Upgrade costs for dining plans 2013 and 2014

[okmommy]

wow- ddp adds up fast

Thanks for your responses.

sharonabe, I can see that the DDP would be worth $278 for a family of 4. Thanks for explaining.

granfan, makes sense that only 4 or 5 days may make the DDP worth while - not much resort savings on that length of time. As for our trip length, we are retired & can spend as long as we want & take trips as often as we want - retirement is soooo great! We used to stay at Sherwood Forest RV park all winter & had a Disney annual pass. We got our fill & now we only do 10 day tickets no matter how long we stay in the area; we are mostly there to get away from the Indiana cold winter.

I think I'm now understanding that the $1,000+ savings by taking free DDP is either "magical" computing , or some folks who would eat a whole lot of OOP food , or some folks have a whole lot of kids - maybe 10 ?

 

[thumbalyna]

upgraded today from the free QSDP to the DDP for 2 adults for 4 nights it was $103.00, does this sound about right? We arrive on Thursday.

 

[TDC Nala]

upgraded today from the free QSDP to the DDP for 2 adults for 4 nights it was $103.00, does this sound about right? We arrive on Thursday.

Two of your nights (17th and 18th) are in peak season.

2 nights regular season @ $11 per night for upgrade for two adults = $44

2 nights peak season @ $13 per night for upgrade for two adults = $52

Total of that is $96.

Not sure where the extra $7 came from but there are often some discrepancies like that when figuring package pricing. For example, I'm not certain if they consider your whole trip to be peak season.

 

[thumbalyna]

thanks, the first time i called to get a quote she said 103, then when i called back the cm i got tried to tell me it was going to cost almost 400 to switch the dining plans (also why he was telling me this, the disney website "lost" my reservation) and then i called a third time and was told the 103 again so i took it.

 

[asemaria]

Thanks for posting this. When we got dining I changed from 2 nights at POP to 4 nights at POFQ. and got the DDP.
I have thought about upgrading to the Deluxe but now I see that the difference would be too much for us, so one more thing to stop thinking of!

 

[Cathy baby RN]

I just upgraded from Free Quick Service to Regular Dining and it was $114.30. I'm staying Feb.3-9, 6 nights. It is not peak season. $16.55x6=$99.30. (Peak season is $18.55, so $18.55x6=$111.30)I tried to call back and question it but the CM would not put me through to Guest Services. I felt guilty calling back since it is a Free Quick Service package and it's only $2 more per night. What would you do??

Thanks!!

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

We got in on the Y63 free QS dining code. I asked the cm about upgrading to full service and she said she couldn't do it, that there wasn't a code for full service. So, when can I upgrade and is there a better way to go about it? If I upgrade AFTER the 45 days they won't charge me a change fee will they?

 

[TDC Nala]

We got in on the Y63 free QS dining code. I asked the cm about upgrading to full service and she said she couldn't do it, that there wasn't a code for full service. So, when can I upgrade and is there a better way to go about it? If I upgrade AFTER the 45 days they won't charge me a change fee will they?

Call back and ask someone else. Make it clear to them you ONLY want to upgrade the dining plan, not the resort.

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

Another question. A friend was upgrading for March 18. I know it is peak season but she is being quoted 19.99 to upgrade from QS to DDP per adult. Do the amounts shown on this thread include tax? Are others finding differences?

 

[jimjenkids]

trying to see if this is going to be worth it for us....never have we done the dining plan and guess I am hoping for free dining but not holing my breath...seems a bit high and I hate that they charge more for peak(xmas) than other times...as if the food is worth more over peak times! also with a fam of 6 we are hit with gratuity even if the service is sub par!

 

[qder123]

Thanks for the information!

 

[Portapoose]

The biggest cost savings advantage that I see to the DxDP would be to eat at the Signature Restaurants instead of the TS. It gives you an opportunity to eat at the higher end when you normally might not. Although if you have small children, I don't see any advantage

 

[KimberlyE]

Glad to see a polite discussion on this topic - other threads get very snarky and heated! I do think that upgrading to deluxe depends on how you want to vacation, whether it's peak season or not, length of stay and what resort you select.

We are a family of 4 with 2 adults, a 6 year old and a baby. We always stay at Pop and usually have 4-5 park days. We always travel during FD and upgrade to deluxe for a variety of reasons:

1. New eating experiences is a major component to my husband's vacation strategy. He really enjoys trying new places and new foods. Half of his Disney excitement is dining so he wants unrestricted dining options.

2. My son and I are huge fans of character meals. We do a character breakfast every morning of our Disney trips. My husband tolerates these as he is not fond of buffets. So we automatically need at least 2 TS meals a day.

