I've paid for the DDP anyone interested in a live $$$ report?

[adamtoonarmy]

I used to dislike the DDP, even when we got it for free. Over the years though I have grown to love it. I've found my favourite places to eat (as has DW) and the bottom line is I just wouldn't pay for them if I had to do it OOP.

I've heard all the arguments and the logical alternatives - eat offsite, pay OOP, put the money on a gift card/debit card etc but none of those would make me actually eat in the places. Only the DDP will do that. With all of the other methods I would look at the balance on the card and head off down to Olive Garden instead. I'm a bit of a cheapskate like that.

This year we missed the free DDP offer and booked under the free night offer. No idea what sort of deal I got, just a price I was happy to pay.

Interestingly the price I paid for the DDP was £1007 for QS and an additional £392 to upgrade to regular. This was through the UK WDTC and the total per day works out as £100 per day or $137 per day at todays exchange rate. Thats $68.50 per day each which is a little less that the US site quotes which is $75.49 per day.

Anyway - I have absolutely no intention of choosing expensive menu items to make sure I get value for money. I will be eating what I want, when I want. That being said though I will be tracking what I spend to see if it does come out above or below what I paid OOP.

Personally I dont think I will have too many problems spending $137 per day on a TS a QS and 4 snacks at Disney. What I will never know is if I would have eaten that much if I didn't have the DDP.

Anyway - I was thinking of posting daily updates over on the dining review page - what we ate and where as well as what the cost would have been OOP and track it all against what I paid for the DDP. Would the be helpful/of interest to anyone?

Also - has anyone else broken the dibb law and paid for the DDP? If so how did you find it? Would you do it again or did you think it was too expensive/poor value?

[Nobles@WDW]

Will follow for sure

[Jan]

That sounds useful, please.

[sha9]

This would be fantastic! We also booked on free nights this year and are determined not to buy any form of dining plan as it’s supposed to be a “budget” trip. We’re looking in it as a new adventure and will not be booking many (if any) TS. To be honest though, £100 a day for food for 2 is not bad and I’ll be mad if we come home and find that’s what we spent anyway!

We did pay for DDP the last time we went on a room discount and found we were a bit more canny with our food choices. We didn’t do any signatures and paid OOP for the odd thing. It’s my 2012 dining report if you fancy a read.

[ziggyzag]

I would be interested

[Rescuer]

That would be great to read. Our days of staying deluxe with free ddp are over and I have a ds who is desperate to stay at AOA at some point where ddp is never offered.
Plus I love a food report.

[Jaspercat10]

Looking forward to reading along 😃

[Gill H]

Go for it!

Our first trip was early December 2010 so it was outside the free DDP period. We had no hesitation in paying for it. We did 4 Signatures and loads of other yummy meals, and feel we got plenty of value out of it without having to watch the pennies.

[loubyloulou]

I would ded be interested in reading this!

[GALE88]

I’d read along, I’d be interested to do this myself next time we go to see whether the DDP is ‘worthwhile’ for us but I’d always start with good intentions and then it would all get forgotten as I’d lose a receipt here, forget about a snack there and then I’d have no idea!