Going w/o DDP, but don't want to stress! Any advice?

[fiversmama]

Thanks for all the great ideas! I think having the Magic Bands and charging things that way will provide the same seamless experience for him that the DDP does. He doesn't really WORRY, but that step of taking out a wallet to pay makes him second guess, "do I REALLY need this?" and I want him to enjoy to the fullest, because the kids and I certainly plan to! And the freedom to order what we want to eat, AND DRINK (Firenog, I'm lookin' at you!) will actually be nice. I remember telling my teenager on past trips that he HAD to order a heavier main course "to maximize value," when all he really wanted was a pasta dish. I'm excited to see how we do vs. the plan prices.

 

[Pumbaa_]

Highly recommend paying yourself. Don't even let hubby see the bills. He can't stress over what he doesn't see, right?

It sounds like no ddp would be preferable for your dining style. It is really liberating to not be tied to specific dining.

 

[married2mm]

We fall in a funny place...

Dh loves ddp ( & food!) would provably happily upgrade to deluxe ddp

Dd & ds-like their food but worry over prices (even though they're not paying!)
Dd loves dessert & not big on sharing..ds not a dessert eater (like me)

Dmil loves food-but smaller portions -children's meals & adult desserts

Me-extremely selective-not a big eater-more of a grazer & could happily eat cs all vacation
When in ts restaurants-99% of the time order children's meals


For all we generally have regular dining plan-we still order apps or side dishes if anyone wants them...
We take the entree & dessert under advisement-but essentially select whatever we want and use credits wherever possible.

I really don't know what the best option is in our case - any suggestions welcome!

 

[momof2gr8kids]

How involved in the planning is your hubby and how on top of Disney dining is he? If it was mine I could easily tell him we have a special kind of dining plan that covers everything and he'd be none the wiser... lol

 

[loves to dive]

We haven't used the dining plan in over 10 years, we have APs now but before we did I would run the numbers on a room only discount/tickets and paying out of pocket for food and always came out better without it. Free dining you pay rack rate for the room, which isn't always the best way to go. We just don't look at prices on the menu and order what we want. We eat exactly like we eat at home, maybe even a little more when we are at WDW. The dining plan was just too restrictive and way too much food for us when we used to get it. I'm not a big meal eater so I tend to just order a couple of appetizers for my meal. We rarely eat dessert (at home or on vacation) so if we want one we share it. We do enjoy refreshing adult beverages, which aren't included anyway but both my son and I would rather drink water than soft drinks so that was a waste on the dining plan for us as well. I would say go for the pre-paid either visa or discounted Disney cards for the amount of the dining plan. You might actually find it less stressful than having to figure out what is considered a snack and what is included in a meal and how many credits is this one.