Please Talk Me Into (Or Out of) the DxDDP!

[bigeyedfish]

I need some opinions to help with my decision!

We have the Play, Stay, Dine DDP for our late January stay. It will be me, DS12, DS10, DS8, and DD6. My kids (like all kids, I guess) need three meals and two snacks per day or one in particular gets pretty hangry . It would cost $766.43 to upgrade to the DxDDP.

I think ideally we would eat two TS meals per day and one QS. If on the regular DDP we will likely be paying OOP for an appetizer or two for the table to share. Dessert is not something we usually order, but maybe two for the table to share would be nice. Dessert x5 will be a bit much.

Here is our rough itinerary:

Day 1 (AK):

B - Boma
L - Flame Tree BBQ or Satu’li Canteen
S - Yak & Yeti

Day 2 (DHS EMM and MK DAH):

B - ABC Commissary (included)
L - Woody’s Lunch Box
S - 1900 Park Fare (?)

Day 3 (MK):

B - latebreakfast at Kona Cafe
L - light QS
S - early dinner at BOG

Day 4 (EPCOT):

B - Trattoria al Forno OR Cape May OR Garden Grill
L - Nine Dragons
S - Akershus

Day 5 (probably MK):

B - Unknown (maybe BOG?)
L - Unknown (ideally CRT, but odds are probably slim to none - more realistically Liberty Tree Tavern)
S - Will try to grab something at Centertown Market to go before we catch ME to airport

If staying on the DDP I will probably end up cutting out all TS meals above our 1-per-day allowance and dinner at BOG in exchange for a 1 TS Restaurant.

Is the DxDDP just too much time spent dining? I would imagine a 45 to 60 minute break would be nice, but have no desire to dine for two hour stretches twice a day. My boys will not want to wait for character meets in the parks so I thought a few character meals would be nice for my DD!

This was quite a long post! TY for reading and your opinions!

 

[Nancyg56]

Okay, it seems a bit like you are trying to plan dining to fit a dining plan, and in my opinion that is not a good idea. I alwys look at the restaurants we are going to eat at, and what my family will likely order.

People need to eat, so think about what your family enjoys. Character meals for for the kids? Nicer signature meals for dinner? That is your 3 credits a day if you chose a TS for a late breakfast, early lunch, and a 2 credit for dinner.

I never book three meals a day, however we do stop for lunch if breakfast is early. We only take about an hour for breakfast, no matter where we choose, dinner is longer, but that is our choice, close to 90 minutes. At home we would share appetizers, but if on the DxDDP we do not. We never think we spend too much time in restaurants, but we like the breaks.

To me, it is all about the math. Block out your meals. DO not add extras to fill in for the DxDDP, just put your choices down. Do not take meals out to accomodate the regular plan. Keep it honest. Then look at teh menus and add up what your family will likely order, DO not add extras to fill in the cost of one plan, or take food away to accomodate the other.

Look at the snacks options, and add them into your sheet. If you have snacks, does that impact what you eat at your meal? When you are done, add the cost up. Go with whatever plan fits your math. I back a plan into my plans, never the food into the plan I chose first.

 

[sharonabe]

Nancy56 has given you the best advice. Scrap the plan you have and go see where you really want to eat. I would also go ahead and make those ADRs. You can always cancel, but you need to see if where you want to eat is going to fit into your touring plan as well.

Just looking at what you have now, I think your kids are going to be more angry that they have to stop playing to go eat than they are hangry.

Personally, I'd stay with the regular plan and bring some snacks from home or a grocery order to fill in where you need it. If you're not doing a breakfast, have some protein and cereal bars in the room before you leave for the day and then plan an early lunch. You'll still have two snacks per person to also keep the hangries at bay. I would also invest in a refillable popcorn bucket. It's not covered on the plan, but it becomes a pretty cheap snack throughout the week.

 

[bigeyedfish]

Thanks! We aren’t signature meal type of people. BOG and CRT would be the exception to that. All of our TS meals have been reserved with the exception of a few. Must dos on our list are Boma, Yak & Yeti, BOG, Kona Cafe, Akershus. That alone is over our TS allotments and I’d still like another character meal or two. I think the problem is that the DDP isn’t *enough* food and the DxDDP is too much food!

 

[Pumbaa_]

It truly is a math exercise.

