DDP More or Less Stressful??

[Keegansmommy]

We are doing the DDP for the 2nd time in Dec. We did it two years ago and absolutely LOVED it! Wouldn't go again w/o it. It was so nice not having to worry about how much something cost and just ordered what we wanted. We tried restaurants we normally wouldn't have tried and just enjoyed it. It was less stressful having to not worry about how much money we had set aside for food.

 

[ROEDISNEY]

My family is thinking about taking our second Disney trip of this year in November/December to see the Christmas decorations. We have been curious about trying the DDP for a while now and wonder whether we should try it out this time. Does anyone have any thoughts to whether the DDP relieves or creates more stress on a trip? Do you feel like you have to eat all the time? Or does it encourage you to try new things that you maybe would have not thought to normally? For those of you who aren't big eaters, did you feel like it was a waste of money? Thanks so much for your opinions. I know you all are the pros!
-Kelly

DDP is great! With the tipping included would be better. No you don't feel like you are eating all the time on the basic dinning plan. Now when I was on the Platimun Plan your are getting Breakfast , lunch & dinner + snacks. That was a lot. But I only did that plan cause it was my 25th Ann. and a lot comes with that plan. We are not big eaters that's why I think the basic plan is perfect. Have a great trip!

 

[Silver Queen]

We tried the DDP for the first time in April and were very pleased with it. There were absolutely no problems with it. After every meal we received a receipt with the number of credits left and it was always correct. We like having a TS meal for dinner and are not big breakfast eaters so the plan waas perfect for us. At the end of our stay we did have to make it a point to use a few snack credits so we bought some great oatmeal raisin cookies at the Caribbean Beach Resort food court.
For us the plan was definitely less stressful. I loved ordering filet instead of meatloaf or chicken and not feeling guilty about the cost. We are going back Dec. 8-12, have our ADRs for four restaurants that we've never been to and we'll be using the plan again. Good luck with yhour decision.

 

[ajschell]

We have a trip planned for the first week of December and will not be using the DDP. Here's why... we will be eating off property a fair amount, partially because we could not get reservations for reasonable dinner times (we have 2 young children), and partially because we like many off site restaurants anyways.

My suggestion is to be aware that you may not get reservations at this point for enough TS restaurants to make it worthwhile getting the plan. If, however, you are not picky about times that you eat, then I say go for it!! I do like the idea of paying up front for any expenses you can. Leads to a less stressful vacation in my opinion.

 

[Disney2NJ]

I love the dining plan. To me, it is as close to an inclusive vacation as you can get. I like that my only expenses are souveniers etc. That allows me to order whatever I want from the menu and not make some decisions based on cost.

Making the ADRs ahead of time is fun...let's me and my family enjoy the trip longer in the sense that we are talking about all of the details. It was a bit frustrating because I couldn't book my ADRs at 180 days since we decided on the trip later than that. I wasn't getting the restaurants that I wanted at first...persistance paid off and now I wouldn't change any of them.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[Disney8704]

Well Im completely different from everyone on here. Everyone keeps saying we get to try new TS places we never would have been able to try without the DDP. I dont find that to be true at all. If there was no such thing as the DDP, its simple. Figure out where you wanna go and save up the dough. Thats what DH and I are doing and we're going back to our favorites PLUS trying A LOT of new places. And no they arent cheap places either. Im talking about CRT, Chefs de France (been 2 before), Jiko, Coral Reef, Restaurant Marrakesh, Teppan Edo (never been before) and MANY more places. We will be eating either 1 TS and 2 CS meals or 2 TS and 1 CS meal each day. Mostly 2 TS and 1 CS. And with that, STILL, we would only be saving about $200, and guess where that $200 is coming from - snacks! So if we dont eat snacks, then we come out even. If we do eat snacks, we will pay a little more, but to me thats a lot less hassle then having to figure out OK what meals am I paying cash and DDP and constantly checking the receipts to make sure the credits are correct. In some people's mind DDP is easier for them, and thats fine. In my mind, paying OOP is easier. Just like with anything else. Take eating out and cooking at home for an example. You pay less to eat at home but you have to cook. You pay more to eat out because its convient. Well paying OOP without having to figure things out and constantly checking receipts is convient to us.

Disney makes very few mistakes on the DDP...and you can get them corrected immediately at the restaurant (you don't have to get it done later at your resort.) We had No mistakes on 2 different rooms, 4 people, in 7 days of dining. Every time you use your DDP, the receipt tells you exactly how many you have left...you don't actually have to keep a running tally yourself. If you dont eat the snacks, you can always use them up at the end buying specialty treats to take home as gifts or snacks for the ride home.
Whether it saves you money depends on whether you plan on eating at least one table service & one counter service meal per day...if you think you will do than, then DDP will usually offer at least a small $ savings per day. And it is convenient to have it paid in advance.

