DDP+ It’s official!

[TheMaxRebo]

Is paying OOP still better value though? I think unless you're having 2 character TS a day that it still doesn't work out great value for money. Plus if you're DVC and you're paying OOP you get the 10% discount which you don't get when buying the plan.

I think you are right. I think those of us with AP’s and DVC are better off using our 10% discount or investing in a TIW card depending on how many trips we have planned.

if the plan had included an Appetizer at this price, I would have considered it but the numbers just aren’t adding up for me.

We travel with 2 adults, I know everyone will put different worth on different things but this is the way I see them.

Refillable mug- next to a zero value as you can’t use them in the parks and I’m not going to carry them around the parks all day.

snacks- $5 each for a total value of $10 pp per day

By my calculations, each meal would have to be roughy $42.00 just to break even.
If we were to ever do this plan, we would ( and I would assume most would) use 1 credit for breakfast and 1 credit for dinner. Unless we were to do a character breakfast every day, breakfast would be well under that $42 mark which would have to be made up at dinner just to break even.

The only way I see this as any kind of savings is if you have children under 10 in your party and are going to do a lot of character meals.

Like with any dining plans, it depends on the vacationers .... you can make the math worth, but often I think you have to "work" to make it work. For many, it is more the feeling of "pre-paying" for things and then their trip seems more like "all inclusive" and to them, there is value in that.

But even just doing the math, here is, i think, a realistic day, going to EPCOT:

+ Refillable mugs - use it in the morning once, fountain beverage at quick service is $4

+ Snacks - use it at the festival booths: Deconstructed BLT: $7, Saint-Honoré Tart: $6

+ Akershus for breakfast: $39.00

+ Garden Grill for Dinner: $44.72 + $6 for a beer

Total: $106.72

So you can make it work - but you have to plan for it

 

[texanlawyer]

We have an adult trip coming up and I don't think the math works for us, although I'm still working through it. We already booked ADRs for 2 credit restaurants most night for dinner. We generally eat pretty lightly during the day in the parks and so dinner is our only table service meal. Because this is an adults only trip, we're probably not going to do character meals either. Also, we're DVC and I have a TiW card that's good for another 10 months.

When I first saw the news about DDP+, I was tempted because we'll be at WDW during Flower & Garden and we could use the snack credits for the outdoor kitchens. However, given the fact that we already have the TiW card and we're planning on doing signature restaurants for most dinners, I think we're better off without the plan. I'd reconsider if we were planning on doing two 1-credit restaurants each day.

 

[Traveling on cc points]

Like with any dining plans, it depends on the vacationers .... you can make the math worth, but often I think you have to "work" to make it work. For many, it is more the feeling of "pre-paying" for things and then their trip seems more like "all inclusive" and to them, there is value in that.

But even just doing the math, here is, i think, a realistic day, going to EPCOT:

+ Refillable mugs - use it in the morning once, fountain beverage at quick service is $4

+ Snacks - use it at the festival booths: Deconstructed BLT: $7, Saint-Honoré Tart: $6

+ Akershus for breakfast: $39.00

+ Garden Grill for Dinner: $44.72 + $6 for a beer

Total: $106.72

So you can make it work - but you have to plan for it

I have researched this topic pretty extensively for past trips and I always see people writing that they saved x amount of dollars with it. The more You read the more you see that people are including savings on items that they ordered that the wouldn’t have if they didn’t already pay for it. To me, if I wouldn’t have ordered it if it wasn’t included, it is not a savings.

I wouldn’t pay $4 for a fountain drink, I would order a case on amazon.

I am a vegetarian so my upper dollar snack items are very limited. I would usually get a Mickey bar or a pretzel.

I can totally get onboard for you epcot day choices for 1 day
but is the average family or couple going to be happy eating 2 buffets a day for a week? I obviously can’t speak for everyone but that sure isn’t going to do it for me.

I 100% agree with you Analysis and that it can work if you try really hard.

I guess the reason I keep going back and forth with this is when I first heard the rumor of the 2 credits a day plan coming out, I was hoping it would mimic the deluxe plan with 1 less credit per day. We tend to eat breakfast on property and go to Disney Springs of off property for dinner. We will just keep doing what we have done until diney comes out with something that works for our eating habits.

I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind, These are just my opinions for the way we eat. If this plan works for your family and eating habits, that is awesome and I’m happy that Disney has came out with it.

