Does anyone NOT get the Dining Plan?

[luvpooh]

Does anyone not go to WDW, stay onsite and not get the DDP? It seems like almost everything I read lately is about the DDP in some form. I am just curious to see what the split is between DDP and not.

We personally are not DDP'ers. We generally eat a light breakfast in the room, TS for lunch (entree only) and TS or 'grazing' for dinner (we like to do progressive eating, think around the Monorail, around the WS, or around DTD). We will either share an app or get one each, and an entree each at a 'traditional' TS meal. We rarely eat dessert with a meal, but will have some kind of sweets later in the evening (think make your own dessert from Goofy's Candy Co!).

So, do you DDP or do you not DDP?

 

[MarieA]

We used to get the DDP when everything was included. Our last trip we did not use the DDP. Instead we used the DDE and wound up spending less money. We do not plan on booking the DDP for our next two trips in Nov. 08 and May 09.

 

[ransom]

We used the DDP in 2006 and 2007. It saved us a ton of money.

For 2008, we're not using it. We'll use the DDE card instead. That, plus sharing some of the enormous CS meals, will save us more than the current DDP would.

 

[pat fan]

No DDP here!

We usually eat bkfst. in the room, lunch is up for grabs (TS,character meal,food court) and CS/grazing for dinner. I have never been able to justify the DDP. We have always been able to do it cheaper on our own, especially now that I use my Visa points for our meals. I get to eat for free!

 

[winterman]

DH and I did the DDP twice. (It was free.) We enjoyed it a lot but will probably not do it again. (Unless we go during free dining again.) Two reasons. First, it is not the great deal it was when appetizer and tip was included. Second, most of the time I prefer to order an appetizer and a salad but no entree. That is not possible on the dining plan. Even without using the DDP, we eat at TS restaurants almost every day we are there.

 

[wweman]

Never have, never will. Can't eat that much food during one trip.

 

[thegrimdwarf]

Never have, never will. Can't eat that much food during one trip.

Ditto that. And we think the food is way below par, anyway, so even if we were big eaters, we'd pass.

 

[Meriweather]

We don't use it.
We only eat a very small breakfast usually in room. A light dinner. Our big sit down meal is lunch.
We use DDE and really, really like it.
We try to go 2-3 times in the year span, so it really pays off.
But....we don't go during the times the free DDP is offered.....it would be hard to pass on free

 

[Wild4Walt]

Never been on the dining plan myself because of the types of rates I get. I don't do packages, only room where it is not offered.

My parents did it last year and felt like they ate way more than they would on a regular trip. They also ended up not using some of their snack credits and felt like they ended up spending more than if they would have just eatten as they normally do.

 

[shocker]

Never have, but may some day. Our last trip was for 9 nights on site and we only ate 4 meals total of disney food, we do have DDE. The rest was brought and was either ready to eat or easily made. My DSIL has reserved the Deluxe DDP for their sept. trip. They get 3 meals a day and 2 snacks for each of their family of 6 (that's 12 snack credits a day ). I smell LINE ) I think they will spend more time eating, waiting to eat, waiting to "pay" to eat, transporting somewhere to eat, etc. etc. This is their first visit and I'm afraid they'll miss a lot of stuff with DDP. But, they just "needed more food." They seem so afraid to pay out of pocket if they do indeed need more food. I really like to know I paid for exactly what I got, no more, no less.

 

[ralphie]

Don't eat that much, we're there to enjoy the park.

 

[rcraw45425]

WE used it on our last trip but will not do it again.

 

[snykymom]

It's not great for the way we eat. I think that even if we do a real breakfast, lunch and dinner, we'll spend less. And certainly eat less!
1) Generally, I don't have juice with breakfast. If it came with, maybe I'd drink it anyway; don't need it. I'll stick to my coffee.
2) Lunch rarely includes a dessert. Sometimes it'll include a salad or soup, which isn't available on basic, only on deluxe.
3) Often, I prefer the appetizers to the entrees. May have 2 or 3 appetizers without an entree. On the basic, can't do this - on the deluxe, there are both appetizers and dessert, but I rarely can eat both with an entree. If I were on the deluxe, I'd order the stuff anyway since I paid for it, but I'd waste a ton of food.
4) I don't want to feel obligated to have the snacks.

Every credit that's left over is money you otherwise wouldn't have spent. So why run around trying to "use up" credits? That's not saving money.

Yes, the dining plans may "save" 30% or so on the food that's included, but that works only if you would have ordered and eaten all of that food anyway, in that manner (like entree and dessert if on basic dining). If you have to change your eating habits to make the plan work, then what's the point?

I also don't want to have to "count credits." If I'm not hungry one day or hungrier the next, I want to get what I want. I don't want to "have" to find a 2 TS restaurant if I wouldn't want it without the DP. And is a 2TS really worth what the TS credits cost?

