Upgrade to Deluxe Dining?

[Disneygal4life]

I'm thinking about upgrading to Deluxe dining for our trip if Disney does indeed offer the free DDP later this fall/winter for packages. Am I correct that it offers basically 3 meals a day - QS or sit down and with those meals you get appetizer, entree and dessert as well as two snacks a day PP.

We don't usually skip meals, we have full B, L and D each day and I think it would be worth it for the extra amount per day.

Who else has done Deluxe, is it too much food? We prefer appetizers over desserts and usually pay extra for them anyways. It just seems if we do this when we can finance the whole trip and our only OOP for the trip will be souviners.

 

[TDC Nala]

Deluxe dining is 3 meal credits per NIGHT (not per day) and two snacks per night per person.

 

[havoc315]

As Nala said, it is 3 credits per night. Those credits are good for CS or TS meals. Signature restaurants and certain dining experiences actually run 2 credits.
If you are arriving early on your first day and leaving late on departure day, then it isn't quite enough credits for 3 meals per day.

When we did the deluxe plan, like many others, we found that 3 full TS meals would be too much. Like many people, we did a lot of signature dinners along with a TS breakfast or lunch.
We did often grab a quick breakfast in the resort counter-service -- sometimes using credits, sometimes just using snack credits. (Yogurt, bowl of cereal, bagel -- are all snack credits).
So a quick CS breakfast -- 20-30 minutes. A TS lunch -- 60-75 minutes. A signature or even dinner -- About 90 minutes.

So about 3 hours of the day total, committed to dining. And that's with 2 TS meals per day.

And yes, appetizers are included with lunch and dinner on the deluxe plan.

 

[jlindemer]

Hi there! We opted for the deluxe plan last November. We thought it would be great! And, even while we were there we seemed to enjoy it. Towards the end of the trip we realized we were spending WAY too much time running from one restaurant to the next. After arriving back home, we realized how much we missed by running from one ADR to the next.

We tried to do 3 TS restaurants a day--this is where we went wrong. We were trying to maximize value rather than maximize our experience. We should have ate a CS meal here and there. We did eat at Yachtsman one evening---VERY good.

I felt it was too difficult to try to get up early (we are rope drop people, so we were at the restaurants at 7:00 AM), eat a breakfast, then eat lunch around noon, and then dinner. We barely had any touring time.

And, we had about 40 snack credits left at the end of the trip. We took home a boatload of items. But, with 3 full meals each day we were never hungry for snacks--so we had a lot to take with us. We also had 8 CS credits (for the whole family) so we loaded up at the Bakery with sandwiches, pop, etc.

We got our money's worth out of the food, but felt we lost money overall--we didn't get to experience many attractions because we were too busy trying to get to the next ADR.

 

[jonny2fngrs]

Towards the end of the trip we realized we were spending WAY too much time running from one restaurant to the next. After arriving back home, we realized how much we missed by running from one ADR to the next.

That is a great point. I have been a bit overwhelmed just trying to schedule 1 TS meal a day and couldn't imagine trying to get 3 in.

 

[sharonabe]

BUT, the OP is upgrading for free dining. If this is an upgrade from the FREE DDP, it is around $30/night. You can EASILY maximize that value with 3 QS/day. You don't have to eat at 3 TS if it's an upgrade.

 

[amytheobald]

I plan to get up and hope for FD to be released in the morning... can I upgrade free dining online, or will I need to book my package online and then call and upgrade later in the day?

 

[kylieh]

We upgraded for our upcoming trip. I did the maths, and although we'll have some credits left over we will still be in front upgrading including taking the free dining (as a discount) in front.

On regular dining because of our choices, a few 2 credit meals and shows etc, we would of been around $500 OOP from regular dining, the upgrade cost was around $400, give or take! . I would look at that calculation to give you a better idea. I also factored that we don't eat deserts or appetisers each time.

Depends on what you eat and how you eat.

 

[nblake05]

We get the deluxe dining and for us, it is totally worth it! If nothing else, it provides me with a kind of peace of mind that I don't need to nickle and dime myslef throughout our vacation. We can get there knowing that our major expenses are taken care of and that way our spending cash is for tips and other misc. items. Aside from that, I do feel that we get our money's worth though. I've done the math and what the DP costs us / night we can easily spend in one meal at the GF Cafe (for example). Just because you have the DP doesn't mean you have to overdo it on the ADRs though. We schedule a few dinners on key nights (like weekends) and play it by ear the rest of the time (but we don't go during busy travel seasons). Even without a ADR every night, it still payed for itself. Just my opinion, based on my experience, though.

 

[TwoAtDisney]

jlindemere - noticed you yearn to move to Florida. DH & I live in Indiana too (Indy suburb) & we had the same dream. Well.....don't want to bust your bubble, but before you make a permanent move to Florida, be sure to stay there for long periods in all seasons. We found out that about middle of January & for several following months, we can't breathe in Florida, including the Disney area. Culprit - oak tree pollen.

We were snowbirds in our rv during that time period for about 6 years & never had a problem. We didn't realize that since we stayed during their horrible drought years, the pollen was too minimal to bother us. We've tried several years since, even last year, & by the middle to end of January, we have to cancel everything & take that dreary ride home! We miss Florida in the winter so much!

So, keep dreaming, but check it out carefully before taking the leap!

Julie. (not looking forward to spending this winter in Indiana!)

 

[styron]

I just upgraded to Deluxe Dining, and the reason it works out for us is that we like nice food, prefer to take a long early-evening break and then go back to the park, or else end the day early and watch fireworks from the hotel. So we have a ton of signature dining reservations. In fact, for every day we have only one ADR - except for one day when we have both a dinner ADR and a character breakfast - and every one of our ADRs is either a signature restaurant or a character meal. So that's a lot of table service credits, and we were going to need to go out of pocket for 3 entire restaurant meals. The upgrade is totally worth it, even though we only have one reservation to make every day.

Then we have one credit per day left over for wherever we want to eat, no reservations. Can be counter service, can be just opportunistic whatever looks good and will seat us. It's also nice to be able to get the appetizers because those are terrific at the restaurants we've booked.

There is no way we will eat 14 snacks per person during the week though!

 

[daraddg]

we are doing deluxe too, my kids like doing the sit down resturants and especially some dinner shows and CRT and I like a signature or two so alot of our dinners are 2 credit ressies,we after doing my adrs for this trip (10 nights) which is 30 credits I have used up 22 with just lunches and dinners.We do lunch around 1 ish and dinner around 6 or 7 its not too close together, gives us a break in the day and just the reg dining wouldnt be enough credits so even if some dont get used I still think its worth it, we can always burn up whats left with an in room pizza one night (2 credits)or a light breakfast at a CS here and there.And the snacks can be cashed in at Goofys Candy co so if we dont use them up we take home some candy as souveniers

 

[disneybex]

We did the regular plan on our last trip and found it worked brilliantly for us as we like to take our time and have nice breaks. Also we used all of our TS, CS and snack credits for the 3 weeks.

So we have taken the plunge and upgraded from the free DDP to the DxDDP and for the cost even if we don't use all of the credits it will be well worth it.

As for snacks, I know some people see it as wasteful to use credits on drinks but we both had at least 2 slushies or iced drinks every day on our last trip so I assume we wouldn't be left with loads of credits left. Again we are going for 3 weeks

Plus we get to try ALL of the signature restaurants and don't have to worry about $$$ apart from the extra tips - can't wait!