DDP - why we would not use it again

[wdwthanksgiving]

our family of four tried the plan on our last trip. we typically eat breakfast in our room, lunch at a counter service and dinner in a sit down restaurant. while it was nice to feel like we could order "whatever we wanted", we all decided it was too much food for us. lunch was great (tho most of the desserts are okay and tend to be the same thing at many of the cs, but, for us, totally unnecessary) --- we really didn't want all the snacks (which was a big surprise for us!). we tried a few items like the cinnamon buns from main street bakery and ice cream at the food court but still had snacks left over. the difficult thing at dinner was to avoid ordering the most expensive items to get "your money's worth" and order just what you wanted. in many cases, we would have spent about the same oop as on the plan for the entree... we all always order salads which is not part of the plan so that was an additional expense. we do not ordinarily eat dessert so even when we ordered them, we only ate a few bites.

in calculating the costs, we would not normally have ordered desserts but because they are part of the plan and we felt compelled to order them , still had to pay taxes and gratuity on the cost of them...for a family of four, at an average of $6.00 per dessert (which is on the very low end - desserts at places like tutto de italia were between $9-12.00 EACH so 4 desserts were approx. $40.00 which was an addtional $11.00 to the bill because of tax/gratuity that we were not have normally spent on desserts).

if you and your family are beef eaters you might do better on the ddp because beef tends to be the most expensive item on the menu; if your family loves to snack and eat desserts you will probably do better on the plan---but if your family are moderate eaters, don't snack a lot and don't eat dessert after lunch AND after dinner then i believe you might not "get your money's worth" out of the ddp.

bottom line - it was interesting to try the plan but we won't use it again-if they would allow salads instead of desserts, we might consider trying the plan again...

hope this helps someone with making their decision!

 

[cterral]

We used the disney dining plan for our family of five for the first time over the 2008 Thanksgiving Holiday. For us it was a good value, and with some advance planning we were able to eat a restaurants we certainly would not have eaten at without the dining plan.

I do agree with wdwthanksgiving that at times it was almost too much food. At quick service meals where we knew the kids wouldn't eat everthing we almost always made sure one of their side choices was somethng that we could easily save for a snack later. Individually wrapped items worked great for this - grapes, applesauce or chocolate pudding.

If your family is not snack eaters then I would recommend you use your snack purchases for things you can eat when ever you want or take home with you. For example, bags of chips, trail mix, bottled juice, water or soda. We learned in the candy store in Magic Kingdom on Main Street that there is a huge wall of items individually packaged for the dining plan and qualify as a snack. These types of things are great souveniers to take home and certainly not things I would normally purchase.

We are a family that likes to try a variety of foods and eat well. We found that at many restaurants and counter service locations we were able to substitue items. For example, if we didn't want dessert we were able to get a bottle of water to save for later. I am not a big dessert eater so sometimes I would select a dessert and get it to go and someone in my group would eat it later. Or at the counter service they were able to subsitute items included in the kids meals. The cast members were very accomadating to our requests.

The only real difficulty we had was our first meal. It was a counter service at our hotel. We had been traveling all day and were tired and hungry. There were lots of people there and it took us a bit to figure out what we could order since the food court was spread out and each of my kids went a different direction when we walked in.

If you can get past the urge to order the most expensive thing on the menu so you can feel you are getting your money's worth you will be fine. It doesn't matter what it costs. It matters if it is something you will like and will eat. We regularly ordered the types of meals we would have ordered if we were not on the dining plan and it more than paid for itself.

I recomed that each person research the menus at the various locations, see what is included in each meal and make the best decision for your family/group. For us, it was a good value and we will certainly use it again.

 

[septbaby]

OP did you still eat bfast in the room with items you brought?

We found that 2 meals a day were fine and my Mom made sure we used our credits! We shared some CS meals and had a couple of those credits at the end, but we used them for items for the road. I was content to leave those on the table, because in the schemem of things were still ahead on the plan and we eat very well at WDW. From our Signature dinner at Narcoosse's, character breakfast at Chef Mickey's and adventure at Boma eating at WDW was a dream come true on the DP.

 

[RACHELSMOM1]

I can see how you could have some CS meals add up if one or two members of your party just weren't hungry at some meals and you didn't order for everyone. We would use them up the last day, getting things we could save for later (lots of chips, fruit, and bottles of water) to go with the meals. However, I can't understand how you would have snack credits left over. Get a drink in the park each day, or an ice cream, dole whip, pretzel, anything!! We became addicted to the deluxe dining. We love the 3 meals a day option. We go to a signature restaurant for dinner or breakfast, then the other meal of the day is a
1TS meal. We use up the 2 snacks each day in the parks. It is easy to do, we just get something, anything. It is so much fun!! There are no low-blood-sugar meltdowns this way. We found that we used up all our meal credits on deluxe, and with the basic dp we sometimes had to scramble the last day to us up some CS meals. I hate CS meals. They take up as much or more time as TS with the waiting in line, getting condiments, searching for a table. With TS you go in at your ADR time, be seated, and the food is brought to the table.

 

[Tricia1972]

Thank you for sharing how it didn't work for your family. The DDP is a great option for many families, but it doesn't work for everyone.

