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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Q1: Am I reading this correctly - QSDP gets a free refillable mug for each person, DP does not get this mug?
Q2: We would like to do a character meal (or 2) and the Hoop De Doo Revue -cost wise we would be better with the DDP rather than the QSDP and pay for these OOP?
Q3: Recommendations for favourite TS meals and favourite CS meals.
Yes, the QSDP comes with a free mug for each person, the regular dine plan does not.
The QSDP comes with two snacks per day, the regular plan comes with one.
On our recent trip, we did the QSDP and paid for 2 TS meals OOP. This worked great for us!
You will need to decide what's best for your family- generally if you will eat a TS meal per day, the regular plan is best. If you only plan to eat a few TS meals over your entire trip; I suggest going with the QSDP and paying OOP for the TS meals. JMO.
1) QSDP and DxDP have mugs, apparently the DDP doesn't. Seems odd to me, but oh well.
2) You would have to price out about how much the TS meals would cost you OOP and add in the price of the QSDP, versus how much the Basic DP would cost you using the credits for your character meals and the 2 credits for HDD. If you plan on booking more sit down meals than QS meals you may just find it more economical to do the Basic DP.
3) TS meals I highly enjoyed: California Grill, Coral Reef, Tusker House character breakfast and reg. buffet dinner, Brown Derby, 50s PT
CS meals: Sunshine Seasons, CHH (I have less experience with QS meals, others will give you more ideas).
__________________
Last edited by unewillow; 12-15-2009 at 05:04 PM..
Reason: apparently the DDP doesn't have a mug, who knew?
Q1: Am I reading this correctly - QSDP gets a free refillable mug for each person, DP does not get this mug?
Q2: We would like to do a character meal (or 2) and the Hoop De Doo Revue -cost wise we would be better with the DDP rather than the QSDP and pay for these OOP?
Q3: Recommendations for favourite TS meals and favourite CS meals.
1. You are right qsdp does dp doesn't ddp does get free refillable mug.
2. If you are thinking about 2 or 3 two credit ts meals then ddp is better value - but if you are thinking about just doing HDDMR and one other cs and don't enjoy eating a lot then the qsdp or dp may be a better value.
3. I like most of the ts so it would depend on what you are looking for - hddmr is definitely worth the 2 ts credits if you do priority one seating. Brown Derby, Cali Grill and the luau is worth the 2ts cr. but don't think artist point or citricos are worth that. IMO. Favorite cs meals are norway princesses breakfast and lunch. Crystal palace which will be at LTT until Feb. Pooh and friends breakfast or lunch. And 1900 Park Fare Alice breakfast.
I think I agree with the above. If you are only doing a couple TS meals, you might be better off just getting the QSDP. Maybe check the old standby, AllEars, to price out things with the DDP and QSDP to be sure.
Also, if you use credits for HDDR, you are only allowed to book Cat. 2 and 3 seating now. Which may not be a big deal for your family, but for us, we'd rather just pay for the really good seats.
ETA: Forgot my recommendations! LOL
TS:
Teppan Edo
Tusker House-Donald's Safari Breakfast
Crystal Palace breakfast w/ Pooh and Friends
O'Hana
CS:
Flame Tree Barbeque
Cosmic Ray's
Casey's Corner
1. Only the QSDP has the refillable mug. Please note that mug is only refillable in your resort, not in any of the parks. So it may not be as a great of deal for your family.
2. You can visit allears.net to see the menus w/prices to get a pretty good estimate for your meal costs to determine which plan is better for you.
3. Favorite TS - Trail's End for Breakfast, 50's Prime Time. Teppan Edo for lunch and or dinner. As for charachter is depends on your favorite character.
Q1: Am I reading this correctly - QSDP gets a free refillable mug for each person, DP does not get this mug?
This is correct.
The Quick-Service and Deluxe plans provide a free refillable mug per person, the Basic plan does not.
