Give me DDP advice!

[DisMomNCM]

I know there are specific DDP forums, but they aren't as active as these DVC ones

I am heading to WDW in April for a mother-daughter trip with my 6yo princess-loving daughter. She has gone many times before and has experienced many restaurants! I have never done any form of the dining plan before, but with the free kid's offer, it makes sense for us.

We have four TS credits to work with during our trip (doing a split stay and only purchasing the plan for the second half). So far, we have Ohana breakfast as a definite (she is a big Stitch fan, and we have only ever done dinner there) and will likely do Akershus breakfast too (we haven't done that one yet either).

For my remaining two credits, I can't decide if I should do CRT dinner with her (we have done breakfast before...I know it's not technically a good use of credits, but the food actually looks palatable for a character meal) or if I should do a Roundup Rodeo BBQ lunch and then book another place for another meal?

Is the Fantasmic! dining package worth it in the sense that it'll actually cut down on the time I need to wait to see the show? Are there any good restaurants for this package?

I am SO undecided. SOS!

 

[Brian Noble]

If there is only one showing of Fantasmic (or you don't want to stay out for the 2nd one with a younger kid) the package can be helpful. For me, it's a little less about cutting down the wait, and more about knowing I have a place with a reasonable wait without having to stress about how early to get there.

Personally, I think three character meals in 4-5 days is overkill. Even two is a lot---for me.

 

[DisMomNCM]

If there is only one showing of Fantasmic (or you don't want to stay out for the 2nd one with a younger kid) the package can be helpful. For me, it's a little less about cutting down the wait, and more about knowing I have a place with a reasonable wait without having to stress about how early to get there.

Personally, I think three character meals in 4-5 days is overkill. Even two is a lot---for me.

Trust me…I also think it’s a lot lol. I am trying to make this a special trip because we just had a baby this past year, so my daughter has had to adjust to splitting her quality time with us. I am definitely open to suggestions for other restaurants if you have them!

 

[Hubalorian]

Would your daughter enjoy the Hollywood and Vine characters with the DDP (Fantasmic Package)?

 

[Genie+]

My vote goes to the 2 character meals plus CRT.

There are circumstances when they are totally worth it. I like your strategy here! When we finally tried CRT for the first time a few years back I was quite impressed by the food. And an advantage with this plan is only needing to pay out of pocket tips for 2 table service meals, because CRT using 2 credits on DDP includes the 18% gratuity.

I say go for it! We love making each trip unique by building around an aspect we don’t do ordinarily. Your plan will no doubt help make it memorable.

 

[kilik64]

CRT is two table credits right? That's a waste of money for you. a TS credit is worth roughly 60-80 dollars, just paying for CRT for you is $89, so you are essentially "paying" $120 to $160 in value buy using 2 credits to eat there. Plus with doing Akershus, you're getting all the same characters at CRT minus Cindy.

I would do hollywood and vine, breakfast is great, we've done that a lot, its Disney Jr characters so she might be right on the cusp of that being a little young for her, but the food for breakfast is really good. Have not done the dinner yet but if she likes Minnie, should be good.

The bonus of the fantasmic dining package is the seating location. Its a big area right in the middle. Unless you want to be super close to the front, you can line up a little before the entry time (like 15-30 mins) and still get solid seats.

If you don't do CRT and have the 2 credits to spend and want another character meal, 1900 park fare is another good one as well and also includes meeting Cindy.

 

[DisMomNCM]

CRT is two table credits right? That's a waste of money for you. a TS credit is worth roughly 60-80 dollars, just paying for CRT for you is $89, so you are essentially "paying" $120 to $160 in value buy using 2 credits to eat there. Plus with doing Akershus, you're getting all the same characters at CRT minus Cindy.

I would do hollywood and vine, breakfast is great, we've done that a lot, its Disney Jr characters so she might be right on the cusp of that being a little young for her, but the food for breakfast is really good. Have not done the dinner yet but if she likes Minnie, should be good.

The bonus of the fantasmic dining package is the seating location. Its a big area right in the middle. Unless you want to be super close to the front, you can line up a little before the entry time (like 15-30 mins) and still get solid seats.

If you don't do CRT and have the 2 credits to spend and want another character meal, 1900 park fare is another good one as well and also includes meeting Cindy.

While I understand it's not necessarily the best use of credits, I don't know that I agree with the equivalent of "only" having to pay $89 out of pocket to go there....because I would also have to pay an exuberant amount of money for my 6-year-old to eat macaroni and cheese there if I paid out of pocket lol.

The Fantasmic package is for sure the only thing that really has me considering doing four separate meals instead of the two TS meals plus CRT.

 

[kilik64]

While I understand it's not necessarily the best use of credits, I don't know that I agree with the equivalent of "only" having to pay $89 out of pocket to go there....because I would also have to pay an exuberant amount of money for my 6-year-old to eat macaroni and cheese there if I paid out of pocket lol.

The Fantasmic package is for sure the only thing that really has me considering doing four separate meals instead of the two TS meals plus CRT.

