DDP or OOP?

[dhdozier]

Are you going off site to eat any? There are some great places to eat in Orlando you may want to try and coupons to make it a real bargain - not to mention kids eat free card your daughter would be able to use.

 

[dhdozier]

That's exactly what I meant. The OP was wondering which was the best way to go. We don't drink sodas, bottled water, or the measley cs desserts (as maybe the OP doesn't either) so our CS meals are exactly about $10 per person. Water is free and I wouldn't want their desserts, so it's much cheaper to pay OOP. "Comparing" what the OP wanted in CS meals is what she stated - don't think she really said if she wanted the extras ea. meal that you have to purchase with the QSDP. Just reread the OP's post and she said "would like to spend as little on food as possible" - to me that means she can well spend about $10 per person and be well ahead of the price of the QSDP. The desserts are usually awful and why pay $2.50 for water when you can get it free. JMO

Soooo agree about desserts, the best in my family's opinion are Choc chip cookies and ice cream for snacks. And a girlfriend of mine always takes crystal light powders for mixing with their free ice water and is much more refreshed than soda which will make you thirstier. You can take in a few snacks to head off your sweettooth and buy sandwich with fries only and save some $$$

 

[KigerKat]

It's just DH and I, and we love the QSDP. If you use the plan as it's intended, you will still need to pay OOP for at least one meal each day, and we usually bring quick breakfast foods with us and keep it in our room.

However, I'm not aware of a rule that says that if you have 4 people in your room that you have to redeem 4 meal credits for each meal. You could have your children split one for lunch or dinner, and then save up some credits for breakfast.

There are a lot of great CS options that we love, like Sunshine Seasons (EP), Earl of Sandwich (DTD), Wolfgang Puck Express (DTD), Cosmic Ray's (MK), Flame Tree BBQ (AK), Pepper Market (CSR), and the food court at Pop. You can get some really large portions, and the meals include dessert and a drink.

If we were paying OOP, we wouldn't get dessert and we would probably drink water instead of a soft drink. But then again, we do like the idea of sitting down to a semi-nice meal and having about 90% of our vacation paid for in advance.

I would say that if your main goal is to have a budget trip and you are able to either bring food with you or drive to a local grocery store, then go with that option. But if you don't want to have to worry about carrying food around with you and/or paying OOP, then go for the QSDP.

 

[disneysteve]

However, I'm not aware of a rule that says that if you have 4 people in your room that you have to redeem 4 meal credits for each meal. You could have your children split one for lunch or dinner, and then save up some credits for breakfast.

Or you can use spare credits for people not on the plan - even total strangers. We have been the recipients, more than once, of people in line asking if we'd like free food because they had extra credits that they weren't going to use. Worked for us.

 

[bellarella]

I think the best way to decide is to go to allears and "shop." Figure out what you would likely order OOP and add it up. Then compare that to the dining plan. "Apples to Apples" is not what the dining plan plan offers compared to what it would cost you to purchase it a la carte, but rather what you would want to order compared to what the DDP would cost.

I ran these numbers when looking at the TS DDP. It was cheaper for us to eat the way we liked to eat off the plan until we changed our schedule and decided to do a couple of character meals. Then the DDP became cheaper, even if we paid for a few things OOP in addition to the DDP.

 

[mrodgers]

However, I'm not aware of a rule that says that if you have 4 people in your room that you have to redeem 4 meal credits for each meal. You could have your children split one for lunch or dinner, and then save up some credits for breakfast.

Or you can use spare credits for people not on the plan - even total strangers. We have been the recipients, more than once, of people in line asking if we'd like free food because they had extra credits that they weren't going to use. Worked for us.

Another tip with CS credits is, a whole pizza in the resorts' food court (or at least at Pop Century) was 2 CS credits. My wife and the kids LOVED the pizza at Pop Century and we ended up eating that twice for lunch (taking after lunch breaks at resort in the 105° heat). Then we were able to trade in the CS credits for 2 snack credits. We didn't use many of our snack credits and ended up bringing 10 Mickeyhead Rice Krispy treats home to give to grandma/grandpa and aunts/uncles.

 

[disneymomjcs]

We love the dining plan for the ease of it. It is the best deal if you are planning a sit down or lots of character buffets as they are expensive. We usually are giving away our desserts from our counter services. We eat oatmeal or cereal in the room or a nutrigran or granola bar. Bagel at the park. Sometimes we spilt counter serve meals between my teen daughter and myself. My hubby always eats his counter serve meal.

