Why are DDP's too much food?

[ExtinctDino]

Everyone's different. No one should feel obliged to justify their own choice to others. And no one should judge others' choices.

 

[Dani C]

For me it isn't the number of meals that make it "too much food" but rather the size of portions.

I do not like to waste food, but neither will I force myself to eat much more than is considered to be healthy as recommended by physicians. Some people need extreme amounts of calories each day, but most do not. If you look at the portion sizes in many countries you will notice that they are much smaller than what is given in the US. We have lost the idea that most everything is good "in moderation", while many countries have not. This is also visible in the growing number of overweight people in this country, which is not as visible in many other countries that never caught the "super size me" bug.

 

[Henlady]

DH and I have used the DDP several times. We do not find it to be too much food. We normally either do not eat breakfast or get something light, useing a snack credit for a muffin or something. We eat lunch at around 11:30/12:00
and DH usually gets a burger or hot dogs and I get a salad of some type.
Then we have our table service meal at around 6:30/7:00. We occasionally purchase one or two appetizers OOP. I end up useing most of the snack credits for big rice Krispie treats to bring back for my adult "kids".
I guess I should say that this is how we eat at home also. We eat lunch each day and I cook supper everynight, so we are used to two "meals" a day. If you are not used to eating lunch and supper, that may be the reason that the DDP seems like too much food.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

We did basic DDP in March and since we usually eat one big meal and one small meal if that here at home it seemed like too much food for us. But when you're on vacation I say splurge and eat as much as you like.

I can't wait to try the Deluxe when we do an adults only trip so we can eat at as many signature restaurants as we want.

Do what you think is best for your family. If you are used to eating 3 meals a day you will probably get your money's worth.

Happy eating.

 

[mwatson011]

The OP's reasons are exactly the reasons we went with the deluxe ddp in January with dd2 and dd3. We enjoyed character breakfasts every day, had a nice break for lunch, and a nice dinner.

We are going back in Dec. and we are getting the deluxe ddp again. It is a lot of food if you try to eat everything you are offered at every meal. Breakfast buffets were great because we could try a little bit of everything and the girls left knowing they had met 4 or 5 characters already, so we were never on a "hunt" for characters during the day. Lunch was our main meal, as we learned quickly that often dinner was me and dh eating with the girls using their plates as pillows .

It is fun to be able to indulge, but remember noone is forcing you to eat all of that food. DH and I split meals on a few occasions, and one waitress was convinced we were crazy for not taking desserts to go, but we knew we wouldn't eat them, so why waste them? If every person who gets any ddp maxes each meal/snack out, the prices will go up. Disney sets the prices on average, so if you are taking the dessert just to throw it away on principle that you "paid" for it, don't be surprised next time when you pay even more for it!

Just enjoy what you like, and go with the flow, that is what we did and we had a wonderful time!

 

[tnd]

I don't feel like it's too much food, but I also eat lightly if I feel like it, since I am not worried about wringing every extra cent of value out of the plan. We also space our meals as much as possible, and I've taken dessert to go several times, eating it later in the evening or the next day.

My husband doesn't love CS food, so we would do more TS anyway and the DxDP fits our style better. We love appetizers, and almost always order them. We also like 3 meals per day, especially our son, who needs that structure. We also like the snacks, even though we had 10 left last time and we bought a bunch of great candies and treats at the Main Street Confectionary.

 

[poegirl30]

Last May, we used the DxDP, but we had four kids (two teenage boys, (my son and nephew), who ate EVERYTHING put in front of them, my DD (16, who didn't eat much but the boys ate her leftovers, and my 2 yr old, who ate off my plate). It was fine for us, but I could see how it could be too much if you didn't have big eaters, or growing boys who never seem to get full.

 

[Tricia1972]

The DXDDP is too much for the way that I eat. True, I eat three meals a day at home, but generally I have a bowl of cereal or some fruit for breakfast. A sandwich or a salad for lunch, and chicken with a vegetable and a side dish for dinner. Occasionally I'll have fruit for desert and quite often I'll have some cheese or crackers for my 'snacks' throughout the day.

