To the budget minded - DDP is it worth it?

[Debbie]

My family-myself, DH, 2 teen DD's- were on the DP two years ago. DH and I enjoyed the TS meals, but the girls said, "Please don't EVER do that to us again!". They just wanted to do the parks, not waste 2 hours at a TS restaurant every day.

 

[CarolinaMomOf3boys]

we just got back from Free Dining last Friday and are also trying to figure out if paying for the DDP would be worth it for us. We enjoy the sit down experience at the fine restaurants, although with the plan changing now, I am not sure. The new prices seem pretty good, though, especially with the mug being thrown in, that alone is about $12 or so.

 

[Priorityonecb]

We used the dining plan the last two visits. We loved trying out all the great resturaunts, but the next time we won't be using it. We spent a fair amount of our trips having to plan our park touring around reservation times.

Next time, we plan to play hard and eat casually at the many CS places we haven't had a chance to check out.

 

[ajk912]

I'm confused why everyone keeps saying that your choice should be based on whether or not you would use TS credits. My understanding is that they are coming out with a 2009 DPP that is just CS & snack combo. It includes 2 CS, 2 snacks & 1 refillable mug for $29.99 adult & $8.99 kids.

IMO, this plan is a not a good value at all! The refillable mug is a wash, that's a $14 charge once so I don't even consider that. I could easily eat cheaper than $15 a meal in CS! I hardly ever would get dessert- we may get one to share- so my bill would be about $9-$10. And a snack, we don't use those much either..and we share a lot because the portions can be huge!

 

[ajk912]

I would love the dining plan if reality was that you could call up and make ADRs that day, after you realize your energy level and what park you want to hit that day. But, the true reality is that you have to plan your whole vacation 6 months in advance if you want the popular restaurants..and, well, that's just not realistic for those of us who hate planning our life around ADRs. We just got back from a week trip, and we had a BLAST, but definitely felt confined to those ADRs a bit. For us, we would do TS every other day to get a good meal in us..but didn't want to be obligated to one everyday.

 

[hsmamato2]

I'm really debating whether or not to take it. I will be in WDW 10/9 thru 10/13. However, I will be arriving at midnight on the 9th and departing in the afternoon on the 13th. If I purchase the the DDP it will run me an extra $600 for 4 days, but I don't see myself using it for the 4 days....maybe only 3 days. Let me know your thoughts.

TIA

Only if you take the time and trouble make ADR's at a lot of sit down restaurants- will you want to do that? sounds like a short trip,and you'll use up a lot of time getting to/waiting for/and using the ADR's-
I think you can eat for WAY less than $6000 for 3 1/2 days,I KNOW you can.
A dinner at Crystal palace will cost about 29.00- even times 3,think about the cost...

 

[nilseks]

I think a lot of it depends on HOW you eat.

This is our first year doing the DDP. Past 2 years we have not. Last year we debated doing it but didn't, so we consciously made an effort to add up what we were eating, and what we paid came out to be a little more than the DDP, and we probably ate far less than what we would get on the DDP. We enjoy doing sit down meals, particularly the character meals. Also, last year we took the kids to the 'McDonald's' (don't know what it's really called?--Restaurantosaurus?) in AK and paid $6-7ish each for the equivalent of a happy meal. Since that was just ONE TS meal, I figured it was worth it to pay $10 for the kids to eat on the DDP. I mean, when one character meal is $11.99, how can you go wrong paying $10 to feed a kid for the whole day? Although I think the DDP has gone up now, but still...

 

[bubba]

We've used the DP the last 2 times we've visited the World. Loved the fact that everything (except gratuity this last visit) was paid for ahead of time, Loved that we got to try some of the great TS restaurants on site - probably wouldn't have done Mickeys Backyard BBQ if we hadn't been on DDP, and that would have been a shame ! The kids got more of a selection at the TS places - even my DS 10 and DS 5 get sick of pb&j and chicken fingers at the CS places. And, as a PP mentioned, it's a great time to get out of the heat, sit down and recharge. 75% of our TS credits were used at lunch and that worked great for us. We often used the downtime in the restaurants to talk about our morning and loosely plan our afternoon. I also appreciated the fact that I wasn't always telling my kids 'no'. They got to have a dessert everyday, a mickey bar or some yummy dipped pretzel rods from Goofys Candy place at DTD with their snack credits. I priced it out and we came out slightly ahead using DDP, although we'll definitely use it again for the convenience !

