Officially decided not to use DDP, and feeling so LIBERATED!

[ChrisMouse]

Sheesh!

I feel so free!

For literally WEEKS I have been crunching numbers, reading menus, and blowing steam out of my ears trying to figure out if we should do the DDP, and today I have officially decided NOT TO USE IT for our trip in May.

I found myself making a spreadsheet for our vacation, and checking CS and snack menus for each park & resort, making sure there were places we would want to use credits. I agonized over children's menus, because I have a picky eater who would only want to order the children's menu food SOME of the time.

The final straw was when I found myself looking at a menu (can't remember where) that had pizza for grownups but not kids, and thought to myself, "Well, I could eat the kids' quesadilla and my son can eat the pizza on the adult menu". I finally realized I had lost my mind!!!! It's also a lot cheaper to slap together a PBJ and chips and toss it in my backpack for the day than to have my kids using DDP credits for a sandwich.

When I listed out our expected costs at the restaurants we are most likely to choose, we were going to save $98 by using the dining plan (Keep in mind that I don't think we would typically choose restaurants and food items that are the "best" value on the DDP)

I think we will be so happy just taking our vacation as it comes, and purchasing desserts only when we really want them...not ordering them and eating them just because we have the credits. (I think we would also rather wait until a few hours after a meal and have a frozen lemonade or Mickey ears ice cream bar than have the desserts at CS restaurants, anyway!) My son can order what he will really eat and we won't be throwing away children's meals and buying him a hot dog OOP. (And, if I think an appetizer sounds terrific when we are eating TS...I won't feel grouchy about ordering it!!)

In anticipation of using the DDP, I made more ADR's than I would normally make, but I actually think I will keep most of them. They will be fun parts of our vacation, and the DDP wasn't really saving us much money on those.

Anyway, just a long winded way of saying I'm relieved. I'm sure there are families who would choose the really fancy & elegant restaurants and order the signature dishes who will really find value in the DDP. For us, it was just feeling too restrictive! (I'm just glad I have ironed that out for myself BEFORE the trip, because I think we could have ended up LOSING money!)

Thanks to all of you who have answered my questions along the way!

Chris

 

[TDC Nala]

That was Pizzafari that broke the camel's back for you.

They don't have pizza on the children's menu. They only make one size of pizza. When they put pizza on the kids' menu at a reduced price, guess what the adults bought.

Enjoy the freedom of your trip.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Sheesh!

I feel so free!

For literally WEEKS I have been crunching numbers, reading menus, and blowing steam out of my ears trying to figure out if we should do the DDP, and today I have officially decided NOT TO USE IT for our trip in May.

I found myself making a spreadsheet for our vacation, and checking CS and snack menus for each park & resort, making sure there were places we would want to use credits. I agonized over children's menus, because I have a picky eater who would only want to order the children's menu food SOME of the time.

The final straw was when I found myself looking at a menu (can't remember where) that had pizza for grownups but not kids, and thought to myself, "Well, I could eat the kids' quesadilla and my son can eat the pizza on the adult menu". I finally realized I had lost my mind!!!! It's also a lot cheaper to slap together a PBJ and chips and toss it in my backpack for the day than to have my kids using DDP credits for a sandwich.

When I listed out our expected costs at the restaurants we are most likely to choose, we were going to save $98 by using the dining plan (Keep in mind that I don't think we would typically choose restaurants and food items that are the "best" value on the DDP)

I think we will be so happy just taking our vacation as it comes, and purchasing desserts only when we really want them...not ordering them and eating them just because we have the credits. (I think we would also rather wait until a few hours after a meal and have a frozen lemonade or Mickey ears ice cream bar than have the desserts at CS restaurants, anyway!) My son can order what he will really eat and we won't be throwing away children's meals and buying him a hot dog OOP. (And, if I think an appetizer sounds terrific when we are eating TS...I won't feel grouchy about ordering it!!)

