Deluxe Dining Plan

[constancefamily]

If money was no issue, would you do the deluxe dining plan? Why or why not? How would you use your credits?

 

[Missyrose]

If money was no issue, would you do the deluxe dining plan? Why or why not? How would you use your credits?

We did the DxDP last year and enjoyed it. We tend to like TS rather than QS and we like appetizers more than desserts, so both lent themselves to the DxDP.

That being said, it's a lot of food (be prepared to feel wasteful at some point when you can't finish everything). And you spend a lot of time in restaurants.

We mainly did breakfasts and signature dinners, and never did three TS meals in one day.

We enjoyed the plan, but we now use the Tables in Wonderland card because it's a little more flexible and it covers alcohol too.

 

[MHSweb79]

We find the regular DP too much food, so I can't imagine doing the DxDP unless we did signature meals every day, like the PP suggests.

Also, TS meals can eat up 60-90 minutes each and we don't want to spend upwards of 3-4 hours A DAY inside restaurants. None of Disney's food is that good!

And finally, when the weather is hot and our appetites are dulled, we often share a CS meal on days when we are going to eat a buffet dinner. This would mean wasted credits on those days, which my frugal side just could not tolerate.

 

[meredith1]

We do the deluxe dining plan every visit. We have young children that love the character meals and my H and I like TS for dinner.

We typically to an early morning pre park opening breakfast (characters) for the kids, use snack credits for midday and a nice TS for dinner. So we are eating a good breakfast at 7:30/8:00 and then, eating another good meal around 6:30/7:00 in the evening. It's perfect for us!

We always end up with lots of snack credits in the end. We just use those on snacks we can bring back home with us...they always get eaten.

 

[minnie mum]

If money was no issue, would you do the deluxe dining plan? Why or why not? How would you use your credits?

If money was no issue, then why would you bother with any dining plan? Why wouldn't you just charge all of your meals to your KTTW card and eat and drink whatever you wanted?

 

[TheRustyScupper]

If money was no issue, then why would you bother with any dining plan? Why wouldn't you just charge all of your meals to your KTTW card and eat and drink whatever you wanted?

 

[ErinsMommy]

If money was no issue, then why would you bother with any dining plan? Why wouldn't you just charge all of your meals to your KTTW card and eat and drink whatever you wanted?

I totally agree with this.

 

[JZCubed]

You have to eat a good amount of food to 'break-even' with Dining Plans.

For the Deluxe Dining, you have to eat a good amount of food to 'break-even' and probably have at least 2 reservations per day as Table Service places to have ordered enough food.

Assuming everybody in your party wants to sit down twice each day with the ability to overeat, and assuming that nobody in your party misses a meal, or skips an appetizer and/or dessert, and has zero [0] snacks remaining in their account - you get an OK discount (10%'ish). You can maximize your return beyond 10% with Dining Plan if you are diligent about re-filling your mugs.

But the question - if money were no object....I would be comfortable prepaying and not having to worry about reconciling any bills at the end of my stay. Regardless, for the way my family dines, we shouldn't feel compelled to order too much food or outside our comfort zone to simply 'break-even'.

If you're enamored by Signature Restaurants and/or Character Meals, and if you plan to spend more than $500 (the break-even from $100 fee) at Table Service restaurants - Tables in Wonderland Card (TiW) may be able to offer a better dining discount. TiW 20% discount seemingly works best, relative to Dining Plan, if your meals include some alcohol.

 

[JimmyV]

If money was no issue, then why would you bother with any dining plan? Why wouldn't you just charge all of your meals to your KTTW card and eat and drink whatever you wanted?

You took the words right out of my keyboard. If money was no object, I would eat wherever I wanted, which would include the Swan and Dolphin restaurants as well as V&A, and never look back. If I were on the DxDP, I would be skipping these places.

 

[Peter Fan]

There is no way we would get the deluxe. We always get the regular and are always full. I know we would enjoy the restaurants more if we were actually hungry!

 

[North of Mouse]

If money was no issue, then why would you bother with any dining plan? Why wouldn't you just charge all of your meals to your KTTW card and eat and drink whatever you wanted?