 

[mousefanmichelle]

We just got back and I have to say at first I wasn't a believer in the DDP. I thought we could eat way cheaper if we payed out of pocket but the truth is for 8 days we didn't want to only eat burgers, hot dogs, chicken nuggets and the like. We wanted some variety and so we went with the ddp and paid for it. I really enjoyed it. I also liked the fact that it was pre-paid and we never had any problems at the carts (maybe that was because most of them were closed due to Faye? hmmmm... LOL!!)

Yes, it took some pre-planning and yes, we still had to pay for the tip but I think it was worth it and I will do it in the future again. My only beef with the plan was the kids menus - they are lousy. My dd who is 9 got tired of eating the same old thing at each TS place. I mean basically the CS and TS meals are the same for kids and they don't want macaroni every meal.

The portions are huge and we didn't get dessert every night but we did try! Sometimes we took the dessert to go and put it in the fridge for later.
We did have a hard time using our snack credits - we took some snacks home and that was a nice treat for later as well.

Next year I thought about trying the 2 CS meal plan but again - I just don't want to eat the same ole same ole for lunch and dinner (we bring breakfast as my family is a 3 meal a day kinda family). I guess we could use one CS for breakfast and one for dinner and snack for lunch - might have to think about that.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

Michelle

 

[budbeerlady]

I used to love the dining plan untill they striped it. It isn't such a good deal for us anymore. Once you figure YOU have to leave the tip, it isn't included.

So even with the free dining we had last week the meals were still costing us $15-20. (I know it was free....) But we decided with the extra $18 a night it just wasn't worth it to us to buy the dining plan like we always did in the past.

So figure out what the DP will cost you and add in your tips to get the real cost. Also I eat Vegetarian and those meals are on the lower end of the scale. If you are eating the mushroom fillet every meal or something $30ish it might be a better savings for you.

 

[candee0512]

My family loves the dining plan, but it suits the way we live. We tour the TGM way so we have plenty of time for a leisurely evening meal and still have plenty of time for rides. As others have said, we usually use a snack credit for breakfast, CS for lunch, and TS for dinner. We're not big between-meal snackers. One of our biggest discussions when a WDW trip is in the works is where we're going to eat!

But you know your family, and their style. Either way, have a great trip!

Candee

 

[fakereadhed]

It's not worth it since the tip is not included. If you are budget minded I think that really puts the brakes on the fun of a prepaid meal plan. If you all order the expensive items your tips are more. That adds up over the week and really kills the deal for me. When I ran the numbers it was close to break even and I would rather just plan sit down meals as a like rather than feel like we have to have one each day to use up credits.

 

[kellyg403]

For our family, the old dining plan was the way to go. The new dining plan scenerios, I don't really think they will be in the end. That being said, we budget so much over the year that dh really doesn't care if we spend extra on the dining plan and wants deluxe dining. Our family is us and 5 teens and while we eat alot of the meals it also will give us the luxury of doing a few of those 2 TS meals we haven't done before.

So budget wise we could do better, but the convenience of having everything paid in full before we go is a good. Now with the tips being extra, not so sure we are paying for more than convenience but its the only part of WDW dh really cares about. My sweetie loves his food, and my teenage sons are not far behind him.

Kelly

 

[starann]

OP, I must agree that you should go to AllEARS and see where/what you might eat to figure out if it is worth it. My personal thought is to try the CS plan. If you like to 'eat on the go' then this has everything paid ahead of time (no tips for CS) and seems like it would be plenty to eat. Yes you will have an 'extra' day of credits, but you can use them toward b'fast the other days that you are there. Snack credits can be used to get some 'snacks' for the ride home or souvies to bring home to others (at the candy shop in DTD).

I know when we were down 2 years ago, 1 persons meal at a CS was almost $12 for the drink, meal and dessert. They all aren;t that much, but it is nice to know that you need to bring less cash with you for your trip.

Good Luck!