Free Dining Plan First Day! Updated Days 2,3,4 & 5 added!

[elwise1966]

Glad you're enjoying your DDP. We had the same problem last year when we went. We just couldn't quite use up all of our credits and left with 1 TS and 2 CS unused. We managed to use all our snack credits fairly quickly though.
Even with the price increase in the DDP, in my opinion it's still an awesome deal. Almost every table service meal we had, the check came out to more than the $35 per person dining plan. So basically we paid for one table meal and ate the rest of the day for free.
I'm sure you could do it cheaper by eating outside food and bringing in your own snacks, but to me the convenience is well worth the slightly higher cost and not worrying about if we're spending too much on food.

Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

[ntsammy5]

Thanks so much for the post. I guess I won't expect to lose weight on DDP.

 

[MousekaMaddi]

greaaaaaaaat post, thanx much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[*Marty_Mouse_House*]

Hi, thank you all for your kind comments and messages. Today was day 4 of the free dining plan. DS and I were slightly hungry today upon waking. We decided to try a breakfast in the food court. We asked the cashier what was included with the snack or the counter service option. She said that basically any one item (I guess as long as it was under $4.00) was considered a snack and any one breakfast plate with drink was considered a counter service. DS and I ordered 1 chef's breakfast special which included 2 cinnamon roll-flavored french toasts and bacon or sausage. Also, any bottled drink from the refrigerator was included with this. We got a big Minute Maid bottled grapefruit juice. Once again, this 1 thing was plenty for 2 of us. Just as a tip - while we were eating we saw a table of people with a box of 8 Entemanns donuts. They have these in the gift shop and we priced them up - $3.79 so I guess they count as a snack! I'll let you know tomorrow because we plan on getting a box.

The lunch was counter service at Epcot - in the American pavilion and the Japan pavilion. The choices at America included the burgers, chicken nuggets, and hot dogs with fries, as well as salads. The desserts were these cute little smores cups with marshmallows on top, apple cobbler, fruit triffle and jello. DS wanted to get jello - but it was the cheapest dessert and I wanted the apple cobbler so I made him get that! Sorry, but I was in the Maximize-the-Value mode! Also included in the counter service in America was the frozen cherry or coke as the drink! Unfortunately, after we ordered, the frozen drink machine went down so we had to order a fountain drink instead. DH got his counter service at Japan and ordered the Shogun combination with chicken, beef and rice. The dessert included a ginger/chestunt cake. We had been eating chocolate cake wherever we went so this was a nice change.

Later that afternoon DS and I went back to the All Star food court and got our snack - a Mickey ice cream bar and Itzakadoozie. I wanted to mention that some of the other snacks we got in previous days included a big pretzel (at MGM) and a frozen banana drink (also at MGM). I miscounted before and we still have 3 snacks! Plus 2 counter services! I guess Earl of Sandwich got the counter service we used yesterday because we were caught up on the receipt today. (It lists how many you have left on the bottom of your receipt.)

Dinner was an ADR at Mama Melrose in MGM. We arrived at 6:50, about 10 minutes before our reservation. They were turning away the walk-up people and said they were completely booked. I told the hostess we were using 2 dinner credits and she said that was fine - she needed to know so she could tell the server. We also told the server and no one blinked an eye. We ordered 2 appetizers - the oven baked cheese with crostini, and the Italian bread salad. DS ordered the steak which came with asparagus and polenta, and DH ordered the sausage and rigatoni pasta. We are like the Jack Spratt family - whatever someone doesn't eat, someone else does. We all had a little of everything and they also brought bread with sun-dried tomato pesto. Honestly, we could barely finish it all. The salad also had cheesy bread on it and the baked cheese came with crostini bread too! For dessert we had the hazelnut cheesecake and the spumoni ice cream. They also offered tiramisu and a coffee chocolate mousse cake. The total bill came to about $80.00. The servers have been really considerate and today was no exception - extra plates were brought, as well as extra silverware for the desserts and extra water. Everything was really good and we would have to rate this as our #2 dinner behind #1 Le Cellier, but every place had their pluses. We tried to pick places where we had never eaten before (as we are more counter service types rather than table service types).

