DDP vs TIW review

[eeyoresmom]

We dont usually do a dining plan but it does sometimes save, even the qs plan. DH and I are going for 4 nights in November and will be getting the reg DDP for 2 nights and the QSDDP for 2 nights. Here is our dining plan :
Sat: lunch Sanaa, dinner Boma
Sun: lunch FTBBQ (dh will get the $15 chicken and ribs, I will probably get a mid priced option. We will probably get at least one lg coffee) dinner: Not sure, average qs around $27.
Mon: lunch BOG, again no desserts but 1or 2 coffees. Dinner, not sure so average qs around $27.
Tues: lunch BW bakery 2 lobster rolls and we will both get dessert and coffee here. Dinner , Biergarten.
Wed: lunch at Starring rolls with 1 dessert and 2 coffees.
We would buy one mug and would definitely get one snack per day each, either as breakfast or a snack. We will pay oop for Sanaa ( around $50) the rest will be covered by the plans. By getting the plans we save a few dollars, get an extra mug and each get our own dessert and drink at qs. We also will most likely get more expensive entrees that we actually want but wouldn't want to spend on a qs meal. I want TIW to work for us because I am going to purchase it for our spring break trip with 4 adults, but it just doesn't. I typed out our plans because I get really frustrated when people post that ddp is NEVER a money saver. That is misleading.

 

[disneynutz]

We dont usually do a dining plan but it does sometimes save, even the qs plan. DH and I are going for 4 nights in November and will be getting the reg DDP for 2 nights and the QSDDP for 2 nights. Here is our dining plan :
Sat: lunch Sanaa, dinner Boma
Sun: lunch FTBBQ (dh will get the $15 chicken and ribs, I will probably get a mid priced option. We will probably get at least one lg coffee) dinner: Not sure, average qs around $27.
Mon: lunch BOG, again no desserts but 1or 2 coffees. Dinner, not sure so average qs around $27.
Tues: lunch BW bakery 2 lobster rolls and we will both get dessert and coffee here. Dinner , Biergarten.
Wed: lunch at Starring rolls with 1 dessert and 2 coffees.
We would buy one mug and would definitely get one snack per day each, either as breakfast or a snack. We will pay oop for Sanaa ( around $50) the rest will be covered by the plans. By getting the plans we save a few dollars, get an extra mug and each get our own dessert and drink at qs. We also will most likely get more expensive entrees that we actually want but wouldn't want to spend on a qs meal. I want TIW to work for us because I am going to purchase it for our spring break trip with 4 adults, but it just doesn't. I typed out our plans because I get really frustrated when people post that ddp is NEVER a money saver. That is misleading.

The saving can be made if you would be buying the same meals, deserts, snacks and mug and the total for the plan is less than OOP. The plans often make guests modify their eating habits or buying a bunch of snacks before they leave for home.

One year we brought home a bunch of cookies from Goofy's Candy Company, we froze them and eat on them for a year.

In your plan you need to be changing room categories to switch dining plans.

Bill

 

[eeyoresmom]

Yes, but we are switching rooms already ( wish we weren't) so I am not modifying to make the ddp work. In fact I am making the best of having to switch rooms by taking advantage of the ability to book different plans. I do agree that for most situations ddp does not save money, but sometimes it does.

 

[disneynutz]

Yes, but we are switching rooms already ( wish we weren't) so I am not modifying to make the ddp work. In fact I am making the best of having to switch rooms by taking advantage of the ability to book different plans. I do agree that for most situations ddp does not save money, but sometimes it does.

Bill

 

[heynowirv]

I completely agree with OP and we've done the comparison as well & the TIW saves a ton over the DDP. We would never order dessert at every meal for every person and especially not for days on end. However, that being said, we do the dining plan if we are just going for a couple of days & we pick Narcoosees or Cali Grill for a really nice sit down meal so we can live it up!

We find if my wife and I just do a 4-5 night stay we still save money on the TIW program.2 good meals ,say California Grill and Flying Fish with a couple of cocktails and we're over 500. spent. Any other trip in the year "Is Gravy" as they say.

 

[allshookup]

We are going in October and we have a reservation with family & friends for 5 nights at AKV in which we will NOT use the DDP, but will have the TIW card. But we also have 1 night at BLT for just hubby and I for one big night in which we did purchase the Deluxe DDP. The cost was 219.06 for the 2 of us.

We will eat at Narcoosees & with appetizer, surf & turf, dessert and meal tax the bill comes to 211.94. With TIW it would be 169.55.

Breakfast muffin/pastry & coffees 11.78 with TIW 9.18.

For lunch we plan to eat at Cafe Paradiso before heading home & with what we are planning the bill comes to 77.95. With TIW it would be 62.36.

So we everything we get with the Deluxe Dining plan we saved a little over $80.00 and with TIW around $60.00 not counting the original cost of the TIW.

Now would we normally order apps, most expensive entrees and dessert? No after about 3 days it gets really old and there goes the savings, but for 1 or 2 nights it's a treat for us just knowing all that food is prepaid and we don't have to think twice about what we are ordering. It's all psychological I guess?

 

[yitbos96bb]

We cut DDP and went to TIW exclusively after they cut out the Appetizer on DDP (that last trip we did both TIW (DDE at the time) and DDP). We found ourselves often bringing desert back to the room many times and doing the snack thing.

The original DDP was an excellent value. Cheaper than current fist and included appetizer, dessert and tip! They then cut tip and the value lessened. Cutting out the appetizer further decreased the value for us... especially if we wanted to do the signature TS. We got more freedom and didn't feel the need to gorge oursekves to maintain the value of DDP when we switched to TIW. Unless I'm given the DDP for free, I doubt I will ever do it over TIW.

I do wish V & A hadn't been removed though.

We have always done the DDP when we went to WDW in the past but this year we decided to try the TIW card.The reason we did this was because we decided there were some things we didn't like about the DDP. I don't care about the mugs,we don't always want desert and at the end of each trip we were packing our suitcase with snacks because we didn't always use all of them. Yes I know its very convenient but we felt like we were paying for stuff we didn't want. So we decided to try out of pocket with a discount.We always got the Regular DDP which was 1TS, 1QS, 1snack and 1 refillable mug. Their were 5 adults in our party for 7 nights which would have cost us 2,100.00 dollars total. We always eat at one signature restaurant(2 TS credits)during the week so we would have had to pay for at least one meal OOP.We always eat QS for lunch and TS for dinner. We eat breakfast in our room. The total out of pocket for the week when we used the TIW card was 1900.00 dollars which includes the 100.00 dollars for the card, 18% gratuity, about 180.00 dollars for beer and wine. My son and I would each have a beer with dinner my mom and wife a glass of wine. The other adult was 15 so not old enough to drink but still in WDW eyes an adult. Now correct me if I'm wrong but the DDP doesn't include gratuity or liquor so if you add those items to the DDP cost plus the extra meal I would have paid for,the savings are a heck of a lot more.Probably in the 300 to 440 dollar range.I also added the cost of the snacks we bought during the week to the out of pocket expenses.The best part of this was I didn't feel like I was paying for anything I didn't want. Also we were always so filled from dinner we never ordered dessert. I was actually surprised about the amount of money we saved. The only thing I didn't like about the TIW card was that it wasn't accepted at the QS restaurants in MK,HS and Epcot. I know everyone has different opinions about the DDP so I thought I would post mine. If there was a way to customize your own DDP instead of it being to structured my opinion would probably be different but right now I will definitely stay with the TIW card and say goodbye to the DDP. Sorry if this was a long read but the Disboards are always a great help to us and I hope this helps someone else.