NO MORE Dining Plan for us..my reasons

[global_mom]

I would like you opinions please, we currently have a DDE card and have never done the DDP. We have a split stay coming up, (3 adult-1child-1 infant)and are tossing the idea of the DDP aroung for the 2nd part(6 day) of stay. The main reasons whay are: we do mostly buffets and are there during the holiday price increase and some of these are hefty.
So when I look at the prices for the meals we are going to have like:
Boma Dinner $31 adult 15 child
LTT- $33 adult 16 child
Cape May Dinner $31 adult $15 child
Askerhus b-fast$27 adult $15 child
Cape May bfast-$23 adult $13 child
Teppan edo-I figured $34 adult $15 child
Beirgarten$24 adult $12 child

This is just one we will do in room b-fast and a light something during the day, probably use the CS for that stuff......What am I missing?
How can I not do the DDP?

I happen to be a big fan of the DDP but the changes did weaken my dedication a bit. With the ADRs that you have, it seems that you would be well served to use the DDP. You will be paying gratuity if you are DDP or OOP so that aspect is moot. When you factor the daily cost of these meals plaus CS and a snack you should come out ahead. You wont save a fortune but any savings is good. You will obviously come out way ahead for the child costs since the plan is only 9.99 per day and your TS alone will be more than that.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[RichieGraciemom]

I happen to be a big fan of the DDP but the changes did weaken my dedication a bit. With the ADRs that you have, it seems that you would be well served to use the DDP. You will be paying gratuity if you are DDP or OOP so that aspect is moot. When you factor the daily cost of these meals plaus CS and a snack you should come out ahead. You wont save a fortune but any savings is good. You will obviously come out way ahead for the child costs since the plan is only 9.99 per day and your TS alone will be more than that.

Enjoy your trip!

what is the age cut off for a child on the dining plan.

 

[global_mom]

what is the age cut off for a child on the dining plan.

Child is 3-9. Once they are 10 then they pay the adult price of $37.99. You can buy a 3-9yo the adult plan if you wish for them to order from the adult menu. We have never done that b/c our younger kids dont eat enough to justify the cost. We will be doing the DxDDP in July right before my DD9 turns 10. Once she is 10 we will not be doing DxDDP for awhile b/c I would never get $69.99 of value for her.

 

[Coach81]

No thanks - the kitchen is great b/c it has a standard size fridge where we can store our diet coke and a stove for baking late night chocolate chip cookies. The kitchen is a perk ,but we dont plan to cook a meal while on vacation!! Again, different strokes for different folks.

I doubt that we will actually cook. I think we will go cereal, oatmeal, pop tarts, etc.. nothing that takes work

 

[Kitka]

We just got back from our trip on the DDP, and we didn't have one server of our 6 TS meals get pissy that we crossed out the tip line and left cash. I will consider us lucky!

I am annoyed about the appetizer/dessert thing because we're more of appetizer people, but I still enjoyed trying the desserts.

All in all, we still saved money, especially with our snack credits. We basically ate breakfast off of them, got our main street ice cream, etc. We felt we got a good use of them.

 

[keishashadow]

the new version is just a price increase @ the benefit of the servers tip, with elimination of the appetizer to boot

I predict that the servers will receive a large downturn in tips (whether based on cheap guests or due to receiving par for sub-par service is debatable )

Do think issue of tips will be revisted by union & Disney before the summer months and that an re-adjustment will be forthcoming (price increase of approx. $10 day per adult to those who haven't already booked; probably throw in some sort of kitschy gimmie - pin, 'collectible', perhaps FPs or 1 waterpark visit to make it more palatable).

The original version truly was a deal for our family when staying on points; hard to justify even with AAA discounted pkg when i priced it out @ the deluxes.

eliminating the appetizer makes it more difficult to "split" meals/dining credits. Many times i'd just eat the appetizer & dessert @ dinner (plenty for me after a large lunch) while DS had entree only (he's not big on either except for a scoop of ice cream); which allowed for an extra TS for lunch one day of trip

OT - always found it odd when peeps report how much money they saved ordering the most expensive entree @ the most expensive TS. Certainly doesn't alway equate quality imo. Almost have to wonder if the less popular restaurants raise their prices, more would visit on DP.

 

[global_mom]

Do think issue of tips will be revisted by union & Disney before the summer months and that an re-adjustment will be forthcoming (price increase of approx. $10 day per adult to those who haven't already booked; probably throw in some sort of kitschy gimmie - pin, 'collectible', perhaps FPs or 1 waterpark visit to make it more palatable).

There already seems to be some "chatter" about adjusting the changes to curb the discontent. Seems like it would have been so much easier to have just raised the price of the plan instead of eliminating components. We would have paid an additional $8-$10 per person per night. I know that the appy elimination was partly done to speed table turn over but soooo many people would rather have the appy instead of the dessert. Oh well, only time will tell what will happen.

