dining question

[sammie1884]

Sorry, another question!
I can not decide if we should get the Disney dining plan or not. The last time we went to disney was 7 years ago so I know food price will obv of changed. We plan to do at least 2 character dinings and they prob (although not deffo) will be in crystal palace and chef mickeys. We also plan to eat at rainforrest cafe and raglan road are these inc in the dining plan? We will be going to places outside disney too like Dennys and TGI's

So I can not decide if it is worth us booking it or not?

 

[chmurf]

Sorry, another question!
I can not decide if we should get the Disney dining plan or not. The last time we went to disney was 7 years ago so I know food price will obv of changed. We plan to do at least 2 character dinings and they prob (although not deffo) will be in crystal palace and chef mickeys. We also plan to eat at rainforrest cafe and raglan road are these inc in the dining plan? We will be going to places outside disney too like Dennys and TGI's

So I can not decide if it is worth us booking it or not?

if you're paying for the DDP, then it's definitely not worth it (in my opinion)

character meals (breakfasts) are often cheaper than the daily value of your DDP TS credit.

Go to allears and their menu section and try to price your meals and see if it is worth it to pay for the DDP (but usually you hardly break even by only doing Dinners which are more expensive than lunches and breakfasts)

It also depends on what you'll eat.
We only eat the entrée at a TS restaurant, we don't care for appetizers and we seldom are hungry enough for dessert. So paying OOP is of a better value to us than paying for a DDP credit.
On top of that, don't forget about the tip. With the full menu you get on the DDP, it also means the tip gets higher. If you are not sure you'll be able to eat all the courses, then you're not only wasting food, you're wasting money too.
But if you do 3 course meals, then your DDP value goes up and it might become worth it
There it really depends if you're big eaters or not.

If you get the DDP for free, definitely go for it.

But if you can eat offsite I don't think you'll save any money with the DDP (there are loads of cool restaurants around crossroads so no need to go far or even go all the way to Idrive - which is close by anyway)

If cost is of no concern and you want the convinience of prepaid meal, then go for the DDP

Hope it helps a little

 

[Disneynutinlondon]

Sorry, another question!
I can not decide if we should get the Disney dining plan or not. The last time we went to disney was 7 years ago so I know food price will obv of changed. We plan to do at least 2 character dinings and they prob (although not deffo) will be in crystal palace and chef mickeys. We also plan to eat at rainforrest cafe and raglan road are these inc in the dining plan? We will be going to places outside disney too like Dennys and TGI's

So I can not decide if it is worth us booking it or not?

We have just come back from a 9 days trip. We stayed onsite and the package included the free regular DDP. We did not eat at any off site restaurant and we ate cereal in our room each morning which we bought at Publix. We used every single credit we had which did entail buying treats to bring home at the end to use up the last snack credits.

We had a TS every night with 3 Signature meals which meant we paid for 3 dinners OOP and we generally used the CS for lunch. I kept a running total of what we spent on every single food and drink items for the 9 days including the tip costs and the totals came out at amount that we should have spent $2896, amount that we actually spent $1195, amount that we saved $1701.

We are a family of me, DH, DS16 and DS14 so as you can see I have 3 healthy eaters so for us having DDP especially when it's free is really a no-brainer.

Hope this info helps a bit

 

[wayneg]

Done DDP 4 times, myself and DS usually going for highest value items on menus, and even then it only works out at break even if paying for DDP.
If paying OOP then we wouldn't eat/drink anywhere near the value.

Its simple for me, DDP is overpriced, would never be worth paying for but great free.

 

[arieliwish]

Just been looking at the allears menu listings for table service and saw how much food there is, so wondered if you didn't want to order starter or dessert on the DDP do the servers put any pressure on to have them as it will ultimately affect their tip amount?? ( I assume it is starter, main, dessert, drink for table credits?)

 

[starrysky]

Just been looking at the allears menu listings for table service and saw how much food there is, so wondered if you didn't want to order starter or dessert on the DDP do the servers put any pressure on to have them as it will ultimately affect their tip amount?? ( I assume it is starter, main, dessert, drink for table credits?)

You only get main course, desert and non alcohol drink on the ddp unless I believe you are on the delux one.

 

[diddldonna]

Just a quick question, sorry to jump on this thread. Got free dining for next year but totally forgot about needing to still tip even though we have the dining plan, how much is the correct amount to tip ? Thank you

 

[catherine]

Just a quick question, sorry to jump on this thread. Got free dining for next year but totally forgot about needing to still tip even though we have the dining plan, how much is the correct amount to tip ? Thank you

The suggested tip at WDW is 18-20%. Remember though to use the cost of the meal before tax!

 

[wayneg]

Just been looking at the allears menu listings for table service and saw how much food there is, so wondered if you didn't want to order starter or dessert on the DDP do the servers put any pressure on to have them as it will ultimately affect their tip amount?? ( I assume it is starter, main, dessert, drink for table credits?)

As said for regular DDP you don't get a starter.
Sometimes a main course is enough for me so I have been known (not very often) to deline the dessert, yes they do like you to have it, they will ask if you are sure and\or offer to box it up for you to take away. I wouldn't call it pressure though.

For tipping, if you are a party of 6 or more then 18% is automatically added, smaller parties tip what they like but as said recommended amount is 18-20%.

 

[arieliwish]

Thanks for that, we aren't huge eaters ( kids especially) and have done the dining plan before but tips were covered in the cost then so it didn't matter what we ordered, and I do remember in Le Cellier and Cali Grill being persuaded to have desserts to share 'just to try them' by the servers. Of course we knew it was to bump up the tips and so obliged.

We can live without starters so that's fine, and we like not having to budget for the cost of meals so free DDP is great, though if we paid for it we certainly wouldn't get our monies worth.

 

[stoneyloon]

The bill comes with the suggested tip range on it, so no need to worry about calculating it.

 

[sammie1884]

Thanks everyone, We have decided not to bother with the DDP

 

[marcgiu]

In our opinion the DDP Plus is great value for the Kids - $16 per day and they have more than enough to eat.

 

[wayneg]

In our opinion the DDP Plus is great value for the Kids - $16 per day and they have more than enough to eat.

Not something I have considered, being all adults I only know that wouldn't be worth paying for for us.
If its only $16 for a childs DDP then it seems good value, just a character buffet dinner would cost that + tax.

 

[queendisney]

I must admit unless its free we would never pay for the DDP. We find its just too much food and would eat far less without it. For example we stayed at POR and one of their CS options is the make your own pasta with garlic bread. One portion of this is enough to share and we would only have had one between us if we'd paid. Often we sat down and we were just not hungry and had we not been on the ddp then we would have just not bothered. For some reason we felt like we had to use all the credits but it really was very very difficult to do...

 

[dmdelight]

had the ddp twice and qsdp once-all "free".
absolutely, no way would we pay for dining plan,not worth it all for us.

the first year, we made adrs for here, there and everywhere!
felt like our holiday was slightly overtaken by reservations instead of park time.

we also did not realise our snacks balance could be used up on having fun in the candy store-therefore we missed out there.

the following year,we made a couple of adrs-to the places we had previously enjoyed the most and did not sweat the remaining balance at check out.

the qsdp is by far our favourite plan-no time constraints, not big eaters and more park time-still had 21 credits remaining at the end of our hols!