Deluxe Dining or Concierge Level?

[cantwait4disney]

We're planning our 2nd trip to Disney for next May :cool1: and the goal is to reduce out-of-pocket expenses for dining/meals/snacks. Last year, it seemed like a lot of our spending money went towards food, even though we were on the dining plan. This time, I'd like to have everything paid for before we leave. We're a family of five: DH, me, DD14, DS10, DD8. Currently, we're planning on staying at the Poly. I see that concierge level offers a continental breakfast and snacks plus other non-food related perks. The deluxe dining has 3 meals plus 2 snacks. I'm wondering which is a better value: concierge level or the deluxe dining?

Thanks!

[aka-mad4themouse]

If a TS meal everyday is important to you, then I think that the DDP is the better value. But if having access to light snacks and beverages, a comfortable lounge area and the attentive service of the concierge staff will enhance your vacation, then go concierge.

I've done both and it really does matter whether we're doing a relaxing, resort-oriented vacation or a more active, park touring visit. For myself, I definitely would not spend the extra money for a concierge level room if I was planning a commando-style, dawn-to-dusk assault on the parks.

[disneygirlinnj]

i'd say ddp but we are never in our hotel to make use of the concierge lounges. it depends on how much time you'll spend at your hotel?

[DisneyMomx7]

We've dibe CL on our last three trips but this time we're going to switch to a standard room at BC with the deluxe dining plan. With the price of the ddp going up but the deluxe plan staying the same I think it will be a better option for us. We used CL mostly for breakfast, drinks and a few appetizers or snacks. We still paid out of pocket for a few lunches and breakfasts. Hopefully this will save us some money and we'll be able to do some room service breakfasts also!

[mwatson011]

We love the dxdp, and were in the same dilemma as you for this trip. We thought the idea of club level was nice, but didn't want to give up all the restaurants either. SO...

We are doing both, but not together. We are spending the first 5 nights of our trip doing the dxdp, so we can enjoy character breakfasts and great TS meals with no OOP cost. Then, for the last 2 nights of our trip, we are changing rooms to a CL room with no dining plan. That way, we can spend the last couple days relaxing and not worrying about ADRs, and get our fill of CL amenities. We hesitated since we will have to physically switch rooms, but ultimately this gives us the best of both worlds.

[cantwait4disney]

I have a feeling that we'll be spending less time in our room this time around. There was so much that we didn't get to see and do our first trip, but that was intentional - I didn't want the family to suffer through a Disney burnout. The more I'm researching the deluxe plan, the more I seem to like it. The only OOP expense would be tips and sometimes I wish that was still included.

[PrincessBelle39]

We chose CL even though we consided the DxDP. We are spending more more time in the resort this time and thats one of the reasons. But also because I couldn't bear the thought of spending hours sitting down eating and travelling to restaurants. I'd rather spend the time seeing the parks and the resort. One sit down meal takes enough time out of our day for us. Also the expense of the tips is just too much. We are doing free dining but the tips based on what we will be doing for the time we are there will be several hundred dollars. The CL just sounds so much easier.

[Golf4food]

You can use DxDP anywhere on property - for CL you have to go back to your lounge, even if you'd rather not leave the park at that moment, in order to take advantage of it. Something to consider...

If you are mostly thinking of using CL for breakfast, you buy buy breakfast relativly cheaply at any number of CS locations and pay OOP if you want.