2008 DDP discussion, questions, rants and vents

[JLKennedy]

I was just wondering if you have figured out how much money you will be spending in tips if you will be having 3 sit downs per day?

I am just wondering because at first I had the DDDP and then I changed it to regular DDP mainly because I was afraid the cost of tips would add up to a lot of money eating at 2 or 3 TS a day.

We plan on using more TS credits for buffets. And several of the places we've chosen (ex. HDDR & CRT) the tip is included. We don't go every year and when we went 2 years ago, our 1 year old was petrified of the characters. Now we're hoping he'll be more open to seeing them.

I obviously, still tip even though majority will be buffet not "sit down & order" places, but I tend to tip less at buffets, well, because I'm doing the work, not the server. And being "A" type personality that I am, I end up bussing my own table as well and cleaning up under the table. So, if at a buffet I only leave $10, well I have no problems with that.

 

[tnmomof4]

We plan on using more TS credits for buffets. And several of the places we've chosen (ex. HDDR & CRT) the tip is included. We don't go every year and when we went 2 years ago, our 1 year old was petrified of the characters. Now we're hoping he'll be more open to seeing them.

I obviously, still tip even though majority will be buffet not "sit down & order" places, but I tend to tip less at buffets, well, because I'm doing the work, not the server. And being "A" type personality that I am, I end up bussing my own table as well and cleaning up under the table. So, if at a buffet I only leave $10, well I have no problems with that.

Yes, I guess that would make sense. It you go to a place where tip is included then that would save money. And eating at buffets the tip would be cheaper too. When you said that you only leave $10 at a buffet, I realized why my tips came out so high. It will me, my husband and 4 kids, so that is six of us and we will get the automatic 18% gratuity. So I guess I can't just tip what I feel is right at buffets. I have to tip 18% everywhere.

Thanks for the info!!

 

[JLKennedy]

Oh yeah, you'll be paying much more in gratuity. We've got a party of 4.

 

[minniekissedme]

My strategy is very like yours and we eat at most of the same restaurants as your family. And we also split CS meals as they all seem to be meant for two people....so much food! We "save up" for a couple of signature meals.

Glad you felt it was still a good value. Although I will miss the mussel appetizers. (I had mussles 3 times last trip.)

What did you spend in tips? What did you think of Marrakesh?

I'm not a 20% tipper...I'm not sure when it even had to be 18% but I was between 15 and 18.
I'd heard several people say that Marrakesh was a good place with the belly dancing and atmosphere so we tried it. It was good (lamb shank and couscous?) but it won't make the short list of places to go back to again. France was good but it's not on that list either.

 

[micknpluto]

They require a cc when making "reservation" to hold your spot. This is one of the "hot" spots. When you make your ADR, tell them you'll be using the dining plan and you'll still need to give a cc, your cc won't be charged unless you don't show up. It's just a "deposit" in good faith.

Oh ok.. thats good. thanks for the information. This is good to know.

=)

 

[Mom2PixiePrincess]

Sounds like if you do the DDP versus the DDDP you'll get a good deal. I think the deluxe plan, unless you get 3TS per day, does not work out. We mostly did 1TS for lunch and 2TS for dinner to make up our 3TS credits per day. Doing it this way we actually had a loss of about $30 per day. I would def suggest that if anyone is trying to make a decision to check out the cost of food (allearsnet . com gives menus with pricing) and plan your meals accordingly. Good luck to all!

 

[Mom2PixiePrincess]

Was it confusing on the ordering? Did anyone get frustrated at you when trying to figure out how it works and what food it includes?

We have never been before and picked the DDDP because we have 3 kids and hoped it would be less stressful having everything paid for upfront.

Ordering was easy. We just told them when we were seated that we were on the Deluxe plan. No problems. You can pretty much order anything you want off the menus.

I think my biggest problem was when they gave us the bill to ring out. Most of the servers pointed out the "tip guide" at the bottom of the receipt and we were told to total the bill out with tip. I didn't like someone pointing it out, seemed rude. When I said that I wanted to leave cash for tip and not charge it to the room the servers behavior became very demanding. This happened in more than half the restaurants we visited. I guess they just assumed we weren't going to tip. We had one particular server that wouldn't ring us out until we put down a tip to be charged to our room. Unfortunatly this happened at our FAVORITE restaurant in Disney. Might of been different if we had just charged everything to the room/credit card. However we like to be sensible about spending and not leave Disney with an outrages credit card bill. So we deligently save the cash BEFORE we go and try our best to take care of everything that way. Maybe next time I shouldn't put charging privledges on our card that might save a headache!

We go to Disney about 5 times a year and we've never been met with any opposition or poor attitudes. So I suppose it just really disheartened us. Disney has always been known for exceptional customer service, from the trash sweepers to the managers! Our next trip is going to be OOP, so hopefully we'll find that Disney Magic again!

