Disappointed with the DDP

[thingy003]

Having been back in the UK for a week I have decided to put my thoughts and observations down on the DDP and eating onsite.
This was our first time staying onsite, we have only stayed on I Drive before and have only eaten at Cosmic Rays and Hollywood & Vine previously. Getting the free dining plan was a major factor in us deciding to stay onsite, without it an onsite stay would not really be financially viable for us. We stayed in POFQ and had quite a bit of food from the Food Court there which was all superb with the exception of the Creole Steak Po’Boy which had so little filling that I just stopped eating it.
Generally speaking the QS food that we had in the parks was more than adequate. Friars Nook in MK was good as was Columbia Harbour House.
When it came to the TS restaurants I was pretty disappointed with the service, the food quality and the cost. The first complaint was for Yak & Yeti, we had to wait well over 30 mins past our reservation time despite being there on time. We eventually had to kick off when we found our details kept getting moved further down the pile of people waiting. Our waitress has no interest in serving us and was not interested in talking about the menu or offering suggestions. Had I known then that she wouldn’t even be our worst waitress of the stay I would have started sobbing uncontrollably. The food was decidedly average and certainly not of a standard to ever make me want to eat there again. Friends of ours who were sat at a separate table felt exactly the same way as we did.
The following night we ate at Sebastian’s at CBR. We had a table booked for 8pm but we went to the podium at 7:30pm to see if there was any chance of being seated early. Apparently, there wasn’t despite there being plenty of empty tables in the restaurant. We were eventually seated at 8:30pm and didn’t get any food till 9:00pm by which time both my children were fast asleep. At this time I had a sense of humour failure and kicked off at the manager which resulted in us not being charged any credits for our meal. I still tipped on it though as it wasn’t the fault of the waiting staff.
Breakfast at Ohana was fantastic. The food was great, the service was good but again we had issues with getting seated again. People with later reservations who checked in after us were seated before us, despite us having the same size party. I wanted to go back here one evening but we just didn’t get around to it.
Food in Hollywood Studios was good. We ate at Hollywood & Vine, 50s Prime Time Diner and Drive In as well as grabbing breakfast at Docking Bay 7. I can’t fault any of this. The service and the quality of food was better across all of these eateries than pretty much anywhere else in the parks.
Worst service award of the holiday goes to Skipper Canteen where I should have just walked out. We got attitude at the podium and the waitress was awful. If the kids hadn’t been so hungry and we were not in MK for MNSSHP then I would have complained and left. The theming of the restaurant was nice though.
A highlight for me was eating in Coral Reef, the food and service were top and the cocktails were amazing. I would happily eat here again.
CRT was a nice experience, but the food was little better than what you would find in a gastropub over here. Maybe I was just expecting a little too much.
The best value and in fact the only place, other than our hotel, that we ate at more than once was Pizza Ponte in Disney Springs. Great value to get a giant slice of pizza, a cake and a drink for a QS credit.
All in all the DDP experience was pretty poor and I would think long and hard about staying onsite again. I certainly would never pay for the DDP. I know some people love it but I am am very disappointed with it. Might just be post-holiday blues though.

[Mexy02]

That’s such a shame , We’ve just come back and we had the dxddp for 5 nights so it was all TS. We had some fabulous meals at crt, Cali grill, garden grill , 9 dragons, cape May , and others that jet lag won’t let me remember at the moment . I know from previous visits that Disney very very rarely seat on time especially at firework restaurants or popular evening times and most of it is actually down to the guests believe it or not . They have specific times to get people in and out but many will turn up late or delay the dining experience . So although the tables may often look empty they may be reserved for the next lot of times slots. If you look when at popular spots like Tuskers someone walks round with an iPad notifying front desk when a table is empty . Disney don’t like empty tables as that means the tills aren’t ringing . It’s a machine.
We actually found qs the worse culprit this time with long queues and the servers forgetting to give us stuff when we used mobile ordering ( if you could actually get mde to load !)
Offsite we did find some of the restaurants with up to a 45 minute wait as well at some times of the day . Hope you had a good trip otherwise x

[loves2plan]

Sorry to hear that you had quite a few bad experiences and found the DDP disappointing. We're firm fans of the QSDP as we've found that the variety and quality has definitely improved over recent years, whereas TS quality seems to have declined. The last time we had DDP was in 2015, and it's been the QSDP the past 3 times, and what we'd choose in the future too.