In anticipation of using the DDP, I made more ADR's than I would normally make, but I actually think I will keep most of them. They will be fun parts of our vacation, and the DDP wasn't really saving us much money on those.

Anyway, just a long winded way of saying I'm relieved. I'm sure there are families who would choose the really fancy & elegant restaurants and order the signature dishes who will really find value in the DDP. For us, it was just feeling too restrictive! (I'm just glad I have ironed that out for myself BEFORE the trip, because I think we could have ended up LOSING money!)

Thanks to all of you who have answered my questions along the way!

Chris

Thanks so much for posting your experience. That's exactly what I was kind of thinking about, one BIG reason why I'm considering not doing the DDP on my next trip. I miss going to Ghiardelli's and having a sundae for lunch! I miss getting a peach tart in France (and just a peach tart).

 

[angelmav]

Hey TDC Nala, you would think then they would do a pizza slice for the kids meal, but hey thats just me! ChrisMouse, I am sure youll have a fantastic vacation, if your worried about having the meals pre-paid, I would recommend putting some $ aside in gift cards to use on the trip!

Greetings from CO Springs by the way ChrisMouse! Hows the snow up there? Wish I was in Orlando right now!

 

[LSchrow]

honestly, if we were going with our kidlets (23 & 19yo), i would rethink having the dining plan.
it's great for 2 people (DH or 23yo DD & myself have used it). we don't go to the parks much (except for dinner of course ) as we go fairly often, & find we enjoy a nice restaurant at the end of the day. since we almost always stay at the BWV, we just stroll to EPCOT in the eve for dinner (& Illuminations ).

if i had the work around schedules (certain days at certain parks, nap times, who's hungry or not, etc), it would no longer be a vacation IMHO

i think you really made the right decision for your family........hope you have a wonderful relaxing time!!

 

[TDC Nala]

Hey TDC Nala, you would think then they would do a pizza slice for the kids meal, but hey thats just me!

They don't do slices. They make individual pizzas which are assembled by a machine. They would have to cut them before serving them, which would compromise getting hot pizza because the other half or whatever portion was left would be saved for the next person to order a child's meal (do you think they'd throw them out?) This wasn't an issue prior to the dining plan, but kids on the dining plan are restricted to the children's menu.

One option would be for Pizzafari to emulate Pizza Planet at the Studios, and offer only pizza, thus having one menu for both adults and children. But food options at AK are so slim it may have been a better idea for Pizzafari to have a more varied menu.

 

[DanenRox]

Because we are two adults, I (just today) finally gave in to the DDP for our January trip. For us, the current plan was perfect...right amount of food, good price. I resisted the new plan, swore I wouldn't do it, but caved today and feel so much better! I admitted (at last) it isn't just that DDP was a good deal, it also fit our vacation style. In the evening, we could have cocktails without being concerned about driving. Our reservations took us to parts of Disney we otherwise would never have seen. If we had to wait for our table we did so under a night sky surrounded by twinkling lights and sometimes performance acts. We've taken leisurely boat rides, exhausted bus rides and always impressive monorail rides back home carrying beautiful desserts to be eaten before bed. I know Disney tries to keep the sites and sounds of the real world at bay and I'm glad to let them do it. Crunching the numbers, with the new DDP, we come up about $10.00 behind each day. I'm cheap, but for us the DDP provides alot more than food!

 

[jennifer03878]

When we first booked our trip we included the DDP, that was before we found out about all the changes (no appetizers included etc) plus our DS10 is now consided an Adult and there is no way he would eat anything that is included so after many weeks of going back and forth we finally decided to take the DDP off of our reservation. Now we feel so much better. It's nice to know that he can order off of the Kids menu if he so chooses (which I know he will), as they have more choices for him. I think in the long run we will save ourselves a lot more money as we don't usually eat 3 full meals every day. We usually eat a small breakfast, a medium sized lunch if that and a medium sized dinner. The DDP would have been a total waste I feel. To me the only thing that I would eat a lot of would be the desserts , Disney has some of the best sweets lol

As others have said, it is up to the individual person and situation if the DDP works for them. In ours, it doesn't.

