??? 7n stay ---to DDP the whole time or not

[mickey'sbud]

We will be staying at least 7 maybe 10 nights. We are considering the DDP for the first part of our stay only. Then changing to room only ressie.

Would DDP be overkill for 10 days? What do you really think about only having DDP part of the time? I know I can cut corners with a split ressie, but it is really worth it? Or is the DDP the whole time worth it? Is there a break-even number of days? What's everyone's opinion?

Oh yeah, our family DW, DH, DD17, DS15. DH and DS are the big eaters.

 

[AllNamesTaken]

I think you more that "break even" every day! Whether you stay one night or 14 nights! As long as you plan to eat all your meals on Disney property anyway and you normally would eat one counter service and one sit down meal each day, you will save tons of money! Now if you would normally eat all counter service, or will have a vehicle and plan to eat off-property, then the plan is probably not for you - for any # of nights!
Have a great vacation!

 

[JimMIA]

I'll be the contrarian here. We usually vacation 4-5 days at a time, because we live 4 hours away. And we love DDP.

However, for a longer stay -- especially considering the menu standardization in the last 12-18 months -- I don't think I would get DDP for the whole time. I just bump up against the "How much NY Strip and salmon can one eat?" thing.

If I were staying 10 days, I'd do a split stay and enjoy what I like at Disney for one part and eat offsite the rest.

That's not a financial decision, incidentally. I don't think there is any question that DDP is financially worth it, provided you eat a good TS each day.

I would just want more variety -- even if it's Burger King -- in a longer stay. To me, a long stay on DDP would be like a long cruise -- the glamor would wear off after about 5-6 days.

 

[bicker]

To me, a long stay on DDP would be like a long cruise -- the glamor would wear off after about 5-6 days.

That's a great analogy. Many cruise ships have added specialty restaurants, which charge for dinner ($20-$25), a price folks pay even though they've already paid for dinner in the main dinning room for the entire cruise, just to have a little more variety.

 

[thunderbird1]

We didn't have any problem doing DDP for 10 nights, but my dh did make us cancel our night #9 ADR because he just couldn't face another steak. I think it would have helped if we had mixed things up a little, and had a few more lunches or maybe even a breakfast instead of almost all dinners.

I think I personally would find it difficult to have the DDP for the first part of the trip and not the second. I realize because of the ticket requirement, this isn't practical. But I'm afraid it would seem like going from a deluxe hotel to a value. I like the values, and wouldn't have any problem staying in one again, even a split stay, but I think it would be harder to go from deluxe to value than it would be to go the other way. Did that make sense?

 

[theblondebee]

We did the dining plan for 10 days last month and it was great. We had enough variety in our ADRs to not eat the same thing every day. We did about half buffets because of the variety. The only thing I would do differently is breakfast. I made 3 ADRs for character breakfasts in addition to our dinners. I wasn't sure how the quick service meals would be but they were very good and plenty of food. Next time I will do breakfast or dinner, not both.

 

[n2mm]

We did the DDP for 12 days in May 06 and 12 days in Oct 06 and my biggest problem is fitting into my clothes by day 7 (or maybe day 2). I now have to pack and seperate my clothes by smallest to largest to make it through the whole trip....Yikes I have another trip in 2 weeks, time to pull out the buffet pants. We like the DDP and find the value to be great, and we even have a DDE card for those extra meals that we buy when we aren't using our DDP credits (like breakfast).