Has anyone used the DDP while staying at FW?

Hi everyone! I am bumping this. We are a little over a month away from booking our ADRs and as this is going to be a super heavy character meal trip for my littles I just crunched the numbers and going dining plan will totally be saving us money. I think it'll save even MORE than I calculate when I factor in that DH and I will likely now also order an adult beverage a few times and all the snacks we will get. I don't think my Garden Grocer (or whoever we use) will be very big except for coffee, milk and maybe a few diapers so I don't have to fly with tons of stuff (I need coffee the second I wake up). So I am bumping in case there is anyone else in the same boat as me or who would like to share their experiences with DP at the Fort! I like the idea of taking the boat over to WL and using their QS too. Any word on if the food truck at the sing a long can be used as snack credits? I am also wondering if P&J's Southern Takeout can be used as a QS credit.
Yes is a CS plus some extras that can be snacks. Been there done that a number of times. Even taken to tables near beach to wait for fireworks
 
Betty Rohrer offers a great idea. We in our last few trips have taken picking up some take out from P&J's and going down to the lakeside to watch Electric Water Parade and or Fireworks in MK that go off over the Contemporary Resort. Nice change of pace when we want a down evening but still want some DISNEY magic
 
Hi everyone! I am bumping this. We are a little over a month away from booking our ADRs and as this is going to be a super heavy character meal trip for my littles I just crunched the numbers and going dining plan will totally be saving us money. I think it'll save even MORE than I calculate when I factor in that DH and I will likely now also order an adult beverage a few times and all the snacks we will get. I don't think my Garden Grocer (or whoever we use) will be very big except for coffee, milk and maybe a few diapers so I don't have to fly with tons of stuff (I need coffee the second I wake up). So I am bumping in case there is anyone else in the same boat as me or who would like to share their experiences with DP at the Fort! I like the idea of taking the boat over to WL and using their QS too. Any word on if the food truck at the sing a long can be used as snack credits? I am also wondering if P&J's Southern Takeout can be used as a QS credit.

All I can do is strongly urge you to do is dump the DDP and just buy gift cards for the amount you would spend on the DDP. The worst thing you can do is to try pricing out how much you think would save with the DDP. It never works out and your plans change when you are on vacation. At least with the gift cards you don’t have to worry about all of the silly rules and restrictions of the DDP and you can eat wherever you want and even if the place doesn’t take DDP credits. Plus you can use all the money left over on the gift cards for other things you can’t buy with DDP credits or save your money for the next trip which you can’t do with DDP.
 
All I can do is strongly urge you to do is dump the DDP and just buy gift cards for the amount you would spend on the DDP. The worst thing you can do is to try pricing out how much you think would save with the DDP. It never works out and your plans change when you are on vacation. At least with the gift cards you don’t have to worry about all of the silly rules and restrictions of the DDP and you can eat wherever you want and even if the place doesn’t take DDP credits. Plus you can use all the money left over on the gift cards for other things you can’t buy with DDP credits or save your money for the next trip which you can’t do with DDP.
because the grandkids want to do a lot of character meals DDP works out for us over the gift cards plus a couple of the places that they like besides character meals do not take GCs from what I was told so sometimes the DDP does save money
 


All I can do is strongly urge you to do is dump the DDP and just buy gift cards for the amount you would spend on the DDP. The worst thing you can do is to try pricing out how much you think would save with the DDP. It never works out and your plans change when you are on vacation. At least with the gift cards you don’t have to worry about all of the silly rules and restrictions of the DDP and you can eat wherever you want and even if the place doesn’t take DDP credits. Plus you can use all the money left over on the gift cards for other things you can’t buy with DDP credits or save your money for the next trip which you can’t do with DDP.

Thank you for your advice, I did price out the price out of pocket for our character buffet ADRs and added a low ball number we’d spend additionally on food either through Garden Grocer or snacking in the parks and the dining plan was $100 cheaper. Our ADRs won’t be changing last minute as there is a cancellation penalty with Disney within 24 hours. So we decided to go for DP. I’d be happy to come back here and update post trip. If you have used the DP at FW and would like to talk about what your food choices were, etc, I’d love to hear it. Not looking for any debates. Thanks
 
Thank you for your advice, I did price out the price out of pocket for our character buffet ADRs and added a low ball number we’d spend additionally on food either through Garden Grocer or snacking in the parks and the dining plan was $100 cheaper. Our ADRs won’t be changing last minute as there is a cancellation penalty with Disney within 24 hours. So we decided to go for DP. I’d be happy to come back here and update post trip. If you have used the DP at FW and would like to talk about what your food choices were, etc, I’d love to hear it. Not looking for any debates. Thanks