 

[sharonabe]

Thanks! We aren’t signature meal type of people. BOG and CRT would be the exception to that. All of our TS meals have been reserved with the exception of a few. Must dos on our list are Boma, Yak & Yeti, BOG, Kona Cafe, Akershus. That alone is over our TS allotments and I’d still like another character meal or two. I think the problem is that the DDP isn’t *enough* food and the DxDDP is too much food!

Looks like you're there for 4 nights. If you could just stick to those must dos, paying OOP for Kona and Yak & Yeti would be cheaper than the upgrade and you could probably add another character meal too. Again, I think you're spending too much time in restaurants for 4 kids.

 

[rwdavis2]

It truly is a math exercise.

Yes it is. Keep in mind none of the dining plans are designed to save you money although it is possible. I would not adjust the way we eat to fit a plan. Also the DXDP is A LOT of food besides all the time spent eating. We had the regular plan once and we though it was too much. We also don't want dessert at every meal.

 

[Nancyg56]

Thanks! We aren’t signature meal type of people. BOG and CRT would be the exception to that. All of our TS meals have been reserved with the exception of a few. Must dos on our list are Boma, Yak & Yeti, BOG, Kona Cafe, Akershus. That alone is over our TS allotments and I’d still like another character meal or two. I think the problem is that the DDP isn’t *enough* food and the DxDDP is too much food!

I think that your must do restaurants plus a few add on's will probably not add up to the cost of the upgrade to DxDDP, but I honestly think you have not mapped your plans out to include realistic dining for the family. There is a huge difference between thinking about three meals a day and then popping in restaurants to fill the slots, and actually planning ahead, booking meals that coincide with vacation dining habits.

I love disney dining and we do appreciate the time we spend at the table together, but if I booked three TS restaurants a day I would have a mutiny on my hands. WE like the signatures though, so two meals a day, especially if one is a CS lunch, is plenty. We have a light breakfast and off we go. I book the restaurants we plan on, and I make sure they are compatible with our plans that day, and then I add the cost up. For your must do dinign, along with a few extras, I bet the regular plan will work well. Frankly, I would pass on BOG dinner and book lunch. It is CS, and you can use a CS credit there, see the Castle, and skip the expensive signature meal that night. With kids, and the reviews that discuss how loving that meal takes, it would be of my map. I actually would book Skipper's in adventurland. My DGD loves that place, and I bet the kids would be entertained by the skippers there. I looked at Kona prices because it is booked for our arrival night, and would probably choose to pay OOP for some of the meals there. You can pick and choose how many TS credits you use at any given meal, so if one fo the kids orders a sandwich, pay for it and save the credit towards mitigating the cost of another meal.

The snacks credits on teh plan are valuable in stretching credits as well. SOme of those snacks are large enough for a meal, and most are big enough to share if you want to hold the family over until the next meal. There are blogs and videos of snacks you can look at, and boy! The selection. My DD and DSIL have been researching snacks this year like it is their job! Every trip of our has a "theme" and this year it is the trip to capture teh snacks that got away. LOL! I bet my DD has some sort of laminated thing with their list all laid out park by park, land by land.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

Out of curiosity, what are your park goals for your trip? I find ADRs take up a tremendous amount of time, and usually cause me a lot of stress to plan around. I don't even like to do one every single day. Travel time, waiting to be seated, eating time, and travel back, it all takes a very long time. I think 2 TS meals every day would take up most of your trip, with very little.park or pool time, and I think that 4 children would get restless during so many looooong sit down meals.

Is this your first trip, or are you a multi- trip veteran who can navigate the parks with ease? Do you know exactly what rides you want to ride and how long it takes to get between them? I know everyone needs 3 meals a day, but the kids would probably be just as full with a QS breakfast that they can chow down while walking to/waiting for a ride. And many times I find that a counter service or even a snack lunch is sufficient.

If you want to have everything pre-paid and not have to worry about your bank account while there, you can buy discounted disney gift cards and pay for everything with that.

 

[rwdavis2]

Also, IMHO, WDW dining is not so great or special that one's trip should revolve around it or even make a major component. Depends on what kind of restaurants are available at home.

 

[vinotinto]

We've done DDP, DxDP and OOP, each one on multiple occasions.

In my experience, DxDP really works best if you are planning most or all evenings of Signatures. You have a big meal earlier, snacks throughout the day and end with your nice Sig.

