laprana
06-12-2008, 02:36 PM
We just returned from a great WDW trip from May 29 to June 9, and we had the basic DDP for our trip. I was a little worried about how this new DDP would work for our family. We had been on the DDP in 2006 and 2007 (twice) and really enjoyed it with the appetizers and the tips included, so we were skeptical about how great it would be without those things. And, we were leery of how good of a bargain it would be for our group (4 adults) since we had to pay out of pocket for the tips. The good news is that, at least for our group, the new DDP was great! We had very few problems at all with it and any problem we had was pretty minor.
It turned out that we didn't really miss the appetizers at all for our TS meals. In fact, we all commented several times that we didn't feel so stuffed at the end of the meal as we did with the apps. The only thing we did miss was trying new apps that we would have tried on the old DDP (of course, we could have just paid OOP for anything we really wanted to try!).
The tip situation turned out to be no big deal at all for us. We only had one instance where our waiter asked us how we wanted to pay for the tip when he brought us our bill. It was at the Coral Reef, and we could tell that he was really embarrassed and felt pretty bad about having to ask. In fact, after we told him we'd be leaving cash, he apologized for asking and said the only reason he did was because his manager told all the servers they have to ask now. But, we didn't experience that at any of the other 10 TS places we ate. We just got the bill, paid with our key to the world, and left a cash tip with our signed receipt. No problem at all! There wasn't much consistency with how the servers addressed the tip situation at the TS places we went to. Sometimes there would be a card in the bill holder that said tips were no longer included. Sometimes the server mentioned it up front when they were explaining what came with our DDP. Sometimes there was no mention of it at all, except for the suggested tip amounts of 18% and 20% printed on the bill. And then there was the one case where the server asked how we wanted to pay for it. It does seem like they should come up with something consistent that is used at all the TS places.
We noticed a significant improvement in the service we received from the past 2 years on the DDP. I really believe that this is diretly related to the tips no longer being included in the plan. The only place we had a pretty poor waiter was at Crystal Palace, but everywhere else we had excellent servers. Maybe we just got lucky? But I really think it's because we could decide how much tip we left.
The only real problem we had with the DDP was the snack credits. Before, we had always had a lot of credits at the end of the trip and we just used them to get bags of candy (Like Goofy's Candy Co. gummies, chewy Sprees, etc.) or snacks (like bags of Chip 'N Dale's pretzels or cheese crackers) to take home with us on the plane. Unfortunately, you can't do this anymore. They have changed the rules for snack credits from anything under $4, and now snacks can only be something that is a single serving and under $4. This means snack credits are now only good for things like small candy bars, sodas, bottles of water, Dole Whips, frozen lemonades, etc. I tried to get a $1.75 candy bar that was actually two pieces in one package, and I couldn't have it because it was technically more than 1 serving. They are really strict about it, too, but the resorts seem to be a tiny bit more lenient than the parks. We were pretty bummed about the new snack credit rules.
We still wish that Disney had reduced the DDP price more than $1 with all the changes they made to it this year, but overall, it was still a good value for our family and saved us some money. Not as much as before, but some is better than none. :thumbsup: I'm anxious to see what they come up with for the 2009 version!
It turned out that we didn't really miss the appetizers at all for our TS meals. In fact, we all commented several times that we didn't feel so stuffed at the end of the meal as we did with the apps. The only thing we did miss was trying new apps that we would have tried on the old DDP (of course, we could have just paid OOP for anything we really wanted to try!).
The tip situation turned out to be no big deal at all for us. We only had one instance where our waiter asked us how we wanted to pay for the tip when he brought us our bill. It was at the Coral Reef, and we could tell that he was really embarrassed and felt pretty bad about having to ask. In fact, after we told him we'd be leaving cash, he apologized for asking and said the only reason he did was because his manager told all the servers they have to ask now. But, we didn't experience that at any of the other 10 TS places we ate. We just got the bill, paid with our key to the world, and left a cash tip with our signed receipt. No problem at all! There wasn't much consistency with how the servers addressed the tip situation at the TS places we went to. Sometimes there would be a card in the bill holder that said tips were no longer included. Sometimes the server mentioned it up front when they were explaining what came with our DDP. Sometimes there was no mention of it at all, except for the suggested tip amounts of 18% and 20% printed on the bill. And then there was the one case where the server asked how we wanted to pay for it. It does seem like they should come up with something consistent that is used at all the TS places.
We noticed a significant improvement in the service we received from the past 2 years on the DDP. I really believe that this is diretly related to the tips no longer being included in the plan. The only place we had a pretty poor waiter was at Crystal Palace, but everywhere else we had excellent servers. Maybe we just got lucky? But I really think it's because we could decide how much tip we left.
The only real problem we had with the DDP was the snack credits. Before, we had always had a lot of credits at the end of the trip and we just used them to get bags of candy (Like Goofy's Candy Co. gummies, chewy Sprees, etc.) or snacks (like bags of Chip 'N Dale's pretzels or cheese crackers) to take home with us on the plane. Unfortunately, you can't do this anymore. They have changed the rules for snack credits from anything under $4, and now snacks can only be something that is a single serving and under $4. This means snack credits are now only good for things like small candy bars, sodas, bottles of water, Dole Whips, frozen lemonades, etc. I tried to get a $1.75 candy bar that was actually two pieces in one package, and I couldn't have it because it was technically more than 1 serving. They are really strict about it, too, but the resorts seem to be a tiny bit more lenient than the parks. We were pretty bummed about the new snack credit rules.
We still wish that Disney had reduced the DDP price more than $1 with all the changes they made to it this year, but overall, it was still a good value for our family and saved us some money. Not as much as before, but some is better than none. :thumbsup: I'm anxious to see what they come up with for the 2009 version!