Count us among the non-DDP folks. I won't get it even if it's "free" since you have to pay rack rate for the room and I can always get a
AAA discount of some sort (we don't go between Christmas & New Years).
Why don't I like it?
1) I actually
don't like the pre-paid option. Why should I let Disney hold onto and get interest from my money when I can keep it? And what happens if someone gets sick or isn't hungry one day? That's money wasted.
2) What if I don't feel like eating one day at an ADR that I made 6 months earlier? Then I have to worry about whether I can get in somewhere for that 1 TS credit, or waste money.
3) We don't eat the way the plan is set up. We often find appetizers much more appealing than desserts, or sometimes even than entrees. Those are all OOP on the DDP. Sometimes I want to have 2 appetizers; one would be OOP even on the DxDP. Sometimes I want to have dinner at one place and dessert at another. Can't do that without paying extra. And I don't want to feel like I "have" to have dessert at each meal except breakfast because "it's paid for" and I don't like to leave money on the table.
The DxDP is simply too much food. I rarely can eat both an appetizer and a dessert at a single meal, and certainly not multiple times a day! We can often split desserts, and that's enough.
4) We love signature dining. The DDP doesn't have enough TS credits (signatures usually take 2) for us to eat signature most nights. And as noted above, while the DxDP does have enough credits, it's too much food! I also did the math, figuring the cost per dining credit, using less for breakfast, a little more for lunch, and most for dinner. Rarely would what I order even at signature be more than the value of 2 credits.
I "prepay" my dining myself by keeping the budget and the money I want to spend in a separate "account." Then when I'm on vacation, I don't worry about what I'm ordering, or whether something is "worth" a credit, or how I'm going to maximize my credits. I order exactly what I want, eat what I want when I want (assuming appropriate ADRs), and thoroughly enjoy myself.
Even if it's a couple of bucks more OOP, I'm much happier, more satisified, and likely weigh less, too!
). He loves disney this way, though. Wants to go back already! (my 6 months of careful planning paid off, yay!) On the other hand, my friend and I, we have gone when it wasnt offered and ate just CS meals...sometimes we even brought sandwiches and chips into the parks to eat and it was just as fun. It all really depends on what you want. This year, my friend and I are going and she wants me to book the free dining (hope they have it again in early december!) so she can get to go to some of the TS restaurants she hasnt gotten to go to since she's been going on a budget for the last number of years both with me and with her folks (who dont like TS meals anyway). She is happy with staying at a value resort (loves POP over them all actually) but this time she wants table service meals galore and she knows I'm like this 
for a year beforehand when I plan for something like that so I'm getting up menus and such for her to look at now. Yes, I know its early but part of the fun to me is the planning plus come July once I book we can pick out TS meals and get what we want. Now the CS meals, we will just play that by ear, and of course we always get park hoppers, so that helps.....anyway, that's our plan but whatever yours ends up being you'll have a great time. I mean, it is DISNEY after all! 
