3 Table Service per day or 2 TS/1 CS?

[purple figment]

Reading your posts it looks like you're basing your expectations on your experiences during your trip in 2001. So much has changed with Disney dining in the past 11 years. Most significantly the dining plans, free dining and the increase in the number of visitors have impacted the restaurants greatly. The character buffets have become extremely popular and long waits, even at opening, have become common.

While you can hope that your meals will be efficienly paced, it ish't always going to be that way. The Disney ADR is not for a specific time, but for the next available table for your size group. Since you have a large group (it looks like 4 adults and 6 children), be prepared to be split up or wait even longer if you wantto be at one or adjacent tables.

Once seated, you'll be able to orchestrate the pace of the meal, but at the character buffets rushing through the meals won't help if your children want to stay and meet all the characters.

 

[sammielynn]

Sounds like way to much food to me. We went in December for 5 days on the DP. By the last night we really didn't even want to have our last meal. Tired of huge meals. And I have two 20 something sons. I think I would also go with trying to use some of my credits on the 2 credit meals.

 

[stairstepmom]

I agree with most posters here that you may have planned too many sit down meals. But, why not keep them; try it for a day or two then if you feel it isn't a good fit for your family cancel one of the sit down meals per day.

I really like this suggestion! My revised plan really has all the restaurants we were most looking forward to, so I think we'll keep it like that and if we find after the first day or two that a TS meal for breakfast and a TS meal for dinner is just too much (or too inconvenient with the waits) we'll cancel some of the others.

TBH we're not interested in any of the 2 credit meals/shows (aside from Brown Derby) - none of those menus/atmospheres sound as appealing as the ones we've chosen, and we just don't have time in our schedule for shows (we plan to see Illuminations, Boardwalk, Fantasmic, Wishes from the ground once, Wishes from the Dessert Party a second time - so no free nights and though if my kids were older I might skip the first Wishes to go to the second Luau show, as it is they won't be happy eating and sitting in chairs that late - chances are the youngest 3 will be snoozing in their strollers). But I think with so many buffets, needing to plate share at regular TS meals with our littlest two (so those included appetizers will come in handy!) and for sure using all of our snack credits (I am not kidding on this - we did Hersheypark last summer and I think we got the kids 3 snacks each in the half day we were there - on top of a TS lunch and a CS dinner! They had no trouble eating their usual amounts and my 4 year old was in heaven LOL), I'm confident the DxDP will still be worth it even without doing 3 TS meals per day.

My kids won't really give a hoot if they don't get to see all the characters, EXCEPT for my DD seeing the princesses at Akershus - at that one we're chained to our chairs until she meets them all But for the rest of them, when we're done eating they'd rather get back to the rides than wait around for costumed people.

And I will keep fingers crossed that we get pretty lucky with our wait times and make up the difference in eating efficiency

I'll be sure to update how each TS that we do end up having goes in terms of times/gastric overload for anyone else looking for that sort of info

 

[Mikey'swife]

We rarely spent more then an hour at most places. That said after 2 dxdp trips my dh says more time between meals and cs lunch. Honestly with little kids I think ts are much easier then cs because it can be hard to wait in line manage kids and carrying food and not getting a table is just not an option.

GL early breakfasts are great, and by lunch time my kids always were ready to eat.

 

[luvmyguyz]

My kids won't really give a hoot if they don't get to see all the characters, EXCEPT for my DD seeing the princesses at Akershus - at that one we're chained to our chairs until she meets them all But for the rest of them, when we're done eating they'd rather get back to the rides than wait around for costumed people.

Of course you know your own children's preferences best, but you did say this is the first time you will be taking them to WDW, right? You may be surprised at how much your kids wind up loving the character greetings. My boys had been to 6 flags before going to Disney, and they really weren't too impressed by the Looney Toons characters. However, at Disney, we had to completely abandon my touring plan at DHS because the kids wanted to do nothing but meet the many different characters! (Even my oldest who, at the age of 4 and 5 absolutely LOVED every ride he was big enough to go on - last year he conquered every roller coaster, except R&RC, and absolutely loved the tower ride.)

I'm just saying you may be amazed by how seductive the magic of Disney's characters can be for little ones who may normally not be all too fazed by people dressed up in costumes. And the Winnie the Pooh characters at CP are ridiculously adorable (this from someone who is NOT a fan of Pooh), and my littlest one, who at the age of 2 was deathly afraid of every character he saw) would not let us leave until he got to meet every last Pooh character!

All i'm saying is, no matter how well you know your kids' likes and dislikes, WDW has a way of throwing all of your plans out the window (but in a good way!!) so just be prepared for all of your plans to be changed!

