Any Good Advice for DDP first timer!?

[DisneyDru]

Greets, Im going to be using the DDP for the first time in two weeks and was wanting to know any tips or secrets to help out...thanks alot

 

[MEK]

I don't think there are any great tips or secrets. But here are my reommendations:

1. I think you should choose TS restaurants that suit your taste. Get your ADR's in order.

2. If you don't have a car I think you should avoid TS's at resorts that require multiple transfers from your base resort. For example, I was staying at POP and went to WL for dinner. It took me 2 hours to get back to POP on a Saturday night. Bad idea!

3. Depending on how big your party is, consider sharing counter service meals at lunch. My family of 4 always splits 3 counter service meals. 4 meals is too much food. 3 is perfect with very little waste.

4. One thing I do for breakfast is get the adult breakfast platter (1CS) and 1 or 2 bagels or muffins (1 -2 snacks). My kids split this and I eat the leftovers.

The dining plan is fun and flexible. Enjoy!

 

[PrincessTrisha]

In addition to the ones already mentioned:

5. Space out your meals. If you know you have reservations for dinner at 5pm, make sure you eat lunch by noon. Yes, it can be a lot of food but if you space it right, you will be hungry for your next meal.

6. There is some really good counter service out there. Don't fall into the burgers and chicken finger trap. Cosmic Rays, tusker house, flametree bbq, Sunshine Seasons, even the resort food courts (I love the chicken at POFQ) all offer good "real" food.

7. Ignore the prices. If you actually want the most expensive items on the menu, go for it but if you would prefer something different, get it instead. Don't worry about trying to max out your value. You'll still save money - so if you want the pasta instead of the steak, order what you want.

 

[mom-mom2three]

I think for variety and good food the Pepper Market at Coronado Springs is a great choice . It counts as a counter service but you sit at a table and have a server. You can choose an entree, a desert and a drink. Also if your entree is something like pizza or pasta you can get a small salad and it is not counted as extra. The staff there is great! Also the store (panchito's) at Cornado Springs has large boxes of donuts or cookies that count as one snack credit. These are boxes of 12 full size donuts that can easily make a breakfast for a family if everyone likes sweets.

 

[MaeDaisy]

We just returned from our first ever trip, and we used the dining plan. It was great. My advice is as follows:

1) Make ADRs for your TS meals!! If we hadn't made ADRs, I'm not even sure we would have been able to use our TS meal credits. Everywhere we went, we saw walk-ups being turned away due to no availability.

2) Download the CS menus from this site and decide where you want to eat at each of the parks.

3) I wouldn't bother with trying to share meals. We are a healthy (not-overweight) family of 4, and after all that walking around, 1 CS and 1 TS per person per day (plus an OOP breakfast) was NOT too much food. It was just right. I suggest you each just get your own meal. That way, you don't have to calculate how many you have left and whether you're leaving any unused.

4) Go ahead and get the snack you want when you want it. After looking at the list of allowable snacks, I didn't want to "waste" any snack credits on a measly ice cream bar or popcorn, I wanted to save them for the really good stuff.... so we ended up with 11 snack credits to burn on our last day!!! It would have been better to let the kids get the $2.00 ice cream and enjoy at the park, rather than load up on $3.95 boxes of cookies to give to people when we got home.

5) If you each want to try a different country's CS in Epcot, just ask for your orders to go. They'll pack your meal in a styrofoam container so you can meet back up. We each had our favorite cuisine at one of the tables near Oris Orisi.

Those are what worked for us, and what we might do different next time.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

Consider having a late breakfast and opt for dinner at the earliest seatings as it gives you more time to digest the large meals offered. We had several nights with late ADR's and were very uncomfortable the rest of the evening as well as trying to sleep. We found that having breakfast at the resort food court, an early afternoon dinner, and an evening snack was the perfect combination of food. Of course this worked for us because we have never been ones to wake up at the crack of dawn...we prefer a more leisurely pace.