DDP, is it worth it?

[Emiems20]

First time planning WDW trip, is the dinning plan worth it??

 

[Mrs.viv07]

i have learned that here you will get many kinds of anwser, you have to take into consideration how your family eats and how much you are willing to spend on your own.
here is what i learned. We are a family of 3 we went with the dinning plan because we figured hey what the heck.
It was the best $$$ we have spent at disney so far. For us in january it came to like $80 a day for the 3 of us. we don't really eat breakfast so coffee and a bagel or whatever was just fine, our son (6 yo) would have cereal or juice and muffin. that took care of the counter on day we were having early dinners 4pm or so when we didn't have an early dinner we used the counter sevice for lunch and snack for coffee and pay out of pocket for a bagel or sandwhich for breakfast. the do dinner at night with Table service credit. We did go to rainforest and decided to pay for it because hey how much could it really be, well $150 later we got our answer we did get appetizer dinner dessert and 1 round of drinks but still. i can't see myself spending that evry night we were there 2-3 times a day oh and we did a counter service at mgm that was about $75 for 2 reubens 1 beer 1 smoothie and a kids meal, not desser for us.
We had about 3 snacks left over and 1 counter but it still worked out great.
we also had budgeted about $150 just for alchohol since we wanted to try doing beers around the world at epcot but did not get to do them all so we used the $$ for drinks at other places. i think we have about $30 left at the end from that
i hope all this makes sense but we will def use it again when we go back next year.
If you don't see yourself eating all of this food (because portions are pretty big) then maybe you should consider other options. We love food and love trying new places and some of these restaurants (like coral reef) would have been way to expensive for us to have tried on vacation.
IMO its worth it you don't have to worry about how much is it going to be at the end or how much do i tip ( although we gave extra to most of our servers who were awesome)
again i hope all this helps out a bit

 

[Amyg]

Yep, agree with previous poster...for our family of three (2 adults, 1 child) it allowed us to eat at some very nice restaurants plus it saved us about $400 doing it! When we are on vacation, we generally don't like skimping and worrying about money we spend on meals. Plus for me, I feel that eating is part of the adventure of travel! Lucky I have some skinny genes that run in the family!

I did a little research and pretty much decided where we would eat, made all ADR's beforehand for around 6 p.m.

We opted for CS breakfasts, shared quick lunches and nice dinners or buffets. Since there was so much food, my son and I ended up sharing many meals and were full in the process.

We are lined up for a Land/Sea next year and I'm thinking about dining plan again! We liked not having to think about paying for meals each time, plus tax and tips are all included in the price!

 

[captinhookedondisney]

DEFINITELY I will not go back to WDW without it. All our meals total(we are 3) was over $275 Only at Table Service. Which is way more than the amount you pay (39X3=117) for the day per person. You eat sooo (stressing so) much. But it's all good. Also take advantage of any non-alcohalic drinks. Smoothies, Floats, Soda Anything you name it. If we went to WDW without the dinning plan we would just have CS for Lunch and Dinner and we would bring Fruits and thats breakfast. And only 1 TS Dinner all Vacation. Now we eat well all through the Vacation. I love the DDP

 

[captinhookedondisney]

Also Eat at the most expensive restaurant you can find that is only 1 Ts Credit.

 

[Married_Him_@_Disney]

The DDP is a great program.... its like going to an all inclusive resort, you just order whatever you wat and really get to enjoy the dinning. Disney dining is always a highlight of our trips. Make Advance Reservations!

 

[The Sweetness]

Most expensive place or not, if you plan on a daily TS meal (esp if lunch or dinner) it will be worth it. And what a treat to dine out and not have to open your wallet for any $$$ whatsoever

 

[disney1990]

We spent from 1990-2005 eating mosting at counter service. We have now changed to the Dining Plan. It is so nice to be able to eat in restaurants and not worry about going over our budget.

 

[Mrs.viv07]

Most expensive place or not, if you plan on a daily TS meal (esp if lunch or dinner) it will be worth it. And what a treat to dine out and not have to open your wallet for any $$$ whatsoever

we came home and our son kept asking us if we could use the "magic" card to pay for everything. i think he wanted a PSP and we said no too expensive so he said but you used the magic card at disney and din't have to pay for anything!

 

[Emiems20]

thank you for your information, it sounds wonderful am so excited and can not wait!!!

 

[TheZenMaster]

First time planning WDW trip, is the dinning plan worth it??

If I may put my two cents in. My wife and I booked it just because it seemed like a great thing to try out and seemed like a good value. It turned out to be so much more than that. Just planning out our meals made us more excited for the trip than anything else. And there turned out to be good reason to get excited. We really had a blast and enjoyed our meals. If we hadn't done this, we'd have eaten crappy food for as cheap as possible. Instead, we went and got nice entrees and desserts which we never would have ordered. For myself, a picky eater, I went outside of my comfort zone and tried a few things that I definitely would not have and really had a blast. At some point, we were realizing how much of a bill we could rack up and it really was a riot for us to spend $80 on a meal we would have done under $20 without the meal plan at another place.

Honestly, I can't begin to tell you how much fun we had just eating and enjoying our meals. I may go again this year even though I probably shouldn't now that the free DDP promotion is coming out again.

 

[rentayenta]

I am wondering if it's worth it as well and for me the worth it doesn't lie in the value of the food but how much time is spent eating. I am thinking, that for us, it might be worth to dine at a few 2 TS places- great food, atmosphere, and still plenty of free time in the parks.


This is my current plan anyway.


Good luck with the planning!

 

[clownfish1452]

I found that I really got my moneys worth and I did not have any ADR's my first trip.

Sarah

 

[noopy]

I thought it was wonderful the first 3 times we used it, and I still agree it can be a great deal. However, on our last 2 trips, we had to scramble to use all of our credits, which quickly became a pain (although a cast member at Captain Cooks told me some ways we could use our credits that I never knew, which really helped).

Anyway, we've come to realize that eating doesn't seem to be that important to us until dinner! We love to take it slow in the parks and spend lots of time in them, sometimes just sitting in a neat alcove and watching people (amazingly, my 8 yr. old enjoys a slow pace, too). Food isn't really on our mind when we're in the parks. A snack is usually enough to sustain us, and it doesn't weigh us down as we stroll or ride attractions.

For the 1st time we went without the meal plan last fall, and we ended up saving money - about $115! We didn't feel we had overeaten on our vacation, which was another plus, although did have some fabulous buffet meals!

If you've never been to WDW, then I would get the dining plan and enjoy discovering the many yummies out there! If the words "vacation" and "food" are synonyms in your book, get the dining plan! Once you've been a few times, you may discover that you aren't as interested in eating as you were when it was all new. Or, maybe not...



PS - There are usually 4 of us - 3 adults, 1 child. I like to take my parents when I can.