How much more can Disney cut the DDP?? I won't do it again....

[SnipsNSnails]

I've never done "free" dining.. is is really free? Or are you paying out the kazooo for your room each night and really paying for the food too?
We stay offsite and pay $100 a night for a 5 bedroom house with a private pool for 10 people. We do pay OOP for meals though.
A co-worker recently went to WDW and paid $1100 a night for 2 people. I think that is insane.

No, it's not "free" BUT it can also be a good deal anyway. We had a 35% off pin. We are paying about $500 more than we were before with the DDP and Photo book. Unless we did no TS, only CS, I doubt we could do 7 days of food (2A, 1C, 1 - 2.5yo) for that amount, even then it might be close.

 

[disneyholic family]

For me, being able to say "yes" everytime my daughter wants a snack is far less important than weighing and balancing what she has already had today, or yesterday, and evaluate whether another snack is warranted. So for me, the convenience of ignoring cost is subordinated to parental control.

this is an extraordinarily arrogant statement ....

i'm the snacker - should i exercise parental control on myself?
all year long i am very careful what i eat....but when i am on vacation, i am on vacation...vacation to ME means enjoying what i eat....enjoying what i eat means having snacks that i wouldn't normally have during the year...
but unfortunately, being a bit of a bean counter means that i am bothered by spending money.....
sure it's ridiculous when you think about it...i spent $29,000 on our vacation to disney.....so why would spending $3.69 on a frozen coke bother me?
but it does.....it bothers me a lot....it bothers me so much in fact, that i will not enjoy that frozen coke at all....but this year, when i bought the DDP for the first time ever - my joy in having a daily frozen coke returned (we live overseas where frozen cokes are not available - herego my fixation during our visits to WDW)...

I can't believe people on here really want to go as far as attacking someone's parenting. You don't know me, my family or my choices! I have many other things I would like to respond too with your "quotes" but it is not worth my energy. I have been around these boards a very long time and this is why I don't respond, it always turns into an attack. I just wanted to give my view. And for your information you can't know how someone else feels! I don't FEEL like I'm flushing my money. We have the best vacation on our own terms!

bravo!!

Absolutely!!
If we get a discounted room but are paying OOP for dining I'm watching every penny and it's not as much fun. At least in our case DDP is really worth it just for my peace of mind

same for me!

I totally get this. We like to use snack credits sometimes at Main Street Bakery for breakfast. One cinnamon roll, one cup of fruit and we will pay for the drinks seperately. That's a nice breakfast for us. Then those TS and CS credits can be spent somewhere else. My husband and I never try to "get the most" for our credits - we just make the dining plan work for us. It is all about trying to go into our vacation as stress free as possible.

this was the first time we did DDP - it was all about just enjoying ourselves on the vacation...and we did!!! there were 6 of us (all adults - DH, me and our two married children and their spouses) and i saw that the same was true of everyone....i am sure that everyone would have been looking at the prices and thinking twice about everything they did....this way it was a complete vacation!!

We are doing the Dining plan for the ease of it( we alos like the $$ character buffets lol and never would normally pay OOP for those if we didnt do the dining plan )

Did you guys mention that Tips are Automatically added on now? How does that work with the Dining Plan? We are a party of 2 adults.

Sorry forgot to add we upgraded to a Moderate resort to be able to do the Table Service Dining Plan

are tips added on for groups of less than 6? i don't know - but we were a group of 6 so the tips were added on.....18%....but since i typically tip 20%, i tipped more than what was on the bill anyway...

by the way, you don't have to upgrade to moderate to get DDP during free dining....you can do value, get the free quick service and then add on $12/day (or thereabouts) to upgrade to TS....

 

[aml3679]

We are staying on grounds for the first time next November and have the DDP - I will keep track of my receipts. It will be convenient for us because it was budgeted out and paid for by the time we get there. So, the only thing we have to be concerned about financially is:

Airfare
Tips for Mousekeeping and Servers
Alcohol
Spa Treatments
Entertainment
Shopping

And that is enough in itself.

 

[ElizabethB]

We just returned from 6 days at Disneyworld followed by 5 days at Universal. We found a general decline in the quality of food, as well as the overall dining experience, at Disney. Restaurants, in general, are jam-packed at Disney. Of course, when a company is giving food away for free, they will pack the restaurants! But, something has to give and, at Disneyworld, the food quality, the service and the ambience have all declined. Even our meal at Jiko (always a favorite) was disappointing this time around. Dinners at Grand Floridian Cafe, Mama Melrose and Teppan Edo were only fair at best. The restaurants are so packed with free diners that there is no possibility to change a dining time or walk in. And, the servers and managers seemed stressed and overwhelmed everywhere.

