Deluxe Dining Plan, have you done it?

[Neoshoegal]

Started pondering with the idea of upgrading to the DxDP next year.
Reasons are:
- can do all the restaurants we want (we love Disney restaurants)
- do the dinner shows as we'd have more than enough credits
- appetisers are included, which is a total bonus for DH (and me)
- we're going during the food and wine festival so the extra snack credits could come in handy there

Con: it's quite a bit more expensive (currently have the free DDP) so would need to find the money somehow.

So I would like to hear from people who have done the DxDP and what they thought of it.
We are going for 15 nights. I realise it's pure indulgence bordering on gluttony, but hey, you only live once!

 

[wayneg]

Have you done some calulations for paying for the extras you might want compared to paying for upgrade to deluxe? not easy to guess but might help.
I was concerned we would not have enough food on regular DDP but it was just about right. I know deluxe would be way too much for us, would be far cheaper to pay for any extras.

 

[Neoshoegal]

But that would mean having to be sensible
I agree though, we've done the normal dining plan twice and never felt hungry or had a lack of food. And the DxDp would most likely be too much food to a certain extend. We do have a tendency to add starters when we're at the nicer restaurants already. And I'm not sure that the DxDP would be cheaper than just adding the extras. But it's the thought that we'd do things we otherwise might not do that appeals to me.
We are now paying £111 for our room and DDP per night for the 2 of us. Upgrading would mean £151, which considering what you get, is still fairly good value when compared to prices for hotels over here (comparing like for like).
Still tempted

 

[mossyflossy]

yes we did it for 6 nights in oct during food and wine and loved it!

It cost £44 per night for a family of 4 to upgrade from free dining to DLX. For us, it was completely worth it because we like sit down restaurants instead of "fast food" CS, and we tried places that we would never have gone to were it not for the dlx credits (Narcoossees and California Grill).

It was great to be "carefree", like an all inclusive, and to have budgeted and paid for it all upfront. But we were not concerned about maximising values...we ordered what we wanted, not the most expensive, and we only ordered the apps if we fancied them.....and we didn't worry if we didn't fancy the pud etc.

it is alot of food, but you don't have to eat it all! try it...it's very liberating, really!

 

[wayneg]

Just checked upgrade cost for us next August, Upgrade for just £1,260.00 more!
$2,079 for 3 of us. Could buy a lot of starters with that. $99/day
Its all down to personal choice, no way would I want to do TS at lunch a quick bite at lunch and a nice meal in the evening is just right.

 

[Neoshoegal]

Just checked upgrade cost for us next August, Upgrade for just £1,260.00 more!
$2,079 for 3 of us. Could buy a lot of starters with that. $99/day
Its all down to personal choice, no way would I want to do TS at lunch a quick bite at lunch and a nice meal in the evening is just right.

OUCH!!! That is a lot!!! How long are you guys going???
it isn't just about the starters though

 

[mossyflossy]

£1290, how many days is that for? and how many of you?

next Aug it's about £60 per day for our family to upgrade to dlx, as eldest DD will be 10, still a good deal IMO.

 

[wayneg]

OUCH!!! That is a lot!!! How long are you guys going???
it isn't just about the starters though

3 or 4 nights at RPR first then 21 nights at OKW.
No I know its more than starters, just no idea how we could use it all. This year for 16 nights we did a couple needing 2 credits (Cali grill & Hoop) and still had enough credits. Doesn't help our first time at a signature restaurant (Cali grill) was a major dissapointment, hoping YSH is a better experience next year or we will not try anymore.

 

[Neoshoegal]

We weren't too keen on the California Grill either. Found it too loud, food overly fuzzy and our server wasn't that great either (DH was wearing his Happy Birthday badge and didn't even get as much as a "Happy Birthday" from him). Also, the paper over the linen table cloths, does not exactly say luxury restaurant to me.
Of all the signature restaurants we've tried so far Citricos and Artist Point are our favourites.

 

[disneyholic family]

Wayne, we also were very disappointed with the cali grill.

of the signature restaurants, i highly recommend Citricos at the Grand Floridian.

The food and service were outstanding.

 

[tubtruck]

We did it for 5 days of a 24 day stay two years ago, it is good if you want to do a lot of the signature dining as these are two credits. If you want to eat in the cheaper places then I wouldn't bother as you will spend a large part of the day inside eating. After 5 days I had had enough and as we are DVC and were moving hotels we were able to phone up and change the rest of our stay to the normal plan.

 

[natalielongstaff]

In my opinion the dinnig plan is not the value for money option it once was, so no i would not upgrade.