Disney Dining Plan

[Mrdudecool]

Hi,

With the offer this year with the free DDP, I was looking for a few opinions on this.
What do you guys think about it? Worth the time?

Thanks in advance,

Jack

 

[Twilight Terror]

Depends on which plan you are on - counter service plan, normal plan, or deluxe plan.

Whichever plan though, it's all free, so that has to be good!

 

[Neoshoegal]

I think it's well worth it if ou have the normal dining plan, I wouldn't really bother with the counter service one.
For this year, we're staying at the Saratoga Springs with the free dining plan (the normal one). For next year we're looking at staying at Port Orleans Riverside. There it's a free counter service dining plan, but we plan to upgrade to the normal one for £5 extra a day.

 

[wayneg]

We are trying it this August, staying at OKW. Not enjoyed the planning of it all one little bit. So far I have rung for ADR's (90+10) called at guest services last week to make some more and still need to ring again to do the last 3. Ours is for 16 nights so would be easier for less.
We prefer to eat(and stay) offsite. Decide about an hour before we eat where we want to go, not plan months in advance.
Struggled to find 16 places we want to eat at(ruled some out as we have eaten at a few before but not many, wanted to try new places)
Could have stayed offsite and dined offsite for slightly less but at the price we paid(£91/night for 3 adults) I decided its now or never to try this option.
If you prefer to stay and eat onsite then its great value and well worth doing, especially if staying at SSR or OKW with the room discounts ontop of free DDP.

 

[mushumadness]

Im considering doing this plan if its free in 2011, we normally stay and eat of site but thought of giving it a try, our boys will be 3 and 2 then so I think they would like some character meals

 

[team harris]

We are on the normal plan again this year. It doesn't necessary work for everyone. Good for our family as we tend to argue about where to eat, so if it's booked in advance and everyone had their input at the time of planning, we are arguement free (ok, may have lied a bit - nearly arguement from!)

 

[chocolateMinnie]

We have always stayed onsite and always paid OOP. With previous exchange rates we decided this was a better bet as we eat two large meals (breakfast and dinner) and snack during the day but would generally not eat a dessert and appetizer just one or the other.

We looked into the 'free' dining plan when we booked for next year based on the fact that we always do CRT at least once and a dinner show. As we are guaranteed the price we will pay in sterling it takes the guesswork out of the exchange rate.

We did look at the freebie quick service plan or the upgrade to DDP but decided the only one that would suit us was the DXDP.

To upgrade to that one we would need to stay at a deluxe resort. Although the price wouldn't be much different we were slightly disappointed when we stayed at GF the other year as we really much preferred CSR. We have always had a fantastic holiday there and decided to stick to what we know and pay in full for DXDP, pity they don't offer the deal to upgrade to that at a moderate but hey we'll know if we made the right decision or not next year.

 

[eeyorefanuk]

I think it's well worth it if ou have the normal dining plan, I wouldn't really bother with the counter service one.
For this year, we're staying at the Saratoga Springs with the free dining plan (the normal one). For next year we're looking at staying at Port Orleans Riverside. There it's a free counter service dining plan, but we plan to upgrade to the normal one for £5 extra a day.

Hello,

Saratoga is the one we have been priced up since there is 8 of us and the best value.

I think with this you get one free counter service and one free table service a day.

I did think if you wanted to upgrade it cost another £16 per day ???

 

[Neoshoegal]

Hello,

Saratoga is the one we have been priced up since there is 8 of us and the best value.

I think with this you get one free counter service and one free table service a day.

I did think if you wanted to upgrade it cost another £16 per day ???

It's one free counter service, one table service and a snack a day. We've found that the normal DDP offers plenty of food and for us the DeluxeDP would be too much. Especially with staying at a villa resort. We're planning to have breakfast in our studio most days (quick trip to Wallmart to stock up on a few essentials). Also, if you plan it well, you can maximise your snacks and use a snack as breakfast or quick lunch. For example: the Main Street bakery in the MK and the Starring Rolls Cafe in DS offer things like cherry turnovers, krispy kreme doughnuts (2 of them), pastries, ... all within the snack limit. Last year we found we hadn't used a lot of our snacks and near the end we had few breakfasts at the Starring Rolls cafe which were rather indulgent

 

[cazzie]

Most people love the free DDP but it didn't work for us, the only TS meals I could get were lunch time and it felt like we spent most of the holiday running to restaurants and everything we did was ruled by the clock. Also there was too much food for us having the TS and CS and to be honest we wouldn't normally eat two large meals a day.

If I could have been sure we could have used the TS for a CS meal I would have booked OKW for our next trip as I would love to stay there but we decided to book PO and go for the CS dining.