By contrast, our meals at Universal were delightful. We dined twice at Mama Dellas, which was delicious. Our dinner at Bice was amazing. We had surprisingly tasty lunches at Lombard's Landing and Mythos. Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by our dining experiences at Universal. Plus, they aren't giving the food away for free -- so, it's possible to get reservations, the manager at Lombard's Landing was able to take time to tell us about the various fish in the tank, the ambience at the restaurants was generally relaxed and refined and the difference between the Disney and Universal dining experiences was striking.

I do not think Disney can continue to give food away for free and maintain food and service standards. As long as Disney keeps cannabalizing the dining experience in order to fill resort rooms, we will stay away from restaurants that take DDP. We are also spending more and more time and dining dollars at non-Disney places.

 

[HunnyJar]

this was the first time we did DDP - it was all about just enjoying ourselves on the vacation...and we did!!! there were 6 of us (all adults - DH, me and our two married children and their spouses) and i saw that the same was true of everyone....i am sure that everyone would have been looking at the prices and thinking twice about everything they did....this way it was a complete vacation!!

Exactly! To be able to have that almost all-inclusive feeling is fantastic. Not to worry about tallying up all the receipts for this snack and that water and that pretzel in the evening is nice! My husband hates that I sit on the bed at night with all the receipts around me balancing our checkbook. It stresses me out and makes me cranky. No one needs that. I'd much rather balance the credits for our meals.

 

[elcycad]

My issue is with the kids meals! My kids are adventurous eaters and I felt awful with the choices in every single sit down restaurant. At buffets, they ate their full of regular food, but at the sit downs, they just didn't want the pasta, chicken tenders, hot dog, hamburgers, etc. They want smaller sized steaks, shrimp, crab legs, etc. I was really disappointed in this. I ended up a few times giving my meal to them to share and eating their meals

My sentiments EXACTLY!!!!!!

 

[goofyintoronto]

Just back and the ddp is just NOT what it used to be. For those who always complained that is was too much food...well it certainly isn't anymore! It seems there are no good deals or hidden gems in the dining plan anymore. Just a few things I noticed that changed from a couple years ago...

-no more ice cream cookie sandwich at Main Street Bakery for a snack credit>>>we got one for a snack credit last week.

-no more milk shakes with the kids meals at Sci Fi. >>My son got a milkshake last week with his meal. I paid OOP for this meal.

-Kids lunch at Le Cellier was a joke...my kids ordered the pizza...and it was a thin, small pizza brought out on a mickey head plate with Nothing in either ear! I thought it was a mistake and asked shouldn't fruit/veggies/something be in the ears?? She said no?? Um...okay.

-No more juice and water for breakfast>>>i got juice with breakfast.

- No more make your own creation at Goofy's candy Shop. >>>I made my own treats at goofy's but i didnt ask for it to be on the DDP as a snack credit. I paid cash for it. So i cant help you here. But it was almost $9 so i can see why this isnt included as a snack.
.

 

[goofyintoronto]

this is an extraordinarily arrogant statement ....

i'm the snacker - should i exercise parental control on myself?
all year long i am very careful what i eat....but when i am on vacation, i am on vacation...vacation to ME means enjoying what i eat....enjoying what i eat means having snacks that i wouldn't normally have during the year.>>I agree. While on vacay i dont want to worry about how much i spend. Which is why we get the dining plan. I want my son to be able to have whatever he wants without me saying "its a bit expensive". I love the DDP for the convenience...I love the fact that its prepaid cause as I said, i dont want to have to worry about how much i spend on food. its prepaid!


this was the first time we did DDP - it was all about just enjoying ourselves on the vacation...>>>Couldnt agree with you more! and we did!!! there were 6 of us (all adults - DH, me and our two married children and their spouses) and i saw that the same was true of everyone....i am sure that everyone would have been looking at the prices and thinking twice about everything they did....this way it was a complete vacation!!


are tips added on for groups of less than 6? i don't know - but we were a group of 6 so the tips were added on.....18%....but since i typically tip 20%, i tipped more than what was on the bill anyway...>>>>parties of 6 or more have the gratuity added automatically. But for parties of less than 6, the gratuity is NOT added. But on the bill they will include two suggested tipping amounts. One at 18%, the other at 20%. you tip what you want thou, these are just SUGGESTIONS.

by the way, you don't have to upgrade to moderate to get DDP during free dining....you can do value, get the free quick service and then add on $12/day (or thereabouts) to upgrade to TS....>>>you are correct! I have done this many times.