DDP works best if you have kids up to age 9and are doing multiple fixed priced meals or buffets. DDP is a great deal with kids because a fixed price meal is close to the DDP price.

If neither of those is your case, then you will need to think where you want to eat and add up the cost and the credits and make a decision.

P.S. - your day 4 is a lot of sit-down eating. My guess is your lunch would be pretty light.

 

[Trinity88]

Enter everything you want to do into this calculator: https://www.distripplanner.com/. It will give you a good idea if it's worth it.

 

[sharonabe]

Enter everything you want to do into this calculator: https://www.distripplanner.com/. It will give you a good idea if it's worth it.

Actually it will NOT give you a good idea if it's worth it. I don't think the creators have kept it up to date. It does NOT factor in the now included alcohol and it definitely has NOT updated to the current food prices.

 

[Nancyg56]

Actually it will NOT give you a good idea if it's worth it. I don't think the creators have kept it up to date. It does NOT factor in the now included alcohol and it definitely has NOT updated to the current food prices.

I agree. I htink it is bes to do your own math.

 

[a1tinkfans]

If it’s a plan to eat thru disney, spending 1.5 hours for each sit down meal, snacking continuously .. cause you know each kiddo will want different things from different places/kiosks it would be worth it.
But all that loss of Disney time, to eat...
not worth it. If it’s about Cost savings to eat all that you mentioned.. the only way is to visit the menu and price it out.
Enjoy and good luck!

 

[Trinity88]

Actually it will NOT give you a good idea if it's worth it. I don't think the creators have kept it up to date. It does NOT factor in the now included alcohol and it definitely has NOT updated to the current food prices.

I didn’t realize it wasn’t being updated. Sorry!

 

[HopperFan]

I can't imagine eating that much food, or using up that much time at WDW.

 

[sharonabe]

I didn’t realize it wasn’t being updated. Sorry!

It was a decent comparative tool when it first came out, but my assumption is they quickly found how difficult it was to keep up with the changing prices at all the restaurants and ways to use the DDP. I would say it was good for about 6 months, but hasn't been reliable at least since the beginning of this year and we're almost to next year now.

 

[NicoleLarson]

I've done DxDDP a LOT and in your situation I would strongly say to NOT do it. We only do it when we have a split stay for 1 night and can spread it out over 2 days. We did it for the first time, last month, for 2 days spread out over 3 days and I was soooo sick of eating by the 3rd day. Remember on the DxDDP you get an app, entree AND dessert. It's just too much. The portions at WDW are extremely large, so most apps are a meal themselves. On top of that, since the meals are an app, entree and dessert, plan on spending 2 hours at a meal. There's no way that you are going to be able to eat a TS meal in 45 minutes, having 3 courses. The regular plan may not seem like a lot of food but I promise you it is. Also I find that my kids and myself eat a lot less at disney because we are so busy going from ride to ride or park to park that we just don't eat that much or as often as we usually do. Ideally if we are doing the regular plan we do a snack credit for breakfast, CS lunch and a TS for dinner, that still leaves you with an extra snack throughout the day. Remember you can go to any place that serves food and get a cup of free water so we never use our snacks for drinks. On your EP day, the france bakery is an awesome place to use some credits, they have a great ham and cheese croissant that's a snack credit. I can get that, a dessert and a cup of water and i'm totally stuffed and only used two snack credits. That's just an example of easy ways to stretch your credits.

 

[elsbit]

In your situation, with the restaurants that you are choosing, I would not do the DxDDP. We have done both plans in the past, and I really think the DxDDP is fantastic when you are eating at signature restaurants. This last trip, we did DxDDP, with a 1, 6, and 9 year old. We mostly stuck to two meals a day, with snacks serving as our breakfast. We ate a lot of amazing food, sometimes we took leftovers to our room, and sometimes, all that food was a perfect amount, as signature restaurants tend to have more controlled portions. We actually came out ahead on our plan when we used it, so it was a money saver.

Time: We are early park goers. The sit down meals were a perfect way for the kids and us to rest and get out of the heat. Because we have little ones, we would also take a mid-day break before going back to the parks. We were able to ride/do everything, eat good food, and relax even though we were on the DxDDP. I did not find taking an hour for a meal to be a devastating blow to our precious park time.