Anyone Else Doing the Quick Service Dining Plan in 2009?

[cruisegirl29]

Are you doing a split stay? Otherwise, the DDP is required for all nights of your stay

There is a sticky at the top of the board listing what are confirmed snacks for 2008. 2009 is subject to change, but it can give you an idea of what is available for '08

have fun planning!!

Hi,

Yes, We are doing a split stay. The first 7 nights on the plan the last 2 nights we'll be off the plan. We arrive on a Friday night around 7:30pm so we will start our credits the next day which will allow us to us our last meals on the following friday evening as long as we use them by midnight. We will only have to pay oop for food on Saturday & Sunday morning as our flight leaves at noon.

Thanks for the Snack sticky! I'll look at it!
Sue

 

[bertegirl]

So what is everyones favorite quick service dining? Since I am going for the 1st time I am going off of reviews. So far heard Peco Bills is a must do! Hopefully I wrote that right!

 

[BigGreen73]

My DW and I thought about it, but no matter how I added it up neither dining plan was worth it for us. Oh well.

 

[A&Bmama]

Hi Everyone!

My first post. After lurking daily for months I finally decided to sign up for the DIS!1

We will be using the QSDP on our visit. I will be traveling with my husband and our DD9 and DS who will turn 16 during our stay. I thought this was the best option for us since I would feel very "confined" if my schedule was dictated to me by ADRs that had to be made months in advance. I do think there are a couple of drawbacks...the children's menu is pretty limited, and doesn't vary much from location to location. I forsee my daughter eating a lot of chicken nuggets or sharing from my plate while her dinner goes mostly to waste. Childrens breakfast seem fine though.

I think that saying the regular dining plan is only $10.00 more is a bit of a misnomer though. By my calculation it is 10 + tax = 12.50, you getting one less snack credit, lets say you pay oop for it so that is about another 3.00, you also have to pay 18% tip on the value of your TS meal so about another $5.00 for that (assuming you skiped oop appetizer). Then there is the refillable mug, averaged over a 7 night visit is about 2.00. Grand total of$22.50.

Like most things it is all about your personal preference and what works for your family and your appetites. I know the thought of skipping TS meals especially character meals would ruin the experience for some. But for us it just seemed like a good fit and we will have a car so if we want to go to a table service restaurant I think we will go offsite since I just want our plans to be as fluid as possible.

 

[branmack]

We are also doing the QSDP in April. We have been on the DDP in the past but like a lot of families we found it too time consuming. Looks like we are joining the club of QSDP with 2-3 table serves paid for oop.

Breakfast at the resort food court is one of our favorite meals. Mickey waffles and french toast yum!!!

Having the meals paid for and not having to carry money is a bonus. I do believe that we would spend the same if not more on the meals.

It is too bad Disney is not allowing you to use 2 QS meal points for 1 TS meal. They allow 2 TS points for 1 specialty meal

 

[purplevalentine]

Decided to do QSP this time around. On my last trip to Disney I didn't do a dining plan. Almost but it was too late to add it to my reservations. Had money saved up for dining and already made my TS plans. There were 5 of us, 2 adults and 3 kids. Everyone got to go to their choice restaurant, except me. We were supposed to do Ohana's and got extremely delayed due to a Small World malfunction followed by a Monorail malfunction. Guess I was just not supposed to go! This trip it's just me and my nephew (17). I will probably make 1 or 2 ADR's for us but i love the fact that i will have prepaid food ready and waiting.

 

[csmom]

You mentioned it was too late to add the dining plan to your reservation. How late is too late? How close to your trip can you call and add a dining plan?

 

[purplevalentine]

You mentioned it was too late to add the dining plan to your reservation. How late is too late? How close to your trip can you call and add a dining plan?

It's been awhile but I think I had to add the plan about 30-15 days before I traveled. There were 5 of us traveling and adding the dining plan was an additional $800. I wasn't going to have the money (for the dining plan portion) in time to pay off our vacation. When i called it was too late to add. I had the additional $800 set aside so we just used that towards our food for the week.

