Does DDP spoil spontaneity?

[MississippiMamma]

I've been talking to my wife and DDP and the pros and cons and she's afraid of going on the DDP gaining ten pounds to add to my waffling. BTW our trip consists of my wife and me, DS 21, His GF23 and DD 15. We all like to eat and no one is a picky eater. I think if I really want to do the DDp and allow the flexibility that we usually have we'd probably need to do our TS meal at lunch. I usually plan our day as to what park we'll go to in the morning through lunch time or after and then fly by the seat of our pants from there on out.

I went on Weight Watchers at the end of October. I worked and worked to lose 30 pounds. I was also afraid Deluxe Dining Plan would lead to weight gain. In fact, even during the trip I worried some about it. But I decided to go off Weight Watchers and eat like a glutton all week . . . and. . . drum roll . . . I gained ONE pound. You walk so much at the parks and play so hard. Tell your wife not to worry.

 

[bigbabyblues]

For us that's fine, that's how we like to be and we're happy this way. We thoroughly enjoy TS and sitting down, but we don't need it every day to feel like we're on vacation. That is not how everyone is. If you need one TS per day then the DDP will probably work well for you - you can almost always get something somewhere at some point in the evening. But just be cautious you may well have to travel to a resort if you're traveling at peak times.

I think this is the whole thing, in a nutshell. We always made ADRs (PS, lol) before the ddp, and we wanted to have at least one TS meal each day. We don't care much for counter service, so we don't mind the ADRs; we also don't eat out much at home, so part of our vacation is eating "out". It's just a matter of personal preference. We wouldn't enjoy our vacation as much if we ate counter service all the time, others wouldn't want to be tied to ADRs and/or prefer to get something quick at the cs restaurant and get back to their park touring. Neither is right or wrong, and neither suits everyone.

 

[bigbabyblues]

I think the larger issue is WDW is just too busy, too much to do to just have no plans at all.

Yep, that too!

 

[TarzansKat]

I love this idea. We went for six nights for the first time two weeks ago. We were on Deluxe and by the end we were feeling a little trapped by ADRs. However, we really enjoyed all the fancy food; it was part of the trip for us. If I go again, I will do it your way. Regular dining plan. Only one or two dinner ADRs. You can ALWAYS pay OOP for an appie, or even an extra TS if you want it. Also, if you are careful, some of the 1TS restaurants are as good as the signature places. Even if you want to be spontaneous, you have to plan it at Disney!

This is why I love the DIS! Because if my theories about what works for us can help someone else out in anyway, than we'll all be happier Disney vacationers!

Seriously, I'm glad that my thought process was helpful to you. I can't wait to implement it on our upcoming trip and see how it works for us. We've got some very exciting ADRs planned, well, exciting to us anyway, so we'll see how it goes.