DDP a good idea or not

[marionmcclung]

Hi, we are thinking of maybe staying at a disney hotel for our trip next year and was wondering if it's a good idea to purchase DDP at the time of booking. Is it worth the money? And does anyone know the actually cost?
It will be for 2 adults and 2 kids.

[Brinkz]

When are you thinking of going? If you go at the right time you can get the plan for free and that can save you upwards of £1000 on brochure prices - obviously there's a small amount of messing because you need to book your hotel package and flights seperatley.

I've just done it and got a 14night stay at POP, with DDP, all tickets and BA flights to Orlando Int' direct for 2 adults and 1 child for just under £2400 - brochure price with virgin or thomas cook would've been over £3500.

[marionmcclung]

When are you thinking of going? If you go at the right time you can get the plan for free and that can save you upwards of £1000 on brochure prices - obviously there's a small amount of messing because you need to book your hotel package and flights seperatley.

I've just done it and got a 14night stay at POP, with DDP, all tickets and BA flights to Orlando Int' direct for 2 adults and 1 child for just under £2400 - brochure price with virgin or thomas cook would've been over £3500.


We'd probably be going in october although if we were saving quite a bit i could be persuaded to go earlier. Who did you book with?? was it a travel agent or on the internet? When you say all tickets i take it that doesn't mean your park tickets?
That is a brilliant price you have though. Just now we're getting prices and it's coming in about £3800 without DDP

[chrisg]

have a look at totalflorida.co.uk/ddp adult $49 child $18 (3-9)
we look long and hard at ddp this year but decided against because of cost and being to tied to eating in disney. i suppose if you're not hiring a car and staying on site it would be worth it but food outside disney is so cheap we couldn't justify the price. we are there for 19 days and you have to buy ddp for the whole stay.

[Brinkz]

We'd probably be going in october although if we were saving quite a bit i could be persuaded to go earlier. Who did you book with?? was it a travel agent or on the internet? When you say all tickets i take it that doesn't mean your park tickets?
That is a brilliant price you have though. Just now we're getting prices and it's coming in about £3800 without DDP

It does mean our park tickets - 14 day ultimate pass. We just called up Disney direct in the USA to book our room at POP with free dining plan. Got our tickets through Disney Travel in the UK. Booked our flights this weekend with Thomas Cook - went in on the off chance to find out about any deals and got a quote for £400 each with BA.

The only problem at this moment is we don't know if Disney will offer free dining in 2009 until next April.

It's so satisfying knowing you've arranged all the different elements yourself and saved a packet!!!

[BevS97]

We paid for this last year for 1 week. I think if you were to do it, I would look at making a split booking and only doing it for part of your stay, it's a lot of food for the full 2 weeks.

it cost us $100 per day for our family of 4, and we did make money on it, as most of our sit down meals came to around $100, so basically we got the counter service and snack meals for free.

however, it does start to take over your holiday, and effect what you do each day. We also ate far more than we would normally. I think in the future I'd be inclinded to put the $100/day into a seperate purse and use it to eat as and when we wanted. I suspect we could have all the food we really wanted out of that budget, somedays would be more but other days would be much less.

[BevS97]

totalflorida.co.uk/ddp adult $49 child $18 (3-9)


that link doesn't work, but those prices are much higher than I paid. We paid $38/$9.99

[MattF]

We've got it free for this year. I don't think that I'd pay for it. There are so many fab offsite restaurants, plus on some days you don't feel like so much to eat. the amount of food on the DDP is scary and you also have to be so organised with ADRs etc - We'd do it if it was free but don't think we'd pay for it - we'll see how we get on in August.

[2waterford]

We will be staying on site next year for 12 nights. Dont think I could eat that amount of food every day for 12 days on the trot. We will probably have breakfast and lunch in our apartment. Will eat a good meal out maybe 6 of the 12 nights so I dont think it would be worth our while to buy it.

Also having to make ADR's for that many meals would drive me mad. Will just make a few for our Fav restaurants.

[chrisg]

that link doesn't work, but those prices are much higher than I paid. We paid $38/$9.99

can you remember where and with who you booked it with. they're really good prices.

[alijolly]

We are trying it this year for the first time. We usually stay longer and enjoy eating offsite, but this trip will be one week over New Year and we are only doing Disney parks so hoping it will be worth it I don't think I would do it for a long stay unless it was free.

[antietam]

I am a big fan of the DDP free or not
We went for 2 weeks in May onsite and had the dining plan.
I thought it was great.
We made all our ADRS before we went and ate at locations that fitted in with our day plans.
Sometimes we would use 2 vouchers to eat and we would also have some character breakfasts which meant we would eat offsite here and there.
I did go to Perkins for brekkie and the menu was full of great big breakfasts.
We much preferred the POFQ foodcourt for brekkie.
If you are staying in Disney and intending to go to the parks all day then yes the DDP is a good option
We worked out that next time allowing for rises in cost of the ddp to say $40 per adult and $12 for kids which is $104 per day.
Looking at say the 2008 menu for spoodles and having an entree and dessert,a snack and a quick service meal in say the Columbia Harbor house it worked out at about $150 per day for 4 of us which is $46 saving per day over 12 days which is getting on for a £3
00 saving.
We also thought that in general the restaurants were good.

