bumping up from dining plan to deluxe. are we nuts?

[GillianP1301]

We upgraded to DxDP on our last trip.

Pros:
Loved having absolutely all food pre-paid

Great chance to try some awesome appetizers that I may not have otherwise

We generally did 3 TS a day and it was perfect for us, we had 3 built in cool down & rest stops, on average about 1 hour each.

Cons:
It is a lot of food, so you do have to pace yourself well. My biggest disappointment was not getting to sample all the great snack options available, I felt we missed out there for sure.

Would I do it again? Well, my initial reaction was no and I booked my bounceback with just the regular DDP, but have since changed my mind and will go DxDP again. Since it's free dining for me this time and I'm just paying the upgrade, it's easier to make it work $ wise. I will eat differently though. I will not do 3 TS a day, I will do 1 buffet (for characters) for breakfast, 1 QS or snack for lunch and 1 TS (several signatures) for dinner. Easing up on the food intake at lunch should allow me to snack more. I'll miss the midday cool down break at a TS though, that's the only negative to my new plan.

 

[Pete S]

We did deluxe dining plan the last two times we went, and will have it again when we go in January. We are doing mostly signature dinners and TS lunch. Whenever we figure it out we are ahead and we are not losing too much time in the parks.

 

[BlondeAppetit]

Love the DXDP. We do a lot of character meals, so portions are really up to us. We do a TS breakfast, QS lunch, and TS dinner. Financially, we saved a few hundred by upgrading when we were getting a dining discount.

We did the exact same thing. Upgrading to deluxe from standard free dining.

Great choice.

 

[jcjen519]

we really liked the deluxe. its a lot of food but we found it was pretty easy to make up the cost. we generally did an early lunch at a ts and then a signature dinner each night or 2 credit like CRT or HDR

 

[nco91590]

I can see how if you went a busy time of year or had kids with you that wanted to see/do it all the DxDDP might be too much time spent eating.

For our 10 year anniversary, I'm going to try the DxDDP. DH and I like signature restaurants. We always end up paying OOP on the regular plan, buying appetizers and wine. We love the food and atmosphere at the signatures. We're quality over quantity type people. I like the idea of a 10am breakfast and a 7pm dinner with just a snack for lunch.

I would not do DxDDP with kids. They don't eat enough to make it worth it.

 

[rainboots]

We had it in Feb, and we had kids on it, too. It was a perfect mid-day break without going back to the resort. I loved it. Trying to plan a future trip and we can upgrade resort (POR to WL)or dining (DDP to DLxDP) for about the same cost. I lean towards dining, my sister is leaning towards resort....

 

[DsnyDad73]

With regards to the DX dining plan we did it once......never again. For us (with our four kids) it was like the eating Olympics. We felt that we had to us all of our credits to get our moneys worth. I litteraly felt like our whole vaca we were running from one rest. to another. Talk about feeling stuffed and bloated while running around the parks....even the kids were groaning the whole time.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

When we did deluxe dining, it was January. And the parks weren't crowded at all.

We call it the time we "ate our way through the World."

We were all adults; our son was 16. It wasn't our first trip. Nor our last.

It was amazing. Of course it was also the time that we claim we rolled home. Yes, it was a lot of food. We ended up taking home 2 dozen snacks.

 

[quakechicago]

Hey all, with dble credit meals (Hoop Dee Doo, etc) we are thinking of doing the deluxe plan. Are we nuts? Anyone may this choice? feedback please.

We love it and always upgrade to deluxe.

We like to eat and with so much walking never found it too much food. I guess we just don't overeat and we space our meals out as rests. 7-8am breakfast (prepark rocks), 1pm lunch, rest from 3-5 and a 7-8 pm dinner.

We also take home the majority of our snacks to extend the magic. Disney blues? Here's a Mickey Rice Krispie treat! Videos of our trip require "official" popcorn.

We also love doing as many character meals as possible with our 3 yo instead of standing in line to see characters! Have fun!

 

[lauradis]

Your nuts

every time we go and get lucky enough to get "free" dinning we upgrade to deluxe because that's what hubby wants.

Plus we have already budgeted for spending x and x at Disney his reasoning.

I think it has to do more with getting the bill at the end of the meal.

 

[ebradley23]

I was set on having DDP for our next trip, because we got it free with our bounce back offer. This year we did DxDDP, and we found it was way too much food. We were even splitting meals with out 2 yo son, and we were stuffed. Now you guys have me considering upgrading for the convenience. It would cost us an avg of $30/per person each day, but we could book more character meals and possibly a couple of 2 credit meals. Argh! The decisions!! Thank goodness I have nearly a year to decide.

 

[IrrationalSanity]

We did Deluxe on our family excursion a couple years ago, and couldn't have been happier. Myself, DW, and three high teens (two seniors and a sophomore), so several large appetites. It was great to not have to worry about bills, or being judicious in our choices of entrée, appetizers, or desserts. The only oops came when apparently one of the teens got charged a meal for breakfast instead of the snacks rate, and it messed up lunch on the last day.

Would definitely do it again!

I will say, we took it more for the convenience than cost savings (though there was some). We didn't feel compelled to get the biggest or most expensive meals, we simply liked the ability to order what we wanted.

 

[hddanis]

When I took my oldest girls (9 & 13) for a girls only trip several years ago, we used the deluxe and loved it. Now, DH and I will be going in December and we plan on using the Deluxe again. It's mainly for the convenience of having it already paid for, although it does help us save some money. I do remember thinking there was no way we'd use all of our snack credits, but we wound up running out on our last day. We like to eat around the world in Epcot and that sucked up most of them. Especially France and Norway in the pastry shops.