Would you change?

[mammomommie]

As I sit and wait on a code for January I asked myself if I would change to room only and not have DDP for 20% discount on room. I really love the dining plan. Would I give it up for a discounted room? What would you do?

 

[helenk]

You have to price out both options to see what would be the better deal. For myself getting the room discount is the better deal, while I like the table service meals, ordinarily I just do not like eating 'to get my monies worth". I price out the cost of the room, what the meals would cost using my normal eating habits. I always throw in a few table service meals, and I still make out with the room only discount.
Now I have the DVC so I will always have my room "paid for" so I do not have to worry about that anymore.

 

[rt2dz]

Well, DDP is not always such a good deal. It really should be evaluated carefully. The way I do it is to go to All Ears and look over the menus. I simply plan my ideal dining experience around the rest of our trip. I pay no attention to price at first. Once I have everything plotted, I then figure out the price of our dining. I check how it fits into the DDP (how credits are used) and compare real costs. I add the tips into the DDP and include all OOP costs. I compare that to no DDP total. IF I would save money for DDP (I haven’t yet, but we also have a DDE/Tables of Wonderland card), then I go on to the next step of evaluation.

In order to have DDP, for the most part you are always paying rack rate for a room. I need to add in the cost of the room without a package, including any discounts v. rack rate. And don’t forget the tickets. You can frequently save money by not buying directly from Disney. Compare both the package cost and the separate components purchase price. Whichever is less expensive is the way I go.

Now, remember, you can always upgrade at no charge; downgrading has a few rules, but until 45 days out they don’t exist no matter what. The best thing to do is book what you want room only, especially if you have a discount. Or add the discount and then decide on the package. Then sit back and figure out the costs and the way you want to go. And don’t forget there are other parts of a package you might enjoy (personally we don’t use most of it so it’s mute).

 

[tinkbyday]

We did change from a package w/ basic dining to a room only for our upcoming January trip.

We were able to get the AAA discount on a WV at YC saving $300 off rack rate for 5 nights. I agree with the PP - the last time we did have the DDP and felt we really needed to get our monies worth. The other thing is it seemed to create way more planning around the eating rather than enjoying the vacation to make sure we were maximizing the use of the plan. I hated having to commit to what I wanted to eat 6 months in advance!!

We added up what we would eat at the sit-downs for our upcoming trip and we were really just going to break even with the cost of the DDP - we'll just skip 2 or 3 of the sit downs, do something light those nights. We'll save a few dollars and not be so tied down to the ADR's.

 

[Friendly Frog]

Yep. I received a pin code and did not use it. Instead I decided to go with the room discount...even though I selected a value hotel. I just did not want to deal with planning the reservatons and having to be somewhere at a certain time. My life is VERY stressed right now and this trip NEEDS to be as low stress as possible. Plus it is my little way of saying that I do not like the changes that were made to the dinning plan.

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

We had the DDP for our 10 day trip last January and loved it, and it was great because we hadn't been to WDW in 8 years and there were so many places we wanted to eat at.
This January I was able to save about $350 off of rack rate for POFQ with a AAA discount for our 7 day stay, so I don't think it would be smart to give that up so we can have DDP.
I have made some ADRs, but also like the idea of feeling like we 'have to' go to them to get our money's worth. We can always cancel and grab some CS if we want.
Unless they come out with January free dining (we wish! but I doubt...), I won't be switching.
I am hoping for some really great postcard or code for 40% off my room!