DDP seems so much higher in cost than I remember ...

[krmlaw]

Did it jump up recently?

I think we are going to skip it this time ...

It just seems so high!

I cant imagine really getting my monies worth at 45.99 a person, plus tip.

 

[KungFoomF]

You would get your money's worth if you ate an entree and dessert every meal. And then had a couple snacks every day. No one in my family eats this much. Even when we are on the free dining plan we always end the week with a few counters and snacks left over. The value of the plan is really based on whether you would ordinarily eat as much as the plan provides. Every day.

 

[Cafeen]

You would get your money's worth if you ate an entree and dessert every meal. And then had a couple snacks every day. ... The value of the plan is really based on whether you would ordinarily eat as much as the plan provides. Every day.

Exactly this.

DDP provides a value as long as you intend to "play by the rules". With the current pricing, so long as your TS locations are balanced (pricing wise) you're going to make out ok. With continually rising prices, this may falter relatively soon though and make it so you can only eat at the pricier 1TS locations to get any sort of value. We're not there yet though.

Other plans suffer from other conditions. DxDDP has a very high front loaded cost and time/reservation commitment, although it is much easier to come out ahead. QSDP has an even stricter line of "making the plan work" than DDP, although there's less time commitment to be had (With $3 snacks, for QSDP to work you'd have to average roughly $14.50 per CS meal, which is doable, but it's pretty close.)

 

[Nadjalu]

My advice to you....do the math and see before making a decision.

If you are planning on soley eating onsite it is EXPENSIVE!

Just go thru each day and pick the restaurants you "think" you would like to eat at. Pick a entree for every person in your party (make sure to include a drink as they are seperate and a dessert if you eat dessert for each meal), for every meal you will have that day. Total up each day's bills and add them together...viola your end number will tell you how much you will spend OOP. So you can see if any of the plans are worth it to you or not.

Honestly it is the only way to see which is cheaper.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Did it jump up recently?

I think we are going to skip it this time ...

It just seems so high!

I cant imagine really getting my monies worth at 45.99 a person, plus tip.

I'd look at the menus. Not only did the DDP go up in price but so did the prices on the menu.

 

[clanmcculloch]

You would get your money's worth if you ate an entree and dessert every meal. And then had a couple snacks every day. No one in my family eats this much. Even when we are on the free dining plan we always end the week with a few counters and snacks left over. The value of the plan is really based on whether you would ordinarily eat as much as the plan provides. Every day.

This isn't necessarily true. When we pay OOP, DD10 prefers kids meals half the time but when using the DDP we have to buy an adult plan for her. For CS meals I'll sometimes order a kids meal for myself. Also, we're more likely to eat TS lunches rather than dinners and those are less expensive. For us, we would have to eat fixed price restaurants for most meals in order for the plan to actually save us money, especially since we now have TiW.

If you have kids under 10 then you're much more likely to save money than if you don't plus you're more likely to save money if you eat plenty of fixed priced meals and also like a drink and dessert with every meal. It is possible to save money with the dining plan but it's getting harder and harder as the plan prices keep increasing at such a rapid pace.

 

[MyTwoPrincesses]

We just returned from our second DDP trip and I am certain that we would not pay for it, though for free, we like it because it really did cut down on our food costs. Here's why. It just doesn't mirror how we eat. We DO like to eat a lot, but not the way DDP is structured. This trip, we found ourselves eating breakfasts and lunches and dinners so we ran out of credits. Yet, I don't think we "broke even" because we used quite a few CS credits for lunch not breakfast. Now, I could easily skip breakfast, but that's harder to do with kids.

For me, the biggest issues with DDP are (1) the credits are based on eating 2 meals a day, not 3 and (2) you HAVE to get desserts with every meal. I have basically no interest in QS dessert and when eating table service, IRL, we tend to get appetizers, not desserts. I wish you could select whether you want appetizers or desserts. I like dinner ADRs, so from that perspective the DDP works for us (dinners are costlier) but we could use extra credits (but don't necessarily want to upgrate to DxDP).

For our next trip, I am thinking about doing a room only discount and paying for dining OOP.

 

[jbuckent]

For me, the biggest issues with DDP are (1) the credits are based on eating 2 meals a day, not 3 and (2) you HAVE to get desserts with every meal. I have basically no interest in QS dessert and when eating table service, IRL, we tend to get appetizers, not desserts. I wish you could select whether you want appetizers or desserts.

This is my problem with the dining plan as well. I can't figure out if we should do the QSDP or the DDP, with both we still have to pay OOP for one meal.

 

[babyrich]

I think my DH and I get our money's worth; but we also get the plan for the convenience. My DH would rather not carry too much cash on vacation and he hates credit cards. I have suggested trying a trip without the plan but he disagrees.

 

[hannahdrewmom]

It tends to work well for people who are buffet heavy and have kids (who are considered kids) by disney. Kids make up the money VERY quickly. So for us while we might not save alot on adults... with a couple of kids we could be saving quite a bit. More so with families who are larger... of course he opposite is true if you have an 11 year old.