To much planning with DDP?

[TSM1993]

Why does some people say it takes alot of planning for the DDP? I am not seeing this. Maybe I am being stupid. But to me I am going to research where I want to eat anyway. I am going to want to make ADRs anyway learned from my first trip. I know CS meals are about $10.00 a person min till you fiqure in meal, drink, and dessert. Then a snack which everyone says is around $2.50. Dp cost $38.00.

$ 38.00
- 12.50
--------
$ 25.50

Which you can definetly spend that much on any TS especially for dinner.

So how much planning is needed. Maybe setting your ADR's up and planning your day around your ADR's but wouldnt you have to do this anyway.

Just Curious.

 

[DisneyArk]

I haven't actually posted a complaint, but I'm a little stressed about the planning. I find that it's hard to plan so far in advance with small children! My life actually rarely goes as planned

We've taken our sons (5 and 7) to WDW two times and are going back in May with the dining plan. In the past we've only eaten 2 TS meals each trip. We were trying to be flexible and didn't want to have fussy overtired kids at too many sit down dinners. But we HATED eating junk food all week.

So we've booked the dining plan and made all of our ADR's. Now I'm stressed about how the location of the TS meals will fit into our daily plans. I don't want to waste tons of time having to leave something fun in order to go eat somewhere "far away".

It takes a lot of planning for me to anticipate how many days we'll want to spend in each park. Plus if it rains a lot, that may completely change our plans!

 

[Tinker*Shell*Bell]

I agree that the DP has added a lot of planning to my trip but I am THRILLED to be doing the planning. We usually only do one TS per visit then CS at lunch and we have always stayed off site so we ate most dinners off site. We saved over the cost of meals at Disney and we didn't eat junk all week and no planning was needed. BUT, we didn't have the dining plan then and we do now.
More planning is a fair trade for the meals we are going to enjoy and the time we will save not leaving the resort to eat. I'm glad to give up the time now to save time on my $1000/day trip....in this case Time really is money.

 

[eliza61]

:So we've booked the dining plan and made all of our ADR's. Now I'm stressed about how the location of the TS meals will fit into our daily plans. I don't want to waste tons of time having to leave something fun in order to go eat somewhere "far away".

It takes a lot of planning for me to anticipate how many days we'll want to spend in each park. Plus if it rains a lot, that may completely change our plans!

Hey DisneyArk,
Don't stress about having to leave something just to make a ADR. One of the beauties of ADR's is that if you don't keep it nobody is inconvenienced since it's not a reservation a table is not left empty waiting for guest who will not show. I make ADR's and if our plans change so be it. Some times I get a chance to call and cancel them but some times I don't. Since my family and I generally visit for 8 or more days, I do try to have a plan on what parks I will be at, but if plans change- what the heck . If you plans change at the beginning of the day check with the front desk of your resort, see if you can get a ADR for your new plans, the resorts are more than happy to assist you. Relax, it's your vacation too. .

 

[DisneyArk]

Hey DisneyArk,
Don't stress about having to leave something just to make a ADR. One of the beauties of ADR's is that if you don't keep it nobody is inconvenienced since it's not a reservation a table is not left empty waiting for guest who will not show. I make ADR's and if our plans change so be it. Some times I get a chance to call and cancel them but some times I don't. Since my family and I generally visit for 8 or more days, I do try to have a plan on what parks I will be at, but if plans change- what the heck . If you plans change at the beginning of the day check with the front desk of your resort, see if you can get a ADR for your new plans, the resorts are more than happy to assist you. Relax, it's your vacation too. .

Thank you!

I think my post came off sounding like I have my moments of worrying, but I'm really not too stressed out about the trip.

You're right - this is a vacation and we got the dining plan so that we won't have to "worry" about eating out!

I'm actually very excited about the dining plan! My husband LOVES to try food and I usually ask him to not order both an appetizer and a dessert - not to mention not ordering the most expensive entree. Hopefully with the dining plan we can both enjoy our meal and I won't have to think about money! And I'm so excited to actually let my sons order dessert every day - they will be in heaven!

Thanks for reminding me to relax! I am the type of person who has to actually be reminded of that.

 

[pbharris4]

I don't think it's too much planning. Of course, you do have to do SOME planning as you would for most trips no matter where you go.

The DP will be a great savings for us. I pick where we want to go first and on what days, and then pick restaurants around that (so we are not criss crossing all of WDW). My youngest will turn 3 the day before we get there. (She has been to WDW when she was 13 months and also at 25 months.) What I did the last 2 years (and will again this year) is schedule around her normal eating time, but add 30 mins-1 hr to it (because we sleep in a little so it pushes back the eating times). My 10 yo DD is more adaptable. As long as DD gets fed on time and has a little rest time we are good to go! If it's a buffet the ADR is around 6pm..if it's a meal where it needs to be prepared I make it for 5:30-6. We go in the summer alot and it's rarely really crowded at that time. The kids cool off and get recharged. It's not much planning, but it really heads off a lot of problems.

This year..I do anticipate a few tantrums only because DD is at that age where she wants everything and wants to run everywhere without thinking of where she is going. It should be interesting.

