2008 DDP discussion, questions, rants and vents

[DaParkers]

Which Epcot ones are not included?

Most, if not all Epcot restaurants are included.

 

[MickeyT]

They dropped the gratuity this year. (January) Here's the link for the official brochure that has all the locations on the plan. Hope this helps!

http://adisneyworld.disney.go.com/m...agespecific/eng/nontheme/tickets/08Dining.pdf

Which Epcot ones are not included?

Ditto that question! Also, when did Dis drop the gratuity in the plan (I just watched the vacation DVD again and they specifically advertised gratuity included...during the YOMD. Until I started reading this thread I did not realize it had been dropped)

 

[cmwade77]

Ditto that question! Also, when did Dis drop the gratuity in the plan (I just watched the vacation DVD again and they specifically advertised gratuity included...during the YOMD. Until I started reading this thread I did not realize it had been dropped)

If you read the fine print during that part of the DVD they say that the gratuity is not included after Jan. 1st, 2008.

As for the other question, you can use your credits anyway that you want, they expire at midnight on your check out date, so if you check out at 11:00 AM on April 29th, you would have basically until Apr. 30th to use them.

 

[SunShineGurl]

We stayed 1/5 - 1/10 on the Deluxe DP and loved it. We felt we received a good value and ate at some wonderful restaurants and had many memorable meals. It took a lot of planning and sometimes some tight schedule keeping to get to those coveted reservations. We ate at several 2 credit venues; including, Hoop De Doo Review, Artists Point, and California Grill (to watch Wishes). We also ate several late lunches at table service restaurants; such as, LeCellier. My family enjoyed two breakfasts with Mickey and Pooh. I think we only did one CS during the trip and we hardly used any snack credits until our check-out day. We felt like we were cashing in on that last day and we had several sodas, waters and snacks to eat on our long drive home.
So.... for us the Deluxe dining plan works great. We like breaking up the day with a nice, late lunch or ending the day with a long evening meal watching the fireworks.
We did pay the extra for the park hopper so that we could zip sometimes to three different parks in one day to fit in that special meal. So, as I cautioned earlier, be prepared for some creative planning. Also, take advantage of every mode of transportation that the parks offer to get to your destination and relax - taking the boat from the Magic Kingdom and watching the Wishes Fireworks from it while we went over to Hoop De Doo was great.
The one thing I felt I gave up was my time, if anything. We had to leave parks early to make sure we had enough time to get Hoop De Doo and other reservations. We also had to wait a very long time for the bus to leave Hoop De Doo.
We loved deluxe dining plan enough to purchase it again for our next trip at the end of September.

 

[racefanof88]

From looking at it again it might be possible to do the Deluxe plan price effectively... I might just do it anyways as it will be my honeymoon and it would be nice to have the flexibility to eat wherever we wanted... I'm just worried about getting too scheduled, missing ADRs, and having to substitute too many CS meals.
Also, this may be the only time that I would get to try it. My family always stays off-property and eats maybe 1 TS meal for the whole trip. The last time we went the only places we ate were CS and the Garden Grill. All other meals were eaten in our condo, or brought with us. The only other place I remember eating at Disney was some dinner show they had in EPCOT during the early 90s.

It might be nice to try as many restaurants as possible in case I can never justify it again.

OH yeah being on your honeymoon it would be fun. Go all out. We usually stay off property too and do the same with one TS a trip. That is why I insisted we do the DDP this time............lol. DH, DD and youngest DS will just have to toughen up and eat something new, or just eat french fries and cake

 

[tigergirl]

I have my trip booked with the basic dining plan. I've had a few people on the boards tell me that I could save money by not doing the plan and ran some #'s and don't see how its possible without lugging around snacks to the parks and keeping lots of food in your hotel room?

If ds and I ate CS only it would cost us about $370 out of pocket for 2 cs meals [usually the cheapest stuff on the menu] and 2 snacks at $4 each per day. That's not including drinks with our meals..

With the dining plan it would allow us to have TS meals,snacks and cs meals for $336.

Am I over looking something? I'd love to save money and suppose that DS and I do not need all of the TS that we have booked, coral reef, boma, liberty tree tavern, and mama melrose could go.. i would want to keep chef mickeys, chrystal palace and ohanna [breakfast].

We're also staying 7 nights. In calculating the costs for my immediate family (2 adults/1 child) using the DDP, we would "save" money using it. Our game plan is to use 2 snacks ($4) for yogurt parfaits for breakfast, do CS for lunch, and TS for dinner, leaving us with 1 snack ($4-ice cream, etc) during the day. Table Services that I've booked include Chef Mickeys, Ohana, Boma, Tokyo Dining, Le Cellier, Crystal Palace, and Hollywood & Vine/Disney Playhouse.

The original game plan was to do OOP and pay for TS at Boma, Tokyo Dining, and Ohana - so 3 TS dinners and then eat the 4 remaining dinners at CS. We thought that our son (almost 4 years old) would love Chef Mickey's, so we were debating whether to pay for the 4th table service or not.

Running the numbers indicated that our break-even point between OOP and DDP is at 4 table service dinners. Meaning that, if we were going to eat at 4 TS and 3 CS for dinners, then the cost for us is the same whether we paid OOP and DDP. But, with the DDP, we can have 7 TS dinners.

