DDP or not with these ADR's

[Gorechick]

We're going in August during Discount Void week- no room discount/no FD. I booked all the places we'd like to eat and am still going back and forth about DDP. I REALLY preferred the old DDP and made good use of it. Would you pay for the current DDP with this lineup?

August 16
Rainforest Cafe-DTD Dinner
August 17
DHS -Hollywood & Vine Character Lunch
POR- Boatwright's Dinner (Yeeha Bob show at River Roost after)
August 18
Poly- O'Hana Dinner
August 19
Poly- Kona Breakfast
August 20
AK- Tusker House Character Lunch
BC- Cape May Dinner
August 21
WL- Artist Point Dinner
August 22
MK- CRT Breakfast
BW- Flying Fish Cafe Dinner
August 23
MK- Crystal Palace Character Lunch
Epcot- Tutti Italia Dinner
August 24
Epcot-Akershus Princess Breakfast
DTD- Raglan Road Dinner

We'll also be doing the following QS- Columbia Harbour House, Boulangerie Patisserie, Sunshine Seasons Food Fair, Wolfgang Puck Express, Flame Tree Barbecue, Earl of Sandwich, Ghirardelli's, T-Rex, and Riverside Mill Food Court at POR.

 

[Kate0716]

So... it looks like you have 9 nights which would be 9 TS/9CS credits on the regular dining plan and roughly 27 TS/CS credits per person on the DxDP. Based on what you have booked, it looks to me like you are already over your credits for the regular dining plan (17 instead of 9) but if you booked DxDP you would be sitting right around 26/27 credits used (including your CS, and not sure TRex has a counter service option so you'd likely have to add that as a TS).

It's a tough call. I'm a fan of the deluxe dining plan (with or without free dining), so that's where I lean. In my opinion, the value can't be beat, especially with kids 3-9 year old. However, it really depends on how you like to eat. Have you looked at the menus to get an idea of how much you'd spend at your meals?

 

[mefordis]

We are taking a similar trip in November with our two girls. We are staying at POR, the Royal rooms! After doing a lot of calculating I figured we would come out about $500 ahead if we did oop. I also picked a lot of signature places and character buffets.

If you will be there 9 nights, the dxddp will be $1967 + tips, which would probably be around $300. That would be $2267 for food. If you put that aside and ordered whatever you wanted, no restrictions, I doubt you would spend it all. Also, if you want to order something off of the adult menu for your kids to split (which is what we sometimes do), it is not allowed.

For us, we decided it is too many restrictions and too much preoccupation about the credits and what we can and cannot get. (Example, Ghiradelli, I don't think, is on the ddp).

Also, if God forbid someone gets sick, you have paid for all of that food. We did the dxddp in the past and I remember how full I was all the time and we were like, "Time for ANOTHER meal?!? Ugh!" I remember being at Kona at 9pm for dinner and had a huge steak in front of me that went untouched because I was full from the appetizer!

 

[coup2516]

We had a similar debate last year and ended up deciding to not do the DDP. It was just me and my girlfriend going down, so beforehand, we looked at the menus for all of the places we wanted to eat and got an idea of how much we would spend OOP. It ended up being a lot less than the DDP was going to cost us.


Paying for the DDP can be justified if you're ordering the most expensive things on the menu every night. But if you're a pasta and chicken kind of person (like my girlfriend), it really isn't worth it. I would definitely recommend taking the time to figure out about how much you plan on spending at each restaurant and just do the math from there.