How are you getting the most out of DDP?

[PreppyPolyMom]

Post here your plans to get the most out of the DDP. Are you planning on......
1) sharing meals so you can eat at more places,
2) Pay OOP for some things to eat at more places,
3) order expensive menus items,
4) Pay OOP for child's means and use the TS credits for other restaurants
5) other than what is listed.....

Just curious what everyone was doing.

 

[bicker]

We're not planning on doing any of those things. The Dining Plan is pretty generous just out-of-the-box that we don't need to push it to make it worthwhile. I did a very conservative analysis of what we would have spent without the Dining Plan and it came to just over $900. The Dining Plan will cost us just under $760.

 

[SnowWitch]

There will be four from our party using the dining plan this July. Our ds will be considered adults so 4 adults. Our daughter will be one and although I have seen people post they would purchase the plan for kids this age and then use the credits on adults entrees we opted not to take this road.

The only thing we are planning is for myself and the 13 ds to share appetizer, entree, and dessert at most of the sitdowns. The dp allows for alot of food and there is no way we could each eat 4 appeti, 4 entrees, and 4 desserts. We all remember vividly how we feel every year after Le Cellier with the CandleLight Processional pkg. The 16 yo ds will eat very few of the appetizers offered at any of the locations we have chosen so in effect I will end up with my own appetizer at most restraurants.

The DH and I are going to use the credits saved for a few mommy/daddy with the meals that the boys don't care for ie. Wolfgang Pucks cafe and Rose and Crown.

The will either eat off of our plates or if they have anything she will eat on the menus we will purchase hers.

 

[PreppyPolyMom]

There will be four from our party using the dining plan this July. Our ds will be considered adults so 4 adults. Our daughter will be one and although I have seen people post they would purchase the plan for kids this age and then use the credits on adults entrees we opted not to take this road.

The only thing we are planning is for myself and the 13 ds to share appetizer, entree, and dessert at most of the sitdowns. The dp allows for alot of food and there is no way we could each eat 4 appeti, 4 entrees, and 4 desserts. We all remember vividly how we feel every year after Le Cellier with the CandleLight Processional pkg. The 16 yo ds will eat very few of the appetizers offered at any of the locations we have chosen so in effect I will end up with my own appetizer at most restraurants.

The DH and I are going to use the credits saved for a few mommy/daddy with the meals that the boys don't care for ie. Wolfgang Pucks cafe and Rose and Crown.

The will either eat off of our plates or if they have anything she will eat on the menus we will purchase hers.

That sounds wonderful! This will be our 1st time on the plan. We are not getting the free plan because we are going early August and we cannot change our dates. So I was just curious how we can "maximize" our plan. I think we will do a lot of sharing as well instead of wasting food. Thanks!

 

[formernyer]

(1) I booked my reservation for 4 people instead of 3 so that we could get the free DDP for the "extra" person (who won't actually be there).

(2) We'll be sharing all of our meals so that we can then use DS9's credits to purchase adult meals.

Between (1) and (2) we should have enough extra credits to cover our breakfasts and the last (otherwise uncovered) day of the trip.

(3) We're bringing back our refillable mug from last month so I won't have to buy another one. When we eat breakfast at the food court I'll use the mug so that we can bring home the bottled beverages that come with the meals.

(4) I know this has nothing to do with the DDP, but I also can't wait to pool hop and I'm going to take home my towel animals.

 

[bicker]

For PreppyPolyMom's benefit... formernyer is kidding. It is a running joke here on these forums some of the abuses some folks will commit in the interest of saving themselves a few bucks.

 

[NMW]

We are not really doing any of those things.

I think the dining plan is a great deal. We hate, hate the idea of meal sharing and wouldn't do that at WDW or anywhere else. We are planning on eating at a 2 TS credit meal (Flying Fish), but we are just paying OOP for one entire meal to save the credits for it. I think we decided to pay for the Cape May clam bake. It's just way easier for us that way. We will be 3 adults and 2 kids. DS 10, counts as an adult and even paying the adult price for him, it's still a great deal for our family.

As for ordering expensive items, that may have been what we would have ordered anyway, even with out the DP. It's a vacation after all, and eating great food is a big part of that for us!

 

[SnowWitch]

We are not really doing any of those things.

I think the dining plan is a great deal. We hate, hate the idea of meal sharing and wouldn't do that at WDW or anywhere else. We are planning on eating at a 2 TS credit meal (Flying Fish), but we are just paying OOP for one entire meal to save the credits for it. I think we decided to pay for the Cape May clam bake. It's just way easier for us that way. We will be 3 adults and 2 kids. DS 10, counts as an adult and even paying the adult price for him, it's still a great deal for our family.

As for ordering expensive items, that may have been what we would have ordered anyway, even with out the DP. It's a vacation after all, and eating great food is a big part of that for us!

