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

[chilepeppr4]

You guys are speaking my language here.. I'm not going till 9/2015 and dining plan decisions are giving me anxiety ( not really but ya know what I mean) lol. I have the Regular 1qs 1ts built in my package ready. As of now we are at POP. Keeping fingers crossed for free dining to come out. My plans are two TS ( probably b & d) character meals, and maybe 2, 2 credit meals. I like the idea of everything paid for already. We will be a fam of 4 ME DH, DS7 DD4 traveling with my MIL AND AUNT"inlaw" I don't know if they plan on doing the dining plan. But I figured at non buffets we would be able to share apps and dessert with them. And if we may have left over credits pick up a meal for them. With free dining hopefully.. The cost difference may not be so bad.. Thoughts

 

[Annadesu]

When I went with my husband, we got the one where you get one table service, one counter service, and one snack per day. We're not huge eaters, and that was PLENTY of food for us. And we still got to go to O'Hana, and some other really nice places.

I think it depends greatly on how many people you have, and how many large meals you want. We're cool with one big meal a day, and smaller stuff for the rest of the time. Some people are not.

 

[nkereina]

I have never had understood the it's too much food thing. No one is forcing you to order and eat everything that is included with the plan.

No one is forcing you to eat it, but you are paying for it. If you're going to skip desserts or pick at appetizers, it would make more sense financially to pay OOP and only order these items WHEN you want them. With DxDP, you're paying for them at EVERY meal.

Our biggest mistake when we did DxDP was making ADR times too close together. We really underestimated the amount of food it was going to be and how much the September heat was going to take out of us. Just an example, we did an 11:30 lunch at Sci Fi and had a 6:50 dinner ADR somewhere and we were not hungry at all by the time dinner rolled around. This was before the cancellation policy was in effect, so we ended up cancelling a few dinners last minute which left us with leftover credits. On that particular night, we didn't get hungry until closer to 9pm. If we ever do DxDP again, we would do TS breakfast and signature dinners.

 

[Dorisk3]

The only way I can see deluxe dining is a TS breakfast and a signature dinner. We were sitting next to a few ladies at Wolfgang Puck Express that ordered full lunches and only ate a few bites. I thought there was a problem with their meals, but they told the waitress they were on the deluxe dining and were still full from breakfast. I am an eater and have a family of eaters and no way could we put that much food away every day.

 

[quakechicago]

Walking that much, I ate just fine. I still don't get the too much food thing and I like food. I'm a picky foodie, but it is what it is at Disney.

You get a plate of what you like at a buffet, see some characters, and you've gotten your money's worth. There is no more to get out of it. Yes, someone else may like Pooh before getting stuck at Rabbit's out-eat you capacity wise, but is that a goal??? Yes, you're going to eat another meal again in 6 hours but inbetween you'll be walking ten or more miles and only sit down in rides for a few minutes.

Even at signatures, are the appetizers and desserts SO HUGE? Is it the best you've ever had so you have to go back for thirds because you might never eat something do delectable again?

We do 3 character meals a day (someday when kiddo is older we'll switch to signatures and I'll BEG her to nostalgically please do ONE character meal ) so upgrading during free for us dining makes tons of financial sense and park time sense. The only characters we intend to wait a while to see is A&E if I don't get a fastpass this time. (fingers crossed for me -- it's in a few days!)

Going deluxe when each meal is like $50/pp also makes sense. And having an allergy chef at meals when my daughter and I have serious food allergies for us makes sense.

At home, we really don't do fast food. We can't really risk it and as a result, I might have the only toddler in the world who doesn't understand the appeal of a chicken nugget and hates hamburgers even if she's starving. Even a hot dog she picks at and basically just licks the ketchup off. But give her an 'adult meal'? Steak, chicken, baked potato, steamed veggies, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc.... She's a happy girl. Throw in a cupcake and some characters and for about the same amount of time, the meal becomes an event full of magic (& IMVHO that certainly beats standing in line to see characters and having fast food).

I will also say, our better meals were made by the allergy chefs. It was a chef listening to what you can eat and what you like and then coming out with a fresh salad dressing, grilled chicken or steak, a plate of cherry tomatoes, a skewer of grilled mushrooms, etc but really just some of my kiddo's favorites.

Our worst meals were easily the counters we tried that were super highly recommended and we found truly horrible. You can only send sucky food back so many times before you realize they just don't have the ability to make it any better.

I think you have to know what your family eats and likes to do and then go from there. We did see a family with teens at several character meals (CP, Akershus, etc) and the kids were totally bored and simultaneously traumatized at their parents wearing mickey ears and cheering when the characters came over like they must have done when the kids were younger. I hope we have many more years before our kiddo is one of the teens rolling her eyes at us.

