Who is the DDP for?

[akalittleeva]

This is a little tongue and cheek, but I am frustrated and confused...

I consider our family to be the average family. We have 2 incomes, 2 kids - 10 yo boy and 8 yo girl. When at WDW, we enjoy taking the time for 1 TS a day, we don't have any medical conditions that would require us to eat regularly (ie diabetes), nor do we have food allergies or any special diets. I thought that a program such as the DDP would be designed for the average family, especially somewhere like WDW, but as our vacation gets closer, I'm really starting to doubt that it is right for us, mostly because of the new children's menu. I'm just wondering if anyone else feels this way. The DDP would have been fine for us until they changed the kids menu.

 

[Cass]

What is it about the childrens menu that won't work for your kids?

 

[Frantasmic]

Your 10 year old is an adult, so the problem seems to be with your 8 year old. I would suspect that the 3 adult meals and appetizers would have ample items to share with the 8 year old.

The DDP is for anyone who wants a semi-paid for food plan, or a family who wants a majority of their TS meals to be character related. That seems to be two options that benefit most families. The kids' daily charge is a great deal if you do a character buffet a day; you still get a CS and a snack to boot.

 

[akalittleeva]

Sharing is an option, but not for 9 meals - dd would like to order her own food, too. The new menu might feed her for one or two meals - we have 1 buffet planned - we had done a lot of buffets on our last trip, so we wanted to try some new places this time - something good about the DDP. I am concerned that we will be given a hard time at TS when we want to share or pay OOP, if they are trying to curb adults from using child credits.

 

[Cass]

Is it too late just to cancel the dining plan and pay for your food?

 

[Amyrlin]

The benefits are broad, we do it with and witout. When using it, it is nice to k=not have to think about paying the bill, knowing it is paid for, not having to carry cash or charge and keep track of the charges, it can be more relaxing, as long as you don't stress about maximising it.

WWE like to have a TS meal each nigh, and the DP works out well for us when it is free, but we had several counter service meals left at the end, and if it was not free then we would proably use the DDE.

Although it is not the best use of the plan, we like to eat offsite as well (Texas de Brazil is one of my favourites), so we will also make use fo several 2 credit meals.

The issue over the childrens menu is a bit strange, there are calls for healthier choices, but when Disney does this there is out roar, there are still some of the trditional choices, and from what has been siad some places will give smaller portions of the adult meals (someone reported this at 50's prime time).

When we first used it I was very dubious, I did not think it was a good idea, but having used it the sheer convience of it was very good. I think, when you try it you will like it, and if you do need to buy some meals for the youngest then it is likey that you will still be benifiting and come out $$$ ahead, even payiing OOP for some meals.

 

[akalittleeva]

I am seriously debating cancelling - called today - I can do it up to 3 days before my arrival. It will cost me $50. I just hate that I spent the last 8 months planning my trip - made my ADRs 6 months in advance to be sure we could eat where we wanted and now with less than a month to go, things have changed drastically - I expected maybe a little change, but this is crazy - 5 of our meals are affected now with some people saying CMs have stated that the new kids menu may be seen in even more TS. I'm very frustrated and I'm sure I'm not the only one - I'm just glad I got a heads up - I feel bad for the folks who had this sprung on them earlier in the month (why was there no warning/advertisement of this in advance, WDW knew it was coming and if they really believed in it, they should have promoted it positively instead of just slipping it in) and I also feel badly for those who have no idea of the change and will be surprised (pleasantly or otherwise) when they get there.

With the new menu change, I don't think it will be as convenient. I will have to think about the bill - I was in the mindset of having our 9 TS, eating what we wanted, and not trying to maximize. I will not find it relaxing going into a TS, hoping the menu will be OK for dd, asking if we can share or pay OOP and then seeing her TS credits go to waste - yes, it is only $11 for her/day, but then I have to pay for her TS - at Mama Melroses alone, it would be about $24 for the chicken parm she would like and a drink with tax and tip. Pretty steep, I think, and she doesn't even end up with dessert to call her own. Just doesn't seem family friendly.

 

[lynninpa]

...The DDP is for anyone who wants a semi-paid for food plan, or a family who wants a majority of their TS meals to be character related. That seems to be two options that benefit most families. The kids' daily charge is a great deal if you do a character buffet a day; you still get a CS and a snack to boot.

The above quote confuses me. Strictly speaking money-wise, an appetizer, entree, dessert, drink and tax & tip for a child's meal at other TS places would add up to more than the cost of a child's meal at most character buffets. For our next trip, we had to chose which one TS to pay OOP for. Hands down, it was a character buffet we will be paying OOP for.

 

[bicker]

lynninpa: I believe Frantasmic's point is that at buffets, children can select from either the children's buffet or eat off the adult buffet. So guests concerned about the variety available for their children can simply focus on eating at buffets instead of traditional TS restaurants.