 

[Luvamouse]

I am waiting until closer to our trip to decide, but I like the QSDP for our family. We are not big eaters, so TS meals aren't our best use of credits on the reg. DDP as lunch is more our size. We also don't like to waste so much time on a TS or have to stop when we have an ADR. (After saving every single slip from our last trip and charging every single item to our KTTW card, we realized saved a lot paying OOP over the regular DP.)

Economically, I am still wavering on the QSDP though. When I figure out what we might get using the menus from the CS's we like, I am always realizing that we probably wouldn't all get dessert, so I am factoring in 1 dessert per meal one day (of 3 'adults') and 2 for the 2nd CS of the day to be honest in the value it holds for us. We wouldn't get 8 snacks per day for my family either, even though I know we can get "to go" type ones. With the prices of the CS's up enough though, I still think it might be the way to go. I am even factoring in the value of the refillable mug at $2/day for our 7 night stay .

I do think the QSDP is a great idea for many families like us, who don't care to do TS for any number of reasons. Actually I do have 2 ADRs planned at Kona, but even paying OOP for those, I am coming out very close when comparing OOP and QSDP. I am glad I have a couple of months to see what people say here about their observations before I decide.

Note: My TA told me yesterday that I had to add the QSDP by 3 weeks before our arrival date.

 

[snoopybabe]

Doing a mommy/daughter trip this June with the quick service plan.

It should fit our needs perfectly. We had the deluxe when we were with DH but we both felt so full we couldn't eat the snacks. Missed trying a Dole Float

Also like the idea of not being tied down to TS. With the 2 snacks per day we plan on snacking our way through vacation

 

[ofhs93]

We are one of the group of people choosing to do the QS plan and adding 3 TS ADRs for the kids mainly. We have a lunch at CP, dinner at Garden Grill and lunch at Tuskers house....2 of those are character meals for the little ones and the Tusker house lunch was to get the Nemo reserved seats.

I like the idea of not having to worry about the money when ordering...it's already paid for...we plan on using the $200 gift card promo to pay for most of what the TS meals will cost. All of the snack credits will give us a lot of flexibility when it comes to breakfast. We are not a big breakfast family but with all those snacks available we will have plenty to take back to the room for the morning. We will probably use one of the snack credits for breakfast most days and one for a treat. We will of course also have 3 extra CS credits to use for breakfast as well. We also have a 2.5 year old who will be sharing being that he is not yet 3. I think it will end up working out perfectly for us.

We are scheduled for the 1st week of Feb so I'll try to remember to post back here with our opinions afterwards.

 

[johde]

I am going in Dec. and I'm planning on doing the QSDP for the part of my trip. I'm planning on being in Florida for 10 nights split between DVC and off site. To save money I normally limit the snacks and pop in the park. Doing the plan I can get desert and drink with each meal, a snack during the day, and a snack for breakfast.

 

[lilstint]

We are also switching to the QSDP this year. Since the demise of the appetizer and tip we've been very unimpressed with the regular dining plan. That, compounded with the fact that (like a previous poster) we also have a 1 year old and 4 year old along, helped us make the decision.

Last year the ADR's became very stressful. If we made them too early we'd still be full from lunch, snack etc and noone wanted to eat yet. If we made them later we invariably had one crabby kid along who would have been far better off in bed. Furthermore, with the strict "no take out" rule, even if one of the adults decided to stay at the villa with the sleeping kid you couldn't even bring them their food back! With counter service at least we will be able to do that in certain circumstances.

With the counter service places we love (Tangerine Cafe at Epcot, Wolfgang Puck Express in DDD, Flame Tree Barbeque at AKL, to name a few) I have no doubt the plan will turn out to be not only a value for us but much less stressful considering our circumstances.