I wish everyone the best of luck in which ever dining arrangements you make! My advice: research, research and research some more before you go!

 

[LETSGOFAM]

Ordering was easy. We just told them when we were seated that we were on the Deluxe plan. No problems. You can pretty much order anything you want off the menus.

I think my biggest problem was when they gave us the bill to ring out. Most of the servers pointed out the "tip guide" at the bottom of the receipt and we were told to total the bill out with tip. I didn't like someone pointing it out, seemed rude. When I said that I wanted to leave cash for tip and not charge it to the room the servers behavior became very demanding. This happened in more than half the restaurants we visited. I guess they just assumed we weren't going to tip. We had one particular server that wouldn't ring us out until we put down a tip to be charged to our room. Unfortunatly this happened at our FAVORITE restaurant in Disney. Might of been different if we had just charged everything to the room/credit card. However we like to be sensible about spending and not leave Disney with an outrages credit card bill. So we deligently save the cash BEFORE we go and try our best to take care of everything that way. Maybe next time I shouldn't put charging privledges on our card that might save a headache!

We go to Disney about 5 times a year and we've never been met with any opposition or poor attitudes. So I suppose it just really disheartened us. Disney has always been known for exceptional customer service, from the trash sweepers to the managers! Our next trip is going to be OOP, so hopefully we'll find that Disney Magic again!

I wish everyone the best of luck in which ever dining arrangements you make! My advice: research, research and research some more before you go!

That's too bad they were that way. We are also planning on tipping with cash but I guess I'll just put the money on the card ahead of time!

 

[TLSnell1981]

Sounds like if you do the DDP versus the DDDP you'll get a good deal. I think the deluxe plan, unless you get 3TS per day, does not work out. We mostly did 1TS for lunch and 2TS for dinner to make up our 3TS credits per day. Doing it this way we actually had a loss of about $30 per day. I would def suggest that if anyone is trying to make a decision to check out the cost of food (allearsnet . com gives menus with pricing) and plan your meals accordingly. Good luck to all!

We are a family of 4 going this trip, 2 adults and 2 kids. We will be on the deluxe plan for 6 nights. After doing the math, we will save approximately $500. You are the first person...to post....and say you actually lost money. Some have come out better on DDE or the DDP....but unless they left credits...they didn't lose.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I'm not a 20% tipper...I'm not sure when it even had to be 18% but I was between 15 and 18.

Most diners tend to tip either 15% or 20%. The average of these two amounts is 17.5%. For easier calculation, following basic math rules, when rounding this off to a whole number, you go up - to 18%.

We had one particular server that wouldn't ring us out until we put down a tip to be charged to our room. Unfortunatly this happened at our FAVORITE restaurant in Disney.

Some DISers have recommended writing the word "cash" on the tip line - and then, of course, actually leaving a cash tip!!

 

[eam]

After reading this wonderful thread -- I am wondering if I should cancel my Deluxe Dining Plan and pay OOP. Is this allowed? I made my reservation 2 weeks ago, and have paid my deposit.

Thanks!!

 

[Mom2PixiePrincess]

After reading this wonderful thread -- I am wondering if I should cancel my Deluxe Dining Plan and pay OOP. Is this allowed? I made my reservation 2 weeks ago, and have paid my deposit.

Thanks!!

Before you cancel:
Go to the menus and figure out what you would actually order if paying OPP and compare that with the cash you'll pay for the DxDDP.

(Comparing the actual cost of all the food you would get on the DxDDP compared to what you pay for the DxDDP isn't really an accurate way to measure your savings. Most people wouldn't order EVERYTHING that is offered with the DxDDP when paying OPP! I hope that makes sense!)

For my family paying OPP works out better. We don't like doing so many TS in the day, takes up too much time. However to get your monies worth you really have to do the TS. We like TS for dinner with the exception of CP for lunch. Also my daughter and I enjoy sharing most meals both CS and TS. We felt crunched for time trying to make all our ADR's too. Our mindset: we already paid for the meals so we need to get there and eat them! I personally think we spent WAY too much time inside restaurants this trip!

Good luck with whichever way you go!

 

[Mom2PixiePrincess]

We are a family of 4 going this trip, 2 adults and 2 kids. We will be on the deluxe plan for 6 nights. After doing the math, we will save approximately $500. You are the first person...to post....and say you actually lost money. Some have come out better on DDE or the DDP....but unless they left credits...they didn't lose.

I added in the tips as well for my comparison. As the 2007 plan included tips. For our upcoming trips I compared the cost of what we will actually order versus the cost of the plans. And found that OPP is best for us. We also like the flexibility of not having to rush to make ADR's feeling like we'd lose money because we alreay paid for it with the DxDDP. We make ADR's, couldn't eat anywhere without them, but I like being able to say "hey I'm too full to eat another big meal. Let's grab a snack and keep going!"

