How to maximize DxDDP and segmented res.

[otterpop]

I hope I can clearly explain my long drawn out question...

We usually do the DDP and I was wondering if by doing the DxDDP would save us a few dollars and/or allow us to eat at some of the signature restaurants for not much more money (compared to the DDP).

When on the DDP, we normally use it for 1 QS lunch and 1 credit TS dinner per day. I was thinking that if we did the DxDDP, we would use it just for dinners, with 1 night being a 1 credit TS dinner and then the following night being a 2 credit TS (for a signature restaurant). We would then pay for our QS lunches out of pocket.

We bring our own food for breakfast, so that does not get figured into the "equation".

By segmenting our reservation, we would pay for the DxDDP every other day (3 times total) versus the DDP, which would be everyday (6 times total).

It would look like this:
Day 1: DxDDP
Day 2: nothing
Day 3: DxDDP
Day 4: nothing
Day 5: DxDPP
Day 6: nothing

From a cost standpoint, this is what I come up with for every 2 days per person:

If we did the DDP: $51.54/day = $103 for two days and covers our 2 QS lunches and 2 TS regular dinners for the 2 day period.

If we did the DxDDP: $85.52/day (spanning over two days) = $85 for two days and would cover our dinners only (1 TS dinner one night and a 2 TS dinner the next night).

So by going the DxDDP route, we are spending about $17-18 less every two days, but we would then have to pay for lunch out of pocket.

Please correct my thought process for the DxDDP! We could use the $17-18 "savings" to pay for our QS lunches each day (that's about $9 per day for lunch) AND we can now eat at some signature 2 TS restaurants that we would probably not eat at with the regular DDP.

My questions are the following:

1. Would this be a pain/hassle to segment our reservation as listed above?
2. Are my calculations correct showing that basically the two plans would cost us about the same amount of money (not including tips, as this would probably increase), but we are now eating at some signature restaurants on the DxDDP, which we would not do on the regular DDP?

There are also some other (minor?) benefits to going the DxDDP route:
1. We get an app with dinner.
2. Since we are paying out of pocket for lunch, that gives us some flexibility in what we eat/purchase; we could split a lunch if we wanted to and we don't have to waste the DDP lunch dessert (we don't normally eat it).

If you made it this far in my post, THANKS!

Any advice/suggestions/comments, would be be much appreciated!

Thanks,

 

[NicoleLarson]

that's our exact plan! I think its a good one myself and makes much more sense. we are using ours: 1 table service, 1 cs OOP, then 2 table service meals the next. I figured that we would be spending approx. $45-50/per person/day. Much more cost effective!

 

[otterpop]

Hi Nicole,

That's what I figured you were doing from your post! So there's at least two of us thinking the same thing; we can't both be wrong...can we????

I just hope it's not a pain in the behind to segment the reservation. From my understanding, you have to check in/check out for each segment, which means going thru that every day...

Evan

that's our exact plan! I think its a good one myself and makes much more sense. we are using ours: 1 table service, 1 cs OOP, then 2 table service meals the next. I figured that we would be spending approx. $45-50/per person/day. Much more cost effective!

 

[Dean]

I don't mean this in a mean way but I think it's nuts to so something so complicated with so much risk. IMO, anything under 3-4 days per each segment is simply unreasonable. It's your choice if you want to do so but I wouldn't. You're just asking for trouble with your KTTW and your credits. Even if they iron out the details so that there aren't those risks, I still think it's unreasonable to fool with. Good luck.

 

[tloft]

This is exactly what we are doing at BCV in February.

Day 1 dxdp
Day 2 nothing
Day 3 dxdp
Day 4 nothing
Day 5 dxdp
Day 6 nothing
Day 7 dxdpp
Day 8 nothing

I'm glad to see others thinking the same way. Not too worried about things going wrong. If I have to charge a meal and sort it out later, not a big deal. Getting new keys, not a problem. Only possible issue that would bother us, that I've read has happened, is getting locked out of room. Pretty sure that even if that happens I can find a manager capable of making sure it doesn't happen again.

DXDP is far and away the best value. You are basically paying $25 per ts credit, after snack credits. We are doing a mix of early lunch and late dinners to get the most mileage . We usually eat something quick in room for bfast. Snack credits will be more than enough to fill in other meals.

