To DDP or to not DDP

[O&PsDad]

Going for a 4 night stay at Boardwalk 1 bdrm - our party is 2 adults and 2 kids (5 and 3). Can't decide if the DDP is a good value. We are not big eaters, but do like to eat well (not fried foods and burgers all the time). Our two kids are quite picky and do not eat a lot of food. We do want to eat at the nicer restaurants (have resv. at Le Cellier and The Wave so far) and really don't plan to use our kitchen much - seems a little pointless to order groceries for only 4 nights. SO, should we just pay as we go for a few table service/QS or go for the DDP? What do you do?

 

[dianeschlicht]

After several times trying it, we have decided very definitively that DDP is NOT a good value. We kept very detailed accounting of meals and money spent ect both on DDP and using the TIW discount card. We found we spent significantly more using the DDP than we did just paying out of pocket for the things we wanted and using whatever discount was available.

Beyond that, we have also found the food offerings at Disney to have taken a pretty big downturn in the past couple of years. It's no longer unique or special....even for the signature restaurants.

 

[Ellester]

I agree with Diane, I don't think it's that great of a deal especially since tip is no longer included. That said, if you are doing several character meals, it may be worth it as the kids DDP price is low. I think the DDP provides less flexibility. Your children will have to order from the kids menu when you may rather they have just an appetizer or split something from the adults menu. Plus the kids menu is very limited at CS places. For example, at Cosmic Rays there is no hamburger nor hot dog on the kids menu but there is on the adults. My kids have a penchant for wanting what is not on the kids menu. I don't know if the sugar free jello is still the ONLY option for a kids' dessert anymore or not like it was on our last trip, but my kids were way over that by the first meal!

When are you going? Reports are that Le Cellier is going to 2 DDP credits for dinner in March 2011.

 

[Dean]

Going for a 4 night stay at Boardwalk 1 bdrm - our party is 2 adults and 2 kids (5 and 3). Can't decide if the DDP is a good value. We are not big eaters, but do like to eat well (not fried foods and burgers all the time). Our two kids are quite picky and do not eat a lot of food. We do want to eat at the nicer restaurants (have resv. at Le Cellier and The Wave so far) and really don't plan to use our kitchen much - seems a little pointless to order groceries for only 4 nights. SO, should we just pay as we go for a few table service/QS or go for the DDP? What do you do?

I think the DDP is only a value if you plan accordingly or it fits your dining pattern anyway. It often works for us. That said, I don't see the Dlx plan working well for your situation. For your circumstance, the reg DDP likely fits the best from a value standpoint. I don't know how it fits you from a personal preference usage standpoint. Another option is to concentrate on options where you get a discount with a pass (if you have one) or the DVC discounts. Signatures might be a good option where you could get 1 kids meal and share between the 2 of them.

 

[Sammie]

It depends, we used it our last trip and really enjoyed it. We had a 5 night stay, then moved. So we only got it for the 5 night. We got the plan that gives you one Quick Service, which we used for late breakfast or early lunch, Full service, we enjoy a quiet evening meal and use it also for Signature dining, which used 2 credits and the snack credits we used for bottled water which we got the first day and put in our frig.

I enjoyed not going to the grocery and we enjoyed the quiet time at meals it allowed us. We don't do commando park touring anymore, so having a planned meal was a nice break.

Based on where we ate and what we ordered we got all our snacks free and most of quick service meals.

As to whether the meals are worth it, probably not, but food is high regardless. We knew we did not want to cook in our villa, and we did not want the hassle of driving off property to eat. So for us it was very much worth it, we had a great meal with the best service I have ever gotten at any restaurant ever anywhere at the Yachtsman Steakhouse.

We had good meals with good service at Grand Floridian Cafe, Cape May and Captain's Grill. We ate all our quick service at Artist Pallette as we like their food and were staying there. We did not have any small children in our group so not sure how it work for the kids.

But for two adults it worked great, we will do it again.

We have gone often enough to know where we want to eat and use the menus to figure up in advance what it would cost for each meal. We then compare that to the cost of the plan. If it saves us money or even if its a break even, we do it.

 

[hot_mama]

I think you should go to allears.net and look over the dining pages. They have the restaurants listed that are on the DDP as well as menus with the prices. You know what you and your kids will want to eat so take a look, and put a pen to it and see if it works for you. Allears.net also has several reviews for the restaurants. Have a great trip!

