DDP vs DDE comparison

[chevyAZ]

I posted this after my trip this past December.

"It depends on how much you Eat
For us it simply did not make sense. 2 Adults 2 children ages 5 and 3 for a 15 day stay would have cost us about $1500. We had a 1BR at SSR, so we decided not to go with it. Instead we stocked the 1 BR with about $300 worth of groceries.
Breakfast for children was:

* Waffles / Pancakes
* Cereal
* Eggs
* French Toast

Lunch:

* PB & J
* Cold Cut Sandwiches
* Mac & Cheese in the room the days we left to the parks later in the day

Snacks:

* Pretzels
* Chips
* Microwave Pop-Corn - The kids loved it
* Fruit Snacks
* Cookies (Individual packs)

Drinks:

* Capri Suns
* Water (We had 2 cases left over)
* Soda - (We had tons left over)
* Milk

We spent approximately:
$300.00 Supermarket
$80.00 Character Dinner - Liberty Tree Tavern
$75.00 Character Bkfast - Hollywood & Vine
$90.00 Dinner Marrakesh
$130.00 Character Bkfast CRT
$160.00 Dinner 3 times at Turf Club (SSR) - My wife loved the Salmon Salad.
$85.00 Dinner 4 times at Artist Pallete (SSR)
$85.00 Dinner at Tony's Town Square
$20.00 Late Lunch at ABC Commisarry
$10.00 pastries in Norway
$15.00 pastries in France
$15.00 Fish & Chips in England
$35.00 Dinner 2 times at Lotus Blossom (China)

Prices reflect DDE Discount where applicable.

In total we spent about $1100, which left $400 savings for Souveniers. We definitely did not go hungry. Unfortunately I will also add that I gained about 7 lbs.

My next trip is in October and we're not staying in a 1 BR. I plan to get a rental car and explore dining in the surrounding areas for some of the nights we're there. The money saved will pay for the car. As for the DDE, it definitely paid for itself. We were pleasantly surprised that in addition to our resorts main TS restaurant, the discount was also valid for the Artists Pallete which is CS.

Sorry for the long post, but I painstakingly collected this data in order to assess whether we should do the DDP for our next trip in October. For us it just doesn't pay off."

 

[Muushka]

Don't be sorry for the long post. We are facts and figures kind of people! We did the same thing when we got back from doing the DDP last December, except we had to do a lot more thinking. Like figure out which food did we order that we really didn't need. Then add up the food we did actually want to order and see how it came out. I did not save the figures, but we realized that the DDP was not that much of a bargain.

Makes me wonder why so many see this as such a bargain? Not so much for DVC people because we don't have to jump thru any hoops to get it, but for the non-DVC, it makes me wonder.

 

[FLYNZ4]

Makes me wonder why so many see this as such a bargain? Not so much for DVC people because we don't have to jump thru any hoops to get it, but for the non-DVC, it makes me wonder.

What are the "hoops"? I thought that just about anyone could add DDP to their reservations. I must be missing something.

/Jim

 

[CarolMN]

What are the "hoops"? I thought that just about anyone could add DDP to their reservations. I must be missing something.

/Jim

If you want the DDP and are booking for cash through CRO/WDWTC, you can only add it to a room and ticket package. IIRC, that means there is a minimum 3 night stay, at least a 1 day ticket to buy and in almost all cases, you have to pay rack rates for the room. Maybe not exactly "hoops", but there are no such restrictions for adding the DDP to reservations made with DVC points (or cash reservations made via MS). Even though we don't plan to use the DDP in the future, it's a nice perk for those who want it.

 

[FLYNZ4]

Carol,

Thank you for the clarification. Now that you wrote this... I remember a friend who booked Pop Century during the free dining period. He is applying the four 1-day tickets against a larger ticket purchase. The free dining sounds like a great deal... espeicially since reserving a room is cheaper than the 4 free DDP's.

/Jim