Am I the only one not on the Dining Plan?

[MickeyNicki]

We are not on the plan either, we have AP's and stay at the Swan...we still do a ton of TS!!!

 

[Cinderelli]

No DP for us - ever. The DDE saves us sooooo much more. My children are 10, 12, & 13 and there is still no way they would ever eat that much food. My 13 yo has finally started ordering off the adult menu, but it's usually only and appetizer and maybe a soup. My 10 and 12 year olds still order from the children's menu. It is much less expensive for us to use the DDE.

 

[stitchlover]

One of the main reasons we do DDP is because in a way you prepay for the food. If we didn't I would be freaking out about the money we spend on dining when we are there. Without I guarantee we wouldn't be eating at all the character meals like my DD likes. But this way we go we eat the meals we want and I don't sweat it. And we enjoy our trip this way...we eat 5-6 character meals when we are there and they are the highlight of the trip.

 

[SandraVB79]

We will not be on DDP, although I have TS ADRs. I guess in the end, our food will cost us as much as the DDP. However, we won't eat that much and won't gain too much weight With the DDP, I would feel "forced" to eat appetizer and dessert. I know you can just not order it, but... my logic doesn't work like that

 

[DISNEYGIRL0811]

No DP for us - ever. The DDE saves us sooooo much more. My children are 10, 12, & 13 and there is still no way they would ever eat that much food. My 13 yo has finally started ordering off the adult menu, but it's usually only and appetizer and maybe a soup. My 10 and 12 year olds still order from the children's menu. It is much less expensive for us to use the DDE.

What is the "DDE" a few of you mention??

 

[marivaid]

What is the "DDE" a few of you mention??

Disney Dining Experience

more info here : http://www.wdwinfo.com/disneydiningexperience.htm

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

My family and I have never purchased the DDP for the following reasons. 1 We hate to make ADR's at 180 days out, 2 we like to eat at restaurants off property and 3 since we always stay on Club Level floors with the foods they offer it's not worth it for us.

 

[elan]

We never have. We don't eat ts everyday. I use dde when we do eat a ts. We also have dvc so eat 1 sometimes 2 meals in.

I would give it a try for free, thou.

 

[PrincessV]

Nope, I've never used it and seriously doubt I ever will. I've run the numbers and it saves us nothing, costs us more than OOP. We rarely eat appetizers or desserts, never drink soda with meals and usually prefer our own snacks.

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

We tried it during Free Dining last year and while I loved having meals "paid for" in advance, I probably would not ever pay for DDP. We had way too much food at the TS meals, yet the kids wanted more CS than we had credits for so I ended up paying out of pocket for several things. With the changes in 2008 (no Mickey rice krispy treats??!), I'm not sure I'd even take the DDP if it were offered for free again!

 

[helenabear]

I've never used the DDP. The way we eat, it never made sense for us. We always do our sit downs at lunch and I sometimes eat off of kids meals (I'm not a big eater). We do a lot of CS as well as that is just our style.

Given the changes to the 2008 DDP, I know for sure we will never use it.

We get the DDE card and save tons more money that way as it is.

 

[Princess Jenny]

We never used the DDP either. But since they were offering it to us for free, this will be the first time. I would never pay OOP for the plan tho.

What is the DDE card? And how does it save you money? I've never heard of this before.

 

[stepdisney]

This will be our 2nd time using it and we've never paid for it. We just happen to be a family use to 3 meals a day. I'm not sure if the poster who said they liked their TS in the afternoon knows this but you can eat a TS on the DDP any time and use the CS anytime also. You can even use the TS in the morning for breakfast if you have the kind of family who likes big breakfast's and small supper around 4ish. I'm not sure if I'd pay for it if there wasn't an insentive but we also wouldn't stay at a Disney Resort if there wasn't a discount or insentive.
You have to admit, Disney knows how to keep ya comin'.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

We love the dining plan!!! We have done it 3 times and have never had any confusion or frustration. Also, you can use your credits whenever you want. You can use your table service at breakfast, lunch or dinner - not just dinner as a previous poster stated. I am disappointed that the tip will not be included next year, as we are a family of six and tip will automatically be added at 18%, but we will probably always use the dining plan as long as WDW offers it.

 

[eliza61]

Not on Dining plan but still doing TS Dinners and a couple Character Breakfasts..... Kids ages 1 & 4, DH and me!

Does everyone do the dining plan??

Did it one time, we didn't like it so we use the DDE card.

 

[sherry8253]

We have never used DP. We do get the DDE. If we get an appetizer, we alway split it. We very rarely get dessert but again if we do, we split it too. I almost always order a vegetarian meal if one is available & these are usually the cheapest thing on the menu. They never have free dining when we go so we would have to pay for it. I think we would actually end up payng more if we did the DP so we just pay as we go.

 

[raven69david]

Add me to the list of NOT DOING THE DDP. It doesn't make financial sense to us being 2 adults and one DD2. Even when my DD is older we'll still do OOP. We can budget cheaper as the DW and I share plates because all of the servings at the restaurants are HUGE portions. I'd take it if it's free, but i'd never pay for it.

 

[erikthewise]

No DP for us - ever. The DDE saves us sooooo much more. My children are 10, 12, & 13 and there is still no way they would ever eat that much food. My 13 yo has finally started ordering off the adult menu, but it's usually only and appetizer and maybe a soup. My 10 and 12 year olds still order from the children's menu. It is much less expensive for us to use the DDE.

This sounds just like our family. We have DS13 and DS10. (Forgive me if you've seen me post this before.) In Dec 2005 we had an 8-night stay during which we ate 14 TS meals and 3 CS meals in 9 days, including 2 signature restaurants and one TS on departure day. Using the DDE card, we paid almost exactly what we would have paid for the 8-night DDP at the time (when our younger one was 9), while eating twice as many TS meals as the DDP would have allowed. Now with four 10+ people and the DDP getting more expensive, it's not even close.

 

[cremebrulee]

I would never buy the Dining Plan because -

1. I'm a vegetarian. My meals are usually the least expensive of the bunch.
2. My bf and I rarely order appetizers and basically never order dessert. We just get too full.

It would be a waste of money for us.

 

[helenabear]

We never used the DDP either. But since they were offering it to us for free, this will be the first time. I would never pay OOP for the plan tho.

What is the DDE card? And how does it save you money? I've never heard of this before.

DDE card is something FL residents and AP holders can purchase. It gives you 20% off at almost all sit downs and a few CS locations. If we think we will sit down a lot we buy the card and save the money.