 

[lucyem]

I think you should go to allears.net and look over the dining pages. They have the restaurants listed that are on the DDP as well as menus with the prices. You know what you and your kids will want to eat so take a look, and put a pen to it and see if it works for you. Allears.net also has several reviews for the restaurants. Have a great trip!

I think this is the best advice. You have to look at where you plan to eat and what you might eat and add it all up. There are a lot of variables individual to your family. Sometimes DDP can be a good value and sometimes it can be more expensive.

 

[jerseygal]

We were at Kidani, August 12-August 15th...FREE DINING WAS NOT OFFERED DURING THAT PERIOD, SO I CAN'T ATTRIBUTE THE INFERIOR SERVICE TO FREE DINING!

Anyway, we did the DDP for 3 Nights and won't do it again summer, 2011!
For our table service meals, used 2 Credits Narcoosees and 1 Credit at Kona.

Although we enjoyed the meals at Narcoosees and Kona, SERVICE WAS BAD!
We are not new to the DDP, in fact, August 2008, we had done the Deluxe Dining Plan..too much food, so we decided to scale back and do Disney Dining Plan..In 2008, also ate at Narcoosees..much better service!

We rent a car anyway, so going "off property" is not an issue for us at all!

In my opinion, prices are overinflated anyway!

Next summer's trip to Beachclub Villas, we won't be doing Dining Plan..

Just my opinion! Maybe if we didn't have access to a rental car, my opinion would be different! With rental car access, such a wide variety of choices!

 

[BEASLYBOO]

It doesn't work for us but depending on how you like to eat and vacation, it may work for you. We did it once:

Too much food.
Too much similar food.
We seldom eat desert.

and most of all, it takes all of the spontaneity from the vacation. We don't like having to be tied to ADR's 24/7. Some days you just get up & decide to do something totally different than planned, or you just don't feel like going back out to dinner!

For me, 4 days, I'd have some food delivered and I'd make one special ADR (Todd English Blue Zoo).
Only you can know what's best for you!

 

[mybabesuz]

It all depends what meals you are doing.
With three kids under 10, it works out to be a deal for us.
We like prepaying for our meals.
We eat Breakfast in the Villa or at Boma if we do the DxDP.
CS at the parks or Mara if we are at the Resort
And usually do Character Dinners and 1 or 2 meals at Boma.

If you plan on eating Character Dinners it can be good.
It is not a good deal if you plan on doing breakfasts for your TS Meals.
Like others have said you need to look at the meals you are planning.

I do think sometimes we get inferior service being on the DP.
They now ask to check our card before we order
and we constantly get reminded that the tip is not included.
I can only guess that many Free Diners don't tip properly.

 

[donutz022]

every disney trip my family has taken we have done the dlxddp. i have even paid for it for our december trip.that said i think it might be the last time for a while. the reason being the kids are to young to order off the adult menu but they also like to eat other things than mac n cheese and a bowl of chicken soup. i guess for future trips it will be the tiw card. i will say we always came out ahead with the meal plan as far as dollars spent for the food verse the price of the plan but you can argue that we forced ourselves to do that by always eating three sit down meals a day.

 

[Checkers]

When it is just DH & me, we just use our TIW card and don't do the DP but when we are traveling with our DD & family, we do the DP because we will then do a lot of buffets (Cape May Cafe, etc.) which gives the kids more of a variety.

 

[Brian Noble]

I've never, not once, spent as much just eating what, where, and when I want as the appropriate dining plan would have cost. And, that includes a 7-night trip this past July, where we ate "the right number" of TS meals, CS meals, and (more than the right number of) snacks.

There are a couple reasons for this. We almost never get dessert at the CS locations---they are usually pretty awful, and I'd rather just grab an ice cream cone or some other treat later in the day. We also tend to mix up our sit-down meals, some are more serious and some lighter (and less expensive).

If you build your dining plans around the DDP, it can "save" you money vs. the menu price. But, most people left to their own devices probably wouldn't order the way the Plan reimburses. I'm convinced the plan is a slight upsell for the average family.

 

[jjohnson]

In your case, you should do the DP. You have reservations for 2 expensive meals and I think anyone would be hard pressed to feed two children in Disney for less than $24 per day.

