My DDP review 9-12 to 9-19

[jenrose66]

This was my 2nd time on the DDP, I also used it in 2005. On this trip we got the free ddp and it was me, dh, and ds1. Alot has changed since I last used the DP. Free dining was ridiculous. We were treated like pigs at the trough. I had ressies for Concourse Steakhouse. When I went to check in there was a woman in front of me not on the dp who couldn't understand why there were no tables available. They told her it would be a 2 hr wait. She took a buzzer for her party of 4 and was actually seated about 5 minutes after me. I was seated about 25 minutes after my adr. Our waitress made us order apps and main course at the same time. As soon as I ate my last bite of app the main course flew out, after I finished that, our waitress came to the table and said that we can take our desserts to go. When we said that we wanted to eat dessert at our table she seemed very put off. They seemed to be doing this with everyone...Coral reef also had long waits and spotty service.

Dining with a baby and having to wait 20 minutes after my adr time is a no go for me. So...we ended up converting TS to CS. It just worked better for us. I wanted to do character dining with my son but there were never any dinner ressies available. I made my original ressies in the beginning of June for this trip and the only available dining was for 7:40 at night. I learned very quickly that it was too late for dinner so, I guess we missed out on TS. Oh well, lesson learned.

I had a fun trip but I won't do the ddp again and I won't go during free dining again.

Also, it was confusing what you can get as a dessert. My dh took a power bar because it was only 2.99 and was labled as a snack, since you can get cakes and what not which are more expensive he figured the power bar was a dessert. It wasn't and the cm at the food court told him he couldn't have it and there was a long line behind him and he was embarassed. The cm didn't tell him to pick something else so he just forewent dessert. I know it was up to him to ask to pick something else but, I still was a little annoyed, so I needed to go to concierge anyway so I brought the receipt and asked if we could get a snack credit or something. I acknowledged that it was dh's fault for not taking car of it at the time, but that if there was anything that could be done, that would be cool. Well, she said that she was very sorry and credited my room with two cs meals. She really didn't have to do that, I thought that was very nice of her and I was very suprised. I guess it doesn't hurt to mention things.

 

[estherhead]

Sorry you didn't have a great DDP time & thanks for the review. This was our first time on DDP too & during the free DDP (we got it free.) Our first place was Chef Mickey's & we had horrible service & were nervous about the DDP from the get-go. But after that we had an amazing experience with the DDP, even during the free time period. We never waited more than 10 minutes for a table, generally we were seated immediately so that surprises me a lot.

As for the snack/CS/dessert thing we ran into the same thing & it seemed like the CM had a lot to do with it. I had a CM specifically tell me what I could get for this or that snack credit at our resort. Later that night I grabbed those exact things & the CM working this time told me no way! I told him about the previous CM & he looked at me like I wasn't speaking English. So I just took my items to a different CM. Ha! I'm quite tenacious.

Your phrase, "Lesson Learned," I thought was probably true. I have 3 kids (one is 6 months) and I knew to book only character meals & loud places. I'm wondering if you had been able to go with plan B if your experience would have been different.

If they offer the free DDP this spring (we just couldn't commit to the Bounce Back) we'll probably go again, even without an appetizer & paying the tip. But I will continue with my character meals & places like Whispering Canyon & O'hana. Once you have kids, the nice, quiet leisurely meals are gone, whether it's rude CM's pushing you out the door or not!

 

[dreamn_Disney]

Sorry you had a bad time of it. We had the dining in 2006 and this year. We actually had a better time of it this year. We learned from our mistakes last year. We ate all meals early and I can not tell you the difference it made in service and in wait times. When we went for dinner we never had a ressie past 5:00 and so we were seated quite fast and our server had just started the shift and was not tired or running between several tables. I do not know if this method would work for everyone but it did for us.

 

[firstfamvacation]

After reading the reviews in preparation for our trip 9/18 through 9/23, we were VERY pleasantly surprised by the outstanding service for all of our TS meals. We are a family of 6 - hubby and I and 4 daughters (16, 14, 7 and 4) The latest ressie was 6:00 pm our first night - which we arrived late. We'd just gotten in from the airport, had never been to WDW before and I am sure it looked like I ran from the airport - I was so hot! He took pity on us and after a 20 minute wait, we were seated. I was grateful. Anyway, after I get all the details together, I will post reviews but we were thrilled.

 

[ExtinctDino]

We waited 20-30 minutes at WCC, and maybe 15 at 'Ohana. But usually we were seated 5-10 minutes after we arrived, in some cases before the time on our ADR.