Reasons why we should Not Do The DDP

[shebjo]

I have asked similar question in a previous post a couple of months back but still am so undecided about whether to do the DDP. We (me, DH and twin DDs who will be 7) are going to Disney in late AUgust - we are not doing the free dining because I am using a 40% off room pin. But I have added the regular dining to my package but can't make up my mind whether to do the dining or not. In previous posts, I asked for reasons why we should do the DDP. Now I am asking you to give me some reasons why we should not do the DDP?

 

[MelanieC]

I was doing 40% off too - BUT - when I figured out the difference of what I was paying doing 40% off rate and paying OOP for food and what it would cost doing free dining without the 40% off - we saved tons for my family of 4 doing free dining. My kids are considered adults and we are staying at a Value, so it was easy to see the savings.

If your staying at a Deluxe, it may be a better value at the 40% off. Seriously, I would sit down and decide where you are going and what it will cost you paying OOP and see which is better. This exercise will tell you if it's worth it. Also - you must do it for how you eat. If you don't eat dessert's normally, figure what it would normally cost you for your meals. Don't add in stuff you don't normally eat just because its on the dining plan - unless you normally order like that.

Now for us - if we were paying for dining - it wouldn't pay for us to buy it. For instance, our first 9 nights we are staying using the 40% off military. 4 days are SW & Universal. No matter how I tried to work it, it wasn't worth us paying almost $40 per person per day to purchase the meal plan.

 

[Tricia1972]

I can tell you why we don't do the DDP and you can see if any of our reasons apply to your group:

Doesn't Fit the way we eat:

• We tend to graze, preferring snacks throughout the day and light meals
• We rarely if ever get dessert with our meals, if we get dessert it's one or two to share among the group
• We order an appetizer for our group - no plan accounts for just one
• We don't like steak - well we don't hate steak, but if left to order what we want we'll often choose chicken or pork or even vegetarian before getting steak
• We don't always necessarily eat one TS each day

We feel more freedom without the plan:

• Because we don't always want a TS each day we like that we can cancel our evening reservation on a whim and choose to do something else.
• We don't feel pressured to get our money from the plan, the "it's paid for so we're eating it" syndrome that our group feels
• We like that we waste less food, yes on the plan you're free to waste food, but why pay for or order something you have no intention of eating?
• We like getting a sweet treat of our choosing after dinner in the park (because we skipped dessert)
• We like that we don't need to be concerned about 'is it considered a snack credit' when ordering that sweet treat.

It saves us money!!
We went to Disney without the plan in March 2008. We went with the 'order whatever you want' attitude and we were never ever hungry, and never said 'no' to a snack that the kids (or that we) wanted. Our group of 7*, saved over $500 that week ordering what we wanted, when we wanted it, and we loved it!

Please no flames. I understand that the plan works for some and that's great! I am glad that there is a plan for you. However, just because it works for some doesn't mean that it works for everyone. Likewise, I get that because we don't like the plan, doesn't mean that the plan is bad. Different strokes for different folks.

I am sharing our positive experiences off of the plan because the OP asked for reasons why not to do the plan.

*Our group was Sister, Mom, Dad, Me, DH and our two sons ages 2 and 5.

 

[skier_pete]

40 % off makes more sense for some the FD does, so I won't try and second-guess your call there. And no flames for PP - I am a big proponent of the dining plan, but even I will give you reasons why you shouldn't do it:

1) You don't really care about doing many TS restaurants. Would only do 4 or less per a 7 day trip if you didn't have the DDP
2) You don't like being tied down to a set park location on a certain day - prefer to more "wing it" with your Disney vacation. ADRs keep you on too tight a schedule.
3) Some restaurants you want to try (Ex: T-rex / Rainforest Cafe) aren't on the plan, so why bother?
4) Restaurants will be very crowded due to FD - want to avoid those crowds and instead enjoy the parks.
5) DDP is "too much food", your a family of light/picky eaters and you don't think you would use all the credits.
6) You are staying in a room with a kitchenette, and would like to eat some meals in your room to save money.
7) Because of the hot season, you plan on only going to the parks a few hours a day, and spend the most of your time at your resort.

If one or more of these apply to your party - then you might not want to pay for the DDP.