If you were to go to Say MK for the day you could make an ADR at the Poly,Contemporary or GF.
Come out of MK turn left and take the direct service by monorail to any of these resorts and then back again.
I like planning and planning all the days taking into account park hours,busy days etc is all part of the fun

[marionmcclung]

thanks for your replys guys, i really appreciate it. My next question now is....... Where's the best place to book DDP. Is there a website that comes recommended???

[BevS97]

can you remember where and with who you booked it with. they're really good prices

i am pretty sure that is the true price of DDP - I booked mine through DVC and paid Disney direct, but before I posted I did a test booking on Disney.com and it worked out at the same ($38 per adult per day)
on Disney.co.uk it says

Disney Dining Plan: £19.99 per adult, £5.99 per child, per day

1 Table Service meal, 1 Quick Service meal and 1 Snack per guest, per day.

Which is about the same as $38 per adult, and $9.99 per child

[foxylady]

We booked our accommodation through WDTravel Company direct, and we paid £19.99 per person per day (adult prices).

We are trying it for the first time this year, and are looking forward to it. We have a split stay 11 nights at POR & 3 nights at AKL, and only have it for the POR stay.

[landkmum]

If you are looking to book for this year, then attraction tickets direct have an offer of free children on the DDP and will still match ticket prices with elsewhere. They were also cheaper than Disney UK for the hotel room.

[BevS97]

thanks for your replys guys, i really appreciate it. My next question now is....... Where's the best place to book DDP. Is there a website that comes recommended???

You must book it when you book your hotel room and tickets, it can only be bought as part of a package.

[debs2028]

that link doesn't work, but those prices are much higher than I paid. We paid $38/$9.99


Don't know but maybe this is the price of Delux ddp

[babycanaansmum]

It does mean our park tickets - 14 day ultimate pass. We just called up Disney direct in the USA to book our room at POP with free dining plan. Got our tickets through Disney Travel in the UK. Booked our flights this weekend with Thomas Cook - went in on the off chance to find out about any deals and got a quote for £400 each with BA.

The only problem at this moment is we don't know if Disney will offer free dining in 2009 until next April.

It's so satisfying knowing you've arranged all the different elements yourself and saved a packet!!!

Does anyone know the number for Disney USA?

I am wanting to go in September and free dining would definately help persuade my boyfriend!

Is it as easy as booking with Disney UK?

Thanks:smile:

[BevS97]

if you want to book with free dining you need to do so asap as the deal ends on 22/6

You can book with CRO - 001 (407) 824-2222

We have booked with them before, it's not a big deal except you will have to buy Magic Your Way tickets rather than ultimate tickets.

[babycanaansmum]

Thanks very much!

I will start some serious nagging tonight!:d:

[TandCmum]

as you are thinking of a trip around october next year I would be tempted to hang on a little while yet before booking as there may be a chance that the free dining offer for UK guests may be offered again. Basically you usually have to book between August and november (this year) for holiday between mid august and end of september next year and as long as you book a package including disney hotel and park tickets you get the dining plan free. It has been offered for the past 2 years although last year you had to stay in a moderate hotel or above and it is bookable through any of the tour operators that offer the dining plan and also you can book just the hotel and tickets part through disney and get your flights elsewhere.

As i said it has been offered for the past 2 years and it's still anyon'e guess as to wether they will be offering it free again for 2009 but it is worth waiting and seeing i think for the amount you will save.

As for wether the DDP is worth paying for I am not so sure i would ever pay for it, mainly as i see it is quite restricting in terms of having to be in a certain place at a certain time for all your meals and if we didn't have it we would probably eat offsite a bit more, but i think if we got it free then i wouldn't be trying to get my money's worth out of it so much and would book some breakfasts and lunches and a few signature meals so we weren't having to have an adr every evening.

[mitch84]

We went for the deal with the Free DDP, park tickets and CS resort for one week for 2 adults.

This cost £848 which sounds a fair bit but if you look at DDP is about £20pppn, thats £280, park tickets would have been around £300, so that doesn't leave the actual hotel v expensive does it??

[Brinkz]

if you want to book with free dining you need to do so asap as the deal ends on 22/6

You can book with CRO - 001 (407) 824-2222

We have booked with them before, it's not a big deal except you will have to buy Magic Your Way tickets rather than ultimate tickets.

You only have to buy a single day base ticket, then get your ultimate tickets from a UK retailer - that's what we did.

The base ticket will get used on the day we arrive and the 14 day ultimate from the day after until our day of departure - means we don't have to avoid the parks for either the day of arrival or day of departure :D

Anyone wanting some more details can drop me a PM, so that i don't bore all the old-hats with details they already know about :pgig:

Didn't know about the June 22nd deadline though - glad i got in when i did :spin: