Is DxDP worth it anymore?

[cookieswithangel]

So my party has used the DxDP the last two vacations. We first got the DxDP on free dining and upgraded. We fell in love. We then agreed that we would pay the $75 a person a night this year because it was vacation, and we wanted the luxury of not having to worry about the prices because we already paid for it.
Now, with prices at around $100 a person a night for 2013, I'm really questioning if the dining plan has any value for us. We tend to eat three meals a day, often 1 CS and 2 TS, and indulge in the apps and desserts. Some signatures like California Grill and Jiko, and character breakfasts like Tusker House and Crystal Palace. Our trip length would be 2 weeks. And $1400 a person, well, I'm not so easily jumping on the DxDP train.

A note: I doubt we'd go down to the regular DDP, because we really do love appetizers, and we are the "we have to eat breakfast" type of people.

Any advice? We're really hoping for free dining, but if that doesn't happen, would you go with the DxDP, or deal with OOP? Thanks in advance!

 

[aaarcher86]

I think it just depends. It's definitely removed a lot of frequent users with the price increase.

We added S/P/D which makes the cost go down a bit since we can upgrade from the DDP offered at a moderate.

I priced it out before at full price vs. what we'd pay out of pocket and we still came out about $200 under OOP with the DXDP.

Even if we came out even or $100 more or so, I'd probably still go for it with the added apps and deserts and such just for the treat on vacation.

I'd definitely do a price comparison with the menus from allears.net. I'm going to do another one when I have time just to make sure it's worth it and to avoid any calculations I might have missed, but I can't see us taking it off. The regular DDP doesn't give us enough TS credits that we need (I know we could pay out of pocket for the rest, but I don't feel like the hassle lol).

 

[Colleen27]

For us, no. Not any more. If we were all actual adults with adult sized appetites, maybe, but we have a "junior" (DD11) who doesn't even come close to eating adult portions and often travel with my mom who also has a light appetite. At the current pricing, the appetizers we'd share and desserts that we'd skip and credits we'd use for quick service suck the value out of the plan. Since I'll have an AP for the next few trips the TiW was a clear-cut winner over the DxDDP but even without it we'd likely go OOP.

I'd still use the plan if we were going during free dining and only paying the upgrade cost but at "rack rate" it isn't worthwhile for us any more.

 

[inkedupmomma]

I'm exactly like you! Same reasons for DxDp. With that said, no. I would not pay regular rates for it. Only use it if discounted, otherwise its no savings to us. I would skip any DP at all and put that money away, this way its just like your own ddp!

 

[cookieswithangel]

Thanks for the feedback! I guess the only real way to see if its even possibly worth it would be to price out everything. (that's where 14 nights is a bit of a pain to figure out all those meals!)
I really do hope they offer FD to make the DxDP a no-brainer for us, but for now I guess we'll just have to think about what all we would eat and if that's valued at $100 per person/night.

 

[inkedupmomma]

Thanks for the feedback! I guess the only real way to see if its even possibly worth it would be to price out everything. (that's where 14 nights is a bit of a pain to figure out all those meals!)
I really do hope they offer FD to make the DxDP a no-brainer for us, but for now I guess we'll just have to think about what all we would eat and if that's valued at $100 per person/night.

I did that 2 week math for our trip last year... and with our FD it was NOT worth it then either! The discount is the only real way to make it worthy anymore :/

 

[davedmaine]

Not with kids in the party. And not because of the portion sizes/what they can eat, etc., but it seems to be cruel to me because with that plan you're basically a slave to your ADRs every day. After you finish one meal, you pretty much have to start thinking about getting to your next one. I'd rather let the kids have fun in the parks and stick to one TS a day..

 

[aaarcher86]

Not with kids in the party. And not because of the portion sizes/what they can eat, etc., but it seems to be cruel to me because with that plan you're basically a slave to your ADRs every day. After you finish one meal, you pretty much have to start thinking about getting to your next one. I'd rather let the kids have fun in the parks and stick to one TS a day..

I'll never understand why people say this ^^^.

We do the DXDDP. We eat an early sit down breakfast and a sit down dinner. We have the entire day in between to run around, ride rides, meet characters, watch shows, etc. We also chop off a ton of time that other people wait in line since we get to meet a ton of characters while we eat.

Eating breakfast at 7:30a or 8a and eating dinner at 7;30p hardly leaves us rushing to our next ADR.

THOSE POOR, TORTURED CHILDREN!

 

[sheilanne]

I'll never understand why people say this ^^^.

We do the DXDDP. We eat an early sit down breakfast and a sit down dinner. We have the entire day in between to run around, ride rides, meet characters, watch shows, etc. We also chop off a ton of time that other people wait in line since we get to meet a ton of characters while we eat.

Eating breakfast at 7:30a or 8a and eating dinner at 7;30p hardly leaves us rushing to our next ADR.

THOSE POOR, TORTURED CHILDREN!

This is exactly why my family uses DXDP. We do early character bkfst and signature dinner. This is perfect for us and use snacks for lunch. Our trip is in 2 weeks and weren't lucky enough for free ding at BLT, but crunched the numbers and still the best option for my family. Hated paying rack rates but just the best fit. If families are used to fast food and actually prefer it the dining plan is probably not for you.

 

[robinb]

Thanks for the feedback! I guess the only real way to see if its even possibly worth it would be to price out everything. (that's where 14 nights is a bit of a pain to figure out all those meals!)
I really do hope they offer FD to make the DxDP a no-brainer for us, but for now I guess we'll just have to think about what all we would eat and if that's valued at $100 per person/night.

Have you considered getting an annual pass and then the Tables in Wonderland card? It will save you 20% on most TS and some CS including alcohol.