We just cannot justify the waste that would be incurred if we didn't share some meals. My Dh and the 16 yo can easily eat what is available to them on the plan. Although the 16 yo old will rarely find an appetizer he will eat. The 13 yo and I just can't eat that much, we can easily share an appetizer plus the 16 yo's appetizer , entree, and a dessert. We often do this at home...I refuse to waste food or money. I don't find this to be a dishonest practice instead responsible.

We also took into consideration that we are going in July and don't want to be walking around in the heat stuffed to the gills.

 

[Lewisc]

Breakfast in my room. The coffee you make in your room is so much better than what you get in the food court. I'll just bring some muffins. Sharing at breakfast last trip was a big mistake, not enough eggs so we wound up eating too much of the breakfast potatoes (skillet at Pepper Market).

I'll have CS credits for lunch, TS for dinner and I don't have to worry about anything else. If I'm not hungry at lunch time and am near a CS that has large portions I might share but I'm not planning my trip around having to share. I try to buy a case of bottled water or soda. The Hess mini-market is cheap.

Last trip I had a left over CS credit which I used to get a sandwich to take to the airport.

 

[Nickymouse]

For me, I personally don't like the idea of sharing unless we genuinely are not that hungry and are interested in eating the same thing. Part of being on vacation is enjoying the meal that you want and being able to decide when you have had enough. If we have leftovers, we can always have them wrapped and brought back to the hotel for a snack for later. I just feel like I personally would not have as enjoyable a time if I was forced to share meals with DH or DS's. Just my opinion.

 

[P-Dust]

We, also, do breakfast in our room. We bring cereal/bowls from home, get milk from the gift shop. This allows us to get to the parks early and get a lot done before lunch. we have an early TS or CS at 11:00 in the park. We had 17 snack credits at the end of our trip in Dec. Plenty of food and never hungry!

 

[PreppyPolyMom]

We, also, do breakfast in our room. We bring cereal/bowls from home, get milk from the gift shop. This allows us to get to the parks early and get a lot done before lunch. we have an early TS or CS at 11:00 in the park. We had 17 snack credits at the end of our trip in Dec. Plenty of food and never hungry!

DH thinks that we should eat breakfast in our room instead of using TS credits for breakfast and maybe just have 1 special character breakfast and the rest in the room or CS. Right now we have breakfasts planned at: Kona Cafe, Cindy's Castle, and breakfastsaurus.

 

[formernyer]

DH thinks that we should eat breakfast in our room instead of using TS credits for breakfast and maybe just have 1 special character breakfast and the rest in the room or CS. Right now we have breakfasts planned at: Kona Cafe, Cindy's Castle, and breakfastsaurus.

DH is a wise man.

Breakfast is really not a great value on the DDP. I guess for people who would pay for the character breakfasts OOP anyway it's still worth it to save a couple of bucks, but it's really not going to save you much to have the plan and use the TS credits on breakfasts.

 

[SnowWitch]

For me, I personally don't like the idea of sharing unless we genuinely are not that hungry and are interested in eating the same thing. Part of being on vacation is enjoying the meal that you want and being able to decide when you have had enough. If we have leftovers, we can always have them wrapped and brought back to the hotel for a snack for later. I just feel like I personally would not have as enjoyable a time if I was forced to share meals with DH or DS's. Just my opinion.

DS and I don't feel forced, we have similiar taste so it works out great for us. For us the hassle of having leftovers wrapped up and taking them back to the room is a bit of a hassle. But thats what is great about this plan we are allowed this flexibility. DS and I just cannot eat an appetizer, entree, and a dessert by ourselves.

 

[jjjbennett]

I am traveling with , Dh and me , 2 teens and a 10 year old adult. we will all order our adult meals at lunch and dinner. We also have a 34 lb, 4 year old more interested in fun than food (When we go to MCD and get a kid's meal he usually eats 2 nuggets and gives his fries to his dad and some one else eats the rest of his nuggets while he plays with his toy) .

I am planning that if he wants to order he can.... but most likely he will share with all of us as his consumption is so low that we would just throw away his meal. I will no doubt give him my drink so he can get milk ( which he likes) and I'll drink water (which is so much better for me to consume than more soda)

My one teen is also a light eater with some digestive issues so we most definitely will have wasted food and can stuff all 6 of us on 5 credits a meal.

Since was are not leaving till late on our check out day I'm planning to use any saved child's credit from CS or TS to get us food on the last day. If my 4 year old surprises me and wants to eat his own meal (thus no saved credits) then we will just pay OOP on the last day.

Thus it is my plan to pay for the last day of adult meals with the leftover child credits but I just don't see any way that makes sense otherwise. I will no doubt be throwing food away using 5 credits for our 6 person family each meal. why order the 4 year old a meal that will also go in the trash.

Strangely I feel no ethical dilemna with my plan. It just seems appropriate in our situation. If Disney says no I will not do it but if they allow it then so be it.

