To DDP or Not to DDP? THAT is the question.

[JessicaFaye508]

Alright SO..

In 32 days from now (WOOHOO) I'm heading down to WDW with my 3 best friends and my mom. My friends are mostly paying for this trip with their own money... so still at this point in time we are debating on whether or not the DDP is the best idea for our group.

We booked 1 TS each day, were planning on doing 1 CS, and we get a complementary breakfast where we're staying. So it is set up for the DDP.

However, is it worth it?

Here are our restaurant choices:

Day 1 - Electric Umbrella (L) & Garden Grill (D)
Day 2 - Pizzafari (L) & Rainforest Cafe (D- Not on DDP, potential credit used somewhere else)
Day 3 - Casey's Corner (L) & Crystal Palace (D)
Day 4 - 50's Prime Time Cafe (L) & Toy Story Pizza Planet (D)
Day 5 - Pecos Bill Cafe (L) & Tony's Town Square (D)
Day 6 - 1900 Park Fare (B)

So, with these plans, is it going to be cheaper to get the dining plan or no?

We just can't decide.

And I figured, if i needed an answer, this would definitely be the place to go Thank you!

 

[Momto2PrncChrmgs]

First question: are you staying on property? Wasn't sure since you said you got a free breakfast at your hotel. Second: what kinds of things do you think you will order? The DDP is a great value if you usually get one of the mid-priced to more expensive things on the menu. If you are a "appy for dinner" kind of group, it'll probably be cheaper to go OOP. If I were you, I'd print out the menus for those places, get a general idea of what you'll order, add tax, beverage and see if you come out even or ahead. When I did that for my family, we came out pretty close to even, but we got the "bonus" of dessert, and the "bonus bonus" of me getting to order a filet instead of chicken, just because it was cheaper.

 

[JessicaFaye508]

First question: are you staying on property? Wasn't sure since you said you got a free breakfast at your hotel. Second: what kinds of things do you think you will order? The DDP is a great value if you usually get one of the mid-priced to more expensive things on the menu. If you are a "appy for dinner" kind of group, it'll probably be cheaper to go OOP. If I were you, I'd print out the menus for those places, get a general idea of what you'll order, add tax, beverage and see if you come out even or ahead. When I did that for my family, we came out pretty close to even, but we got the "bonus" of dessert, and the "bonus bonus" of me getting to order a filet instead of chicken, just because it was cheaper.

We're staying at yacht club on the club level.. so i guess they put stuff out for breakfast so thats a nice thing.

and oh thats actually a really good idea! maybe i will try that. it's hard to tell what my friends will be ordering (considering this decision is sort of for them) but they'd probably get something similar to me.. so i guess i can try and map it out.

it's just a tricky decision

 

[Momto2PrncChrmgs]

It is tricky! We love it, but so many others find it too restrictive. We like it for the savings, but also for the convenience of pre-payment, not worrying over who's ordering what, not forcing eveyone to drink water when they'd prefer a soda or chocolate milk...you get the idea! Have a fabulous trip with your friends whatever you decide! (And great dining choices by the way)!

 

[TwoAtDisney]

I noticed your list of TS ADRs are not at the more expensive restaurants. If you decide to DDP, don't you think you will get more out of your dollars by dining at the more expensive restaurants? I realize 'bang for buck' is not the only reason for choosing a meal, but often the more expensive places have better choices & quality - not always, but often.

If you choose your list because ADRs are not available, walkins are almost always accepted, except LeCellier.

Enjoy

 

[Toadi]

I track every penny we spend at Disney. We did the dining plan after they stopped including appetizers. We (two adults) found we had to choose the most expensive item on the menu and get dessert in order to break even on what we had paid for dining in the past. We are not big dessert eaters, so didn't ever finish a dessert. Also, we spend lots of time going to/waiting for our TS reservations. This trip we are looking forward to drifting and eating where and when we want; we've only made a few reservations at favorite places like LeCellier and Rose and Crown. Of course, this is much easier with only two people and we are going in late January when attendance is low. If Disney changed the dining plan to include appetizers again, we would reconsider.

 

[Hibernians]

With some of your choices I don't think you'll be getting enough value to justify the DDP. Look at the costs of the meals here and the compare this to the cost of your dining plan:

http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm


We prefer to do a lot of buffets since the kids will always find something to eat and we feel we get more value from the dining plan this way. When they did away with the appetizers and gratutity being included it lost a lot of its value.

