WHat did you choose for AP and Meal plan?

[Eyore4Ever149]

Did you buy the AP?

Did you buy the meal plan?

I just booked out trip for next year- first time at as a DVC member!

Sept 30-Oct 8th. 8 Day trip

cast- Husband (36) Me (33) DD (1.5yrs) My Mother (63rd Birthday on the trip)

Im cosidering doing APs for me and my husband
a 5 day park hopper for my Mother as a Christmas gift

I'm anticipating we will visit parks together in early morning, return to OKW by 12ish and then DH and I will go out to parks on our own in afternoon. With the exclusion of trip to Sea World and Water Parks- these days Im sure my Mother wont go to a Disney park at all.

I know all 3 people in the room have to be on the meal plan if you do it- but we did something similar on our honeymoon with "wishes" and we found ourselves feeling obligated to stuff ourselves or go out to eat on nights we didn't want to. Has anyone experienced that with the meal plan?

 

[tinkfan]

We have not, nor will probably ever do the meal plan. We do not like to have our plans revolve around dining reservations all the time and fill obligated to eat so much to get our moneys worth. With APs we bought the DDE card for 20% off most table service places and some counter service. This was a better choice for us and it also includes alcohol.

 

[Chuck S]

We do not do the meal plan, we do use the Dining Experience Card that is available to AP holders. We usually eat our large meal at lunch. Rarely do we do appetizer, entree, beverage AND desert at a meal. The meal plan would have cost us more that using the Dining Experience, and we were able to eat what we wanted, where we wanted (including Calif Grill ad Chefs de France) We generally make a lunch ressie for about 3/4th of our park days, then play it by ear for the rest of the meals. We usually have a light breakfast in the room, but do occasionally have a table service breakfast. We usually do counter service in the evenings.

 

[SleepyatDVC]

We do the AP everytime even before the DVC discount was available. We also added the DDP this past August and will again this coming February. We previously used the DDE card.

Looking at the age of your child, I would highly recommend the AP so that you can come and go as you please without feeling you wasted a whole day if you only spend 3 hours in the park one day when the baby is fussy.

I would also highly suggest NOT getting the DDP. When our kids when younger, we did TS maybe 1-2 per TRIP. It was so much more relaxing to relax and eat in the room. The full kitchen and separate living room was heaven to just relax in after all the simulation the kids were exposed to outside. Happier child = happier parents and vice versa!

The DDE gives you 20% off and if you miss an ADR due to a fussy baby or tired parents, no biggie.

A TS every night is tiring. Also, we hardly EVER ate CS in the parks when the kids were so young. We hit the parks early and were usually back in the room by lunch.

Good luck with your decision.