Anyone still FAVOR the 2008 DDP?

[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.

[MickeyandTink]

We had the free dining plan in Sept. & we booked b-4 we left for late Sept-early Oct & will get the free dining plan 2008. Doing it this way it is cost effective for us. I think tho looking at the bills for dining it still is a deal (tho not nearly as good) I am hoping for better service in 2008 due to some very poor & slow service and at Cali Grill & the new Italian rest. With the tip not included maybe they will keep things flowing better during our dinners. This will also help me decide if I would ever purchase the DDP in the future. I would rather eat in the food courts a few nites and pick a couple of our favorite restaurants and pay out of pocket.

Going this year and using the DDP was a great learning experience. We are likewise booked for free dining next September and plan to have a couple of days with just CS and then schedule one or two 2TS credit meals.

It's obviously not as good a deal as the 2007 plan, but still works out as the best discount for our family since we plan on staying at a value again (unless we can afford to upgrade to a moderate).

[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.

[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.

[ryca1dreams]

As for the tip, yeah, I wish it was still included. However, IT'S WHAT WE ASKED FOR. I've read countless posts talking about service declining because there servers weren't working for the tip, and it wasn't fair to the servers, yadda, yadda, yadda. So to me, while I'd rather it still be included, I see it as we got what we asked for, now we'll just have to deal with it..... or choose not to use the DDP.

I'm not sure where those complaints came came from. I checked my receipts when I could and when they were itemized out, it showed the tip as being 18% (for a party of 3). I still gave more for good service which I always had. I never had bad service - and this was during the "busy" free dining plan month of September. Maybe some people just expect more. (?)

[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.

[Bri]

i still think it's a pretty good deal. granted we will be paying tips out of pocket, there is a good possibility we won't be paying 18% since most of the service doesn't warrant 18%. I figured out for 2 adults eating a table service every night (which we don't, but that's worst case scenerio) it will cost us an about an extra $70 in tips if we pay 18% each time. It does stink that there are no long apps included but honestly that was way to much food, especially on hot days (we usually go in september). It's much more convenient to get the ddp and pay some extra for tips rather than try to figure out a food budget, I don't want to worry about that. Also, it's only about $266 per person for 7 days. If we didn't get the ddp I think we would end up paying much more than that out of pocket, especially at the places that require 2 table service credits.

[thejens]

I am mad about the tips and appetizer change. I would rather pay a little more and have it all included. I think one better option is to give the choice between the appetizer and dessert. I also think a better change might be to eliminate the dessert from the counter service but keep appetizer and dessert in the table service. To me a table service is supposed to be a relaxing and indulgent experience on vacation. A counter service is supposed to be a quick bite between rides. The tip exclusion I understand was a union demand. I personally will take that into consideration when tipping.

[garymacd]

I am unsure whether we will use DDP again or not. I do wish they would give the choice between an appetizer and a dessert. I love appetizers and the chance to try different foods. Much as I love desserts, I really don't need another piece of chocolate cake.

[Rodders]

I am unsure whether we will use DDP again or not. I do wish they would give the choice between an appetizer and a dessert. I love appetizers and the chance to try different foods. Much as I love desserts, I really don't need another piece of chocolate cake.

I totally agree. I usually have a starter but rarely have desert. We have decided that we will order a starter to share next year and I would bet that a lot of people would do the same. I think that Disney knows this will generate a lot of revenue so that is why they have not given you the choice. There is no way that I would pay full price for the DDP. It just doesn't add the value that it should for us.

[biodtl]

It's not as great a deal as it used to be, but I still plan on doing it for our Oct 08 trip. The pre-paid aspect is appealing to me - I like not having to worry about money beyond the little extras and souvenirs.

[CanadianFan]

Well, I've never been to WDW, let alone on any type of plan. The biggest benefit of us booking the DDP for our January trip (my first ever, did I mention that? ) is just being able to eat where ever we want and not worry about how much it costs. I want a stress-free vacation, and don't want to dither over menus because I think that the thing I WANT costs more than my budget , or be nagging my kids to eat up because it costs $xxy! That's just not an enjoyable experience! On the DDP we are going to be able to enjoy 4 character meals , and one really nice "date" night, which we couldn't have done otherwise. We may not get our money's worth (I have dietary restrictions and DS7 and DS3 are picky eaters!) but for the CONVENIENCE (and my ability to enjoy my meals), DDP is the way to go for us!

Yay, less than 3 months to go!!

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

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?

I was more upset they took the gratuity out than the appetizer. One plus was since you can put a deposit on your room key at your resort for souveniers is that you didn't have to carry cash. Now I will have to carry cash for tips. However, I found a good way to calculate whether the plan is worth it is to go to the menus of the restaurants you will eat at and price what you will probably eat, entree plus dessert. If the cost is more than what the plan costs per day, its still a good deal. I found it is a good deal for my family, plus I like to pay my trip off early so I don't have to worry about saving money for meals...All I need to save is tip and spending money

[LauraF]

I've been back and forth on whether I think the new plan is worth the cost, but it comes down to several factors:

1. It's still cheaper than paying cash - 25% cheaper on average
2. I don't worry about food costs on vacation
3. BF and I eat large meals normally

I'm certainly not pleased with the loss of savings via the tip, nor the disappearing appetizer, since we don't usually like dessert. As such, we're considering the Deluxe DDP for our next trip. (Which has slightly more savings than the standard plan)

[magicman]

We've bought the plan in the past, but we won't be purchasing the 2008 plan.

In my opinion, if I'm going to buy a packaged plan it must be at a substantially reduced rate from the market price to make up for the loss of flexibility.

I know that you can crunch the numbers, and it still comes out as as a minimal cost savings (assuming you 'order correctly'). However, the cost savings aren't enough for it to be worth it for me to 'commit to the structure, requirements, and limitations' of this new plan.

[princessjojo]

Do I like the changes to the 2008 DDP, absoutly not. I would rather have left off the appetizer and kept the gratuity included. Or left the choice of appetizer of dessert open for the dining guest.

That said, I think that overall, it would still be a value for my family, as long as it's only my family. Now this coming June 08, there will be 8 of us, so they will automatically include an 18% gratuity to the bill. I have always thought this was wrong, even when I waited tables in college. I have seen times when this lead to a decline in service, especially recently at a restaurant when it took me 30min. just to get a drink. There were 14 of us, and it took us FOREVER to get through dinner and it wasn't even busy at that time. Anyway, my DSis is going with us and they have agreed to pick up 6 of 9 gratuities since we have the room cost covered for her. She just picked this number randomly, but it works for me...

Back to just my family, if it was just us, we could tip as we felt necessary, so the cost of the overall plan may still be of some value. But the biggest thing for us is the cost factor of the convience. Not having to worry about having to count $$ and wonder how far over/under budget we are makes a big difference. We know up front where we are and don't have to carry around cash or credit cards to cover it. It's just done. What value do I place on this convience? I don't know. But I still like it. I like easy and this is easy...

[Marker]

I find this to be an interesting topic. If I am understanding what some of the prevailing attitude is, it boils down to "If I can't save as much as I did before, I'd rather choose not to save anything at all".

From what I've looked at, it will still save us money. No, not as much. But still, some savings is still better than no savings at all.

AND, as everyone does their calculations we are assuming that menu prices will not go up. If the menu prices increase, so does the savings (except for the tip part of course).

Yeah, I think when the time comes I'll still choose to use the DDP. Heck, if it only saves me $20, that's still $20 to use for something else.