DDP is not looking good for us....

[la79al]

I just did some math and it looks like if we (DH, me, DSS (10) and DSD (6)) all just ordered an entree, we would still end up spending $35 less than if we got the DDP. I think CRT is the one throwing us off, the boys might get kicked out of the castle. I guess I am wondering though, if we order apps or desserts or whatever, since they are included, we can just get them to go right? A smushed dessert back in the room later is still a dessert. Also, I am assuming that most people do not use their snack credits to buy sodas throughout the day right? We are going the end of June and when we went that time in 05, we bought more sodas than anything else. I want to make the DDP work for us because of the ease of carrying one card (and telling DH that the trip total already includes food) and I'm almost there.....

 

[The Sweetness]

it would cost you $35 more for your entire trip? Than yes, Id do it. You *may* want to order some aps and desserts. Even if just one for the table to share. And if you order 2 or 3, you can try different things.

I cant wait to try out the DDP

 

[Jubilee]

I love the DP but in December (DH and DD's first trips) we did spend way more on top of the DP, and it was way too much food. We were so overwhelmed with excitement of wanting to try things, by the end of it, we were just ordering food to use the credits. We are still using it this next time, but we learned a lot now. Since you have 1 CS, TS and snack through the day, we are doing days more like:

~TS character breakfast, snack lunch, CS dinner (people say not to waste the TS on breakfast, but some of the breakfasts are expensive and it still works out!)
~snack breafast, early CS lunch, TS dinner
~CS breakfast, snack lunch, TS dinner
~snack breakfast, character TS lunch, CS dinner, snack late

rather than when we went last time, almost every day:

~out of pocket breakfast, CS lunch, TS dinner

is wayyyyyyy too much food! This time we plan to spend a lot less on spur of the moment items.

 

[pilferk]

I've come to the conclusion that the DDP is probably not going to work for us, either....largely because the children's offerings are just not what they used to be and will be relatively unappealing to our kids....and we'll be making our next trip, most likely, as DVC members (with full kitchen).

With the DDP, I think you need to take a long hard look at how you, personally, are going to use it. Give the description in your post, it may not be the best candidate for your family.

 

[Chuck S]

Every trip I have added up what we actually spent on food, with the DDE discount available to AP holders, including tax and tip. I compared that to what the DDP would cost us, and the DDP has never shown a savings.

 

[dbk1029]

You get a counter service meal, table service meal, and a snack for $38/39 per day (adult, not sure about the kid cost because I don't have any yet).

So it could break down like this:

Snack: Mainly any snack type item under $4. Use this for breakfast. I know I was able to get a box of those Enteman's Doughnuts at the hotel general store last year (retail $3.99). I am also told you can use them at the MK Main Street Bakery for muffins and cinnamon buns. TOTAL: $4.00

Counter Service: The DP allows for a combo meal plus dessert & non-alcholic beverage. I know most of my CS meals last year were about $8-9 before dessert. If you add the dessert lets say the total would be about $10-11. Also remember the non-alcoholic beverage can be a Large size drink. TOTAL: $11

Table Service: The meat of the DDP value (if you order everything). Start off with an appetizer. Most appies range from $5-7 (sometimes more). Lets split the diff and say $6. Entrees run about $18-25 in most TS restaurants with most going for about $22. So I'll use that as my price. Now a non-alcoholic beverage goes for about $2.50 at most TS places. Now on to dessert which can be between $5-10. Mainly I think about $6 is a fairly conservative number for most TS places. TOTAL: $36.50

So adding up the total for one day of dining (as an adult) and ordering all you are entitled to comes to: SNACK: $4 CS: $11 TS: 36.50 GRAND TOTAL: $51.50.

I see a value here but only if you plan on taking full advantage of the plan. If you don't plan on eating at TS restaurants or ordering all you are entitled to I don't recommend the DDP. Also I am not familiar with child pricing so you may not get value there. Honestly I feel that it can be too much food but Disney needs to make the package a value otherwise no one would use it. I also enjoy having all of my meals paid for before I get to Disney. It's one less thing I have to worry over.

 

[pilferk]

You get a counter service meal, table service meal, and a snack for $38/39 per day (adult, not sure about the kid cost because I don't have any yet).

