Disney Dining Plan - best tier?

[Grimdogg]

Hello all

Have returned to The Dibb as my family and I are planning to return to Orlando.

This time we are considering staying onsite instead of villa.

My question sits with the DDP - if we were to stay on site we initially considered a value hotel but have noticed that the DDP only comes with deluxe hotels. Even if we were to stay at a moderate hotel we would only get the Quick Service option which should be ok but the thought of eating take away for 2 weeks fills me with dread!

Would Dibbers recommend the quick service DDP or is there a way we can get the full DDP for free on a moderate hotel?

Thank you

Mark

[Beth_Disney]

Originally Posted by Grimdogg

Hello all

Have returned to The Dibb as my family and I are planning to return to Orlando.

This time we are considering staying onsite instead of villa.

My question sits with the DDP - if we were to stay on site we initially considered a value hotel but have noticed that the DDP only comes with deluxe hotels. Even if we were to stay at a moderate hotel we would only get the Quick Service option which should be ok but the thought of eating take away for 2 weeks fills me with dread!

Would Dibbers recommend the quick service DDP or is there a way we can get the full DDP for free on a moderate hotel?

Thank you

Mark

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It's really easy to upgrade from the free QSDP to the DDP during the booking process. If you do a dummy booking you'll get to a screen that has QSDP - free and below that is the DDP upgrade price. You just pay the difference between the two.

I know some Dibbers have had deluxe hotels with free DDP for less than it costs to book moderate with free QSDP and upgrade so you'll need to do your sums

[THE WIZARD]

DDP comes with DeLux only but yes you can buy it. But its worth working out what would be cheaper, and DeLux with it or a Moderate & buy it. The Moderate QSDP means you do not have to make ADR's for the particular restaurants you want & you would still get a good meal at any of the Quick Services restaurants & that doesn't mean takeaways you can still seat down and eat at Quick Services Restaurants - our fav being Columbia Harbour House or the QS Yak & Yeti

[Grimdogg]

Originally Posted by THE WIZARD

DDP comes with DeLux only but yes you can buy it. But its worth working out what would be cheaper, and DeLux with it or a Moderate & buy it. The Moderate QSDP means you do not have to make ADR's for the particular restaurants you want & you would still get a good meal at any of the Quick Services restaurants & that doesn't mean takeaways you can still seat down and eat at Quick Services Restaurants - our fav being Columbia Harbour House or the QS Yak & Yeti

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We really like the look of Caribbean Resort - so will likely book there and upgrade to deluxe.

Friends and colleagues explained that staying onsite and getting the DDP would be a lot cheaper than what we did last year however I can’t see how it will be - if we do go ahead and stay with Disney i am already seeing an additional Coast that will range between 1-2K - especially if we upgrade the DDP for all 4 of us!

[Beth_Disney]

Originally Posted by Grimdogg

We really like the look of Caribbean Resort - so will likely book there and upgrade to deluxe.

Friends and colleagues explained that staying onsite and getting the DDP would be a lot cheaper than what we did last year however I can’t see how it will be - if we do go ahead and stay with Disney i am already seeing an additional Coast that will range between 1-2K - especially if we upgrade the DDP for all 4 of us!

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Are you thinking of upgrading to the deluxe dining plan then? The standard dining plan is enough for us - that's one quick service meal, 2 snack credits and a table service meal each day.

[sieborg]

I upgraded our QS Dining plan last week for our stay in August. It was £714 for three of us (Adults) for 14 Nights. It was a last minute decision as you can see in our countdown, but surprisingly I managed to get 95 % of the ADR’s that we wanted.
We’ve done both QS and TS before and the TS just adds a different dimension to your holiday, lets you step back from the Madness for a while ready for the next round.

[show_the_magic]

You wont get the DDP for free when staying at a moderate, you will need to pay to upgrade it or upgrade the hotel to have it included.
You're best off (as mentioned above), doing some dummy bookings and playing around with different resorts and dining plans.

[Pez01]

I upgraded from QSDP to deluxe dining plan for this year. Have done for 4 years. Staying at POFQ. We are there for 16 days. For two of us the upgrade cost was just under £1000. It works out as £31 each per day. For us it’s a no brainer as we eat loads of character meals (particularly breakfasts) which cost more than the upgrade just for our breakfast so for our personal situation it works. However - there’s the tips to pay on top. And having sit down meals every day isn’t to everyone’s taste. It depends what kind of holiday you want. For me personally - I like having the character breakfast and decent dinner at night with starters in a nice restaurant. That’s a good holiday for me. I like good food and I don’t like quick service. It boils down to personal preference. 😊😊

I would rather spend my money on nice food over a deluxe hotel. We basically sleep in the room and are in the park from open to close every day apart from a couple of pool afternoons. With the exchange rate being what it is I like the security of knowing it’s all paid up front and if we want to eat filet steak every day we can without thinking about the costs.

[sha9]

I don’t think staying onsite even with free dining is cheaper than offsite. It’s about personal preference. I don’t care that it’s more expensive as I’d rather stay onsite. That said, there’s often not much in it for a decent hotel offsite compared to onsite when you take food costs into account.

[Pez01]

Originally Posted by sha9

I don’t think staying onsite even with free dining is cheaper than offsite. It’s about personal preference. I don’t care that it’s more expensive as I’d rather stay onsite. That said, there’s often not much in it for a decent hotel offsite compared to onsite when you take food costs into account.

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I agree with this - however - staying onsite gives 60 day fastpasses and extra magic hours plus convenience with transport options. If these extra perks weren’t offered I would stay offsite but whilst they are included I’m onsite every time.