 

[Heather07438]

Like with any dining plans, it depends on the vacationers .... you can make the math worth, but often I think you have to "work" to make it work. For many, it is more the feeling of "pre-paying" for things and then their trip seems more like "all inclusive" and to them, there is value in that.

But even just doing the math, here is, i think, a realistic day, going to EPCOT:

+ Refillable mugs - use it in the morning once, fountain beverage at quick service is $4

+ Snacks - use it at the festival booths: Deconstructed BLT: $7, Saint-Honoré Tart: $6

+ Akershus for breakfast: $39.00

+ Garden Grill for Dinner: $44.72 + $6 for a beer

Total: $106.72

So you can make it work - but you have to plan for it

Or going to AK could be:

+ Refillable mugs - fountain beverage at quick service is $4

+ Snacks - McScrooge Sundae $7, Asian Noodle salad $7

+ for Lunch: Yak & Yeti or Rainforst Cafe $40-60

+ for Dinner: Tusker RoL Dining Pkg: $72

Total: $130+ (max possible is near $160)

HS:

+ Refillable mugs - fountain beverage at quick service is $4

+ Snacks - Herbie Nachos $6, Funnel cake $8

+ for Lunch: Sci-Fi $35-50

+ for Dinner: Hollywood & Vine or Mama Melrose $55-75

Total: You'll likely go well over $100, especially if you imbibe and/or book a dinner F! pkg.

These are leaning towards the most expensive inclusions. I'll probably need to go out of my way to give DDP+ a run for its money, lol. The potential is there.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I have researched this topic pretty extensively for past trips and I always see people writing that they saved x amount of dollars with it. The more You read the more you see that people are including savings on items that they ordered that the wouldn’t have if they didn’t already pay for it. To me, if I wouldn’t have ordered it if it wasn’t included, it is not a savings.

I wouldn’t pay $4 for a fountain drink, I would order a case on amazon.

I am a vegetarian so my upper dollar snack items are very limited. I would usually get a Mickey bar or a pretzel.

I can totally get onboard for you epcot day choices for 1 day
but is the average family or couple going to be happy eating 2 buffets a day for a week? I obviously can’t speak for everyone but that sure isn’t going to do it for me.

I 100% agree with you Analysis and that it can work if you try really hard.

I guess the reason I keep going back and forth with this is when I first heard the rumor of the 2 credits a day plan coming out, I was hoping it would mimic the deluxe plan with 1 less credit per day. We tend to eat breakfast on property and go to Disney Springs of off property for dinner. We will just keep doing what we have done until diney comes out with something that works for our eating habits.

I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind, These are just my opinions for the way we eat. If this plan works for your family and eating habits, that is awesome and I’m happy that Disney has came out with it.

I 100% agree with you - it comes down to how you eat and likely how you would eat without the dining plan (though one could argue that by being on the dining plan they feel they can order things they might not of otherwise)

Generally I am not in favor of dining plans, they don't work for me or my family (for different reasons than you) - but just trying to show that if you want to (or would anyway) focus on things like Character Meals you can make it work, but it does take some "work" to get the savings



Overall, Disney makes more money by having the dining plans - if they didn't, they wouldn't offer them

 

[tguz]

I think we would stick with the regular dining plan. One sit down meal per day is good for us. We like quick service for lunch. We have some qs that we really like and it is a lot quicker so we can get back to the action before we take a mid afternoon resort/pool break. I can see how a lot of people will like it though.

 

[DISNEY1975]

Or going to AK could be:

+ Refillable mugs - fountain beverage at quick service is $4

+ Snacks - McScrooge Sundae $7, Asian Noodle salad $7

+ for Lunch: Yak & Yeti or Rainforst Cafe $40-60

+ for Dinner: Tusker RoL Dining Pkg: $72

Total: $130+ (max possible is near $160)

HS:

+ Refillable mugs - fountain beverage at quick service is $4

+ Snacks - Herbie Nachos $6, Funnel cake $8

+ for Lunch: Sci-Fi $35-50

+ for Dinner: Hollywood & Vine or Mama Melrose $55-75

Total: You'll likely go well over $100, especially if you imbibe and/or book a dinner F! pkg.

These are leaning towards the most expensive inclusions. I'll probably need to go out of my way to give DDP+ a run for its money, lol. The potential is there.

