Adding DDP with Cdn ticket discount

[musika]

Hi everyone,

Please bear with me, I'm new to booking Disney. Here's our situation - we are planning to buy the discounted tickets for Canadian residents, and stay onsite at Pop in April. My understanding (so far) is that if we did want to use DDP, we have to call in to book a "ticketless package" in order to retain our 20% ticket discount - is that likely to change the room rate?

Our travel style is generally eat on the fly when we're hungry, and we have a 6 and 2 year old so will not be going to any signature restaurants and will likely only try 1 -2 TS ones in general... But, staying at pop the default dining plan is going to be QS anyway. I am hoping to do at least 1 character meal, maybe 2 depending on what's available.

So... is it worth it to go through the rigamarole of calling in order to use the DDP? Or should we just stick with buying out of pocket? For our family, I think the key pro for DDP would be allowing me to relax and not nickel and dime our food choices. But, I also feel like we might not get the overall value out of it either. DH is a big eater, but the rest of us are average.

Any thoughts? Apologies if I've put in the wrong spot.

 

[sharonabe]

First off, when you're buying the dining plan, you can buy any plan you want; there is no default based on where you are staying. It's only FREE dining that is tied to where you stay, and you're not eligible for that since you're buying tickets elsewhere.

The 2 yr old will not get a dining plan, so you're looking at just the 3 of you. If you think the 6 and 2 yr old will split an adult meal, then buying the QSDP might be a cost saver. You can get adult meals with a kid's credit at QS meals as of right now. Disney could find a way to enforce their "kid's must use kid's menu where available," but for QS meals they aren't enforcing it right now.

Big eater doesn't really fit in with the QSDP either. Do you all prefer soda/coffee/tea with your meals or are you mainly water drinkers? That's the place where you'll either make the QSDP work or you'll lose money.

Edited to add: You won't lose your room or ticket discount when doing a ticketless package.

 

[elaine amj]

Yep, you can buy any dining package you want. We stayed at Pop and added a ticketless package so we could buy the Deluxe Dining Plan.

You just have to decide if any of the dining plans would suit your style. I agree that QSDP might work well especially if your kids would share adult meals. (I wouldn't use QSDP for kids meals - adult meals would be more worth it).

 

[musika]

@sharonabe @elaine amj Thanks for the replies. Are you able to book the room and tickets first, and add on the dining later in this scenario?

We do drink a lot of water, but I can see us drinking pop (soda) for the adults anyway. I think alcohol is included now too? That might be worth it in some scenarios, but I doubt we would use at every meal.

 

[elaine amj]

@sharonabe @elaine amj Thanks for the replies. Are you able to book the room and tickets first, and add on the dining later in this scenario?

We do drink a lot of water, but I can see us drinking pop (soda) for the adults anyway. I think alcohol is included now too? That might be worth it in some scenarios, but I doubt we would use at every meal.

Yep - I added my dining about a week or two before my trip. I think its something like 5 days before the trip for the deadline? (pls double check)

 

[sharonabe]

@sharonabe @elaine amj Thanks for the replies. Are you able to book the room and tickets first, and add on the dining later in this scenario?

We do drink a lot of water, but I can see us drinking pop (soda) for the adults anyway. I think alcohol is included now too? That might be worth it in some scenarios, but I doubt we would use at every meal.

Yes, you can add on the dining plan up to 72 hrs before arrival. Since you have time, I'd keep an eye on this board to see what happens with the alcohol component and then run the numbers to see if paying for QSDP will be cheaper than OOP.