On the DxDDP I get a LOT more food than what I am used to. I don't eat dessert at every meal every day, I would never have an appetizer, entree and dessert on a regular basis. I have only done the DDP and it was fun for me for the first few days that I did it, but day after day of eating like that wasn't fun for me, and I was always stuffed. I know that you don't need to order all that you're entitled to, but if I order food at Disney that is similar to the way that I ususally eat, I spend hundreds of dollars less than what a DDP or DxDDP would cost. For me it just doen't make sense financially.

That's just me, everyone is different and I don't fault anyone who likes the plan. You just aske for some different viewpoints, so I thought that I'd share mine.

 

[squirrel]

We went during Free Dining last year and there was plenty of food on the DDP.

I remember waking up some mornings and actually feeling like ordering a larger breakfast (CS credit) but by the time I got to the food court I wasn't that hungry.

I think it depends on what time of year you go also. It was just so hot in September that I didn't feel like eating large meals.

 

[BelleLovesTheBeast]

I have to second PrinessTrisha's response. We feel the same way. We love the DDP and get to order things we wouldn't if we were paying out of pocket.

We start our day at 7 am and go until midnight so getting 2 full meals a day keeps us going. Also we NEVER go back to the resort in the middle of the day to relax so this gets us out of the hot sun and relaxing for an hour and half.

Last time we did use a lot of our snack credits on items to take home. However we went to Kringle's and places like that and got really good snacks to take back home.

 

[DCDisney]

For us it isn't just the too much food it is also too much time. Especially for the OP with 2 little kids do you want to spend 3-6 hours per day sitting at a TS meal? By the time you travel to your meal location, wait to be seated and eat the meal it is often 2 hours. We do like to sit and have the down time but 3 times per day would just be too much. The kids TS meals are mostly so alike as well that my kids got totally turned off by them in a few days and even the ice cream for dessert (same every where) was a total bore for them. I did consider upgrading on our next trip to deluxe since we are staying at AKL and could just eat at Boma each morning and then do a few 2 TS places for dinner but decided it wasn't worth having to wake up earlier each day to do that. The reg DDP was def too much food on our last trip because we went in Jan and with the shorter park hours if we ate CS lunch at 11ish and snack at 2ish we often really weren't that hungry for dinner at 5-6ish but if we waited for a later dinner we would miss all the evening stuff. We do normally eat 3 meals a day but don't normally eat a full dessert with lunch and then a big ice cream or funnel cake mid-afternoon and another dessert with dinner If we skipped a meal we weren't that hungry for it would negate all the savings with the DDP. Had I not gotten it for free with a pin for our next trip we wouldn't have gotten it again.

 

[singnring]

For those who are saying they just don't order all the stuff offered w/ the DxDP, have you done the math to see if you are paying more for the plan than you would if you paid OOP?

I guess I am thinking that if you skip the dessert, and skip the appetizer, or use a CS rather than TS, you seem to be losing a lot of the value intended by using the plan.

Having things pre-paid only goes so far!
If you are paying an extra $200 for something you aren't using, it doesn't seem like it would be worth it.

Just curious - no attack against anyone, so please don't misinterpret this!! Just wondering if any of you have worked the numbers.

 

[Colleen27]

For those who are saying they just don't order all the stuff offered w/ the DxDP, have you done the math to see if you are paying more for the plan than you would if you paid OOP?

I guess I am thinking that if you skip the dessert, and skip the appetizer, or use a CS rather than TS, you seem to be losing a lot of the value intended by using the plan.

Having things pre-paid only goes so far!
If you are paying an extra $200 for something you aren't using, it doesn't seem like it would be worth it.

Just curious - no attack against anyone, so please don't misinterpret this!! Just wondering if any of you have worked the numbers.