I'm really glad we can do this. My twins just turned 10 and there is no way I could justify dxdp everyday. Way too much prepaid food would go to waste. The regular plan isn't much of a value anymore. And, when we pay as we go, I turn into a tightwad which is no fun for anyone.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

This is exactly what I'm doing on my next trip. DxDDP every other day! It doesn't seem like a hassle at all. In fact, I've already done a segmented reservation and didn't have any trouble at all. Even if I do run into some trouble with it next time, I still think the positives outweigh the negatives. It's definitely worth the risk!!!

 

[Ctsplaysinrain]

Just so you know, there seems to be some major issues with the KTTW cards.... First, you WILL need to get a new key every day PLUS the system just doesnt seem to be able to handle it.. You may end up with lots of stress and visits to the front desk.....

Just two things that happened to us the 1st week in August:
Checked in- got cards, 3 nights but just DXDDP for 2 nights..

Went to dinner at Via Napoli- we were famished after long drive.... Surprise.. Card shows no credits... Paid OOP
I was able to get front desk to reissue cards, make sure credits were there and pay me cash for what was spent ( but then ended up with 3 extra credits that we wasted.)

3rd Night- arrive back at OKW around 9pm ( in a heavy thunderstorm).. We had left around 5 pm and all was ok... Room will not open.. Back to front desk- need another card. They explained because of segments and now needed a new card for next day that was room only... Oh- leftover credits that should have been good to midnite next night then disappeared... Needed to get another card in am to show those..LOL

 

[tloft]

Just so you know, there seems to be some major issues with the KTTW cards.... First, you WILL need to get a new key every day PLUS the system just doesnt seem to be able to handle it.. You may end up with lots of stress and visits to the front desk.....

Just two things that happened to us the 1st week in August:
Checked in- got cards, 3 nights but just DXDDP for 2 nights..

Went to dinner at Via Napoli- we were famished after long drive.... Surprise.. Card shows no credits... Paid OOP
I was able to get front desk to reissue cards, make sure credits were there and pay me cash for what was spent ( but then ended up with 3 extra credits that we wasted.)

3rd Night- arrive back at OKW around 9pm ( in a heavy thunderstorm).. We had left around 5 pm and all was ok... Room will not open.. Back to front desk- need another card. They explained because of segments and now needed a new card for next day that was room only... Oh- leftover credits that should have been good to midnite next night then disappeared... Needed to get another card in am to show those..LOL

Thanks for sharing your experience. The only deal breaker for me will be getting locked out of the room with four tired kids in tow. I've waded through enough threads on segmenting to feel fairly confident that there is a solution to prevent this from happening. The trick, of course, is finding someone at the front desk who knows it. Hopefully, as time passes, the problems will be less commonplace.

I was hesitant to set it up this way at first. The number of problems seemed to outweigh success stories. But I've seen trip reports with everyday segmenting and no problems recently. This means that it can be done and I'm going to be optimistic.

 

[Dean]

Only possible issue that would bother us, that I've read has happened, is getting locked out of room. Pretty sure that even if that happens I can find a manager capable of making sure it doesn't happen again.

The worst case scenario is having room key issues every single day your status changes AND having credit issues at every restaurant you try to use them at, with long lines when you go to try to fix it.

 

[tloft]

The worst case scenario is having room key issues every single day your status changes AND having credit issues at every restaurant you try to use them at, with long lines when you go to try to fix it.

I think worst case scenario is for each person to determine. The credit issue doesn't concern me at all. I'm certain it bothers others and they can read these forums and decide for themselves if it is worth the risk. If the lobby is busy I'll come back when it is more convenient. I'm up early and stay up late. If I have to charge every meal in a day I won't let the bother me in the slightest. I know that it will be rectified. And these are things I can take care of on my own time - not involving the entire family.

But, getting locked out of the room will be another matter. Numerous people have reported here that when they have had this problem that a front desk manager has "rebooked" the reservation ending this problem. Hopefully, armed with information collected on these message boards, we'll be able to avoid these problems. In my experience, Disney has always done a great job of rectifying the situation if I've had a serious complaint. I'll hope it doesn't come to that. But, I can guarantee that if we get locked out twice I'll be demanding to cancel the remaining stay and rebook the remaining time as a single stay without any dining plan.

 

[Dean]

I think worst case scenario is for each person to determine. The credit issue doesn't concern me at all. I'm certain it bothers others and they can read these forums and decide for themselves if it is worth the risk. If the lobby is busy I'll come back when it is more convenient. I'm up early and stay up late. If I have to charge every meal in a day I won't let the bother me in the slightest. I know that it will be rectified. And these are things I can take care of on my own time - not involving the entire family.

