Just back, not sure I would do the DDP again

[chliansh]

7 Nights at AKL Nov 29 - Dec 6th
We ate at allot of places we never would have tried but nothing was really that special.

Observations:
Wasted allot of time traveling to our ADR's and waiting for seats
Felt like we were wasting too much food
Felt like we had to eat even when we were not hungry
I no longer like Buffets, I dont like waiting in line for lukewarm food with limited choices

I do not like crowded restaurants, I often leave if I see the place is packed with people waiting. EVERY table service meal we had was in a packed restaurant. Many seemed too small and unorganized to handle the number of people waiting.


I am glad we tried it but dont think we will use it again

 

[kaybird]

Thanks for your views, the DDP is certainly not for everyone, but would be interested in knowing the specific places you ate. We always think that for park food, nearly all are above average. Hope the rest of your vacation was great!

 

[Desnik]

Thanks for this info! I am on the fence about the DDP and my main reason is b/c I don't think we can really eat all that food! I would love to hear where you ate, if you had ressies at all the places you ate and did you have your own transportation or rely on WDW trans. to get you to ADR's?
Thanks!!

 

[chliansh]

Here it goes (I hate to type)

We had ADR's

Day 1
Cosmic Rays: Good food, CM did not speak English and got mad at me for some reason? I think they were having computer problems.

Chef Mickey: The beeper they gave us did not work so we waited along time. Busy busy busy. Food was typical buffet.

Day 2
MGM Backlot: Good food quick service nice theme

Coral Reef: LOUD cramped crowded and overpriced. Food was good (not great) but the bill came to $160, what a joke. We sat in the second row up and could barley notice the fish. Did I mention it was loud?

Day 3
Donald’s Breakfasaurus: Cramped and little interaction with characters. We were done eating before our MIA server came back with our drinks. Food was OK Typical breakfast buffet.

Mara, AKL counter service: Good food, good service and was not crowded. They suggested adult meals for the kids as the "computer" did not care

Day 4
Counter service somewhere?

Boma: Neat place but the food was not as good as I was expecting. Zebra Domes are great.

Day 5
Crystal Palace: Best character meal. Breakfast was pretty good for a buffet.

Kona: Great food and good service

Day 6
Whispering Canyon: Great food, Great service. So stuffed it hurt.

Day 7
Mara: Breakfast good again. They let us cash in our left over counter service credits for snacks! 1for3 4 credits got us 12 snacks.

 

[Desnik]

Thanks so much for posting all your reviews!!

 

[jodifla]

7 Nights at AKL Nov 29 - Dec 6th
We ate at allot of places we never would have tried but nothing was really that special.

Observations:
Wasted allot of time traveling to our ADR's and waiting for seats
Felt like we were wasting too much food
Felt like we had to eat even when we were not hungry
I no longer like Buffets, I dont like waiting in line for lukewarm food with limited choices

I do not like crowded restaurants, I often leave if I see the place is packed with people waiting. EVERY table service meal we had was in a packed restaurant. Many seemed too small and unorganized to handle the number of people waiting.


I am glad we tried it but dont think we will use it again

I think your point about having to eat at so many TS places is a good one. When we go, we normally stay five nights. We eat out three, and eat two nights in the room. I don't want to deal with the hassle of a restaurant every night, especially with a little kid.

 

[thunderbird1]

I think your point about having to eat at so many TS places is a good one. When we go, we normally stay five nights. We eat out three, and eat two nights in the room. I don't want to deal with the hassle of a restaurant every night, especially with a little kid.

I can relate to that. But instead of skipping the DDP, I plan on doing a few more lunches instead of all dinners (we did 9/10 days of dinner). It would have been nice to have a couple more evenings free to just snack/CS around the world.

Although it's not for us, a lot of people swear by the character breakfasts. If you used one or two days of your TS's for these, you'd still have your evenings free. Plus, they'd probably be easier because your little one would likely be "fresher" first thing in the morning, and the characters could entertain him/her while you eat.

Hmm, I sound like a salesperson. I'm not trying to talk you into the DDP if you don't want it--I'm just offering up some ideas to make it work for you, but only if you're interested.

 

[Boardwalk Tigger]

But.....if you plan on eating out for dinner every night as we do, I don't think it hurts to have the DDP. I mean if the restaurants are busy they will be busy whether you are on the plan or not and if the food is just OK that also will be the same. My biggest concern is the amount of food served at the meals is just too much. Also, we usually eat 2 TS meals a day and I'm not sure about the CS thing, especially at Christmas/ New Years week. I think it will be very crowded at CS places. Im still on the fence about the plan.

 

[bicker]

Thanks for your perspective. I'm personally not so worried about many of the things that you mentioned though. We typically plan our touring and reservations so that we're already near the restaurant at the time of our reservation, so there isn't much wasted time. We also don't plan on more than one big meal a day, so we are almost always hungry when our reservations come up.