Tusker House is $52 for an adult.
Snacks over $5 are few and far between..youd really have to search for them
You'd literally have to order the steak for lunch and smores dessert to reach $50 at Sci-Fi. All others would be $35 or a little less

So reality is $105 with those exact snacks and not getting the steak and smores dessert.

 

[Heather07438]

Personally the reg DDP still works best for us.

We like 1 TS 1Q. It would be a stretch to do 2 TS plus still want to use the snacks. QS has gotten so expensive, there are 100 of options over $20 (including 20 that go over $30). A day at MK with BoG breakfast ($40) and Crystal Palace dinner ($60) and 2 snacks would cost $110 while reg DDP is under $80.

 

[Heather07438]

Tusker House is $52 for an adult.
Snacks over $5 are few and far between..youd really have to search for them
You'd literally have to order the steak for lunch and smores dessert to reach $50 at Sci-Fi. All others would be $35 or a little less

So reality is $105 with those exact snacks and not getting the steak and smores dessert.

"These are leaning towards the most expensive inclusions."
The dining packages I cited are $72 & $74 each now. Some of what I listed didn't even include the most expensive alcohol (some included are $15). You need to go out of your way to make it worth it but the potential is there for those up to the challenge, lol. Reg DDP is a better fit for us and we can work that one

 

[sunflare]

Snacks over $5 are few and far between..youd really have to search for them

I'm not sure that's really the case anymore, if you take into account that a Starbucks drink (in all parks) can cost well over $5, and Epcot food festivals are present most weeks of the year.

 

[sharonabe]

"These are leaning towards the most expensive inclusions."
The dining packages I cited are $72 & $74 each now. Some of what I listed didn't even include the most expensive alcohol (some included are $15). You need to go out of your way to make it worth it but the potential is there for those up to the challenge, lol. Reg DDP is a better fit for us and we can work that one

Where did you find the $72 for ROL at Tusker? Disney's site says $63. It's still a value, but would like to see the $72 verified.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

I'm not sure that's really the case anymore, if you take into account that a Starbucks drink (in all parks) can cost well over $5, and Epcot food festivals are present most weeks of the year.

Exactly. A Mickey pretzel is now $6.79. a Mickey ice cream bar or ice cream sandwich is $5.39. A Dole Whip float is $5.99. $6.99 for the specialty ones. A large number of snacks are at least $5.

 

[Heather07438]

Where did you find the $72 for ROL at Tusker? Disney's site says $63. It's still a value, but would like to see the $72 verified.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...Eyv5zkUpywLcZJlalgIauzsyw/edit#gid=1072871956https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...Kb0XhCXRPN3aanBcFzrq3dSh_8/edit#gid=986492325
^These show costs of a dinner package plus an alcohol drink. Most alcohol in WDW is near $10, some offered in the plan are even $15 wines and even $21 Margaritas. I understand these are not the norms but with intention somebody could plan meals where they surpass the DDP+ price by a significant margin. DDP seems easier to do though.

Also- toggle in the first link to see TS list. You can sort columns from the ABCDE boxes. These are not 100% updated or complete but they do a pretty good job.

 

[roctavia]

How we've approached the dining plan so far, is if it will be close to what we would normally spend, then that makes it worth it.... While we may order things we wouldn't otherwise, having the dining plan makes it easier to splurge a little since it's a vacation.

When we go out to dinner in general, I rarely drink anything besides water. In part because I'm not a big soda person, but also because of the cost and I will forever in my brain be the poor college kid who needs to save money. It's not a bad thing, and if we go out and I really feel like a drink or glass of wine, I get one, but most of the time I just get water. I don't like to watch the prices and take that into consideration when ordering, but I can't help but do that out at a restaurant.

On vacation, especially at Disney, it's a special and rare occasion, so having the freedom to order a drink or a meal without thinking about it's price is kind of nice. We are more free with the snacks when the kids ask for an ice cream bar when we have 8 snack credits to use up per day etc.

So for us, we end up ordering a little more than we might if we were paying out of pocket, but that's what makes it a special, no worries vacation.

Can we have that same mentality without the dining plan? Probably, and can we just put money on a gift card and use that like a dining plan... sure... but sometimes the dining plan is still a better deal for us with character meals.

