Prawn Heads & Cupcakes & Soups, Oh My! 10/5 Complete (now with my Dining Wish List)!

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Hi, can I ask you a quick question? I was just pricing out the dining plan and park tickets for my trip and I noticed the price has gone up again. Can you tell me if you think the plan is still a good deal? Did you pay out of pocket or use the deluxe or premium plan? My husband is suggesting that because we can never eat all the food of the DDP that perhaps we should just use our kitchen and pay out of pocket for meals. Thoughts?

We typically pay OOP and use the Tables in Wonderland discount. But even without the discount, I think OOP can often be a better choice than the DDP depending on your eating habits.

We've occasionally used the DDP and DxDP, and I can say we definitely order differently when we've payed for the plan. We feel pressured to order more expensive dishes (such as steak, even if we felt like something else) in order to justify the amount spent per credit. In addition, some restaurants (such as Beaches & Cream and many of the cheaper TS locations) are terrible values on the DDP, but they're a good choice if paying OOP. As you pointed out, the DDP grows more expensive each year, which makes it harder and harder to justify. So I definitely think it's possible to pay OOP, order what you feel like, and come out ahead.

 

[showers2flowers]

Late to the party (dining reports are new to me, but they're slowly sucking me in ), but I gotta say, if I had any remaining doubt about our choice of resort for our upcoming first trip, it has been completely erased by your report and pictures of the food choices at AKL. Oh my gosh, soooo much I want to try!

I sort of skipped and picked the AKL portions of your report but now I'm going back to read the rest.

 

[emmysmommy]

Mr. DDW I'm just here to say that I wish you had a trip planned soon because I really miss your reviews. I think you need to celebrate "Have a Party with Your Bear Day" on November 16th. (Look it up, it's for real!)

Maybe your professors will understand the desire of your DisBoard fans to get our fix. Hope all is well.

 

[Ro Z]

We typically pay OOP and use the Tables in Wonderland discount. But even without the discount, I think OOP can often be a better choice than the DDP depending on your eating habits.

We've occasionally used the DDP and DxDP, and I can say we definitely order differently when we've payed for the plan. We feel pressured to order more expensive dishes (such as steak, even if we felt like something else) in order to justify the amount spent per credit. In addition, some restaurants (such as Beaches & Cream and many of the cheaper TS locations) are terrible values on the DDP, but they're a good choice if paying OOP. As you pointed out, the DDP grows more expensiv each year, which makes it harder and harder to justify. So I definitely think it's possible to pay OOP, order what you feel like, and come out ahead.

Great tip. I agree! We do eat differant if we are on a plan. And that may not save $$ in the long run. You prob spend more on tips. We only do Ddp during FW. The snack credits are great then! Otherwise our tables card saves us more $$!

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Late to the party (dining reports are new to me, but they're slowly sucking me in ), but I gotta say, if I had any remaining doubt about our choice of resort for our upcoming first trip, it has been completely erased by your report and pictures of the food choices at AKL. Oh my gosh, soooo much I want to try!

I sort of skipped and picked the AKL portions of your report but now I'm going back to read the rest.

I hope you enjoy whichever restaurants you try at AKL! Overall, I think AKL has one of the strongest restaurant collections of any Disney resort. Even Sanaa (which is my least favorite of AKL's dining locations) gets great reviews around here.

Mr. DDW I'm just here to say that I wish you had a trip planned soon because I really miss your reviews. I think you need to celebrate "Have a Party with Your Bear Day" on November 16th. (Look it up, it's for real!)

Maybe your professors will understand the desire of your DisBoard fans to get our fix. Hope all is well.

What a great suggestion! By mid-November I'll definitely need a break from schoolwork, so it sounds like a perfect time for a trip.

Things are going pretty well (but they'll be even better once I'm done with midterms ). I wish I had some Disney updates to provide, but in some ways it's good that I don't (that time can be spent studying instead).

Great tip. I agree! We do eat differant if we are on a plan. And that may not save $$ in the long run. You prob spend more on tips. We only do Ddp during FW. The snack credits are great then! Otherwise our tables card saves us more $$!

Thanks for the info! I rarely think about the tip factor, but you're right - ordering more expensive dishes (such as steak instead of chicken/seafood) would definitely raise OOP costs as well. And F&W seems like the best time to use snack credits - some of the 'snacks' cost $6-7!

 

[happy2012]

Hey there DDW! I was just checking back to see when you have ur next trip planned so I can read ur reviews!!!

 

[MrsB1228]

Thanks so much for posting your wish list, your selections look amazing! We are fans of LC, The Wave and Kona Cafe and your choices in those venues sound wonderful. I too, am intrigued by the "low-glycemic" cheesecake offering at Kona. BOG is top of our wish list for the fall as well, I think a great many people planning a trip to WDW have this new restaurant on their ADR radar. I'd love to hear your opinion on it! We've been to WCC a couple of times, both for lunch, and I have to say we weren't overly impressed. It was fun with all the antics and understandably loud, but the food didn't wow us. Not that anything was bad, it just wasn't memorable in any way. For the price point, I was hoping for "wow", lol. I'm thinking it's a restaurant whose appeal is more in the experience, rather than the food.

Can't wait for your next reviews, I hope you can plan a trip soon!!

 

[Happyclarabelle]

Great job! Enjoyed your reviews and pictures! Thanks!

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Hey there DDW! I was just checking back to see when you have ur next trip planned so I can read ur reviews!!!

Still nothing planned yet (although with the Flower and Garden menus floating around, we're really tempted to plan a short weekend trip!)

Thanks so much for posting your wish list, your selections look amazing! We are fans of LC, The Wave and Kona Cafe and your choices in those venues sound wonderful. I too, am intrigued by the "low-glycemic" cheesecake offering at Kona. BOG is top of our wish list for the fall as well, I think a great many people planning a trip to WDW have this new restaurant on their ADR radar. I'd love to hear your opinion on it! We've been to WCC a couple of times, both for lunch, and I have to say we weren't overly impressed. It was fun with all the antics and understandably loud, but the food didn't wow us. Not that anything was bad, it just wasn't memorable in any way. For the price point, I was hoping for "wow", lol. I'm thinking it's a restaurant whose appeal is more in the experience, rather than the food.

Can't wait for your next reviews, I hope you can plan a trip soon!!

Thanks so much for the kind words and for sharing your thoughts! I'll take your word on WCC - the food (at least for lunch and dinner) just doesn't look great to me. I was hoping that the menu changes would be more drastic, but it doesn't seem like it.

Great job! Enjoyed your reviews and pictures! Thanks!

Thanks so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed the reviews - between the water parks, the new places we ate at, and the Dis meet, this was probably my favorite report to write.

 

[emmysmommy]

Still nothing planned yet (although with the Flower and Garden menus floating around, we're really tempted to plan a short weekend trip!)

Hmmmm...Not sure if your milestone special day falls within F&G but hmmm.... another tempting reason....