We don't waste any food because we enjoy at least one bite from every dish we order. Keep in mind that they'll make more food -- we have lots and lots of food in the United States. Heck, a lot of it "whithers on the vine" in our fields, we have so much food.

We never liked buffets much, but we've found that the few we tend to visit at WDW have great food, and lots of choices. I agree with you about Chef Mickey's, though.

Unfortunately, crowded restaurants is the objective, really, for every restaurant owned by investors. As time goes on, the science of managing restaurants gets better, so expect crowded restaurants wherever you find good restaurants.

 

[disneyjunkie]

We used the DDP in 2005 during spring break.

We never had a problem. We used our TS credits for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I always booked the earliest ADR times for lunch and dinner. Sci Fi lunch, Tappenyaki lunch, WCC dinner, Chef Mickey's dinner, Cape May Café dinner. This allowed us to get in ahead of the crowds. Each time we had to wait for the restaurants to open. Once we were let in, we were seated quickly and the food was fresh and hot. Character breakfast were always between 10:00-10:30. For counter service meals we ate before 12:00 or after 2:00.

We never have trouble traveling between the parks and resort restaurants. Our dining places are always close to the park we're leaving or the one we're heading to. I'll never have dinner at Boma if I'm planning to spend the evening in the MK.

As for the amount of food, I agree that isn’t a lot. However, you don't have to order/eat everything that you are entitled to with the plan.

 

[ElizabethB]

Thanks for the report. We hate buffets, too. We won't even do the character meals that are buffets -- it's either a table service character meal or we won't go.

As for crowded restaurants, whether you choose the DDP again, or not, won't change that fact. We hate packed restaurants, too, and most of the Epcot restaurants are now so packed with tables and hordes that you pretty much feel like you're sitting in your neighbor's lap and eating his meal. When we last ate at Chefs de France it was so packed and noisy and the staff running so fast that any hint of French cafe ambience was non-existent (I know, I know, some will say that a crowded, noisy place is more closely reminiscent of a French cafe, but remember -- a real French cafe, even if bustling, is not packed with Americans trying to consume as much food as possible as quickly as possible to get back to the rides -- no lingering over the wine and discussing philosophy!).

We fondly remember a late dinner at Chefs de France in August before the DDP (August '04, I think). We stopped by at 8:40 p.m. for dinner. The place was nearly empty as everyone had cleared out and lined up for Illuminations. We had the most delightful waitress. We were not seated near the window, but when Illuminations started, she set up a separate table right by the window for our two eight-year-olds and opened the window so they could watch Illuminations. She was so charming, the food so delicious and our experience so lovely, we could hardly believe we were in the middle of a Disney theme park. Those days are over!!!!!

Now we find that Illuminations starts and no one even looks up from their meal at the World Showcase restaurants. Illuminations might as well not even be happening as the crowds of patrons are busily consuming food as quickly as they can get it to their mouths.

Obviously, DDP works for Disney (some on these boards will take this opporturnity to remind us that we live in America, the free enterprise system rules, every restaurant should be full 24-hours a day -- that's the mark of restauranteur making his stockholders happy, and on and on). Okay, fine. But, it's nothing we're interested in.

Nonetheless, Disney has clearly made a choice -- the restaurants will no longer be a pleasant dining experience, either foodwise or ambience wise. Instead, like a Five & Dime Store, they will sell average or below-average food for a price that will draw in the tons of people who don't care whether their food is good or not -- as long as there is lots of it.

So, Disney has made its choice, you have made your choice about the DDP, and we've made ours. As for us, we only go to the signature restaurants, now. We don't waste our time or the calories at the other restaurants, unless absolutely forced by the kids to break down and do one non-buffet character meal.

So be it.

 

[Desnik]

We used the DDP in 2005 during spring break.

We never had a problem. We used our TS credits for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I always booked the earliest ADR times for lunch and dinner. Sci Fi lunch, Tappenyaki lunch, WCC dinner, Chef Mickey's dinner, Cape May Café dinner. This allowed us to get in ahead of the crowds. Each time we had to wait for the restaurants to open. Once we were let in, we were seated quickly and the food was fresh and hot. Character breakfast were always between 10:00-10:30. For counter service meals we ate before 12:00 or after 2:00.

We never have trouble traveling between the parks and resort restaurants. Our dining places are always close to the park we're leaving or the one we're heading to. I'll never have dinner at Boma if I'm planning to spend the evening in the MK.

As for the amount of food, I agree that isn’t a lot. However, you don't have to order/eat everything that you are entitled to with the plan.

I completely agree with everything you said and think it is the best way to do the DDP and eating at WDW in general! We are going to do the DDP and just give it a try! Like you said, we will plan Kona for when we are at the MK, and so on. Like Bicker said, as long as you get one bite out of every dish then it's not waisting!!