 

[Pedler]

I guess we worked it backwards. We figured out how we wanted to tour the parks first, go commando TGM or whatever. That decided how we would want to eat. It ended up being TS meals in the evening with the exception of a breakfast at CP and CS meals for lunch. Breakfast is a bit of a hassel for us as we all get up a different times so that we just winged it.

Once we did that we took a look at where we wanted to eat our TS meals and determined that we had a need for 4 extra credits. As we went along we selectively paid for a few of the kids meals to cover those 4 extra credits.

As far as CS goes we really didn't plan on sharing meals or anything until we saw the size of them. It turned out that we would end up getting at most 2 adult meals and one kids meal and just split the food between the 4 of us. They were just too big. That gave us some extra CS credits to use for breakfast. Edited to add. The only lunch CS exception was we would get 3 adult CS meals at Pizzafari and Pizza Planet. It was just beyond comprehension to got to Pizza Planet and not get Pizza for the kids. I have heard there are reasons why they don't have kids pizzas there but it was the one area where we "abused" the system and used bought an adult meal for the kids to split.

As far as choosing where we wanted to eat it was totally based on where we were going to be and the menu. We probably could have eaten at more expensive places but I don't think we would have enjoyed ourselves as much. We worked the dinning in so that we didn't have to zig zag out of our way to get to someplace.

Keep in mind we are by no means Disney foodies or have and must go to places, except for the character meals of course!

 

[Priorityonecb]

The only thing I want out of the dining plan is no stress for dh. I want it all paid for and he can kick back, relax, enjoy our meals without worrying about price. I want my girls to go to resturaunts we will enjoy and order whatever their little hearts desire (big or small).

I've done the calculations, I do believe we will get our monies worth on the plan. But, the stress free atmosphere is the main perk of the plan for us.

 

[JimDearandDarling]

Well....it is me, hubby and our to sons (7 and 5) they are not very big eaters at all....they share a happy meal at mcdonalds....we plan on them sharing a meal at the cs which we will be doing for lunch...and so with thier extra credits we will let them share a counter service breakfast...hubby and I don't do breakfast so we will be fine.

At the TS they will each have thier own meal...yeah they could share but I know they will each want thier own desserts and I could pay out of pocket but I figure we will have more than enough food and will probably have some credits left over so I'm not worring about it

My sil/bil are going with us with thier kids...thier daughter is considered an "adult" she is 10 they have a 9 year old son...who is a giant eater so they bought the 3 adults 1 child plan...and the son will more than likely order an adult meal and the daughter order of the kids meal. But i really have no problem with this because they pd for three adults and child and thiers what they are ordering.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Not doing any of those things.

Paying out of pocket to get extra ts meals.
It's a ton of food anyway and getting an extra one of these in by paying OOP is not all that great a financial move because You'll probably be leaving CS or snack credits on the back end
Paying out of pocket for the kids to get extra ts mea.s
You're still spending money out of your pocket to get an extra meal in. Though not as much money as above, you still have to pay for the kid at one of your dining plan choices to get one adult a meal at the extra choice. And you'd still have to pay for the kid at the extra choice too. Again, you're likely to have cs credits left at the back end.
Sharing. This is the way I would suggest to bank credits, especially if you like 3 meals a day instead of 2. You can split your counter breakfasts, then split your counter lunches and have a nice dinner. But I wouldn't plan on doing too much of it to get EXTRA meals in. I might do it to get a SIGNITURE MEAL in instead of one of the others. What we did last year is share some counters to fill in a gap because we had one signiture meal leaving us one day without a ts. And we still had one cs and 4 snacks with which be bought stuff for the trip home. This year I have a last day breakfast planned. If there are any places where DS doesn't want something on the kids menu, we'll bank that credit and share off our plates and use the credit there. But we aren't going in planning to do this.
Getting the most expensive items. No. If I want something else I'll get it. It may be the most expensive, it may not. The object is to maximize satisfaction, not necessarily the menu cost of the food.

 

[Pedler]

The only thing I want out of the dining plan is no stress for dh. I want it all paid for and he can kick back, relax, enjoy our meals without worrying about price. I want my girls to go to resturaunts we will enjoy and order whatever their little hearts desire (big or small).

I've done the calculations, I do believe we will get our monies worth on the plan. But, the stress free atmosphere is the main perk of the plan for us.

That was probably the biggest benefit to us. I know that we saved some money with it but not having to do the mental calulations or look at the menu prices to decide where we want to eat made it much more relaxing. There are some people that just spend whatever they want when they go on vacation and don't worry about the cost. We generally establish a food budget and try to keep within it. With the DDP that budget was pretty much already set for us. No worries at all.

It actually is going to be a factor next year when we go. We are looking at buying into a timeshare point system that has some very nice resorts right outside of Disney and we could get a 2 bedroom unit for much less than a room at a delux would cost us. But we would have to rent a car and fend for our own meals. Using ME, disneys transportation and the DDP made last years vacation so relaxing that it is hard to want to stay off site even if it mean better accomodations for less money.