 

[summermac]

Since discovering the new price, we are not getting DDP this trip. We loved it in 2009 but IMO it was still had value then. Adding the mug and upping it by $13 for adults and $5 for kids is not worth the mug, for me at this time. I know we can do it cheaper and we will do it cheaper, even having two character meals.

Also we go to WDW with 3 or 4 other adults which helps a lot at TS and CS for meal sharing among us. I think we might consider DDP again later if the other adults don't come. But right now, as it is, we're out.

Another thing to consider is that being on DDP costs you more for tips too, if you maximize the plan and get your drink and dessert and wouldn't normally do that. This is especially important to note if your party is 6 or larger and subject to automatic gratuity.

I had a bunch of MyPoints to redeem and I chose two $50 Rainforest Cafe gift cards to also help us save on dining this time. The rest of the meals will hopefully be covered by my Disney Visa rewards.

 

[disneysteve]

We didn't use many of our snack credits and ended up bringing 10 Mickeyhead Rice Krispy treats home to give to grandma/grandpa and aunts/uncles.

I've seen many people, on the last day of their vacation, loading up on "free" snacks to take home. So in a way they got their money's worth, but ended up getting a lot of stuff that they didn't really need.

 

[iheartpeterpan]

It really depends on how your family eats.

For us, the DDP is never worth it, even when it is "free". My DD is 12 and a Disney adult, but she eats like a bird. So we always share every single meal, even table service, unless we are at a buffet. Neither of us is a big dessert eater. So for us, even when they offer the DDP for free, it is usually less expensive to take a room discount and pay OOP than to pay rack rate and the DDP.

You will just need to sit down and figure out how you would eat and what your costs would be. Keep in mind that your kids over 9 are full fare. At many counter service spots you will get a ton of food that can probably be shared so you will not have to buy a full meal for everyone every meal.

 

[buy24me]

Based on what you have written, I would pay OOP. Your DD10 is actually considered a Disney "adult" so you would have to pay the adult price for her. Honestly, we save more $$ paying OOP. We would not "typically" eat dessert with every meal. We like being able to split. My DS4 and myself split the chicken/ribs combo at Cosmic Rays at MK, for example.

Also, I don't like to be limited. If I decide to just to a restaurant and get a some appetizers I want to be able to.

This may be helpful:

The CS Dining plan would be $35x3 and $12x1 for each night of your stay ($117)

My family's typical day at MK would be:

Breakfast:
Main St Bakery

Chocolate croissant $2.30
Cinnamon Roll $4
Muffin $2.60
Egg, Ham, Croissant $6
Tap water to drink

Total: approx $15

Lunch:
Columbia Harbour House
2 anchors aweigh sandwich for $9 each
2 kids meals for $5.50 each
tap water again

Total: approx $29

Dinner:
Cosmic Rays
1/2 chicken and ribs combo $14
1/2 chicken $10
kids chicken nuggets $5.50

3 drinks $7.50

Total: approx $37

3 snacks $12

Day total: $93 which is $24 under the cost of the plan. I did not get the cheapest thing on the menus either.

This is a great example and pretty much probably about what we would eat as well.

 

[StuckInKS]

It completely depends on your family and how you plan to eat.

Take this for example:

Unless you choose the Deluxe Dining Plan, it is hard to breakeven with a Disney Dining Plan. I always go OOP now.

This is true for the pp who wrote it, but not for us. We plan to do CRT, LTT dinner, CM breakfast, CP breakfast, Coral Reef dinner, Sci-Fi lunch or dinner and Mama Melrose lunch or dinner. That plus 48 snacks is $1250. That is with pop, tea or bottled water for DH and I at each meal and maybe one dessert a day for myself and none for DH, as he does not really eat sweets. DDP for my family for 8 nights is just over $1300. So, we would be paying a little over $50 for 8 CS meals for 6 people + 6 mugs using the DDP. A great deal for us.

Also, me and my DH have tried sharing the "large" meal at Cosmic Rays and it just doesn't work for us, even if we order a side of cheese fries to go with it. My DH (and some of my kids) must eat a lot and often to sustain his energy throughout the day and gain any weight. So, between that and me being pregnant on our past two trips, sharing that meal was not enough for either of us. So, if you plan to save money by sharing, just make sure it is something that you can realistically do.