We were wearing our green shirts today and I just wanted to say hi to the fellow dis-boarder we met at MGM today whom we later saw in Mama Melrose. It was nice meeting you!

Tomorrow, we end the free Disney Dining Plan!

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30 Plus Trips in 30 Plus Years!

 

[bertalander]

I'm loving getting a 'live' report of how things are. Thanks so much for the updates!!!



Have a blast.

 

[momof2disprincesses]

I have to say thanks too for the live report. I've been coming back daily to see what you have to say.

We leave in 9 days ... WOO HOO single digits

We plan to do a lot of what you're doing and it's great to hear it's still allowed.

Thanks again!! Enjoy your last day.

 

[pperfectmom]

Thank you for the detailed report. I'm glad that sharing is not creating a problem. We are also definately a "Jack Spratt" (love it ) kind of family, so we will consider sharing some meals also. Enjoy the rest of your stay.

 

[jlieblaw]

When you share meals, what do you do with your leftover TS credits? We're thinking of sharing but I'm trying to figure out where we will use of all the credits.

Thanks

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Thanks for sharing your trip report with us, I look forward to reading more. It helps me get past the 2 weeks until I arrive at WDW!!!

 

[apulk]

Thank you sooooo much for the live updates. We leave in 2 days now and will do a lot of the same things you did. Our party is 6 -- wife and I and 4 kids. That's way too much food. We ate out last night at one of our local favorite places -- DW had a salad, I had an entree, and my 4 kids (16,14,9 & 7) shared two appetizer plates -- on their own -- not Dad saying they had too. And they still had one chicken finger unclaimed.

The charater meals will all count as 6 as they should -- the other sits downs, I think we'll do 4 -- and maybe buy one kids meal if we really need to.

Thanks again for your great reports.

 

[alicenwonder99]

Thanks again for another day of posting! I checked out the snacks listed in the Snacks Thread and I'm so surprised! Some of the items we had to pay OOP for in December because the person at the register said they weren't included in the DDP (like the funnel cakes in MK).

I said I wouldn't bother with the sharing because it seems like more trouble than it's worth, but now I may reconsider. My kids eat like birds, and I ended up throwing away not only most of their food, but some of mine, too. I just don't know how it will all work out...lol.

Thanks again.

Mary

 

[Thinktinknpixiedust]

We were wearing our green shirts today and I just wanted to say hi to the fellow dis-boarder we met at MGM today whom we later saw in Mama Melrose. It was nice meeting you!

Tomorrow, we end the free Disney Dining Plan!

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30 Plus Trips in 30 Plus Years!

HI That would be me! It was great running into another "Dis'er", that would be 2 in 2 days... I think it's a record! So sad to hear your leaving the world so soon... we'll be back to the real world the 27, checking out here the 24 and stopping in VA for a couple of days... anywho... I just got the chance to check my email (312 dis emails!!) Hope you had a great time! Did you ride ToT? catch ya later....

 

[*Marty_Mouse_House*]

This is to answer jlieblaw's question: We went to the Spirit of Aloha dinner show at the Polynesian which counts as 2 TS credits per person (as do the other dinner shows and some of the fancier restaurants). So, for instance, we stayed 4 nights at the All-Star and the 3 of us got 12 TS credits total. The Aloha show took up 6 credits which left us with 6 credits. That's how we were able to go to 3 other places by spending 2 credits at each place.

Also to thinktinkn DH and DS did ride ToT (it is the only ride I haven't been on - YET!)

Today was the last day of our free dining plan. We had stayed our 4 nights and were checking out today - the 5th day. The total tally of credits left this morning came to 3 snacks and 2 counter services. We went to the food court to spend everything and here's what we got: 1 box of Entemann's donuts priced at $3.79 (1 snack and purchased in the gift shop), 1 crumb cake for the car on the trip home (1 snack), and 1 fruit bowl to put in the cooler for the car (1 snack). For the counter service we got 1 breakfast plate of chocolate chip pancakes, bacon and bottled fruit punch (1 counter), and 1 chef's salad and bottled apple juice (1 counter) which was put in the cooler for lunch. The food court has the biggest variety for bottled drinks, however you don't get a dessert with your counter credits.

