Help with DDP?

[cedmonds]

I am so confused!!! We are trying to decide if this is a good deal for us.
We are going for a long weekend in March 14 days away so I need to decide today. We are arriving very late Friday night and leaving Tuesday evening.
My two children are meeting us Friday night (midnight arrival) and leaving Monday. we will be a party of 5 ,all adults as far as Disney is concerned.
Ok the questions
1. Do I have to pay for Friday since we are arriving so late?
2. is TS one credit or two? or is that just character meals?
3. Can we use it for the Spirit of Aloha show?
4. what restaurants are not included?

I am sure if we added it up we would spend that much-we like to eat in DTD so is that part of it?

Is it easy to use at CS? People who have used it is it a good value? Thanks for any info we would like to decide today this is such a last minute trip
Staying at the POLY for the first time

 

[smartestnumber5]

1. Do I have to pay for Friday since we are arriving so late? Yes, you have pay for the DDP for each night of your stay. So for your group of 5 staying 4 nights, you will have 20 TS, 20 CS, 20 S.

2. is TS one credit or two? or is that just character meals? Most restaurants are 1 TS. More expensive restaurants like California Grill, Narcossees, Cinderella's Royal Table, and dinner shows are 2 TS. Cinderella's Royal Table is a character meal that is 2 TS, but most other character meals are 1 TS.

3. Can we use it for the Spirit of Aloha show? Yes, but it will be 2 TS per person.


4. what restaurants are not included?

Here is the list of all included restaurants: http://adisneyworld.disney.go.com/m...agespecific/eng/nontheme/tickets/07Dining.pdf

Off the top of my head, those not on the plan include a lot of the downtown disney restaurants (Bongos, House of Blues, Rainforest Cafe, Portobello Yacht). Rainforest Cafe at AK. Anything at the Swan and Dolphin. Victoria and Alberts in the GF. And I think some of the Epcot WS restaurants.

am sure if we added it up we would spend that much-we like to eat in DTD so is that part of it? Some are and some aren't. According to the brochure the TS restaurants on the plan are Cap'n Jacks, Planet Hollywood, Wolfgang Puck Cafe, and Ragland Road. CS places include Earl of Sandwich, Wolfgang Puck Express, Ragland Road, and FoodQuest.


Is it easy to use at CS? Yep, we used it in Aug and had no problems at all.


People who have used it is it a good value? We had free dining in Aug. But I think even if it weren't free it could be a good value for us. It really depends on your group's eating habits. Some people don't like having to pre-pay for TS meals, because they want more freedom. If you haven't paid ahead of time you can just cancel an ADR if you don't want to go; but if you're on the DDP cancelling an ADR (without replacing it with another one) means you paid for something you didn't use. And it really is a lot of food. Many folks say they are just as happy (more happy even since they aren't so stuffed) with half the amount of food.

We just did a trip in Jan and we didn't have the DDP and we still ate at just as many TS restaurants, but we chose cheaper ones and ordered less food in order to save some money. We figured out that doing things that way we spent about $80 less than the DDP would have cost, but we got less food and often didn't order what we actually wanted, but what was inexpensive. There is no way we could have eaten the way we really wanted to without paying more than the DDP cost. (Note, though, that often in order to get the DDP you can't get any discount on the room. This is often where the real cost of the DDP comes into play. If you can't a discount to begin with, then the DDP won't cost you more than the $38/day per person. But if you do have or could get a discount and have to give it up for the DDP, then it might be costing you a lot--particularly since the rooms at the Poly are already pricey, any discount on them would be a significant savings.