How to get best use of DDP??

[Lannin]

Folks please help....

I am away to the CBR in September for 3 weeks! I have the DDP for the full 3 weeks on this holiday, I have read bits & bobs on it, however for those who have used this what is the best way to get full use out of the DDP?

We want to eat at a few signature rests, such as Jiko, Narcosses and Calfornia Grill..

All help will be appreciated!

 

[natalielongstaff]

if you want to eat at places that take 2 credits then you may wish to eat at cheaper meals (usually buffets) and pay out of pocket for them.

or just eat counter service twice in one day

what are your eating habits normally like?it will be easier to advise you properly i love the DDP

 

[Lannin]

Hi

Thanks for the quick reply... we tend to like the nicer meals, we had thought to pay for the cheaper meals and use the two tokens for the sig rests..

Some nights we even like to get just a sandwich as we are so full from all the eating!! It is only the 4 of us (Adults) going, we were thinking of not making to many ADR's, we tend to like eating at 8.30/9.00 - if you dont make the ADR's when on the plan are you in big trouble trying to get a booking?

Oh so many questions and planning - thats half the excitement!!

 

[paulh]

we did the free ddp last year,Best advice is plan and book adrs.We did ours 4months in advance,and then the good resturans were filling up fast.Would advise looking at the DDP board here on the dis,there is a lot of usfull info there.We did some 2 credit meals and honest it was the best thing to do as there is too much food to eat outherwise.no kead to pay oop for outher meals
Paul

 

[UKDEB]

Like you, we prefer the nicer places and don't like to make too many ADRs. In September, you should be OK (unless you're there during the free Dining Plan period).

 

[jtlover]

The best option is to wait to find out when the parks are open late etc and then plan your adrs around that. We too are going for the signature restaurants instead and will have some days where we wont have a TS but then with the amount of food I am sure it wont be a problem - have fun with your plans.

We are eating at Jiko, Artist Point, Citricos, California Grill

 

[natalielongstaff]

I would advise making adr's at 180 days...free dining WILL fill up the restaurants

 

[crux]

We did DDP last year for 2 weeks and we've never eaten as much! You will need ADR's (especially for places you 'must' eat at), even if it wasn't 'free' DDP the table service resturants are much busier. We found that you could use your snack credits to get cereal and milk for breakfast, so it can cover all your meals. The one resturant that we tried for the first time on DDP that was fantastic, was the Resturant Marrakesh in EPCOT. We had the Kings Feast which, with tax and 18% tip, came to more than the cost of DDP for a day

Ian

 

[Lizzybear]

We're doing at least 2 (probably 3) 2 credit meals too. We're 'live to eat' types and probably wouldn't pay OOP for 3 signature meals if we didn't have free dining plus we want to eat at a couple of places offsite (definitely Cheesecake Factory!) I'd rather have a few really nice meals than use the credits for more 1 credit meals that we may not enjoy as much (bf is veggie and the signature places seem to have excellent veggie options)

 

[paulh]

2 credit meals we did were,the one on top of contempory(forgot name).Yachtmans steak house(best 2 credit meal we had),Poly luha great food and show good,Hoop de do very funny and food was good
Best 1 credits were Wolfgang pucks and ohanas(erm thinking about the bread and buter pud)
Did ragelen road food good but band loud
Best places for counter credets we loved earl of sandwitch,plus anywhere that did a pulled beef sandwitch
Paulh

 

[Laurafoster]

we were not on the DDP but i had friends who went out alst year during free dining and found it hard to get anything they wanted! If your bothered about a particular restaurant make ADR's!

 

[Booknut]

Here's what we did last time on the dining plan:

1. Definitely book at 6 months out, you can always change them later but some restaurants like Le Cellier and California Grill (for the fireworks) fill up quite quickly.

2. Some counter-service meals are gargantuan! We shared quite a lot at breakfast and lunch so our credits lasted for the full day. For example, in Epcot the Tangierine Cafe in Morocco has a CS meal which is huge, it has pita bread, couscous, lamb and chicken, more than enough for two with dessert too! Some CS meals have 1/4 roast chicken and ribs so DH would have chicken and i'd have ribs and he'd have chips and i'd have salad, plus we'd share dessert, again only 1CS. If you can do this for a day or two you'll save up enough TS for the better restaurants. The Mara at AKL was amazing, the African Stew in bread was enough for 2 and delicious!

Same with breakfast at our resort, if we got the breakfast platter it came with enough scrambled eggs for 2, 1 biscuit, bacon, potatoes etc and we were allowed 1 drink (plus we used our free refill mug each day...we only bought one as it was DH who wanted the drinks all day!) and one 'dessert' item and we'd get a tub of grapes or melon. All that was 1 CS!

3. Snacks I think can be anything under $4. We would buy things like milk and cookies and donuts for the room and have that for breakfast sometimes (how healthy are we?!).

4. At Wolfgang Puck Cafe, we had only 1TS left so we ordered an appetiser and shared, ordered two main courses (and paid out of pocket for the cheap one) and shared the dessert. It was more than enough and came to less than $20 with tax and tip.

5. Some TS restaurants are good for sharing. We shared 1TS at San Angel Inn and they brought us out two plates and it was more than enough food for the both of us (yummy too!). We told the waitress from the start that we'd only be using 1TS and we'd make it up to her in the end and gave her a good tip, she was happy and we got great service!

6. Our favourite 1TS restaurants for quality etc were Kona Cafe (fantastic!) and Le Cellier.

7. A couple of times i'd order a kids meal and pay cash. It was enough for me and it just happened to be what I wanted at that time! (usually macaroni cheese or a hot dog!)

Have a great time

 

[wideeyes]

If we do some 2credit meals we will save credits from when we go to seaworld, universal and Island of adventure, as on these days we will eat of site. We will share CS meals too as my sister says the portions are really big.