 

[newdeal]

First off you may want to check to see if your dates fall within the free dining window in which case you can call and get the dining plan for free. If not I would suggest the dining plan is a good value if you are eating all your meals in the parks. That said I would seriously reconsider the places you plan to eat those are like bottom of the barrel you may be disappointed, there are WAY better options

 

[Chellymouse]

Looking at your list, I think you're going to find the DDP a waste of $$. If you had more expensive places listed, it might be worth it, but this isn't. You will most likely do better OOP. Also, Tony's is awful! You may want to re-think that one!

 

[scdak]

Alright SO..

In 32 days from now (WOOHOO) I'm heading down to WDW with my 3 best friends and my mom. My friends are mostly paying for this trip with their own money... so still at this point in time we are debating on whether or not the DDP is the best idea for our group.

We booked 1 TS each day, were planning on doing 1 CS, and we get a complementary breakfast where we're staying. So it is set up for the DDP.

However, is it worth it?

Here are our restaurant choices:

Day 1 - Electric Umbrella (L) & Garden Grill (D)
Day 2 - Pizzafari (L) & Rainforest Cafe (D- Not on DDP, potential credit used somewhere else)
Day 3 - Casey's Corner (L) & Crystal Palace (D)
Day 4 - 50's Prime Time Cafe (L) & Toy Story Pizza Planet (D)
Day 5 - Pecos Bill Cafe (L) & Tony's Town Square (D)
Day 6 - 1900 Park Fare (B)

So, with these plans, is it going to be cheaper to get the dining plan or no?

We just can't decide.

And I figured, if i needed an answer, this would definitely be the place to go Thank you!

Another option would be for you to figure up a rough estimate of the costs for all you to eat at each of your choices then purchase a Disney gift card to use for payment, and dont' forget to budget for tip money for your tableservice meals, that really adds up fast. I just returned from 6 days of dining strictly at the world and bought a gift card strictly for tipping so that the whole trip was paid for in advance.

You have some nice choices made, Garden Grill gets so-so reviews on Disboards and my mother, best friend and I thought it was one of the best meals of the trip, which surprised us after reading reviews here, we really went for the characters, I would say it was the only meal of 13 TS meals that we ate everything on our plates! Crystal Palace was good but we went for breakfast, not sure how dinner is. Tonys Town Square - well, it was good but I would say we enjoyed dinner at the Plaza more, and if you end up paying out of pocket, its cheaper for better food. 1900 Park Fare was nice for breakfast. Caseys and Toy Story pizza are some of my favorites but we skipped them this trip since we had so many TS meals.

Definately scope out menus/prices at allears.net and price it out, you may find that out of pocket is less expensive for your group.

 

[OurDogCisco]

I've been trying to analyze this all day and here's what I come up with. We are eating at Tony's too because my dd wants to see the restaurant decor. So, I figured out on our MK we'd eat at Cosmic Ray's and Tony's. I looked at the menus on allEars.net and figured out what we'd eat that day. Here's what I came up with:

Cosmic Ray's: 4 sodas; 1 hot dog; one cheeseburger; one double bacon burger; chicken sandwich.

TOTAL cost with taxes & no dessert= 41.45

TOTAL Cost with dessert with taxes = 56.74 (BTW we would never order dessert at lunch unless on DDP)

Snack: Dole whip @ 3.19 each

TOTAL Cost with taxes = 13.59

Dinner at Tony's: 4 sodas, 3 spaghetti dinners, 1 pork tenderloin dinner, 2 gelato's & 2 cheesecakes

Total cost with taxes = 106.59

(we get dessert with dinner about 50% of the time but for agrument sake I left it in).

Cost break down:

OOP Cost = $161.63

DDP Cost (45.99 X 4) = 183.96

So, in this case the OOP cost was cheaper. Yes, can I order more expensive things on the menu but what if that isn't what I want. Also, my kids are 10 and 13 years old and would need to order off the adult's menu all the time. So, for us I don't think it will work.

I did find the TIW card definitely saves. Is anyone an annual passholder?

P.S. The plan is only a value in my opinion if you eat at the high end restaurants and you want dessert with lunch. As you can see from my analysis dessert at lunch adds $14 but if you are truely not going to eat it then don't include as part of your cost. Or you get the plan free.

