To get DDP or Not...? About This Page:

[DizyLuver]

I need some heartfelt responses... My mother and I are going on our first mother/daughter WDW trip in September. We can't decide if a DDP is really worth it. We are looking at quick service. The part that gets me is that you get dessert with each meal. Now this is very nice but if we were buying not using a DDP we wouldn't buy dessert with every meal.

To quick service or not?

Thank you all!!!

[hhawkins]

I do not know if this will help you or not, but I did go thought your EXACT situation. Will be just the wife and I in June and we want to eat some good meals, but was not sure if the DDP was right. We do not always do drinks, we enjoy water. Certainly do not do dessert at every meal. Put I like the thought of having it prepaid.

Here is a like to an entry in my pre-trip report where I worked it out.
http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...5-post209.html

As you can see I estimate we will save over $150. That is a lot of snack or shopping. LOL! Hope it helps.

[Her Dotness]

Doesn't sound like the QS dining plan will be worth it for you two.

Lots of people who eat less than they'd get on any of the dining plans at each meal find that buying Disney gift cards every so often is a good way to have meals pre-paid. That way, you can either pay for each meal with a gift card or use your Magic Band to charge meals to your room and pay the total daily with your gift cards so you needn't carry them around while touring.

As you may know, Disney gift cards never expire, so you can start setting them aside for your next trip whenever it may be.

That might be a more workable way for you to consider.

[mamapajama]

The DDP was a great deal when it first started but now it never pays for us. We just estimate what we would pay for meals and buy disney gift cards. I usually just put them in an envelope with thee name of the restaurant and bring it with me. There are several ways people use the gift card for meal scenario and if u have a Target credit or debit card you save 5% on the gift cards.

[pparm]

Were you not able to get free dining for your trip? While the dining plan doesn't really seem to save money anymore and does probably give you more food than you might usually order, we love the convenience of having everything paid for before we go. That itself might be a perk??


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[joelsmom]

Pre-paid or not pre-paid...that is the question. We like to pre-pay, because then, even at QS places, we don't worry about what to order. As for the dessert question, we try to get fruit. Sometimes we can even get things to take with us for snacks later, so it doesn't have to be cake or cheesecake all the time. Also, remember that the refillable mugs are included. If you use them instead of buying soft drinks at your resort, you will save a lot of money on drinks, which we find are otherwise OOP.

Now, having said those things, I still think it all comes back to convenience. Do you or don't you want to pre-pay, making your package more of an all-inclusive thing? We find that, when we have the DDP (generally QSDP for us), we need little money while on property, and I find that freeing. I know a lot of people do the gift card thing, but keeping up with all those would drive me nuts, I think. I generally spend cash on vacation...don't use credit for it at all...so, it's either pay cash or pre-pay for the QSDP. I like to pre-pay. Then I plan my use of the plan to its best advantage for us. That's just my preference.

[HollyH]

From what you've said about not getting desserts, it is highly unlikely you will save any money using the QSDP so it really depends on what you mean by "worth it". How important is it to you to have your meals prepaid, even if it might cost you more money? How likely are you to stick to the exact meals/snacks prescribed by the plan?

Personally, one of my problems with the dining plans is that they are pre-paid. What if I don't use credits for some reason? I certainly don't like to pay for something I don't get. I also don't like to have to pay for my meals a month and a half or more in advance if I don't have to so I don't see pre-payment as a benefit. But all of this is my personal preferences. You may feel differently.

[yalibrarian]

We get the QSDP, often for "free," as we are doing again this year. Since they removed the second snack, it doesn't really save you a huge amount over buying the same items OOP. But it does include the mug, so if you drink a lot, it can be worthwhile. For us, the primary issue was my husband blowing a gasket every time we ate, refusing to eat anything other than a hamburger, and saying "no dessert" over and over. With the QSDP, we can now relax and order what we want. He's happy, I'm happy, our son is happy.

Because we eat one or more of our meals at our resort every day, we have found ways to stretch our meal plan. We always use our mugs with meals at the resort, but since you can get a beverage with your meal, we select bottled items, which can be taken to the parks instead of buying a pricey beverage there (or blowing a snack credit on a Coke). For desserts, we pick things like fruit, oatmeal cookies, a muffin, a fruit and yogurt parfait (my husband loves these), etc. These items can be used for snacks later. My son sometimes gets an ice cream sundae for his dessert, which cuts down on his asking for treats in the parks, because he knows he can get it later. And he adores those little Disney chocolate cakes, so they make their way back to the room for snacking.

Snack credits can also give you a small meal for breakfast or lunch, like oatmeal, a muffin, bagel and cream cheese, biscuits and sausage gravy (very filling), soup and crackers, and the aforementioned fruit and yogurt parfait.

Is it right for you? Look at sample menus online and decide if it is worth it based on the cost of likely meals and any psychological benefits you may derive. All Ears and the Disney Food Blog both have menus to peruse. Definitely check and see if the free dining offer is on for when you want to go. Even if you have already reserved, you can often change to the better offer--but you will lose any room discount, so figure that in your calculations. For us, free dining trumps any room discount, but YMMV depending upon your own circumstances.

[SleepingBet]

We do the DDP because we have small kids traveling with us and want to do a lot of character dining. If you're going to do that, to me, at least, it's worth doing the DDP because those meals really add up. And I don't feel guilty for book a character dining experience every day.

But, if I was going without kids, I wouldn't do any kind of DDP. I don't think it's worth it just to do quick service. I wouldn't be eating that much and drinking mostly water.