The Dining Plan has been considered such a remarkably excellent deal for a couple of years. Perhaps what we're seeing is a recalibrating of the plan to be more in line with how much it costs. I think for the vast number of guests, it is sufficient for the plan to be worth just a little more than it costs, rather than being worth vast sums more than it costs, as many guests have enjoyed since the beginning of 2005.

 

[LizinSTL]

This is a little tongue and cheek, but I am frustrated and confused...

I consider our family to be the average family. We have 2 incomes, 2 kids - 10 yo boy and 8 yo girl. When at WDW, we enjoy taking the time for 1 TS a day, we don't have any medical conditions that would require us to eat regularly (ie diabetes), nor do we have food allergies or any special diets. I thought that a program such as the DDP would be designed for the average family, especially somewhere like WDW, but as our vacation gets closer, I'm really starting to doubt that it is right for us, mostly because of the new children's menu. I'm just wondering if anyone else feels this way. The DDP would have been fine for us until they changed the kids menu.

Assuming you are staying a week- your dd's meal plan will cost you under $80. If she uses all of her counter service credits- even on breakfast at the food court at your hotel and all of her snack credits- even on $2 water, that's at least $50 of it. If she uses her CS credits for lunch and her snack credits for higher cost items, it's more like $100. So..... Order her a kid's meal at the restaurant- if she wants chicken parm at MM, then ask for a kid's order of it. Worst case, they say no and you pay OOP- best case they give you a kid's order of it. The only restaurants seem to be theme park locations, but I'll admit to not keeping up on that thread. I don't think you will "lose" money paying for her to have the dining plan. You may end up spending a bit more OOP on food but, really, I think there is PLENTY of food on the dining plan to share, especially appetizers and desserts.

What restaurants are you visiting that you think will be a problem?

 

[akalittleeva]

We are doing Sci Fi, 50's Prime Time, Mama Melrose, LTT (lunch) and Tony's. The kids picked 4 of those places. But like I said before - I am disappointed because our meals were to be paid for ahead of time (one of the main reasons I liked the plan) and now that will not be the case, I have to budget to spend more $ on something I thought I already paid for - WDW won't be making more $ off me, I'll just be spending the same $ differently. I'm not looking to maximize the plan or eat the most expensive foods, just want to be able to choose from the variety that was offered when I booked the plan. I think it is unreasonable to offer these choices alone for anyone, not just children. And if these menus hit more restaurants, that will be even worse. It is a little about the $, but it is more about the lack of choices - it will take some of the fun away for my daughter - yes she can share with us, but she will not have the freedom to choose like the rest of us. She loves dining out and ordering her own meals, we don't get to do it that often, she will be disappointed, meaning I will be disappointed for her - not a nice feeling to have when vacationing at WDW. I won't be surprised if I end up cancelling the plan.

 

[LizinSTL]

We are doing Sci Fi, 50's Prime Time, Mama Melrose, LTT (lunch) and Tony's. The kids picked 4 of those places. But like I said before - I am disappointed because our meals were to be paid for ahead of time (one of the main reasons I liked the plan) and now that will not be the case, I have to budget to spend more $ on something I thought I already paid for - WDW won't be making more $ off me, I'll just be spending the same $ differently. I'm not looking to maximize the plan or eat the most expensive foods, just want to be able to choose from the variety that was offered when I booked the plan. I think it is unreasonable to offer these choices alone for anyone, not just children. And if these menus hit more restaurants, that will be even worse. It is a little about the $, but it is more about the lack of choices - it will take some of the fun away for my daughter - yes she can share with us, but she will not have the freedom to choose like the rest of us. She loves dining out and ordering her own meals, we don't get to do it that often, she will be disappointed, meaning I will be disappointed for her - not a nice feeling to have when vacationing at WDW. I won't be surprised if I end up cancelling the plan.

I think it'll only be a problem if you let it be a problem. Really, I think too many people put too much emphasis on the dining plan. It's easy to use. There's lots of choice still. If you are willing to compromise, it's an unbelievable value for kids under 10.

You do have another option. You can pay for her to be an adult- it means paying more for her park tickets and dining plan but she'd have the freedom to choose anything off the menu.

 

[Lewisc]

Disney is now claiming Dining Guests can save up to 40% by using MYW Dining.

We both agree the new healthier kids menu probably costs Disney a little more than the old kids menu. Grilled chicken replaces fried chicken for example. I don't think the changes are directed to dining plan guests specifically but rather is intended to reduce the number of adults and older children who ask to order off the kids menu. We may be going from 11 and 12 year olds looking to ordering off the kids menu to 8 year olds looking to order off the adult menu.

Many of us think Disney will start to seperate adult and child credits in 2007. I suspect that change eliminates the need to increase the cost for the kids meal plan.

