Anyone NOT do the Dining Plan?

[Kimmielee]

What is a DDE card and how do you go about getting one? How does it work? I did a search and couldn't find anything specific... Thanks!

 

[DebIreland]

Kimmielee,
DDE stands for Disney Dining Experience. Info from Mousesavers.com....

"Disney Dining Experience - Walt Disney World Annual Passholders, regardless of residency, are eligible for membership in the Disney Dining Experience for $60 per year. The primary benefit of membership is a 20% discount on all food and beverages at participating resort hotel and theme park restaurants (valid for a party of up to 10). Membership also includes complimentary resort and theme park parking for dining, as well as invitations to special member-only events.

Florida Residents
Florida Residents can purchase a membership in the Disney Dining Experience for $85 per year. The primary benefit of membership is a 20% discount on all food and beverages at participating resort hotel and theme park restaurants (valid for a party of up to 10). Membership also includes complimentary resort and theme park parking for dining, as well as invitations to special member-only events." (end of quote)

We got the DDE card last year because I purchased an AP and it did save us a lot of money. It covered tips. A nice deal

 

[golden1]

I am debating whether it would be a good deal for us. Like a PP said, with a toddler, I am not sure that we will be eating a lot of table service meals. The table service meals that I want to do, like Crystal Palace, don't justify the cost of the plan because the dessert and apps are included in the price. I feel like I would have to out of my way or change my plans to hit the most expensive restaurants in order to get my money's worth. I also hate that the Cinderella Breakfast would cost me two credits when the cost (according to AllEarsnet) is only $20/ person and $10 for my toddler. That seems like a ripoff.

 

[TDC Nala]

I have not used the dining plan. It hasn't been available for me, but it's more than I usually eat and it probably isn't that good a deal for one person.

That said, I'm going to try it on a 4 night DVC stay in September, since it was recently made available to DVC members.

I also hate that the Cinderella Breakfast would cost me two credits when the cost (according to AllEarsnet) is only $20/ person and $10 for my toddler. That seems like a ripoff.

Also according to AllEarsnet (in the Restaurant News section), beginning February 1 the breakfast price will be $31.99 for ages 10 and up and $21.99 for ages 3-9.

 

[MKP]

Thanks for everyones response about the Dinner thing, I did get that either. We will be going in very end May/June and will be me and my family's first time going to WDW. We will be staying at the Animal Kingdom. If anyone has any suggestions about the eating I would like to know. Thanks in advance.

Melissa in Kansas City

 

[DisMN]

We just say "no" to the dining plan too for all the reasons listed from it being wayyyyyyy too much food to the feeling that you have to eat commando style. We don't do commando in the parks and we don't want to do it when we eat. LOL (I totally understood the comment!)
It also seemed a little too confusing to want to bother messing with.

The DDE plan has been our discount of choice.

 

[DebIreland]

We're not doing it on our trip this year. I can't stand the commando mentality it seems to engender

I worry about that too. I can picture us in our room and the kids are tired and want something easy and quick to eat but we're painfully aware that we have a table service credit each burning a hole in our pockets. Sounds like a lot of pressure! It's got a lot to do with personality too though. I tend to get stressed easily so that kinda pressure would push me over the edge.

 

[curlz2tite]

We are doing the DP this trip. DH & I had a great time planning out where we are going to dine at. It gives us a chance to try alot of TS places that we probably would not have tried. Since we paid in advance we won't have to think about what we are spending on food.
There will be more than enough food & it will be nice to try the different appetizers & desserts.(We normally might order one or the other ,never both)
There is no law saying you HAVE to eat everything they give you.

 

[chobie]

We can't because we're FLA residents with season passes and we only go when we can get a good deal on the resorts. We do have DDE, which as was pointed out on another thread as being good if you enjoy a glass of wine or two with your meal. I don't think the plan it sounds like too much food, though.

 

[pezpam]

We (1 adult, 1 child) used the DDP on our last trip and loved it. The 2 meals generally kept us full for the whole day and we even had snack credits left over so I wound up stocking up for the trip home. I had crunched numbers ahead of time and for about what we'd normally spend for all CS meals with tax, we got to try a bunch of TS meals, character meals, and buffets that I never would have sprung for otherwise - it wound up being a kind of food adventure for us. I'm not a commando-type, so I scheduled TS meals to work with our schedule instead of the other way around. Loved it, DD loved it, and I'd consider it again.

