I don't know what to do...ddp or not?

[caroline1851]

We'll have me, dh, ds6 and dd2 for our trip. We're trying to decide if we should do the dining plan-i was all decided and then started to rethink it today.
We plan on eating breakfast at the Pepper Market at CSR each morning.
From my rough plan, it looks like we'd be having 8 cs meals and 4 ts meals if I ate where/what was convenient.

Even if we did the ddp, we'd still have to pay for breakfast.

I don't see how the ddp would be enough meals for the whole day. I don't know.....

opinions?

 

[beroh2253]

When my 2 were younger they are now DS21 and DD19. My DD very picky and you never knew when she would be hungry and all of a sudden you would have to find a place to eat and fast. You can't plan for that we just had to know where all of the chicken finger places were. We do think the dining plan is great though Me and DW did it by ourselves the past 2 years and we had everything planed out. In my opinion the DDP takes a bit of pre planning which does get you excited for the upcoming trip.
And this year all 4 of us are going to try the DDP, our DD still pickey but will just have to wait for our ADR times for each of the restaurants.
My opinion would be no DDP just wing it if you had to miss a TS or CS you would actually be behind and if you check some of the buffets and just say SI Drive the prices aren't that much without the DDP. Where you make up is place like Le Celler, Coral Reef or Kona and get some of their good steaks. Young one would prefer pizza, burgers or chicken fingers. Only my opinion though.

Have a great trip.

 

[Sandy321]

correct me if I'm wrong, but since you have a 2yr old, you dont pay for her, no ticket, no DDP -

I had to decide if it was a deal for dh and I - I decided it was - it wasnt a huge saving, but the places I have for adrs our meal and dessert will run into $50 apiece (Le Cellier) so with the plan we'd get our TS and then anything we get for CS and snack - is FREE!!

Also - we share a CS meal - we share a breakfast (when dd is with us I often buy extra bacon, its her favorite!) and share a Lunch - some of the Lunch CS have so much food - I get an extra glass of water (its free at any place in Disney - bottled water is charged, but glasses of water free!!) and we split the soda!!

it works for us!

 

[PortieOwner]

correct me if I'm wrong, but since you have a 2yr old, you dont pay for her, no ticket, no DDP -

When we travelled with a 2 year old (the adults had free dining plan) our child got free food everywhere or just shared our food. He even had a food allergy and the chefs always worked around that even though he wasn't paying. WDW Dining was terrific.

 

[angelmav]

correct me if I'm wrong, but since you have a 2yr old, you dont pay for her, no ticket, no DDP -

I had to decide if it was a deal for dh and I - I decided it was - it wasnt a huge saving, but the places I have for adrs our meal and dessert will run into $50 apiece (Le Cellier) so with the plan we'd get our TS and then anything we get for CS and snack - is FREE!!

Also - we share a CS meal - we share a breakfast (when dd is with us I often buy extra bacon, its her favorite!) and share a Lunch - some of the Lunch CS have so much food - I get an extra glass of water (its free at any place in Disney - bottled water is charged, but glasses of water free!!) and we split the soda!!

it works for us!

That may have been true in 07, but not quite in 08, the best you could do at Le Cellier is about $40 each (29.99 for a 14 oz NY Strip, most expensive item at dinner, plus drink and dessert getting it into that $40 range), I know your still ahead but your example, I think gives a bit of a false impression. Plus thats only at dinner, lunch shaves another few bucks off the most expensive item, plus, thats as always, assuming whats most expensive is whats ordered.

 

[caroline1851]

I'm not into finding ways to scrimp and save by sharing cs meals, etc. Obviously, our dd2 will just share what we all get, but dh and i are not going to share our food or drinks just to save a bit of money, kwim? When i made a list of every place i wanted to eat and what we would most likely order, it basically came out the same. I think i'll do the dining plan so that when i order that $30 steak, i dont' feel guilty about spending the money since it will be pre-paid. Then, i'll just plan on paying out of pocket each day for breakfast.

 

[pickles]

with all those ts meals I would do the deluxe plan. you get 3 credits a day to use however you like..ts or cs, plus you get a souvenir mug and 2 snacks a day. your 2 yr old won't cost anything

 

[caroline1851]

but the deluxe dining plan will be $160/day for the 3 of us which is $960.00. I figure if i do the regular dining plan, it'll be $540 plus i'll need to pay oop 5 more breakfasts at roughly $30 each so the total would be $690. I don't think we'll need more than 1 snack a day.

 

[beroh2253]

but the deluxe dining plan will be $160/day for the 3 of us which is $960.00. I figure if i do the regular dining plan, it'll be $540 plus i'll need to pay oop 5 more breakfasts at roughly $30 each so the total would be $690. I don't think we'll need more than 1 snack a day.

There are some things you can buy with your SC to cover breakfast. Box of Entamanns Donuts is 1SC and would feed 3-4 for 1 breakfast, fruit, check out the bake shops. Last 2 years we were so full from th CS and TS we didn't even think of getting anything between to use up the SC and on the last day went around to use them up.
So the better use is to get something for breakfast.