Please note, these mugs are NOT USABLE IN THE PARKS ... only at your resort (they are VERY useful for families that want to spend some time by the pool). And even if your choice of plan doesn't provide one .,.. they're $12 or $13 apiece to just buy them.
Quote:
Q2: We would like to do a character meal (or 2) and the Hoop De Doo Revue -cost wise we would be better with the DDP rather than the QSDP and pay for these OOP?
Really, that depends a lot on your plans for meals.
I suggest you make a list of all the places you WANT to eat at, and note if these are Table-service or Counter-service places. Count up how many credits one person would need in order to cover those meals.
Then, guesstimate a price-per-meal, before any possible gratuity. (I found that $30 per T credit and $15 per C credit was workable, for adults)
Add in the ticket price for Hoop de Doo, for one person, as well.
Then, honestly, you almost certainly will buy drinks and snacks in the parks, or at the resorts. I pegged those at an average price of $3 each (a $2 water today, a $3.85 ice-cream tomorrow, it all averages out in the end). Assume you'll use two snack credits every day, for that one person, and add that total into the mix as well.
Add all these $$ amounts together (meals, HDDR, and Snacks). This is your Out Of Pocket, or OOP, expense per adult. Dont' forget to note how many T, C, and S credits this represents, as well.
When planning our trip for this past January, I did the above and came up with this:
Planned Needs
S x ? ($3)
C x 15 ($15)
T x 9 ($30)
SOA x 1 ($60), TT (Spirit of Aloha Luau)
CRT x 1 ($50), TT (lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table, in the MK
(28 meal credits total: 15C,13T)
OOP / no meal plan
Mug x 0 ... pay $12 OOP
S x 0 ... pay $48 OOP
C x 0 ... pay $225 OOP
T x 0 ... pay $380 OOP
(total OOP = $665)
(plan = $0) TOTAL COST = $665
So. Now you need to compare how many credits you NEED for yoru entire stay, to how many credits each plan will GIVE for that stay. You can compare the provided number of credits to the needed number of credits, and line by line, list an OOP cost for that part of your plans. And, assume you'll get mugs - they make great souvenirs, anyway.
Again, when planning our trip in January - which was for 9 days and 8 nights, so, we got 8 days worth of Credits via eachplan - I came up with this:
Quick Service DP; $30/day
S x 16 ... covered
C x 16 ... waste [1C]
T x 0 ... pay $380 OOP
(total OOP = $380)
(plan = $240) TOTAL COST = $620
Basic DP; $40/day
Mug x0 ... pay $12 OOP
S x 8 ... pay $24 OOP
C x 8 ... pay $105 OOP
T x 8 ... pay $140 OOP
(total OOP = $281)
(plan = $320) TOTAL COST = $601
Deluxe DP; $70/day
Mug x 1 ... covered
S x 16 ... covered
24 credits ... pay $45 OOP (for three CS meals)
(total OOP = $45)
(plan = $560) TOTAL COST = $605
From this, you can see what each possible course of action will cost you, in actual real-world dollars. And, those are simple and easy to compare side-=by-side, as I did:
In the end, even though the Basic plan would have saved us more money ... we decided we liked the extra convenience of the Deluxe plan, where nearly everything was done with credits; the simplicity and peace of mind was worth the extra $4, and then some (remembering especially, that this came to about $0.50 per day, apiece).
Quote:
Q3: Recommendations for favourite TS meals and favourite CS meals.
TS?
Any character buffet. ANY of them. Especially for breakfast your first morning in the parks. It's a great way to start your first day off with an extra dose of Disney Magic, IMO.
All the others have one or another thing to recommend them; I'd suggest perhaps you should sit down with your family, and go through the list of restaurants, and have each person list one TS and one CS that they really, really, REALLY want to try. Then see if you can plan all those in, during your stay.
__________________
--Sean
Last edited by Pax; 12-16-2009 at 08:33 AM..