A lot of ppl complain about the quality of food at disney and how its declined over the years, many blame free dining. you mean to tell me that out of all the restaurants in disney, the majority of them are crappy quality? I completely disagree with this. The only restaurants i found awful were Tony's and Chef Mickeys. CM's wasnt awful, it was just ok. I just wouldnt go there again. But Tony's was down right disgusting.

 

[blondemom]

We purchased the DDP. We are new DVC members and do not qualify for the free dining. We felt like we saved quite a bit (my family tends to do the buffets).

However, I would get the "eye rolls" whenever we told the server we were on the Dining Plan. I felt like I had to justify it by saying, "Yes, we paid for the dining plan." I couldn't believe the length of the lines I had to get into just to check in for my ADRs. It was overwhelming. A few servers mentioned that there were other ways to attract customers and that Disney was "dumbing down their menus" because of the dining plan (and raising their prices).

Disney is not an inexpensive vacation by any means...the park tickets, resort fee, food, etc. It's getting so the average person cannot afford it anymore. That is what makes me sad.

 

[ElizabethB]

Whether the ice cream cookie sandwich is available on a snack credit is immaterial to us. They have cut out so much of the chocolate that used to be in the cookies (in order to save money now they are giving them away free) that we don't bother with these anymore. Not worth the $4.75 or, more importantly, the calories!

Another victim of DDP!

 

[disneyholic family]

Exactly! To be able to have that almost all-inclusive feeling is fantastic. Not to worry about tallying up all the receipts for this snack and that water and that pretzel in the evening is nice! My husband hates that I sit on the bed at night with all the receipts around me balancing our checkbook. It stresses me out and makes me cranky. No one needs that. I'd much rather balance the credits for our meals.

i don't balance the checkbook - but i know i get upset when i pay $3.69 for that frozen coke or $4 for the pretzel or whatever. i know it's silly that i get upset over it, but i know i do and i know it detracts from my enjoyment.

also, we wouldn't have had as many TS meals and i have to say that the TS meals are very relaxing...it was very nice to sit down and chill (literally and figuratively) for an hour....it was really very pleasant to stop and take our time that way...and i know we wouldn't have done that because i would have been upset by the cost...

A lot of ppl complain about the quality of food at disney and how its declined over the years, many blame free dining. you mean to tell me that out of all the restaurants in disney, the majority of them are crappy quality? I completely disagree with this. The only restaurants i found awful were Tony's and Chef Mickeys. CM's wasnt awful, it was just ok. I just wouldnt go there again. But Tony's was down right disgusting.

we were just there - from august 15th to August 29th....we found the quality in all the restaurants to be very good - except for one bad lunch at the crystal palace...
surprisingly, Chef Mickey was excellent! i wasn't even sure about eating there, but we had two new people in our group (my son in law and daugther in law) so i thought it would be nice to take them to CM....but our expectations were very low....we were so pleasantly surprised.....the food was really good.....we met the chef that night (we meet the chefs in every restaurant due to special requests) - he was clearly VERY proud of the quality of his food, and with reason.....it was very good that night!! i don't know if it always is, but it was when we ate there!!

 

[mommy2_3]

yep! thats one reason why we are getting the DP, is so that all our food is already taken care of. we have 2 buffets and 2 TS lined up already, and im looking at a few more. i think i want at least 2 more character meals and i want me and hubby to go out for dinner at least once

 

[mommy2_3]

and i guess i wont have to really worry about the kids meals. they dont like what i eat most of the time (steak, shrimp, ect...) so chicken nuggets, burgers, ect. as long as they have some fruit or veggies with their meal im ok with it.

 

[JimmyV]

this is an extraordinarily arrogant statement ....

You missed the point I was making completely. I'll explain it again. When it comes to snacks, it doesn't matter if you are on a plan or not. The primary factor in choosing whether or not to add snacks to your daily intake is NOT dictated by whether or not they are prepaid, but rather if they fit in to your personal evaluation of what you should eat in any given day. There is nothing arrogant about that statement whatsoever. Here's an example:

Person "A" knows what he/she should eat on a given day. They are close to, or have reached that limit. But they have a prepaid snack to use. Do they use it? That is a personal question that only Person A can answer. I am not trying to answer it for you. I am simply pointing out that the fact that the snack is prepaid is going to be a subordinate consideration as compared to Person A's self-governing dietary concerns. And that is going to hold true for virtually every rational person. I don't see the arrogance in that at all.

