I guess whether or not you get the
DDP comes down to several factors:
1. Do you have an AP and DDE? (not me) If so, the dinning plan isn't really going to work for you.
2. Do you like to plan/orgainize your trip in advance or are you a more spontaneous traveller? (I am the former, my husband is the latter). Just because you are on the dinning plan, you don't have to make ADRs. Just because you're not on the dinning plan doesn't mean you shouldn't make ADRs. Personally since I'm the only one in our family (including other relatives who are meeting us there) who knows what the ADR are it will be a surprise for all my spontaneous relatives.
3. What kind of meals do you like? (we really prefer the Table Service meals, but eat counter service too)
When I did an analysis of where we are going to eat (remember I'm the planner in the family) I could easily approximate (with the help of the menus on Allear.net) what we would spend. Table service meals for us at most restaurants with drink,tax,and tip was around $30 per adult and $12 per child (for a family of 2 adults and 2 children I calculated 1 appetizer, 2 adult entrees, and 2 kids entrees plus drinks for 4 --no dessert). A light lunch at a counter service place was around $12 adult, $8 child. That's already up to $42. Without the plan I approximated that we'd spend about $250 more.
Are we going to order an appetizer and dessert per person for every table service meal? Doubtful, but we're coming out ahead so we'll order whatever we feel like. There are a couple of restaurants where each adult might share a meal (appetizer, entree and dessert) with each child.
Since the plan comes with snacks which include bottled water, I will no longer have to tote my own bottles.
The plan won't pay for all of our meals, but you better believe that we'll be using it on the more expensive ones!