Advice needed on DDP - Worth it?

[msce2]

Just wondering if there are adults who have gone and saved $ on the DDP. If so what was your strategy?

Also, the 5 of us are leaving a full day earlier than everyone else in our party. Has anyone ever had a CM make it possible for them not to get charged for the extra day? We're only staying 6 days, but DMom and DDad are staying 7. We are staying in a 2bdrm villa. When I called to ask CM said all in party must be on DDP for entire reservation. Just wondering if anyone ever got a different answer.

 

[septbaby]

Everyone on the reservation must have the exact same DP and it will be for each night's stay on the reservation.

You can book a 2TS meal to use up that extra TS credit and its easy to grab an extra snack or CS meal. You can even get a CS meal to take to the airport or on the road with you.

The other nice thing on the DP for a group like yours: no trying to split the bill at the table. Just hand over a card, maybe pay the tip in cash and be done with it.

 

[catne]

DH & I had the regular DDP several times. I kept receipts to keep track of the actual cash cost of the food we ate...would have been $619.45 cash for 6 nights. DDP cost then (2008) was $455.88...savings of $163 for us. We have had similar savings each time

That said, we tend towards the "maximise" end of the scale. All our table service credits are used at dinner - which is the most expensive meals on site of course. We don't do many buffets (or none.) Buffets tend to be less expensive than menu meals - like a set price of $28 when a menu restaurant would more typically run in the $35-$50 per person range. We really like the high-end items on the menus -- would usually tend to order the higher-priced entrees like steaks instead of cheaper pasta dishes for example. We do like dessert, and do order it when on vacation.

all of our counter service meals were at lunch -- again, a better value for your DDP credit since lunch is more expensive than breakfast. And again, we tend to like higher priced lunch items too. If you go with your burger/fries type meal, you're in the $8-10 range for lunch. But we went for things like the $14 ribs platter at Flame Tree, or the $15 shwarma platter at Morocco/Epcot.

We always felt quite full on the DDP - to the point we rarely wanted snacks after the first day. We had taken cereal bars & poptarts for breakfast in the room, but since we weren't using our snack credits in the parks, we started buying pastries in the various bakeries & taking them back to the room for next day's breakfast.

Now, if your group wants to have a big hot breakfast everyday...or if you'd prefer buffets for dinner & burgers/fries for lunch, you might just price out the cash cost cuz it might be cheaper to just pay as you go. Similarly, if you tend to prefer the chicken or pasta entrees...and you wouldn't want dessert it would probably be cheaper to pay cash. You just have to look over the menus of the places your group might want to eat at...and crunch the numbers some to find what'd work best for you.

 

[msce2]

Thank you! That definitely answers my question!!!!

 

[jenseib]

We love the plan. We typcially do some buffets and still get our moneys worth too. We have saved every year so far, but do miss when the tip was included.
Sometimes I have a hard time keeping track though, because if I remember right, the CS's don't always tell you what the price is. I think I've had to ask or guesstimate

 

[doug l]

Very helpful.

thanks

 

[Faldred]

Also, the 5 of us are leaving a full day earlier than everyone else in our party. Has anyone ever had a CM make it possible for them not to get charged for the extra day? We're only staying 6 days, but DMom and DDad are staying 7. We are staying in a 2bdrm villa. When I called to ask CM said all in party must be on DDP for entire reservation. Just wondering if anyone ever got a different answer.

The CM is correct; the entire party must be on the package for the entire length of the reservation.

The good news is that due to the "pooling" of credits, you can still use all of them if you just use an extra TS and an extra CS sometime during the 6 days (assuming basic DDP). This means you could do a single 2 TS meal and still have a TS meal every other night.

 

[jenseib]

You could also do a show, like HoopDeeDoo or Spirit of Aloha

 

[septbaby]

You could also do a show, like HoopDeeDoo or Spirit of Aloha

Just saw your ticker, have a magical trip!!!!

 

[madisonsmommy7704]

you could always plan a breakfast w/ your extra credits

 

[jenseib]

Just saw your ticker, have a magical trip!!!!

Thanks! We can' t wait!

 

[caroline1851]

We saved $200 on the ddp (me, dh, ds6). We did not try to maximize the plan other than i didn't use a snack credit for anything under $3. We used some TS for breakfast, some for lunch and some for dinner.