 

[angelmav]

They don't do slices. They make individual pizzas which are assembled by a machine. They would have to cut them before serving them, which would compromise getting hot pizza because the other half or whatever portion was left would be saved for the next person to order a child's meal (do you think they'd throw them out?) This wasn't an issue prior to the dining plan, but kids on the dining plan are restricted to the children's menu.

Why not? Several Pizza places do this, $3 for a pizza slicer and one of those heaters to keep a whole pizza's in that would be for this purpose. I feel like its such a no brainer for a restarant called Pizzafari to do. This isnt even a difficult fix. Have you never seen this in action? Like say at the mall?

sorry to hijack the thread with the pizzafari aspect, it just boggles my mind! (Slapping head)

 

[TDC Nala]

It's my opinion that there would be far more complaints from parents whose kids were being served half an individual pizza.

I totally understand why they can't market the full sized individual pizza at a reduced price. They'd have to completely revise the way the place is set up in order to serve pizza by the slice. The places that offer slices serve large multislice pizzas, not individual ones.

Personally, I don't see why they couldn't offer the kids' pita pizza like the Pop Century food court does.

but at any rate, if you have a kid that wants pizza on the dining plan, Pizzafari is not the place to get it. Pizza Planet would work better, they don't have a children's menu. But then again, there is absolutely nothing on their menu except individual pizzas.

 

[angelmav]

Completely change the way the restaurant is set up? I dont think so. That to me is a bit of an exaggerated statement. Since the kids meals are pre-made anyway, you would think they could at the very least have a pizza or pizza bite option. Like you said, Disney has a kids Pitta Pizza in there pre-made repetiore. They dont want to, fine. They could also slice pizzas into child servings (the outrage), again they choose not to (maybe the construction costs would be too high). I didnt name the place Pizzafarri, disney did. With that, it kind of gives folks the impression kids will be able to eat pizza? OK, TDC Nala, I am going to stop now. Your causing me physical pain

 

[TDC Nala]

Don't know if you ever saw the Food Network program with the pizza machine
but that thing must have cost them a fortune. I bet they've still got that thing in the kitchen back there. And it doesn't know from the dining plan. It was there before the dining plan.

Still don't think it would go over well to serve half pizzas. If it's that big a deal, write to them and tell them the kids on the dining plan should be able to get pizza. I wonder how many irate parents they get in there on a daily basis, apparently not enough.

I'm done too...back to the OP's topic...she isn't getting the dining plan, she can buy her kid and herself pizza if she wants.

 

[npmommie]

Chris Mouse, I am with you, I have a 7 yo and a 4 yo.........my 4 yo hardly ate anything from his choices, except ff!!!
it was a pain to me to make sure we ate all the TS meals. We did 3 sit down character dinners and that was plenty for sit down meals for us, we are more of counter service types and that is fine with us. especially at a place like disney, I don't want to spend an hour or more in a sit down meal with 2 kids!!!
We will do a few character meals, but the rest will take it as it comes, I don't like being bound to so many reservations on a trip.
I am not doing the dining plan next trip, ( nov '08).........i feel very liberated too!! LOL!

 

[ChrisMouse]

Thanks to all of the posters, and I really enjoyed our side trip discussion into Pizzafari. LOL --you're right that now that we're not doing DDP it's a moot point for us since I can order my son a pizza off of the adult menu, or he and his sister can share.

Thanks, all!!

Chris

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Thanks so much for posting your experience. That's exactly what I was kind of thinking about, one BIG reason why I'm considering not doing the DDP on my next trip. I miss going to Ghiardelli's and having a sundae for lunch! I miss getting a peach tart in France (and just a peach tart).

You could just get two sweets at the bakery, and use a CS credit, that's what I did on my last trip, one of the sweets being the peach tart, or you could always pay OOP.