 

[DISNEY FIX]

I would like you opinions please, we currently have a DDE card and have never done the DDP. We have a split stay coming up, (3 adult-1child-1 infant)and are tossing the idea of the DDP aroung for the 2nd part(6 day) of stay. The main reasons whay are: we do mostly buffets and are there during the holiday price increase and some of these are hefty.
So when I look at the prices for the meals we are going to have like:
Boma Dinner $31 adult 15 child
LTT- $33 adult 16 child
Cape May Dinner $31 adult $15 child
Askerhus b-fast$27 adult $15 child
Cape May bfast-$23 adult $13 child
Teppan edo-I figured $34 adult $15 child
Beirgarten$24 adult $12 child

This is just one we will do in room b-fast and a light something during the day, probably use the CS for that stuff......What am I missing?
How can I not do the DDP?

I happen to be a big fan of the DDP but the changes did weaken my dedication a bit. With the ADRs that you have, it seems that you would be well served to use the DDP. You will be paying gratuity if you are DDP or OOP so that aspect is moot. When you factor the daily cost of these meals plaus CS and a snack you should come out ahead. You wont save a fortune but any savings is good. You will obviously come out way ahead for the child costs since the plan is only 9.99 per day and your TS alone will be more than that.

Enjoy your trip!

Thanks for the opinion.
Any others out there?

 

[robinb]

I would like you opinions please, we currently have a DDE card and have never done the DDP. We have a split stay coming up, (3 adult-1child-1 infant)and are tossing the idea of the DDP aroung for the 2nd part(6 day) of stay. The main reasons whay are: we do mostly buffets and are there during the holiday price increase and some of these are hefty.
So when I look at the prices for the meals we are going to have like:
Boma Dinner $31 adult 15 child
LTT- $33 adult 16 child
Cape May Dinner $31 adult $15 child
Askerhus b-fast$27 adult $15 child
Cape May bfast-$23 adult $13 child
Teppan edo-I figured $34 adult $15 child
Beirgarten$24 adult $12 child

This is just one we will do in room b-fast and a light something during the day, probably use the CS for that stuff......What am I missing?
How can I not do the DDP?

I edited this because I forgot to include Cape May Breakfast in my Calculations.

If you have 6 nights, then you only have 6 TS meals. I threw out Biergarten as it was the cheapest of the lot.

Using your numbers, you would spend $655 on 3 adults and 1 child using the DDE card while leaving an 18% tip.

The DDP plan would cost you $744 PLUS and additional $112 in tips for a total of $856.

The difference between the DDP and the DDE card is $202 or $33.75 per day. That covers 4 snacks per day and CS meals for 3 adults and 1 child. I figure snacks @ 2.50 each for a total of $10 per day in snacks leaving $23.75 per day for CS meals. The average CS adult meal is about $13 and a kid's meal is about $5 so will get about $44 worth of CS meals per day.

That leaves you with a savings of $20.00 per day.

I don't know about you , but I very rarely ate desserts at CS places before it was included on the DDP. If your family doesn't have a sweet tooth you could easily save half that on just skipping (the fairly crappy, IMO) desserts at CS places.

 

[pilferk]

I really think you are closer to NOT doing the DDP than you think.

If you have 6 nights, then you only have 6 TS meals. I threw out Biergarten as it was the cheapest of the lot.

Using your numbers, you would spend $568 on 3 adults and 1 child using the DDE card while leaving an 18% tip.

The DDP plan would cost you $744 PLUS and additional $97.92 in tips for a total of $841.

The difference between the DDP and the DDE card is $272 or $45.50 per day. That covers 4 snacks per day and CS meals for 3 adults and 1 child. I figure snacks @ 2.50 each for a total of $10 per day in snacks leaving $35.50 per day for CS meals. The average CS adult meal is about $13 and a kid's meal is about $5 so will get about $44 worth of CS meals per day.

That leaves you with a whopping savings of $8.50 per day.

I don't know about you , but I very rarely ate desserts at CS places before it was included on the DDP. If your family doesn't have a sweet tooth you could easily save that much on just skipping (the fairly crappy, IMO) desserts at CS places.

Your DDE numbers confuse me, so let me spell out what I got, and you can correct my numbers:

Boma Dinner $31 adult 15 child = $108
LTT- $33 adult 16 child = $115
Cape May Dinner $31 adult $15 child = $108
Askerhus b-fast$27 adult $15 child =$96
Cape May bfast-$23 adult $13 child = $82
Teppan edo-I figured $34 adult $15 child =$117

So, that gets us 108+115+108+96+82+117 = $626

Tip on that would be 112.68

Tax would be 37.56

The 20% discount from the DDE comes off ONLY the bill, not tax and tip, so that leaves us with this:

(626 * .80) + 112.68 + 37.56

or

500.80 + 112.68 + 37.56 = 651.04

which should equate to your $568..and it doesn't, which is why I'm confused.

Edit: Never mind...I found it. The OP's numbers include tip...but not tax. I'll refigure and repost.

 

[robinb]

Opsie ... I forgot Cape May BREAKFAST. I fixed it. She'll save $20 per day using the DDP. But I still stand by my comment on CS desserts. They are a total waste AFAIC.

