Thinking about dropping the DDP

[goofydad621]

I am unsure of what to do, We are thinking of dropping the dinning plan, I hate being locked into haveing to be at a certain park because that is where the ADR is. We have a split stay 5 nights Poly and 4 nights at a 1 bedroom OKW so I think we may keep the DDP for the Poly stay and hit the big ones we want and then make our own and jsut have salads and such.

So what is your ideas and opinions?

Thanks Dave

 

[mickeystoontown]

I may be the minority on the boards but I book my ADRs for theme park restaurants only. I don't want to leave a park and head to a resort just to eat a meal. We pretty much know what park we are going to be in on a certain day. I then make my ADRs for that park. We arrive at the park at park opening, start park touring, eat an early lunch, eat a mid day snack and keep park touring until our late dinner ADRs. By 7:45 or 8:00 p.m., we are ready to a nice sit down meal. We were also able to still see the night time entertainment after our meal.

We loved the dining plan and more than got our money's worth. I paid a little over $800.00 for the dining plan for 3 adults and 1 child. I saved our receipts and we ate over $1,400.00 in food!

Have a safe and fun trip. Eat a lot of good food too! Lisa

 

[ptrbryant]

I am unsure of what to do, We are thinking of dropping the dinning plan, I hate being locked into haveing to be at a certain park because that is where the ADR is. We have a split stay 5 nights Poly and 4 nights at a 1 bedroom OKW so I think we may keep the DDP for the Poly stay and hit the big ones we want and then make our own and jsut have salads and such.

So what is your ideas and opinions?

Thanks Dave

We're doing a split stay between VWL (5 nts.) and Pop (3 nts.) in May and we're doing the DP for the VWL segment of the trip...like you mentioned, we've got all our expensive TS meals planned during that time. I think it's the best of both worlds. Frankly, there've been so many stories about people walking up to restaurants and being turned away because there're no openings that night that I think you really need to have ADRs whether you're on the DP or not.
This will be the first time we've done the DP and it will give us a chance to check out TS restaurants we haven't tried before.

Karla B.

 

[**pixiedust**]

Regardless of whether you keep the dining plan, I think you'll be making a big mistake if you don't make ADRs and plan your meals out. It is so busy in all the restaurants now that not having ADRs, if you want sit down meals, is a big mistake, in my opinion. If you drop the DDP, just make sure you won't mind eating counter service for that portion of your vacation. If you don't mind that, then you'll be fine.

 

[goofydad621]

Regardless of whether you keep the dining plan, I think you'll be making a big mistake if you don't make ADRs and plan your meals out. It is so busy in all the restaurants now that not having ADRs, if you want sit down meals, is a big mistake, in my opinion. If you drop the DDP, just make sure you won't mind eating counter service for that portion of your vacation. If you don't mind that, then you'll be fine.

We don't mind counter service and having a Villa I plan on cooking for part of it. i was a chef for years so I don't mind throwing some meals together.
I figure one meal out a day and I will have some ADR's for that. We will hit he ones we want most the first 5 nights we stay at the Poly.

 

[kimis]

I am unsure of what to do, We are thinking of dropping the dinning plan, I hate being locked into haveing to be at a certain park because that is where the ADR is. We have a split stay 5 nights Poly and 4 nights at a 1 bedroom OKW so I think we may keep the DDP for the Poly stay and hit the big ones we want and then make our own and jsut have salads and such.

So what is your ideas and opinions?

Thanks Dave

I think you have to have ADR's no matter if you have the DDP or not. I know from experience it is not bad to leave the parks to go to a resort to eat. It gives you a breather and allows you see some of the resorts. It sounds as if you have time to do the resorts. Anyway think seriously before you drop the DDP. Plus I think my dh and I eat so much more healthier on the DDP. We certainly don't have room to snack. LOL enjoy

 

[princesstigerlilly]

We don't mind counter service and having a Villa I plan on cooking for part of it. i was a chef for years so I don't mind throwing some meals together.
I figure one meal out a day and I will have some ADR's for that. We will hit he ones we want most the first 5 nights we stay at the Poly.

I think you should drop it then

The DDP isn't right for my family and part of that is because if we change plans I don't want the added pressure of trying to book a different ADR because I have already paid for a TS meal. To some people it's no problem to work their ADRs into solid touring plans and to stick to them. I like to make my plans but if we have to cancel an ADR then that's okay.

 

[ktink]

Under your circumstances I would cancel DDP. For our family DDP is a MUST. We don't park hop but our favorite restaurants are mostly at resorts. We know that we will attend evening EMH for MK and AK but other than that we don't have a "plan". Part of our vacation is winging what park we'll be going to. I've booked Crystal Palace on our arrival night because I know we'll spend our first night at MK and they'll be having EMH that evening as well.

Good luck and I would go ahead w/ the ADRs that you'll need just to be on the safe side.

 

[goofydad621]

Thanks everybody for your input
I am still torn, I love to have everything paid for up front, and I ama planner but on the other hand I to be tied down to much if we want to change our plans ont he run, say there is a bad rain storm and we opt not to go to a park one daya nd want to make it up when we have ADR's some other place.

This is my 26th trip so we pretty much know where we want to eat and at least our must do's

Torn Torn Torn, I don't have to cancel until 45 days out and we are not going until end of Sept and we have already made all of our ADR's so I will just sit back and torture muself with indecision for awhile

Thanks again Dave

 

[gina2000]

The increase in TS restaurant patronage has really made it difficult to just walk up to a restaurant and be seated. We usually do TS for dinner....the few times we booked TS for lunch we got beat up because we weren't able to change restaurants when we decided to park hop because of crowds. Be aware of that if you use the DDP for lunches and in the parks. We weren't on the plan so we just did CS.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

I think your plan of half DDP / half not is a good one.

although I personally love the dining plan, if you are okay with doing a little cooking (and you have that great big kitchen in the villa) drop the plan for the second half of your trip.

This way you can spread your 5 nights of dining over 6 days and don't forget to use any leftover credits wisely.

For instance, if you have counter service credits left - go to a resort food court (if you are able - time and transportation wise). POFQ is close to OKW and they have a great 1/2 chicken dinner with 2 sides and corn bread. You can put that in the fridge at the villa and rewarm it the next day.

Also, if you haven't used up your snack credits, you can redeem them before midnight on the day you check out of the Poly at the OKW store where you can get large bags of chips, containers of dips, donuts, etc - family size treats to share.

 

[goofydad621]

PrincessTrish

Awesome Idea about the family sized snacks, and the Chicken dinners we were thinking about going to a Super Wal-Mart or thellike and buying 2 or 3 roasted chicken to toss it the fridge then buy wraps and sandwich makings. That would be fine for us