DDP vs. OOP question

[sahm2two]

I did a calculator to find out if the DDP was worth it for my family. There's 2 adults and 3 kids (all over 3, but under 10). I plugged in restaurants I wouldn't want to skip- Cinderella's castle, Be Our Guest, and a couple other character meals, along with some CS for the other days. Amounting to eating in the park once a day. When all was said and done, we would only be saving about $400 NOT doing the plan. If we added the regular DDP (not quick service) we could then eat all 3 meals in the park every day and not have to worry about going to the grocery store while there or cooking. We plan on renting a house off-site, so we would have a kitchen, but.... is it really worth $400 to pack lunches most days and make breakfast every morning? Adding dishes, etc. to our vacation? We have over a year to plan, so I'm making our budget so we can start our vacation account.
Another plus would be everything would be prepaid and we wouldn't have to question if we wanted the $15 entree vs. the $20... you know??

 

[myhoney]

You can only get the DDP if you are staying onsite.

 

[sahm2two]

You can only get the DDP if you are staying onsite.

Oh!!! I didn't realize that, well that would increase the costs A LOT lol, so that answers my question! Thanks

 

[StirlingSilver83]

As previous poster has said you can only get the dining plan when you stay on site. That being said we use to stay off site and then when my second child was born we decided to stay on site with the dining plan and personally I love being able to stay on site and have all the conveniences of it. We love the dining plan. We usually get the deluxe which includes all 3 meals plus snacks. We do a ton of character meal buffets. I ran numbers (bc I always like to see how much we spend for a dining plan and how much we would be spending off a dining plan). I on our next trip my oldest hits the disney adult age and my youngest qualifies as a person now and we need to pay for him, lol. Anyways I end up saving like $1500K going for the dining plan, bc we do end up doing a ton of the buffets and character meals and those are the expensive ones plus I have 2 dinner shows worked into that as well. It is a good plan for us to have. We like sit down meals and we don't look at it as wasting time not in the park, lol...we look at it as another attraction to the park and a time to rest and be together and have a nice meal. A lot of people think 3 sit down meals are a waste of time...but it all depends how you see things I guess

 

[sahm2two]

As previous poster has said you can only get the dining plan when you stay on site. That being said we use to stay off site and then when my second child was born we decided to stay on site with the dining plan and personally I love being able to stay on site and have all the conveniences of it. We love the dining plan. We usually get the deluxe which includes all 3 meals plus snacks. We do a ton of character meal buffets. I ran numbers (bc I always like to see how much we spend for a dining plan and how much we would be spending off a dining plan). I on our next trip my oldest hits the disney adult age and my youngest qualifies as a person now and we need to pay for him, lol. Anyways I end up saving like $1500K going for the dining plan, bc we do end up doing a ton of the buffets and character meals and those are the expensive ones plus I have 2 dinner shows worked into that as well. It is a good plan for us to have. We like sit down meals and we don't look at it as wasting time not in the park, lol...we look at it as another attraction to the park and a time to rest and be together and have a nice meal. A lot of people think 3 sit down meals are a waste of time...but it all depends how you see things I guess

We did the DP last time we went while there was free dining and loved it! We did the one that has 1 QS and 1 sit down per day though.

Can you get the DDP if you rent DVC points? I just don't see us spending $250/day to stay in a cramped hotel room and get the meal plan if we can have a whole house for $150/day... but maybe I could find a good deal with the DVC?

 

[StirlingSilver83]

We did the DP last time we went while there was free dining and loved it! We did the one that has 1 QS and 1 sit down per day though.

Can you get the DDP if you rent DVC points? I just don't see us spending $250/day to stay in a cramped hotel room and get the meal plan if we can have a whole house for $150/day... but maybe I could find a good deal with the DVC?

Yes you can get the DP if you rent DVC points. You just need to let the person know that you want the dining plan so they can add it onto the booking.

