I think the Deluxe Plan is for us...Is it?

[Sacha_L]

Here is why and please don't be shy if you think my logic is "off" because I have never used it before.

1) We love all inclusive resorts: the ease, lack of worrying about what you are ordering costs ect... & its prepaid! (I know we still have to tip but we do that anyway as DH and I bartended is that a word? through college) :drinking1

2) Food is important to DH :teeth: a well fed DH is a happy one, we were not terribly impressed with the CS meals we had last year at DisneyLand but enjoyed all the TS ones. Plus this way I won't be tempted to force cereal on him to save our TS credits for dinner.

3) We LOVE :lovestruc the character meals! We only did 1 last year at the end of our trip and wished we had scheduled more! The kids were entertained, and we got to see lots of characters without standing in lines. ::MinnieMo pluto: :tigger: ::MickeyMo

4) My kids would live on nuggets/fries/burgers/pizza if I let them so the kids meals options are not a problem....hey its vacation :rolleyes1 I'll just feed them their vitamins.

5) We don't mind sitting down to eat...MIL has foot issues, and DH has heat issues so sitting down for an hour or so in a themed, cool enviroment does not make us feel like we are missing out on the park time for us its part of vacation ;)

So all you dining experts out there...am I right? or wrong? Anything else I should be considering?

[Mommy2Corinne]

Sounds like you have thought it out well. The only other thing I would consider is the "time" factor. Three sit down TS meals a day takes up A LOT of time. If you have the time (or don't mind spending more time in the restaurants versus in the parks) then I would say go for it.

We are totally debating back and forth on the basic plan versus the deluxe plan. We are with you on all your reasons (we LOVE food too). But since we are only there for 6 days, I think we would regret spending so much time eating versus in the parks. Now if we had more time ... I would go deluxe all the way!

[acourtwdw]

We are doing the Deluxe in Sept. It will be my Dsis and Dparents and myself. It works well for us. We are doing an early character/buffet breakfast, CS lunches, then a late TS dinner. I like the fact that I don't have to worry about what to order based on price. Also my parents haven't eaten at a lot of TS places, so it will be great for them.

Don't forget that you get 2 snacks per person per day and a refillable mug per person. I can drink the amount of the DDXP in diet coke alone!!

[tmonferdini]

We just upgraded to DxDP & at first, I thought it would be too much food for one day, but we're not eating breakfasts every day. We have a couple later breakfasts scheduled for a sleep-in morning (with no lunch that day) and one for our last day. I also made ressie's at Boatwright's, since it is still 1 credit whether you use CS or TS, I'm gonna get TS and not have to fight the crowds at the food court.

Also, the best part, we have 5 Signature dinners scheduled. We will be there 10 nights & have plenty of park time scheduled, so I think we'll be okay. Plus, part of vacation, at least for my kids & DH, is being able to go "out to eat", especially at nice places where you don't have to worry about what they order - it's included in the price I'll be paying off next week.

Another perk is being able to take a little time out during the middle of the afternoon in an air conditioned, themed restaurant for lunch, not just counter service in the shade in June.

We're looking forward to eating at: Yachtsman, Jiko, Narcoossee's, Flying Fish & Brown Derby, which we would NEVER be able to afford otherwise.

[PrincessMemoriesJeNN]

I just got the free dining for September as well, and upgraded to the deluxe dining for our family. I figured that my 2 kids would drink more water, popcorn, and ice cream than $10 a day and all of those awesome character meals could be done without worrying about running short. We are going with my mom, who recently got her "cancer free" diagnosis after battling stage 3C breast cancer for a year. She wants to eat at the castle with her grandaughter so we are making her dreams come true as well.

BUT NOW, my hubby questions if we did the right thing as our free dining is not really free now. We have NEVER had the dining plan before although I have been to WDW 9 times in my life. I just thought WOW - take a break in the air conditioning (most times) and get served a meal sounded good and I did not want to run out of credits as we already planned CRT, Spt of Aloha, and Chef M, Tuskers, Fantasmic Pack, and Coral Reef in 7 nights/8 days.

What do all of you experts think?

[Sacha_L]

Thanks for all the replies! :thumbsup2 I am going to try and get us some ADR's at the 2 TS credit meal places as well...I am a soda/coffee junkie too so I know that I will use that refillable mug! Is there anyone out there that has recently purchased the deluxe plan for their trip? I'd LOVE some reviews! TIA!

[GC&S]

We upgraded to Deluxe for the free dining period. We've never tried the signature restaurants and this was a great chance to do so. Of course when we looked at our dining plans, we realized how much food and time that was. So we switched several lunches to breakfast and we can do dinners a little later. We love TS and dd loves the character stuff (and since CS kids meals can be a tad boring), we think we will enjoy the Deluxe plan (especially at half off). We are pretty easy going (and early risers) so we never feel the need to rush through the parks. And to us, dining is a HUGE part of our vacation experience. DD is super excited because she keeps asking to eat in the castle (did dinner one year) but it wasn't a great value on the regular dining plan. She will be so happy when we eat there this year princess: .

[Lady Lallie]

We decided to do the deluxe as well. For us, it was just worth it. Even though it's not free it's still a discount which is always welcomed. I have never had a table service meal at WDW so I am pretty excited in experiencing this part of WDW. So I am willing to save certain rides or experiences for the next trip to have this experiene with husband...well he will be by then. :lovestruc
I'm looking forward to having the breaks during the day so by the 3rd day of our trip I can't walk, I tend to over do it in my crazy obsessive over planning ways. This will hopefully slow me down and enjoy new experiences.