 

[Swayhoover90]

The DDP seems to always work out better financially for us especially when it is just DW and me.

We are foodies (I am a former restaurant owner and executive chef) so the dining aspect is a major part of our vacations. For our 5-night BLT stay in February we chose the DDP. We did the Quick Service plan in July with the kids and decided we like the TS meals too much to pass them up.

We really enjoy the Deluxe Dining Plan and enjoy the signature restaurants more so than the 1 TS. We will usually eat breakfast or lunch at a 1 credit TS and then use 2 credits at a signature restaurant each day.

I did an analysis for our trip based on how we like to eat and tried to justify to myself that the Deluxe Plan was the way to go. I couldn't. The cost spread is too great now between the DDP and the Deluxe Plan.

I then analyzed whether paying out of pocket was more economical vs DDP. For us it was not. Not even close. Because of the way that we like to eat using DDP basically gives us our CS meals and snacks for free.

Next, I tried to get creative so that we could still enjoy the signature restaurants that we like and not have to pay out of pocket (for the most part) to do so. Here is how I worked it starting with 5 TS and 5 CS pp credits for our stay:

0 credits - Kona Cafe - breakfast, using left over $25 Disney gift card (free for taking DVC tour)
0 credits - House of Blues - lunch, using $25 Restaurant.com gift certificate
2 credits - Yachtsman Steak House
2 credits - Narcoosee's
1 credit - Ohana -dinner
5 credits - CS
snacks

We will probably have to pay a little out of pocket for KC and HOB.

I agree that dining at WDW has been "dumbed down" over the years. The quality of the food is not as good, the menu variety and inventiveness is not there and the service is lacking compare to the old days. I attribute this to the DDP.

DW and I began going to WDW in the mid 80s on the now defunct Grand Plan which today would be called the Premium Package. Back then if you wanted a dining plan it was your only option. The servers were professional and attentive. The food was not only inventive but you had more options on the menu. I miss those days!

Have a great time which ever way you choose to go!

 

[bigAWL]

That said, if you are doing several character meals, it may be worth it as the kids DDP price is low.

I think this is the key for us. We are doing lunch at Akershus, CP Dinner Package and CRT breakfast. The kids tickets for these are much higher than what you pay for them on the DDP, so that's where the savings are. If we were not doing so many of these, I would not do the DDP. We like to do a mix of CS and TS, so DDP sometimes makes sense. I'm not sure I would ever do the QSDP or DxDP. Those don't seem to make sense for my family.

 

[Dean]

I've never, not once, spent as much just eating what, where, and when I want as the appropriate dining plan would have cost. And, that includes a 7-night trip this past July, where we ate "the right number" of TS meals, CS meals, and (more than the right number of) snacks.

There are a couple reasons for this. We almost never get dessert at the CS locations---they are usually pretty awful, and I'd rather just grab an ice cream cone or some other treat later in the day. We also tend to mix up our sit-down meals, some are more serious and some lighter (and less expensive).

If you build your dining plans around the DDP, it can "save" you money vs. the menu price. But, most people left to their own devices probably wouldn't order the way the Plan reimburses. I'm convinced the plan is a slight upsell for the average family.

In general I'd agree Brian. But I do think there are situations where the reverse is true, esp if you plan well, have kids in the 3-9 group that actually eat, have teens and/or for shorter stays. The trust is that for us we're very happy planning around meals and actually prefer that approach. We just plan the more expensive places on trips we're thinking about the DDP. I would prefer to see appy or dessert given the choice but it's not my decision obviously. The reality is that for he right trip, the deluxe plan may be the best for us, it's just that we'd never use that many credits on all but a 2 or 3 nights stay and I personally feel that using credits for signatures rarely provides a value.

Our non DDP approach would be to eat out 2 meals a day TS with a salad or soup part of the meals but not all and generally share a meal plus maybe add an additional side. We take much the same approach with the DDP and only get it if there are others with us we can legally share with and we're arriving early day 1 and departing late enough to do 1 meal out the last day. We're doing Le Cellier and similar options for the TS, only use snack credits on items $2.50 or greater, usually greater, and items like WP express or Pepper Market for CS. In effect we generally create our own Hybrid DDP where we use more TS options and let our young adults staying with us use more of the CS options.