 

[Tracyplus5]

I can see how you could have some CS meals add up if one or two members of your party just weren't hungry at some meals and you didn't order for everyone. We would use them up the last day, getting things we could save for later (lots of chips, fruit, and bottles of water) to go with the meals. However, I can't understand how you would have snack credits left over. Get a drink in the park each day, or an ice cream, dole whip, pretzel, anything!! We became addicted to the deluxe dining. We love the 3 meals a day option. We go to a signature restaurant for dinner or breakfast, then the other meal of the day is a
1TS meal. We use up the 2 snacks each day in the parks. It is easy to do, we just get something, anything. It is so much fun!! There are no low-blood-sugar meltdowns this way. We found that we used up all our meal credits on deluxe, and with the basic dp we sometimes had to scramble the last day to us up some CS meals. I hate CS meals. They take up as much or more time as TS with the waiting in line, getting condiments, searching for a table. With TS you go in at your ADR time, be seated, and the food is brought to the table.

This is exactly what I wanted to know. Tell me more PLEASE!

 

[kaytieeldr]

in calculating the costs, we would not normally have ordered desserts but because they are part of the plan and we felt compelled to order them , still had to pay taxes and gratuity on the cost of them...

Just to avoid ANY confusion: You do NOT pay ANY taxes on anything covered under Dining Plan credits. The tax on the Dining Plan itself, and the tax on any items ordered, is included in the price of the plan and the value of the credits, respectively.

 

[wdwthanksgiving]

you are correct - my mistake about the tax ---we always ordered beyond the entree/dessert/drink so we paid tax on those items

in response to leftover snacks, etc...what we discovered is that we weren't really hungry for more than just a few snacks. we did get a few things to eat on the trip home but still had a couple of credits left.

we now know that we are not particularly interested in desserts with each meal and we are not interested in snacks every day so therefore the ddp isn't good for us

i'm sure it is a great plan for a lot of families

just was trying to pass along our thoughts for those people trying to make a decision

 

[parmtoo]

Just to avoid ANY confusion: You do NOT pay ANY taxes on anything covered under Dining Plan credits. The tax on the Dining Plan itself, and the tax on any items ordered, is included in the price of the plan and the value of the credits, respectively.

Thanks for clearing that up. I was thinking that the tax was already paid when I puchased the plan.

 

[rockiesfan]

Thanks to all for relating your experiences. We are going in March and I still haven't decided about the DDP (we've never used it before.) I am leaning towards it because we do like desserts at dinner, and with a DS16 plus two other kids I know we'll use every snack credit.

 

[parmtoo]

Thanks to all for relating your experiences. We are going in March and I still haven't decided about the DDP (we've never used it before.) I am leaning towards it because we do like desserts at dinner, and with a DS16 plus two other kids I know we'll use every snack credit.

This will be our first trip using the DDP. I got it because we are a large party this trip, and I just wanted everything paid for before we go. Wish us luck! I really hope we like it!

 

[Tina G]

You make a good point that I hadn't thought of about paying the tip amount on the cost of the items you order. Meaning you will (or should) pay a higher tip due to ordering things like dessert or more expensive entrees that you may not normally have ordered if you were paying OOP. The dessert was a good example - if you have 4 people in your party who all get dessert on the DDP, at the rate of $6.00 each for an average dessert, that would be an extra $24.00 to pay tip on. At 18%, that would be about $4.30. Do that 7 times and you've now paid $30 extra in tips for items you may not have even wanted, maybe just ate a few bites of because it came with the meal.

In the past when the tip was included in the DDP, I think it was probably a good deal for most people. But as the original poster found, they way it is now is not necessarily a good deal for the typical family of average eaters. We have found that the DDP will probably never be a good deal for us, as we are light eaters, I usually order chicken or pasta meals which are often the cheapest, and we don't order appetizers or desserts.

I think there are some families for whom the DDP is a great deal. But I also think there are a lot of families who think they are making out with the DDP but if they actually kept track of what they would have paid OOP, they may not be getting the deal they think they are. Keep in mind that Disney wouldn't offer this plan if they weren't making money on it. So for every family that does eat more than the cost of the plan, there are probably 2 families that eat less. Also keep in mind that for those who are planning to use the DDP as a way to eat as much as they can at all their meals, you may find that it's hard to do that and then feel good as you continue through the parks each day. We were always big buffet eaters at Disney (to get the most food for the money) but on our last trip we found that we were so full after those meals that we didn't enjoy ourselves as much for the rest of the day in the park. This next trip in May we are limiting the buffets for that exact reason.

 

[maggiew]

Thanks for your input OP. I've been debating the OP for our summer trip. We have been to Disney 2 times as a family since they started the meal plan and neither time did we get the meal plan. My girls eat like birds so we normally split meals or one DD will get an appetizer as her meal, etc. So the plan never made sense for us. The first year I calculated how much we spent on food vs. how much the plan would have cost us, and truthfully we paid just slightly less than the meal plan cost. BUT, we ate when we wanted, what we wanted, etc. Some days we did 2 counter service meals (EPCOT days - we love to eat around the world) and other days we would do a character breakfast (breakfast is one things I could count on the girls eating if they wouldn't eat anything else). But that isn't a good deal on the meal plan.

This trip my girls are a little older (16 and 13) and could probably eat more to make the meal plan worth it. But we still often share when we go out to dinner (at Fridays or Red Lobster, etc.), so I am not sure about the meal plan. And my younger DD will eat a lot if the mood strikes her, but some days she'll eat hardly nothing! So I would be afraid which DD would show up at Disney!!!!

But your post does remind me that the plan isn't for everyone. And I can probably stop trying to make it fit us (or us fit it??).


Maggie
PS. I did get the meal plan when I went solo (without family) with my friend to Mousefest. I used my snack credits on a box of donuts for breakfast (no longer allowed, I hear), bottles of water, and tea in the morning. Not great uses of the snack credits, I know, but I was buying those things anyway. Just an FYI that you can use the snack credits on things other than desserts if you want.