[DVCjulie09]

If it adds to your enjoyment, brings you peace of mind, or discourages any feelings of deprivation, then it's worth it.

If we were ever to go to WDW during hot weather (and September is still plenty hot), we would probably opt for the QS plan. We would buy the refillable mug anyway, as we would be heading for a resort to cool off during the heat of the day, and the mugs can be refilled at any resort QS location. It is common for us to share a breakfast bounty platter and a lunch meal and then select individual meals for supper. As Sandra has already said, creative dessert choices and wise use of snack credits can provide a varied diet on the QS plan.

[Starwind]

I travel to WDW with my adult sister. In the past, we have only paid OOP.

For our upcoming trip, we have a split trip with a Disney cruise in the middle. The two WDW stays on each side are short -- three nights and two nights respectively. The pre-cruise stay is within the free dining timeframe this fall. The resort for that stay is Wilderness Lodge. With a deluxe resort comes the regular dining plan - 1 TS, 1 QS, 1 snack per night, plus the refillable mug. Because of the rest of the split stay, we need a 6 night MYW base ticket for each of us.

The following is the math and thinking we did, which maybe will help the OP or others in a similar decision-making position:

- it is a short stay (3 nights), so is a good chance to "test" the DDP -- we aren't talking a week long stay where if we hate it we are stuck (and would have effectively paid a chunk of $ for something we do not like), but it is long enough to be able to actually evaluate it [kind of like the thinking we applied to our first cruise, which was a 4 nighter... yeah, we booked on the second day for this upcoming 7 nighter ;-) )

- our original plan HAD been to do ONLY QS meals for this trip; with DDP we will obviously change that and try to maximize getting our money's worth out of the plan, so it is not a strictly fair comparison

- since we need TS, we decided to pull Spirit of Aloha (2 TS each) and Crystal Palace for lunch or dinner (1 TS) out of our WDW bucket list and do them

- we are CAA (think AAA) members, so can buy MYW tickets through them for a slight discount -- while the exchange rate fluctuates and affects how much that discount is actually worth, the below the amount is the USD ticket cost which CAA then converts on the day you buy them.

- as CAA members we already had a AAA 10% RO discount room booked, so at the very least we get that discount

- it is possible there will be a 30% RO discount for the dates, probably announced in August, based on prior years, so we did the math assuming a best case that that would be available

Option One - Room Only 10% + tickets, No Food:
WL Woods View with AAA 10% room only discount = 1083.40
CAA MYW 6 night tickets x 2 = 653.10
Total: AAA RO + MYW tickets; NO FOOD = 1736.50

Option Two - FREE DINING
WL Woods View, 6 night MYW base, Free Dining = 1875.38

Option Three - Room Only 30%, tickets, NO FOOD
WL Woods View, RO 30% off = 843.63 (based on no discount of 1203.75)
CAA MYW 6 night tickets x 2 = 653.10
Total: 30% RO, CAA tickets, NO FOOD = 1495.73

Cost differences:
FD - 10% RO = 138.88 (this is a no brainer; FD is a better deal!)

FD - 30% RO = 379.66 (this is not so clear-cut)

Meal cost estimate:
ORIGINAL PLAN - meals covered by DDP
QS only for 3 lunch, 3 dinner, 3 snack + refillable mug = estimate $216-246
(meal = entree only, no dessert, free cold water to drink)
(so the differential for free dining is STILL better than this, and you get TS and more food and drinks at meals)

OUR "Maximize DDP PLAN":
(it is possible to maximize even more; this is what we will be doing)
(this uses the actual menus, pricing what we will actually eat; entree, dessert, and soda pop fountain drink for each person for each meal)
(first price is per person, second is total for two, except for 2 noted)
(it is possible I made a price mistake and overpriced something!)

2 TS Poly spirit of aloha dinner 63.99 127.98
TS MK crystal palace dinner 60 120
QS MK Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café lunch 17.17 34.34
QS AK Yak & yeti lunch - 1 person 15.57 15.57
QS AK pizzafari lunch - 1 person 16.67 16.67
QS HS backlot express lunch 16.92 33.84
SN snacks 5 30
MUG refillable mugs - length of stay 17.99 35.98
SUBTOTAL = 414.38
TOTAL (includes 6.5% tax) = $441.31

The extra meals we will need are breakfasts and a couple QS lunch-type meals (well, the roaring forks pizza late at night MIGHT count as a glorified snack, but technically it IS a main mean entree :-) ). Plus some extra snacks (DOLE WHIP!! is it even possible to eat too much Dole Whip ?). We estimate that will be about another $200-$250 because we now want to do one or two Character breakfasts.


BOTTOM LINE

So, our planned meals covered by DDP would cost $441.31 if you paid OOP. We will have a small amount above that in tip to pay (one TS meal at CP).

Free Dining costs:
$138.88 more than the AAA 10% room only discount and AAA tickets. Clearly, FD is a better deal.

$379.66 more than a 30% RO discount and AAA tickets. This is more than if we just ate QS like we originally planned, but less than our "maximize DDP plan".


We have decided that we will take the FD option and try it. We normally would not be doing desserts each meal, and we usually would drink water except when we can use the refillable mug, as a way to save $ and because, well, it is healthier :-) However, Spirit of Aloha was on the bucket list for WDW, as was CP, so we knock those two off and they alone pretty much cover the cost differential anyway vs paying OOP.


Anyhow, I know this post was long and filled with math, but I am hoping this gives you a practical look at how one family decided on what to do.

Obviously your math will vary, especially when the QS plan is what you are considering, or when your restaurant choices would be different.

Good luck !

-SW