I don't want to eat the way the dining plan requires or order the courses that are included in the plan, so I never do it. Even if it saved me a miniscule amount of money, I would have to order things I may not want (like dessert at every meal) to get that value. The plan would have to save me a whopping amount of money, like it did when it was first introduced, for me to go back to using it, and it no longer saves that kind of money.

 

[Kelleigh710]

I used to religiously purchase the DDP. However, my husband and I started wanting more freedom with our food choices. I usually never order dessert with my QS meals and for our TS my DH and I like to split an appetizer, have our own entree's and then split dessert. The DDP would save us money if we ate exactly like the plan, but that isn't the case.

I will say, I took my first trip in May doing TIW and I really enjoyed it. Although I had to pay full price for the QS, I found the 20% off the TS (including alcohol) to be a great deal. Now that I have had the flexibility that TIW offers, I couldn't go back to DDP.

 

[dd50]

If you want to do it for the convenience, dump that money on a gift card before you leave for vaca and use that for your food.

That plan works for me.

 

[MrsUqdah]

I have been getting a few unnerving comments as well about me choosing g the deluxe dining plan for my family 5 which includes myself my husband 14 y/o 6 y/o and 2y/o. I chose the plan because of the ability to choose multiple dinner shows, character meals and signature dining meals. Ever since I made the post a couple days ago it's put a damper in my excitement...I mean who wants to be told that they are wasting lots of money. I was lucky enough to find a Disney dining calculator at see ya reel soon website...and according to that I would save almost $350. So I'm not sure where the waste comes in at. Another thing I get a lot is that we will spend a lot of time getting to meals and won't enjoy the parks....don't understand that as well. But if I'm in the park that I will be eating at (we don't do park hopper....we would rather spend 2 days at MK 2 days at EPCOT and 1 day ea at the other parks excluding water parks.). I've been to Disney several times and it has never taken me more than 30 min. to get to a reservation I had in the park. And I've also been lucky enough not to have to wait long once I've arrived at my reservation. I've heard the horror stories about wait times and ask myself "what did YOU do wrong". Maybe we've just been lucky enough to go during moderate to low crowd times because other children are still in school..I don't know. That's just my venting for the day lmao

 

[aaarcher86]

I have been getting a few unnerving comments as well about me choosing g the deluxe dining plan for my family 5 which includes myself my husband 14 y/o 6 y/o and 2y/o. I chose the plan because of the ability to choose multiple dinner shows, character meals and signature dining meals. Ever since I made the post a couple days ago it's put a damper in my excitement...I mean who wants to be told that they are wasting lots of money. I was lucky enough to find a Disney dining calculator at see ya reel soon website...and according to that I would save almost $350. So I'm not sure where the waste comes in at. Another thing I get a lot is that we will spend a lot of time getting to meals and won't enjoy the parks....don't understand that as well. But if I'm in the park that I will be eating at (we don't do park hopper....we would rather spend 2 days at MK 2 days at EPCOT and 1 day ea at the other parks excluding water parks.). I've been to Disney several times and it has never taken me more than 30 min. to get to a reservation I had in the park. And I've also been lucky enough not to have to wait long once I've arrived at my reservation. I've heard the horror stories about wait times and ask myself "what did YOU do wrong". Maybe we've just been lucky enough to go during moderate to low crowd times because other children are still in school..I don't know. That's just my venting for the day lmao

The DXDP works for us too, and we love it. Most people can't get a value from it, but if you can then go for it!

 

[MET270]

I have been getting a few unnerving comments as well about me choosing g the deluxe dining plan for my family 5 which includes myself my husband 14 y/o 6 y/o and 2y/o. I chose the plan because of the ability to choose multiple dinner shows, character meals and signature dining meals. Ever since I made the post a couple days ago it's put a damper in my excitement...I mean who wants to be told that they are wasting lots of money. I was lucky enough to find a Disney dining calculator at see ya reel soon website...and according to that I would save almost $350. So I'm not sure where the waste comes in at. Another thing I get a lot is that we will spend a lot of time getting to meals and won't enjoy the parks....don't understand that as well. But if I'm in the park that I will be eating at (we don't do park hopper....we would rather spend 2 days at MK 2 days at EPCOT and 1 day ea at the other parks excluding water parks.). I've been to Disney several times and it has never taken me more than 30 min. to get to a reservation I had in the park. And I've also been lucky enough not to have to wait long once I've arrived at my reservation. I've heard the horror stories about wait times and ask myself "what did YOU do wrong". Maybe we've just been lucky enough to go during moderate to low crowd times because other children are still in school..I don't know. That's just my venting for the day lmao

Bottom line is, if it works for you and you enjoy it, who cares what the naysayers think about it. My DW and I have purchased the deluxe plan on our last two trips and we love it. We use snack credits for breakfast, table service lunch, and signature dining or dinner shows everyday of our trips. We order things we normally wouldn't if we were paying out of pocket. I think it adds to the magic of our vacations. Do what you want, it's your vacation.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

The DDP worked for me when my kids were younger and at kids rates. We saved a pretty good amount of money.

