The DxDP Take #3: You don’t have to max it out to save a bundle (with spreadsheets & mini reviews!)

[e mcduck]

I wish more people would realize that California is expensive to live at and stop coming here. The freeways are crowded everyday now. Can't even go somewhere 20 miles away without it taking two hours even on a Sunday.

lol. im closer to north OC and i had to drive into hollywood the last two days and it was horriffic.

 

[Rich M]

lol. im closer to north OC and i had to drive into hollywood the last two days and it was horriffic.

Ouch

 

[Rich M]

I wish more people would realize that California is expensive to live at and stop coming here. The freeways are crowded everyday now. Can't even go somewhere 20 miles away without it taking two hours even on a Sunday.

Article just came out that said in SF you are considered low income if you make less then $110,000. I work in SF and can't even afford to live in the city. Even for my area that I live in they said that I would be considered low class if I had a family of 4 and I make well over $30 and hour so I think the overpriced DDP is just par for the course for us Californians as we pay more for everything.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Article just came out that said in SF you are considered low income if you make less then $110,000. I work in SF and can't even afford to live in the city. Even for my area that I live in they said that I would be considered low class if I had a family of 4 and I make well over $30 and hour so I think the overpriced DDP is just par for the course for us Californians as we pay more for everything.

I saw that, too. It was for Marin, San Mateo and San Francisco counties and I think it said anything under $117k qualifies for low income! Crazy! DH and I are talking about downsizing, but I'm not sure there is such a thing in NorCal. We were looking at 2 bedroom condos in a nice part of Oakland that are going for well over $1 million.

 

[Rich M]

I finally went ahead and paid for the DxDDP for my trip in October. Below are my plans and according to the DDP calculator I am saving $160. It seems only one of my breakfasts are not very good use of the plan but I need to go in order not to lose any credits. Any feed back would be appreciated.

Oct 14 - Lunch 1:30 - Mama Melrose - Fantasmic Package
Dinner 10:15 - Homecomin

Oct 15 - Lunch 12:00 - Rainforest Cafe - AK
Dinner 7:20 - Coral Reef

Oct 16 - Breakfast 10:20 - Cape May Cay
Dinner 4:55 - Plaza - Need a lighter dinner since we are doing Dessert Party (Hallowishes)

Oct 17 - Breakfast 7:30 - Grand Floridian
Lunch - 1:00 - ESPN Club
Dinner - 9:20 - Liberty Tree


We are doing regular DDP on the first part of our trip which is Oct 8th - Oct 11th. For those we are doing:

Oct 8th - Dinner 9:10 - Ohana (Arrive at 6PM flight from West Coast)

Oct 9th - Lunch 11:50 - BOG
Dinner - 5:30 - Yak N Yeti

Oct 10th - Breakfast anytime - Woody's Lunch Box
Lunch/Dinner 2:35 - Garden Grill (Wanted early meal as I am hoping for Frozen Dessert Party)

Oct 11th - Stop at Earl of Sandwich to use last QS on the way to the Port for a cruise.

Any Advice??? Please no advice on how I can save money if I didn't do the DDP. It is paid in full and non refundable at this point so more looking if anyone thinks something should be moved around. Thank you all in advance.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I finally went ahead and paid for the DxDDP for my trip in October. Below are my plans and according to the DDP calculator I am saving $160. It seems only one of my breakfasts are not very good use of the plan but I need to go in order not to lose any credits. Any feed back would be appreciated.

