Deluxe dining plan and timing. Are we always eating?

[Cin]

Questions on the deluxe plan. Mom and I are planning a trip and want to dine at a lot of signatures restaurants, shows and buffets. I looked at prices of what we would order at Allears.net and tried to calculate the cost out of our pockets, it's about even. That I can get figured out, what I can't figure out is the "cost" of our time. We are okay with sit downs and longer meals but with 3 meals a day it seems like we would be always running from one meal to the next with no real touring time in between. We will be using Disney transport (bus, boat, monorail) and I am having trouble trying to figure out an itinerary and get some touring time in too. Those of you that used the deluxe plan is all you do is eat, or do you really have lots of touring and resting time in between those ADR's???

 

[TDC Nala]

If you're dining at signatures or a dinner show every day, those will use up 2 of your credits per meal. so you probably won't have enough credits for 3 meals a day. Book your first TS meal early and your last TS meal late, snack in between, and you will have time for touring and resting.

 

[KRAGGI01]

I would also pic a park each day and do reseteraunts at or near that park decrease travelliing time

 

[MrsLS]

If you are going to do a lot of signatures and shows, it would only be 2 meals a day. We like to relax at night, so a nice leisurely dinner is what we want. As for the other meal, I personally don't think its that much more time spent than eating at a CS, the CS lines can be long, they still have to give you your food, find a table and you still have to eat. A 1 cr TS never really lasts us longer than 1 hour.
If the plan works to your favor (money wise, I never get the convienence factor that some people see it as), I would get it, if not, then don't.

 

[BubMunkeyBles]

We tend to do a buffet breakfast and then a big dinner (shows and signature are all 2 credits). We usually get snacks through the day.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Questions on the deluxe plan. Mom and I are planning a trip and want to dine at a lot of signatures restaurants, shows and buffets. I looked at prices of what we would order at Allears.net and tried to calculate the cost out of our pockets, it's about even. That I can get figured out, what I can't figure out is the "cost" of our time. We are okay with sit downs and longer meals but with 3 meals a day it seems like we would be always running from one meal to the next with no real touring time in between. We will be using Disney transport (bus, boat, monorail) and I am having trouble trying to figure out an itinerary and get some touring time in too. Those of you that used the deluxe plan is all you do is eat, or do you really have lots of touring and resting time in between those ADR's???

We have done the DDP at least 7 times and made the mistake of doing the Deluxe plan once. I found it to be a huge waste of time and money. My husband and kids did not like the amount of time it took away from the parks.

If you are just traveling with your Mom and plan to do a majority of 2 credit meals and shows, it might be better, but I doubt we will do it again.

 

[lin7]

We have done deluxe, and we usually arrive early on arrival day and late on departure, so that streches out the credit, which I think makes a huge difference, or else we would be eating all day. We do usually a signature and regular table service meal. I think counter service meals takes up alot of time as well, waiting in line to order takes forever.

 

[sydneysmom]

we did the deluxe dining plan and loved it. It made our trip feel more "all-inclusive". We actually welcomed the break and enjoyed sitting down to meals as a family.

We also spread it out over our arrival and departure day, so most days we only had breakfast and a 2 ts dinner. Originally I had all three meals booked for adr's and we decided to cancel all our lunch adr's. (that kind of scared me!!) But it actually worked out really great. We had alot of flexibility and if we wanted to, we got a counter service meal or used our snack credits.

We never felt like too much time was wasted..... each family is different and you have to decide if it's worth it to you. When we went in Sept, it was hot and humid....so sitting down having a nice meal was a great break. We also knew we wanted to do a character meal each morning...so for us, it worked out perfectly.

 

[pigletto]

We just upgraded to the DlxDDP. For 8 days of dining there is only ONE day that we don't have a Signature or Show booked. So really, it's late breakfast and a show or signature in the evenings. No more time than I would spend eating on the regular DDP

We're excited to try all the new places. We may not do it again..but it's worth a try this time

 

[havoc315]

You said your math had it at "break even." The DxDP is usually a pretty good savings. If it were only going to be break even, then I'd skip the plan.
As you suggested --- If you get tired of the ADRs after the first couple of days, you can always cancel them if you skip the dining plan. If you're on the dining plan, you can't skip ADRs without wasting money.

Assuming you do find savings with the DxDP, then I'd suggest just using it strategically.

Be careful planning the times and *locations* of the meals. Location is probably even more critical than the time. In terms of time.... We liked to do an early lunch. Since we usually did a very light breakfast in the room, or on the go, and we made it to rope drop each morning... An early long lunch, was a nice break after 3 hours of running around a park in the morning.

In terms of location... If you're staying at the Beach Club, and you're planning your Hollywood Studios day --- It would be a bad time to plan California Grill for dinner. You'd spend way too much time getting to the restaurant, and then getting back to your hotel. So plan your restaurants, based on where you're going to be that day.

