Anyone Do the DxDDP with a three year-old?

[tinacaplan]

Hi! In the midst of planning my first Disney trip with my son, who is three. He enjoys eating out a great deal and is generally well behaved at restaraunts. My husband and I were just at Disney this past February and we enjoyed the DxDDP, but we're still not sure it was worth it. On the other hand, a lot of the character buffets are super pricey. It also sounds like counter service meals are a real pain!

I am not super concerned with saving a ridiculous amount of money; I'm fine with breaking even, more or less.

My question is: has anyone done the DxDDp with a little kid and did you think it was worth it?

 

[mamasha]

We just came back and used DXDDP. We have a 7 and 2 year old....with that said....yes and no. We did a character breakfast most days but it was hard to be hungry for lunch a few hours later...so unless you have a bunch of 2 credit dinners planned, it's hard to use all the credits. We had dinner at Brown Derby and Citritos but they were very quiet and I was always nervous that the baby was going to lose it(luckily she didn't). We even did room service on the last morning. We probably did still come out ahead but it is a lot of food....but so much fun!

 

[tinacaplan]

thanks for the info...I'm not so much interested in coming out ahead. I do want to take him to Cali Grill and do a bunch of character breakfasts, etc.

I have two basic problems with the regular DDP:
1. You have to eat counter service, which isn't something I'm thrilled about.

2. I'd still end up paying for quite a bit OOP.

I guess I'll plug away with my Excel spreadsheet and see what I come up with! The input is always appreciated, though.

 

[texasgirl73]

In 2008 we went Deluxe and my youngest son was 3. I think of all the children (the others were 13, 8, and 5) he was the only one that never had any problems with the food. The kids menus are good for the not-so-adventurous (3 years often fall in that category.) The 5 and 8 year olds were sort of put off by all the pizza, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and mac and cheese (luckily the buffets helped provide some variety for them.) The 13 year old had trouble with the adult menu at a few places....but the 3 year old was happy with everything. We ate at California Grill, Yachtsman Steakhouse, Hollywood Brown Derby, Boma, Coral Reef, Yak and Yeti, and a ton of character meals (including the castle.) He liked coloring and playing with his Disney Cars (we found little cars shaped like Disney Characters- Nemo car, Pluto Car, etc) while waiting on the food. It worked out great.

 

[mumto2]

We did DXDDP in Oct. 08. DD was 9, DS was 3.5.

While I don't remember all of our ADRs, we generally did a character breakfast and a 2 credit dinner/show. We timed it so that if we did an early breakfast, dinner was a tad earlier, if we had a late breakfast/brunch, dinner was for a later time. We used the snack credits to grab a bit between meals as needed. A couple of our dinners were only one credit, which allowed us to stretch our meals out over the full duration of our stay - lunch and dinner on arrival day, breakfast on departure day. By the last day, we still had a ton of snack credits left - so we bought Mickey Mouse Rice Krispie treats to take back for DS preschool class.

We are not a big CS family either. Many people complain about sit-down meals taking away too much park time, but for our family, the opportunity to have a break, eat real food in air-conditioning is a big part of our plan for trip success.

We wouldn't do the DXDDP every trip - in fact, we are not doing a DDP at all this trip for the first time (DD is now charged as an adult, and we are staying in the cabins), but we really enjoyed it, and would definitely do it again.

Have a great trip!

 

[mamasha]

thanks for the info...I'm not so much interested in coming out ahead. I do want to take him to Cali Grill and do a bunch of character breakfasts, etc.

I have two basic problems with the regular DDP:
1. You have to eat counter service, which isn't something I'm thrilled about.

2. I'd still end up paying for quite a bit OOP.

I guess I'll plug away with my Excel spreadsheet and see what I come up with! The input is always appreciated, though.

I say go for it. I think we paid about 1000 for 2A and 1C ...we went to
crystal palace
yak & yeti
wave
chef mickeys
brown derby
mama melrose
50's prime time
citritos
ohana
caseys corner
plaza
room service
contempo cafe
It was nice to have a table service lunch, Once you start spending money OOP, DXDDP might work better

 

[tinacaplan]

Thanks for all of the advice. Its a lot to consider. You make a good point about sit down meals being a good time to relax and re-charge.