Fair, I didn't think about that part, but my argument was about not eating there period vs paying out of pocket. Since the kid is free, the only cost to consider is yours and you'll get more value out of two other TS vs 1 CRT. The value is still the value, but no I would not pay out of pocket to eat there, if you are going there I'd use the TS credits for sure. It's still going to be less overall value even for the kid (its $54 for a kid, a lot of the other TS character meals are in the $45 range for kids, so if you did 2 of those talking $90 in value vs just getting $54 only). But their DDP is also free so its easier to justify.

Sorry I'm just a big maximizer if I do the dining plan

 

[DisMomNCM]

Fair, I didn't think about that part, but my argument was about not eating there period vs paying out of pocket. Since the kid is free, the only cost to consider is yours and you'll get more value out of two other TS vs 1 CRT. The value is still the value, but no I would not pay out of pocket to eat there, if you are going there I'd use the TS credits for sure. It's still going to be less overall value even for the kid (its $54 for a kid, a lot of the other TS character meals are in the $45 range for kids, so if you did 2 of those talking $90 in value vs just getting $54 only). But their DDP is also free so its easier to justify.

Sorry I'm just a big maximizer if I do the dining plan

Oh I totally get it! I would be the same way if I were fully paying out of pocket for this lol. I feel like having her free is, fortunately, allowing me to have so much more flexibility without feeling bad, which is nice!

 

[sethschroeder]

DDP part of the forum is dead because it is terrible value. I still have the itch to do it this year with kids free but boy is it terrible value.

The thing that is crazy to me is that you can't even get a DDP that covers your meals. What do I mean? Well that one meal is 2 credits right? Well now you have to essentially go hungry one night unless you pay out of pocket.

I would 100% do the math as I highly suspect it will be cheaper for you to just pay out of pocket for everything as reminder the DDP doesn't come with tips included either.

 

[J-Dog]

DDP part of the forum is dead because it is terrible value. I still have the itch to do it this year with kids free but boy is it terrible value.

The thing that is crazy to me is that you can't even get a DDP that covers your meals. What do I mean? Well that one meal is 2 credits right? Well now you have to essentially go hungry one night unless you pay out of pocket.

I would 100% do the math as I highly suspect it will be cheaper for you to just pay out of pocket for everything as reminder the DDP doesn't come with tips included either.

This. And for us, we can never get the numbers to never add-up correctly for the different credits. We use up the TS credits too soon, needing to pay OOP, and then almost always have a few snack and/or QS credits that go unused.

 

[miss0033]

DDP part of the forum is dead because it is terrible value. I still have the itch to do it this year with kids free but boy is it terrible value.

The thing that is crazy to me is that you can't even get a DDP that covers your meals. What do I mean? Well that one meal is 2 credits right? Well now you have to essentially go hungry one night unless you pay out of pocket.

I would 100% do the math as I highly suspect it will be cheaper for you to just pay out of pocket for everything as reminder the DDP doesn't come with tips included either.

Curious about the terrible value with Free Kids... Situation specific of course, but on our upcoming trip we will have a 9 year old and 5 year old. We paid $967.54 for the Quick Service dining plan for our upcoming 8 night trip with 2 paid adults and 2 kids.

In march of last year, we went for a 5 night trip, and averaged $155 per day on quick service food (ignoring the one day we did a table service meal and went well above that). Breakfast our average was $25 grabbing stuff from the resort, Lunch was always $45-$50 for the 4 of us, afternoon snacks were usually $15-$20. Dinner ranged more going anywhere from $50-$75. Averaged over the course of the trip was $155.82 per day (again, ignoring our table service meal day).

$155 * 8 nights = $1,240. Let's even take a day off that and say that we don't eat every meal at WDW, so 7 nights of Disney food is still $1,085 (based on our recent average out of pocket cost). I think we are right around an even money approach. In fact, I am guessing we could come out ahead, as I wanted a beer with dinner but only got one maybe half the meals due to the price. If I have already paid for it, then I will get one (when available). My wife didn't get any wife or cocktails that trip, again due to price. She would likely get one now.

Maybe we spend more than the average family on food? I don't know. But the free kids certainly changed the math for us. I fully agree that at normal price we would come nowhere close to the spending. But with free kids, I think worst case is that we break even. We aren't planning to do universal, or really anything outside of the Disney bubble this trip.

It is likely a one and done for us, as our oldest will turn 10 next year, and not qualify (if it were to be extended). But we felt 2 free kids with 2 paid adults was a pretty decent value.

 

[sethschroeder]

Maybe we spend more than the average family on food? I don't know.

Did you actually see what your prior spend would be after using the credits? You spend $1.2k on complete freedom where you will spend $970 and be restricted to what you can get and might even end up paying out of pocket for various things.

Breakfast our average was $25 grabbing stuff from the resort, Lunch was always $45-$50 for the 4 of us, afternoon snacks were usually $15-$20. Dinner ranged more going anywhere from $50-$75.

You seemingly used 3 meals when you only get 2 on the plan as an example but not sure just guessing you would have to do the actual breakdown.

