My thoughts on DDP....

[Mom of 3]

We're going to be there during free dining in September. Myself, Hubby, DS10, DS6 and DS2.

We were really pleased to get the free dining plan. I picked out the places we want to eat that we probably would not have eaten at normally because of the cost.

We are staying at the WL.

We have planned TS at:

WL x 2
Boma x 2
Hollywood and Vine x 1
Marrekesh x 1
Coral Reef x 1

I didn't try to pick the most expensive restaurants just the ones I thought my family would enjoy and ones that would fit into our schedule. Next time we go we'll pick different restaurants to try.

Since our youngest is 2 he can just share off our plates or will be free at the buffet places.

For me the DDP is nice but not the entire focus of the trip. Sometimes it is not that relaxing to eat with the kids. So I think for us one TS per day is plenty. We want to have plenty of time to enjoy the parks and our hotel and pool.

I consider my kids BIG eaters. Most of the time the 10 and 6 year old can eat more than hubby and I. But I still think between CS and TS every day there is going to be more than enough for us to eat.

So as long as the kids don't go hungry and they enjoy there meals then we'll be happy.

The kids still don't know we're going to Disney - they think we're going to the mountains for a week. We'll see on the trip down how long it takes them to figure out something is up.

There's no real point to my post - just my thoughts.

I can't wait.

 

[kcashner]

It sounds like the DDP will work very well for you--I've never heard of people lacking for food, and we sure didn't. People might debate the value of the paid plan, but for free it can't be beat!

Have a great trip.

 

[bluejasmine]

We also love the ddp. My son is 12 and eats as much as an adult while dd 9 eats like a child so ddp is works great for us. My dh probably really wont eat his dessert being he isnt a big dessert eatter but other than that we dont have any problems with it. I wish I could suprise my kids with a trip but I just cant keep my mouth shut and I involve my kids so much with the planning..

 

[lovesdumbo]

I'm trying the DDP for the first time for free in August. I've always had AP's so it wasn't worth it for me to purchase the plan. On this trip were taking an extra adult so we'll be a party of 7 and only 3 already have AP's. I'll just save the 3 tickets I need to buy for the package for some time in the future. I calculated what I would have paid for the rooms with AP's and compared to the package and I'm paying just $700 more for the package and those extra tickets are worth about $200 so I'm paying about $500 for dining for 7 people for 7 nights/8days. I didn't try to "maximize" the value of the points but chose were we wanted to eat. I know the "highest" value of the points isn't breakfast but we all really enjoy breakfast food. Also I think you get more "value" (well a higher check value...) out of non characters/buffet meals but I know we will get the most "value" for us out of those meals. There is so much more to consider than the total of the check. Here's what I've got (I know that we'll get more than the $500 its "costing" me in lost AP room discounts):

Dinner Marrakesh
Breakfast 1900 Park Fare
Dinner Garden Grill
Dinner Concourse Steak House
Lunch Sci Fi for 5 out of pocket, lunch with Imagineers for 2 out of pocket
Dinner for 2 adults Alfredos
Breakfast Crystal Palace
Dinner for 2 adults Le Chef de France
Dinner Raglan Road
Dinner Boatwrights (will only have a few points left for this one-some out of pocket).