Down to the penny. Seriously. I have a spreadsheet set up to add up our likely menu choices complete with tax to compare against the cost of the plan. With the 4 adults in our group sharing 2 desserts at most meals, my numbers show a savings of $850. That number is based on using 21 of our 24 credits for TS (over a total of 15 meals - most of our dinners are signatures), with no value assigned to the leftover credits yet and an average snack credit value of a pessimistically low $2. Skipping a few appetizers/desserts or even switching out some ADRs in favor of counter service isn't going to make that much of a difference.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

For those who are saying they just don't order all the stuff offered w/ the DxDP, have you done the math to see if you are paying more for the plan than you would if you paid OOP?

I guess I am thinking that if you skip the dessert, and skip the appetizer, or use a CS rather than TS, you seem to be losing a lot of the value intended by using the plan.

Having things pre-paid only goes so far!
If you are paying an extra $200 for something you aren't using, it doesn't seem like it would be worth it.

Just curious - no attack against anyone, so please don't misinterpret this!! Just wondering if any of you have worked the numbers.

What I did is looked at the meals I absolutely wanted and want I estimate I would order if money was no object. Once I had the cost of those meals I looked at what they would cost and compared them to the cost of the plan. I know even using some credits for counter service and skipping dessert a few times, and uses snack credits to bring home treats, I'm still coming out ahead.

for instance, the day I'll be enjoying Yachtsmen steakhouse, that meal (2 credits) covers my daily cost plus a little bit - so my other meal and snack that day are "free" so if I don't maximize them, no big deal.

On another day I have the princess breakfast and Le Cellier booked - those two meals again come to more than the cost of the plan (even if I skip the appetizer or dessert at Le Cellier, which I doubt I will but, I COULD) - my 3rd credit and snack for that day are again "free".

 

[Stormhawk]

Which Plan is definitely a personal choice, but for many I don't think the DxDP is too much food. When we went a few years back we were on the Premium plan and this time we're doing the Platinum (from a meal standpoint same as DxDP but all Sig are 1 Credit and there are a few more resturants on the list). For us (2 adult males an 1 young tween girl), have the flexibility is definitely worth it. As the OP alluded too, using the Lunch TS makes a great break and we find that building in several character breakfasts saves a lot of meet & greet headaches. So for those that point to the time factor, we find it a wash (even a slight savings). I would say that trying to min/max the "value" of the plan ruins it. As several have pointed out it can pay for itself without trying to get every dollar, but the fun is the freedom and getting to try new things. I do find the current versions children's menu frankly sad (which is why we upgraded the 9 year old to an adult plan) but allow the kids to pick one of the two ap for lunch and dinner goes a long way to getting them some more interesting food options.

If you think DxDP would be a good choice for you, I would suggest trying it at least once. For us, the 3 TS an 2 snacks are well worth it as dining in interesting/different places is part of the fun of a vacation.

 

[Bill and Jen]

We did the DxDDP last June.

Way too much food for us.

Other negative was to make it even close to worthwhile you need 2 TS a day. You need ADRs for most of the places so now you have 2 times you need to be at a restaruant. We found this to be way to intrusivce into the day, Working around 1 reservation was easy 2 made it feel like all we did was eat.

This year we are doing free dinning. I did the math, we are having 2 extra TS and plan on QS 3rd meal each day and buying refillibale mugs. Ended up being $400 less when i did the math with tax then upgrading to have the 3 meals a day.

So if you do alot of TS it WILL save you money. Do the math no matter what. What you find out might suprise you. Use allears.net and you can figure it out close to the penny.

 

[caroline1851]

Because the food is much heavier than what I eat at home each day, eating 3 WDW meals plus 2 snacks a day would be too much for me. AT home, i eat cereal for breakfast, protein shake for a snack. salad for lunch, fruit for snack and then chicken and veggies for dinner. Sure, that's 3 meals and 2 snacks but it's not heavy.

But that being said, if i could afford it, i totally could see doing the DXDDP by having a buffet early breakfast, 2 snacks during the day and a 2 credit dinner (hoop dee doo, crt, etc.) On the DX though, i would not be able to eat an appetizer, meal and dessert. I'd probaly either pick appetizer OR dessert.That's doesn't seem like too much food to me.