SkierPete

 

[Brygida]

I have asked similar question in a previous post a couple of months back but still am so undecided about whether to do the DDP. We (me, DH and twin DDs who will be 7) are going to Disney in late AUgust - we are not doing the free dining because I am using a 40% off room pin. But I have added the regular dining to my package but can't make up my mind whether to do the dining or not. In previous posts, I asked for reasons why we should do the DDP. Now I am asking you to give me some reasons why we should not do the DDP?

I really find it hard to believe that a family of 4 would save money on a PIN code over free DDP.... are you staying at a concierge suite or something?

 

[MelanieC]

Ok - I did a little digging looking at the previous posts of OP (I hope you don't think I'm being stalkerish- just trying to help you )

It looks like they are staying at AKL Savanah View. So the savings on Free Dining over 40% off is not as much as it would be for us who are staying at the Values.

But - I still think you need to do a complete analysis before deciding. Free dining may not even be available your dates at this point at your hotel - but you never know.

I'll give you our scenario when I did a cost savings. We also saved on our passes because we were originally doing AP's and now are taking advantage of the Military 5 day tickets since we had to buy a 1 day anyway. We just added on and are getting an 8 day MYW ticket instead of the 1 day.



Original Package
$1076.79 (hotel for 18 nights at POP Century Military Rate)
$1840.00 (Annual Passes Shades of Green Rate)
$ 178.00 (2 Military Universal Passes) (2 free Universal & 4 Free Sea World)
$ 3094.79 18 nights hotel, 4 Annual Passes, 4 Universal & 4 Sea World
This package does not include any Food

Package as it is booked now
$556.28 (hotel for 9 nights at POP Century Military Rate)
$1822.62 (hotel for 9 nights, 4 -8 Day Disney Passes, 9 days on Dining Plan)
$ 178.00 (2 Military Universal Passes) (2 free Universal & 4 Free Sea World)
$ 297.00 (1 Free Military 5 day Disney Pass & 3 Military 5 Day Companion Disney)
$2853.90 18 nights hotel, 4 -8 day passes, 4-5 day passes, 4 Universal, 4 Sea World &
9 days on Disney Dining Plan (9 CS, 9 TS, 9 Snacks per Person)

Comparison of packages
$3094.79 – Original Package
$2853.90 – New Package
$ 240.89 Savings on package
$ 360.00 Lunch Counter Service Savings ($10 x4 =$40 x 9= $360.00) Approximate
$1052.02 Dinner (Crystal Palace 123.50, Boma 114.98, Ohana 114.98,
Biergarten 136.28, 1900 Park Fare 127.76, Whispering Canyon 127.76,
Cape May 127.76, LeCellier 110.00 (approx), Mama Melrose 69.00 (approx)
$ 90.00 Snacks ($2.50 per snack x 4=$10 x 9= $90 Snacks can be up to about 4.50)


Now your savings would be different, because the hotel will cost more w/o the 40% off. Where you have to see if you have a savings is in the cost of food.

 

[Faldred]

The #1 reason to not do any of the dining plans: It doesn't fit the way you want to eat while on your vacation. If the plan makes you do things you don't want to do in order to get "good value" from it, then it's not worth it.

The #1 reason to do any of the specific dining plans: It fits the way you want to eat while on your vacation. If any of the plans exactly matches the way you would like to eat, then you probably ought to do it.

Most people are somewhere in the middle -- if none of the plans exactly match how you want to eat, but one of the plans is close, it might still be a good idea, or it might be a bad idea. It's a personal judgment call to make.

 

[sharadoc]

We don't like to eat that much food, so we generally only get CS, plus some buffet breakfasts. This time we're trying the DDP because it's free, although when we worked out costs, it came out to almost even between Free Dining, or a AAA discount on the room, and OOP meals. We would NEVER pay for the Dining Plan because we would never eat that much.

Even during Free Dining, I only made 5 ADRs for TS meals. The rest are going to be CS meals, because we don't want to plan our days around the food. We'd rather do it the other way around!

Good luck!