[LoveTheWDWMagic]

I agree with what you said. I also have the DxDP. My 15yob eats like there's no tomorrow :laughing: and my 8yob usually orders from the adult menu when we eat out. He LOVES lobster, steak, shrimp, fish and tend to stay away from kids food like nuggets, burgers. So for us, the deluxe plan is worth it. All the signature restaurants I made ADRs for have steak, seafood on their kids menu and with the 1TS meal, I will order something that he likes and we will share. Since we are going in August, going to a TS for lunch is a good break from the heat and humidity. Have a great time and let us know how your trip was. I love reading everyone's trip and seeing the food photos.

[aljack33]

We just got back from 10 nights on the deluxe. Honestly, it probably was a lot of food at places, but it didn't feel like a lot of food. At ESPN and Beaches and Cream it seemed like a lot of food because of the massive portion of appetizers. Other places, it was nice because the appetizers are not too huge.

We enjoyed the deluxe. It was nice to have everything prepaid. We were there during spring break and to be honest, the wait for the CS that we did get took just as long as our time in a TS. The CS lines and waits are just horrendous. I am so glad we did the deluxe for that reason alone.

We did late breakfasts and early dinners on most days and on others we did an early lunch and dinner. CS were in here and there to supplement if we go hungry. We only did 2 signature restaurants. We still only had 2 credits left at the end of the trip which we turned into 6 snacks credits and got things to take home (the poly let us do that).

For a shorter trip, I would do the Deluxe again. I don't think I saved much money by doing it. The convenience was well worth it though.

[brad3640]

I know this has probably been asked a kazillion times but how much is the upgrade to the deluxe plan if you have free dining?:flower3:

[mickey2000]

I know this has probably been asked a kazillion times but how much is the upgrade to the deluxe plan if you have free dining?:flower3:

$32 per adult $10 child + additional allowance for tips because of more expensive (signature) meals ....18 - 20 %

[iluvepcot]

I think it would be worth the upgrade for all the reasons mentioned above and esp since we are going at fd and while not free it is 1/2 the cost. dh does not agree. He tends to look at dollars not sense :rotfl2:

so this is how I tried to convince him for our first 5 day fd part of our upcoming trip.

I explained that aps are no longer included. And although we normally share an ap and do not order on all our meals at home, we enjoy doing this at dw. So now if we wanted to order say 3 aps (we prob will pay op on fd for these), I placed a dollar value on this at $20 each meal ($60).

We will probably order the refilllable mugs and pay $12 each for ($50).

We will prob pay oop for maybe a wine or beer at some meals. Now we can do a couple of shows like hddr or mickeys back yard that will include this ($40). The tip is include for those shows ($50).

Extra snack each day for each of us ($20)


with the upgrade we would be able to do more signiture places, instead of one, we can do 3 without loosing a sit down. we usually do cs one day and then a signiture. Now we don't have to loose an entire nite ts. I was not sure how to calculate that. I know it is value added and not $ value. To get him to see it, I need to place a $ value to it. so I placed $50 each extra value of food to the 2 additional signiture meals ($100)

I showed him the total value of the upgrade would be $320 (minus this from the additonal costs of upgrade for 1 jr 2 ad and 1 ch) $530, gives us an actual cost for the upgrade at $210. The price of better dining experience of not having to worry about any oop priceless... :rotfl:

He is still not convinced. He thinks it is too much food and he is willing to give up the signiture dining. He did make one good pont, he wishes disney would let people using the dining plan upgrade while on the plan for one or two days. Then he would be willing....

[MississippiMamma]

We just got back today from a six-night stay with Delux Dining. DS 12, DD 10, DS 7, DH & myself. We loved it. We ate breakfast in our room and made it for the rope drop most mornings. We ate lunch in the parks (several character lunches) & late dinners at signature restaurants. I ordered the appetizers for all four of us at every meal and we shared everything. We usually only ate a bite or two of dessert, but it was nice to have. I'm planning to do a review soon. I was very glad we decided to go that route. I strongly recommend using your snack credits liberally. If you are thirsty, use a snack credit to get a water or a soda. Don't hoard them; you'll be sorry. Just consider them "lagniappe." You'll get your money's worth even if you "spend" those snack credits on soda. If you spend your whole time determined to "get your money's worth" by ordering the most expensive menu items or snacks, you won't feel the magic! Believe me, you'll get your money's worth!

[Sacha_L]

Thanks for sharing your experience! I actually crunched #'s and I think it will save us $500+ using the plan versus paying out of pocket..:teacher:

[dclfun]

I've never looked at the DDXP in terms of dollars and cents, but in terms of convenience. We upgraded for one of our ressies this fall ( have two continuing ressies) and will thus dine at the dinner shows and signature restaurants during that portion of the trip. I have one daughter who would much prefer an appetizer to an entree and substitutions aren't allowed on the dining plan, so we'd rather pay extra to have appy's included than to order one OOP for her or anyone else who wants one. It may not even make monetary sense but I'd rather have things we want prepaid ( except for gratuities this year). For us there are 4 adults in our party and one infant. One of our ressies is 14 nights so the cost to upgrade was $1750 for DDXP with basic dining being free. Ouch. Our costs to upgrade for the four night stay was of course, much more affordable. It was a great solution for us to do part of the stay with the upgrade, esp. since the credits from the first ressie won't expire until the evening of our second ressie so the credits can be shared that day. Now if they'd offer a higher cost plan that DID include the grats, I'd pay for that in a heartbeat. We really missed having an all inclusive plan when we did the 08 DDP last month.---Kathy