ETA: If you don't have an AP, what kind of ticket do you get? The TIW card is $75 and you have to spend $375 to break even. Everything else is gravy. It will expire about 13 months after you get it and you can pick it up from Guest Services at the parks or at DTD.

 

[cookieswithangel]

Have you considered getting an annual pass and then the Tables in Wonderland card? It will save you 20% on most TS and some CS including alcohol.

We have thought about it, but we've never really looked into it. That might be an option to consider for us. Except with going for 14 days, we enjoy those water park days. We'd have to actually buy water park tickets if we had an AP, correct?
We will definitely take a look at the breakdown for the cost with TiW when we get together next week to crunch numbers.
Thanks for the idea!

And just to throw it out there, there are no kids in the party. Just one college kid and a mom.

 

[jsw1114]

What is the price difference between reg dining plan and deluxe? We have free dining for sept

 

[Tigger's ally]

We have thought about it, but we've never really looked into it. That might be an option to consider for us. Except with going for 14 days, we enjoy those water park days. We'd have to actually buy water park tickets if we had an AP, correct?
We will definitely take a look at the breakdown for the cost with TiW when we get together next week to crunch numbers.
Thanks for the idea!

And just to throw it out there, there are no kids in the party. Just one college kid and a mom.

Premium Annual pass may be your best bet as Water Parks are included.

 

[christianweecare]

DH & I have purchased the DXDP in the past and enjoyed having all our food paid for in advance. However, when we looked at it again for our upcoming Dec. trip we could not justify over $400 more for the DXDP for the week. I believe we will do just fine with the basic plan and just eat our breakfast in the room each morning. We can have a counter service lunch and a table service dinner each evening and be fine. The DXDP is just too expensive for us this time.

 

[aaarcher86]

What is the price difference between reg dining plan and deluxe? We have free dining for sept

There is a sticky at the top of the forum with the exact prices, but off the top of my head for 2013 it's around $50 for an adult per night.

 

[robinb]

We have thought about it, but we've never really looked into it. That might be an option to consider for us. Except with going for 14 days, we enjoy those water park days. We'd have to actually buy water park tickets if we had an AP, correct?
We will definitely take a look at the breakdown for the cost with TiW when we get together next week to crunch numbers.
Thanks for the idea!

And just to throw it out there, there are no kids in the party. Just one college kid and a mom.

A Premium AP would work well for you and cover at least two trips if you plan it right. Last year you probably could have gotten in three: June 2011, Nov 2011 and June 2012. You can also get a discount on your resort that is usually better than the standard discount available to the general public.

 

[cookieswithangel]

A Premium AP would work well for you and cover at least two trips if you plan it right. Last year you probably could have gotten in three: June 2011, Nov 2011 and June 2012. You can also get a discount on your resort that is usually better than the standard discount available to the general public.

We are pretty much stuck at going once a year now, since college schedules are not easy to take off a few days during the semester. But we did actually consider an AP before, but we weren't really educated on it, so we didn't look into it much at all. We plan to sit down and crunch numbers this coming week while everyone is home to see if it would be worth it.

Also, since someone asked, we tend to get 10 day passes with park hopper and water park and more. (well, thats what we did this past June, and unfortunately only got through half our trip before we had to fly back due to a medical emergency)

I do appreciate everyone's opinions on this, thanks for sharing your thoughts!

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

Cookieswithangels--Something to consider is, only one of you needs the AP to get TIW or the discounts. The rest of you can get regular 10-day (or whatever) passes.

Another thought is, if you're balking at paying OOP, consider setting aside a certain amount of money on a gift card, and use that for meals. I'm doing a version of this for my upcoming trip in Jan. We're doing basic DDP, but have a few extra meals in there. I'm using rewards points and a GC to cover tips and the extra meals. The Deluxe Dining Plan sounds nice in theory, but I think seeing all the wasted food, paying tips, and worrying about maximizing my use would put a damper on my vacation. This is a "BuzznBelle'sMom" problem, it may not afflict everyone, though.

 

[CraigInPA]

Have you considered getting an annual pass and then the Tables in Wonderland card? It will save you 20% on most TS and some CS including alcohol.

ETA: If you don't have an AP, what kind of ticket do you get? The TIW card is $75 and you have to spend $375 to break even. Everything else is gravy. It will expire about 13 months after you get it and you can pick it up from Guest Services at the parks or at DTD.

The above payback is incorrect. While the total spend to directly recoup the cost of the TIW card is, in fact, $375 in food, it assumes that you can purchase a TIW card in the first place. For that, you need to be a DVC member or an AP holder. For non-Florida residents, the AP is $620 per year.

If you consider the OP stating they go once per year, and even stretch their vacation to 10 days, the extra cost of the AP is almost $300 over the price of regular adult tickets. So, you'll need to add that extra $300 to the TIW card, making the total spend more like $1875 to recoup the full cost associated with TIW.

Craig

 

[robinb]

The above payback is incorrect. While the total spend to directly recoup the cost of the TIW card is, in fact, $375 in food, it assumes that you can purchase a TIW card in the first place. For that, you need to be a DVC member or an AP holder. For non-Florida residents, the AP is $620 per year.

If you consider the OP stating they go once per year, and even stretch their vacation to 10 days, the extra cost of the AP is almost $300 over the price of regular adult tickets. So, you'll need to add that extra $300 to the TIW card, making the total spend more like $1875 to recoup the full cost associated with TIW.

Craig

Since they are perfectly happy to go to the waterparks 4 days out of 14, buying a PAP is predicated on the OP making two trips work within one 365 day period. For instance, a late June 2013 vacation and an early June 2014 would work well. In that case, she would save $100 per pass over the two years in addition to all the other PAP perks like resort discounts, being able to buy a TIW card and a 20% discount at some gift shops: http://allears.net/pl/apass.htm#bene2012 .