 

[Sandy321]

every trip I've planned that wasnt with Free Dining I've struggled with this question... when I take an analysis of menu items with allears.net menus and places I plan to eat at (Sunshine Seasons for a CS during Epcot is a must do for instance) then try and do a comparison - and dh asks what I'm doing - he says, just do the Dining Plan - its well worth the freedom it gives us - esp dd - she loves having control over her snackage - paying with her card for her snacks!

but once again, we have a trip planned for Marathon Weekend, and I know how tired we'll be, so should we or shouldnt we? I have plenty of time to get out the spreadsheets - but in the meantime, I appreciate and read as many threads as I can with people having the same questions -

 

[Dismom55]

We can all add our opinions, but it really boils down to does it fit your lifestyle. Do you need or want structured meals. For me, it is a YES, I am diabetic so my eating has to be structured and although I can snack I do not graze, or rather can not. Do you like to sit and have a relaxing meal, or eat on the run. It is not mandatory that you make ADR's, but is easier if you do. We personally saved big time getting Free Dining, and since I am a worry wart when it comes to feeding the family, did I bring enough money for all the meals, constantly telling the family to keep price in mind when ordering, well see for me it really is worth the DDP, but if all those things do not make you want the DDP then of course don't force yourself to get it, that in itself would be a waste. I am not sure if I just made an argument for or against the DDP, just some of the thinking that went thru my head with the decision to get the DDP free or not.

 

[RJS]

Not sure I can give good reasons not to, but we have boooked it for the first time and are pretty unsure about it. We do not like being tied down to times for meals, and we have nine table service meals booked over ten days. For five of the meals there will be 9 people, and just the four of us for the other four TS. We got the ADR's we wanted, and the times we wanted, but are not feeling great about it yet.

As much as we are looking forward to trying out some of the restaurants we have been curious about, losing park time and being committed to Disney food are drawbacks. Also, we have had to plan our park time more carefully, and made ADR's based on that - we are losing the type of hopping flexibility we have gotten used to. We definitely go for the rides and experience, not the food. I know many people consider the food part of the experience, but other than Mickey bars, the food is not important to us. We could survive on Pop Century salads and a few offsite dinners and be equally happy.

Good luck with your decision, fortunately there is no wrong answer!

 

[gracie1]

Is this your first time to wdw?? I had posted a similar question a while back because I was going to book the deluxe dining plan. But I was told by many on the boards that they did not recommend that on a first visit because I would miss quite a few hours of park time. I still don't see how, since we were planning a character breakfast and a late ts dinner, but I guess when you are doing the traveling to ressies and all
So, we decided not to do any dining plan. I understand that part of the dining plan is to experience nice places, but are they really better than ruth's chris steakhouse?? I can get an excellent steak there
We will be doing all counter service except for planet hollywood because we will have the coupon from disney, and I want to try rainforest cafe. Beaches and cream and that's about it. I think I would rather spend the money to go see cirque de solei instead!
But like everyone else said, it depends what is more important to you. I just came back 3 weeks ago from a week in orlando where we did universal one day and two days at seaworld and we were extremely happy and content with burgers and fries! So we will be doing it again. The only "big" ressie were making which wouldn't be on the dining plan anyways is at shula's steakhouse.
Good luck on making your decision! i have been trying to decide for 7 months now!

 

[shebjo]

OP here - thanks for everyone's feedback. Just to clarify a few things: 1) This will be my 4th trip to Disney World and the 3 previous times stayed at a Disney Value so I wanted to always try a moderate or deluxe so when I got the 40% off pin - that was the incentive to try a deluxe. The FD may save us a few more bucks compared to the 40% off room pin ...but since I wanted to try the deluxe, I fiugured now was a good tme .....as who knows if I will get a 40% off pin again anytime soon. My family are eaters and do like to eat at table service restaurants home here in NYC and when we travel ...but TS restaurants isn't a necessity as we are also going to be eating at table service restaurants when we go to Miami beach following Disney World. Thanks for the comments and I am sure I will change my mind a couple of times prior to the 45th day mark.

 

[CanadianPaco]

I love these sorts of discussions! This will be our 3rd trip to WDW but first on free dining. I have found the scheduling to be more of a task. We feel less the need to get every ride in this time around. We want to get those favourite rides in but really try to slow down and enjoy the parks. So dining will work for us. We always park hop and that makes dining easy. So I guess look at "how" you want to do the parks. That may help your decision