**Not Happy** with DDP and also was it "supposed" to be Free ??

[~Disney's Princess~]

Hi everyone, just back from a week in Orlando (4 days in Universial, 4 days in Disney) -- and let me start off saying this is just my opinion and thoughts, so here goes.

Firstly, I absolutely did not like the DDP. While I thought we were entitled to the full 4 days of our stay with the CS's TS's and snacks - I was wrong - which could be entirely my own fault for not understanding the plan better - meaning it's meals, snacks etc., for the number of "NIGHTS" you are staying, "NOT" days - so hence with our last day we had a 9:50PM flight so basically we had to skimp on the dining plan on our first day arriving in the afternoon, and basically 'save up' the CS's and Snacks due to not getting these for the 4 full days we were there, but only having DDP for 3 'nights' that we were going to be there. Does that make sense where I was confused ? No big deal, it's just as easy to 'pay' for things, but obviously you are hoping 'not' to pay since you are on the plan. And yes I'm the DOPE for not realizing what the system meant by "NIGHTS" -- duh !!

Secondly, I see where people are still saying that their DDP was 'free' - and they were there in this month (October) - I thought that the 'free' part was over? Can anyone explain that to me? Our dates were Oct 11 - 14 at Disney and we had to 'pay' for the DDP. Did I get ripped ? Should I have had it for 'free ?"

Thirdly, while the TS and CS is more than plenty - where we thoughts things lacked is the 'snacks' - we found ourselves snacking WAY WAY WAY too much! We are not a huge eating family by any means, but when I'm on vacation I love to eat! So that means, ICE CREAM whenever I see it, PRETzELS whenever I see them, and of course don't forget that popcorn too! So you find yourself paying a whole lot of money for extra snacks (popcorn, pop etc.,). Again these are just my opinions and observations - there are probably many people that dont eat a lot of snacks or that bring their own etc., - and that's totally fine. We don't do that, we don't carry anything in the parks anymore because for the first time we are 'stroller free' (which I'm not too happy about because man did I lose a lot of storage space!) - but anyway continuing on ...

Fourthly, everything was going just fine with the print outs that show how much you have left etc., - and I mean it was going PERFECTLY! THen - lo and behold - on the day before our 'last' day, at Epcot we got some ice creams and I had 10 snacks left, and I used 3 - so that should have left me with 7 - and of course that was the ONE AND ONLY TIME that the printing machine wasn't working and they guy said, "I can't give you a receipt is that ok?" - and I said happily, "OF COURSE, it doens't matter, I know how many I have left and everything's been going fine!" -- WRONG! The next day I went to use 3 snacks - and knowing I should have 4 left - it prints out "ZERO" snacks left! So of course there's nothing anyone at the parks can do - so I get on the phone with Disney Dining - and going through that automated system until you finally reach a HUMAN especially when you are frustrated and at a park completely filled with people is very very draining - so I finally got connected with my resort (which I had since checked out) - and they were able to realize that the Epcot cart charged me TWiCE - so I indeed did have 4 snacks left and got them credited immediately - so at least that worked out - but did I have to jump through the hoops to get it done.

My final thoughts are I really wouldn't do the dining plan again - unless of course it was free - which I'm trying to find out if it was 'supposed' to be free and I had to pay! YIKES!

We don't really eat 'big' meals alot so the TS meals with getting the apps, main entree and desserts normally don't apply to us - we would be happy with counter service everyday - and maybe once or twice in the trip doing a 'restaurant' type of meal.

So that's my thoughts on the dining plan! Don't like it, definitely wouldn't 'pay' ever again to do it again! I'm anxious to hear everyone elses experience and I have to search some earlier posts and see what everyone generally thinks about it. Thanks for listening and I look forward to any and all comments !

 

[mickeymousemom]

First, sorry to hear you didn't enjoy the DP.
To answer your question about the "free" DP, if a guest checked in ON 9/30, then they had the free DP for the rest of their stay.
I'm not sure I understand a couple of your comments. How was the snack part of the plan lacking? We were so stuffed last year from all the food that we rarely wanted a snack...and we are big eaters.
Also, you complain that you aren't really TS eaters. So, if you like to snack ALOT and you don't do TS much, then can I ask why you got the DP in the first place? It just doesn't make sense to me that you seemed to know what you were getting but you paid for it anyway.

I respect your opinions, I'm just a little puzzled by them.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I'm a little puzzled, too. All the information regarding the DDP has stated clearly it's for the number of nights you are staying - it's tied to your hotel. I am sorry you didn't understand that =(

I also think that it's important to stress, again, that the DDP is NOT for everyone. People who don't enjoy TS meals will not enjoy the DDP. Those who would rather snack their way through will not enjoy the DDP. We were so stuffed from TS meals that we didn't eat but a handful of snacks all week and had to bring them all home on the plane! The only money we spent OOP for our entire 8 night stay (which was really 9 full days because we took an early flight out and late flight back in) was for alcohol. We easily stretched those 8 nights of credits to feed us for 9 days without a problem - it's a TON of food!