 

[Swalphin]

We are 2 adults and have never done the dining plan. I am usually happy ordering 2 appetizers as a meal and my DH is not a big dessert eater. We eat when we are hungry sometimes that can mean grabbing a late lunch at the counter at Beaches and Cream or a 3 course meal. We wing it, and I think $ wise it probably equals out some days we might have saved on DP while others we would have spent more. Have a great trip.
We are AP holders and do take advantage of that discount when we can.

 

[jlwhitney]

Defiantly say no to the DDP. With Club level even more of a no. Since they put snacks out all day long, and they change throughout the day. Having the breakfast is so nice for club level. I have rarely found the DDP to be worth it now that I have researched it and such.

 

[hsmamato2]

hmmm..... with your choices, IF you order expensive menu items, you could come out even or ahead-I know we did last week by hundreds....
but....we ordered the steaks,etc at every meal....avoiding cheaper dishes purposely-it was fun!
so if you want to splurge,eat the higher cost items,enjoy the array of desserts on property(there are lots) it could work for you-
for 4 'adults' in our party, a QS lunch,using drink,meal and dessert averaged between 50-95.00 ! not kidding.
Sunshine seasons lunch alone was around 80.00.- add Teppan Edo for dinner later that night, the tab for that was approx. 160.00 for 4 people- -plus add our snack options in France and Japan for that day...you get the idea.... OOP would have cost us over 250.00 for 4......cost of DDP per day for 4 was 168.00.....
do you want to eat a lot? if so, DDP can be a good deal.
but again, we purposely used our TS for dinners, more choices,more $$$...
lighter eating,you could do cheaper....

 

[dskib]

It's so hard to make that decision. We tried it out during free dining and really liked it. We had some good TS meals, several of which were buffets or character meals, which are on the expensive side, so I thought it was worth it.

Next year, my MIL is footing the bill, and while we're hoping for free dining or a good room discount, we're planning on the dining plan either way just for convenience sake. That way we don't need to divide up any checks. I also like the feeling that everythings prepaid, and I don't need to worry about carrying cash or coming home to a credit card bill.

That being said - the poster had a great idea about getting a gift card instead. I considered that too, and will look closely at what we would have spent when we go next year.

Most of your reservations are not at super expensive places, and depending on how good the club level breakfast is, you might not need much fo lunch! The DDP may not be worth it for you for anything other than convenience.

Deb

 

[TheTravelingCarters]

Whether or not the DDP is of any valus really depends on the family and their eating habits. Definitely OOP is best for us. We do not eat dessert but we like adult beverages with most sit down meals and we would only order one appetizer for two people. We do not usually eat counter service and usually bring our own healthier snacks. So the DDP doesn't work for us at all. But we have a friend whose family definitely saves money on the DDP because they do not drink, they love desserts and will eat a snack anytime. So like others have said, you should look at the menus and figure out how much you would spend if you went OOP.

 

[OurDogCisco]

hmmm..... with your choices, IF you order expensive menu items, you could come out even or ahead-I know we did last week by hundreds....
but....we ordered the steaks,etc at every meal....avoiding cheaper dishes purposely-it was fun!
so if you want to splurge,eat the higher cost items,enjoy the array of desserts on property(there are lots) it could work for you-
for 4 'adults' in our party, a QS lunch,using drink,meal and dessert averaged between 50-95.00 ! not kidding.
Sunshine seasons lunch alone was around 80.00.- add Teppan Edo for dinner later that night, the tab for that was approx. 160.00 for 4 people- -plus add our snack options in France and Japan for that day...you get the idea.... OOP would have cost us over 250.00 for 4......cost of DDP per day for 4 was 168.00.....
do you want to eat a lot? if so, DDP can be a good deal.
but again, we purposely used our TS for dinners, more choices,more $$$...
lighter eating,you could do cheaper....

wow there is a counter service using ddp that cost 4 adults $95. Where is that?
Just so you know ddp went up in price per person for 2011 it is 45.95 per person. So, it is now $183.96 for adults.

 

[mainegal]

I say no to the DDP.

In one day, two desserts and one snack = too much.
Some of your counter or table service meals could be shared.

Last week I was on DP, I had food I could not finish and desserts that were thrown out.

I witnessed a couple next to me in Marrakesh or a salad and a soup they shared and one sampler platter to share. They were very happy with their food.