Anyone still FAVOR the 2008 DDP?

[cperry92380]

Anyone out there still favor the 2008 DDP changes vs. not getting the plan at all?
I've heard all of the negatives and complaints of the changes (and I have complaints of my own too...), but is there anyone out there who still thinks the DDP will be a good deal vs. paying out of pocket?

[medic9016]

We were thinking if you wanted to do alot of the 2 credit restaurants, hop dee do or luau. The deluxe may not be to bad. But other than that they both are no longer a good deal.

[wedway fan]

we've signed up for the plan for our april trip. some very simplified number crunching on my part tells me i'll be just under breaking even, and will save probably no more than $50-100 overall. that's still 50-100 bucks in my pocket, along with the convenience of pre-paid meals.

it's all about where you eat- if you hit the higher-end CS places and use your TS meals for mostly dinners, you'll do fine. if you just eat at food courts and character buffets, it's a loss.

[Samtastic]

I did the number crunching as well, and it's still a deal for me; 15-25% savings. It's not a super duper lot, but hey, it's savings! True I probably wouldn't order or eat at all those places if I wasn't on the plan, but I want to eat at those places and this plan makes it's possible.

I mean $38 isn't ridiculous per day--(Come on, anyone watch $40 a day??)

I think you just need to check out where you want to eat and what you want to eat, and do the math--plus I think planning my food is fun!!

[vicster]

The no appetizer doesn't bother me as much as no tip included on the dining plan. I really like the convenience of having the tip included so that money has to be factored in also.

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

We went for the deluxe dining plan for our May 2008 trip.

When we started to crunch all of the $$'s, it looked like we would come out a bit ahead, and get to try a bunch of places (2 TS) that we wouldn't have on the "regular" plan, or OOP.

So, for us, it will save a bit, and I love having all of the food paid for..so no one has to worry about what they are ordering.

Overall, Disney is an expensive trip, but it isn't outrageous!

[Seasonscraps]

I think the DDP is still a savings, just not what we were used to when the dining plan was first introduced.

I haven't paid close attention to menu prices but I am sure they went up along with everything else at Disney which will only increase the value of the DDP even with tips & appetizers excluded.

[TheRustyScupper]

How can anyone favor a 24%-28% price increase with no extra goods/services?

[irish1967]

How can anyone favor a 24%-28% price increase with no extra goods/services?

It isn't a matter of favoring the changes, but if the Dining Plan is going to save us money, then we will still choose to participate, even if we won't save as much as we have previously. We will be number crunching based on our typical dining habits and while we won't save as much, we may still be saving some compared to paying OOP for the meals.

We would definitely prefer the original dining plan, but the changes are what they are.
Our dining choices will guide whether or not we do the DDP next summer. And if it works in our favor - it will be better than nothing.

[Natazu]

I don't feel the basic dining plan is a very good value anymore. The Deluxe plan (for us - two adults) is pretty good, though. We'll probably do it.

For long trips, it's really hard to beat the AP/DDE combo for TS dining.

[poeticeclipse]

The Deluxe plan is a ridiculous amount of food and a big waste of time IMHO. I like to chill out once during the day and have a good TS meal. Just once... otherwise I spend most of my day traveling and planning around where i'm eating for every meal. With just one TS meal to look forward to a day, you can schedule a specific TS restaurant for what park you plan to be in on any given day.

After spending a couple of days crunching numbers, I know that for my husband and I, it will still be a savings to participate in the DDP. I have yet to find someone that has crunched numbers and had it NOT come out to still be a deal. Sure, it's not as much of a savings as the last couple of years' plan but, you take what you can.

In case anyone is wondering how I figured it, I plugged in 7 days of TS and CS restaurants to give a varying cost because some restaurants we love are $$ and some are $$$. We have a general rule of thumb as to what we get at certain restaurants. I also plugged in snacks that we would receive on the DDP. After tip was included I had a grand total of how much it would cost for us to use the DDP and how much it would cost us to pay that out of pocket. Obviously, big difference.

Logically, we wouldn't order the same amount of food at the same restaurants if we weren't on the DDP. That is just too expensive. So, I picked the same TS restaurants but only got an entree and sometimes split a dessert (you just can't go to Coral Reef without a chocolate wave). With the CS meals we would only get an entree once a day. Drinks I didn't count because we only drink water anyways. Breakfast we could eat in our room (bring pop-tarts from home). The amount doing this compared to what we would spend on the DDP was only a two dollar difference overall. I'm going to stick with my DDP even if I don't feel it's as good as in previous years.

[DisneyTwinsMommy]

We will use the DDP if I can get it for free next year... I did crunch numbers, and we would be eating at only family-style or buffet locations (with 2 children under 3, it would be costly to pay OOP for meals for them) We all know that buffets are not the most economically use of the DDP, so... we'll use it if it is free, if not, we will pay OOP like we used to...

[ldn324]

When I broke the DP news to DH, he said "well, enjoy it this trip because it's the last time we will do it". I have to agree. Yes, probably somewhere in there will still be some degree of savings, but nowhere near what it is now (which is probably why they are changing it).

If I had the option of choosing an appetizer or a dessert, maybe I'd consider. But I'm not a "sweets" person and often times the appetizer is the best part of the meal. Plus the whole idea for us was to have the entire meal paid for and not have to worry for anything (if much) out of pocket.