Now it won't work for us for many reasons:

We rarely eat dessert at CS. And often times not even at TS. We like to have snacks (dole whip, mickey bar) instead after our food as settled. Also too many sweets and my kids go a little crazy. DD gets constipated if she over does it and she knows this and is aware to limit the junk.

DS 13 has his moods. He may want an adult meal to himself, he may want a double portion of the kids meal, he may not be hungry, he may want an appetizer. His idea of dessert is plain old vanilla ice cream from a kids menu.

DD 7 is more of an adventurous eater. She may share meals with me or her brother. She may get an adult CS.

SO is a huge appetizer person. He loves trying different apps and sometimes just does apps instead of an entree. He rarely if ever gets dessert. He doesn't have a sweet tooth.

I'm not a huge eater. I can easily share with any of the kids or even SO if we do a few apps and just want to share our entree.

I only drink water and hot tea. SO isn't a soda person. My kids don't drink soda at home because I don't buy it but they will drink it at WDW because it's vacation! But I do limit it because they just go bonkers.

I don't think being tied down to a specific way of ordering will be beneficial to us anymore. It worked well when my kids were smaller and we did mostly character buffets but the way we dine now does not work.

 

[Kristibo42]

We love the DDP. We will be there December 3 to 10. We got free dining. We are staying at POP so we upgraded. We are paying $19 a day. Where can you go and eat all day for free or $19. We will keep using DDP.

 

[prgal0715]

We did DDP last summer and LOVED it! Thanks to signature dining and dinner shows, using all the points wasn't an issue. We had some great dining experiences (like Artist Point!) we might not have had otherwise. Just enjoy your DDP and don't let others dampen your spirits!

 

[PEC]

Simple, if doing Character Meals with children under 9 (evan just a couple of them) it is worth it. Other than that, there are very few meals that you break even. When we went this summer 5 people me, DW, DD 12, DD 12 and DGD 5 it saved us about 50-60 dollars and almost all the savings was because the DGD 5. The rest was about break even a little more DDP. If going without a child under 9 I would not do the DDP. Most QS meal desserts are not worth you pay (minus BOG) so I wouldn't get them and I wouldn't do the Character meals.
Now if you are doing some character meals and you eat Desserts with QS, then I would consider the DDP for pure convenience even if it is a little more.

 

[PEC]

I have been getting a few unnerving comments as well about me choosing g the deluxe dining plan for my family 5 which includes myself my husband 14 y/o 6 y/o and 2y/o. I chose the plan because of the ability to choose multiple dinner shows, character meals and signature dining meals. Ever since I made the post a couple days ago it's put a damper in my excitement...I mean who wants to be told that they are wasting lots of money. I was lucky enough to find a Disney dining calculator at see ya reel soon website...and according to that I would save almost $350. So I'm not sure where the waste comes in at. Another thing I get a lot is that we will spend a lot of time getting to meals and won't enjoy the parks....don't understand that as well. But if I'm in the park that I will be eating at (we don't do park hopper....we would rather spend 2 days at MK 2 days at EPCOT and 1 day ea at the other parks excluding water parks.). I've been to Disney several times and it has never taken me more than 30 min. to get to a reservation I had in the park. And I've also been lucky enough not to have to wait long once I've arrived at my reservation. I've heard the horror stories about wait times and ask myself "what did YOU do wrong". Maybe we've just been lucky enough to go during moderate to low crowd times because other children are still in school..I don't know. That's just my venting for the day lmao

Forget the critics. The 6 yo is the key to the savings. If nice meals are part of your Disney enjoyment then don't let somebody change your mind. Heck I guess if I really wanted to just save money I could bring in Bologna sandwiches and Vienna Sausages and save more than any of these critics. Of course the next time I would be going alone without my wife and family.

 

[cjbcam]

We have only been to Disney once and loved the DDP. We ( me, DH, DD10, DD8, DD5, and DS2) loved it. I always stress about making sure I order the cheapest at restaurants and guide everyone else to as well (I hate spending money at restaurants) I was free from having to do that and loved it. I didn't compare oop with what we would have had to pay but I think it was cheaper on the plan for us. Also if we were not on the plan I never would have went to some of the restaurants. So we would have missed out. The plan is also structured how we would like to eat on trips. So it's perfect for us.

 

[MrsUqdah]

Forget the critics. The 6 yo is the key to the savings. If nice meals are part of your Disney enjoyment then don't let somebody change your mind. Heck I guess if I really wanted to just save money I could bring in Bologna sandwiches and Vienna Sausages and save more than any of these critics. Of course the next time I would be going alone without my wife and family.

Thanks a lot PEC. I think it will be great for us because of the character meals for breakfast daily and a cpl signature meals and dinner shows. And I agree with you I too could bring sandwiches and snacks and spend most of my trip saying no to every wonderfully delicious thing they see in the parks...but what kinda of fu. Would that be. It is Disney so the food is part of the experience. Thanks everyone for the advice