 

[Merilyn]

Just not sure what we are doing yet. My grandson and another child will be 3 so we have to pay for their DD now. They won't eat anything so paying 9 or 11 dollars will be a total waste. I do like the idea of the QSDP so if we do anything it will be that. We love Pepper Market and eat there at night after long days in the park. They do carryout and that is even nicer. I know we will pay OOP for at least one character meal, probably Chef Mickey. Chef Mickey is the best place to get all the characters together. Can't wait to hear how all is going with the 2009 plans. We are probably going in May or Oct so we can check out the boards and find out how much trouble people are having.
We have done the regular plan for several years and it worked great for us but with 2 children turning 3, I don't know. The park tickets are just way too expensive for 3 year olds, almost as much as an adult. That will add a lot to our cost this year.

 

[sonyuq]

We have plans on QS but am waiting to decide, waiting to see what snacks look like and how it is going for other people and how they like it.

 

[bertegirl]

We are also switching to the QSDP this year. Since the demise of the appetizer and tip we've been very unimpressed with the regular dining plan. That, compounded with the fact that (like a previous poster) we also have a 1 year old and 4 year old along, helped us make the decision.

Last year the ADR's became very stressful. If we made them too early we'd still be full from lunch, snack etc and noone wanted to eat yet. If we made them later we invariably had one crabby kid along who would have been far better off in bed. Furthermore, with the strict "no take out" rule, even if one of the adults decided to stay at the villa with the sleeping kid you couldn't even bring them their food back! With counter service at least we will be able to do that in certain circumstances.

Thanks...any other great advice with children "our" ages?

With the counter service places we love (Tangerine Cafe at Epcot, Wolfgang Puck Express in DDD, Flame Tree Barbeque at AKL, to name a few) I have no doubt the plan will turn out to be not only a value for us but much less stressful considering our circumstances.[/quote]

 

[Poohbug]

I think we are going to try the QS plan in May.
It's a great deal for the kids since two kids meals = the price per day. After looking at the menus, I think the adults will come out about $4.00 ahead per day. Not a big savings but it will also be convenient. Plus we will get to try different snacks that we probably would not try if not included in the plan.

The only TS we really want to try is T-Rex, which is not on dining plan anyway. Plus I don't have to worry about ADRs.

 

[Pumbaa_]

keep in mind the snacks for 2009 can cahnge from 2008. (There was a huge change from 2007 to 2008)

Heard something today about no more snack credits at goofys. Still rumor, but wanted to make sure people are not relying on what is allowed in 2008 may or may not be allowed in 2009

keep your eyes peeled, as people start posting about their 2009 experiences, we should get answers soon

 

[mommytothreeboys]

We did the DDP on our last trip and enjoyed it but we are looking forward to trying the QS DDP on our trip this April. A few things I am looking forward to....

1) 2 snacks as opposed to 1. The snacks are the fun part and getting 2 is a nice bonus!

2) A refillable mug for everyone. We only bought 2 for our family of 5 last trip. It will be nice for the kids to have their own.

3) We can choose to eat at different places if the mood strikes us. For example...my DH and I love Tangierine Cafe, but the kids, not so much. We will have the freedom to choose what we like!

4) We did not mind planning our days around our meals last time, but we chose to eat only at the parks to save time traveling to resorts. I am looking forward to eating at the resorts as well as not having to plan our meals around which park we will be in.


We do have one TS meal planned, a character breakfast at Ohana. It is more cost effective for us to pay OOP for one character meal than to get the regular DDP and have to pay tips for each TS meal. That is really the biggest reason we chose to go QS. The tips OOP really take a bite out of the budget!

Anyway....I'm anxiously awaiting reviews from those who are using QS DDP.

 

[pirateandprincesses]

We also will be doing the QSDP, we chose it because we have two 4yo's and a 2yo. I would be too much to sit down and wait for table service...and I read that DH and I can trade our desserts for extra sides-fruit ect. so the 2yo can share with all of us and we can save $$$$. We have one breakfast character meal reserved.