Not doing DDP

[tiffanym5375]

Anyone else not doing the disney dinnng plan? What are your reasons?

 

[Luv Bunnies]

We did the Dining Plan in December. I'm glad we did it once, but we probably won't do it again (unless it was free).

We liked trying all of the restaurants, but being tied to an ADR schedule was a little difficult. It seemed like the whole trip was all about our meals. It was like, "OK, let's not eat too much for breakfast because we'll need to have an early lunch so we'll be hungry for our 5:30 dinner...and we don't want to just snack at lunch because we don't want to waste our CS credits..." Or, "Can we hop over to MK? No, we have an ADR for dinner at Epcot so we have to stay here."

The other problem is, my kids are very picky eaters and they like to graze. Sometimes they're happier snacking on pretzels and not eating huge meals. We had to make sure everyone ordered a full meal to make sure we "got our money's worth." Speaking of money, we never would have ordered as much food and thus, spent as much money as we did on the DDP.

Again, I'm glad we tried it once. Overall, it was a good experience. But, we won't do it again. We'd rather not focus so much on food. We'd rather have more freedom and not be tied to ADRs. Next time we'll do a few of our favorite TS places and wing it for the rest of our meals!

 

[TBLaube]

We are only doing DDP because it is free. This is BF's first trip to WDW and he likes to eat so is very excited. I am too because we get to dine at some really nice places. But I am worried too because ADRs take a lot of time and cut into the freedom of doing whatever you want. It takes serious planning and I hope that we have enought time to see everything.

When I take the kids, we would never make it on the plan. We like to go on a zillion rides and not to be stuck to eating which can take a very long time to complete the meal. I have two sons and like to eat ande run where as I prefer to relax and enjoy my food and rest my feet! We do a couple of ADRs like Sci-Fi and LTT, but find that if we do breakfast buffets(we love breakfast) we feel too full and somewhat sick from all of that food. We also like to snack and share meals so we don't spend a lot of money.

There are benefits and negatives to both. It just depends on what your priorities are on the trip......good luck!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Anyone else not doing the disney dinnng plan? What are your reasons?

My family and I are not doing the DDP for several reasons. We always stay on Club Level floors so we get breakfast in the mornings and the Hors Douvres at 5:00 PM, we do not like making ADR's at 180 days, being tied down to a dinning schedule every day while at WDW, when in the parks we only do counter service locations for lunch and the odd one for dinner but outside the parks since we never stay that late. So we would go to a location like the Earl of Sandwich if we wanted a counter service location for dinner. The only restaurant in WDW we eat at is the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney and finally there are several restaurants which are offsite that we like to eat at.

 

[tndisneyfan]

We liked trying all of the restaurants, but being tied to an ADR schedule was a little difficult. It seemed like the whole trip was all about our meals. It was like, "OK, let's not eat too much for breakfast because we'll need to have an early lunch so we'll be hungry for our 5:30 dinner...and we don't want to just snack at lunch because we don't want to waste our CS credits..." Or, "Can we hop over to MK? No, we have an ADR for dinner at Epcot so we have to stay here."

I enjoyed the DDP overall but I agree with you about this. It's hard trying to schedule being hungry.

 

[PaulaSB12]

Because august and September are popular you HAVE to book them at work a year ahead. It makes booking a holiday easier and planning meals logical. I did the free ddp last september and am doing it again this year. Also planning a holiday for 5 next year.

 

[PlutoLuvr]

Several reasons why we won't participate:

We much prefer staying off site in either our timeshare or a hotel more centrally located to all the attractions Orlando has to offer.

We're finding that dining at the world is slipping. I really don't want to feel tied to dining there. We'll eat one or two dinners onsite, grab a quick CS lunch on the days we go to WDW parks, but other than that, we're finding much better meals and much better values offsite. At this point, the restaurants that interests DH & I most nowadays are Bistro and V&A -- restaurants that don't even participate in the plan.

It's just too much food for our dining style -- and too much focus on food. I don't want to be worried about "maximizing" my credits, wondering if a restaurant is worth two credits and, hence, sacrificing two 1-credit restaurants, frustrated because Junior gets SF Jello for his dessert while I get a piece of thawed carrot cake -- and it's frustrating because I paid for this months ago. I just don't see this as a convenience at all. Convenient for me is feeling hungry, looking at a menu, ordering, paying for it and eating just what I needed, wanted and paid for right there at that moment.

 

[MinnieGirl33]

1). DDP is never free for DVC
2). Waaaayyyy too much food for us
3). No way am I paying $40 a day for kids who are adults by Disney standards.

 

[Golden Rose]

We didn't do it last time because we generally like more TS meals than are on the plan. We stayed at Concierge Level and used the lounge for breakfast and snacks and did Table Service meals for all our lunches and dinners except one lunch. We just like not having to wait in line for CS and having a nice air-conditioned, relaxing meal to break up and end the day. I don't mind making ADRs, so this works well for us.

We are doing DDP for our next trip since it is during Free Dining. We're not likely to use all our CS credits, and we're likely to pay OOP for some extra TS... But since it is free, we're going to come out ahead.