If you want to hear my two cents about the positives of some of the places we tried, here goes:

Le Cellier - the food was excellent, the service was excellent, the frozen drinks were included as a beverage, and the pretzel breadsticks were fantastic. It was inside with air conditioning. Also, we were seated almost immediately.

Rose & Crown - the food was good and pretty on the plate, the scenery and fireworks could not be beat, however, when we sat down at 8:30 it was dark where we were and it was hard to see what we were eating.

Aloha Show - we were seated at the front table so had a great view and the show was good. The volcano dessert presentation was cute. They had a system to seat the guests quickly and the tables were individual for each family (unlike when we had eaten there many years ago). Also, we received free leis! Make sure you ask for lots of beverages early. Beer and wine is free with the meal so there is no need to pay for it at the Cash Bar while you are waiting to get in.

Mama Melrose - we were seated on time, it was peaceful and spacious with nice decor and windows, the service was very good. The food was good too. It was inside with air conditioning. DH said this might have been his favorite place.

Pizza Planet - Big bang for the counter service buck with pizza, salad and drink included as well as dessert of cookie or rice krispy Mickey. Also had air conditioning.

Flame Tree - the food was good and also big bang for the CS buck. There was some variety for desserts and more unusual side items.

Columbia Harbour House - has always been a favorite of ours with the 1/2 sandwich and soup combo option, chocolate cake dessert. Had air conditioning, beautiful views upstairs at the windows, and rest rooms on the premises.

Earl of Sandwich - The fountain drinks are self-service and the desserts were bigger than some. Also had air conditioning.

America Pavilion - had nice combos, frozen drinks were included as a beverage, and a nice selection of desserts. Had air conditioning.

The air conditioning to us made a difference - sometimes the lines were long and it was hot.

Would we do the free dining plan again? Definitely! I loved having everything paid for in the beginning and we hardly spent any money out of pocket on the entire trip. Also, I think the teenager was finally full! We would do a couple of things differently next time -- like not trying to save our credits. When we were hungry we should have gotten something to eat (even if we had a big meal coming later in the day). Also, I tried to keep a couple of ziploc bags handy in case we needed to pack up a cookie or something like that.

Would be buy the dining plan? That would depend. We really enjoyed it and are already talking about some of the other places that we would like to try (like the Yachtsman Steakhouse and Coral Reef). But we also enjoy eating at counter services and usually only splurge on 1 table service meal per trip.

It was another fabulous Disney vacation with lots of other wonderful Highlights other than dining. We all rode a Segway for free 3 days this week at Innoventions, I managed to beat DS and DH score at Buzz Lightyear for the first time ever, we heard British Invasion twice in 1 day, rode Expedition Everest (the single rider line was a walk-on), saw our Leave A Legacy for the first time, we somehow managed to get 108 pictures on our Photo Pass, the Soarin ride was spectacular -- but I could go on and on. We definitely can't wait until our next trip!

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30 Plus Trips in 30 Plus Years

 

[miss missy]

Thanks for the great info!!

I am heading next week. Weather shows Scattered T-Storms EVERDAY... did you run into this? How long did they last??? Thanks!

 

[Panna]

Thanks for the wondeful updates.

I am in so much trouble. We have 5 "adults" well 3 of us don't really eat that much, but everyone is on the dining plan. My hope is that we can use some of the extra credits (10 extra of each because 2 are leaving after just a few days) and down grade to get samples at the F&W.

I better find a gym or a lap pool while I'm there to work off all this extra food *oomph*

 

[zookeeper]

Thanks for the great report. We're off in 9 days for Free Dining and I can't wait!

 

[disneyde]

Thanks for the great report......puts my mind to rest on Mama Melrosa.

 

[Kteacher]

Thank you- your reports were excellent! I'm glad you had such a good time Taking a break in air conditioning is important for our family too

 

[donaldtutter]

Awesome reporting!!! Glad you had a great trip

 

[*Marty_Mouse_House*]

Hi miss missy! To answer your weather question - we were really lucky with the rain. It only sprinkled 1 afternoon! We brought a small umbrella and walked out of MGM with it. We had brought ponchos from home and never used them. Most evenings had a breeze.

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30 Plus Trips in 30 Plus Years