Would you do the DDP? (Plus a DVC question)

Thanks for this. I wish I kept my receipts but I swear I didn't pay that much in December. Does anyone have any confirmation of these prices? I see this article came out in the fall when Disney raised food prices across the board. Just wondering if it's accurate.
Touring plans also lists lunch/dinner for CP at 52 plus tax per adult as of 10/16. I didn't check all of them, but that at least is consistent with his numbers.
 
Biergarten and Tusker House are the only two buffet style meals that I'm aware of that are priced differently from lunch to dinner....and Tusker House is only about $2 cheaper for lunch.

Been that way for a couple of years now.
 
Biergarten and Tusker House are the only two buffet style meals that I'm aware of that are priced differently from lunch to dinner....and Tusker House is only about $2 cheaper for lunch.

Been that way for a couple of years now.

Biergarten is actually the same price for lunch and dinner now. It changed in October, I think.
 
You have 9 people going, are you all staying in one room?

If there are two rooms you could consider buying the DDP for just one of the rooms and sharing credits. Use the credits just for the buffets and more expensive QS, OOP for everything else.

If you are all in one room, and would then have to buy it for everyone, it's probably better to skip it. It will most likely not save you any money (maybe cost you more), but also it will rule over your group. A group that size will do better without confinements.
 


You have 9 people going, are you all staying in one room?

If there are two rooms you could consider buying the DDP for just one of the rooms and sharing credits. Use the credits just for the buffets and more expensive QS, OOP for everything else.

If you are all in one room, and would then have to buy it for everyone, it's probably better to skip it. It will most likely not save you any money (maybe cost you more), but also it will rule over your group. A group that size will do better without confinements.

We’ll all be in a grand villa together so we’d all have to do it.

You make a good point - We do all like to wing it and with kitchen in the villa, sometimes we make a quick meal there rather than buying QS. We don’t really plan out when we leave the parks - just kind of when the kids are ready. I suspect we would maybe have leftover QS at the end if we did the DDP. Sometimes we do just like to hang out there when the kids are tired and make a couple pizzas or something.
 
We’ll all be in a grand villa together so we’d all have to do it.

You make a good point - We do all like to wing it and with kitchen in the villa, sometimes we make a quick meal there rather than buying QS. We don’t really plan out when we leave the parks - just kind of when the kids are ready. I suspect we would maybe have leftover QS at the end if we did the DDP. Sometimes we do just like to hang out there when the kids are tired and make a couple pizzas or something.

It sounds like the flexibility of paying OOP would be better for this trip, we rarely do the dining plan because it is just not flexible enough for how we like to eat, it feels very restrictive to me, and sometimes we don't feel like leaving the resort and want the option to just head to a lounge and snack or some other thing that is not covered by the DDP. If I were booking a grand villa I would probably want to hang out there a good bit, as those rooms are gorgeous, and I would not want to feel like I was wasting money by not using credits. Good luck deciding, and have a great vacation!
 


Are the package meals, Fantasmic, Lion King, etc . considered one table service credit ?

Depends on the restaurant. Tiffins RoL is two, while Tusker is one. Fantasmic is one at H&V, two at Brown Derby.

Edit: Lion King is not DDP eligible.

And, not that you asked about it specifcially, but the Rose & Crown one for illuminations isn't DDP eligible.
 
Given your situation, doing a lot of sit-down dining, getting Tables In Wonderland is probably your best bet - assuming you are a DVC member or annual pass holder. That nets you a 20% discount (including alcohol) at the sit down places, and still leaves you flexibility and kitchen use for the rest. Be sure to factor in the $150 cost for Tables In Wonderland into your math. We just did a similar trip (9 people, about the same number of sit down meals) and found TIW to be very cost effective saving us several $100.

In general DDP doesn't make sense unless you are able to spread the credits between more people. For example, we're heading to WDW in a couple of weeks - if we got DDP we'd have to pay for 28 person/days. But our group has 41 person/days of bodies to feed. So, in this case the DDP starts to look attractive.
 
My other question is - we are DVC. Can we still mobile order having booked the DDP with DVC? I know DVC cannot track credits on the MDE app, but can we do mobile ordering still?

The DDP is new territory for us, so any input is helpful. Thanks!
Yes, you can mobile order and you absolutely CAN track your credits on the MDE app, it just takes a little more work when you are DVC. Basically you have to pretend you are mobile ordering somewhere and then you can view all of your dining credits, this does mean that you can only track your dining credits in the app if there is a QS with mobile order still open (late at night I usually used Deluxe Burger).

As for if the plan saves money or not, that depends on you, we usually find that it saves us about $150 over two weeks, although this last trip was closer to $500 due to increased food prices and the fact the cost of the dining plan didn't go up, so not usually a huge savings, but we like knowing our food is paid for, so even if we loose a little on it, we are fine. The trick is make sure you use ALL credits, if nothing else if you have leftover credits, convert them to snacks and get prepackaged snacks you can take home.
 
Given your situation, doing a lot of sit-down dining, getting Tables In Wonderland is probably your best bet - assuming you are a DVC member or annual pass holder. That nets you a 20% discount (including alcohol) at the sit down places, and still leaves you flexibility and kitchen use for the rest. Be sure to factor in the $150 cost for Tables In Wonderland into your math. We just did a similar trip (9 people, about the same number of sit down meals) and found TIW to be very cost effective saving us several $100.

In general DDP doesn't make sense unless you are able to spread the credits between more people. For example, we're heading to WDW in a couple of weeks - if we got DDP we'd have to pay for 28 person/days. But our group has 41 person/days of bodies to feed. So, in this case the DDP starts to look attractive.
A 20% discount doesn't really help anymore since many of the food prices increased by 40% this last year and the dining plan did not, so be sure to recheck the numbers with the current prices.
 
Thanks for this. I wish I kept my receipts but I swear I didn't pay that much in December. Does anyone have any confirmation of these prices? I see this article came out in the fall when Disney raised food prices across the board. Just wondering if it's accurate.
Yep, they raised more prices again at the beginning of the year and I believe that is when they raised the prices on these.
 

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