Changes aren't about cancelling ADR's, its about what is ordered at each restaurant. What people who favor the DDP refuse to admit is that it is next to impossible to actually spend the amount of the DDP for each person in your party every day for the length of your trip if you pay OOP. In most restaurants, if you pay OOP (with gift cards) you can order the most expensive thing on the menus for every meal and still not break even on the cost of the DDP. Besides the extreme cost of the DDP, what gets everyone is the amount of waste built into the DDP. For our family, we are not huge soft drink people. Not that we won't drink soft drinks on occasion, we just prefer ice water. That alone saves us almost $20 for every meal we eat. A lot of times we will order the most expensive entrée; but, not with every meal. Rarely, will every single person in our party want their own dessert. With the kids, they aren't 21 so the cost of their alcoholic beverage is wasted on the DDP. Our trips always include at least 2 character meals and usually at least 1 signature meal. Sometimes, my wife or I will split a meal with one of the kids because we just aren't that hungry, especially if we ate at a character meal earlier in the day. We purchase gift cards for the amount the DDP would have cost us; but, when purchasing the gift cards we get a percentage off of the gift card because of loyalty points we earn from the retail store we purchase them at. We order whatever we want whenever we want without regard for price and at the end of out trip we usually have at least 20-30% the value of the cards left.
 
Thank you for your advice, I did price out the price out of pocket for our character buffet ADRs and added a low ball number we’d spend additionally on food either through Garden Grocer or snacking in the parks and the dining plan was $100 cheaper. Our ADRs won’t be changing last minute as there is a cancellation penalty with Disney within 24 hours. So we decided to go for DP. I’d be happy to come back here and update post trip. If you have used the DP at FW and would like to talk about what your food choices were, etc, I’d love to hear it. Not looking for any debates. Thanks
You're using the plan when it will probably save you money. You have kids under 9 and you're planning lots of character meals. Also keep in mind that QS credits are not divided up into kid and adult categories. Don't feel like you have to order a kids meal when using QS credits.

You can use snack credits at the trading posts too to get a bunch of different items. They have the goofy candy company bags and ice cream bars. I'm sure other things were marked as snack credits but I can't remember specifically what they were.
 


We have actually done both. We bought the DDP and used discounted gift cards or Disney Visa at the restaurants that have discounts. Both saved us $, it was just up to our needs that trip. Having kids and doing character meals sounds like a good reason for the DDP to save you $ for your trip. Have a great trip Beachmom and bon appetit.
 
We just returned from a stay in a cabin at the Fort with the QS dining plan. It was our first time to use the QS plan and our first time to stay at FW. We had a few breakfast things in our cabin like bagels and cream cheese and some snacks, but otherwise we ate in the parks or resort QS places. The burger at the chuckwagon at the campfire was tasty but we took the pork belly off. It seemed like extra fatty undercooked bacon. We did pay oop for a Trail's End dinner and a breakfast which were good as always. Really likes the strawberry cake, carved brisket and ribs! We were planning to try P&J's Southern Takeout, but by the last evening we were kind of tired of that kind of food, so we took the boat over to Wilderness lodge. We at the take out counter at Geyser Point which may have been my favorite meal of the trip. There is a check-in podium at the entrance to the bar and grill, (the covered area) and he would not let us sit in there with quick service food from the take-out window. I had heard that people did that, but maybe it was a different time of day or maybe they have changed it so they have more seating available for the people ordering table service. Anyway it worked out fine for us. We ordered our food then walked to a set of tables with umbrellas right between the salon building and the geyser. The geyser went off while I was sitting there. There is a little stream right by the fence and three different kinds of water birds came and waded around, and we had a view of the lake. A very pretty and relaxing setting! The turkey sandwich with cranberry mayo was delicious! The turkey was thick sliced and tasted like leftover thanksgiving turkey, and the bread was a multigrain sliced bread. My husband had the crab cake sandwich which was also delicious. We had the waffle fries and the house made chips, but liked the waffle fries best. They were very crispy and perhaps battered with a bit of cornmeal or something. A little different and very good. They also offered a tasty berry smoothie thing that I really liked and counted as my drink on the dining plan. She gave me a free sample first. After the meal we took the boat to Magic Kingdom.

I will agree with what others have said that we used our mugs very little this trip, once on our arrival day and once when we went to the campfire. We could have used them at Wilderness Lodge, but we don't like to carry them around at the parks.
 

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