 

[luvmyguyz]

One other observation - I noticed that your ressies are for pretty typical dining times. We have found that crowds are lighter and we are seated quicker and served quicker if we eat at more ofbeat times - say 1 or 2 pm for lunch, and 6 or 7 pm for dinner. Now, for my family a 7 pm dinnertime is pretty typical because I don't get home from work until 6 pm some nights, so my kids are used to waiting a while between lunch and dinner. I'm not so sure how this would work for a family that may be used to eating dinner much earlier in the day.

We had a couple dinners last year that didn't start until 8 - both of these times, my boys were sound asleep in their strollers. We wrapped up their food and they ate it the next day for lunch (we always have a fridge, so keeping leftovers isn't a problem for us.) This is going to sound REALLY awful, but I have to say these were 2 of the most pleasant dinners my husband and I had on that trip! I adore my children and our vacations are always centered around them, but every once in a while, it's nice to share a meal with my hubby while the kids are sleeping.

 

[angierae]

We're doing 7 nights of DxDP, but we're also doing it as an upgrade from FD, so if we leave with some credits unused, we're still getting way more than we paid for. (The upgrade price was $34 per person per day).

If I had to pay cash for DxDP (I probably wouldn't) I would schedule a TS breakfast or early lunch, and a 2TS dinner. You also get two snacks per day per person, and a "snack" doesn't have to be a cookie, you can get actual hot food for a snack credit, so even if you didn't have "lunch" per se, you could get enough food to make it through until dinner.

Our schedule looks like this:

3/31: Arrive late evening
4/1: two members of our party have lunch at Teppan Edo, the other two at Le Cellier. Dinner for all at Garden Grill (8 credits used.)
4/2: Lunch at SciFi, dinner at Turf Club (8 credits used)
4/3: Lunch at Tusker House, dinner at Spirit of Aloha (12 credits used)
4/4: Lunch for 4 at Tony's, dinner for two at The Plaza, dinner for two at Yachtsman. (10 credits used)
4/5: Breakfast for 4 at Akershus, lunch for 4 at Chefs de france, dinner for 4 at Captain's Grille (this is our only 3 meal day - 12 credits used.)
4/6: Breakfast for 2 at Kona, breakfast for 2 at 1900 Park Fair, dinner for 2 at Kona, dinner for 2 at Jiko (10 credits used)
4/7: (We switch from a package to a 2 day room-only reservation this day, but we can continue to use our credits until midnight) Lunch for 4 at Brown Derby, dinner for 4 at Ohana (12 credits used.)

This leaves 3 credits per person unused, yes, but because we upgraded from "free" ddp, we aren't losing any money if we don't use them, and I suspect they'll get used for breakfasts or late night pizza delivery or splitting a meal back at the resort in the evenings, or whatever. But if I'd paid $89 a person for this, there's no way I'd want to leave any unused. The DXDP just isn't a good value - I feel like we have a TON of reservations and we're still short meals. We only went with it because we'd gotten it so cheaply due to "Free" dining.

 

[wezee]

Hubby and I did DxDP a couple of trips ago, and all I can say is...lots and lots of food. We scheduled a 2T and a 1T each day and still cancelled some meals by the end of the week. We just plain got tired of eating...if that's possible.
We also got tired of staying on such a strict time schedule to make our ADRs. There were just 2 of us....can't imagine navigating your crowd to all those meals.
Also remember, the meals are huge..when you figure in an appie and a dessert.
Last trip we had DDP and the TIW card and we still had a couple of CS credits left....plus I could still button my pants at the end of the week.

 

[WDWfanatic2]

When we went last fall the wait for breakfast wasn't bad, however at tusker house we were done eating and had to wait for the characters to finish coming around. Another thing we ran into was we were on the 3 TS per day plan and my daughter was 2. She was good for the character meals but the other restaurants seemed to to drag and there was nothing to entertain her and even by the end of the week she was done with sit down meals.

 

[tyandskyesmom]

We have done the Deluxe Dining Plan three times now (each time for over 14 days) and the Quick Service Plan once...

I cannot even bear to think about a trip without Deluxe Dining again!

It has mostly been me and two kids (from the time they were just turned 9 and 3 or 4 till our last trip last August when they were 12 and 7) and added in Daddy this last time.

We have no problem using all our credits up and mostly, if not all on Table Service meals! (I have some dining reviews posted with time spent, etc...go take a look in my siggy!)

Our average for a long meal is about 90 minutes...that's a long one...whether drug out by us or other factors. We really have not found a ton of waiting to be seated (except at Coral Reef and 1900 Park Fare) but have found that if you have the first seatings for a mean, you usually get seated right at your time. So your breakfast ADRs should put you in and out...I would give those 45 minutes, tops!

We have also found that the wait staff at most venues is really good at taking ques on how you would like your dining spaced...so if you want quick...you got it!

And if you end up waiting to be seated, ask for a menu to look at while you wait...then you will be ready to order as soon as your server comes for a drink order.

