Please help us decide whether to get DDP About This Page:

[HakunaMatata]

OK -here's the background: for years, we absolutely refused to purchase DDP. Then it started innocently enough: we decided to try the QSDP for our family of 5 (that is when there were 2 snacks per person per day - we are snackers!) because we were only doing a 3 night trip. We enjoyed it immensely, especially the convenience, though we felt we could not go to a TS b/c did not want to pay OOP. Next trip we tried the basic DDP and loved it!! Our older kids were 10 at the time and our younger was too young to even reqire the DDP. It worked well. For the past few trips we bought the basic DDP, and enjoyed restaurants like Boma and Tutto Italia, which we may not ordinarily have chosen OOP.

For our upcoming trip, we will be going to WDW in August for 6 nights, following 2 nights at the Hard Rock in Universal. The DDP will cost us $1327.08 for the five of us: me, DH, DD(13), DS(13), DS(4). I hate to even consider not getting DDP but jeez, that's a huge chunk of change to pay for food We still have to pay for our APs (if we decide to get those again) and the second night at Hard Rock. BTW, we are DVC members, so "free" DDP is not an option for us.

We really love the convenience of having DDP - our older children tour MK sometimes apart from us (for limited time periods when they are waiting for specific rides) and I feel they can get snacks and drinks without having to carry cash. Also, I feel freedom to order dishes we may not order otherwise and, for us, that freedom feels nice on vacation. So now I am finalizing my ADRs and trying to decide if this convenience and "freedom" is worth the cost of DDP. What would you do on these facts? Yes, I know to calculate what we would have spent, etc. but I feel it's not really comparable because we likely would not choose to go to some of our more expensive favorites without DDP . . .

We do rent a car, so I know there are some off-site options that can save us money but, with the exception of Sweet Tomatoes, we don't usually dine off-site.

Thanks for any advice

[MichaelF]

My personal opinion is the DDP is convienient but costly. We are a family of six and save hundreds of dollars for a weeks stay at WDW by paying out of pocket. We ate the same places as we would of if we had the DDP. DDP does make sense for some people and that sometimes has to do with the age of the children and how much they eat. The OP had young teenagers that are considered adults on the DDP. If they are light eaters that could make it even cheaper to pay out of pocket.

[DisneyDana]

Do what someone else mentioned and pre pay for your meals by putting money on a few gift cards and use what's left over for other things. I just put $500 on a card today for my upcoming trip. You can't roll over your left overs on a DDP, and you tend to feel obligated to order all sorts of stuff and waste it. Someone in another thread just added up their receipts and said they actually saved $200 by paying OOP.

[SARH7]

Until our daughter is 10 (which this will be our last trip before that happens) we will do DDP. The kids plan is such a great deal. That's where we save $. A kids buffet costs almost as much as the plan for the entire day. Basically lunch and snack are free. But when she's 10 and we're paying adult price for her, no way. She will not eat enough to justify the cost.

For me and hubby though, I have done the math, at least for QS plan, and money wise, OOp and QSDDP comes out the same...but when i added it up, that was me and hubby sharing drinks, and only a couple desserts...not every meal, and skipping our favorite snacks and things. The plan gave us more for the money.

The Basic plan, like you, it gives us the luxury to order the most expensive meals on the menu. If we were paying OOP, we'd be more conservative and would probably skip character meals and buffets. And desserts And I like to order dessert! LOL!!

Bottom line, for us anyway, we don't save money on the plans anymore, but we do get more for our money with it. (For now anyway...until DD is 10! LOL!!)

[benjiboo25]

We LOVED the DDP...when our kids were younger. Now that our oldest is 10 it does not seem to be the value it once was. We are trying OOP this year and getting discounted tickets through the YES progra. We will certainly miss the "freedom" we felt t order anything we wanted.

[Straitlover]

Since you're getting AP's, what about getting the Tables in Wonderland card instead? If you don't mind putting charging on your older kids' room cards, they can still get their snacks w/o carrying cash. Or you can buy them Disney gift cards w/ small balances to use for their snacks.

[tinker_me_happy]

Originally Posted by Straitlover

Since you're getting AP's, what about getting the Tables in Wonderland card instead? If you don't mind putting charging on your older kids' room cards, they can still get their snacks w/o carrying cash. Or you can buy them Disney gift cards w/ small balances to use for their snacks.