 

[pilferk]

Instead of glomming all the numbers together, I think it's easier to deal with the seperate pieces (bill, tax, and tip) to try to figure out savings. With your meals, that's pretty easy as you're choosing mostly fixed price offerings. I used allears.net for pricing.

Boma:

Bill: 89.96
Tax: 5:40
Tip: 16.20

LTT:
Bill: 96.96
Tax: 5.82
Tip: 17.45

Cape May:
Bill: 89.96
Tax: 5.40
Tip: 16.20

Akershus:
Bill: 81.96
Tax: 4.92
Tip: 14.75

Cape May Bfast:
Bill: 67.96
Tax: 4.08
Tip: 12.23

Teppan Edo:
Bill: 95.94
Tax: 5.76
Tip: 17.27

So here's what I get for your totals for the 3 options:

OOP Total:
Bill: 522.74
Tax: 31.38
Tip: 94.10

Grand OOP Total: 648.22

DDE totals:
Bill:418.20
Tax: 31.38
Tip: 94.10

Grand DDE Total: 543.68

DDP Total:
Plan Cost:743.76
Tips: 94.10

Grand DDP Total: 837.86

Difference between DDP total and DDE Total: 294.18.

So you'd want to make sure your 3 adult and 1 Child CS's + snacks total more than 49.03 per day to be BETTER than the DDE cost.

To break that down, assuming the 2.50 snack price to be conservative, you'd want your party's daily CS meal to total more than 39.03, or the 3 adult CS's to total more than 34.03, or about 11.35 each.

Looks pretty close to me. I can say our typical bill, if you ONLY look at meal and drink, would have been right around there. Throw in dessert for each adult and that's the $ you're saving, really....as robinb points out.

And all of the above ignores factoring in the additional $60 cost of buying the DDE card as an AP holder. Mostly because I'd have no idea how to distill it down to anything meaningful without knowing how many trips you have planned this year, for how many days, and how many times you plan to use the card.

 

[Disneypal]

A couple of years ago I took my Mom to Disney for her birthday and we did the DDP and it worked great. We were thinking of taking our 2 daughters in may and were planning on adding it to our booking. What has changed in the last 2 years that makes everyone so unhappy?

 

[robinb]

Here is my spreadsheet:

 

[pilferk]

I also didn't use the holiday pricing in my breakdown.

That would, I think, make the gap narrower between DDE and DDP, since the DDE total would go up, but the DDP price should not.

Tips would increase for both, cancelling each other out.

Edit: Yup, robinb's spreadsheet breaks it down to a T. Looks like savings is around 18%-ish over the cost of using the DDE.

 

[TenThousandVolts]

A couple of years ago I took my Mom to Disney for her birthday and we did the DDP and it worked great. We were thinking of taking our 2 daughters in may and were planning on adding it to our booking. What has changed in the last 2 years that makes everyone so unhappy?

The biggest changes:

• Gratuities are not included anymore
• Appetizer is no longer included on TS meals

On the positive side- the cost of the plan went down a tiny bit (like maybe $1 per day per person) Paying tips out of pocket of course negates that savings and makes the plan far more expensive overall.

 

[ILuvTigger]

We are new members (Dec 07) and have a trip scheduled for June 08. Dh was thinking about going on the dinner plan, but now I do not want to. I am very happy I found this site, and thankful for everyones input.

 

[mcmeekin]

Okay....read the thread....head now spinning....don't understand.....

How will the following situation work?

DH, DS and I are taking 8 other family members in June. We're doing the DDP. We're divided into two 2 bdrm units. When we eat, who will get the check? Should we request to divide it by room? Will we all have credits on our cards for the entire party of 11?

We do not put charging priveleges on our room keys; I will need cash to pay tips, correct?

We were split into two rooms for a 12/07 trip. The DDP credits somehow ended up unevenly split between the rooms. They were all there though. It was such a headache to figure out which card to use. I don't like the think about having to figure which card to use, but it was quite a lesson... we'll either be OOP or all in a big villa next time.

 

[Kurby]

is there no way to say when they ask if you're paying via cash or ddp that you are in 2 different rooms and here's the two different cards - 5 on this card 3 on that card?

 

[Diznut84]

Two big considerations for my family is that:
1) Holiday surcharges can be significant over a week without DDP.
2) DDE is not accepted on many holidays or for Candlelight Dinner Package.

So we are begrudgingly back on DDP, but in no way is it the value that it was. But it's time for me to get over it!

In addition, note that the average cost of EVEN THE LEAST EXPENSIVE meals (e.g. Hoop-de-doo and Mara) on DDP for 2008 exceed the cost of the plan.

http://personalpages.tds.net/~rb/DIS/MYW Dining/DisneyDiningRanking2008.htm

So, IF your dining choices match that of DDP, it will likely save you a bit of money.

Finally, I don't entirely buy into the argument that the DDP is to blame for the lack of ADR availability. Disney needs to a) crack down on no-shows by implementing a $5 per person nonrefundable (within 24 hours) charge for ALL TS restaurants, and b) build more restaurants.