As to whether it takes time away from the parks... It really depends on your touring style. If you're the type of person that wants to spend 10-12 hours doing attractions, then long meals will distract.
If you want to do a couple hours of attractions in the morning, and a couple more hours in the evening, the meals can break up the day nicely.

 

[JoshAndEvsMom]

Like pp said, if you think you're going to break even, why not skip the plan? Buy Disney Gift Cards instead so you're pre-paid just like the dining plan, only if you decide to skip an adr you're not "out" any money. You may even find you have a little extra souvie money at the end!!

 

[Cin]

Thanks, I was sort of thinking it might be best for us to pay OOP. And I don't want to spend all our time eating or traveling to the next meal. Dining is just part of the whole Disney experience so I don't want my whole day planned around it. I feel like the DDP gives you that mindset, but we do want to experience some of Disney's best restaurants.

 

[lesabrowning]

We have done both the regular and deluxe dining plan several times. When we do deluxe, we do not feel like all we do is eat and we never feel like we missed out on park time. We do sometimes have three ADRs in one day, but it is more common for us to do a sit down breakfast at like 7:30 am and then a signature dinner at maybe 7:30 pm. Even if we have a three ADR day, we start and end our days at such times that sitting down for a TS lunch in the middle does not seem like too much. On our two TS days we use our many snack credits to nibble in place of lunch.

 

[Colleen27]

We've done the deluxe plan three times so far and will be on it again in Nov. We plan two meals per day, mostly TS lunches and signature dinners. We're also doing the F! package at Brown Derby because neither of the other options appeal to us, and in the past we've used 2 credits for CRT and room service as well. Plus we usually fly in early and fly out late, which means two meals at Disney on both arrival and departure days.

We don't find it to be too much time or food but we don't generally take midday breaks. The TS lunch serves as our break on park days, and we usually plan a non-park day mid-trip for DTD and just enjoying our resort. We haven't planned any three meal days since our first DxDDP trip - that did feel like too much time spent eating, even with planning our ADRs for in or near our park for the day, and of the two 3-meal days I planned on that trip we ended up cancelling our lunch ADR on the second.

 

[bleeps]

The TS lunch serves as our break on park days

Many good points have already been made here (ESPECIALLY that different families have different priorities and touring styles), and I realize OP has said that she's probably going to go OOP, but I just want to add that we, too, always go with the deluxe plan, we do a lot of signature meals (so that takes 2 credits and takes you out of the 3 meals every day loop), and that for us having a mid-day break some days of a sit-down meal in a nice, cool restaurant where the food is brought to us and our drinks are refilled... ah. Very refreshing and relaxing! We especially like lunches at Coral Reef and at San Angel for the break from the bright Florida sun as well! Big benefit, in my mind, since we find the CS experiences generally pretty stressful.

 

[wdwfan1]

We dont buy the plan for our entire trip. It is just too much food for us. As DVC members we can do this without changing resorts.

If you think it might be too much for you, why not get it for just part of your stay and do your "heavy eating" on those day.


Enjoy your vacation.

 

[goofy4tink]

I've never done the deluxe plan before. But in Oct, my dh and I are traveling to WDW with another couple. The parks close fairly early most nights, and dh and the other guy aren't huge 'attraction' people. So, I sat and ran numbers....
paying oop using the TiW card, the regular dining plan and then TiW for not covered things, and finally the DxDDP. Decided that for the way we want to eat, the deluxe plan is going to work out best. We have a bunch of late morning breakfasts booked, and then signature dinners booked right around park closing times. We'll use snack credits at Food and Wine...yum.
We don't have any day that we are eating three meals. Our 5 nights worth of dining plan will oover 6 actual days. Then, our last day will all be out of pocket, using the TiW card most likely.

 

[TDluvsDaisy]

OP please make sure you still make your ADRs. Some of those signature dining places and shows book up for the best times.

We've done deluxe dining 5 or 6 times now and we've missed out on very little that I planned for us to do. We even plan 3 meals a day on some days. It does take some planning and coordinating, but then again avoiding lines at Disney requires that anyway.

 

[Dizneefamily+4]

We used to do the DxDP but switched to QSDP because we HATE doing ADRs. We don't want to HAVE to be at a certain place at a certain time in Disney. We felt like we were tied to those reservations and had to plan our entire trip around them. That's just not how we roll at Disney!

When we did DxDP, we DID feel like we were always eating. It also took up so much of our day. We switched to QSDP and have never looked back. We still do a nice sit-down once per trip and just pay OOP for it. That has just worked better for our family. But it's all a matter of personal preference!

 

[nushiekitty]

We did the deluxe dining plan last September and are doing it again this year with our kids. The one thing we realized is that while we are sitting down for three meals, that is what our kids are used to and they eat very slowly so sitting in AC and eating a hopefully better meal than the quick serve it all evens out. We also do not take breaks midday so the meal time ends up being our down time. My kids also love character meals so that helps justify those prices if it is already paid for.