My brain hurts! DP and DDP-help!

[KJF0528]

We are going down from December 20-25th (will still go to the park on the 25th, not going to actually be there until laaate on the 24th). Plan on one park a day and doing MK twice. It is myself, my husband, and our two sons who count as adults (and their skinny selves eat like one!! lol)

I am a research junkie and have been looking and looking and looking at the dining plans and reviews and reservations....aaaah

Here are our tentative plans:
Epcot 12/21
Sunshine Season or Kringla- Quick Service (4)
Candlelight Processional (either Chefs or San Angel)-8 TS

MK 12/22
Chef Mickey-8 TS
Liberty Tavern-4 TS (not set but looks delicious)
Harbour House-4 QS

HS 12/23
Mamma Melrose for Fantasmic (since it is only 1 per person)-4 TS
Stuck for dinner (all the places seem eh)

AK 12/24
Flame Tree BBQ-4 QS
Cape May Buffet-8 TS

MK (again) 12/25
xxxx (not sure)-4 QS
Raglan Road-4TS


Okay so my calculations: 4 people, 5 days
20 TS
20 QS

What I want (Pawpaw would tell me keep wanting girl and get going) would need 36 table service credits (yikes). Not so much worried about the QS.

Would it therefore be better to:
1. Change some of my TS plans?
2. Upgrade to the DDP (which gives me 14 MORE TS credits than I need)
3. Pay OOP for certain meals like Raglan road and Liberty Tavern?


I bow to the wisdom of the boards, help me pleaes!!

 

[Cafeen]

It's only 4 sets of credits, since 20-25 is 4 nights and all dining plans go by number of nights during the stay. So, that's 16 of each total. (Or 4 of each per person)

Edit: No, it's not. Cafeen you are being dumb! It's 5 nights! So 20 of each and 5 per person!

We are going down from December 20-25th (will still go to the park on the 25th, not going to actually be there until laaate on the 24th). Plan on one park a day and doing MK twice. It is myself, my husband, and our two sons who count as adults (and their skinny selves eat like one!! lol)

I am a research junkie and have been looking and looking and looking at the dining plans and reviews and reservations....aaaah

Here are our tentative plans:
Epcot 12/21
Sunshine Season or Kringla- Quick Service (4)
Candlelight Processional (either Chefs or San Angel)-8 TS

MK 12/22
Chef Mickey-8 TS
Liberty Tavern-4 TS (not set but looks delicious)
Harbour House-4 QS

HS 12/23
Mamma Melrose for Fantasmic (since it is only 1 per person)-4 TS
Stuck for dinner (all the places seem eh)

AK 12/24
Flame Tree BBQ-4 QS
Cape May Buffet-8 TS

MK (again) 12/25
xxxx (not sure)-4 QS
Raglan Road-4TS


Okay so my calculations: 4 people, 5 days
20 TS
20 QS

What I want (Pawpaw would tell me keep wanting girl and get going) would need 36 table service credits (yikes). Not so much worried about the QS.

Would it therefore be better to:
1. Change some of my TS plans?
2. Upgrade to the DDP (which gives me 14 MORE TS credits than I need)
3. Pay OOP for certain meals like Raglan road and Liberty Tavern?


I bow to the wisdom of the boards, help me pleaes!!

Both CM and Cape May are 1 TS per person, so that's 8 fewer credits used than you had thought, which means that, your plan is using up ~28 out of 16 credits. To make this a bit easier, I'm going to drop it down to per person as it illustrates what's needed a touch better. (Make that ~28 out of 20)

So, you have 7 out of 4 TS credits spent. DxDDP would give you each 12 credits to spend, so you'd have 5 to add... adding in the CS that's listed (since DxDDP is just credits rather than TS and CS/QS credits), that'll end up being 4, plus the one that's unknown, totalling 12 credits per person.
And down here it's 7 out of 5, and DxDDP giving you 15 credits each....

While, this seems like it'll work, with the amount of CS you have, it'll probably come out cheaper to DDP (Disney Dining Plan, the 1TS/1CS/1Snack thingy) + OOP the extras. So, let's look at meals to pay OOP for? 7 of 5 credits used means you'd have to free up 2 credits somewhere. You'd want to compare prices (and certainly look at the CP price too, as that using 2 credits may be less value per credit than you'd get a two 1 TS places) and see which comes out better.