 

[myhoney]

We like sit down meals and we don't look at it as wasting time not in the park, lol...we look at it as another attraction to the park and a time to rest and be together and have a nice meal. A lot of people think 3 sit down meals are a waste of time...but it all depends how you see things I guess

I had to look and make sure I didn't write this! We feel the exact same way. We did the DxDDP and between dinner shows and 2 credit meals, we weren't stuffed, and our young kids didn't have a meltdown because it gave us rest time to just relax and gather our thoughts/talk about the day before we headed back to the rides! Of course, on our next trip we will have 4 kids and the youngest will be just over 3. Not sure how he'll do with all the restaurant sittings, but for DH and I it's a must!

 

[Marionnette]

We did the DP last time we went while there was free dining and loved it! We did the one that has 1 QS and 1 sit down per day though.

Can you get the DDP if you rent DVC points? I just don't see us spending $250/day to stay in a cramped hotel room and get the meal plan if we can have a whole house for $150/day... but maybe I could find a good deal with the DVC?

I doubt that you're going to get a DVC villa for $150/night unless it's a studio during the cheaper season. In which case, you will be just as cramped as you would be in a regular hotel room. However, you would be onsite and staying in a deluxe resort and you would be able to get the dining plan. Kind of a trade-off, really.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

I had to look and make sure I didn't write this! We feel the exact same way. We did the DxDDP and between dinner shows and 2 credit meals, we weren't stuffed, and our young kids didn't have a meltdown because it gave us rest time to just relax and gather our thoughts/talk about the day before we headed back to the rides! Of course, on our next trip we will have 4 kids and the youngest will be just over 3. Not sure how he'll do with all the restaurant sittings, but for DH and I it's a must!

My youngest was 18 months on our last trip and dinner was the hardest meal for him to sit through, lol. He is tired at night and is usually in bed around 8, so to have dinner at 6 when thats usually "quiet/relax" time was difficult for him. But on our next trip he will be 3 in a half so I don't think he will have a problem with meals. My biggest problem with him currently when we go out to eat is he hates sitting in a highchair. If I can request a booth chances are he won't need a highchair bc he can sit in the booth and it still gives him some "wiggle" room, LOL. Anyways I know Disney has a lot of just tables and to try and request a booth will not go over so well, lol...plus a lot of restaurants at Disney don't have booths. Anyways I see this as being a potential problem when we are there next year, but its a whole year away so things could change, LOL. We love the Disney dining as a family thats actually 1 of the things we look forward to bc we like the theming of every thing. We have our favorites that we go to every year and then I try and throw in some new things each year. So next year we are going to give Cape May Cafe a try bc I am always hearing how its an alternative to Chef Mickey's and we are bored with Chef Mickey's, lol...we are also going to try Sanaa for a first time. I have been dying to eat there and see the the animals too and it gives me a good excuse to visit AKL, LOL. We are also going to do the Poly Aloha show since we are going to be staying at the Poly. I am looking forward to our trip next year. I know its still a year away, but my youngest will be 3 in a half and thats the age we first took my oldest to Disney, so I am going to try and keep my youngest up 1 night late to see the light parade and fireworks like we did with my oldest. We are staying a little longer so I can build in a "rest" day where we hang out at the resorts and maybe do Disney Springs or something, so the night before that will be the night we try to see the fireworks and parade bc we don't need to rush out in the AM! Anyways I love planning every little detail, lol so much fun!

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

When I was pricing out 10 day/9 night trip for March 2016, I had planned on not doing the DDP. When the discounts came out, I saw that with the "Stay, play, and Dine" promotion, I was able to add regular dining for about the same price as I was going to pay for meals out of pocket and getting a room discount only. So, price it out, see what places you are eating at etc. When I priced it out, I did not include deserts, refillable mugs, and only 5 table service meals during out stay. When I compared to OOP vs DDP and the promotion I was using, the costs were about the same to what I had calculated, so we added DDP.

 

[HM]

If I were you, I'd really think about what places you want to eat.
You are planning on some of the most expensive meals if most of them are character meals.

I'd choose one character meal that everyone wants to do, choose one of the castles, and then I'd do all my other meals at counter service. Share meals if it seems appropriate, to bring down cost, and don't buy sodas...drink water, if meal costs are a problem for your family.