First Timers’ Experience on DDP & Free Server Tips & other DDP/Free Food Info

[alaskanabbott]

do you have a copy of the spreadsheet you made for the counter service meals? We are going in Jan, with my, DH, my dad and our 6 children- I'd love to have as much "planned" as possible.

 

[Mrs D]

Julie - this is an fantastic report! You are a true DISer!

Thanks for sharing your experience and strategies.

 

[larryz]

Very good and detailed run-down! Thanks for sharing. I didn't know there were muffalettas available on property; now I will have to get one next time I'm down!

 

[TwoAtDisney]

Somehow I lost my post. I hope this is not a duplicate!

Anyway, Mrs. D, thanks.

Tina, it was a Rewards card loaded with our points from our Chase WDW VISA.

larryz, hope you enjoy the WDW muffalettas, but don't expect anything like those from the Central Grocery in New Orleans (WOW!)! We did enjoy them, & they are big enough to split. IMO, they need more olive relish. So, you might ask for more on the side since the sandwiches are already made.

AA, I didn't do a QS spreadsheet. However, pre-trip I did read as many menus and Dis-food posts/reviews as possible. I created a Word doc, & as I researched, I listed QS locations I felt we would like, based on the food info I was gathering. I arranged the locations by parks, resorts, & DTD. For each location, I listed the items I thought we would like, based on my research. This worked very well for us since we did not have a day-to-day planned schedule; we go with the flow of our minute to minute moods! At WDW, when we got hungry, I just pulled out the list for wherever we were, we looked it over, & then decided what we wanted & where to eat. Sometimes the mood would strike us & we would leave where we were & go elsewhere!

I did the same as above (on separate sheet of note paper) for our Snack credits.

Pre-trip I did a spreadsheet for our TS. It was simple also. Opened a spreadsheet program, listed the reserved restaurant names down the 1st column, listed the days/dates of the trip across the top line. Then entered the time of the reservation in the appropriate cell - such as, Yachtsman at 5:00pm on Tues 12/8. Located Yachtsman in the 1st column, follow the line to Tues 12/8 & in that cell, type in 5:00pm. Once finalized, I printed it, took it with us, & carried it in my purse in case we changed our minds while not in our room. Very simple & so convenient to use once in WDW.

However, a couple of other notes about TS -
1. I wish I had taken extra copies of the TS spreadsheet without any restaurant names & times entries. While in WDW, we kept changing our minds & our reservations. My original spreadsheet soon became so altered that it became too difficult to read. So I had to do one (& then another!) by hand; we were on DDP for 18 days. I had taken a lined paper tablet with me, so I drew in the spreadsheet lines & columns by hand.

2. Last day pre-trip I printed out a copy of "My Reservations" from the Disney dining website. This gave me the #s of my reservations in case I wanted to cancel - which I did.

3. At WDW, each time I cancelled a TS ressie, I drew a line thru the reservation time that was listed on the spreadsheet, & wrote "cancelled" above the crossed out time. Made it so much easier to know at one glance that I had not failed to cancel.

4. I'd think such a simple spreadsheet would work for QS also, if one's WDW time is going to be structured rather than "mood of the moment". But I liked my QS Word doc better - gave so much more info than a spreadsheet would.

Julie

 

[sandym718]

Great information, thanks for sharing it!! 25 days in Disney/Orlando sounds like Heaven!!

 

[pegrad1]

I've never heard that a person could use coupons or gift cards as a tip. This really has me concerned as I'm considering going this direction, but would a server have the heart to say, "we can't use that to tip?"