The only positive I see is for the servers who will possibly get better tips. We usually tip 20% for decent service. Of course, this isn't a benefit to us now to pay that out of pocket.

I see us not using the DP after 2007, eating far less (which is not a bad thing) and eating off-site more often.

[Spaceship Tigger]

For long trips, it's really hard to beat the AP/DDE combo for TS dining.

According to my past number crunching, the previous DDP couldn't even beat a decent AP/DDE combo if you were staying in a deluxe resort. It was sort of a wash if you were in a moderate.

We've used the DDP twice but it was during free dining both times. I never would have given up the AP discounts to pay for it - it wouldn't have been worth it. The upcoming changes just make it an even worse deal.

[Rodders]

It wasn't even worth it for us on last years plan. The only reason I went for it on the 08 plan was because we are going during next years free dining period.

[garthbarth1]

DH and I were there in Sept. and we did have the dining plan.(not free, though). It was great to know that our meals were paid for before we left. But I do not think that we would do it again because of two main reasons: #1- It was just to much food! Neither one of us eat an appetizer, entree and desert at every meal on a daily basis. Occasionally we will split one or the other. Many times we turned away our dessert because we were so full. Neither one of us eat breakfast, so we didnt have to worry about using certain credits for certain meal times. When we have gone to WDW before we have always eaten counter service meals and have never ordered a dessert..we would usually get a specialty dessert, (ice cream bar, cookie sandwich)-so I wasnt overly thrilled with the premade dessert cups. Because there was so much food at the regular meals, we still had two snack credits left on the day we departed....we ended up getting bottled waters for the trip to the airport..not very exciting!
With previous trips, we have always tried to get into TS restaurants when we got there if something looked interesting-but most times they were all booked, and that was ok with us. Which brings us to #2-We too, felt VERY tied down by our ADR. I felt like we lost some of the "vacation feel" because we were always trying to ride/see things "before we have to get to lunch," or "so that we make it to dinner on time." We are free spirited and want to decided each day where we want to go-but with ADR I felt that our vacation was ruled by that and I did not like it. Plus, we like to eat when we are hungry...a lot of times our ADR were around noon (BC thats all we could get) and we had just gotten up around 11 am and we were not even hungry yet. If we didnt take that I dont know what else we would have used for our TS meals.(we used TS for both lunch and dinner) I also do not like planning that much out...I dont know what I am going to eat 6 hours from now let alone 6 months! But when I called there were not a lot of options so I had to take what I could get.
I think if you are a person who likes to eat, than this current dining plan is a good deal. We arent big eaters, -when we go to Vegas and go to Buffets, they are definitley making money on us bc we never eat $28.00 worth of food! Looking at the prices, DH and I could have each ordered an entree and a Coke at the TS meals with no dessert and tip, and a combo meal at a CS with no dessert, and eat dessert at the park for less money than we paid for the dining plan. On top of that, we were not overly thrilled with the TS meals...they were all just ok-not great, there was not anything that "Wowed" us. That, with losing our flexibility during the day has made us decide that we will not be doing the DDP next year.

[goofysbabe]

We will still do the DDP. It will still be some of a savings for us. Our children are still young and can't finish meals, my husband and I share meals to so we share lunches and use vouchers for a breakfast to share, and everyone gets his/her own dinner. Everytime we have gone to WDW the weather has been hot and we just don't eat the amount of food that we do in cooler weather. Plus we are snacking on and off all day. It just works out better for us in the end.

[JoRy]

Although, like most everyone else, it stinks they have done away with the tip included, as well as the appetizer, however we are still going to do it for one reason...Character meals. We try to do one character meal a day, and since most of those are buffets, the appetizer and large tip issue do not really apply. The time we are going (right after New Years) is still during the holiday mark-up time as well, and all the character meals are marked up. When I looked at what all we were doing, we were paying less for some of the character meals for the daily plan, and therefore getting the counter service and snack for free. Sounds like a good deal to me. Also...I am the type of person who tends to overtip, so even though the tip was included before, if someone was extra good, I would tip them some more anyway.

[Figgyluv03]

I did some number crunching with the DDP and we should make out pretty good. DBf will probably eat steak or flounder every night, and so with him along we will be saving money. We never did the DDP (the last time I was there I was a CM & DBf has never been), so we can't really compair to the old way. The only thing I notice with DBf and I when we go out to eat is that we'd rather have an app than a dessert, but we can suffer.

[mermaidmarian]

I have always thought of the DDP as kind of a "loss leader" from the Disney perspective. They were willing to take a loss on the food to get people back into the resorts and the parks, and particularly, for longer stays. I imagine that the deal on dining enabled many families to make a trip to WDW that they would otherwise have been unable to make, and for a significant percentage of that number, that would be a first trip. The odds favor that it would not be the last trip. The fact that Disney is bringing the DDP more in line with actual costs suggests that they feel they no longer need this incentive to bring in new guests and/or to fill resorts and the parks. This is a good thing.

The DDP was never for us - it didn't suit our eating habits or our vacation style. I won't be sad to see it wane though; it might have been a savings for some people but I found it a big pain in the neck and it's overall impact on dining did detract from my enjoyment of our most recent two trips.