DDP - Is it a good value for families

[jmdisney]

We decided to try the DDP. After looking at menus on this site as well
as allearsnet, I'm not so sure. For example, Alfredo's menu back in July 05
had some nice choices. I saw an update from jan06. It has changed & not
for the better in my opinion. Also, MaMa Melrose seems to have a better
lunch selection than dinner. Last time at Disney I noticed better choices
at Coral reef too than what I am seeing now. Is it worth it? Seems as if
you don't want to eat steak 4 or 5 times, your pretty limited. Are these
menu's just samples or is it pretty much what you can expect? On the
DDP, can you order anything on the menu or are there restrictions once
you get there? Any feedback would be helpful.

 

[budbeerlady]

Those are the real menus. We had a great savings of almost $400 on the dining plan. It was very worthwhile for us. But we are real meateaters, steak every day was pretty much what we had. So if the menus look good to you go for the dining plan.

 

[jenr812]

We felt the dining plan was a tremendous value for us last July. We ate at Crystal Palace for breakfast (wonderful buffet, fabulous character interaction), Breakfastasaurus for breakfast (ok buffet but character interaction was rushed and terrible), 1900 park faire (not terribly impressed with the buffet for the price but the character interaction was nice and the kids loved the strawberry soup and shrimp), ohana (we ALL loved Ohana and can't wait to return), Boma (surprisingly even picky DH really enjoyed it and we will return), California Grill (amazing filet mignon and the opportunity to try things we never would have without the DP like flatbreads and the view!), Concourse steakhouse (good food, good service), and Hollywood and Vine (decent selection at the buffet, neat theming). We also ate at RFC in DTD on the 4th of July, which isn't on the DP as far as I know, but we really enjoyed that as well.

We got over $400 more than we paid for the plan and everyone ate very well. WE didn't run into any restrictions at all.

 

[jensen]

We are a family of 4 - 2 adults, 5-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl. We've used the dining plan twice. I had expected to spend about $100/day on food, so when I learned of the dining plan at about $85/day for all that food, I jumped on it. I don't typically buy "package" deals because I'm a fairly conservative person and like to try to do things the least expensive way possible. But, this was one time I couldn't pass the deal up. I loved the freedom of going to a restaurant and not looking at the prices. And I loved knowing that all was pre-paid, so I wasn't going over my vacation budget. The fact that we were able to dine at better restaurants than we normally would have, was simply icing on the cake. For me, the dining plan made it a true vacation - no worries.

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

I think a lot of it depends on how your family eats while on vacation.

For us, we would eat at a ts meal, probably once a day, anyway. We love character meals, and there are certain others that have become part of our trip, that we wouldn't miss out on. We figured it out that the ddp will at least break even for us, just eating one ts a day.....so the snacks and cs meals are all going to be "free", therefore, saving us quite a bit. I can't wait to save my receipts to figure out how much we really do save.

Some families, on the other hand, only eat at one or two ts meals for there entire week. My neighbors are like this. They eat cs at their resorts for meals, or bring along bread and pbj, etc. For them, it wouldn't be worth it, since they would be changing there entire dining style, and probably spending more.

Now, this may be the last trip where it is worth it for us. My oldest ds will be nine for this trip, so he will be counted as an adult for future trips. I'll have to carefully weigh the costs in the future, since he is extremely picky and doesn't eat much, at all.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[jmdisney]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the feedback. We are going to give it a try.
I'm sure it will work out fine.

 

[amarberry]

I just wanted to add my two cents...we've done the dining plan twice (once free, once paid for...we're doing it for free again in Sept.!) and we think that it is a very good value if you like having a sit down meal each day. I'm a vegetarian and DH is not a huge meat eater (after a couple of days of steak eating, he'd had enough) so we generally didn't eat the big ticket meals. On our January trip, I think our least expensive dinners were around $75-80 (after tip and tax) and we had several dinners that came in over $100.

Before DD was born, DH and I went on a cruise with family and friends about once a year. Cruises just aren't as much fun now with an explosive toddler at late seating dinner and the limited alcohol consumption since we are NOT on vacation from being parents! Before doing the dining plan, we thought that the food at Disney was pretty bad because we pretty much just ate counter service. DH commented on our last trip that adding the dining plan has made Disney trips feel more like a cruise to him because it gives us the opportunity to try new things and order whatever we want regardless of cost.