 

[MichaelColey]

We've only done the DDP (three times, heading back for a fourth later this year). I've always been tempted to upgrade to the DxDP, but we do two week trips and with a family of four, that's about $1500 extra. Considering our package (during Free Dining) only costs about $2500 in a Value or $3500 in a Moderate, that's quite an upcharge. What we've done instead is add 4-5 extra TS meals OOP for about $100 each. By doing this, we can pick the 4-5 meals that are the worst value on the DDP to pay for OOP, which lets us do everything we want while still getting almost the maximum possible value out of the DDP.

The primary TS meal we eat on the DDP is dinner. We usually only stay at the park late three times per trip (to see fireworks), so that gives us total flexibility during the day. We find CS meals to be fine, especially for lunch. There's a lot of variety (research it in advance) and you can choose based on portion size, health, variety, or whatever is important to you. We prefer not to be tied to a schedule for lunch. Our lunch time decision is usually more like "We'll be getting this fastpass here and will be riding this ride and will be near this restaurant and we'll be hungry enough to eat, so we'll go there to eat then." It's just more convenient for us.

 

[tinacaplan]

We've only done the DDP (three times, heading back for a fourth later this year). I've always been tempted to upgrade to the DxDP, but we do two week trips and with a family of four, that's about $1500 extra. Considering our package (during Free Dining) only costs about $2500 in a Value or $3500 in a Moderate, that's quite an upcharge. What we've done instead is add 4-5 extra TS meals OOP for about $100 each. By doing this, we can pick the 4-5 meals that are the worst value on the DDP to pay for OOP, which lets us do everything we want while still getting almost the maximum possible value out of the DDP.

The primary TS meal we eat on the DDP is dinner. We usually only stay at the park late three times per trip (to see fireworks), so that gives us total flexibility during the day. We find CS meals to be fine, especially for lunch. There's a lot of variety (research it in advance) and you can choose based on portion size, health, variety, or whatever is important to you. We prefer not to be tied to a schedule for lunch. Our lunch time decision is usually more like "We'll be getting this fastpass here and will be riding this ride and will be near this restaurant and we'll be hungry enough to eat, so we'll go there to eat then." It's just more convenient for us.

Thanks! Those are all excellent points. I have a lot to think about it. Hadn't really thought about how much easier it would be to not be tied down to a lunch ADR!

 

[mrsltg]

We did it when my oldest was 7.5 and my middle was 3. We do character breakfasts a lot (I like to be in the park before rope drop) and enjoy an evening sit down meal. We planned everything out and were able to use all of our credits by the end. I am sure we broke even and that was really all I cared about doing (not trying to beat the system.)

On most trips, however, we do the regular DDP. I do what the pp suggests. We generally have more TS meals than credits. We pick the meals that are the worst value on the plan and pay for those OOP. The rest are dining credits. It works for us.

 

[distherapy]

We did it with 2! The twins were 3 years old our first trip and we did DxDP. We love to eat at restaurants and the kids had some practice beforehand. We did quite a few signatures. We usually skipped breakfast - or used snack credits in the resort - and had a sit-down lunch and a sit-down dinner. We loved it and did it again the following year when they were 4. We're planning to do it again in October.

 

[kittycat9]

We are doing it with our 3yo, and we did DxDDP last year when he was 2yo. Right now most of our lunches fit right in line with his lunch schedule at 1PM (he eats quite a bit from breakfast, snacking through lunch. Then we aren't scheduled for most dinners until 6-7pm. This allows for time to nap. Our hope - "HOPE" is that he will eat dinner with us at the aloted time, but if he doesn't - that's okay too. We will probably feed him a healthy snack (fruit or carrots) to try and get him in to the restaurant. We are also staying CL, so my understanding is that they have some options there around 5pm that we can grab on our way out. Either way, we will make it work. There's always french fries, LOL. I know, that's horrible. Also, our son isn't eating dinner with us 3 of the nights - we're getting an in room sitter (which if you can manage in your budget, I highly recommend), and will feed him before hand. Then a few of the other dinner nights will be more exciting for him; CRT, Whispering Canyon, etc.

 

[triciari]

We did DXDDP in Oct. 08. DD was 9, DS was 3.5.


We are not a big CS family either. Many people complain about sit-down meals taking away too much park time, but for our family, the opportunity to have a break, eat real food in air-conditioning is a big part of our plan for trip success.

QUOTE]

I totally agree with you! That's why we're doing deluxe this trip!