We loved the DDP, and found it far less stressful. You do have to plan in advance, but that's part of the fun for us...and the value lets us try restaurants & dishes we might be reluctant to pay OOP for.

 

[solfan68]

Just got back from a week of DDP, and it was great. Everything from the Prime Time to Chef Mickey's to Ohana(first time - it was awesome). We have used various iterations of Disney's pre-paid dining and always been happy. Granted, I liked it better when you didn't have to fuss with the gratuity, but its still a great way to go.

We had six adults and three kids in our 'grand gathering'. Everyone always found something to enjoy whether it was the home style offerings of Garden grill, CM Buffet, or the Tiramisu at Tony's. I think its less stress, because once those ADR's are made, you can gauge how the rest of the day will play out. Best part for me was, with all of the walking I actually came home half a pound lighter than when I left. Whatever your decision, enjoy !

 

[RFrank9504]

In the past we've done the DDP and we basically prepaid for the meals- there's no discount in fact i kinda felt that we paid too much. But to be honest-I find it stressful. You make ADRs and spend all day focusing on what time you have to leave to make your ADRs on time and run around to get there praying your not late -holy stress...we dont spend our day thinking about food - 3 meals a day is way too much for us. We never eat appetizers, entree and dessert in one sitting, we're small. My DH and I dont eat breakfast-coffee and tea...kids love cereal-we pack our own and feed them in the room before we leave for the parks...for lunch in the heat-the kids like luchables and applesauce we pack ourselves in our backpacks along with some snacks and juice boxes. We sit and eat a nice dinner-even if its quick service so for us the DDP was a waist of money. Our last trip we didnt have the DDP so we surfed other sites for menus to get an idea of how much to save to take with us (i am a fan of disney dollars) and with tax and tip we were over budget by 2 meals-which is pretty good. My DH like his beer-so we're away-i let him indulge a bit...we are not using the DDP this next trip-our kids are small and taking them into restaurants 2-3 times a day is torture for all of us to sit and they are tired most times they fall asleep. We plan on about 3 TS dinner in our upcoming trip and thats it. Hope this is helpful.

 

[DebbiC]

I like less stress in my life.. but that said.. I'm a planner by nature. I made my ADRs 180 days in advance and then at 150 days decided to switch all my ADRs and go for the Deluxe plan. Now that was stressful, but I did get all the times and restaurants I wanted.

I'm hypoglycemic and hypokalemic, very low blood sugar and potassium as a result of too many medical complications in the last two years. That said, I need to not only eat more frequently but watch the sugars and carbs as my meals need to be protein based.

We sat down and looked at menus, I like having the idea of 1 - 2TS meal and 1 - 1TS meal daily, or at least 2 1TS sitdowns and those extra snacks can be used for Food n Wine Festival. I'm the kind of person when faced with CS, I'll make bad choices and get Coke as my drink, in a TS setting, I'll choose more proteins and drink plain brewed iced tea, so not the sweetened stuff at the fountains. So for me, the ability to choose and make good choices is less stressful.

I also did a mock up of what we would choose at each meal to see if the value was there. It was. I estimated our choices to be valued at $1400.00 including snacks and mugs. Tips for our table service choices would be approx $240.00, that's 20%. I did not include tips in the $1400.00 figure as we'd be paying them with or without the dining plan. The deluxe plan for us would be approx &840.00, even if we skip a TS meal or sub a CS, the savings are there.

We normally eat at 3-4 of the 2TS restaurants each trip and with my new dietary restrictions, I'm not comfortable with most of the counter service options although there are a few old favorites. 3 of the 2TS places I've chosen have the cheese board offered for dessert, so that will be a "take back" to the resort for late night early morning sugar adjustments.

I'm not a good line waiter and made most of our lunches for early and our dinners later in the evening. Two counter service places come to mind when I think of waiting and those are Cosmic Rays and Columbia Harbour House, last year, we waited over a half hour at each then had to go hunt for tables. Table service has never been more than a few minutes wait and I've been lucky to experience good service. So for me, waiting is more stressful at counter service, you mileage may vary...

I've also been to Disney World enough times to take it at a slow pace.. now if it was my first trip or I knew it would be a long time before I got back, I'd probably do things differently.

How you tour and how / what you eat are individual decisions that each person / family must make. Deluxe makes sense for me.