Where this all leads is that the "I love having everything pre-paid" argument has its limits. There is certainly a sense of ease in having things pre-paid. But in reality, when it comes to desserts and snacks, I am convinced that virtually everyone on this board makes decisions on whether to indulge in those based on factors that go beyond the pre-paid ease. That is not arrogance. That is not preaching. That is not judging anyone's parenting. That is simply the truth. Very, very few people would eat a dessert or snack that placed them beyond their comfort zone simply because it was pre-paid. Nothing could be more true nor more readily understood than that. Sure. Lots of people enjoy more things on vacation than they ordinarily would. But they still have a self-imposed limit. It's just that their limit gets shifted on vacation. But once the new "I'm on vacation" limit is reached, the brakes are going to be put on, even if there is a pre-paid credit lying around to use.

 

[disneyholic family]

You missed the point I was making completely. I'll explain it again. When it comes to snacks, it doesn't matter if you are on a plan or not. The primary factor in choosing whether or not to add snacks to your daily intake is NOT dictated by whether or not they are prepaid, but rather if they fit in to your personal evaluation of what you should eat in any given day. There is nothing arrogant about that statement whatsoever. Here's an example:

Person "A" knows what he/she should eat on a given day. They are close to, or have reached that limit. But they have a prepaid snack to use. Do they use it? That is a personal question that only Person A can answer. I am not trying to answer it for you. I am simply pointing out that the fact that the snack is prepaid is going to be a subordinate consideration as compared to Person A's self-governing dietary concerns. And that is going to hold true for virtually every rational person. I don't see the arrogance in that at all.

Where this all leads is that the "I love having everything pre-paid" argument has its limits. There is certainly a sense of ease in having things pre-paid. But in reality, when it comes to desserts and snacks, I am convinced that virtually everyone on this board makes decisions on whether to indulge in those based on factors that go beyond the pre-paid ease. That is not arrogance. That is not preaching. That is not judging anyone's parenting. That is simply the truth. Very, very few people would eat a dessert or snack that placed them beyond their comfort zone simply because it was pre-paid. Nothing could be more true nor more readily understood than that. Sure. Lots of people enjoy more things on vacation than they ordinarily would. But they still have a self-imposed limit. It's just that their limit gets shifted on vacation. But once the new "I'm on vacation" limit is reached, the brakes are going to be put on, even if there is a pre-paid credit lying around to use.

your arrogance, Jimmy, was in calling into question people's parenting skills.

 

[JimmyV]

But I didn't. I never said that the poster to whom I was replying was engaged in bad parenting. I stated that people will make choices based on factors other than "pre-paid" whether they are on the plan or not. See the sentence just before the words "I get that." It says "Of course, the same control can be employed if one is on the plan." My assumption is and always has been that the prior poster did indeed utilize the same level of control. You seem to be reading it as exactly the opposite. But that is not what was written or intended.

 

[HunnyJar]

You missed the point I was making completely. I'll explain it again. When it comes to snacks, it doesn't matter if you are on a plan or not. The primary factor in choosing whether or not to add snacks to your daily intake is NOT dictated by whether or not they are prepaid, but rather if they fit in to your personal evaluation of what you should eat in any given day. There is nothing arrogant about that statement whatsoever. Here's an example:

Person "A" knows what he/she should eat on a given day. They are close to, or have reached that limit. But they have a prepaid snack to use. Do they use it? That is a personal question that only Person A can answer. I am not trying to answer it for you. I am simply pointing out that the fact that the snack is prepaid is going to be a subordinate consideration as compared to Person A's self-governing dietary concerns. And that is going to hold true for virtually every rational person. I don't see the arrogance in that at all.

Where this all leads is that the "I love having everything pre-paid" argument has its limits. There is certainly a sense of ease in having things pre-paid. But in reality, when it comes to desserts and snacks, I am convinced that virtually everyone on this board makes decisions on whether to indulge in those based on factors that go beyond the pre-paid ease. That is not arrogance. That is not preaching. That is not judging anyone's parenting. That is simply the truth. Very, very few people would eat a dessert or snack that placed them beyond their comfort zone simply because it was pre-paid. Nothing could be more true nor more readily understood than that. Sure. Lots of people enjoy more things on vacation than they ordinarily would. But they still have a self-imposed limit. It's just that their limit gets shifted on vacation. But once the new "I'm on vacation" limit is reached, the brakes are going to be put on, even if there is a pre-paid credit lying around to use.