The free dining was only if you booked in the right timeframe and checked in by Sept 30th. If you did, then you could get 10 nights of free dining. You weren't ripped off

I am sorry it wasn't for your family but I do think your story can be used to show others that they need to research, research, research and know their family's eating habits well. It's not for everybody!

Hope the rest of your trip was magical

 

[noahynav]

We had free dining on our trip 9/23/06. While I did like some things about the DDP, there is plenty I would change. And I will never do FREE dining again simply because I feel that the parks and resturants were much busier for the time of year, and I did not like that.
First off, I wish Disney would assign a value to each credit and that you could purchase the credits that your family would be most likely to use, or at least be able to purchase of few extra (snack) credits for a nominal fee. You could pick and choose the amount of snacks you want on your plan, number of TS, CS, and plan accordingly. Some plans would be more expnsive than others, but they would be tailored to each families eating habits in the park. Either way, I still think it would be a good value, however I think maybe Disney would disagree because they could not guarantee that guests would stay on Disney grounds for all their meals.

 

[emerymt]

We're thinking about the DDP, but I think it sounds like too much food. We like to eat TS meals in the middle of the day, for a break, before going back out into the crowds, then go to the villa/condo at night. So the value of those meals is less than the evening meals, as well. Plus, I don't think we ever eat all the courses, unless its prixe fixe. Even then we sometimes ask them not to send out everything.

Plus, I have a waif-like 12 y.o. who will certainly not get her money's worth.

Finally, we'll be coming off of a Disney Cruise and I'm sure we coulde go a few days of not eating! Well, except at Marrakesh. The other thing is, for us snacks are important. One a day is insufficient.

I wish Disney would change to some kind of point system, that you could spend on whatever you want. Like Club Med money for food.

 

[The Sweetness]

I UNDERSTAND THIS ONE PERFECTLY, FOR ONCE! The OP and his/ her fam are big snackers, and therefore not up for a big meal every day. They should skip the DP for that reason, unless it's free, or they plan on doing no buffets or Family style TS, all a al cart TS, and alot of sharing. The DP isnt for everyone

 

[GC&S]

While we love the DP, I do agree it's not for everyone. It's great for us because we've always eaten TS once a day during our previous trips. But it is a lot of food and many times we shared an app or a dessert and we still came out a head.

It is so important to understand what you are using - the first trip we used the DP, we thought it was for each day, not each night. Our mistake and it worked out fine for us.

We checked in on 9/30 and were there until 10/8 so that's why we still got the free dining.

In March we had problems with the correct #'s of credits as we were with a large group that didn't always eat together. But it was usually easily solved. Generally if one of the machines wasn't working, they gave us a written receipt and if they didn't, we requested it.

Sorry you had such a bad experience. I'm kind of confused about the snacking issue - not sure if you're saying they should give more snack credits or if you wanted less. We had 8 left the day we left because we hardly used them after a large lunch and large dinner.

 

[ReneeA]

It worked perfectly for us - sorry it wasn't a good fit for your family.

We didn't feel like we were scrimping to stretch our credit through the whole trip - in fact we had both CS and snack credits left on our card before we left and got sandwiches "to go" to eat at the airport and snacks to bring home for later.

It definitely depends on how inidividuals tour. We eat one big meal a day, and graze the rest of the day and it worked out great.

 

[WDWCPAlumni]

Really??? You were all confused?? I was not confused at all!
The problem here is NOT the DDP it is the USER, that didnt look into what they were doing at all!
Disney Dining was free until September 30th, so no........you were supposed to pay for it.
Secondly, you pay for a hotel based on nights, the dining plan goes along with that, so yes the meals are based on the check in and check out time. If technically you are supposed to check in at 4pm day one and check out at 11am on the last day......you only need that one FULL day of meals. Half on day one and half on the last day(Me like you will schedule the flights so that you get every second.)

I think since you say yourself, you like to eat alot.........if you make a list from your reciepts and look at what you actually ate........and what it would have cost you if you paid for it all, including tax and tip.....you will probably find that the dining plan saved you quite a bit.
However, if you find that you would have not even done the sit down meals, you probably should have thought about your decision before you made it.

