DDP Question

[robhawk]

Just booked BWV for President's week. YOOHOO!!!!! Do DVC owners use the DDP or go to restaurants individually? We hit the grocery store on arrival day. We eat breakfast in and have one character breakfast. Usually pack a lunch then Epcot dining. Didn't know if we would use all of what DDP has to offer.
Thanks.

Rob

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

You probably won't. If you enroll in the DDP you will need to make ADRs for any table service you may not. Failure to do so, most likely will result in your not being able to use all your table service credits.

I learned the hard way (and the expensive way) that DDP is not for us. We have a light breakfast in the room, carry some lunch or snacks and return to the room for our dinner at night. We may choose to have a lunch, or a dinner "out," but it's not an every night thing.

DDP is only good if you are going to be able to use every bit of the credits.

 

[emerymt]

We're coming to OKW on an exchange through II and we're very excited! The DDP intrigued me, but I really don't think we'll use it, either. It's a lot of food, and the cost for a preteen is the same as an adult, which is not great for our family.

Anyway, just to be sure, I added up the money we spent on food in Hawaii (not known for cheap eats, either!) and we spent only $200 more in two weeks as the DDP would cost us for one week. We also stayed in condos there- but blew a ton of money on a beachside buffet at the Four Seasons on our last night!

Also, I think the inflexibility of the plan would drive my family nuts. You have to have ADRs in June (when we're coming) or spend a lot of time waiting, or lose your credits.

 

[Chuck S]

It depends upon the make up of your party, and your normal dining habits as to whether or not the DDP is of value to you.

A lot of members use and enjoy the plan and feel it a great perk. Personally, for us, we don't use it. Every trip I have save our receipts, and added up our dining expenses (including tip). We do use the Dining Experiance card that we can ge by being Annual Pass holders. We generally spend about $100 less than the DDP would cost us per trip.

 

[R Dog Walt]

I think there are pros and cons to it. We just got back from a 5 night trip to BCV and had the dining plan. We hadn't done it before. It was really fun for us because we had the opportunity to go to some of the EPCOT restaurants that we've never gone too before.

Yes, the dining plan costs more than we usually spend on food, and we ate more meals than usual (we started eating "1st lunch" around 11- 1 QS credit, and "2nd lunch" around 2:30- another QS credit). However, if you plan to eat at the right spots it's a great value. We tabulated how much we would have spent paying cash on the dining plan and "spent" $300 more than the dining plan cost us. (Yes, I know that this isn't totally accurate because we would never order 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, and 2 desserts for just the 2 of us! But psychologically it made us feel good! )

We're headed back in June. I can't see getting the dining plan- because I can't eat that many big meals when it's hot.

If we ever go for just 1 or 2 nights, I will DEFINITELY do the meal plan and make ADRs for some of our new favorite restaurants!

 

[JimMIA]

It depends upon the make up of your party, and your normal dining habits as to whether or not the DDP is of value to you.

Yep. We have two adults and one child. On each visit, we eat a nice dinner each night, or have a character meal. If we weren't on DDP, we probably would not eat lunches...or would certainly not eat lunches each day. And we would normally not snack much.

So when I calculate DDP for our family and our dining habits, I completely disregard the value of both the CS and snack credits. In other words, I only use the price of the character meals, or what we really would order if we were paying cash (not appy, entree, and dessert at each TS meal). When I do that, I usually figure DDP saves us +/-$100 on a 4-5 night trip -- and the CS and snack credits (virtually all of which we use) are just gravy. If I added the value of the CS and snacks, we'd probably save $3-400 per trip.

One thing that is important to remember when computing value is that DDP includes ALL taxes, and an 18% gratuity on each TS meal.

Other benefits of DDP include having the price of dining fixed for the vacation, not ordering something you don't really want because what you really want is too expensive, trying restaurants you otherwise wouldn't try, and the convenience of the plan.

Cons -- for me -- are that I don't think we would ever use DDP for a trip of a week or more. Especially with the recent menu standardization, we would just get really tired of eating Disney food eventually.

Some people say it's just too much food for them, but I have yet to see a CM hold a gun to someone's head and force them to eat. We just don't eat what we don't want.

Some people don't like the necessity of making ADRs each day -- especially theme park commandos.

To us, that character event or nice dinner is an integral part of a Disney vacation -- so we look forward to those meals. Needing to make ADRs also causes us to think about what we want to do for dining, and I'm sure that planning improves our dining as much as park planning improves that aspect of our trips. The planned meals are a big plus for us, but they're not for everyone.

 

[robhawk]

Thanks for the replies. I think a big part of going to Disney is eating at different restaurants with different themes. I love the planning part of it also.

Rob

 

[Dean]

Thanks for the replies. I think a big part of going to Disney is eating at different restaurants with different themes. I love the planning part of it also.

Rob

I agree, restaurant planning (and partaking) are a large part of our vacation experience. But that doesn't mean that DDP is the best choice, it likely is not given your OP. But it depends in part on the dining habits of your group when you eat out. If you go to the most expensive single credit options like Le Cellier steak or Capt Jack's lobster tail or even certain items at Signatures like Narcoossee's for Lobster, you can do very well even if you waste the CS options. Spend times looking at the menus to determine what's your best option. If you do get the DDP, you may want to modify your usual approach somewhat. You can easily stick to your basics by getting CS and snack options for meals in the room and eating our as you normally would. Or you could use it as a time to splurge on items and locations when you would normally eat in. The ages of any children can easily make or break a DDP decision as well. A 9 y/o that eats like a teen makes it an easy decision. A 12 y/o that eats like a toddler means you may want to skip the DDP or be prepared to use a lot of extra credits which doesn't seem to fit your style. Length of the stay also affects the reasonableness of your decision as people tend to eat less after about 3 days of all the stuffing.