One place we have noticed a wait is getting the check processed. So whenever possible, ask for the check as early as possible...like at buffets/family style places...ask for it as soon as your waiter shows up.

I think your dining is doable...only thing is spacing....that would be my only concern and it is really a slight one. On a 3 meal day, we usually have an early breakfast (like 8am or first seating), a lateish lunch (like 2pm), and then a lateish dinner (like 8pm)...but with so many small kids, that may not be doable for you guys. But since you are sharing with the little ones, the sit down meals will not be as big as they are for those of us anti-sharers... And we find at buffets, that we really don't eat much more than normal, it's just that we try a lot of different things.


If you really think about it, by the time you decide what counter service venue to eat at, decide what to order, stand in line, order, wait for your order, gather condiments and plastic ware, find a table, get everyone situated, finish eating and clean up after yourself...you're probably looking at close to the same amount of time as a sit down there you are inside a climate controlled room with someone else doing all the work!

I'd go with whatever plan you want and see how it works.

 

[havoc315]

We just returned from 6 nights on the DxDP.
I can't imagine have the time or stomach for more meals than we did ---
And we did 2 meals per day. Typically, an early lunch, and a 2-credit dinner.
Breakfast was either snacks, in room granola bars, or a couple days -- we shared a QS breakfast between 3 people.
Our 1 TS breakfast -- Ohana -- was probably our fastest meal, but it was still over an hour. Our lunches and dinners all ranged from 90 minutes to 2 hours.
We were so full from our meals, that we barely touched our snack credits. Used a few for breakfast items, a couple for coffee or water, shared a couple of sweet items, but we had 2/3rds of our snack credits left over at the end of the trip.

 

[SteelerCountry]

How can u possibly think you can do a sit down lunch @ 1:05pm and a sit down dinner @ 4:05. Your lunch won't end till at least 2:15pm.... And that's a quick sit down. Do you really think you will be hungry again within your timeframes? We do DLX dining every time but we are all adults, we do at minimum 6 hours between meals.....eating signature every night. I have to say, we never use our snacks in the parks....but we do enjoy Goofys Candy shop for fudge and goodies to take home as souvenirs. There are 5 of us usually staying between 10-12 days and we LOVE using all snack credits @ goofys. We enjoy these goodies for several months after our trip!!!! I'm not trying to offend you.....just be prepared!!! We the DLX plan, we have gotten it for years upgrading with free dining....

 

[summermac]

I agree with Steeler Country. We could never ever be hungry by 4:00 after just finishing a meal scheduled at 12:00 That was my first though with your original dining plans. Granted I glossed over your new revised plan.

FWIW, we used regular DDP in 2009. Our party was 6 adults and 1 child and then one child under 2. I can not even begin to tell you how many times we sat down to eat and at least ONE person remarked, "I'm not even hungry right now." We left a lot of CS credits (and again remember my daughter was 2 and so we sometimes used a CS for her) and way more snack credits than I'm willing to admit. We were also dealing with pretty stifling heat (June) so that contributed to the lack of hunger I am sure. I wish I had at least planned for dinners later, as in after 6:30. I was worried about it cutting it too close to bedtime on that trip as my daughter NEEDS her sleep.

We still got our money's worth though thanks to three character meals (you really make out on those for kids since DDP is about $10 less than the regular price) and a dinner at LeCellier. And because we could, we always ordered dessert. We would never do that without DDP and would split desserts (and even meals). I'd bet at least 1/4 of our cost savings was eaten up in the extra tips we cost ourselves by maximizing the dining plan.

So yeah I'd strongly consider downgrading to regular DDP. The difference in cost and the savings you will gain in less gratuity would probably make up for any snacks you might have to buy OOP later in your trip if you're out of credits.

And all that said, we are kicking it circa 2001 this trip without DDP.

 

[krd315]

We did Deluxe plan for 5 nights in Jan with grandkids ages 6 & 7.5
we liked the sit down meals better than standing in lines for counter service. we did a Character breakfast every morning at 8am before parks opened and were out by 9 -9:15 with seeing all the characters (granddaughters loved the characters even though at local amusement parks they are all about the rides) our lunches and TS dinners took 1.5hrs to 2hrs even at the buffets.

we did 3 TS meals 3 days of the trip so we could get in all of our favs and character meals for the grandkids. we had 8am breakfast, 2pm lunch and 7pm dinners. we did several buffets and 2 signature dinners, we tried very hard not to overeat but we were very full the last couple of nights. We are still glad we did it as we prefer sit down meals and got to try some new TS restaurants. However, we will plan more 2TS dinners next time

If you decide not to keep all of the TS after you get there, just remember to cancel any that have cc guarantee within the required time so as not to be charged the $10pp no-show fees which can add up almost as fast as the 18% tips for all of those meals.