 

[disneymom3]

I think that what is stressing people out is that they are focusing so much on making sure they get the best deal for their money. I agree with you that it is hard to lose on this plan. Our last trip we were offsite but our touring style has changed soooo drastically since our last trip that we ended up eating onsite much more than we ever have before. We found that when we ate at Tepanyaki without drinks(water) appetizer, or dessert for DH and I (and in fact we didn't even order youngest DS a meal as he is very picky) that we spent basically what it would have cost us for the DP for the whole day. Then at the Land food court, we spent another $35 that day being frugal in our dining choices. I can't see not spending the amount it costs you to actually eat those particular meals each day, but it is easy to get caught up in the making the most of your plan kind of concept. I just have to remember that the DP along is going to allow me to try a lot of different rest. that I would not as well as enhance what I would normally order on my typical frugal lifestyle.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Ok first a bit on my background. We were eat at the counters, Wing it sorts of folk when I was a kid and went with my family to DL. We didn't do an ounce of planning. We were lucky. We usually went courtesy of the Union and the parks usually had a special extra hours session for the weekend for us. So our lack of planning didn't matter then. It wouldn't work even at DL today.

Fast forward to DW and the dinning plan. At first, I thought it a ton of planning. I had to think about what we wanted, make sure we got value out of the plan, and look up which days we wanted to be where so we could chose times. We had to note the schedule. We had to look up historical hours. We had to do this, that, and the other. But it is all planning that I should have been doing anyway. I should be getting the best days so that we can have more fun and avoid bottleneck crowds. I should be scoping out where we want to eat instead of spending an hour looking at a map and sitting down and wasting that hour at the park only to find out ooops we went when it was packed now what do we do?
So yes, it's a ton of planning and you will have to make at least one or two changes between your first plan and your final plan. But it is planning well spent that should be done anyway. Everything we did worked out. We only waited more than 15 minutes in a line twice. One of those was the Indy Speedway. The other was Peter Pan. And that's because We stupidly got in Peter pan even though it said 30 minutes because "We had been through the same line in 10 minutes the other day... Well just around the far corner, they opened up the back section of the outher lines...OOOPS. And it was indeed 30. Had we not had the dining plan, I wouldn't have done that planning and we wouldn't have had as good of a time. As far as maximizing the plan, too many get hung up in the stated menu cost of the food. I got up to about $75 for one credit at spoodles but was as low as about $25 at the crystal Palace. I was happy with both.

 

[pinchy]

I personally think that its possible people getting a little unecessarily stressed about making their ADRs especially when they're visiting off season. There are definately peak times when you would need ADRs for certain restaurants in the parks but we booked any hotel based restaurants while we out there with no problems.

 

[pinchy]

maybe there should be a list of tips to help people with the dining plan planning and getting value for money

things like

value for money: never use the dining plan ts or cs credits for breakfasts if you want to get your moneys worth.... you could always use the snacks for a light brekkie

 

[investgirlmd]

I can honestly say that I was very stressed.

This is my first time to Disney and the thought of having to make reservations for dinner to places I knew nothing about just blew my mind. So I spent hours and hours reading this message board to find out the best places to eat. Once I made my list of places to eat than I decided what days we would spend in the park. Another hard task since I have no idea what to expect going with a DD 5 and DS 11. So I made ADR's for 4 of our days and the other 2 we are just going to wing it. I didn't want to tie us down to much since we don't really know what to expect being our first trip.

I'm relaxed now since I made all my ADR's. Oh we are also going Easter week so that added to my stress cause I know its going to be packed.

Well just wanted to add my cents..... thanks for listening!
Melanie

 

[idreamofdisney24/7]

I haven't actually posted a complaint, but I'm a little stressed about the planning. I find that it's hard to plan so far in advance with small children! My life actually rarely goes as planned

We've taken our sons (5 and 7) to WDW two times and are going back in May with the dining plan. In the past we've only eaten 2 TS meals each trip. We were trying to be flexible and didn't want to have fussy overtired kids at too many sit down dinners. But we HATED eating junk food all week.

So we've booked the dining plan and made all of our ADR's. Now I'm stressed about how the location of the TS meals will fit into our daily plans. I don't want to waste tons of time having to leave something fun in order to go eat somewhere "far away".

It takes a lot of planning for me to anticipate how many days we'll want to spend in each park. Plus if it rains a lot, that may completely change our plans!

I feel for you!! We're the same way.. we're staying 10 nights..that's 10 nights of planning dinners at table service rest.'s with a 2 year old and an infant..who knows where we will be and in what mood at that point..but, we have to make the ressies now if we want to be on the safe side in June!! I still haven't made my ressies.. I'm dreading to call and reading off all my suggested days/times.

Plus, I have an 11 year old that only eats chicken fingers.. I have to get the adult plan for her..I had to take the time and add different rest.'s up and it does seem that we can make out on the deal or even make even. But, we're getting more food for us..plus, it's all paid ahead of time and I don't have to budget money when we get there for food only. And, with the plan, there are so many places we would like to try that I heard about but I have to look up the menus and see if they have chicken fingers or pasta with butter for her to eat or she will sit there and refuse to eat!!! UGH!!!

 

[Sleeping Jedi Beauty]

The planning involved can get stressful, but it's worth it. I helped my mom plan all our ADRs and we were able to get everything we wanted, not necessarily on the nights we wanted, but it worked out pretty good for us since our backup dates worked out. And it's such a huge relief to have the ADRs done and taken care of. Now I can shift my energy to other aspects of the trip and my life, as the planning was wiping out much of my free time.