We are doing Disneyland in a few months, which doesn't have a dining plan, So I guess we'll find out how that goes soon enough

 

[siren0119]

Or going to AK could be:

+ Refillable mugs - fountain beverage at quick service is $4

+ Snacks - McScrooge Sundae $7, Asian Noodle salad $7

+ for Lunch: Yak & Yeti or Rainforst Cafe $40-60

+ for Dinner: Tusker RoL Dining Pkg: $72

Total: $130+ (max possible is near $160)

HS:

+ Refillable mugs - fountain beverage at quick service is $4

+ Snacks - Herbie Nachos $6, Funnel cake $8

+ for Lunch: Sci-Fi $35-50

+ for Dinner: Hollywood & Vine or Mama Melrose $55-75

Total: You'll likely go well over $100, especially if you imbibe and/or book a dinner F! pkg.

These are leaning towards the most expensive inclusions. I'll probably need to go out of my way to give DDP+ a run for its money, lol. The potential is there.

I noticed you added refillable mug drinks to your tally - just so I'm looking at this correctly, is this assuming you fill at the resort before heading to the parks? Refillable mugs cannot be used inside the parks, which is what threw me off with your analysis.

 

[chaoskids]

The Epcot prices in the example above are off.

Akershus Breakfast: Adult: $55.38, (includes tax)
Grade Grill Dinner: Adult $57.51, (includes tax)
Snacks $11 I used 5.50 per snack since so many snack prices have gone up.

$123.89.

We haven’t done the DDP since it included tip. We are thinking about the DxDP this year. Everyone’s comments and different perspectives is helpful.

 

[Heather07438]

How we've approached the dining plan so far, is if it will be close to what we would normally spend, then that makes it worth it.... While we may order things we wouldn't otherwise, having the dining plan makes it easier to splurge a little since it's a vacation.

When we go out to dinner in general, I rarely drink anything besides water. In part because I'm not a big soda person, but also because of the cost and I will forever in my brain be the poor college kid who needs to save money. It's not a bad thing, and if we go out and I really feel like a drink or glass of wine, I get one, but most of the time I just get water. I don't like to watch the prices and take that into consideration when ordering, but I can't help but do that out at a restaurant.

On vacation, especially at Disney, it's a special and rare occasion, so having the freedom to order a drink or a meal without thinking about it's price is kind of nice. We are more free with the snacks when the kids ask for an ice cream bar when we have 8 snack credits to use up per day etc.

So for us, we end up ordering a little more than we might if we were paying out of pocket, but that's what makes it a special, no worries vacation.

Can we have that same mentality without the dining plan? Probably, and can we just put money on a gift card and use that like a dining plan... sure... but sometimes the dining plan is still a better deal for us with character meals.

We are doing Disneyland in a few months, which doesn't have a dining plan, So I guess we'll find out how that goes soon enough

Ditto!
Out of pocket we would likely eat 1 TS & 1 QS daily and spend $70-80 each regardless. If we buy $78 DDP then we get alot more for that money. I'm not a fan of $12 cocktails but if they're a 'bonus' then I love them

I noticed you added refillable mug drinks to your tally - just so I'm looking at this correctly, is this assuming you fill at the resort before heading to the parks? Refillable mugs cannot be used inside the parks, which is what threw me off with your analysis.

I was following Max's outline and figured $4/daily was a fair estimate at 1 use a day. Without the dining plan we do buy drinks at our resort (not me I like my water but DH & DS like their cokes ). On DDP we often use the mugs twice, once in the morning and sometimes for hot cocoa or tea at night.

 

[Heather07438]

The Epcot prices in the example above are off.

Akershus Breakfast: Adult: $55.38, (includes tax)
Grade Grill Dinner: Adult $57.51, (includes tax)
Snacks $11 I used 5.50 per snack since so many snack prices have gone up.

$123.89.

We haven’t done the DDP since it included tip. We are thinking about the DxDP this year. Everyone’s comments and different perspectives is helpful.

An important thing to keep in mind is that most of the buffets do not include alcohol in the price but an alcohol drink is included in the credit. Your receipt will show $57 buffet & $12 drink, out of pocket that would cost $69 because the drink is not included in buffet price.

 

[chaoskids]

An important thing to keep in mind is that most of the buffets do not include alcohol in the price but an alcohol drink is included in the credit.

True!!

 

[Justrose]

FYI - I just spent 40 minutes on the phone with a lovely CM who was unable to apply to DDP+ option to my free dining bounceback (I had already upgraded it at the time of booking to the DDP). I would have to cancel and rebook under another discount package and I obviously don't want to do that