Should we go for DDP?

[Amanda Esmeralda]

Hey everyone,

Time for another "Should I or Shouldn't I?" thread!

Here's the situation: My family is having a bit of a reunion in November 2012. My husband and I booked our package through Disney for just the two of us, 11/1-11/7. This is our first time going to the Food and Wine Festival and we are really excited about it!

We did not sign up for DDP when we booked, and have never done so before, but I am second guessing myself. Food is a big part of our experience at Disney, and we love going to the World Showcase restaurants and trying out resort restaurants.

My question is two-fold: 1) Can we add on DDP now that we have booked our trip? (We did book it through Disney) and 2) If we can add it, is it a good deal for 2 people without children, particularly during the Food and Wine Festival? Any advice or insight would be appreciated!

Amanda

 

[TDC Nala]

1). Yes, you can add DDP anytime up to 73 hours before arrival.

2) This is the rub. You will need to ask yourself why you think you might want the dining plan. Do you think it might save you money, or are you more concerned with the perceived convenience of having most if not all of your meals prepaid?

Unless you are lucky enough to get a free dining promotion, you have to work harder with the price increases to make the dining plan save you money than you used to. I think the questions you have to ask if you are looking for a moneysaver are these (assuming you are interested in the regular or basic dining plan, 1 TS, 1 CS, 1 snack per night):

1) Since you are going on a reunion, how much time will you be spending with the other guests, who are not on the dining plan? Will you be eating with them every day? Will they want to eat in places that will not help you get a savings out of your plan?

2) Is it your plan to eat dinner in a one-credit TS restaurant every night? (Not breakfast or lunch, but dinner. Dinner is almost always the most expensive meal of the day. Two-credit "signature" restaurants are generally not the best deal you can get on the regular dining plan.)

3) If that is your plan, do you plan to skip any of these dinners to partake of the food and wine festival sample booths? You can use snack credits for booth items, and you will be receiving one snack credit per person per night on the regular plan, so your response is going to be how many of your TS meals might be displaced and possibly spent on cheaper meals. There is no other method by which dining credits can be used for Food & Wine events or items.

4) Are a lot of the dinners you are planning at character meals, or fixed price restaurants like buffets, or all you can eat family style? Prices on these types of restaurants have gone up so much for adults that if you are planning a lot of them for dinners, a bit less so for breakfasts and lunches, the DDP might be a good value.

5) If you are planning mostly a la carte restaurants, is it typical of you and your husband to eat dessert at every meal, and to generally order the most expensive items on the menu?

If you can answer all these questions in favor of the dining plan you should probably sign up for it. If not, and you want it because you think it might save you money, you'll probably need to do additional research regarding where and what you are planning to eat, to see what kind of savings you might be able to realize. The regular DDP will cost you $51 and change per night per person.

 

[Amanda Esmeralda]

Nala, thank you so much for your comments! Normally we are not dessert people - we tend to be more appetizer people, which I guess is not included. We usually do table service dinners every night of our trip, but I would not say that we order the priciest things on the menu.

I am leaning toward passing on it this time. I do want to spend a lot of time sampling the food from the festival booths.

 

[Disneykidsdad]

I believe alot of the samples at the booths are considered a snack on the Disney Dining Plan.

 

[TDC Nala]

I believe alot of the samples at the booths are considered a snack on the Disney Dining Plan.

Yes, they're considered a snack. On a 7 night stay with 2 adults they will have 14 snack credits to use at the booths. That can be really good for them, but if they're interested in saving money all around they need to decide if the 14 snack credits will be enough for them, if they will need to spend more on the booths, or if eating at the booths will displace the TS meals they also have credits for, plus they've got CS credits that need to be used. I wouldn't do the DDP during food & wine because I eat almost everything from the WS or at F&W events. I don't need regular restaurant meals and I don't want to feel like I also must eat a restaurant meal because I have dining credits to use. I don't know what their main interest is - restaurant meals or the festival - so they'll need to decide that. Maybe they would prefer a couple of samples to try per day and then a meal in a restaurant.

When you add up how much eating you plan to do or not do, and where you plan to do it, sometimes the DDP isn't the best way to save. A lot of users love the DDP because they like the prepayment aspect, which is something else the OP will need to decide if she wants.

 

[MolonLabe]

Normally we are not dessert people - we tend to be more appetizer people, which I guess is not included. We usually do table service dinners every night of our trip, but I would not say that we order the priciest things on the menu.

When we went we had the Deluxe dining plan. 3 TS meals and 2 snacks per day. That was a LOT of food.

At dinner and lunch you got a non-alch drink, app, entree and desert or if you went to a buffet, you got the buffet.

I loved the DDP under the circumstances we got it. I forget exactly what discounts we had but 5 days/4 nights in POP resort with the DDP ran us $1,806 for 2 adults and 2 children.

