Not getting DDP this trip -- Right decision?

[chryscrazy]

I'm going during free dining and I'm still not getting it. I had a room discount that was better. When I had the dining plan, I felt like I "had" to get things. I usually prefer water with meals but I felt like I should get soda. I'm not much of a beef eater usually, and I LOVE flatbread, but I found myself saying oh the flatbread is only $12, I should get the $30 steak. I did enjoy desserts at the table service meals, but it was way too much and usually we would just split one. The CS desserts were just nasty.

I'm so excited for this trip without the dining plan. If I have an ADR and feel like doing something else, I can just call and cancel without worrying about my unused credit.

Last year, I knew the ddp wouldn't save us money, but my rationale was I liked having it all paid for in advance. This year I'm using my disney rewards card for food, but if you don't have that just add up what the ddp would have cost you and put it on a gift card.

 

[july2011]

Love this post b/c I was just trying to figure this out last night & was coming up with the DDP being more restrictive & costing us about $50 more than OOP if I was calculating correctly.

So is there any way to prepay or have a balance on our account that will help cover the dining costs while we're there? Just don't want to come home with a huge dining bill! Or can you get a gift card & use that at the restaurants?

 

[chryscrazy]

Yes you can use a gift card in the restaurants.

 

[DisneyWisher]

I'm not sure it's fair to compare receipts from restaurants using the DDP to paying OOP. We were just last week thinking about adding DDP to our room only ressies(we have APs) but when I did a comparision. Ordering sodas though we'd be happy sharing one and getting cups of water, getting desserts though otherwise we never order them. The saving was only around $50. Now paying OOP and eating like we eat I think will end up being cheaper. Plus we love a restaurant called Logans and we can eat there a few times and not think we are wasting meals. Plus like most we always ended up with a lot of snack
credits and meal credits on our last day.

 

[pwdebbie]

Talked to dh about dining tonight and he said that he'd rather do what we do at home, larger meal at lunch and smaller lighter bite to eat around 6:00. Now THAT saves some bucks! Lunch menus are less expensive than dinner menus even when they have the same items. So now I need to go back and redo those ressies.

 

[Chellymouse]

We are also fed up with DDP and have opted not to do it on our upcoming trip. DH is not a big dessert eater and we always wind up ordering the most expensive thing on the menu, even it that's not really want we want to ensure we are getting the value out of the DDP as it really has gone down. We plan to get TIW card for this trip and see how we do. I think we will wind up coming out ahead. Furthermore, with it being F&W, we plan to spend at least 2 full days eating and drinking around the world and we knew we would waste TS credits.

 

[rie'smom]

Talked to dh about dining tonight and he said that he'd rather do what we do at home, larger meal at lunch and smaller lighter bite to eat around 6:00. Now THAT saves some bucks! Lunch menus are less expensive than dinner menus even when they have the same items. So now I need to go back and redo those ressies.

This is what we uusally do too. We walk off our heavy meal while still in the parks.

 

[lizzyb]

We have done the dining plan and without. We are now starting to look at going again and I am definately leaning towards the dining plan.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

It sounds like you made a good decision.

 

[chanty]

Another one here for no DDP...

We've done it almost everytime...but in 2008 we didn't - we paid cash (there was no QDP at the time).

Me & hubby would split a lot of meals, eat lots of snacks and mostly prefer the CS restaurant... We often prefer NOT to eat the dessert but have a treat later on in the parks or at our resorts.

So many treats everywhere that we love... funnel cakes, ghiraldeli sundaes, Goofy's Candy Co - make your own treat, mickey ears (OH, those ears...love them), dole whip floats, donuts,...man should I go on??? haha!

So all this to say that we prefer to eat several times a day here & there and I have one or 2 sit down meals during our stay. This time it'll be Crystal Palace for Breakfast and SciFi Drive in.