 

[Nancyg56]

For my family using the DDP is less stressful. The first time we got it I made the mistake of trying to maximize the plan, got a headache and tossed that plan out. We used it to suit us and we wee happy. I never worried about getting my money's worth although I did track that when we returned home.

Now the DDP has changed and the DxDDP seems to be the plan that will work for us. We'll see when we return home if it was. I will not track our spendind vs savings while we are there.

For people who like to wing it, for those folks who prefer not to spend a lot of time dining or dining on site, or for those who really need to know if they are getting their money's worth, this may not be the plan for them. That would be stressful.

 

[Krmrr]

If you plan to eat somewhere you must make ADRs to insure you will be able to eat. The argument that you must worry about making it to your ADR is somewhat silly. I know how long it will take to get from A to B and it's not like if you show up 5 minutes late, they kick you out.

We talk over where to eat in advance and have an agreement. I remember the Olden days, DS#1 would refuse to eat at X, then DD#1 who wanted X throws a fit at Y jouned by DS#2 just for the fun of it. Talk about STESS! They're all older now an much more willing to compromise.

Of course, there's always the joy of DS#1 wanting the $35 steak at Coral Seas, ten minutes after telling you he's really not hungry. With the Dining Plan, I don't care. Hey, I might even get a great steak out of it. The joy of not saying No, is worth any loss I might take on the plan at any one dinner. Overall, I come out ahead. BTW, if someone is really not very hungry and only wants a bowl of soup, I pay OOP and save the TS or CS for later.

Enjoy you time at DW.

 

[bkfree]

We have a trip planned for the first week of December and will not be using the DDP.

My suggestion is to be aware that you may not get reservations at this point for enough TS restaurants to make it worthwhile getting the plan. If, however, you are not picky about times that you eat, then I say go for it!! .

We are also going the first week of December and I just called last week to make our 7 dinner ADR's. I got all but one of my choices on the day and time that I wanted, that is dinners from 6pm to 7:15pm. The only one I could not get was Ohana's but we are going to Kona instead so we are just as happy, actually I think happier now that I think about it.

I have never had any trouble getting ADR's and have never had to wait on hold when calling either.
And I also do not get all this talk about constantly checking reciepts. I don't think I have ever checked my reciepts and there has never been a screw up by Disney in that regard. I do save my reciepts and on the morning of my last day I get the Guest Relations to tell me what we have left so we can be sure and use them all before we go.
For us DDP stands for Delightful Dining Program and very unstressful.

 

[ReneeA]

I sat down with the menus and figured out what our cost would be if we didn't have the dining plan - figuring 2 CS meals per day, one snack per person per day, and 2 or 3 TS meals for the week. I came out to a cost of about $85 per day and that's sharing drinks and no dessert.

It costs our family $94/day for the DDP and it's worth the $9 extra to have a TS meal guaranteed everyday. This will be our 4th trip with it and we've never had a problem with the credits (once was cleared up at the restaurant with no hassle), using all the credits, getting into restaurants, rude waitstaff, etc, etc, etc.

Here's the other thing. When we pay OOP for a TS restaurant, I would normally pick out one of the more inexpensive dishes off the menu - even if it was not my first choice (just cause I'm cheap that way!) and I'd balk at buying dessert for everyone. When on the DDP, I order what I want regardless of price. Sometimes it's a $17 pasta dish, sometimes it's a $29 steak. I don't worry about it, just listen to my hungry belly.

 

[DLW8]

I vote for LESS stressful. As many others mentioned, if you are planning to eat TS either on DDP or paying OOP, you have to make your ADRs these days. So, same amount of "stress". We also love planning where to eat and remembering our favorites.

I also loved not looking at the price of what I was ordering. $35 surf & turf at Coral Reef - sign me up! We ate wonderful meals, ones that we probably would not have paid for OOP. Yes, I'm on vaction, but if I'm shelling out money to pay for a $35 entree, I will 99% of the time find another option and save that money for something else.

I used my points from Disney Rewards to purchase Disney Dollars, and that is how I paid for all 4 of us on the DDP in January. You can't use the rewards points to pay for this (FYI), but can buy Disney Dollars and use those at the hotel to pay for DDP.

I hope the DDP is just as good a deal for 2009 as we are heading there in December....waiting for the August info!

 

[Tricia1972]

Without reading any replies to sway my post...

I think it's much more stressful.

We went in March of 2008 with no DDP and with ADR's for every night. That way we had reservations if we wanted them.

We canceled many of our reservations the afternoon before because we weren't in the mood for a big supper, weren't in the mood for that particular restaurant, weren't that hungry or weren't in that park that day.

What a sense of relief and freedom from our October 2007 trip on the DDP. We had a 14 day trip and always felt that we needed to make our reservation because it was already paid for.