Reason: Corrected my bad math. Again. Got to stop copy-pasting the *same* bad math, dangit ...
I don't know how many TS you plan on. but... when we do the basic DDP and have a 2TS restaurant booked, we just save the credit one night and eat cs, saving the extra TS credit for the 2TS meal.
We are doing that in Jan, booked Cali Gril, so our arrival day we'll just eat cs for dinner, using our lunch cs credit, as we won't arrive in WDW till (I hope) 5:00 pm.
We like the basic DDP, the Deluxe is too much for us, I enjoy 1 TS a day, with the occas breakfast TS thrown in which I pay oop because it's cheap.
If I got Deluxe DDP I'd feel I had to do 3 TS a day, too much time in restaurants, for me.
My fav TS:
Kona
Boma
Yak & Yeti
LeCellier
Teppan Edo
Chefs de France
The Wave
Narccoossee's
1900 PF (dinner)
Wolfgang Puck Cafe
WCC (sometimes, have to be in the mood and hungry!)
CS:
Flame tree
Yak & Yeti cs
Sunshine Seasons
Tangerine Cafe
Wolfgang Puck express
Earl of Sandwich
Cosmic Rays
Pecos Bill
Columbia Harbour House
CS at POR & AKL
The Quick-Service and Deluxe plans provide a free refillable mug per person, the Basic plan does not.
Please note, these mugs are NOT USABLE IN THE PARKS ... only at your resort (they are VERY useful for families that want to spend some time by the pool). And even if your choice of plan doesn't provide one .,.. they're $12 or $13 apiece to just buy them.
Really, that depends a lot on your plans for meals.
I suggest you make a list of all the places you WANT to eat at, and note if these are Table-service or Counter-service places. Count up how many credits one person would need in order to cover those meals.
Then, guesstimate a price-per-meal, before any possible gratuity. (I found that $30 per T credit and $15 per C credit was workable, for adults)
Add in the ticket price for Hoop de Doo, for one person, as well.
Then, honestly, you almost certainly will buy drinks and snacks in the parks, or at the resorts. I pegged those at an average price of $3 each (a $2 water today, a $3.85 ice-cream tomorrow, it all averages out in the end). Assume you'll use two snack credits every day, for that one person, and add that total into the mix as well.
Add all these $$ amounts together (meals, HDDR, and Snacks). This is your Out Of Pocket, or OOP, expense per adult. Dont' forget to note how many T, C, and S credits this represents, as well.
When planning our trip for this past January, I did the above and came up with this:
Planned Needs
S x ? ($3)
C x 13 ($15)
T x 9 ($30)
SOA x 1 ($60), TT (Spirit of Aloha Luau)
CRT x 1 ($50), TT (lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table, in the MK
(25 meal credits total: 12C,13T)
OOP / no meal plan
Mug x 0 ... pay $12 OOP
S x 0 ... pay $48 OOP
C x 0 ... pay $195 OOP
T x 0 ... pay $380 OOP
(total OOP = $635)
(plan = $0) TOTAL COST = $635
So. Now you need to compare how many credits you NEED for yoru entire stay, to how many credits each plan will GIVE for that stay. You can compare the provided number of credits to the needed number of credits, and line by line, list an OOP cost for that part of your plans. And, assume you'll get mugs - they make great souvenirs, anyway.
Again, when planning our trip in January - which was for 9 days and 8 nights, so, we got 8 days worth of Credits via eachplan - I came up with this:
Quick Service DP; $30/day
S x 16 ... covered
C x 16 ... waste [3C]
T x 0 ... pay $380 OOP
(total OOP = $380)
(plan = $240) TOTAL COST = $620
Basic DP; $40/day
Mug x0 ... pay $12 OOP
S x 8 ... pay $24 OOP
C x 8 ... pay $75 OOP
T x 8 ... pay $140 OOP
(total OOP = $251)
(plan = $320) TOTAL COST = $571
Deluxe DP; $70/day
Mug x 1 ... covered
S x 16 ... covered
24 credits ... pay $45 OOP (for three CS meals)
(total OOP = $45)
(plan = $560) TOTAL COST = $605
From this, you can see what each possible course of action will cost you, in actual real-world dollars. And, those are simple and easy to compare side-=by-side, as I did:
In the end, even though the Basic plan would have saved us more money ... we decided we liked the extra convenience of the Deluxe plan, where nearly everything was done with credits; the simplicity and peace of mind was worth the extra $34, and then some (remembering especially, that this came to about $4.25 per day, apiece).