 

[suncountry]

We just returned from Disney today. I decided to go for the dining plan option and would not do it again. It is a great plan, but it just didn't work for my family. I made ADRs and arranged our entire schedule around them. Without the dining plan we wouldn't have eaten at as many table service meals.

We typically had a light non plan breakfast most days and had lunch around 2:30 at a table service location. I found my DH and DD13 are perfectly happy eating 2 light meals or one big meal a day. After a full meal, they typically didn't want to eat another meal. CS options at the Beach Club were sparse after 7pm. Several nights our CS was from the Spoodles pizza window, which was a low cost option.

I had nightmares at night due to possibly losing money because my family didn't want to eat so many meals. In the end, I had a surplus of 1 CS and 2 snacks. Going to Rainforest cafe in Animal Kingdom didn't help our tally. We had a whole day without a CS or TS meal.

Hope this helps someone else on the fence about the Dining Plan. Bottom line is to know your family's eating preferences before you decide, so you don't feel like you are "force feeding" them.

I think our vacation would have been a bit better if it had been less "scheduled" and more spontaneous. We had several occasions when we had to dash off to try to meet a ADR. A few times we were about 20 minutes late. Fortunately our reservations were honored.

 

[chliansh]

I think our vacation would have been a bit better if it had been less "scheduled" and more spontaneous. .

EXACTLY!


I forgot to mention that we did Wulfgang Puck express in Downtown Disney.
The place is tiny and packed with people but the food awesome. All of us loved it and will defiantely go back. Counter service that tasted better than most table service.

 

[kevin75]

7 Nights at AKL Nov 29 - Dec 6th
We ate at allot of places we never would have tried but nothing was really that special.

Observations:
Wasted allot of time traveling to our ADR's and waiting for seats
Felt like we were wasting too much food
Felt like we had to eat even when we were not hungry
I no longer like Buffets, I dont like waiting in line for lukewarm food with limited choices

the OP brings up many of the points that my gf and i face. to DDP or not to DDP has been our biggest question in planning the trip. the OP had many of the reasons that i think we aren't going to do the DP. while there are a few restaurants that we want to eat at, our grand total of ADR's is 4 for a 9 night stay. and all of them are places where we can share a meal and cut the cost a bit.

 

[DisOrBust]

I completely agree with the OP. We were at AKL almost the same dates. Siince we were aparty of 8 and I didn't want to deal with the "who owes what" we did the DDP. We usually are AP holders so that was not to be this trip. when I planned the kids menu were the "old ones" and that was a major player in my decision at that time.

1. The kids meals are just bad with the new offerings. Either Mac&Chese, or a hamburger or the "healthy"choice". I knew this before we left and planned on OOP for my 9yo and splitting with my 4yo. Problem my very thrifty, {think future investment banker), 9yo didn't want mom to spend the extra on OOP and tried to deal with the kids choices. It is how she is wired and I know its unusual. Emily would calculate the costs in her head and deam it not worth it. Everyone started to figure out thats why she was ordering the kids stuff even though we offered her OOP and gave her Appy, dessert etc. Yes there was enough food but the stress, although unusual really put a damper on it.

2. THe Stomach bug. Yep we aLL got it and it played hell with plans, ADRs etc. The DDP suddenly wasn't much value when you are unable to eat ANYTHING!!

3. Massive time sucking!!! In the past 9 trips we did a few TS mostly followed our noses. Now we had every TS, CS, snack planned. I spent more time in restaurants trying to stuff myself so I would get the "value" of the dining plan.

4. Gave up my AP rate. Which would have been 80$/ night less per room. Not worth it. I f you are staying in a deluxes you really need to consider this when factoring the DDP. DDE also plays a roll which I still had and saved me over 300$ easy. ( one dinner at V&A saved 160) Especially if you odere alcohol with dinner.

5. Eat things we never would have. Sorry if I want the standard CS dessert, carrot cake or chocoalte cake i can get it at quiznos. What a waste of calories!

6. finally the DDP has destroyed any individuality that was left in dining. Gone is the Apple pie at CHH now its the above. Gone are the cute kids cups you could take home now it the same old cup as found everywhere. The menu are standardized with items just dressed up a bit differently. Replaced with sugar free jello EVERYWHERE!! Appysare half the size which is a BIG deal if you are paying OOP. Don't believe me look at the food porn thread from begining to end.

No I would NOT do the DDP again. If you are staying at a Deloxes considerate carefully. My peace has been said!

 

[Disneyite]

I agreed........did the dining plan with my 3 kindergarten aged grandchildren. My grandkids did not want to have carrots, applesauce, or sugar free jello, and 3-4 chicken nuggets. We had problems in two places- RF and Backlot Com. We left with 12 snacks on our plan. We did have a rental car, years of visiting WDW and eating at all the different food places and that helped put some variety into our dining.