I suggest looking at the menus and have people do a mock order for a few of your planned TS meals, then do out the math. If you buy the TiW card, it will pay for itself after a couple of meals with a family of 5! I have done it both ways, and it is much cheaper using the TiW with my family of 5 than it is with the DDP. I would give the kids their own Disney Gift Cards and tell them that is their snack buying money and when it is gone it is gone and put enough on there for how ever many snacks per day you want them to have. For me, I like to put the meals on my Credit Card, then pay it off right away when I get home, because I like to earn the reward points to use towards my next trip. My first trip with 5 of us we spent $2700 on food with the TiW card. If we had used the dining plan it would have been $3500! (That of course takes into account paying extra for things the dining plan did not cover.)

[Coop]

We love the DP! We did DxDP last time and will be doing it again this year. (it is a lot of food but for us, we like 2TS places and almost always order an app) We thought about doing OOP and just getting a gift card to "prepay" our meals along with purchasing a TIW card - but we felt that we would be too hindered about what we order. Meaning - we wouldn't necessarily get what we want depending on the cost - we would always be looking at prices whereas with the DP, it's prepaid and we don't worry about cost! So for ease and piece of mind - it's worth it!

[feonag]

We have 4 on our family and we have been to WDW enough times to know what we will eat when there. I looked up all of the meals and prices to figure out how much we would spend and it came out much cheaper to NOT buy the dining plan. 5 years ago that would not have been true, but they have raised the price so much that we would loose money to get the DP. I would look up the prices for items that you may think you are going to eat and figure it out, for it to come out as a deal you would probably have to buy the most expensive meals on the menu to get your money's worth.

[HakunaMatata]

Thanks for the responses everyone! It sounds like maybe we can save money by not buying DDP. The idea of the Disney gift cards to provide our older kids for snacks is something I hadn't thought of. I would not want to give them charging privileges on our room cards . I know we will want to go to at least 4 relatively expensive TS restaurants, so I guess I'll try to run the numbers too.

[benjiboo25]

Another thing I am "banking" on for this trip is paying less in tips....on th DDP we would often order the more expensive items to maximize the value...but we tip on the total price so i expect we will save a bit on tips if our bill is lower...

[WDWJAMBA]

Since our last trips to WDW were short, we haven't taken advantage of the TiW card. If we were staying longer, I'd opt for TiW.

[saibot0001]

Originally Posted by benjiboo25

Another thing I am "banking" on for this trip is paying less in tips....on th DDP we would often order the more expensive items to maximize the value...but we tip on the total price so i expect we will save a bit on tips if our bill is lower...

Absolutely! That is something we did not think about until we got there. Even though we were on the dining plan, many nights we were paying an additional $35-4O in tip b/c we felt the need to get the drinks, entree and dessert (even when we really wanted water to drink or were too full for dessert....and the servers are smart about this (and you can't blame them. I would do the same thing if I were a server)...if you are on the DDP they are good at reminding you that you paid for it already, and they will be more than happy to put it in a to go bag (this makes their tip bigger). We were at Disney for 10 days...so that added about $350-$400 on our trip on top of the price we already paid for the DDP. When we go again, we will try OOP b/c I have an 11 year old who eats like a bird. It killed me some nights to pay $30 for chicken tenders and fries for her (many times she did not want what was offered on the menu so they would bring her an "adult size" kids meal). Then she would end up leaving 1/2 on the plate. Such a waste of food and money!

[DisneyDana]

Originally Posted by Coop

We love the DP! We did DxDP last time and will be doing it again this year. (it is a lot of food but for us, we like 2TS places and almost always order an app) We thought about doing OOP and just getting a gift card to "prepay" our meals along with purchasing a TIW card - but we felt that we would be too hindered about what we order. Meaning - we wouldn't necessarily get what we want depending on the cost - we would always be looking at prices whereas with the DP, it's prepaid and we don't worry about cost! So for ease and piece of mind - it's worth it!

but a gift card is pre-paid as well.

[dutchdisneyfamily]

Personally we like going with the dining plan because It's already taken care of before we go on vacation. However, we have discussed doing TIW for this next trip. We came back to wanting to do the dining plan just because of the convenience of having it taken care of.