 

[miss0033]

Did you actually see what your prior spend would be after using the credits? You spend $1.2k on complete freedom where you will spend $970 and be restricted to what you can get and might even end up paying out of pocket for various things.



You seemingly used 3 meals when you only get 2 on the plan as an example but not sure just guessing you would have to do the actual breakdown.

Good points, and sorry for incomplete information on my part.

Our prior trip, with only one table service meal, was a "test-run" in a sense for us. Seeing if we could do an almost entirely quick-service trip. We seemed to have increasingly frustrating table service experiences each trip; mediocre to bad food, dinners taking 2+ hours, etc. Not all the meals but more than 1 each trip.

We didn't know about the Free-Kids aspect during that trip, so we weren't comparing to credits, but rather seeing if we could do mostly, or only quick service, as well as keep to a self imposed food budget. So I would argue it wasn't really "total freedom" but perhaps as much freedom as we were willing to give ourselves, but yes, likely more freedom than the QS DDP.

You're absolutely correct to guess on the 3 meals the way I presented it. My family is not really a sit-down breakfast group. We grab and go. I also rarely eat breakfast, and my wife is 50/50 on it. We are assuming, maybe poorly so, that we could get a Bagel with cream cheese and a big muffin or parfait, with 2 snack credits. And we also split that. That would be a typical WDW breakfast for us. Previous trip, we had been buying 2 bagels and a muffin or Parfait, and juice, but usually throwing away part of the bagel... maybe we could get them to split it. Probably also forgo the juice, and just have some juice boxes in the room ready to go. Then the afternoon snack was usually just one or two things that we would all split, sometimes three things.

Thanks for mentioning that. (honestly, not sarcastically) It does seem like we would likely go over on our snack credits doing it this way. BUT, at least this way we should have any unused credits. We have also talked about doing a character breakfast one morning, or a sit down dinner one night, which would free up some credits for a breakfast, but yes, add cost.

As a for instance, on our previous trip, in trying to stick to our budget, I wanted the BBQ Platter w/ ribs from Regal Eagle in Epcot, but settled for the Chopped Pork (still good) to save $5 and opted for a soda instead of the beer. With the dining plan, I believe I can get the platter AND the Beer. Another instance we went to Polite Pig and got the Butcher Board, and all 4 of us split that for a meal. (My family really likes BBQ...) And it appears that particular item is 2 quick service credits. (But maybe it only includes 1 drink? So we might have to pay out of pocket for an additional drink?... not sure how that works with one thing costing 2 credits.)

Still work to do on our part, but for our specific situation I THINK we will be about even at worst. Maybe not. As long as I find the right locations, I won't be as scared off by the price of something (if I get to use a credit). So in that sense I will have some additional freedom I didn't have before, but it other ways it is more limiting.

I think I can still cancel it, so I have no problems if you continue to find holes in my proposal... haha. Again, probably a one and done for us.

 

[Amyunder]

So we are doing the meal plan for the first time ever. We are not park warriors so we do 3 park days in our 8 day 7 night trip. We spend a fortune on food because on our non resort days we always do character meals or buffets. 2 adults 2 kids.... I did all my reservations the other day and then added up the cost and we broke even at the TS meals as it is so I'm not sweating it. I found this hack..... you can get a large pizza and 2 drinks for 2 ts credits which would get my gang through a full day of eating (in our case 2 pizzas and 4 drinks). That's 2 slices each for lunch slice 2 slices for dinner. Use the snack credit for breakfast and that frees up the QS credit for the day you don't have a meal. We have kind of the opposite problem, we have space 220 lounge one day which gives us an extra set of QS meals but I'm sure we will figure it out. I'm interested to see how it works out. If I were you I'd do CRT and just make it a goal to not buy anything edible outside of the plan and it's a good deal.

 

[Amyunder]

Also.... idk about value.... but the rodeo roundup bbq is amazing food. We love it and are doing it again. Also Ohana brunch is our favorite brunch.

 

[J-Dog]

So we are doing the meal plan for the first time ever. We are not park warriors so we do 3 park days in our 8 day 7 night trip. We spend a fortune on food because on our non resort days we always do character meals or buffets. 2 adults 2 kids.... I did all my reservations the other day and then added up the cost and we broke even at the TS meals as it is so I'm not sweating it. I found this hack..... you can get a large pizza and 2 drinks for 2 ts credits which would get my gang through a full day of eating (in our case 2 pizzas and 4 drinks). That's 2 slices each for lunch slice 2 slices for dinner. Use the snack credit for breakfast and that frees up the QS credit for the day you don't have a meal. We have kind of the opposite problem, we have space 220 lounge one day which gives us an extra set of QS meals but I'm sure we will figure it out. I'm interested to see how it works out. If I were you I'd do CRT and just make it a goal to not buy anything edible outside of the plan and it's a good deal.

No offense intended, but these are some of the main reasons why DDP is not a good deal. Most people acknowledge that the financial savings are poor, but they argue that it allows them freedom to dine without not worry about costs - but the "freedom" seems completely negated if you need a complex blueprint of what to eat, when to eat, and where to eat, IMO.