Yesterday I had called DVC customer Service to add the DDP to our up coming reservation, when the lady gave me the total I said did the prices go up and she said yes, it is now 41.99 a day per adult & 12.99 a day per child.

I was surprised since I had not heard about increases for the DDP, so it is 42.00 more that week I need to add into what we had not planned for.

I do want to say though I tried to do a price comparision by looking at the menus online and seeing if it would be cheaper to pay out of pocket, the only problem is I do not know if the pricing is up to date. Then not sure if there is any tax to include and of course gratutity. Where as with the DDP I have a flat price can budget in the gratutity based on that number and keep going.

We have went back & forth every year on should we use the DDP or not, I understand that by having it you are basically having the benfit of your meals paid for and no surprises "price shock" for a burger & fries.

So what is your opinion?

Taking into consideration the fact that I've only been there once recently:
I think it all depends on what your plans are. If you really will use all the credits and enjoy the TS meals, I think it's worth it. If you are trying to squeeze in TS meals just so use don't waste any, then it's a burden. Being our first trip (in YEARS, anyway), we were rookies and had the deluxe. We were slaves to our dining reservations. In the busy August crowds, it was hard to worry about getting to our ADRs and enjoying the attractions.

Next time, knowing that we will want to do some TS, I will definitely get the dining plan. I'd get the deluxe only if I went with just adults and my goal was to mostly experience the restaurants, not the attractions.

If I were going and trying to squeeze in as many attractions as possible, I think that the QS plan would still probably be a good deal. But, even then, I was surprised that running around so much we didn't really get too hungry.

Can I ramble, or what. I think overall, if you do all of the TS - the regular plan is going to be a good deal.

We have been so many times but only had the DPP QS once (it was included in the price) and i must admit it was good and did save us money. We do other parks so it doesn't really make much sence for us to upgrade it. We have loads of credits left over at the end of our visit.

When we are booking for next year I will definately try again to get the package that includes the DDP QS I guess it helps to budget the vacation too.

In all of my trips, we've only used DDP once, and that was the first year it was offered. At that time, it included gratuity, one QS, one TS, and one snack per day for $35.00, I believe. AWESOME deal. Since there is no plan available for children under age 3, we opted for the Deluxe DDP on this trip so we could share our meals with DD. We chose this BEFORE hearing news of the free dining promotion, and later had the difference taken off our total package price.

My opinion, and this may change after our trip, is that we enjoy the freedom to eat and not worry about the bill. It is, however, becoming a bit pricey if you don't go during the free dining promotion. We had credits left on our last trip, but I am certain there will be none left next week. Use your own judgment based on how much you'll eat and decide from there. If we didn't go at the same time as the free dining promotion, we probably wouldn't get Deluxe DDP again.

We like the TS option of it, since we usually use our TS for dinner and it gives us a time to sit down and just take a break. It is the QS part of it that we struggle some days we want to stop & have lunch other days the time goes by so quickly and it is time for our TS ADR and we have a QS credit left over.

Yea I remember when the DDP included the tip and all you had to do was sign your reciept. I think what I need to do is look at the list of QS locations that might have Breakfast stuff where you arenot having burgers and nuggests at 10am.

We ate a lot of cheeseburgers and french fries when we went without the DDP. We decided to use the DDP on our trip in May 09 and we were so impressed!!! I ordered something off the menu that was "market price". We ate sooo much better on the DDP. And it did save us money in that sense. There is no way that we would be able to sit down 3 times a day for meals though, so the deluxe will never work for us.

Don't get me wrong, I like my cheeseburgers! So the CS meals work out great! We took advantage of the free dining this trip and are staying at AS Music, so we upgraded for $10 per person to the DDP. I don't know that I want to only eat counter service meals either.

We had some snacks left over from our trip last time. That was only because we were buying snacks with cash because we did not want to run out of snacks before our trip was over. We know better now. Use up all the snacks and THEN pay out of pocket!

Bacause we don't go to the parks every day we use the QS plan to get our breakfast each morning at the resort and that saved us a lot. It's only since I joined this site that I have really found out about ADR's and where you can you so for our next trip might look at a different option.

I have gone both ways, and always find myself missing the DDP when I do not have it. It offers the flexibility for you to get a steak dinner, or a burger, but we always go with the higher end menu items that we might not get if we weren't on the plan. I say go for it, and use it to its fullest.

Oh decisions decisions decisions - it's great fun planning for your trips