Dessert with a CS meal, a snack and a dessert with a TS meal is too much food. Disney could probably cut the dessert with the CS meal. Either give a second snack or just let guests who want dessert with lunch use their snack at that time.

lynninpa: I believe Frantasmic's point is that at buffets, children can select from either the children's buffet or eat off the adult buffet. So guests concerned about the variety available for their children can simply focus on eating at buffets instead of traditional TS restaurants.

The Dining Plan has been considered such a remarkably excellent deal for a couple of years. Perhaps what we're seeing is a recalibrating of the plan to be more in line with how much it costs. I think for the vast number of guests, it is sufficient for the plan to be worth just a little more than it costs, rather than being worth vast sums more than it costs, as many guests have enjoyed since the beginning of 2005.

 

[krissyh]

I am seriously debating cancelling - called today - I can do it up to 3 days before my arrival. It will cost me $50.

.

I wouldn't cancel.
The DDP is a TON of food. THe adult appys and entrees will go a long way.
If it will cost $50 to cancel, plan on $50 toward "extras" for your DD.

Just a suggestion.

 

[akalittleeva]

Using the $50 cancellation fee toward extra OOP is something I've thought of. I don't feel I am putting too much emphasis on the DDP, dining in WDW is a big part of our trip and I am starting to feel the DDP is too limiting for my dd and therefore put a damper on her dining indulgences (I would pay OOP to fix that, but that cuts into our other "fun" money). I don't think it is a lot of choice - DD will have the same menu 5 times. She would only like one of the combo meals and doesn't eat mac and cheese, so would be at the mercy of the final a la carte item. Not much choice for her. I looked into upgrading her - it would be $300 - no way. I plan on going through the menus and comparing apples to apples and see what I get as a final total. I've already paid for the DDP, so really I would have an almost $1200 credit, so my meals would be, in a way, kind of prepaid.

 

[LizinSTL]

Using the $50 cancellation fee toward extra OOP is something I've thought of. I don't feel I am putting too much emphasis on the DDP, dining in WDW is a big part of our trip and I am starting to feel the DDP is too limiting for my dd and therefore put a damper on her dining indulgences (I would pay OOP to fix that, but that cuts into our other "fun" money). I don't think it is a lot of choice - DD will have the same menu 5 times. She would only like one of the combo meals and doesn't eat mac and cheese, so would be at the mercy of the final a la carte item. Not much choice for her. I looked into upgrading her - it would be $300 - no way. I plan on going through the menus and comparing apples to apples and see what I get as a final total. I've already paid for the DDP, so really I would have an almost $1200 credit, so my meals would be, in a way, kind of prepaid.

Have you done the ddp before?? It's really not limiting, really. Even with the menu changes it's an incredible value for children. I guess I don't understand why you'd cancel (and lose the value of it for the whole party) when your child's snacks and counter service meals would "recoup" your cost for the day- even if you paid OOP for all of her TS meals. We spent $672 for 7 nights on the dining plan. We received over $1200 in food (that's with 2 kids, 2 adults). We were able to eat 3 meals/day for 7 of the 8 days we were there. We ordered pizza one night and paid OOP for some alcohol and snacks at fantasmic. That's it. We shared all of our CS meals- using kids credits at breakfast and adult credits at another meal for the day.

 

[bicker]

Disney is now claiming Dining Guests can save up to 40% by using MYW Dining.

AFAIK, the prices of the new meals don't differ much from the prices of the old meals (even though the cost might have increased), so the potential savings for patrons would not have changed.

 

[akalittleeva]

It may be a great value, but I find the new choices limiting. We are paying just over $1100 for a 9 night stay - 3 adults (with ds 10) and 1 child. I added up what we would probably pay ordering whatever we want without the DDP (using allears) and it was about $1300, and that gave all of us great variety - even DD. We could spend $300 to put DD on as an adult, or we could just cancel the plan and it would cost us $200 more. Or we could leave things as is and hope for the best and probably end up paying some OOP. All of these things require more $ and really not much difference moneywise in the end. We are going offsite twice - once to an NBA game and once to Tampa for Jimmy Buffett (WooHoo!!!), so I'm thinking we could take 2 of those meals offsite and eat even cheaper. I'll just keep watching how people who have experienced the new menu are feeling about it all...

 

[robsmom]

I am going to watch posts and see how it turns out for folks like the OP since i have until next summer to decide. In general, i do not like the menu changes but am not sure that this will impact my trying the DDP. I am not worried about dessert changes as 2 adult desserts are enough for DH, DS (7) and me. I am worried about his meal choices but that is a problem with or without the dining plan. My saving grace is DS will eat mac and cheese for a week straight if I let him!! So my hope is that with a few buffets, trying the pizza once, and a good ala carte choice or two he will be ok and only have mac and cheese a few times.