We will be going to WDW for the first time in Oct 11! (well, i have been many times but all prior to 2000). Anyways, I was originally going to book us DxDP (as there are many places we want to try). But I do not plan on doing 3 TS a day (too much time involved esp since it is DS4's first trip!) But I do not think 1 TS a day is going to be enough for everything we want to do. Pretty much I think some days we will want to do 2 TS and some days 1 TS and a CS. Which plan should I choose?? I really dont want to do OOP, as I think it would really affect they way we eat in the TS (influenced by price). Is DxDP worth it if you dont do 3 TS a day?? Or can I buy extra days on the plan tp have a few extra credits??
Thanks!!
(Apologies in advance for this post, it's a bit long-winded and meandering.. but I get to a few points in here, I swear! Really I do!)
You're pretty much stuck right in the middle. As a note, DxDDP is not 3 TS a day, it's 3 Meal Credits. These credits can be used at either TS or QS locations (yes, I use QS instead of CS
). (And it's per night, but we'll go ahead and assume you already know that
).
As far as the "Is it worth it?". Typically, on DxDDP the "break-even" point (where the cost of the meals roughly matches the cost of the plan) is at about 2/3 of the credits spent at TS locations. Now, this doesn't mean 2 TS per day either; signature dinners and dinner shows "cost" 2 credits per person. So, this helps to "eat up" some credits (pardon the pun). Add to that a few QS meals (or, obviously, more TS meals), and you'll come out ahead for sure. If you think that this is the most likely scenario for you, then I'd seriously look into DxDDP.
However, if you're mostly planning on the 1 TS/1 QS per day (adjusted because the credits are per night, yadda yadda yadda), then the
DDP plus a few OOP places would work the best.
I know this isn't entirely helpful, but the choice depends on how you and your family wish to eat during the trip, and no one but you can answer that. However, take a few minutes and sort out a few different plans for your dining and see what you come up with. Take a glance through the menus either here on the DIS (wdwinfo.com) or over on AllEars.net and get a grasp of the prices. These two things will help you get an idea of the raw cost of your personal dining plans (man, they should have called them "Dining Packages", it'd make my text much less repetitive! And, yes, they should do it just for my typing really long forum posts!)
Ahem, where was I?
Oh, right, compare that cost and see what you come up with. Don't worry about credits just yet, those can be trimmed down if needed later. Now, start subtracting meals from that total based on which you'd pay for with the plan (here's where credits come in). Once you're either at $0, or you run out of credits. Add the cost of each plan and see where it takes you. Remember that appetizers do come with TS meals on the DxDDP, but not on the DDP, so if you plan to pick up any apps, don't subtract them from the DDP side.
Alternatively, you can use someone's handy-dandy super-large and math-ridden spreadsheet and just plop in the amounts and let it do most of the work. But what fun is that?
Oh, and no, you can't just buy more days on the plan. You get the same number of nights as you have resort reservations.
(Um Tricia, Pumba, Nala... pardon my posting-style tonight, I'm in a strange mood
)
great post cafeen! ok, well we plan on going for 9 days/8 nights... and want to do lots of character meals (including crt). So i have a feeling we are looking at DxDP. But I will compare them and look at prices, etc, like you suggested and see what makes most sense. I figured we would either do a light breakfast and then eat lunch/dinner in the park...or do character breakfast and dinner- with either a small lunch/snack mid-day. I didnt want to waste a bunch of meal credits but I have a feeling 