We used the DDE (both visits) but figuring for our group 5A, 1C and 1infant, we ate what we wanted in March, we ate where we wanted, and we saved $500. Our whole group commented for about the entire trip how much nicer it was for us off of the plan.

Part of our problem is that we're grazers. We'll pick up a little something here and a little something there. We also share and split and do lots of things that aren't adventitious of having a Dining Plan.

That's just us - it works great for some and not so great for others.

 

[AZMickeyfans]

In the past we've done the DDP and we basically prepaid for the meals- there's no discount in fact i kinda felt that we paid too much. But to be honest-I find it stressful. You make ADRs and spend all day focusing on what time you have to leave to make your ADRs on time and run around to get there praying your not late -holy stress...we dont spend our day thinking about food - 3 meals a day is way too much for us. We never eat appetizers, entree and dessert in one sitting, we're small. My DH and I dont eat breakfast-coffee and tea...kids love cereal-we pack our own and feed them in the room before we leave for the parks...for lunch in the heat-the kids like luchables and applesauce we pack ourselves in our backpacks along with some snacks and juice boxes. We sit and eat a nice dinner-even if its quick service so for us the DDP was a waist of money. Our last trip we didnt have the DDP so we surfed other sites for menus to get an idea of how much to save to take with us (i am a fan of disney dollars) and with tax and tip we were over budget by 2 meals-which is pretty good. My DH like his beer-so we're away-i let him indulge a bit...we are not using the DDP this next trip-our kids are small and taking them into restaurants 2-3 times a day is torture for all of us to sit and they are tired most times they fall asleep. We plan on about 3 TS dinner in our upcoming trip and thats it. Hope this is helpful.

Without reading any replies to sway my post...

I think it's much more stressful.

We went in March of 2008 with no DDP and with ADR's for every night. That way we had reservations if we wanted them.

We canceled many of our reservations the afternoon before because we weren't in the mood for a big supper, weren't in the mood for that particular restaurant, weren't that hungry or weren't in that park that day.

What a sense of relief and freedom from our October 2007 trip on the DDP. We had a 14 day trip and always felt that we needed to make our reservation because it was already paid for.

We used the DDE (both visits) but figuring for our group 5A, 1C and 1infant, we ate what we wanted in March, we ate where we wanted, and we saved $500. Our whole group commented for about the entire trip how much nicer it was for us off of the plan.

Part of our problem is that we're grazers. We'll pick up a little something here and a little something there. We also share and split and do lots of things that aren't adventitious of having a Dining Plan.

That's just us - it works great for some and not so great for others.

These 2 posts are exactly why we are not booking the DDP on our upcoming trip. Ds5 would be bored to death if we ate at a TS meal each day. He will behave in a restaurant, dont get me wrong but he would be miserable. He pecks at his food like a bird and just sits around waiting for all of us to eat. I believe the kids would have more fun picking up stuff here and there when they are hungry instead of saying No we have to wait til 6pm.

Also I could totally see us switching park plans that day and stressing about getting to the other park or resort for our meal we planned 6 months in advance. For our 12 night trip I only have 4 TS meals booked. CRT, Whispering Canyon, Sci-Fi and Chef Mickeys the first night we arrive. We chose these because my kids will love the experiences there.

 

[disneyfan55]

I think it depends entirely on how you like to eat when you go to WDW. If you like to eat one TS (or character meal) per day, you're going to have to make ADRs anyway, so I don't see how DDP would be more stressful. Unless you're a person who would worry about how much extra the tips are going to cost, and how you're going to pay them. That could be stressful for some.

If the tipping question doesn't bother you, I'd take a realistic look at the costs and benefits and make a sound financial decision -- it might save you money, it might not. For many, buying DDP and realizing halfway through the trip that you're NOT saving money would be very stressful!

People who wouldn't normally use their allocation of TS credits have never been good candidates for DDP, although a lot of them have bought it.

People who like to "wing it" are certainly not prime candidates for DDP because they stand to lose credits, or get forced to bus across WDW to a restaurant where nobody else wanted to eat, because they don't have ADRs.

Over the years we always ate a few TS meals before the DDP was available. We would just make reservations upon arrival, could pick pretty much anytime and no stress. Last year we were in WDW for the FD. I had so much trouble even getting 1 or 2 meals at what we consider a normal dinner hour due to all the reservations out there already. We were trying to do this months ahead. It literally took quite a few hours to make reservations even at odd hours and not all the places we wanted. That's how I find the Dining Plan stressful. In the past, just go and make a reservation at will now heavy duty planning. Just maybe why people consider the DDP stressful. That's why I found it to be.