As a note, seeing that it's your first trip, it's (relatively) short, and it's during a very busy season, I'd suggest that you stay away from the DxDDP. Building the plan so that it works will likely take up too much of the time you have there and it could easily be overwhelming dealing with all the dining.

For LTT, lunch is served from a menu and only dinner has the "Thanksgiving" style feast. If you're looking at the lunch menu, that's fine, just wanted to give you a heads up there. If lunch, this would certainly be one to think of for OOP.

(I edited in the correct numbers thanks to Sharon who pointed out that I can't count (very nicely I may add ). Sorry for any confusion!)

Strange that I can do math better at 11pm - 2am than I could at 1:30pm...

 

[sharonabe]

Wait a minute...check in on 20th and out on 25th is 5 nights, so they have 5 credits each.

Paying the CP pkg OOP would be the easiest, but not necessarily the cheapest.

I'd probably do a mixture at LTT and Raglan. Pay two OOP and two DDP at each. Use the two highest priced entrees on the DDP and you have two desserts to share between the four of you at both places.

 

[ready123go]

It would be cheaper to pay OOP for CP than for Raglan & LTT. CP would eat up 2 TS or $30-$60 pp. LTT & RR would use up only 1 TS or roughly $40-$55 pp.

I think the second option is a better value. Passporter books break it down this way, too.

OTOH, if paying for CP with TS credits makes it easier for you, then go for it.

 

[Cafeen]

Wait a minute...check in on 20th and out on 25th is 5 nights, so they have 5 credits each.

Paying the CP pkg OOP would be the easiest, but not necessarily the cheapest.

I'd probably do a mixture at LTT and Raglan. Pay two OOP and two DDP at each. Use the two highest priced entrees on the DDP and you have two desserts to share between the four of you at both places.

My god, I can't count. The one who used to tally up general trips mostly in my head... I can't count to 5! I'm sorely out of practice

So, um, yeah, only 2 credits over. The DxDDP makes even less sense now! At least I got some part right .

(I totally blame it on me needing a break from work where I've been writing SQL code for the past week straight, while maintaining 3 other projects, and dealing with start of school (we do software for districts) next week.... really... that's it!)

 

[GadgetTheInventor]

My head is hurting from so much math right now, but...

I did a bit of research a couple years ago about getting the best deal for the CP. SAI was one of the best "bang for your buck" places when paying OOP. We ate there and were glad that we didn't eat after breakfast because there was so much food. Consider bringing containers to take desert with you if you aren't used to a huge meal.

I have no idea of if things have changed though.

 

[KJF0528]

Thanks everyone!

Definitely not upgrading to the DxDP!! It is our first time to DW so we def want to be doing stuff, not eating stuff!

We also dropped Chef Mickey. I have read the reviews and while I would love to see the characters, I don't want to use my credits (cause I think they move it up to 2 TS for Christmas). My sons would go to make me happy but don't think I could convince their preteens "I think I am grown now" selves to be as happy as I would be.

And CP is a HUGE meal. It is app, food, dessert. For all 4 of us apiece. We are splitters in my family. I cant see us eating all that food. So that is a great point about it being OOP as then we would only buy what we would actually eat!!

 

[melissafox18]

Can you do Mama Melrose mid-afternoon and have snacks earlier and later in the day? The first time we did DDP we were so full we couldn't eat another meal (and ended up with QS meals left over) because we did a lot of late lunches/early dinners. It ended up working out perfectly and we'd just snack or share a QS meal when we wanted a little something. That may help your credit situation a little bit!

 

[sharonabe]

Thanks everyone!

Definitely not upgrading to the DxDP!! It is our first time to DW so we def want to be doing stuff, not eating stuff!

We also dropped Chef Mickey. I have read the reviews and while I would love to see the characters, I don't want to use my credits (cause I think they move it up to 2 TS for Christmas). My sons would go to make me happy but don't think I could convince their preteens "I think I am grown now" selves to be as happy as I would be.

And CP is a HUGE meal. It is app, food, dessert. For all 4 of us apiece. We are splitters in my family. I cant see us eating all that food. So that is a great point about it being OOP as then we would only buy what we would actually eat!!

This won't work no matter how you pay. CP is a package, so you'll pay the same price even if you decide not to get all the entitlements.