Basic DDP or QS Plan?

[cybrkitn]

We're making plans on going the second week of December 2011 (7 nights/6 days) and would like to add the basic DDP. We had the DDP when we went in 2006 and had a sit down dinner every night. But doing that every night was a bit much for us (I over-planned for us). We would like to have some TS meals, but not every day. So now, I'm not sure if the QS plan or the DDP would be better. Is it worth getting the DDP if we're not doing TS meals every day?

 

[TDC Nala]

You don't necessarily need a TS each night, but to get more value from the plan you should plan to use all your TS credits for TS meals. You could do a character breakfast and a TS dinner on the same day, or book some restaurants or dinner shows that cost 2 TS credits per person. If you're going to leave most of your TS credits unused or try to trade them for CS meals, it may not be worth it to switch.

If you haven't already seen it, be advised the basic dining plan has changed since 2006; it no longer includes appetizers (for adults at TS) or tips, so you'd need to budget for appetizers if you want them and for gratuities. (CRT and the dinner shows do include tips though)

 

[rani8600]

You can try a number of different things. One thing that you can do is do the standard dinning plan and instead of doing a TS meal every night you can take advantage of some of disney signature dining everyother night. as long as you can good about you CS meals and snacks you should be able to make everything stretch.

You could also not use a dining plan at all. this gives you the chance to only get the ADRs that you really what and eat whatever all the other times. if you do the CS meal plan and do a few TS meals you will end up with A LOT of extra food for the end of your trip. Never good...not to mention that you would most like loss money on the deal.

 

[Kimi313]

We did the QS meal plan and we had 3 TS reservations also. This worked out great for us. We arrived late on the first day and had a TS so that started us with 2 extra snacks and 2 CS each. We are also grab a pastry for breakfast as we run out the door, we used a snack credit for this, the last day though before we checked out we all had a CS breakfast for the long drive home. Then one of the TS ressies we had was for breakfast so we still used out 2 CS meals that day cause it was late night at MK til 3:00,hahahaha, we were soooo tired. Now then we had an extra the day we had our third TS at the hotel which left us 2 extra each, except DD BF, he had a couple of big breakfast along the way, but anyway when we go to Epcot we like to eat our way around the world getting 1 or 2 meals from each place and sharing, yes we also try drinking our way around also but we last longer eating, so we were able to use our extra CS and our CS for the day around the world and or snack credits for desserts in some countries. This worked out great for us, we start around noon and end just in time to watch off-kilter and then grab a place for illuminations.

 

[cybrkitn]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Looks like we have a few options to consider.

TDC Nala, I'm actually glad the DDP has been changed since 2006. It was way too much food for us. We also know that tips are no longer included, so we will need to figure that in (allears.net really comes in handy with the menu and prices).