Well, you don't have to use the snack credit every day. You can use it how you like such as a breakfast pastry or if you want to save up the credits for the little bagged Chip and Dale snacks to send home. Heck you can use the snack credit for water. No one is saying you have to have something unhealthy just because it's a daily credit. My husband and I use those credits all sorts of ways.. Breakfast, fruit, drinks and more. They are handy to have and I know those are things we would be purchasing regardless of having the plan or not.

 

[disneyholic family]

But I didn't. I never said that the poster to whom I was replying was engaged in bad parenting. I stated that people will make choices based on factors other than "pre-paid" whether they are on the plan or not. See the sentence just before the words "I get that." It says "Of course, the same control can be employed if one is on the plan." My assumption is and always has been that the prior poster did indeed utilize the same level of control. You seem to be reading it as exactly the opposite. But that is not what was written or intended.

thank you for clarifying.

we had lots of credits left over.
we were 6 adults (DH, me, DD - 26 and her husband, DS - 24 and his wife)
we were there for 14 days and had DDP (that i bought - not free).

at the end each of us had 1 TS left - DS arrived late on the first day so we couldn't make it to our TS reservation that day - we never were able to make it up

at the end each of us had 2 CS left - we ate all the time, somehow we must have missed two meals

at the end each of us had 2 snack credits left - again, we ate snacks whenever we wanted.

i do not feel badly that we had credits leftover. We ate whenever we wanted to eat. We were never hungry. we ate whatever, whenever and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

i could sit down and figure out if we broke even or not (considering all those leftover credits). But i really don't care. The not having to take money out of my pocket (other than for tips) was wonderful. The fact that i actually paid for all of that is forgotten as i paid for it months ago. it's funny as i never prepaid anything in the past, but it works really well for me now and i'll do it again the next time we visit.
again, that $3.69 frozen coke is just not enjoyable for me when i pay out of pocket. It's a little quirk i have.

i suspect we did break even as we were eating pretty expensive food.
i might sit down and calculate it just for fun. But if i didn't break even, i would just consider it the cost of peace of mind.

 

[HunnyJar]

thank you for clarifying.

we had lots of credits left over.
we were 6 adults (DH, me, DD - 26 and her husband, DS - 24 and his wife)
we were there for 14 days and had DDP (that i bought - not free).

at the end each of us had 1 TS left - DS arrived late on the first day so we couldn't make it to our TS reservation that day - we never were able to make it up

at the end each of us had 2 CS left - we ate all the time, somehow we must have missed two meals

at the end each of us had 2 snack credits left - again, we ate snacks whenever we wanted.

i do not feel badly that we had credits leftover. We ate whenever we wanted to eat. We were never hungry. we ate whatever, whenever and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

i could sit down and figure out if we broke even or not (considering all those leftover credits). But i really don't care. The not having to take money out of my pocket (other than for tips) was wonderful. The fact that i actually paid for all of that is forgotten as i paid for it months ago. it's funny as i never prepaid anything in the past, but it works really well for me now and i'll do it again the next time we visit.
again, that $3.69 frozen coke is just not enjoyable for me when i pay out of pocket. It's a little quirk i have.

i suspect we did break even as we were eating pretty expensive food.
i might sit down and calculate it just for fun. But if i didn't break even, i would just consider it the cost of peace of mind.

I am in completely agreement!

 

[brunette8706]

this is an extraordinarily arrogant statement ....

i'm the snacker - should i exercise parental control on myself?
all year long i am very careful what i eat....but when i am on vacation, i am on vacation...vacation to ME means enjoying what i eat....enjoying what i eat means having snacks that i wouldn't normally have during the year...
but unfortunately, being a bit of a bean counter means that i am bothered by spending money.....
sure it's ridiculous when you think about it...i spent $29,000 on our vacation to disney.....so why would spending $3.69 on a frozen coke bother me?
but it does.....it bothers me a lot....it bothers me so much in fact, that i will not enjoy that frozen coke at all....but this year, when i bought the DDP for the first time ever - my joy in having a daily frozen coke returned (we live overseas where frozen cokes are not available - herego my fixation during our visits to WDW)......

*
Hi there. If I may I ask you a question. YOu spent $29,000.00 for a trip to Disney for 6 people? Why does that sound expensive to me? Where did you stay? Hope you had a great time...

Thanks! Brunette