How many camp and DDP?

[rbork]

How many of you camp at Disney AND use the DDP (Disney Dining Plan)?

 

[mouseketeer_mom]

We're not but I've certainly read of others doing it.

I find people in two "camps" on this subject.

1. Bringing our food, preparing it, and eating at the camp site is part of the experience I enjoy. It saves a bundle too!

2. I'm on vacation, besides for a few snacks, I don't want to cook.

I actually enjoy "camp" cooking. I like choosing easy meals that I know my family likes. I also like the $$ it saves, so I'm in the first "camp".

 

[ftwildernessguy]

My wife and I both enjoy cooking at the camper for one reason - when we camp, I am responsible for cooking and cleanup. I am the self declared king of the grill and I love to plan the meals while camping. My wife likes the idea of sitting and reading while I burn some meat on the grill.

 

[disneynewbeemom]

We will be tent camping and will be on the DDP in October. The DDP is my trade-off for sleeping with my DH and 2DS in a tent for 8 nights!!

 

[clkelley]

While I have never used the Dining Plan, I do tent camp at Ft. Wilderness and don't cook. I do bring a fridge for soft drinks and water. I have the Disney Dining Experience card for 20% off at all sit down restaurants.

Once I finally get my teardrop camper I've been dreaming about, I probably still won't cook much. I will probably only outfit it with a microfridge.

 

[Gillian]

I guess for us, camping at Disney is not the same as camping elsewhere. We run around too much and there are too many fun/tasty places to eat to worry about cooking. The dining plan is fun!

other places, we relax more and cook more. The big problem we have now is chasing down the kids. We can't both ignore them at the same time or they will run off somewhere. They are too little to be much help (yet?).

 

[irishbosoxfan]

We did the DDP back in July when we tent camped at FW and plan on doing the same in 2 weeks!!

 

[rwenzel2]

We did the DDP for 10 nights in December, and while it was a huge amount of food - we loved the experience. I think that's the longest I've gone in my life without cooking or doing dishes - what a wonderful Christmas present to myself!

 

[SaraLouwho]

We will be at FW for 21 days. We are doing 10 days of DDP and cooking the rest. That way we get the best of both.

Only 12 more days till we set out on the road. I'm getting more and more excited.

Sara Lou

 

[irishbosoxfan]

We will be at FW for 21 days. We are doing 10 days of DDP and cooking the rest. That way we get the best of both.

Only 12 more days till we set out on the road. I'm getting more and more excited.

Sara Lou

We leave in 12 days also!! Hope to see you around the campground!!

 

[Donna]

We will be at FW for 21 days. We are doing 10 days of DDP and cooking the rest. That way we get the best of both.

Only 12 more days till we set out on the road. I'm getting more and more excited.

Sara Lou

How were you able to split the DDP out of the 21 days. I thought you had to do DDP for length of stay. I was wondering so i could work something out for summer, like a week on DDP and a week off. I could probably do it easily since one week is on dvc points and one is on cash, but just wondering how else you could do this.

 

[clkelley]

I'm guessing the reservation was split. 10 days on a package, then the remaining days, room only.

 

[loveDmouse]

We didn't do the dinning plan. We ate out some and cooked in some. Was quite nice.

 

[Shannone1]

We opted for the DDP for our upcoming trip. When I called today to book our activities they told me I should plan all of my DDP dinners with them now since they tend to fill up. I had thought originally we could just stop at any of the DDP locations whenever we wanted to when we were out and about, but I guess it doesn't work that way. Especially on a holiday week like it will be when we are there. So we now have dinner commitments for each of the 7 nights we are there. I had to go ahead and plan out what parks we would do on what days so they could make the reservations for us. Now I just have to hope we have decent weather on the days we go to the parks since we are booked for certain days !!

 

[terri01p]

I really wanted to do the DDP for our upcoming trip but just couldn't swing that kind of money right now...so I'll be paying cash whenever we eat out, I wonder if they have the prices marked up because of the DDP I hope not.

 

[SaraLouwho]

Donna, yes, we had tto split the reservations. We are doing the first couple of days without the parks because you have to start your park passes and DDP the same day. Then the DDP for 10 days and then just the room again for the rest of the trip. We are going to that other park for the first couple of days then the rest of the stay at Dis. We are going to upgrade to AP when we start the DDP package. We hope to return in Sept or Oct so the AP upgrade won't go to waste for us. We will be stopping for our first nights rest at this time next week. We are taking our time getting there as we are all retired. It is supposed to get frigid here next week so we are leaving at a good time.

Sara Lou

 

[Donna]

Donna, yes, we had tto split the reservations. We are doing the first couple of days without the parks because you have to start your park passes and DDP the same day. Then the DDP for 10 days and then just the room again for the rest of the trip. We are going to that other park for the first couple of days then the rest of the stay at Dis. We are going to upgrade to AP when we start the DDP package. We hope to return in Sept or Oct so the AP upgrade won't go to waste for us. We will be stopping for our first nights rest at this time next week. We are taking our time getting there as we are all retired. It is supposed to get frigid here next week so we are leaving at a good time.

Sara Lou

We will be traveling that way too since my husband just retired this past summer and i do not work. Only problem is, our son is only 11 so we can still only travel in the summer but it will be great to just take our time getting there, no job to rush back to!

 

[Escape Artist]

yes, we had tto split the reservations. We are doing the first couple of days without the parks because you have to start your park passes and DDP the same day. Then the DDP for 10 days and then just the room again for the rest of the trip.

We're doing the exact same thing in May. I hope they'll let us keep the same campsite for the whole trip, but even if we can't, it's worth it. I have 3 campground reservations back-to-back, and then a couple of nights at the Dolphin for a thrill.

So we'll be on the Dining Plan while we are busy with Disney park days, and on our own for food the rest of the time. I thought 7 days of dining plan was more than enough, but I may feel differently by the time we come home. I may never want to cook again!

Actually, I enjoy cooking in the pop-up when we're "regular" camping, but at Disney World, we're eating out!

Sue in TX

 

[christinou]

We have done multiple reservations many time, and never changed campsite. Ask them to link your reservations, and then again when you check in remind them that you will be checking out and back in in a few days and to assign your site number to your next reservation. It has worked well for us.

 

[Donna]

We have done multiple reservations many time, and never changed campsite. Ask them to link your reservations, and then again when you check in remind them that you will be checking out and back in in a few days and to assign your site number to your next reservation. It has worked well for us.

I called member services to link my DVC reserv. with my regular reserv. and they said they cannot do that. They told me i have to have CRO link them together. I guess that makes sense since DVC mS cannot access CRO reserv. numbers. I just didn't want to have to check "out" of the site and back in. At least i don't have to worry about getting new card keys!