3. When looking at dining, I try to consider some QS dining plans but when I look at the menus, I just can't get over spending that much for everyday foods without table service . Example: @$15 for a meal of a pizza, salad, drink and dessert at Pizza Planet and for @$10 more I can get a salad, flatbread entree, and truffle cake. I know that's silly since it's covered under the FD plan but I would rather go to Mama Melrose's and get a lot more for my meal.

Note: Not all TS are what they are cracked up to be. We were impressed by the atmosphere and service at one but the food wasn't on par. And on the tip side, I've been reading some rave reviews of some QS places and have added those to my list of "future dining options".

4. If we were to pay OOP for our meals we would incur huge costs for 3 TS meals a day. It would prohibit us from enjoying our version of a Disney vacation. The charge for rooms at Pop is low enough per night that the % off without FD isn't going to cover our meals if we dined OOP with 3 TS meals a day.

5. We like not having to worry about meal costs unless we want an alcoholic beverage. We figure in our tips and budget that on our KTTK account. It isn't difficult to keep up with our credits because we get ADR's for every meal ahead of time. But it is easier with us because we are together for every meal and we don't do snacks normally (have to get a Mickey bar and a Dole Whip at least once, right). I'm sure when we have teenagers who roam on their own throughout WDW, we may have a different approach with tracking credits.

I can't give exact figures on amount saved because I don't know what the OOP would be for each meal but I will keep track this next trip and report back. I know that we did keep track on our last trip and our savings outweighed our upgrade costs significantly (looking for that info but can't find it). But again, that's because we would have done 3 TS meals everyday anyway.

While Deluxe dining works for us and is worth the upgrade cost it still has drawbacks. Yes, we do sometimes leave food (not often as my son is a major foodie and detests the blandness and lack of selection in the kid's offerings so he usually eats some of our entree's) but by foregoing snacks, we are usually don't leave much. We stockpile our snack credits and use them to buy a picnic lunch from Earl of Sandwich (we drive down to WDW) for our trip home. The rest go to the Goofy Candy Store - we love enjoying treats from WDW for weeks to come.

I will say that if we upgraded resorts or really increased the length of our stay, we might change strategies.

 

[Poohs100AcreWood]

Quick question, as I looked through this thread and couldn't find the answer.

I got the free dining plan promo, but I have several TS meals booked, so I figured I would save money by upgrading to the regular plan. If I call to upgrade, is the balance due on the spot, or would they add it to my balance of the package? I have almost 6 months until my vacation, but can only afford small payments at a time.

Thanks for any help!

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

Quick question, as I looked through this thread and couldn't find the answer.

I got the free dining plan promo, but I have several TS meals booked, so I figured I would save money by upgrading to the regular plan. If I call to upgrade, is the balance due on the spot, or would they add it to my balance of the package? I have almost 6 months until my vacation, but can only afford small payments at a time.

Thanks for any help!

If you have plenty of time before your balance is due, I believe they will just add it to your balance due. It is worth it, especially if you plan to eat a few TS or character meals.

 

[StuckInKS]

The biggest cost savings advantage that I see to the DxDP would be to eat at the Signature Restaurants instead of the TS. It gives you an opportunity to eat at the higher end when you normally might not. Although if you have small children, I don't see any advantage

Really? The DxDDP would cost us $266 per day. Just a Chef Mickey's breakfast sets us back $156. Then we get 12 snacks. That's another $50 or so. That leaves $60 for TWO meals. Even if they were both CS, we would still come out ahead; however, we could use those two credits to do CRT for dinner, which costs us $290. So, a $290 dinner for $61. OR you could look at it as $266 for a $290 meal, 12 free snacks AND a free Chef Mickeys breakfast. Either way, looks good to me

 

[Poohs100AcreWood]

If you have plenty of time before your balance is due, I believe they will just add it to your balance due. It is worth it, especially if you plan to eat a few TS or character meals.

Thanks for the reply. I'll try giving them a call tomorrow and see what they say.

 

[disneyfreak7]

If free dining is booked at a value resort. Can I pay the upgrade to go from Quick dining to dining plan?

 

[Cafeen]

If free dining is booked at a value resort. Can I pay the upgrade to go from Quick dining to dining plan?

Absolutely. You will just have to pay the difference between the QSDP and the DDP which is described on the first page of this thread. (Note: the Free Dining promotion occurs during non-peak season, so you can use those numbers)

 

[disneyfreak7]

Absolutely. You will just have to pay the difference between the QSDP and the DDP which is described on the first page of this thread. (Note: the Free Dining promotion occurs during non-peak season, so you can use those numbers)

We are hoping for FD four our Dec trip and are hoping to start our vacation on the very last day FD is offered. So that means our trip would go into peak season. so would we then have to pay the peak prices later in our trip?