That said, we have a short trip coming up in March and are not doing the DP. We'll be using leftover days on old park tickets and got a room discount. Having a full package would not have saved me as much money this time around. We'll eat CS for every meal, but that's not the kiss of death for me.

I guess for me, even knowing that the DP can really work out well for our particular situation, I'd still crunch the numbers for each trip. For families whose situations make the DP less attractive to start with, I can see not using it at all. It's worth crunching the numbers and looking at what you want to do, but it certainly isn't for everyone.

 

[molly213]

We did the dining plan a few months ago but since I am a lighter eater, we split some of the meals or I ordered just soup and we did a more sit down places instead of counter service. The four of us (DH, DS 17, DS 15 and I) used all the table service meals but had 13 counter service meals left when we came home and about 8 snacks. This was duirng the food and wine festival so I thought we would have used all of the snacks but we were just too full.

We plan to do the dining plan again because everyone liked being able to order whatever they want off the menu and visit some more expensive places. We will probably do the same and split more table service meals and not use all the counter service meals. We normally ate at table service places but we would never order an appetizer and dessert for everyone (or 3 of us as we did this time).

I kept track of the costs and we would have paid a total of $2061, $1557 of which were table service locations. We would have paid about $1400 for the dining plan.

 

[Merriwind]

We haven't, but we usually use our DVC points to go. That being said, I doubt we will in the future. One, it is way too much food--and DH would eat it and then need a nap! Usually DD8 and I can share an entree at a TS and we'll get our "dessert" as a snack later. Even sharing, an appy, entree and dessert would be too much for for us. Secondly, we don't eat a lot of CS meals, so I'm not sure how we would use those credits. Thirdly, I would probably fall into the "where can I get the most for my DP credit" mentality and that's silly. I would rather eat where I want to and order what I want without worrying about getting my DP money's worth.

Now, if it were free, we would probably give it try, but I don't see it fitting our eating style.

Enjoy!

 

[nluvwithmickey]

We just got back from disney and stuffed ourselves silly using the DDP.

What we usually did was order a CS breakfast, then a snack at around 1:00 and our TS dinner later on that evening. It usually worked well that way but it still was alot of food especially at TS restaurants that were a la carte.

We are probably not going to do this on nour next trip(still crunching numbers though), DD will be 10 and still lives on pizza and nuggets so I'm thinking of the value of it all.

The one nice thing about the DDP is that all taxes and tips are included, that is something to consider when you crunch numbers.

 

[wrldpossibility]

We're light eaters, too, and our kids eat pretty much only the kid-friendly pizza and mac and cheese, so we really debated the DP also. We finally decided to get it for our trip this year for several reasons, despite the fact that we KNOW it'll be too much food:

1. We've never done Disneyworld, and want to go to some restuarants we'd skip if paying OOP.

2. We have young kids and want to be able to go to many character meals and dinner shows without worrying about cost.

The dining plan will allow for DH to eat himself silly at Coral Reef, me to experience WCC and World Showcase rest., and the kids to see the characters as much as they want. That's what I'm paying for, not the actual food.

 

[KathylovesPooh]

When I booked last August, I had read very little about the plan. But I knew we wouldn't qualify since we were doing "room only" (had tickets from previous visit). After we booked, we learned much about it from the DISboards and I have to agree with you that it sounds like too much food. I did not do the math to see if we would have saved money or not but I do know that DD and DH would have eaten all that extra food just because it was there. WDW and over eating don't go hand in hand in my opinion. (Can you imagine going on some of these attractions after eating a huge dinner!).

 

[beansmom]

DBF and I are going in November sans kids and we ARE doing the plan. We need tix so we can do a package. We have decided since we are on vacation, we are going to do it up right and explore things we wouldn't necessarily try at home. Even tho I eat VERY little (I've had gastric bypass) we're still going to do the DP. We figure the $75 a day that we'd spend on the plan is really about what we'd spend on one person oop. So it's like one of us eating free. Plus we really like the idea of not having to hassle with paying and tax and tip. It just seems the easy, adventurous way to go.