Also, I found comparing the acutal menu pricing for every item you will recieve on the dining plan with the actual cost of the dining plan isn't an accurate way to tally your savings. Most people wouldn't sit down to a meal and order an individual appy for everyone at the table. As well as other selections on the plan. It's like a buy one bag of chips and get one half off. If you are planning on buying two bags then you'll save money. If you were planning on only buying one and then you get the other one for the "deal" you've actually spent more money for something you don't really want or need!

 

[sorul82?]

We had one particular server that wouldn't ring us out until we put down a tip to be charged to our room.

What if you didn't have room charging privileges?

 

[eam]

Before you cancel:
Good luck with whichever way you go!

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Mom2PixiePrincess]

What if you didn't have room charging privileges?

Good question! She looked at our card when we first arrived to see which dining plan we were on, the DDP or DxDDP. So she alreay knew we had charging priviledges. Now that I think about it she is the only one that asked to see our card after we told her we were on the deluxe plan. Hummmm....

This is a restaurant that we eat at every time we go. And we've gotten to know the main chef really well, as my husband has an allergy so we have to speak with the chef everytime. This particular waitress we hadn't seen before, so I'm going to chalk it up to a VERY bad waitress and not the DxDDP on this particular meal! Who knows maybe she had been stiffed her tip several times during the day and was in desperation mode by the end of the night. We ate at 8:30pm.

 

[starwarsdisney]

Ordering was easy. We just told them when we were seated that we were on the Deluxe plan. No problems. You can pretty much order anything you want off the menus.

I think my biggest problem was when they gave us the bill to ring out. Most of the servers pointed out the "tip guide" at the bottom of the receipt and we were told to total the bill out with tip. I didn't like someone pointing it out, seemed rude. When I said that I wanted to leave cash for tip and not charge it to the room the servers behavior became very demanding. This happened in more than half the restaurants we visited. I guess they just assumed we weren't going to tip. We had one particular server that wouldn't ring us out until we put down a tip to be charged to our room. Unfortunatly this happened at our FAVORITE restaurant in Disney. Might of been different if we had just charged everything to the room/credit card. However we like to be sensible about spending and not leave Disney with an outrages credit card bill. So we deligently save the cash BEFORE we go and try our best to take care of everything that way. Maybe next time I shouldn't put charging privledges on our card that might save a headache!

We go to Disney about 5 times a year and we've never been met with any opposition or poor attitudes. So I suppose it just really disheartened us. Disney has always been known for exceptional customer service, from the trash sweepers to the managers! Our next trip is going to be OOP, so hopefully we'll find that Disney Magic again!

I wish everyone the best of luck in which ever dining arrangements you make! My advice: research, research and research some more before you go!

My wife and I will be on the DDP when we go in May. We are planning to pay tips in cash. I will not tolarate that kind of abuse from servers. I would have asked to speak to the manager right away if someone refused to ring me out unless I put the tip on my room key. It's for that very reason that we will NOT be linking a credit card to our room key. Disney needs to find a way to handle this. I don't think it's fair that the guest should have to deal with this crap!

 

[Disneyof3]

We are going to add the chargeing priviledges to our card but use one of the kids cards to buy our meals so there is no confusion what so ever. I also like the above post will be paying tip with cash. If any server tells me to add it to my card they will see that I don't have it added to the card. If they get really upset with this there tip will show it.

 

[englishrose47]

I just returned yesterday and always tipped in cash ( didn't have charging added to card) I had absolutely no problem doing this. I was solo for the first time so I was generous with the tips as I had excellent service everywhere and felt they had to run to my table as often as a larger party. I talked to wait staff about the new DDP and this is what I learned. At Le Cellier I was told that mostly peoplewere tipping but that the staff felt ackward having to explain the new way of tipping and some people got mad as thay didn't know. Now at Boma a buffet the waitress told me that her tips were way downand that many didn't tip at all. While at Mama
elroses I witnessed first hand someone arguing withe waitress that thetip was included.saw both the chef and the manager come out and I felt so bad for the waitress. Never did know if they tipped or not!! Obviously they were not Dissers!!

 

[bicker]

I just saw the notices that the costs of TS meals has increased over the Easter/Spring break period. It seems like adult meals have increased by $4.00 and children's by $2 on average. Since the cost of the DDP plan was not increased during that period, we're getting a better deal, right?

A few of us speculated that this would occur. Indeed... that means that the decrease in value of the Dining Plan as compared to OOP was not as much as it seemed originally.

Are we losing some of the value of the DDP by doing primarily breakfasts?

I believe so.