So, you can look at it both ways - technically, we don't really "save" money, since our original plan was to eat at only 3-4 TS dinners if we paid ourselves. The cost of eating those 4 TS meals is equivalent to the price that we're paying for the DDP. But, the dining plan allows us to eat at 3 additional TS meals for "free", which we would have never done paying OOP. We would have been too cheap and insisted that the rest of our dinners be CS. We also get the deserts for lunch CS for "free", although again, we would never get those if paying OOP, so it's a calorie-laden bonus.

For your situation, what may be throwing your calculations off is that your daughter would have to eat off the kid's menus for her meals on the DDP - usually $5 at CS spots.

Hope this helps.

 

[samiandsky]

I've done the DDP in the past - in 2005 and again in January of 2007 - in 2008 - I see there are lots of changes. Does anyone know if I can purchase the DDP for only 1/2 my visit. If I'm staying 7 nights, 8 days - but plan on being at Universal Studios for 2 days, and my sisters house for another night - that's 3 days I wont use the DDP - so can I just purchase it for 1/2 the stay and not the full stay?
Sorry if this has already been answered.....

 

[bicker]

You'd have to split your reservation into separate reservations to get the Dining Plan for a portion of the stay.

 

[TDC Nala]

You'd have to split your reservation into separate reservations to get the Dining Plan for a portion of the stay.

This is true. You and all other persons on your reservation age 3 and over must purchase the dining plan for the length of your stay. You would need to book two separate reservations - a package with park tickets and dining, and a room only for the days you do not need park tickets or dining.

If you are going to Universal, maybe you could consider spending a couple of days at a Universal resort.

 

[vdarrell]

I am so excited to have our trip booked and payed for and am looking forward to using the DDP this tme.

 

[micknpluto]

I think its annoying that everything gets so booked so quickly.. a few of our ADRs are for 8 and 9pm at nite.. I understand most people booked 180 days in advance, but I didnt book my trip until april for a september. We might have to flip some of our days around and certain parks, but Im afraid when I call I wont be able to get the times/places I want for dinner.

=/ The dining plan is a great deal but has become so popular that it makes it hard to get into certain places. I might wait until we get a little closer and try rebooking for earlier times.. just in case some people cancel.

 

[englishrose47]

This is why It is not fair to make 2 adrs for the same day!! BECAUSE THEN OTHERS CAN'T GET ONE!!

 

[bicker]

But if you don't make ADRs for both lunch and dinner, then you may not be able to get into a desired restaurant for both lunch and dinner, and that wouldn't be fair.

So the only fair restriction, assuming there was a way to enforce it, would be to make it so that you cannot make two ADRs within three or four hours of each other. As many as you wish during the same day, just not two at the same or similar time.

 

[englishrose47]

But if you don't make ADRs for both lunch and dinner, then you may not be able to get into a desired restaurant for both lunch and dinner, and that wouldn't be fair.

So the only fair restriction, assuming there was a way to enforce it, would be to make it so that you cannot make two ADRs within three or four hours of each other. As many as you wish during the same day, just not two at the same or similar time.[/QUOTEY

Yes Bicker I have made adrs for lunch and dinner , that is different to making dinner ressies at 2 restaurants for supper around the same time on the same day! Alot of people do it as thay can't decide which one they want and then don't cancel one !!

 

[cmwade77]

This is why It is not fair to make 2 adrs for the same day!! BECAUSE THEN OTHERS CAN'T GET ONE!!

Ok, you might not like this one, we are going for 12 days after Christmas and on the premium dining plan (yeah we are spoiling ourselves) and will be booking ADRs for breakfast, lunch and dinner on several days, of course we won't double book for the same meal as that wouldn't be cool and we have enough days and meals to go to everywhere that we want to.

 

[bicker]

(I think after that message you quoted, englishrose47 clarified that she meant 2 ADRs for the same meal, NOT for the "same day".)

 

[englishrose47]

(I think after that message you quoted, englishrose47 clarified that she meant 2 ADRs for the same meal, NOT for the "same day".)

Yup that's what I meant! Sorry for the confusion!!

 

[cmwade77]

(I think after that message you quoted, englishrose47 clarified that she meant 2 ADRs for the same meal, NOT for the "same day".)

Yeah, sorry saw that after posting, that's what I get for using my phon to post...LOL

 

[wiskband]

I have doing the free dining for the past 4 years! I noticed that with every year the dates are getting tighter, the following 2 years there were only certain rooms alotted to the plan and now this year they hit us with the no gratuity and no apps. At the risk of sounding ungratful, my only beef is I took advantage of this during my last visit! The BOUNCE back offer that was giving to me before I checked out last year! So, although its a great deal either way I feel like I booked something under false pretense. I was literally on line to check out, got off line used the hotel phone to call ressie line and make my ressie under pressure used my last 200 for a deposit on that day to get what I thought was the dining plan I am used to! Anywayone else in the same boat? Is it worth it for me to call and gripe about this?

any thoughts?

 

[dylanlogan]

I know I have read the answer to this question but can't find it....
Our group of 7 is going to WDW in a few weeks. 6 of us have APs and 1 has MYW plus. Are the types of tickets/passes relevant to the DDP?