 

[buy24me]

That's exactly what I meant. The OP was wondering which was the best way to go. We don't drink sodas, bottled water, or the measley cs desserts (as maybe the OP doesn't either) so our CS meals are exactly about $10 per person. Water is free and I wouldn't want their desserts, so it's much cheaper to pay OOP. "Comparing" what the OP wanted in CS meals is what she stated - don't think she really said if she wanted the extras ea. meal that you have to purchase with the QSDP. Just reread the OP's post and she said "would like to spend as little on food as possible" - to me that means she can well spend about $10 per person and be well ahead of the price of the QSDP. The desserts are usually awful and why pay $2.50 for water when you can get it free. JMO

My DH is the only one who drinks soda so we thought about buying a refillable mug for him but my DD and I usually drink water and my DS sometimes drink soda as well but he doesn't drink that much. And last time we went, which was 4 years ago, we had a CS in Epcot and it was enough that we shared. We couldn't believe the portions.. I really could care less if I have dessert and not really into carrot cakes or mostly any cakes for that matter. Even if we get a dessert, it would most likely be ice cream or something for my DS but the rest of us don't really care much for eating dessert every night. My kids don't eat alot either. They would be happy with some nuggets and some fries.

 

[buy24me]

Thank you all SO much for your suggestions and your opinions. After reading all your opinions, I have opted to pay OOP since it will be less expensive for me. Neither of my kids eat a whole lot and I don't eat all that much either although I could if the food was right there for me I will not have a car so we will not be able to eat offsite. I know a few people here suggested comic rays. Can't remember if I have been there or not but will definitely go there. And I have been to Earl's at DTD in the past as well as Backlot express at DHS. I will make sure i pack plenty of snacks in our bags so we can snack when we need to. And have my DH get one refillable mug and maybe I can buy a case of water and have it shipped to our DVC resort. We are also doing a split stay. 2 nights at AKV and 2 nights at BWV. And for the first day, our flight doesn't get into to Orlando til almost 10pm so it really doesn't make sense to get the DDP on the first 2 nights since I will have too many meals leftover since we will just be checking in and going to bed on the first night. I have one reservation at Mama Melrose for the fantasmic pkg and that is it for TS. I thought about Cape May's for the seafood dinner buffet but more than likely skip it. Never been but after checking out the prices, I think I will skip it. My kids would not eat that much to justify the cost.

 

[katibosch]

We are going OOP -- we will be drinking water the entire trip and bringing our own bottles so no drink costs. We probably won't get dessert, and I think we'll try to split meals when we can. I kinda priced it out and couldn't see a way to make the dining plan work. Plus I didn't really want to spend all my time figuring out what was included and what wasn't. If it was free then heck yeah I would do it. But not if we had to pay for it.

 

[iheartpeterpan]

Thank you all SO much for your suggestions and your opinions. After reading all your opinions, I have opted to pay OOP since it will be less expensive for me. Neither of my kids eat a whole lot and I don't eat all that much either although I could if the food was right there for me I will not have a car so we will not be able to eat offsite. I know a few people here suggested comic rays. Can't remember if I have been there or not but will definitely go there. And I have been to Earl's at DTD in the past as well as Backlot express at DHS. I will make sure i pack plenty of snacks in our bags so we can snack when we need to. And have my DH get one refillable mug and maybe I can buy a case of water and have it shipped to our DVC resort. We are also doing a split stay. 2 nights at AKV and 2 nights at BWV. And for the first day, our flight doesn't get into to Orlando til almost 10pm so it really doesn't make sense to get the DDP on the first 2 nights since I will have too many meals leftover since we will just be checking in and going to bed on the first night. I have one reservation at Mama Melrose for the fantasmic pkg and that is it for TS. I thought about Cape May's for the seafood dinner buffet but more than likely skip it. Never been but after checking out the prices, I think I will skip it. My kids would not eat that much to justify the cost.

Since you won't have a car you could consider having a grocery delivery service like Garden Grocer send water, drinks, snacks, breakfast foods, etc. to your resort. We also always do this and always have breakfast in our room.

 

[Dionnemay]

The DDP just wasn't economic for my family so I'm going to stick with OOP for our trip March 12-19.

Its just myself, Ds(12) and Dd (15); daughter and I don't eat much and son loves burgers. Once he said he didn't come all the way to Disney world to eat "Supper", lol! We've been to DL many times and our last trip to WDW was for 9 days in 2006. We only ate TS once ( Some fancy Italian place and the kids didn't even finish theirs)..kids didn't want to "waste" attraction/ride time sitting at a restaurant so we mostly did Kiosk snacks, Bakery's, (I can go all day on a Turkey leg, yummy!) and CS for lunch or dinner.