 

[angelmav]

Really??? You were all confused?? I was not confused at all!
The problem here is NOT the DDP it is the USER, that didnt look into what they were doing at all!
Disney Dining was free until September 30th, so no........you were supposed to pay for it.
Secondly, you pay for a hotel based on nights, the dining plan goes along with that, so yes the meals are based on the check in and check out time. If technically you are supposed to check in at 4pm day one and check out at 11am on the last day......you only need that one FULL day of meals. Half on day one and half on the last day(Me like you will schedule the flights so that you get every second.)

I think since you say yourself, you like to eat alot.........if you make a list from your reciepts and look at what you actually ate........and what it would have cost you if you paid for it all, including tax and tip.....you will probably find that the dining plan saved you quite a bit.
However, if you find that you would have not even done the sit down meals, you probably should have thought about your decision before you made it.

OUCH!

 

[mickeymousemom]

Really??? You were all confused?? I was not confused at all!
The problem here is NOT the DDP it is the USER, that didnt look into what they were doing at all!

Umm...I don't think any of us were confused in the sense that you mean. I was PUZZLED because the OP was basically complaining about parts of the DP that she really should have known about beforehand. Also, her statement about the snacks was a little strange to me. From what I'm reading the OP was unhappy because she snacks all the time and she had to pay OOP for many snacks. I'm still trying to figure out how she couldn't have been absolutely stuffed from the TS meals. I also am puzzled about the fact that she bought the DP when they don't even eat many sit down meals .
I agree with the you, as I think do others, that there is not a problem with the DP in this case. The OP is indeed complaining about something that she would have known had she researched enough. I GET the story here. What I don't get are the OP's complaints.

 

[nurseypoo5]

wow i'm ashamed to admit this, but i wiegh 170 and that is AFTER losing 50lbs before my trip, and DH weighs 250, so yup we love to eat too lol. I gained 10 lbs on my trip, unfortunatly but omg had a great time doing it.

We had 6 CS meals left over on our last day and 7 snacks. We got extra sandwiches for our road trip from Earls and visited Goofys for snacks of candy. Just to kill the credits really.

I cant imagine the people who say they didnt have enough food on the DP. I mean if all else fails, eat LATE and take left overs home...lord knows i could have fed a starving village in Ethiopia for what i threw away. Seriously it was really just too much food in my opinion.

Yup i got it free, hence i started my vacation Sept 30th (taking the DS out of school with the principals blessing) instead of going the next week during fall break. Heck just gave us a week extra to stay at the beach.

Anyway. Do more research next time, and better yet if you hate it dont do it at all. This way you can be broke AND hungry.

 

[2giddy4wdw]

This is definately a case of not knowing the plan and going to TS meals so that you are getting the most out of your money. We used to do the DDP, but then bought into the DVC and we weren't able to use it then. I am so glad that they decided to include DVC with the DDP. We always go to TS meals for dinner, so having this plan makes so much sense for us. I agree that it is alot of food, but I like the fact that you get to try different things. We also like not having to worry about how much we are spending on food. We would usually pick something not as expensive, just so that we weren't spending so much money on food. Like someone else posted it's all in the research that you do ahead of time and figure out what is best for you and your family. Can't please everyone!!!

 

[Luv2Roam]

Agree, this is a case of not reading and looking at the details up front.
There was free dining with MYW packages for some. But the packages had to be booked in a specific time frame, months ago. Not everyone with a WDTC dining package during that time had free dining.
And all the available information reads the dining credits are per night. Nothing reads per day.
The reasoning is official check in time is the latter part of the afternoon, and check out time is 11 a.m.
And as others have stated, the dining plan is not for everyone. But during free dining weeks Disney accomodated more so than for other times on dining options for guests.
Sorry the plan did not work for the OP. Sounds like a live and learn experience. I hope you give WDW another visit though!

 

[nbodyhome]

Disney has promotions that last a certain amount of time. Someone starting on September 30th could have stayed until October 10th with the free dining plan. It is a lot of food (IMHO, too much for me daily) - but I think it's pretty well explained that it is per night, not per day.

 

[angelmav]

I believe the OP is simply stating that she mis interpreted how many credits they had based on nights/days since they left very late on checkout day and got in early on arrival so they were their close to 4 full days with 3 days of credits which is why they didnt feel they had enough, they were a day short for the number of days in the park because of how they structured their visit.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

We loved the dining plan! and we actually had snacks left over!!!

It's all a matter of research, that's how we knew when it was free (WOOHOO!! but we're paying for it next year!!), that's how we knew that it was based on room nights and we went in prepared

As many have stated, it's not for everyone.

 

[jjohnson]

Why were you confused on the amount of credits you would receive? We told you before you left:

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1166483

 

[Aimeedyan]

Why were you confused on the amount of credits you would receive? We told you before you left:

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1166483

Oooh, and the plot thickens! Seems the OP is simply

Good work, JJohnson!

 

[fws]

Well done jjohnson!!!!!