DDE (Disney Dining Experience)

[chrisd596]

Any one with experience using the DDE program. The web site shows the restaurants invovled. What has been your experiences with DDE?

Thanks
Chris

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

Our experience was outstanding. It paid for itself on our first trip and we will have it for three more trips. All of the restaurants were very happy to apply the 20% off.

HBC

 

[JimMIA]

If you like to eat at the finer restaurants at WDW (as we do), and especially if you like to have a bottle of wine or a few beers with dinner (as we do), then you will love DDE (as we do).

DDE gives you 20% off food and beverage (including alcoholic bevs, which no other discount does) at a wide variety of places from inexpensive (for WDW) to the most expensive. And...with one DDE, you can take nine of your closest relatives/friends to dinner with the discount.

You have to compare the effects of that discount with the cost, and also against the fact that you already get 10% off (but not on alcohol) at most of those restaurants with your DVC membership card.

You have to also understand that DDE is not offered to DVC members. It is only available to Florida residents ($75), and AP holders ($50).

 

[disney queen]

we love the DDE card!

 

[jwfla422]

We've had the card for years. It was a steal at $25 a year when it first came out and still a good value even at the $50 price tag...it has actually come down in price since they increased it to $75 a year or so ago.

Just do the math, if you either visit WDW a few times a year, it will pay for itself and then some or if you have a large family it can pay for itself and then some in one trip. (2-$100 dinners and 1-$50 meal will pay for the card--everything after that is a savings)...the $100 dinners/meals are very easy to do at the sit-downs. Just think, even the dinner buffets for a family of 4 and a drink or 2 easily adds up to $100.

 

[Chuck S]

Just a note...I was asked to show photo ID when I presented the DDE at one restaurant (I don't remember which one, right now...I think maybe Chefs de France). Anyway, remember to have a DL or other ID handy, just in case.

 

[SqueakyMouse]

We used it during our May trip and have nothing but WONDERFUL things to say about it. Within 2 days, it had paid for itself. Worth noting: servers do not need/want to know about it until you are finished with your meal.

 

[BCV23]

We love it as well. We've used it on two trips so far and will get two more trips out of it before it expires. Being able to purchase it is a wonderful AP perk this year.

 

[mitros]

An outstanding value, once only available to us Floridians, you get a 20% discount on food AND liquor at almost all the sit down restaurants on property. We have had it ever since we moved to Florida 8 years ago.

 

[Liz]

We just returned from our first trip using DDE. We traveled with another family and split the cost of DDE and shared the benefits. Each family only had to save $25 to break even on the card. It was a great value! We used it at Whispering Canyon, Trails End, Pop Century food court and 50's PTC. I was asked to show ID each time we used the card.

 

[ArielsMommy]

We love it! We saved $34 just on one overnight stay. I can't wait to use it for our long weekend in Dec.

 

[sjw4870]

I used DDE on a 6 day trip in may. The card already has paid for itself and more. The even better part was that I ordered it in late March, got charged on my credit card in April, had the vacation in May. I FINALLY got the card the other day and it doesnt expire until 6/30/2006. I would have expected the expiration date to have been more around the time-frame of when I received the confirmation letter (early May). I feel like I'm getting a bonus month.

I never had any trouble using the card anywhere (and at the time I only had a small copy of the confirmation letter). I was asked for an ID on a couple of times.

 

[grumpy99]

Just used it on our trip last week. We had the letter and had no issues using it. The longer your stay, the more TS restaurants you go to and the more people in your party, the more it pays for itself.

 

[picantel]

We're a family of 4, 2 adults and 2 kids and the DDE paid for itself in less than 3 days. We only had the letter with us and the servers knew immediately what to do. We handed them the letter and our ID just in case and there were instances where they didn't even take the letter. We just showed them, they said oh, you're on the 20% and they went ahead and deducted the amount.

I look at it as saving on the tip amount. Since we usually tip 20% anyway, there's your 20% savings right there.

 

[rt2dz]

I wasn't sure if it would be worth the purchase or not. I certainly wasn't going to dine around the card, just use it where we already were dining. I pulled down menus from allears.net and decided that even if we ended up cancelling 1/2 of our PS/ADR, it should pay for itself. Well it turned out, almost everywhere (2/3) we ate we could use the card. We are only going to get to use it that one trip before it expires (next trip Dec. 2006), but we saved over $200 for our family of 4, where the baby eats for free at most places. And that is after the $50 investment.

 

[BCVOwner2002]

We used it for our stay June 4 - 11 and it was great! There were nine of us and we saved a lot using it at Chef Mickey's. We also used it at Beaches and Cream.

 

[*Flower*]

We've been using it regularly since we got our email confirmation, and just last night (with a party of 5) saved over $34 with DDE.

And we'll be using it a lot until we renew for another year!!