 

[parqueen]

That's the only way I can get my husband to go. He is a real foodie and loves the Deluxe Dining Plan even though I'm having trouble booking the California Grill for our trip in October. I think it is really worth it.

 

[Tilnar]

No, nobody's forcing you to eat it -- but by paying for the DxD upgrade, you're *paying* for that food. Each of your meal credits are basically priced as a full TS with appy, entree and desert -- so getting less food or doing a QS is, effectively, "wasting" money (rather than wasting food) -- which is why I always tell people to sit back and do the math as to whether or not it's actually worth it for them -- I mean, yes, it's nice to have so many meal credits that you never have to worry about where you go -- and being able to do signatures/shows -- but at the same time -- are those worth the credits you're using, or would you be better with the free dining and a bit OOP?

(I've done DxDP twice and I still don't really know the answer -- even with shows and signature meals -- it was a *lot* of food).

I would say, at the end of the day, the biggest "selling feature" of DxDP is know that all your meals are paid for (tips notwithstanding) and therefore having a "complete" idea of the cost of your trip.

 

[jenjersnap]

I am planning our 4th DxDDP trip for November. We love it and never have had a single regret nor felt like it was too much food. We eat a character meal for breakfast or lunch and eat signature at night, like so many others. We use snack credits frequently for pre-park fuel (picking up items from Les Halles in France is a favorite...bacon and cheese roll and pissaladiere which is like pizza plus the more common sweet pastries), oatmeal or yogurt parfaits from the resort.

 

[disneyjunkie]

If you are satisfied with your meal/experience, then it isn't a waste money.
I have to eat like horse or max out do plan to feel like I'm not wasting money. Why order steak and lobster when I just want a simple salad? I know for a fact there will be times when I skip the appetizers and/or desserts. I order based on what I want at that time, not based on what comes with the plan.
For us the deluxe plan is about convenience,options and having as much of the trip paid for in advance as possible. We don't care about maxing out the plan. As long as we use all of the credits, we haven't wasted out money.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

We had the deluxe this year and we loved it. It basically covered everything. But there was a ton of food specially at lunch. We are going again next year with the deluxe plan and I am thinking of just doing TS breakfast and dinner and then doing qs lunch plus snacks. We didn't even use our snack credits this year. I think we had like 26 snack credits left at the end of the trip. So we ended up stocking up on snacks and drinks for the drive home.

 

[lorigacc]

Been there..done that. Too much food, and too time consuming (for us), but I am sure it could work for others...

 

[ursalita]

I'm planning a trip in April and I'm trying to decide between DDDP vs. OOP. One thing to consider is the tip. We are foodies so I'm looking forward to trying the signature restaurants which is what had me considering the Deluxe plan. I think the "too much food" argument makes sense when you consider that if you pay OOP you only order what you're going to eat rather than ordering app, entree and dessert because it's included. My husband and I usually each get a salad or app and split an entree. Or skip the app if we're getting dessert. I think if I went with the plan we could end up paying easily double for the tip. Does that make sense?

 

[Dragonfly_34]

We are doing it this trip and are banking on it being "too much food" since our 2 year old twins will be sharing some of our meals. Our plan is to do TS breakfast and dinners, with QS lunches and snacks. We have ADRs at mostly buffets/family-style restaurants so I think it'll be ok. It's also giving us the opportunity to try some restaurants we haven't tried before, including a night out for DH and I at Narcoossee's. We'll probably go back to the regular dining plan on any future trips, provided it makes sense for a family of 5.

 

[sssteph]

I always chuckle when I read or hear people saying it was "too much food." While I know what they mean, I would much rather have too much food than not enough.

I looked at it like this, I like TS and I don't mind spending time eating especially on a hot day in an air conditioned restaurant. My husband and I are doing the Deluxe DDP and we are doing mostly signature restaurants for either/dinner for 1 per day and fill in from there.


I did wonder though, can you get your dessert packaged to go on the plan?

Thanks.

 

[cedricandsophie]

Have done never done the diing plan. Much prefer Tables n Wonderland card with a 20% discount on everything including alcohol. We get a bottle of wine with dinner most nights. Often get apps and share an entree. Rarely est in anything but table service restaurants. So for us the TIW card is much more cost effective. We paid 100 last Year and it is good until next April 1. We used it on our 10 day trip on March, 3 days at Vero, have a week in December and a other 10 days in march 2015. One meal at California grill and narcosees practically pays for it. Only wish we could use it Aulani.

