A question for DDP veterans

[erinmomof2]

Our trip is coming up in exactly 1 month. We have 8 TS credits and we've booked dining reservations that total 10 credits. I'm wondering if it matters what meal(s) we pay OOP for. The cheapest OOP would be to pay for CRT breakfast OOP and than the rest of our meals would be covered by DDP. But I'm not sure if since CRT requires payment at time of booking if you don't have the DDP than you can't pay OOP. I hope I'm explaining this right, because it sounds kind of confusting typed out. Anyways, if you can figure out what I'm saying... please help!!

Thanks,
Erin

 

[dreamscometrue101]

When you book the CRT I would recommend not telling them you're on the DDP. They will be more than happy to take full payment from you then on your CC for the meal. You can then have absolutely all your TS paid for before you arrive. 8 TS on DDP and CRT on your credit card.

 

[Alexander]

Call Disney Dining and tell them that you want to pay for CRT out of pocket. If I recall CRT is two table service credits anyways. Will this leave you with an extra one now? They will take a CC to hold your reservation. I don't know if they charge you all up front for CRT, but they did for the HDDR for us. We chose to pay out of pocket for that dinner and use our TS credits on other days.

 

[luckytobeme88]

To fully understand your dilemma, it would help if you post all your ADR's and we will do our best to figure out which is the best way to utilize your TS credits.

 

[Disney845]

I wasn't exactly following what you were asking in regards to CRT, but yes, if you have the DDP you can pay out of pocket on anything you want. For example, we have booked more TS meals than we have credits for (9 nights 11 TS meals booked). When you arrive at a restaurant they will ask you if you are on the DDP. At the restaurants you will be paying out of pocket for, just tell the server this at the time you will be seated. Also, it does make the most financial sense to pay OOP for the least expensive meals (usually this is breakfast) and that is exactly what we plan to do.

 

[erinmomof2]

OUr ADR's are at:

Crystal Palace dinner
Ohana dinner
1900 Park Fare dinner
Chef Mickey dinner
CRT breakfast
Tusker House Breakfast
Coral Reef dinner
Le Cellier Dinner
Princess storybook dinner

Can you tell we have a princess lover in the house??

We have 8 DDP credits. We figured that paying OOP for CRT breakfast would be the cheapest way to go. Otherwise we'll have to pay for 2 meals OOP. Disney Dining did take my cc info when booking CRT but they did not charge it. So is it correct that I can just tell the CM at CRT that we're paying OOP when we check in?

Thanks again,
Erin

 

[luckytobeme88]

We can only do 1 character meal in one trip. Sometimes none.
When I saw your ADR's, I became speechless. Do you really want to do so many character breakfasts? I think 2 breakfasts will be plenty. Pay OOP for a few breakfast is the cheapest way to cover the extra TS needed, JMO

 

[pooch]

Pay OOP for the CRT breakfast and then use DDP for the rest of your TS meals. And, although we are not character meal type (except for LTT !!), who's to say that there's such a thing as too many character meals. If you want to eat w/ the Gang at every meal, go for it!!!

 

[Katiebell]

Usually it's best to pay OOP for a breakfast or a signature restaurant. The breakfasts are usually the least expensive meals, whether they are buffets or ordered ala carte off the menus. The signature restaurants are harder to make worth 2 TS credits.

Basically, your break even point for the DDP is $25 for your TS meal (including drink, dessert, and tax), $10 for your CS meal (including drink, dessert, and tax), and $4 for your snack (including tax).

The entrees and desserts at a 2 TS restaurant are more expensive than at a 1 TS restaurant, but they would have to average twice the cost for it to be equal in value to 2 TS credits.

For example:
1 TS meal
entree -- $22
dessert -- $6
beverage -- $2
tax -- $1.95
value of 1 TS credit -- $31.95

2 TS meal
entree -- $30
dessert -- $8
beverage -- $3
tax -- $2.67
value of 2 TS credits -- $43.97
value PER credit -- $21.84

One other thing to keep in mind, though...you may not want to pay OOP toward the beginning of your trip, because something could happen later and you might not use all of your credits -- they are not refundable, and would be wasted. Our last trip, DH got very sick 2/3 of the way through our trip, and we ended up wasting 4 TS credits Fortunately, we hadn't paid OOP for any of our meals up to that point, so we didn't lose more.

 

[septbaby]

One other thing to keep in mind, though...you may not want to pay OOP toward the beginning of your trip, because something could happen later and you might not use all of your credits -- they are not refundable, and would be wasted.

That is very sage advice. We were in the same position last summer: 2 TS over. We did pay for CM's breakfast out of pocket, but ended up canceling the other extra meal; we just too full for another buffet breakfast; a shared CS breakfast was more than enough for us that day. It happened to be the one day I had booked 2 TS meals, we loved our dinner, but I couldn't imagine have had a full breakfast and Boma for dinner that night.

 

[erinmomof2]

We can only do 1 character meal in one trip. Sometimes none.
When I saw your ADR's, I became speechless. Do you really want to do so many character breakfasts? I think 2 breakfasts will be plenty. Pay OOP for a few breakfast is the cheapest way to cover the extra TS needed, JMO

We are only doing 2 character breakfasts, the rest are dinner. We are not able to vacation often and we wanted to make sure that we were able to do all the meals we wanted because we don't know when we will be able to go back. And our DD is the type of kids who will LOVE the character meals, she is just so excited about all of them. And my husband is the worlds pickiest eatier, so buffet works out better for him.

 

[Disney845]

And my husband is the worlds pickiest eatier, so buffet works out better for him.

I totally feel your pain with this! SO is also picky, and although not a vegetarian, he will really only ever order chicken at a sit down meal (doesn't really like other meats very much) and how many nights can you eat just chicken? I find that filling our dining choices with lots of buffets works best for us, he is happier picking and choosing.