And what if (horror of horrors! ) I want to eat off-property? Or if a place I want to go isn't on the plan? Then even those who get the plan because "Oh, I just want to say Yes all the time" will have to say "No."

I've made my budget for food for our trip. So I've "prepaid" it without losing out on the possibility of actually not spending it all! We'll eat what we want when we want, and I won't count until the end to see what we actually did spend. (And I bet I'll do a lot less "thinking" about it to see if it's on the DDP!)

I'll let you know how it works out.

I really like to know I paid for exactly what I got, no more, no less.

Love the way you put that! (And knowing I paid for exactly what I wanted, not just what was included!)

 

[kim_d]

We are DVC so there is no free dining for us. We have purchased the DDP and really enjoyed it. We went in Janaury 2008 and decided not to get it and just use our DDE card. It worked out fine.

We are going again in January 2009 and will be getting the DXDDP for 8 nights and using our DDE and paying OOP for 5 nights.

I am not much of a maximize the savings person, we just kind of figure out what we feel like and what works best with our trip plans. We are going again in March and Sept 2009 and haven't decided if we will use the DDP yet.

 

[perla75]

It's never been worth it to us because we like to share meals & we generally never order desserts.

We are, however, planning to try to CS DDP for our next trip-this plan might be more our style.

 

[Crisgw]

We're doing the Deluxe DP this year (when we go in a little over TWO weeks ) and we're excited to try it out. We've always just paid for meals as we went, but staying on property this seemed easier.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We just got back from 16 nights at WDW. We did DxDDP for 7 nights and we got STOMPED as far as value. We are definitely NOT buying a dining plan again!

Our party consisted of me, DH, and DS12. We figured we would do a buffet breakfast and a signature dinner for the nights we had the plan. $70 per person, per day, so $210 right off the bat. Then tips on top of it. Breakfast tips were about $12, dinner tips were about $40. $262 per day on food. We would have come out WAAAAYYY ahead ordering the exact same food and using our DDE card.

It's not even funny how much money we lost in those 7 days. On our last day we had 12 snack credits left. DH panicked and used them on bottles of water, $2 each. I was sick on our last day so we didn't go to dinner that night. There was a night we went to Tutto Italia and another night we went to Wolfgang Puck's, so those were single credit instead of 2. I forgot about that, so going into our last day of DxDDP we had like 8 meal credits and 12 snacks. We used some of the meal credits on CS (DH took DS to MK while I was sick in the room). When they came back from MK at 11 PM we had 4 meal credits left. DH went down to Captain Cook's to get some sandwiches or something and the girl told him there were NO credits left! I went back down with him (BEFORE midnight) so I could get it sorted out. They were rolling the registers over and doing everything by hand, so DH bought 2 CS meals and told the CM to use credits for them. We *think* that worked, but the charge may still show up on my credit card.

We lost 2 meal credits that would have been valid for TS, and we essentially wasted 2 more on sandwiches just so we wouldn't lose the credits entirely.

We tried to change our Tusker House dinner to Jiko but there were no ADRs available. It turns out that was the night I was sick so we would have lost the credits anyway.

I am SO glad we only had the plan for 7 nights. We really might as well have stood in front of the toilet and flushed money down. We hardly used the refillable mugs, and when we checked out on our very last day (5 days after DxDDP ended) we left several brand new bottles of water in the fridge. (DH would have been better off using the snack credits on SNACKS so we could have at least brought them home.)

 

[Dawn68PA]

We always get the basic DDP & it has always saved us money on 2 adults & 2-4 teens.

Although when DH & I go next year alone, I will pay OOP for the freedom to order what and when I want. I'll keep my receipts and see how we did for curiousity sake.

 

[ParrotBill]

There was no poll answer for me - Sometimes, when it suits us.

We are DVC so we have to pay for it if we want it. If we have APs then we buy DDE for 20% off instead, and have more flexibility. If we buy dining we have to manage it carefully to make sure we get good value from it. Lately, we are shying away because our daughter is almost 9 and wants real food more often ... being restricted to the child menu is becoming a problem.

Because of school we need to travel late summer now... best for crowds and DVC points, and air affordability - other school breaks are impossible for air travel now. So I really, really wish free dining would go away. It causes a terrible surge in the restaurants - have to make every ADR far in advance and there is no flexibility to change at all. Very frustrating.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I voted, never have, never will. We don't do enough TS usually.

If we stay for 4 days and we do maybe 2 TS services, then for CS, DD and I usually share while DH eats his and DS eats maybe 1/2 of his.

If I could just get DH to share with DS that would really cut our food budget but he doesn't like to share food. Sigh.

I'm sure at some point DD will want her own but I enjoying sharing with her since it stops me from overeating.