 

[Ms. WDW]

I don't know....I'm thinking about it. DH an I will be doing an adult only trip this July. In the past when it was DS, myself, my friend and her son, we could easily drop $120.00 or more for a nice TS meal. And that was just one meal...not counting what was picked up during the rest of the day. So $37.95 or whatever the CM said it would be, doesn't seem like alot for us. And gratutity is included. As for "too much" food. Well, we could use the CS for late morning/early lunch and as for "snacks" a drink in the parks would be just fine. Dinner is much later so we'd be hungry then.

But on the negative side, we're staying at SSR this trip and there's no table restaurant there yet, and there's only a few participating restaurants in DTD. So that would mean that the majority of our meals would have to be in the parks or at other resorts. That's not a BAD thing. But I was doing a "no plan" trip this year. If we participated in the food plan then I'd have to plan out where to be on such and such day cause we want to eat in this or that place.

Well I have time to think about it and discuss it more with DH.

 

[sconnell]

Well, I WAS thinking that we weren't going to do the plan this upcoming trip, but now I'm thinking I need to crunch some serious numbers. lol. I can't wait! I love the minutia of it all! DH just thinks I'm crazy!

 

[DebIreland]

I love the minutia of it all! DH just thinks I'm crazy!

sounds exactly like our marriage

 

[slcmkh]

To the OP, great post. This has generated some great comments.

I have debated this issue with myself for weeks. We are DVC and the plan is available to us in June when we go for two weeks. We have two adults, two hungry teenagers (boys that really enjoy eating out), a preadolescent who is considered an adult, and a seven year old.

In the past we have always had cereal in the room for b-fast (maybe one character b-fast per vacation for the kids), a table service lunch (cheaper than TS dinner for OOP although the menus are usually limited, and a counter service dinner (we call it dining around the world -- we just cruise around world showcase letting each family member grab a CS meal wherever they want although they usually don't get much further than the fish and chips place in England). We have also had the luxury of a full kitchen and usually have a number of meals in the room.

This trip we have decided to eat out more and I kept on salivating looking at the dinner menus for TS restaurants on Deb's website. Dinner is more expensive yet we would really like to try a few of the restaurants in the evening (Coral Reef, Brown Derby, Tony's, Le Cellier, Concourse, etc.) I did the math having more TS dinners rather than TS lunches and it made more sense for us to do the dining plan this time around, so we're going to give it a try. We plan on salads for appetizers for the most part, which we usually do anyway, the entree, and then carrying out the desert for later if we aren't hungry enough for desert at the time.

My sons are really looking forward to having access to snacks without pleading with the holder of the wallet (me), and they are also looking forward to having beverages with their meals (we have always had water with meals to save money and they think I'm a royal tightwad and routinely tease me about it as they get older -- this will prove to them otherwise.) My wife is looking forward to not dealing with buying groceries and preparing meals, and we are all looking forward to not having to haul groceries into the room.

For a two week stay, the dining plan will set us back quite a bit, but it won't be much more than being on the "dad's dining on a budget plan" when we consider the number of times eating out we have planned this time around, which is at least 1 - 2 times per day for the duration (so many restaurants, so little time). I'm going to look at it like an all-inclusive, pay for the plan, and then just try and relax and enjoy watching my teenagers and their mom enjoy their chow, and of course enjoy my chow along with them.

It stinks paying adult price for the 11 year old, who will likely want to eat from the kids menus most of the time, but it still works out financially for us, especially if we can pay for a few of those kids meals for the 11 year old OOP, if the restaurant will let us, or share a few meals with him if he can find something on the adult menu that he might like.

This is our last family vacation before dash-one son leaves the nest, and for this vacation I think the dining plan will be the way to go for us.

I too am glad to find that not every one is going on the DP. I was beginning to think I was a loser for even considering not going with the DP. I'm glad to hear it doesn't work for everyone, because we were right on the border of having it not look like the best way to go for us. The dinner TS cost for OOP is what tipped the scale for us.

The boys are going to love having real beverages at every meal. Does it sound like this dad is trying to purchase their admiration?

Sorry for being long winded.