Despite the poor food and service, I hope that you enjoyed the onsite aspect of your holiday. If you want to try onsite again in the future, maybe stick with free QSDP (if available), or do a split stay with a week onsite and a week offsite

[lottiesmum0]

What a pity - We took a long time to dip out toe into DDP. We had good experiences this last holiday. The only really poor place we had was probably Sanna at AKL which I thought was poor.
Skipper Canteen - My DH and friends DH hated the waitress as she was 'in role' for the theme of the restaurant but service was fine.

[THOscar]

We’re travelling back today and we’ve had excellent meals throughout. We’ve eaten at:

Ale & Compass - dinner and breakfast
California Grill
Homecomin’
Teppan Edo
Jiko
Citricos
Splitsville
The Wave

Of those I’d say citricos was the ‘worst’ but it was still a very good meal.
Everyone agreed Jiko was the best but we all thought ale and compass could easily be a signature.

I think the big difference between our meals and those of the OP is most of ours were out of the parks. Definitely haven’t felt rushed in any of the restaurants.

[lynne6705]

With the exception of Teppan Edu I have always found the DDP at Disney Springs to be far better than any of the DDP options in the parks and we tend to have all our evening meals there

[Vanillapod]

I think it’s all so variable.
We thought Yak & Yeti and Kona Cafe (breakfast) were bloody awful. I also had raw chicken in the Mexican that overlooks the fireworks in Epcot 🤮 I didn’t eat it! I should have complained but we’d got chatting to the lovely family next to us and bizarrely the mum worked in OH’s department 10 years before him and knew lots of is collegaues so I was too busy to eat and I couldn’t be bothered 😆
Anyway, I digress. We did have some nice meals and some great meals. We were on DXDDP but we wouldn’t do that again.
I hope we’ve sussed where’s good and where’s bad but it seems to change 😬
Toledo , Morimoto, Chef Arts and Chefs de France were definite 1 credit revisits. Chef Arts is ridiculous amounts of food but you don’t have to eat it all

I never thought I’d be an onsiter but actually it’s just so convenient!
We absolutely know the food is better off-site and we always venture off site but I can’t be bothered with that every day. We do that during our universal stay so whilst it’s a rip off in terms of the tips alone and it’s not always great, there is still something to be said for DDP

[THE WIZARD]

We booked 3 of our Favorites when we went in September, Yak & Yeti, Prime Time & Liberty Tree Tavern. Yak & Yeti twice, the rest were new ones we fancied. Yak & Yeti was so bad the first ADR that I cancelled our 2nd ADR there in favour of a second ADR, (for BOMA) & we would not book it if we go again. Prime Time has lost its charm altogether for us now & we used to love the place, I cant remember what I had now but I do know I left most of it! So another we would not book again. Liberty Tree Tavern was absolutely wonderful as it usually is the food was fantastic & with the added fact we could have a glass of wine now too. So in a lot of instances I have to agree with the OP.
Apart from LTT our highlight was Chef's de France closely followed by Via Napoli & Sanna. As for the DDP it was our first time on it and as we always like to have a TS evening meal we found it excellent & would look to do it again but adding more restaurants in Disney Springs next time.

[f1girly]

Originally Posted by lynne6705

With the exception of Teppan Edu I have always found the DDP at Disney Springs to be far better than any of the DDP options in the parks and we tend to have all our evening meals there

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Were you not Impressed with Teppan Edo? It's on my shortlist atm!

[Gally1968]

Originally Posted by f1girly

Were you not Impressed with Teppan Edo? It's on my shortlist atm!

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I’ve read that the other way, Teppan Edo was a favourite!