Does DDP Offer Too Much Food?

[chirurgeon]

I think they offer too much food on the Dining Plan.

Other opinions?

 

[disneyjunkie]

I voted yes, but you don't HAVE to order everything that's offered.

We order what we will eat and pass on the rest. One waitress was angry about us doing this. However, I wasn't willing to waste food just so she'd have a bigger tip.

 

[marcyinPA]

I didn't vote, because I'm on the fence on this one. Is it too much food for me personally to eat...yes. But for someone else, it might not be. The thing is, if they took away the snack, or if they limited you to only an entree and a dessert, people would complain about that too. No matter what, people will find something to complain about...too much food, not enough food, too many limitations, etc.

Bottom line is that I like the plan the way it is, and I think it's a great value!

 

[BlindTyldak]

I voted no, but i think it's kind of about what you're at the parks for. Out where I live there are so FEW choices for eating that is not burgers that a huge part of our disney vacations is trying every restaurant we possibly can, so IMHO there's not enough! But if a wide variety of food is normal for someone else and they want to just chow and get back to the rides, yeah, i could see it being too much.

 

[heatherlynn444]

no def. not. I LOVED when you got two "wishes" a day. we ate conceirge offerings for breakfast, and then TS for lunch and dinner. we were quite stuffed but hey, its vacation!

 

[tndisneyfan]

I voted no. To me vacation is a time to splurge and eat things you wouldn't normally eat.

 

[DeterminedOne]

I vote no. It's kind of like asking if a buffet has too much food. You don't have to eat everything that's offered. And as someone else mentioned, too much for you may not be too much for the next person.

 

[CoolDisneyCat]

no def. not. I LOVED when you got two "wishes" a day. we ate conceirge offerings for breakfast, and then TS for lunch and dinner. we were quite stuffed but hey, its vacation!

TS for lunch and dinner? I don't think this is the dining plan the poll is about .. is it?

I took it to mean the one with 1 CS, 1 TS and 1 snack a day ..

 

[bicker]

I voted yes, but you don't HAVE to order everything that's offered.

That's why I voted no.

 

[faindrops27]

No, was my vote. But, I have never been on the DDP. But, I love to eat. So, I don't think it would be to much food for me.

 

[Topper]

I think this thread belongs in the Disney Dining Plan sub-forum.

YMMV

 

[Esmerelda]

Definitely a yes....after thoroughly looking it over and knowing what my family of 4 eat....waaay to much for us. I would never want to go to Disney and made feel like I "had" to order more because it was on the dining plan. We rarely ever get dessert and I feel this would encourage us to feel like we simply had to have it or get it to go...(my thought here at least..) Also, I want to pick whatever..and whereever I want..not what's on the plan.

For the record...I am married to a Marine (220#..no fat)...my almost 15 yr old...5'6"...(160 lbs)...and my 10 yr old...(80 lbs..)..me I'm a mere 5'1" and about 115lbs. As you can see apart from me...the rest of the group are good sized. lol... We do our best to stay fit and we all know how hard it is to lose weight and keep it off (esp at my height!).

I know the first thing the wait staff asked up last year when we sat down was "are you on the dining plan?" I finally got to where the first thing I said was "hi...and no we are not on the dining plan..."...lol We did however buy a DDE card last year and it saved us tons of money.

Some folks might enjoy it but it just isn't our cup of tea.

have fun!
Esmerelda

 

[powellrj]

I voted no because I felt the key word here was offered. Just because they offer the food doesn't mean I need to order it and eat it. Even if you don't order everything offered, its still a good deal when you consider tax and tips are already added.

 

[Mickey&Donald]

I haven't experienced the DDP yet but we will be taking advantage of the free food in August! From what I've seen here, it does seem like a lot of food, but too much? Nah. Maybe for someone who's happy eating CS all the time, this would be a waste. But DH and I really enjoy trying as many restaurants in the World as we can. We love good food and to get it for free? all the better! Yes, we'll probably be stuffed all the time, but hey, it's vacation! I can worry about keeping my figure the other 51 weeks of the year, thank you.

