Just Back - DDP - The Expectation and the Reality

[melomouse]

Hi All -
My! - how I thought of all the posts here over the last 6 months!!! Too much food, kids eating like birds or hogs, sharing, not sharing, kids credits,TS, CS, exchanging TS for CS,........

I will hopefully post later on the Reviews board about where and why we ate - a few changes and surprises.

We left 2 CS outstanding - which I thought was pretty good. That was after picking up the last of our snack credits at Goofy's Candy somewhere around 12:30 this morning after MNSSHP (Fudge - 3.50)

Yes, it is too much food. Yes, your mentality shifts because it IS free. You start thinking of what is portable for the parks, what to save for breakfast and you eat it all, take some back to the room, are STILL full and then do it again the next day.

DDP cannot work for every family configuration. With DS - almost 15 and an eater, and DD(10), and myself - it worked just fine.We were all adults on the DP. We definitely did not maximize credits, but what freedom to not have to think about what was coming OOP constantly with snacks and drinks!!!

Only at WCC did I "save" DD's adult credit and order her a kids' meal, paying OOP, which our server "Diamond Lil", said we should do it while we could, because the changes are in the works. She bemoaned the fact that the servers saw the loopholes as soon as the plan came out, but Disney is just now changing it.

Anything OOP has 18% gratuity added, not just alcoholic beverages.

There are far too many french fries at WDW.

A CM at POR Food Court told me the plan is changing every day and they now have to "watch" for adult meals being charged as "kids" meal credits.

But pretty much - you can have anything you want for snack under $3.99. Goofy's prepackaged candy are labelled - "4.00". No go. Get some fudge!!!

Want the whipped cream on that pecan pie, the strawberry topping on that cheesecake? All are either "snacks" or CS desserts.

I do tend to overeat. DS also. More on vacation. IT was STILL too much food. I hate it on these boards when people speak of those words "gluttony" or "waste". These words came to my mind many times this past week!!!!

Ask away! It was a great trip!

 

[The Sweetness]

There are far too many french fries at WDW.

Was it an option at CS places to sub out the fries for something else? Carrots, fruit, anything? My dd15 is NOT a fan of fries

 

[melomouse]

I should have asked, but I didn't - at the Food Court where they're preparing the burgers, for instance, they don't have the healthier choices right there - so you'd have to check at the register. At the moment, we found a great deal of flexibility on sides and snacks by CM's at registers. My suggestion would be just to ask!!!

 

[njziggy]

Many CS places allow you to substitute a small bag of carrots for fries. Our kids like to do this- they have more room at mealtime and a snack for later.

 

[dznymom1]

Great summation of the plan We were 2 adult women staying for 5 days, and came home with 3 CS. One thing that makes a difference is what time you leave on your last day. We had an early flight, but with anything after noon or so we could have pulled off one more meal. As it was we were stuffed most of the week. We also made a couple of tactical errors by paying OOP for football snacks from Room Service (and then had to cancel our TS because we were too full) and by paying OOP for lunch at ESPN on our day of arrival since we only felt like a sandwich. This 'forced' us to eat 2 TS meals one day We definitely spent a lot of time thinking about eating, talking about eating and actually eating!

I am going for F&W this month and decided to pass on the plan this time, but may add it again in April for the family.

 

[PaulaSB12]

I found it was ok for me, I am doing a solo trip that finishes tomorrow (am at disneyquest at the moment) I had fries (chips ) on my cs meals only once and that was at the Yorkshire fish and chip shops. I ate all my food and used my snacks for breakfast.

 

[Sammie]

She bemoaned the fact that the servers saw the loopholes as soon as the plan came out, but Disney is just now changing it.

Disney, which I am going to assume she meant management, saw the loopholes as soon as the plan came out too, but regardless of what many think, changes can not happen over night.

 

[Gillian]

Yes, it is too much food. Yes, your mentality shifts because it IS free. You start thinking of what is portable for the parks, what to save for breakfast and you eat it all, take some back to the room, are STILL full and then do it again the next day.

LOL, we never wanted to eat the food we'd take as leftovers or chose because it would be good for breakfast the next day.

Only at WCC did I "save" DD's adult credit and order her a kids' meal, paying OOP, which our server "Diamond Lil", said we should do it while we could, because the changes are in the works. She bemoaned the fact that the servers saw the loopholes as soon as the plan came out, but Disney is just now changing it.

Sometimes I think DISers saw the loopholes before the plan came out.

Are they going to stop you from paying OOP? That seems like it would be difficult.

THanks for sharing!!

 

[ntsammy5]

We just got back on free DDP (5 adults) and had the same experience. We got lunch for 5 people at random and still left with 1TS and 3CS left. We were there for a wedding so we didn't eat all meals on the plan. I'm not sure I'd do it again, but it was nice at Jikos to ignore a $378 bill!

A note about CS though. The food court in the Land is a great place to eat semi-healthy.

 

[melomouse]

Another note about Diamond Lil's comment at WCC. Between what she said, as well as what I had heard from a CM before leaving home, what will be "enforced" is that kids as "adults"-DD is 10 - on the DDP will order an adult meal, or a kids' meal enlarged to an adult portion.

The plan has to be the same for all perons in the room. You dine together, you eat it all. Or at least you order it all, charges are rung up and servers are tipped. Don't even want to start this nonsense up again. Basically I had been told before I left that they had the option NOT to allow me to pay OOP for anyone ON the plan, so I was prepared for anything!!!

Let's all just wait and see....

Also -
I definitely would have felt weird splitting a DDP meal with anyone other than DD. JMHO.