When I reserved our trip on Disney's website, I pondered getting the DP, just because I had never done it. Out of curiosity, I added the DDP and it added almost TWELVE HUNDRED dollars to our reservation! Then, I changed it to QS, since that was closer to how we ate, and it added nearly EIGHT HUNDRED bucks!

NEVER in any of our trips to Disney have we spend even close to 1200 bucks on food. Not even on our 9 day trip. I never would, either! Why spend so much on something you are going to P**p out and forget about when they could use that money for souvenirs and stuff they can take home for memories and show off to their friends!

I usually bring $1000 bucks spending money and still come back with change-that's including FOOD, Souvenirs etc.. everything.

SO I guess it depends on what kid of eaters you are...and how much time your kids want to spend sitting in the restaurant vs running around the parks.


Maybe is Disney made the DP customizable,...like you could choose how many TS meals you want etc, which would, in turn, affect the price, THEN it would be a better deal.

But for us, NOT getting the DP puts over $700 back in my pocket.

 

[North of Mouse]

The DDP just wasn't economic for my family so I'm going to stick with OOP for our trip March 12-19.

Its just myself, Ds(12) and Dd (15); daughter and I don't eat much and son loves burgers. Once he said he didn't come all the way to Disney world to eat "Supper", lol! We've been to DL many times and our last trip to WDW was for 9 days in 2006. We only ate TS once ( Some fancy Italian place and the kids didn't even finish theirs)..kids didn't want to "waste" attraction/ride time sitting at a restaurant so we mostly did Kiosk snacks, Bakery's, (I can go all day on a Turkey leg, yummy!) and CS for lunch or dinner.

When I reserved our trip on Disney's website, I pondered getting the DP, just because I had never done it. Out of curiosity, I added the DDP and it added almost TWELVE HUNDRED dollars to our reservation! Then, I changed it to QS, since that was closer to how we ate, and it added nearly EIGHT HUNDRED bucks!

NEVER in any of our trips to Disney have we spend even close to 1200 bucks on food. Not even on our 9 day trip. I never would, either! Why spend so much on something you are going to P**p out and forget about when they could use that money for souvenirs and stuff they can take home for memories and show off to their friends!

I usually bring $1000 bucks spending money and still come back with change-that's including FOOD, Souvenirs etc.. everything.

SO I guess it depends on what kid of eaters you are...and how much time your kids want to spend sitting in the restaurant vs running around the parks.


Maybe is Disney made the DP customizable,...like you could choose how many TS meals you want etc, which would, in turn, affect the price, THEN it would be a better deal.

But for us, NOT getting the DP puts over $700 back in my pocket.

That's how we feel. For one, we can never eat big meals every day because we aren't big eaters, plus we enjoy the freedom of eating when we choose. We never get desserts with our meals, but like to eat them at odd times when we see something we'd like to try. Not soda drinkers either, so our receipts don't come close to the DDP costs. We never think about the cost of what we get, just don't eat that much. Plus, I've never understood people getting so excited about "free" dining. It's NOT free. You can usually get a room discount and depending on how many, or the # of adults vs. kids, you are definitely "paying" for it. You MUST pay rack rate for the room, so how can it be called "free"? Just another Disney ploy

 

[sarahlovesmickey]

That's how we feel. For one, we can never eat big meals every day because we aren't big eaters, plus we enjoy the freedom of eating when we choose. We never get desserts with our meals, but like to eat them at odd times when we see something we'd like to try. Not soda drinkers either, so our receipts don't come close to the DDP costs. We never think about the cost of what we get, just don't eat that much. Plus, I've never understood people getting so excited about "free" dining. It's NOT free. You can usually get a room discount and depending on how many, or the # of adults vs. kids, you are definitely "paying" for it. You MUST pay rack rate for the room, so how can it be called "free"? Just another Disney ploy

This is us too. We have never done the dining plan because it just didn't line up with our needs...or our wallet for that matter! I think people have to sit down and figure what works best for their family.

 

[bpesch]

I think generally the Dining Plans are great if they're free but I would never pay for them. We were at Disney recently and had the free QSDP. It was a struggle to use all the credits. Even for convenience sake, I would have never done it if it hadn't been free. We seemed to always be trying to get the most for our money and it became a hassle to make sure we used all the credits before we left.