I saved our receipts and we ate right at $1,700 worth of food. We did ZERO cs meals and ate at the most expensive places and generally ordered the most (or close to) the most expensive things on the menu.

In some places, the children could order adult app's and deserts because we we were on the Deluxe. This was wonderful when they allowed us to.

We are going back for Christmas and I haven't decided what to do. The DDP for 3 adults (my 15 y/o step daughter is going with us this time) and 2 children for 6 nights is just over $1,900 extra! No discounts this week.

Will we eat 1,900 worth of food? I have no doubt, considering we ate 1,700 when staying 4 nights with one less adult.

The questions are, can I do one or two QS meals and a nice TS every day for $330 for all of us? I think I most certainly can and still come out way ahead.

Not to mention that assuming we ear at least $2,000 worth of food we are tipping at least $300 on top of the $2,000 for the DDP.

Last time I left over $300 in tips in those 4 nights and I didn't leave anything extra at CRT since 18% is already included with the meal. The tip on that would have been about $50 is memory serves correct based the pricing.

I'm struggling with this too. We loved the breaks of sitting down during our long days and eating like kings without a care in the world as to pricing. As well as snacking in the park and not worrying about paying for them either.

Going back though, $1,900 (plus the tips from 3 TS a day) just seems outrageous.

If I was able to get the same deal as last time, I'd do it without hesitation. Since Christmas week is full price week... well I'm already pushing our budget.

Wife and I are still debating... she looks at the total cost of the food vs the what we pay up front and in that sense it's a no brainer, get the DDP. In my case I'm trying to see the whole picture and how much food we can get in 7day/6nights for $1,900 out of pocket.

Good luck!

 

[Midnyghtchilde]

If you and your DH:

- Like a table service a day
- Usually only go for a snack a day each
- Like to have desert with both lunch AND dinner
- Like to drink soda/tea/coffee with dinner

Then its an ok to good value for a couple. My husband and I have done it 3 times now. After this last trip I don't think I will do again - mostly because our eating habits have changed. I can say that as a couple of two we rarely used the snacks, and by the end of the week even me the major sweet tooth was a little tire of 2 deserts a day (plus snacks!). For what we got, it was a good value (we found we ran 25-30$ for CS lunch together, and 70-80$ for table service. We tend only to use snack credits on the more expensive 3-4$ items instead of drinks).

But if you don't want all the food, or since its Food and Win Fest want to be able to snack/appetizer your way around the food booths instead of feeling "stuck" using a table service or counter service while at Epcot, then skip it.

I know I am planning my next trip to be for F&W fest and I think I'll skip the plan so we can do more snacks and food booths and less counter service meals! I also don't like feeling like I *have* to get a drink with dinner besides water, which is what I usually drink!

 

[MolonLabe]

I also don't like feeling like I *have* to get a drink with dinner besides water, which is what I usually drink!

Great point. I almost always drink water but I did drink a lot of iced tea (regular not the syrup stuff). I also got a chance to sample some drinks I may not have tried such as the Mint tea at Marrakesh which was amazing.

Occasionally I also ordered coffee after the meal if my wife and daughters were still eating, they never counted the coffee as an additional beverage. Maybe because I got tea earlier?

 

[SFreelove]

Yes you can add the dining plan for each of you at any point in time, but because of your time frame when you are going, I would add it as soon as possible if you do because you will want to make your advanced reservations 180 days out! If you don't make your reservations at atleast 180 days prior to your DW arrival, you may find that most to all resturants book up to maximum all day of each day of your stay, making the dining plan pointless unless its quick service. You can however catch spots open in the less popular resturants that tend to be just as good though! But keep in mind the 180 day advanced dining reservations.

The dining plan is far from a waste, especially if you follow the 180 day ADR note I stated which im sure other people will tell you as well. The dining plan is such a great thing, I think atleast.. it almost makes your vacation feel all inclusive, ya know? Its just like buying your meals in advance but actually you save some. I would say to purchase your dining plan, make your reservations.. and because of the time of year you are going, you may even see a offer come out in between now and when you leave for a FREE DINING promo and you can get your money back and purchase that! Either way, it's a win-win as long as you do it right. I would never go to Disney without a dining plan after doing it for the first time a few years back!

 

[Amanda Esmeralda]

Thank you for all of the advice! I will take it into account. For me, the big selling point is convenience, while I think my husband is more concerned with "breaking even".

 

[gohappy92]

I just called two days ago to make room-only reservations for the beginning of May, and was surprised when I was offered free dining!
It is myself, dh and two sons... we have never done DDP, so we are very excited! Maybe you could call back and see if you could get the free dining also. It would be worth a shot! Good luck!