First time - DDP or no DDP

[sam&chris]

Hi everyone. Sorry if this has already been asked. My future DH and I will be going to WDW for the first time on our honeymoon in May '09. We already booked our room with the military deal and are still trying to decide if we should add on a dining plan. We would like to make reservations to do a TS meal for dinner on each night, which totals 6. Neither of us are big breakfast eaters and usually don't have big lunches either.So would a dining plan be good for us, and if so, which? TIA

 

[borgthe]

Get the regular dining plan for sure. Saves a LOT of money. Eat an early CS lunch.

 

[pooh2001]

The main reason we may not do the DDP plan - same price as not being on it.

We can get an AAA rate ( 10% - 15% less than resort rack rate) and save some $$'s. I priced out what we we eat at CS & TS - and I came out to about the same or less for what we would pay for DDP.

For us:
4 adults = $160 (about)
Our days would average between $140 - $160
We eat breakfast in our room and sometime just do salad and a pizza for dinner ($40) (Picabu's at the Dolphin, BW pizza window, and I guess WDW resort's CS)

So the DDP may not work for us - and yes, we do not always do dessert, especially if we had Mickey ice bars and ices in the park during the day already.

 

[mooneyda]

Sounds like you have like the same eating plan as us when we get it.light breakfast(oop),CS for lunch and TS dinner at night.I would recommend it I personally think it is worth it but just my opinion

 

[monkeybug]

We are doing the Military Ticket/room rate thing too.
We decided to get the dining plan. Originally we had planned to eat breakfast in our room, have snacky stuff for lunch and do a TS for dinner. After pricing out what our selections at dinner would be likely be we (the dining plan is $100 a day for us with 2 adults and 2 kids) we realized that the dining plan would be less expensive for us, in fact on most nights we would have spent about one days cost of the ddp on our dinner alone (we are not burger and fries types, and most of the meals we selected are in the 25-30 range not including dessert and beverages). It's also nice that we won't have to hassle with buying grocery's for our room, and we know exactly how much we will be spending on food.
We have friends who are going and for them the dining plan would not had saved any money, they are picky eaters and the foods they enjoy are the less expensive type things. I think it really just depends on your family's eating habits!

 

[Justsyd2]

The best way to decide is to look at the menus, figure out what you will spend each day on meals and snacks, then compare the total to the DDP. Many people do better on the DDP. It just depends on your eating habits. Remember that you will be doing a lot of walking, and will be more active at the parks, therefore, you will probably be more hungry than usual.

 

[mark_o_2005]

First off, congrats! My DW and I honeymooned at wdw last summer, and had a great time.

For us, we decided to do the DDP for two main reasons:
1. We enjoyed having everything pre-paid, and not have to worry about either carrying cash, settling a room bill at the end of our stay, or being surprised by the massive credit card bill waiting for us at home. We knew exactly what we would be spending in advance.
2. It gave us an excuse to splurge some, and enjoy snacks, desserts, and some fancier restaurants than I would justify doing if I were paying cash.

In the end, it was just one less thing to worry about. After the stress of crunching numbers the entire time we were planning the wedding, that was priceless.

 

[sam&chris]

Thanks!! You all have given great points. After hearing the opinions I think it would be beneficial for us to look more into getting a dining plan. Y'all are great!