This! I have read way too many trip reports of people on the DxDP that told of being sick of food, just barely tasting some meals, and a bite out of desserts just to taste it, etc. I can't stand waste to this extent. We don't do any DP's and we eat what we want for far less than the cost of the plan.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

If money was no issue, then why would you bother with any dining plan? Why wouldn't you just charge all of your meals to your KTTW card and eat and drink whatever you wanted?

LIKE

 

[Cinderella1122]

I have done DXDP several times. We purchased it again for next week. We are all adults with no children and prefer signiture dining. We have an early lunch and a late dinner booked for every day of our stay. It is a lot of food. We often get an app to split, our entree, and dessert. We find that we still save money even though all of us aren't getting an app.

 

[BearcatsFan]

No way. It's too much food, too many reservations to keep track of, too much time spent inside of restaurants.

As PPs have said, if money were no object, I'd eat exactly as I wanted and not even bother with the dining plan. In fact, I'm considering not bothering with the dining plan on our next trip. Then I won't have to worry about maxing out every single meal, getting desserts I couldn't eat or didn't want, and wasting a ton of food.

 

[Pakey]

When Disney's signatures reach the same quality as the Swan/Dolphin restaurants, I might consider it. No, not even then. Too rigid for my style.

 

[tinacaplan]

While it is true that if money were truly no issue, what's to stop you from eating and drinking whatever you want, when I was there last July I wondered if the DxDDP wouldn't have been good for us, even as a "break-even" proposition. I don't think anyone should even consider the DxDP unless you're planning on eating at a signature pretty much every night and you should throw in a couple character meals in there, too. I've enjoyed it, and didn't think it was too much, when we did either breakfast or lunch and then a signature for dinner.

The signatures are pricey, and getting pricier all the time it seems, so I often wondered, especially when we ordered appetizers and entrees, if we wouldn't have been better off with the DxDDP.

 

[aaarcher86]

We do the DXDP on our trips. Mimicking what a PP said, our children enjoy the character meals. We'll do a TS breakfast and TS dinner - most being character meals and some shows thrown in there.

A pp mentioned that it's about 60 - 90 minutes for a meal which is totally true. But for us at least, if we weren't meeting the characters during meal times we'd be waiting in line at the parks for 15 minutes each which can also add up. We get to meet nearly every character and the kids are eating in between instead of waiting in line and getting antsy. It really helps open up our days for rides/parades/etc.

Wasting food wise - I'm not a big dessert person but we all love apps. I definitely won't finish my desserts because I'm full, but I do get to try new ones that I wouldn't normally order. Yes, it's wasting food when I don't finish - but since the DXDP saves us money I'm not going to pass it up.

Even though we do the DXDP, I'd still be in favor of eating and ordering whatever you want and versus going with a DP at all. Alcoholic beverages? Don't mind if I do!

 

[HadesTX]

We had the deluxe plan last year & really enjoyed having it. We were able to try many of the signature/TS places we wanted & used our snack credits at F&W. I was worried it would cut into our time too much, but it was nice to sit & relax a bit since the parks were so busy while we were there. We probably wouldn't do it again though. I drove myself crazy before the trip making/changing the reservations.

 

[akaler2010]

DH and I did this last year and loved it. Taking tine out to eat at a sit down meal made us slow down, relax, and enjoy each others company. It also allowed us to eat at all the signature restaurants we wanted (almost every night), and I ate filet mignon probably 5/7 dinners!

I don't know if we would ever NOT get the deluxe plan when it's just us traveling. Can't say the sane if we had kids. However, we are big eaters, DH is a foodie, and I love dessert. The great food is the main reason DH will go back to Disney.

 

[Twende]

We did the deluxe plan 2 years ago and we did enjoy it. We mostly ate character breakfasts and the signature dinners. It was a lot of eating but we managed and did enjoy it.

Our next trip is planned as a split reservation. The first 2 nights will be deluxe and then the next 5 will be the CS/TS/Snack plan. This way we can have the best of both and cut the cost a little bit.

I have considered getting TIW but we have a large group and trying to figure out how to fairly split the bill is just too much for me. With the dining plans every family pays for their members and then the only hassle is splitting the tip bill. I handle that by guessing what people will eat and then figuring an approximate tip share for each family. I ask that they pay this to me before we arrive and then all tips are placed on my room key/credit card.