The DDP is totally NOT too much food. I've done it and definently don't understand how on earth people can feel this way, though for small kids, it's actually not enough. My kids needed extra little snacks throughout the day. With the ddp, i had to pay oop an additional $150 for extra food. For example, if I had an omelet with juice for breakfast (didn't eat the home fries but gave the muffin to dd2 for her breakfast), i'm full. The extra juice was brought to the park as something for later. (1 cs credit used), then and adr ts lunch at 1:30. Well, i'd need more than just a snack to cover the rest of the day, for example. We did every day differently, but that's just an example. I wish the DDP had 1 ts, 1 cs and 2 snacks instead of 1.

sorry for the long response.

 

[fey_spirit]

We found that when we went in January (with the early hours) having late dinners was a god send.

We love the DXDP (Mostly because I hate CS, I wont eat Fast Food at home, why do it on Vacation?)

We get our first meal on the way out or at the first bakery we hit inside the parks using our first SC of the day. (So a water and a pastry for breakfast) - this is at Rope Drop

Hit a lunch at about 2pm after the parks are peaking and when we could really stand to take a small break.

Then schedule dinner for the last possible seating for a Signature restaurant so that we can head in after the parks close and spend an hour or two over a leisurely meal before heading back to the room.

What night activities are there after the parks close? We do it this way so that we don't end up stuck in our rooms with nothing to do too early.

For us it isn't just the too much food it is also too much time. Especially for the OP with 2 little kids do you want to spend 3-6 hours per day sitting at a TS meal? By the time you travel to your meal location, wait to be seated and eat the meal it is often 2 hours. We do like to sit and have the down time but 3 times per day would just be too much. The kids TS meals are mostly so alike as well that my kids got totally turned off by them in a few days and even the ice cream for dessert (same every where) was a total bore for them. I did consider upgrading on our next trip to deluxe since we are staying at AKL and could just eat at Boma each morning and then do a few 2 TS places for dinner but decided it wasn't worth having to wake up earlier each day to do that. The reg DDP was def too much food on our last trip because we went in Jan and with the shorter park hours if we ate CS lunch at 11ish and snack at 2ish we often really weren't that hungry for dinner at 5-6ish but if we waited for a later dinner we would miss all the evening stuff. We do normally eat 3 meals a day but don't normally eat a full dessert with lunch and then a big ice cream or funnel cake mid-afternoon and another dessert with dinner If we skipped a meal we weren't that hungry for it would negate all the savings with the DDP. Had I not gotten it for free with a pin for our next trip we wouldn't have gotten it again.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

We enjoy the regular dining plan. If we got the deluxe we'd be spending way too much time in restaurants, not to mention the excess food. One TS per day is plenty for us. We aim to get up early every morning and do things but when that annoying call from stitch comes through we're more likely to try and sleep a few more minutes before figuring out what we're in the mood to do. One breakfast TS meal over the course of a 10-day visit is plenty!

As far as the CS credits go, we never end up having a meal that is remotely close to 'fast food'. Between Sunshine seasons, CHH, anywhere on the world showcase, flametree, Earl of Sandwich, we have no shortage of good food.

Finally, some of the things you can get with Snack Credits are big enough for 2 or 3 people. Dole whip, School bread, Main street bakery ice cream cookie sandwich, etc.

We also like to leave (gasp) Disney property and venture elsewhere.


So, for these reasons, along with the heat and humidity, we never end up using up all our credits. We don't even try. Why pay an additional $90 + per day for things we'll never eat? If one of us insists on an appetizer, that will cost approx $10 to $15. Better $15 a pop than $900 regardless.

 

[DaParkers]

I would never pay full price for the DxDDP, but I will pay $32 which is the cost with the free DDP. And since it is only $32, I will be getting it for our upcoming trip at the end of Sept. Also, I can use some snack credits at the Food and Wine festival.