2 Part Dining Question

[went503]

Hello all I love this board!!!! We will be spending our honeymoon this may down in disney. I am very very familiar with the regular dining plan. My 2 part question is the DXDP. We are staying 9 days and have 8 signature resturants picked out for dinner. Thus having only 1 more credit and only having to eat twice a day. Im hearing that to get your moneys worth you need to use atleast 2/3 on TS meals. Does this hold true when doing all signatures like we want to do. Second part i will do ADR's for dinner but really want to plan our lunches around how the day is going. Are TS lunches easier to get into without ADR's?

 

[vicki_c]

I think you should ask your question on the Restaurants board, in the sub-forum for the DDP.

 

[mopee3]

We have used the DXdp for many years, 3 and we eat a sit down breakfast and a signature dinner. I believe it is the best value for your $$ even better than TIW card , although with the card you get free valet parking. So we use both, the TIW for parking and adult beverages and dinning plan for the rest.

I have read on these boards that eating lunches with Dxdp is a easy thing to do and very easy to get ADRs.

Moe

 

[CarolMN]

Moved from DVC Forums

 

[Faldred]

1) Yes, the "2/3 rule" should still apply. Signatures aren't necessarily the best value per credit, but they're certainly at least middle of the road. It's more of a guideline than a rule, anyway, so you may want to run the numbers to see if you really are saving anything.

2) A lot depends on time of year, but in general, you should not expect to get in on a whim at any (non-signature) TS location.

 

[Cafeen]

1) Echoing Faldred above, you should make out just fine. Of course, it depends on what you actually order, but commonly even spending only 2/3 of your credits, you will break even. Maybe not so much only doing signatures, but you have those added breakfasts/lunches in there that will certainly push it over. It is always good to check your math though, and using Robinb's sheets on average cost per restaurant is a good way to do it (and then estimate 8$ for app and 6$ for dessert, those averages are a bit low as well).

2) I always recommend to make reservations at any TS location you certainly want to go to. Then make them for any in-park or ultra-popular locations, then make them for character meals. It's better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them. Just for reference, I was there just last week and I saw people turned away from Sci-Fi during lunch. (That's the only place I noticed though, interestingly enough, at least 2 groups were able to walk into Le Cellier for lunch as well... so your mileage will vary)

Expanding on #2 a little bit, you'll still get value out of DxDDP even if you do all CS lunches and then signature dinners. So while it's not the ideal format, you'll still be saving money over OOP. In other words, if you don't get in for lunch and decide to pick up CS, you aren't going to shift over to the losing money side .

 

[Quin]

On the DxDP you will have 3 meal credits plus 2 snack credits each day. What about making some breakfast ADRs for before your 'park day' starts, then just using your snack credits for some nice, unhealthy food during the day to tide you over until your 2-credit Signature dinners? That would give you the mid-day flexibility you want without the danger of not being able to get into any TS restaurants for lunch without ADRs.

The alternative, of course, is to use one of the snack credits for a light breakfast and take your chances at lunchtime, accepting that at least some of the time you will either have a long wait for a walk-up TS lunch (thereby losing even more time touring the park) or flat-out no availability. If so, have a back-up plan. You can use that meal credit for a CS meal. Plan out potential CS meals at every park (or, even better, at some of the resorts). Don't settle for a hamburger and fries unless that is what you really, really love to eat. With the meal credit you can get some pretty neat choices at some of the CS locations.

Just don't wait until too late in the day to make a decision and to have that lunch. Reading the boards, more people run into trouble because lunchtime ends up being so late that they can't properly enjoy the full Signature Dinner just a few hours later. Eat lunch EARLY - or have a big breakfast and snack your way through lunchtime.