But, getting locked out of the room will be another matter. Numerous people have reported here that when they have had this problem that a front desk manager has "rebooked" the reservation ending this problem. Hopefully, armed with information collected on these message boards, we'll be able to avoid these problems. In my experience, Disney has always done a great job of rectifying the situation if I've had a serious complaint. I'll hope it doesn't come to that. But, I can guarantee that if we get locked out twice I'll be demanding to cancel the remaining stay and rebook the remaining time as a single stay without any dining plan.

Good luck, let us know how it goes please.

 

[cvjw]

6 nights KV, broken into 3 segments.

63 (or so) key cards.

Keys that didn't work for meals or snacks.

Getting keys that didn't work for our room (good luck finding a manager that can magically make that not happen).

Mousekeeping not coming as scheduled.

Front desk getting confused, and trying to get us to check out, when we were not scheduled to leave for days.

Manager going into our DVC account (twice) to try and rebook our room.

Lots and lots of hours spent at the front desk.

Lots of headaches to save a few bucks. Good luck with your plan. Maybe it will work better for you than it did for us.

 

[Dean]

Manager going into our DVC account (twice) to try and rebook our room.

And if they do cancel and rebook, you'd likely end up with holding account points to sort out later.

 

[Sandisw]

Just came back from a segmented stay and we had no issues with it. Now, we only did a plan for the first night of our 2 night BWV stay and then the first night of our 3 night BLT stay.

But, no problem with credits, no problems with keys. They told us at check in that they would drop the keys under our door the 2nd day. It ended up being easier for me to run down and get them. So, it is possible that they are figuring it all out and have worked out a lot of the early issues that people were having. In our case, though, doing this really saved money, especially for the 6 year old!

At BLT, they even gave me gold KTTW cards so I would know those were the keys and the blue ones were the ones that still held my DxDDP credits.

We are considering this for next year for our 4 night stay--two nights of DxDDP--night 1 and 3.

I say that you should go for it! And, don't forget (unless it changed), the DxDDP comes with an appetizer and 2 snacks while the regular DDP only comes with one snack and no appetizer.

 

[cvjw]

And if they do cancel and rebook, you'd likely end up with holding account points to sort out later.

Somehow, we managed to dodge that particular bullet. I did check my online DVC account after each time that the KV manager went into it. It was fine each time.

 

[disneynutz]

I say if you really like the DDP and you want to segment, use it while you can. Disney's reason for offering the DDP is because it makes them money. Segmenting changes the playing field and I don't see them letting it continue in it's current form. The increasing DDP prices continues to reduce it's value but Disney marketing is going to mentally soften the increase by giving everyone on the plan drink mugs next year. Soon after I bet that they will have the RFID drink machines installed.

Bill

 

[Mrs Hobbes]

I was thinking the same thing as Bill I can not see Disney letting this continue for much longer so I guess make the most of it while you can!

 

[otterpop]

Thanks for all the replies.

I'm on the fence, but I'm leaning torwards giving it a go. Since we were originally planning on doing the DDP, it seems like the DxDD might be worth the potential hassle by allowing us to try some of the sig restaurants that we wouldn't have normally (and at the same/similar cost of the DDP).

Segmenting has been in effect for 7-8 months (?) now and I find it hard to believe they still haven't work out all the kinks!

 

[Mich Mouse]

Even though they have offered segmented dining for months they have not worked out difficulties in the system. My friend (on her very first DVC trip home) had problems every single day with the segmented dining. Imagine taking the bus with your family to the park and your tickets not working? Then head back to the hotel (BC) and deal with the problem, return to your room after being told it's all fixed and your keys do not work. Head back to the desk, spend another hour attempting to fix the problem. Now, back to the park and once again your tickets and dining credits do not work. This went on every single day. Disney did refund their dining and park tickets- so there was no financial loss on the trip but it still was not worth their trouble. The family is a bit disenchanted with DVC already. The management referred to theirs as a "broken" reservation.

I hope they figure this out and that all the above mentioned trips go well, but please be mindful of what happened a few weeks ago to my friend. It was not worth the trouble.

 

[Wedgeh]

I say if you really like the DDP and you want to segment, use it while you can. Disney's reason for offering the DDP is because it makes them money. Segmenting changes the playing field and I don't see them letting it continue in it's current form. The increasing DDP prices continues to reduce it's value but Disney marketing is going to mentally soften the increase by giving everyone on the plan drink mugs next year. Soon after I bet that they will have the RFID drink machines installed.

Bill

With DVC the calculation is a little different since people have the option to eat in the villa. I'd still think segmented dining is a better option for Disney than nothing at all.