TS?
Any character buffet. ANY of them. Especially for breakfast your first morning in the parks. It's a great way to start your first day off with an extra dose of Disney Magic, IMO.
All the others have one or another thing to recommend them; I'd suggest perhaps you should sit down with your family, and go through the list of restaurants, and have each person list one TS and one CS that they really, really, REALLY want to try. Then see if you can plan all those in, during your stay.
ITA! we always go with the Deluxe DDP for that same reason, we never pay for a single food or drink item OOP, and it takes all the guess work out of it, you just whip out your KTTWC, and you're on your way! Plus you get to dine at some terrific places on property, and it really takes no longer to eat at a TS than it does at a CS if you plan it right and know what you want to eat ahead of time - we always check out Allears menus before our trip and plan our meals accordingly so we arent pondering the menus and taking forever at the TS meals.
ITA! we always go with the Deluxe DDP for that same reason, we never pay for a single food or drink item OOP, and it takes all the guess work out of it, you just whip out your KTTWC, and you're on your way! Plus you get to dine at some terrific places on property, and it really takes no longer to eat at a TS than it does at a CS if you plan it right and know what you want to eat ahead of time - we always check out Allears menus before our trip and plan our meals accordingly so we arent pondering the menus and taking forever at the TS meals.
Oh- favorite CS meals:
Cosmic Ray's Cafe
Pecos Bill
Toy Story Pizza Planet
Sunshine Seasons
Flame Tree BBQ
Pizzafari
Earl of Sandwich
Favorite TS meals:
Crystal Palace
Chef Mickey's
O'hana
LeCellier
Chefs de France
Shutters
We´ve just returned and we´ve added deluxe dining plan to our vacation. We´ve booked several characters meals (best were at Arkhensus, Cinderella Royal Table, 1900 Park Fare and Ohana breakfast), signature restaurants (California Gril and Brown and Derby) and one dinner show...
We´ve got the refible mug - but as we were at CL room we actually did not use it.
We´ve used all our TS meals and for me it was interesting to have our meals "pre-paid", but probably without dining plan we would not have ordered all that food and a dessert...but it was nice anyway....The kids menu was a little frustating - most chicken nuggets and nuddle soup....but as there were plenty food they "completed" their meals eating from our plate....
There were several snacks remanining in the last day - and we picked some snacks for our travel to the cruise and my SIL got some to the airport and flight back..and even so we left some credits unused...
But taking all together it worthed...we´ve initially booked a regular dining plan, and after booking our ADR´s we realized that we´ve got several meals that charged 2TS ....so we upgraded.
It worked so well that we did it again, I´ve booked a WDW vacation plan with dining plan (regular) and if we got many signatures restaurants we´ll upgrade it.
A note: 3 TS meals per day is too much, we usually did a breakfast and a early dinner per day. The only day we did 3 meals was the one we went to dinner show...but the kids fall sleep at the table....
Ah
Other favorite meals:
California Gril
Boma
Jiko
Ohana
The only one I trully not recomend was Wolfgang Puck...the service was so slow, it took 1 hour for the waiter place us at our table, plus one hour to get the apethizer. The children menu arrived after our entrees (!!) and we were so tired that we skiped the dessert...
And what I did not liked was that several restaurants have different ways of interpreting the beverage. I like sparkling water and some of the restaurants included it in the beverages other charge it separatedelly....
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