So it could break down like this:

Snack: Mainly any snack type item under $4. Use this for breakfast. I know I was able to get a box of those Enteman's Doughnuts at the hotel general store last year (retail $3.99). I am also told you can use them at the MK Main Street Bakery for muffins and cinnamon buns. TOTAL: $4.00

Counter Service: The DP allows for a combo meal plus dessert & non-alcholic beverage. I know most of my CS meals last year were about $8-9 before dessert. If you add the dessert lets say the total would be about $10-11. Also remember the non-alcoholic beverage can be a Large size drink. TOTAL: $11

Table Service: The meat of the DDP value (if you order everything). Start off with an appetizer. Most appies range from $5-7 (sometimes more). Lets split the diff and say $6. Entrees run about $18-25 in most TS restaurants with most going for about $22. So I'll use that as my price. Now a non-alcoholic beverage goes for about $2.50 at most TS places. Now on to dessert which can be between $5-10. Mainly I think about $6 is a fairly conservative number for most TS places. TOTAL: $36.50

So adding up the total for one day of dining (as an adult) and ordering all you are entitled to comes to: SNACK: $4 CS: $11 TS: 36.50 GRAND TOTAL: $51.50.

I see a value here but only if you plan on taking full advantage of the plan. If you don't plan on eating at TS restaurants or ordering all you are entitled to I don't recommend the DDP. Also I am not familiar with child pricing so you may not get value there. Honestly I feel that it can be too much food but Disney needs to make the package a value otherwise no one would use it. I also enjoy having all of my meals paid for before I get to Disney. It's one less thing I have to worry over.

And that's why it won't work well for us, IMHO. I'll use your numbers:

$4
$11 CS
$28 TS (My wife and I would share an app, and share a desert...if we EACH got a desert and app, we'd never finish it all...and we tend to drink water, and/or "adult beverages" with dinner, so....)
total = $43
Less 20% DDE discount ($5.60)
Total: 37.40.
Tip: 5.04 (assuming an 18% tip on TS only..though we tip more than that usually)
42.44

AND I get a 20% discount on our adult beverages at our TS.

The DDP, while possibly offering a very slight savings, doesn't seem worth the hassle, especially if we've got a full kitchen and might not eat a CS every day, or use the snack credits every day. Add to that my kids won't like many of the available kids options (or, rather, they'll prefer the adult options on the menu to the "boring" kids choices)....and you come to the decision we've pretty much made.

That's for OUR family. You need to crunch those numbers and figure out how YOUR family is going to use the plan. It does make sense for a lot of people.

 

[Nancyg56]

I just did some math and it looks like if we (DH, me, DSS (10) and DSD (6)) all just ordered an entree, we would still end up spending $35 less than if we got the DDP. I think CRT is the one throwing us off, the boys might get kicked out of the castle. I guess I am wondering though, if we order apps or desserts or whatever, since they are included, we can just get them to go right? A smushed dessert back in the room later is still a dessert. Also, I am assuming that most people do not use their snack credits to buy sodas throughout the day right? We are going the end of June and when we went that time in 05, we bought more sodas than anything else. I want to make the DDP work for us because of the ease of carrying one card (and telling DH that the trip total already includes food) and I'm almost there.....

Have you added the beverage, tax and the tip onto your total cost? Not questioning your math, just tossing it in.

 

[Chuck S]

I guess I am wondering though, if we order apps or desserts or whatever, since they are included, we can just get them to go right? A smushed dessert back in the room later is still a dessert.

Remember that most WDW desserts are served either warm or cold. If you get them to go, they could easily spoil after carrying them around in the parks. Then there is the simple hassle of lugging them around.

 

[ncbyrne]

Sometimes we save, sometimes we break even (depending on who is traveling with us). But...the biggest draw to the DDP for us is that the meals are paid for in advance, tip and all. It's a great way to try TS restaurants and not have to think about price or figuring a tip. If we stay onsite, we will always get the DDP.

 

[maslex]

I was trying to convince DH to try the DDP. He didn't want to (he's the one who's always skeptical of things---everything is a scam to him)

So one day I sat down for a couple hours and went through all the menus online and wrote down everything we would order from the restaurants that we are going to. I included any appetizers, desserts, drinks & entrees. That total came to roughly $1435 (but it did not include tax or tips) I figured out that the dining plan would cost us roughly $1250 (4 adults) and that total included all tax & tips (this is what made him change his mind, I believe).

So it really depends on what would work best for your family.

 

[goofy4tink]

I've done the DDP twice now. I also have the DDE card, which I love. We are heading back to WDW in August. I 'thought' the DDP wasn't going to work for us. But, yesterday I sat down with the menus and figured out what we would 'normally' order at each meal. Sometimes there would be an appetizer, sometimes not. Same with dessert. So, I figured accordingly. I didn't add in breakfasts since we would do those in our villa...bagels, donuts, cereal/mild..that sort of thing. I actually came out $3 less using the DDP, and that didn't account for the $4 a day, pp, for snacks. Don't forget to take into account those taxes and tips that are all included in the DDP.
So, we will use the DDP in August, in conjunction with my DDE card for the one or two meals that aren't covered by DDP, as well as those 'adult' beverages.

