Didn't Get the DDP This Trip and Ended up Happy!

[Christine]

Nothing earth-shattering to report here, but I was down to the last minute over a week ago trying to decide whether or not to do the dining plan. We had a VERY large group going (16 people) with some dinners planned, but not every night. My personal "group-within-the-group" consisted of 5 adults and I was so on the fence about getting it. Ultimately I decided against it because we had two, 2TS dinners planned (Citricos and Cali Grill) and the DDP is not a good use of those credits. Still, I thought maybe I should do it and reshuffle the credits around over the week. Due to inability to get ADRs, I just gave up and went without. I had done the plan last year with 3 adults and a much more organized trip (I broke even on that trip, maybe came out a little ahead).

Anyway, if you've read any of my pre-trip posts, you'll know that I am ALL about the value and not overly concerned with "budget" or needing things prepaid, so that did not factor in for me. So in having the plan, it would have been important to me to make sure I at least broke even. That part would have stressed me. I think if I had gotten the plan, I would have been so stressed out. As it was, we just ended up really going with the flow, eating how we wanted. Even within our party of 16 (and some are huge eaters and drinkers), we quickly tired of table service and cancelled several things we had. Also ended up cancelling Cali Grill because by Thursday I just couldn't take another slow table service. We did switch to Chef Art's (I was able to call and book that day) and it was SO efficient. But we were all just so full all the time, even grazing as we did. I know I'm getting older but I just don't know how people eat like that all week.

It was very liberating to me not to worry about making a TS on a certain day. In the end, we ate at:

Citricos
Grand Floridian Cafe
Chef Art's Homecomin'
Morimoto Asia (late lunch/early dinner)

Others in our party did Chef Mickey's and 'Ohana breakfast but mostly did QS after that.

During the Epcot Food and Wine, I definitely would have made out on my snacks. I seemed to be ordering the most expensive ones!

What I will say, dining plan or not, I *love* just tapping my band and dinner and having it all be charged to the room. Yes, you still had to sign a piece of paper for the tip so I guess it's no different than using a credit card, but there was just something about not pulling the card out of my wallet. Also loved tapping the band in the parks for snacks and stuff. That all really works just the like the dining plan. My cousin was using Target gift cards for her trip so she was just paying room charges off as she went and that worked out well too.

I'm still tallying up my receipts but even with drinks and everything, I still under what we would have paid for the plan and I had much less stress. I also enjoyed not doing so much TS. I love dining out and do it a lot at home, but I was just too tired by the time dinner came and found it a hassle if they were moving slow.

 

[Gehrig1B]

We are 4 adults and always eat when, where, what, and most importantly, how we like paying out of pocket and save tons of money over the DDP. It is so nice to not be tied to any "plan". Glad it worked for you.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

We normally only do a few ADRs, but we were planning to try the DDP for the first time in our upcoming Feb. trip.

We book FP in a few weeks and my sister and I were starting to feel overwhelmed about having a TS every day. With little kids, we really love having a few ADRs and keeping the rest pretty flexible. Mobile ordering at our favorite QS places always works so well for us. My kids will be 5 and 3 on our next visit and my sister is bringing her 1 year old. We’re now feeling like a weight was lifted!

Still have 3 ADRs that we are excited about, but I’m feeling so much better about it now. We will also definitely save money, especially since sometimes DH and I will split at QS, my kids sometimes share, etc. We will also have a full kitchen in our villa at BLT, so I love being able to just take the kids back and make frozen pizzas if they’re too tired for a dinner in the parks.

I really want to try the DDP, but we’re going to
wait until the kids are older.

 

[Christine]

We normally only do a few ADRs, but we were planning to try the DDP for the first time in our upcoming Feb. trip.

We book FP in a few weeks and my sister and I were starting to feel overwhelmed about having a TS every day. With little kids, we really love having a few ADRs and keeping the rest pretty flexible. Mobile ordering at our favorite QS places always works so well for us. My kids will be 5 and 3 on our next visit and my sister is bringing her 1 year old. We’re now feeling like a weight was lifted!

Still have 3 ADRs that we are excited about, but I’m feeling so much better about it now. We will also definitely save money, especially since sometimes DH and I will split at QS, my kids sometimes share, etc. We will also have a full kitchen in our villa at BLT, so I love being able to just take the kids back and make frozen pizzas if they’re too tired for a dinner in the parks.

I really want to try the DDP, but we’re going to
wait until the kids are older.

I did the DDP last year with me, my DH, and my adult son, and I felt it worked out well. But we had a very relaxed "adults" trip last year and we had a TS every day. It still stressed me a little to make sure I "got my money's worth" but it wasn't a huge deal.

This trip, we were traveling with 16 people. Two of them were ages 4 and 3, and I also had two elderly relatives on ECVs. To say we were moving slow on this trip is an understatement. I felt like we were wading through molasses most days. Nine people in our party were one family sort of on a "first trip" kind of deal and I had booked them quite a few ADRs. After the first two nights there, the little ones were struggling with the TS dinners. I mean they were really well behaved but you could tell that it was just a chore for them and their parents. So we cancelled most of their evening ADRs and they just went with it and that worked out much better for them. They were very glad not to be held to a plan.

As for me, I did sort of enjoy letting go of the hardwired in dinners and just winging it. While I somewhat enjoyed the plan last year, I think I've realized that it's better for me to go without, even with having drinkers in my group.