1st trip to WDW and need help with DxDDP...

[squirrel]

First you arrive at the ADR and tell them you have arrived. Then you wait and wait and wait. At least that is what it was like for us during Free Dining. I think we had one ADR that we waited 5 min and one that was less than that. We had a total of 12 ADR's last time and I would say most had a least a 15 min wait. Sorry, but we did waste a lot of time waiting to be seated and then our meals took a min of 1 hr (Character Meals) and the rest were more like 1.5 hrs. So we did miss a lot of park time going to the restaurants.

I know some people like doing the DxDP, but I don't recommend it for people going on their first trip to WDW.

[cater00]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their suggestions. I see that the deluxe plan is mixed review, some like it some don't. I am worried that it may be too much for us but then I am worried if we don't go with it that we will be paying OOP for a lot of meals. Because we want to do CRT, HDDR, Mickeys Backyard BBQ and several character meals. And if we go with the basic plan it won't be enough credits for all of it. So if we are planning on doing those 3 meals that take 2 TS credits plus several other 1 TS credit meals wouldn't it be best to go with the Deluxe plan?
One more question... Say we make an ADR at a 1 TS meal and we can't make it are we charged for it anyways?

[Colleen27]

Originally Posted by cater00

Just wanted to thank everyone for their suggestions. I see that the deluxe plan is mixed review, some like it some don't. I am worried that it may be too much for us but then I am worried if we don't go with it that we will be paying OOP for a lot of meals. Because we want to do CRT, HDDR, Mickeys Backyard BBQ and several character meals. And if we go with the basic plan it won't be enough credits for all of it. So if we are planning on doing those 3 meals that take 2 TS credits plus several other 1 TS credit meals wouldn't it be best to go with the Deluxe plan?
One more question... Say we make an ADR at a 1 TS meal and we can't make it are we charged for it anyways?

The only real way to know which plan is best is to do the math - compare what you'd be spending OOP for the additional meals to the cost of upgrading.

As far as cancellations, there are only a handful of places with penalties, primarily the most desirable character meals and dinner shows. Those have 24 hour cancellation policies. Most other restaurants don't require a credit card for booking an ADR and don't have any penalty for cancellation or no-shows, though good manners would dictate you cancel rather than just not show of course.

[squirrel]

The places that ask for your credit card require cancellation either 24 or 48hrs before or your credit card will be charged.

The ones that you listed require a credit card (CRT, HDDR and Mickey's BBQ).

[caroline1851]

Since this is your 1st trip, i would say do the basic DDP and enjoy your resort and spending time in the parks a little more instead of having to get to each adr. the whole bus thing is very time consuming.... Have you checked out exactly how long it'll take to get from your resort to some of the places you plan on eating? (and keep in mind, sometimes you have to wait for the bus for up to 20 min.)

[Debbie Jean]

Originally Posted by cater00

Just wanted to thank everyone for their suggestions. I see that the deluxe plan is mixed review, some like it some don't. I am worried that it may be too much for us but then I am worried if we don't go with it that we will be paying OOP for a lot of meals. Because we want to do CRT, HDDR, Mickeys Backyard BBQ and several character meals. And if we go with the basic plan it won't be enough credits for all of it. So if we are planning on doing those 3 meals that take 2 TS credits plus several other 1 TS credit meals wouldn't it be best to go with the Deluxe plan?
One more question... Say we make an ADR at a 1 TS meal and we can't make it are we charged for it anyways?

I just wanted to say I am very impressed with your whole thought/planning process... the first trip is always the hardest to plan because every family is different... you really did your homework!

BTW, we like the deluxe because it's so much easier to do the 2TS restaurants... with all the snack credits we never need to pay for anything OOP

[VAN]

I suggested the regular dining plan; HOWEVER, if your budget allows the deluxe plan will be the way to go.

Most people are trying to watch their $$, but if this isn't a concern for you, then you will want to go deluxe.

[ccgia]

If you are getting the deluxe dining plan, it truly is too much food, to have 3 sit down meals a day, what you might want to do is book a breakfast around 830 or 900 am and then book an early dinner for around 430 or so, and have a snack in between, because if you book breakfast at 830 buy the time it's 1200 or so you are really not hungry yet...and then to eat again at 500 you are going to be eating all the time and not really feeling hungry.

and as far as the snacks, you definetly will not use all of them...on our last day before our flight and after we already checked out of our room, we went to the gift shop and had about 20 snack credits left and bought a lot of snacks for the plane and to take home

you might want to eat at places where they require 2 meal tickets, like cinderella's royal castle or the hoop dee doo review or mickey's backyard barbque

also, as far as the park hopper, we did get it and only used it one day because we were at animal kingdom and they closed early and we went over to magic kindgom to see the firework show one night, so check out the times the parks close on the days you are going

hope this helps you

[DISNEYNY]

You know your family best! I see you have many early ADR's planned for breakfast. If you want to do these breakfasts & the 2 credit meals then the deluxe plan might be a good thing for you. For my family we could never make it to 7:30 & 8:00 ADR's every morning of our trip. We always get the regular plan, but we are not big breakfast eaters....we usually just eat in our room and grab an early CS lunch. Your plan looks fun...have a great time.

[eileen2664]

We just got back (last night) from 8 nights of DxDDP. Our biggest mistake was planning dinners at 8. Eating at that time wasn't a big deal, it was getting done at a decent time and then getting back to the hotel (since nearly all of our dinners were in resorts, it took awhile to get back to our resort). Figure 1 1/2 hrs (give or take a bit) for dinner and another 1 1/2 hrs to get back to the room and that made for some late nights. Then of course we had a couple of early breakfasts at 8am.....bad idea. I should have planned at least some dinners for 6 or 7, especially before an early morning.

Aside from that, we liked it (and the couple of times we did counter service reminded me how much I like TS better). We're not sure if we'd do it again or pay OOP, but it was nice to do once and try so many resturaunts that we hadn't tried last time.

Enjoy!