Is Disney Dining Plan all its cracked up to be?

[Guest]

we have done it a few times in the past and loved it, really did, all that free food, whats not to love

last year, we didnt have it, i must admit, we enjoyed the holiday more, we ate TS every other night, and had QS fairly often ( but not every day ) then had snacks in the parks, ice creams, churro's etc etc

we popped to Walmart ( we do that anyway, even if on the DDP ) to buy snacks and drinks , we did stock up on " snack bars " and " Lays " in the tubes, and Drinks, and of course breakfast pastries, took a few drinks and snacks to the parks

When on the DDP you just feel fooded out all the time, then you have to rush to a TS place, its just much more relaxed being able to eat when you want, we had some very nice meals off-site, Sweet Tomato's, Chuey's, A nice Indian, Millars ale house, we even ate at CiCi's pizza twice

If you are happy to eat off-site, you can often eat for less then the " free DDP " Chef Mickey is a prime example, the tip cost more than out meals at Sweet Tomato's & CiCi's, it was close in Chuey's

Now i have gone completely from DDP to not, this trip in Aug we had the option to book onsite for a week with the free dining ( and sell our DVC points ) or stay in DVC and eat like we did last year, we chose the stay in DVC ( Poly ) and eat like we did last year, we all enjoyed it, we are still doing a few TS places and just paying cash for them

[stupet11]

A good perk for us is it means longer days in the park - occasionally we have had to wait 2o mins at a restaurant, but that's still quicker than leaving the park and coming back. And it's a good break sitting indoors in the aircon.

We love the themes, and would pick out ADR's before we go, so there's no big discussion, and 5 different opinions of where shall we eat tonight!

Love offsite too - but we have come to conclusion if doing Disney, onsite with DDP works best for us….offsite we do other parks and eat offsite (obviously!).

We do squeeze in an offsite breakfast though - and save up a TS edit towards a signature meal.

[Guest]

With five of you, it's a shoe-in ...

[Guest]

Personally , yes .
I was dubious but after having it last year I’d struggle to go if it wasn’t offered again. Was so nice not to worry about having cash or how much cash we were spending on ice creams, drinks and things like that. Had so many credits left over too which we used for stuff to take home so it’s definitely worth it for us

[blades]

We did it for the first time last year during the food and wine festival and with 4 (2 adults & 2 teens) it worked really good. We ate at some restaurants that we would have never have thought of going to - the only down side was having to plan the ADR's but this worked good for us too

[JoeA]

I love the DDP, both times have only done the QS.

If you do some research before hand it isn't all burger and pizza.

There is so much food, we stayed 14 days on site a few weeks ago... didn't spend a penny on any food.

In the morning we had a snack credit in Starbucks.

Lunch was at a park.

Dinner at Disney Springs or one of the hotels.

By the end of the 14 days, we had 8 qs meal credits and 11 snack credits remaining.

Meaning we had 35 snacks to use in goofy candy co to take back as souvenirs haha

[Bartman]

Thanks guys, think you have make my mind up that going for the DDP is the way to go for us.

Like the idea of the freedom it will give us and some of the dinning experiences that we wouldn't of thought of doing due to the cost.

Will need to do some research (and read loves2plans food report) of unmissable places to eat and keep my fingers crossed that come April the DDP is offered.

[dx4100]

All inclusive Disney - hard to see what is wrong with that

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Bartman

Like the idea of the freedom it will give us and some of the dinning experiences that we wouldn't of thought of doing due to the cost.

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Freedom ? ? ? in our experience, its completely the opposite, a Lunch / Evening ADR means you are tied to getting to that place in time

If you spend a few days off-site at lets say " uni and IOA " you are left with spare meals, so you either do a 2 X TS meal or you cram in a breakfast and a evening meal, so Ohana for breakfast, day at MK ( its make sense you are next door ) then a evening meal at BOG, you really do watch the clock

[sha9]

Originally Posted by matt987106

Freedom ? ? ? in our experience, its completely the opposite, a Lunch / Evening ADR means you are tied to getting to that place in time

If you spend a few days off-site at lets say " uni and IOA " you are left with spare meals, so you either do a 2 X TS meal or you cram in a breakfast and a evening meal, so Ohana for breakfast, day at MK ( its make sense you are next door ) then a evening meal at BOG, you really do watch the clock

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It depends on how you look at it. If you were planning on eating onsite anyway it gives you the freedom to choose what you want without worrying about cost. Personally I don’t find ADRs a bind and it works better for us to have a plan for dinner. Our parents came with us in 2016 and had DDP for the first time. The first night we had no ADR planned everyone was a bit “testy” because we then had to decide where we would all be happy eating! My Mum in particular was annoyed as she just wanted to be told where she was eating that night. So although some people find ADRs a bind we find them a benefit.