 

[WAHMto5]

This really depends ont he persona nd how much they eat. For our family I would say no, it is vacation and for us a time to enjoy especially the food As others have said, just do not order the appetizers or desserts. But I am glad they offer it for those who wish to eat it

 

[My2Cinderellas]

I said "no" - because of how we used the credits, especially the CS credits.

We never used 4 CS credits for the 4 of us to eat lunch. 3 was plenty. occasionally just 2. when we were at our resort, I would often get fruit for dessert, and bottles of juice for the drink, and save them for breakfast in the room. sharing credits at lunch allowed us to get CS breakfast twice, again sharing meals. We also had enough credits left to get lunch on our last day, taking sandwiches to the airport. and sadly, we still left 1 CS credit unused, but never felt deprived.

could have used more snack credits, even with getting bottled water for most CS meals in the parks. we had 28 snack credits and probably paid OOP for at least 20 more.

TS - I don't think we finished too many meals, but part of the experience is trying things. would we have been more restrained in ordering if paying OOP - sure! probably would have shared appetizers and desserts like we do at home. I often do not finish portions at home, so did not feel bad leaving food on my plate at Disney. the only difference was I could not easily take the leftovers so had to "waste" them.

 

[mello]

Because overall, it worked out just great for our family. We have always eaten one nice (ie: TS) meal a day while on vacation, and while an appetizer and a dessert per person is a lot of food for me, personally, we have two growing boys, who along with dh, were almost always able to scarf up the rest of my food. Our ds 12 was an adult on the plan, but he typically preferred the offerings on the children's menu, though he could eat more than the child's serving, so he often ate my appetizer. Our younger ds 9, was a child on the plan, but is more of an adventurous eater - likes things like calamari, sushi, etc. and though he usually ordered mac n cheese off the kids' menu, he loved to eat half of whatever I had! So TS worked out great for us.

Yes, we were full, but hey it's vacation!

As for CS - I'm not a big breakfast eater, but dh is, so we were often able to use 2 of our 4 CS credits for b'fast and 2 for lunch or supper. We just paid OOP for anything extra at any of those meals - no biggie.

Snack was the only thing we had lots of credits left at the end, and that was because not as much was included on the snack plan when we were there - basically drinks, popcorn, whole fruit and mickey bars. We got mickey bars twice, and water the rest of the time. We wound up getting lots of our snacks OOP - dole whips for ex. With the new and improved snack plan I doubt we'd have any Snack credits left.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

I think that the DDP does is offer an incredible value if you use it wisely. Of course, if you are getting DDP for free, it's an incredible value even if you only use the snack credits!

I think there may be some interest in offering a DDP light version, though, which only includes Quick service and snack credits... like 2 QS and 2 Snack credits per day. Some families eat this way.

Personally, we try and maximize our DDP by grabbing a couple of pieces of whole fruit from the buffet to eat at breakfast the next morning. We are not big breakfast eaters, so fruit and splitting a bagel makes a great meal.. especially when you've got refillable mugs for coffee (or frozen coke )

 

[jjatwdw]

No!!! We used the DDP for the first time on our May trip. We loved it. It gave us a chance to try some great TS restaurants that we wouldn't have tried otherwise. We simply at two meals a day. We rarely used sc on ice cream or pastries, using them instead on bottled water. There are some really healthy choices available. My DS6 loved the chilled, grilled chicken, carrots, celery and applesause he had at Pecos Bills. (Of course, the rest of us pigged out on the most incredible burgers!)

 

[GEM]

Too much food??? I'm sorry. I don't understand the question. How can you possibly have too much food?

For us, no, it's not too much food. Do we always eat that way at home? No. Of course not. But, for us, a huge part of vacation is splurging on new and different foods and really enjoying our meals! Like someone else said, we live in an area where Pizza Hut is considered a nice restaurant. When we're at Disney, we LOVE to eat.