 

[dbk1029]

TO the OP: As I said if you ARE taking full advantage of the plan it is worth it. In your case it appears you won't be taking advantage of the plan so of course it will not work for you.

 

[joeathome167]

This isn't really answering the first question and I don't know anything about the DDE card, but I did some figuring based on our last trip (which we paid for OOP) and where I figure on eating this time and here are my results. I used the menus and figured 1 TS a day, 1 CS a day and 1 snack for each of us (me, DW, DS7, DS4 and DD2 no plan for her). Then I took out the food apps and desserts we wouldn't have ordered if not on the plan.

Ordering everything your entitled to I got: Total Food Cost of $1,016.97 (with tax and tip) less DDP cost 7days @$99.96 or $699.72. That gave me a savings of $317.25 for the trip

Taking out the stuff we wouldn't normally order: Total Food Cost $914.43 less DDP cost $699.72. That gives me a savings of $214.71. Still seems worth it for us and this includes a few character buffets that don't give you the greatest savings.

I figure we end up losing $$ on the kids a little, but the amount saved for DW and me makes up for it in spades. We plan on buying milk and breakfast food to eat while watching the animals from our patio at the resort in the mornings. So that adds a little OOP cost, but we would've done that anyway.

 

[joeathome167]

I forgot to add this includes having 1 left over CS for each person. We'll figure out how to spend. More savings!!!! Woo Hoo.

 

[Arielsfanmom]

We used the DDP in december 06. We paid around $400 for all 4 of us. Our first day we ate at WPE and HDDR(never again). We would have spent $200 oop had we not had DDp.

 

[carone0318]

We enjoy using the dining plan, have used it our past 2 trips. We always pay since we are DVC, so we don't get the true bargain of free dining.

We do use the plan to the best of our abilities.

We use our snack credit every morning for breakfast (unless we have a character breakfast to go to.) Usually we would stop at the Boardwalk bakery (the kids really liked doing this.)

We use CS for our lunch normally, again unless we had a character breakfast then the CS would be for dinner.

And usually we use the TS for dinner. We always ordered an appetizer and dessert and rarely brought with us because of the temps outside (August), but did bring back the kids dessert from Coral Reef one time.

We buy our own drinks before we arrive on property, so we never use our credits for drinks. Now with the CS meals, most of the desserts are the pre-packaged kind, brownie, cookie, etc. I rarerly ever ate them with my meal and would put them in my backpack and bring with us for later if any of us really wanted a snack.

We never spent more than $10 out of pocket for anything else while visiting.

 

[BriarRose59]

Make sure you check out the Snack thread that lists everything you can get with a snack credit. You can get a 1/2 gal. of milk at most of the resorts and the individual cereal packets, pastries, all kids of breakfast items. You don't have to spend you snack credits on soft drinks, water or sweets.

 

[mom2aredhead]

Partly because it's making for waaaaaay to much work planning. Also, I'm having a hard time justifying giving up park time to go somewhere to eat a TS dinner (which potentially takes up a lot of time). I feel like I'm going to Disney to enjoy the parks with my family, and while we do need to eat, it is not the main point of our trip. I do like the idea of having tax/tip included and paying for everything upfront, but if we were not on DDP, we would be a lot more likely to do more CS in the parks than to stop and go to a TS.
Also, my 3 year old DS is VERY PICKY. so I'm having a hard time with some of the TS menus for him.
Right now, I have DDP booked, and have a few ADR's set for our May trip:
Chef Mickey's dinner on our first night and breakfast on our last day = 2TS
Playhouse Disney lunch 1TS
Mickey's Backyard BBQ - (not a favorite on the boards I know, but we had a blast last year!) = 2TS
This leaves me with only 1 more TS to book, and I was considering the Cape May Clambake (also not a board favorite, but we were going to give it a shot)
Then I was thinking about paying OOP for the BBQ because it's 2 credits, but I honestly can't figure out where to book any more TS meals that wouldn't interfere too much with "park time" and had menu's we all like.
I should also add that RFC is a MUST DO for us, and isn't on DDP.
UGH - I just don't know.

 

[Ilovemyprincesses]

I just want to add I know the kids CS meal are not great but for $11 a day the snack and TS meal covers the $11. Even if you have to pay for a pizza or something OOP it isn't like you got a horrible deal.