Totally lost on DDP!!!

[mboss1]

We booked our first Disney vacation for 11/26-12/2 with the DDP. I still am so lost on this whole food plan thing! I guess we (my husband and I ) each get one table service, which I am assuming means a sit down restaurant???
we get one quick serve meal and I have NO idea what this means and we each get a snack right?
Do you have to make reservations for all of your meals?? I can't believe how much planning I have to do on this plan....part of me wonders if it will be less stress to just skip the ddp and fly by the seat of our pants???
What do you guys think????

We will be with our 2 children ages 2 1/2 and 1 at time of travel

 

[Disney Kim]

We used the ddp plan last august and loved it, we are using at again for our trip this sept. I was amazed at how quickly the resturants (especially the character meals) fill up..

You can make your reservations 180 days before your trip and some of the resturants fill up on those days! Its crazy..

I would check out

http://allearsnet.com/din/dining.htm
for info on the resturants.. Its a great website, tell you what charecters are at what resturants and menus, reviews

Especially for character meals! We don't even have any kids but they are so much fun! We do at least 2 a trip!!!

 

[traci]

I'm no DDP expert so I hope this will make you feel better
We are also traveling with 2 little kids (ages 2 and 3). Our first time on DDp they were 8 months and 21 months

Everything in your post is correct. What I do is schedule one sit down meal a day. I decide on those first. I base our selections on convenience since our kids are young - you know what it's like dining with babies! Our first trip we only did character meals. That kept the kids entertained and we were able to eat (quickly). I would suggest Chef Mickeys and Crystal Palace for sure.

Just to give you an idea, this year we are staying at the Poly. We spend most of our time at MK, but will visit the other parks (we just wing that though since we have hoppers). Again, I schedule on convenience. When our kids are older it will give us more flexibility, we do Disney at their pace and that truly keeps us all happy

I made the following ADR's:

day 1:
dinner, Kona

day2:
character breakfast, Ohana

day 3:
lunch, Sci-fi (sit in cars like you are at an outdoor theatre - my son will love this)

day 4:
character breakfast, Crystal Palace (early adr so we are in the park before it opens)

day 5:
dinner, Ohana

day 6:
breakfast, Kona

As for counter Service, those we just decide on while we are there. I have a couple of ideas where we may eat, but we wing it with those meals.

pm if you want - I'll be happy to help

 

[iamalittlegoofy]

You only need to make ADR's for the TS. The quick service meals are counter services. You order at the counter and take it to your seat.

 

[JanineandMike]

Do you have to make reservations for all of your meals?? I can't believe how much planning I have to do on this plan....part of me wonders if it will be less stress to just skip the ddp and fly by the seat of our pants???
What do you guys think????

definitely do not fly by the seat of your pants, especially when it comes to TS meals. you will be so happy when your trip comes along and you have made the ADR's and you walk right in to the restaurant. use the restaurant threads (there is even one with pics of the menus items) and choose based on your family preferences. after spending so much money on a trip you dont want to end up sitting around waiting an hour or more each night to have dinner, so making ADR's and having DDP is totally worth it. also, you dont have to worry about carrying around extra cash, your credits are right on your park ticket/room key.

as far as snacks (ice cream/chips or water/soda on hot theme park days) and CS (fast food meals) you can wing it and just eat wherever and whenever you feel like it (a theme park restaurant or your resort food court).

the DDP is really a convenient and cost effective plan and you shouldn't feel worried about using it.

 

[bookgirl2632]

You are overthinking this too much. And it really doesn't take all that much planning. What I have done the last two times I used it was figure out our touring plan for the week. Depending on where we were going to be or what we were doing, I made ADRs to fit the plan. If we were at MK for the day or evening, I made an ADR for a restaurant in or around MK. The same goes for the other parks. Believe me, once you've made you're ADRs, you won't have to do anything except show up. Just relax and have fun with it! The planning of it, for me anyway, is part of the fun.

 

[thunderbird1]

One suggestion: Since you have 2 young (not on the plan yet) kids, you may want to consider more buffets and family style restaurants for your TS meals. Although not considered to be the most "bang for your buck," they may work out better for you because kids under 3 eat free at all buffets. At traditional "order off the menu" TS's, you'd either have to share with them (and how many 1 year olds like shrimp cocktail and steak?) or pay OOP for their kids' meals (~$7.50 each). The character buffets/family style places in particular might be fun for your kids, if they're not frightened by the characters, with the added bonus of keeping them entertained so you have a chance to eat!

 

[scrapperjill]

Relax....it dose seem overwhelming at first...but after you get the gist of what's what you'll have the planning down in a snap. Your correct in that you AND your husband EACH get one Table service (sit down meal), one Counter Service EACH and one Snack EACH...each day One thing to keep in mind...you don't have to use each credit each day. In other words if you wnated to do a sit down breakfast on day as well as a nice sit down dinner the same day...you can .

When I did our planning...I looked at the parks we were going to be at for the day...or what we'd be doing each day. We're only going for four days and planning only two park days... our plan is...fly in early on day one...and have a rest day, Day two will be at either MGM or Epcot, Day three at MK followed by another rest day on day four. Anywho.....we decided since we're only doing two park days...we didn't want to spend to much time at a sit down dinner...so on day three were planning on only doing counter service. Which makes it possable for us to have a nice sit down breakfast on day one...and a nice sit down dinner that same day. For us since were having two rest/down days...and we've only been to WDW one other time (for even a shorter time) we want to see what WDW has to offer outside the parks..ie the the other resorts. SO I looked at dinning options at the resorts and picked one sit down meal at...The contempoary, The Poly, AKL and WL

I think I'm going to much into detail on what I did...and not alot of suggestions for how to go about planning. I'd say for your first time go to the dinning review and read through some....as well as check out the dinning photos so you can get a glimps of whats out there....and check out the menus....to see what sounds good to you and your family. After that you should have a better idea of what sorta stuff you want to try or have....and be able to narrow it down even more with what your daily plans will be.

Good luck (and have fun)

 

[jojoandhb]

I bought an Unofficial planning guide on Amazon for $3. I used their dining reviews to help me pick restaurants. DF and I are food lovers, and I am not going to go on vacation and eat crappy food. I don't care if it's served in a spaceship. I can make crappy food at home on my own! Ask my DF! The guide is super helpful, and you can get a used one very cheap.