AP and DDE or dining plan

[TandCmum]

we are doing 2 weeks offsite in a villa next year followed by a week onsite, hopefully I'm going to rent points and stay at beach club villas. Do you think i would be beter off getting a normal 21 days tickets and buying the dining plan for our week onsite, or getting an AP and DDE card and using that, which will also give us free parking and discount on our onsite meals for our first 2 weeks in the villa aswell as our final week onsite. In our last week onsite we will probably eat several meals around the world showcase as well as at some other parks, and i do plan on doing a few onsite meals during our first 2 weeks as well

 

[Eljay]

Hmmm, there are a number of things to take into account. Since you are renting points and staying off site, you won't be able to apply the AP discount to your resort cost. But, at $9 a day for parking, you will be saving that. You will, of course, have free parking for your stay on property.

As far as dining, do you plan to mostly be eating at table service restaurants? The DDE allows you the 20% discount only at table service locations with the exception of AK, where the counter service is currently accepting the card.

Here is all the info on the DDE plan.
http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dde.htm

Are you sure you can get the free dining if you rent points?

Good luck with your plans!

 

[TandCmum]

it wouldn't be the free dining, we would have to buy it. We are planning on doing quite a few table service meals, at least one a day for the week onsite and quite a few for the 2 weeks offsite.

 

[Miffy2003]

We already had the DDE from last trip and wer planning to use it for this trip too. When we did the sums (like you, we do about 1 TS per day) we came out ahead on the Dining Plan by about $2 a day, so we decided it wasn't worth it.

However (lucky me) WDW introduced the free dining during our stay. I will still use the DDE for drinks etc though

I literally sat down and did sums, making assumptions about where and how often we would dine and based my decision on that. It took ages!

 

[Eljay]

Depending on the cost of the 21 day ticket compared to the AP, another consideration might be for one person to get the AP, in order to qualify for the DDE, free parking and other benefits, and the rest of the party could get the hopper tickets.

The DDE covers 10 people on one restaurant check. If the DDE costs $60, that means you have to spend $300 on food before you begin to see the 20% savings. We all know how quickly you can spend $300 on food at WDW! Another nice benefit of the DDE is that you can use it to discount a bar tab as well.

If you decide on the DDE, keep in mind that you must get it in advance, it is not available at the resort. Don't order it too early though, it will arrive with an expiration date on it.

 

[paulh]

dont forget that you have to buy tickets for everone in room for your dvc stay it may be a single day base tickett thougth,to get the dinning plan
Paulh

 

[TandCmum]

i had just one AP and the DDE card last year, and definatly made a saving i just would like to try the dining plan too as we don't tend to order the appetisers and deserts due to the extra cost but i would like to try them without worrying about the cost if we don't manage to fininsh them. If i was getting an AP again it would only be for one member of the part as I'm not sure we would make it back within the year (although maybe it would be a good excuse....lol)

Paul - if you are stying in a DVC property you can buy the dining plan without having to buy any tickets.