Ddp vs disney dining credits

[mike4scuba]

I think the ddp was far superior to the new 2022 dining credits
What are your views

[loldis]

I think most people will agree with you, particularly those travelling with 3-4 or more in a room.

I personally prefer the new dining card. It's valid at more locations and doesn't lock me into having to have a certain item. As an example, my favourite TS meal is a starter at Homecomin. Wouldn't have been valid on DDP at all, but I can purchase it with the card. Plus as a single person staying at a value, I'm actually getting more money at $36pd than the 1 QS credit they used to offer.

Win win for me.

[bronny]

For us as a family of 4 there is no contest. Free DDP was far better. Unfortunately I think those days are over.

[tracey1302]

Free DDP was 100% better for our party of 9.

I’m praying for its return, otherwise we’re going to have to stay off site. We haven’t stayed off site since 2004 - we’ve loved everything about the dining plan and the restaurants it’s been able to allow us to visit. Without it, it will be a very, very different holiday experience 😣

[Gill H]

It is obviously worth less money (if it was per person it wouldn’t be so bad) but yes, it does mean we could try appetisers, eat at lounges etc. Also means we aren’t tied to a particular number of QS, TS etc.

That said, if they offered DDP for our dates (paid or otherwise) I would take it. We extract every drop of value from that plan.

[TigerLily8]

I think we will miss free DDP as we would generally eat the more expensive things on the menu and we do enjoy a cocktail / alcoholic drink with our food, so we tend to make the most of the plan without really trying. That said, I do think there are times when we would over-eat just to use up QS / snack credits, so it will interesting to see whether the scales are a little more forgiving when we come back from our next trip 😂

As a party of 2 I think we are less impacted by the change than bigger groups, as others have pointed out.

[natanddaz]

So this is a difficult one for us. We are a family of 5 who previously have shared a room at a mod and benefitted from the free dining hugely- it effectively made our holiday all inclusive which with 3 kids in tow was very helpful! For next year it worked out cheaper for us to have 2 rooms at a value resort as we have got double the credits ($1008 for 14 nights) and double the $200 dollar gift cards. I plan to use the gift cards for food also so it effectively gives us $100 a day. My initial thought was that if they reintroduce the paid ddp i would upgrade especially if they would allow you to use the dining credits towards the cost however the more i look into it the more i feel that actually it would not be cost effective for us. My husband is a big meat eater and usually chooses the more expensive items on the menus however I'm a vegetarian and from everything iv read its nearly impossible for veggies to get value out of the paid plan. My eldest is 12 so i would have to buy him the adult meal plan which is a lot more than the kids but he is vegetarian and autistic and would choose food from the kids menus 99.9% of the time so again he would not get any value from it.
I think iv veered away from the point of this thread but i think what I'm trying to get at is that although the value especially for families like us is no doubt much less i do think we can make this work without spending a huge amount more on food and without the stressful last day rush to spend all the left over credits in goofys candy store!

[kikimouse]

We are a family of 5 and thoroughly enjoyed the DDP. Extracted the max of it including trying out TS and character meals which would be out of our budget. Plus converting all our credits to snacks we brought back as souvenirs.

I am going to miss it and yes, it will make a difference to our next trip. I am balking at paying OOP for Ohana’s and Crystal Palace which are our must dos. Oh well.

If DDP is offered as an extra next year, I will seriouslu consider it if they take the dining credits as part payment.

[nth09]

Originally Posted by mike4scuba

I think the ddp was far superior to the new 2022 dining credits
What are your views

See more...

Yes as a family of 4 it’s not even close.

[Claudette]

Originally Posted by mike4scuba

I think the ddp was far superior to the new 2022 dining credits
What are your views

See more...

I don’t think there are many that would say the new plan is better, I don’t think it is even trying to be better. We usually stay in a deluxe so between us we would get two QS, two TS and 4 snacks previously, now we would get $68. It is clearly a fraction of the value. I think only a solo traveller in a moderate might find it similar value.

We travelled without a dining plan in 2019 and we actually really liked the flexibility of eating where we want and picking what we want off the menu. However I couldn’t hand on heart say that the extra flexibility makes a plan with such a lower $ value a better choice.