Quick thought on ddp vs dxddp

[mefordis]

I have been wrestling with whether or not to do the dxddp rather than the ddp just to make things easier (no counting credits, no cs vs ts). I added up my meals and figured I would just about come out even if I used the dxddp instead of ddp and paying some ts oop.

However, it occurred to me that if I miss any of my scheduled ts meals at all (due to being too tired to sit down to a ts, illness, whatever) I will lose money. I have a 4 year old who isn't always predictable, so she may not want to endure an evening ts. Plus I'll be 20 weeks along, and don't know how I will be feeling.

Something to keep in mind when weighing the two plans. On paper it may look like you are breaking even, but what if you miss any of those ts meals? You could be coming up short quite a bit with the dxddp.

 

[Trina7020]

My thoughts exactly... we decided just to go with DDP and pay OOP for extra TS meals (and we honestly spend overall less this way)

 

[mefordis]

My thoughts exactly... we decided just to go with DDP and pay OOP for extra TS meals (and we honestly spend overall less this way)

Thanks for your unput! I think I'd be happier sharing appetizers and not feeling like, "oh my gosh we HAVE to make that ts because it's PAID for!"

I really feel this is best for us. And the worst case scenario is we spend the SAME as we would on the dxddp, though I doubt it will be that much.

 

[acmomma]

Thank you. I have been trying to pick which dining plan would be best as well. I hadnt even thought about what if we had to skip some of the TS.
I also have a 4 year old plus a 5 year old and with my two I am sure we will be skipping some sit down dinners so regular dining plan does make since just in case. Thanks again.

 

[Trina7020]

I just thought I would share my breakdown a little bit more to show you what I mean.

We are staying 6 nights... 2 adults, 1 child... 1 infant (2 years old)

I figured everything as if we are going to 18 meals (3 a day)... which is what DxDDP would cover

DxDDP = $959.82

DDP = $515.82

6 TS = Chef Mickey's, LeCelliar, Tony's, Hollywood & Vine, LTT, Sci - Fi
6 CS included
6 snacks (x 3 people) included

We will pay OPP for Breakfasts at CP, Tucker's, Cape May, and Ohana's (52.12x 4 = 208.48),

Let's even say we all want an App. at LeCellier, Tony's, and Sci (the only nonbuffets) add an extra $31.65

2 extra CS OOP to get to 18 meals = ~$60

Let's just say we miss the extra snacks DxDDP would have so we buy an extra snack a day (6) x 3 people @$3 a snack = $54

Even let's say we do want those Refillable Mugs x 3 = $41.50

Cost of DDP + OOP meals, appies, snacks, and mugs = 911.45

Which is still not the cost of DxDDP

Granted there isn't much of a difference in cost.. and it might be worth it for some to have it prepaid. BUT.. we have a 2 year and a 3 year old and ALOT of TS planned... if we miss one or two then the savings is even greater. If we don't eat 3 meals some days (Some days we have a buffet for breakfast and dinner) then we save even more... if we don't use all those snacks... see my point...

Now I should mention... OOP cost for all of this is $1026.19 on either plan I would save money... But if I skipped more than 1 or 2 meals.. I could potentially loose money on DxDDP

 

[jjctfields]

even with the reduced DDP...we still felt horribly bloated eating so much. I am quite the eater and DW, DD, & DS are not real picky, yet found ourself with snacks to spare at the end of the stay (and I think an extra CS or two).

As a Business Education teacher who teaches Accounting, I would say don't waste the money on food. The more $$$ you save on food, you can spend on souvenirs!

 

[mefordis]

I agree with the above posters. Sure, if I did the dxddp I would not have to give a thought about cs vs ts and if I have enough credits for this ts or that. However, instead I would obsess about HOW I can spend all the credits so they don't go to waste, even if I'm not hungry!! So, my goal is to do the ddp, take the $540 it would have cost to upgrade to dxddp and pay for anything oop (extra ts, an appetizer here or there, whatever).

Hopefully I'll have some $$ left over, if not, at least I don't risk wasting $$ on credits I won't use.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[mefordis]

If I went with the dxddp, I'm sure I wouldn't want to spend one dime more on food. What if I wanted a bag of chips with my sandwich? I would have to pay oop for that since cs includes an entree plus drink. Or maybe I'd use a snack credit for it?

I know if I sprung for the dxddp, I would NOT want to spend a single dime on food after that.

 

[joenan88]

I am taking the DxDDP after much deliberation...I have 3 kids and they are the perfect ages for the meal plan 6, 7 and 9. They actually eat and will sit for shows.. We choose restaurants that are mainly family style or buffet so our time spent eating is minimal...plus I find my kids are to excited in the morning to sit and wait for a slow TS...They do not like to stop for lunch (to much to see and do)...by dinner they will sit because they are so tired.. I was on on the basic meal plan in November and it worked but we did spend a lot of money OOP. My ADR's for my August trip~we are staying at The CR~

08/15- (day we arrive) Hoop Dee Doo (2 TS)
08/16- (son's 8th birthday)Whispering canyon* my kids will be entertained by the antics-breakfast
-CRT for birthday dinner (2 TS)
08/17-Chef Mickey's-breakfast
-Teppon Edo-Japan-Dinner..my kids love Hibachi
08/18-O'Hana's- breakfast
-Sci-Fi lunch- my kids will like the car thing
-Brown Derby-late dinner..then Fantasmic show (2TS)
08/19- Tusker Breakfast AK
-1900 Park -dinner
** I figured out just with these restaurants/shows I save over $175.00...I still have 3 more credits, 2 snacks per day and my mug.

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[bevypoo63]

I have done the DDP on previous trips and decided to do the Dxddp for the first 3 nights of our trip since we were doing a split stay. We actually had 4 full days to use our meals, but we found that we were still miserable from eating so much food. We didn't eat everything on our plates but we felt like we "had" to get the appy, and dessert and at least eat a little of them to get our moneys worth from the plan.
on the last night we had 18 snacks left.Thats right, we hadn't used any because we always carry water with us. So we spent an hr trying to figure out what was allowed. The Main Street Bakery in MK closed earlier than they told me they would. So I wasn't able to get the French toast loaf, cinnamon rolls etc that I had planned to have in our motorhome for later in the week.
Needless to say next time we will be using the standard DDP again. We will save money and be a lot less miserable. I now know 1 TS a day is enough for us!

 

[mefordis]

I am taking the DxDDP after much deliberation...I have 3 kids and they are the perfect ages for the meal plan 6, 7 and 9. They actually eat and will sit for shows.. We choose restaurants that are mainly family style or buffet so our time spent eating is minimal...plus I find my kids are to excited in the morning to sit and wait for a slow TS...They do not like to stop for lunch (to much to see and do)...by dinner they will sit because they are so tired.. I was on on the basic meal plan in November and it worked but we did spend a lot of money OOP. My ADR's for my August trip~we are staying at The CR~

08/15- (day we arrive) Hoop Dee Doo (2 TS)
08/16- (son's 8th birthday)Whispering canyon* my kids will be entertained by the antics-breakfast
-CRT for birthday dinner (2 TS)
08/17-Chef Mickey's-breakfast
-Teppon Edo-Japan-Dinner..my kids love Hibachi
08/18-O'Hana's- breakfast
-Sci-Fi lunch- my kids will like the car thing
-Brown Derby-late dinner..then Fantasmic show (2TS)
08/19- Tusker Breakfast AK
-1900 Park -dinner
** I figured out just with these restaurants/shows I save over $175.00...I still have 3 more credits, 2 snacks per day and my mug.

Have a wonderful trip!

Thanks for sharing your situation! I am STILL on the fence about the dxddp! If I went through with all of my adrs, I would save $40-50 going with the dxddp. But I am worried that we will miss some, then lose $$. I think I should just bite the bullet and make a decision and live with it instead of all of this deliberating!

 

[accountingbabe08]

Will be using again in October I have a spreadsheet that I got from another DISer the plan will cost 1609 for the time I will be there. But looking and figuring what we like to eat at the ts meals ( a few two dining credits meals) , counter service , snacks and mugs we would spend 2200 OOP on the meals. The way I see it the DXDDP is a great way for us to go. IMO. HTH

 

[delmar411]

I've been doing lots of calculations for the DDP vs OOP vs DxDP. It is looking like we'd be breaking pretty close to even w/ the DxDP. And that's with calculating CS meals 2x per day w/ 1 TS.

Because of the large dollar amounts we are looking at for the plan I'm leaning towards paying for the DxDP and having all our bases covered. If I go and pay OOP then I'd probably start flipping out over the money leaving my hands and start being really cheap (at least w/ myself). But then I could buy the DDE and maybe it would be a better deal....

it's really really hard for me to get a handle on these options and it's driving me nuts! LOL

 

[Tam1067]

I've been so stressing out about this too! I've got another thread debating this very issue, but it just seems like either you pay ahead and get more than you want, or you do the regular DDP and pay about the same for less stuff. That is, if you dine at more than one TS a day, or even more than one TS on some days.

 

[catho72]

We used the DxDp for our February trip. I feel we got our money's worth from it but it WAS a lot of food. My husband ate steak and I had seafood at almost every meal. We missed a couple of reservations at TS restaurants but still came out ahead. The mug and 2 snacks per day were fantastic. We are going again in September and plan on using the DDP, not the DxDP. It is harder to plan my ADR's and trying to figure out where and when we'll eat this time around. We loved California Grill but I don't want to pay OOP for it and since we're not doing Deluxe this time, it doesn't make sense to use 2TS when we only have a limited number of TS. I would highly recommend the DxDP to anyone!

 

[poeticdiabetic]

Well, we'll be there in 21 days. We've decided to use the regular DDP because we're just not going to eat all of that food. We normally go CS for lunch and TS for dinner. We're not even going to miss the appys, because we'll either be on buffets or at meals with breads and/or veggies at the beginning of the meal.

Plus, we took a look at how much our tips would be if we went breakfast, lunch, and dinner~ and just decided to do away with that bill! It's simply cheaper! So cheap that we are going an extra day out of the money that we will be saving by going regular DDP vs. DxDDP.

Repeat: We are going an EXTRA DAY due to the savings that we will realize by going regular DDP vs. DxDDP!

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

I have to agree with kids you never know what is gonna happen. I found we had to cancel alot of breakfasts and one dinner due to our son being tired or we just couldnt do that many meals in a day. I felt like we would have lost money if on the deluxe plan. He was 3 at the time we went.

 

[torian]

thank you for this thread!

I am having the same issues!!

DXDDP seems like a lot of food, but I am leaning toward it because I prefer TS to CS and I was to have a few sig. dining experiences (brown derby and artist point) and we have a few character meals (chef mickey, crystal palace and AK breakfast buffet). I don't see how we can do that on a DDP or make it work cheaper OOP.

 

[mefordis]

Well, we'll be there in 21 days. We've decided to use the regular DDP because we're just not going to eat all of that food. We normally go CS for lunch and TS for dinner. We're not even going to miss the appys, because we'll either be on buffets or at meals with breads and/or veggies at the beginning of the meal.

Plus, we took a look at how much our tips would be if we went breakfast, lunch, and dinner~ and just decided to do away with that bill! It's simply cheaper! So cheap that we are going an extra day out of the money that we will be saving by going regular DDP vs. DxDDP.

Repeat: We are going an EXTRA DAY due to the savings that we will realize by going regular DDP vs. DxDDP!

Another thing I am now considering is that the dxddp DOES encourage you to eat more. I know I would NOT get a meal all to myself at the Yachtsman Steakhouse, for example. Because it seems like everyone who goes there and reports back has leftover food. However, I know I would order my own entree if I had the dxddp.

It's difficult because the logical thing to do is to go with the dxddp when you see that it gives you more when you figure out the oop costs (I am figuring an app here and there oop as well as a couple of ts oop). However, I know I don't eat all that food that I will be entitled to on the dxddp. But then, no one forces me to order it all. So, if I go with the dxddp I'm going to have to just tell myself it is okay if I leave with a few unused snack credits or ts credits.

 

[Tricia1972]

thank you for this thread!

I am having the same issues!!

DXDDP seems like a lot of food, but I am leaning toward it because I prefer TS to CS and I was to have a few sig. dining experiences (brown derby and artist point) and we have a few character meals (chef mickey, crystal palace and AK breakfast buffet). I don't see how we can do that on a DDP or make it work cheaper OOP.

One thing to look at, that I've noticed in others comparisons is that some can come out ahead doing the DDP and then paying OOP for the few extra TS meals.

One poster, with their current reservations, would save $400 by doing the regular DDP and paying OOP for California Grill, 50's Prime Time Cafe and one other TS meal versus doing the DxDDP.