Oct 14 - Lunch 1:30 - Mama Melrose - Fantasmic Package
Dinner 10:15 - Homecomin

Oct 15 - Lunch 12:00 - Rainforest Cafe - AK
Dinner 7:20 - Coral Reef

Oct 16 - Breakfast 10:20 - Cape May Cay
Dinner 4:55 - Plaza - Need a lighter dinner since we are doing Dessert Party (Hallowishes)

Oct 17 - Breakfast 7:30 - Grand Floridian
Lunch - 1:00 - ESPN Club
Dinner - 9:20 - Liberty Tree


We are doing regular DDP on the first part of our trip which is Oct 8th - Oct 11th. For those we are doing:

Oct 8th - Dinner 9:10 - Ohana (Arrive at 6PM flight from West Coast)

Oct 9th - Lunch 11:50 - BOG
Dinner - 5:30 - Yak N Yeti

Oct 10th - Breakfast anytime - Woody's Lunch Box
Lunch/Dinner 2:35 - Garden Grill (Wanted early meal as I am hoping for Frozen Dessert Party)

Oct 11th - Stop at Earl of Sandwich to use last QS on the way to the Port for a cruise.

Any Advice??? Please no advice on how I can save money if I didn't do the DDP. It is paid in full and non refundable at this point so more looking if anyone thinks something should be moved around. Thank you all in advance.

Most of those are new to me restaurants so you'll have to report back on how you like them. You'll also have to report back on DDP versus DxDP since you are doing them in one trip. I don't have any advice--I'm not facile enough yet with WDW restaurants but hopefully others can pop in and comment. Have an awesome time!!!

 

[MomOTwins]

I finally went ahead and paid for the DxDDP for my trip in October. Below are my plans and according to the DDP calculator I am saving $160. It seems only one of my breakfasts are not very good use of the plan but I need to go in order not to lose any credits. Any feed back would be appreciated.

Your regular dining plan choices all seem fine. For deluxe dining, it sounds like you are saying you scheduled a breakfast just to avoid wasting a credit. But you also seem to have some pretty low value meals (Rainforest Cafe/Plaza/Liberty Tree). Have you considered swapping out one of those with a signature--e.g., Tiffins instead of Rainforest Cafe, or one of the monorail loop sigs (Cali grill, Narcoosees) instead of Plaza/Liberty Tree? Then you could drop the GF breakfast, but still use all your credits, in in my view signature dining is really one of the major advantages to the DxDP, where (unlike the regular DDP), signature are generally a decent use of two credits.

 

[Rich M]

Your regular dining plan choices all seem fine. For deluxe dining, it sounds like you are saying you scheduled a breakfast just to avoid wasting a credit. But you also seem to have some pretty low value meals (Rainforest Cafe/Plaza/Liberty Tree). Have you considered swapping out one of those with a signature--e.g., Tiffins instead of Rainforest Cafe, or one of the monorail loop sigs (Cali grill, Narcoosees) instead of Plaza/Liberty Tree? Then you could drop the GF breakfast, but still use all your credits, in in my view signature dining is really one of the major advantages to the DxDP, where (unlike the regular DDP), signature are generally a decent use of two credits.

Yeah that is one thing we are thinking of. My sister is very picky so a lot of the choices are hers because of the food she likes and not willing to try others. One of the reason I did that deep in the trip is so that maybe I can cancel and book a signature that seems to have reservations a lot longer then others places. Liberty Tree and Rainforest are musts for her she won't budge with those. Whats odd to me is I thought we weren't maximizing at all our plan but we still show coming out $160 ahead and only $5 down on the DDP. Thank you so much for the suggestions.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Your regular dining plan choices all seem fine. For deluxe dining, it sounds like you are saying you scheduled a breakfast just to avoid wasting a credit. But you also seem to have some pretty low value meals (Rainforest Cafe/Plaza/Liberty Tree). Have you considered swapping out one of those with a signature--e.g., Tiffins instead of Rainforest Cafe, or one of the monorail loop sigs (Cali grill, Narcoosees) instead of Plaza/Liberty Tree? Then you could drop the GF breakfast, but still use all your credits, in in my view signature dining is really one of the major advantages to the DxDP, where (unlike the regular DDP), signature are generally a decent use of two credits.

This was my initial thought, too. Where we've really come out way ahead (without even thinking about how to maximize from menu) was on more expensive restaurants or signatures. Something like Teppan Edo or character meals are instant value with the DxDP. But it's great that even with the less maximized restaurant choices like Rainforest, you can still come out ahead.