 

[tporter4]

I think it depends on how long you're staying. If you're going to be there for three days then that (IMO) is a lot of time spent in restaurants and eating (which I, myself, have NO aversion to). For us, we did it because a) we got the dining plan "free" with reservations and b) we're going to be there 7 nights which means we can stretch it out a bit and play around and have signature meals and so forth. Too bad I can't get any of these signature meals I was dreaming of... Sigh!

Did you decide?

 

[nanhol]

If you can afford it, I say do Deluxe Dining once and then decide if it's for you.

I agree with everything everyone has said on this thread:

• It is too much food (but that's part of the fun)
• It is kind of wasteful (but if you eat all that food you'll have to get rolled home)
• It takes a lot of time (but it's nice to sit down & eat with the family!)
• It's a great way to try Signature Restaurants (there are some great 2-credit restaurants!)

It was a lot of fun to do the DDP on our last trip, we ate at a lot of great restaurants. I made big plans on how to spend our snack credits, but didn't get to try all the amazing Epcot snacks, because we were stuffed and didn't have a lot of time. The kids enjoyed the great meals, but they would have been as happy with more QS meals. My kids are all technically Disney "adults" now, so on our next trip we'll probably pay OOP or just do the regular dining plan. When my husband & I make trips without our kids (someday...), maybe we'll try the DDP again.

 

[HizMinnie2015]

I'm so glad to hear all the positive feedback here about the Deluxe Dining Plan. We will be going to WDW October 25-31, 2015 and have chosen this plan for many of the reasons above. We have no children going only my soon to be husband and myself. Since this is our very first trip ever, the little girl inside me wants to do the character dining, Cinderella's table, signature restaurants. We decided that the deluxe plan would accommodate all this and then some. Hopefully they will offer a free dining plan discount for the week we are there that we can apply towards this cost...

 

[Sorrel]

I did wonder though, can you get your dessert packaged to go on the plan?

Thanks.

Yes In fact even when we didn't want one our servers really encouraged us to do that. It took us a few days, and a few luxury desserts languishing in the room fridge, to realise that they will do that as it will bump the tip up But other times I happily took one to enjoy on the balcony later on with a little drink, which was lovely.

A few of my thoughts...we did the DxDP once, and we are doing it again next April. We did the maths this time, and felt it was worth it, even if we don't get the full value from it. If you try to add it up and figure it out while you are there, well, that way madness lies There is a tendency at first to try to get the best bang for your buck out of it, and I was thinking things like "I can't order a salad for my entree, however, amazing it is, when there is a steak dish worth $50". And yes, ordering a dessert just because you had paid for it. We had a discussion about it all after our first few days (we are from the UK so typically are there for 14 days) and decided to be more relaxed about it, and simply order what we wanted. We started to enjoy it, and if on one day we got 3 CS meals we didn't care. Other days it balanced out with a 2 credit breakfast, and a 2 credit evening meal, with a CS for lunch.

As I said, we sort of did the maths this trip. We are both appetiser people, and love to eat at the Signature restaurants a lot. We added up the average cost of Signature apps, along with a few non sig ones for those places, and also we added up the cost of breakfast each day. We like our american breakfasts very much, and enjoy a few character breakfasts too. Those two things alone took us to almost 2/3 of the cost of upgrading. As we love our restaurants and eating out, as well as knowing we have been to the parks before, and will be there for 2 weeks and so don't have to rush around to squeeze everything in, then it seemed a sensible and fun thing to do. We did find ourselves cancelling a couple of dinners when we realised we weren't in the mood, and simply enjoyed CS those nights without feeling bad.

Snack credits....we know we will end up buying loads of candy to take home, which is no bad thing to give as gifts. But when we didn't have many snack credits we were a little frugal with what we used them for. but on the DxDP I would happily but a bottle of water in a park and not tell myself it was far too expensive, or I would grab a coffee without thinking about it.

So I do think a lot of the DxDP is about your frame of mind, or the way you think about it. And yes, there is a lot of food but it is lovely to have the opportunity to try it!

I editted this to mention that this is just me and my other half

 

[indyannamom]

We did deluxe dining when we went 3 years ago, and will be doing it again when we go in January.

Breakfasts at TS are big for us...we do several character meals AND even for those that aren't, we try to do buffets. For us it's not the quantity of food, it's the variety...our kids can eat their weight in fruit (not literally, but you get the idea). The buffets allow us to have them eating healthier options without being restricted to the few pieces that might garnish a plate with wayyyy too much other less healthy (and usually very carb/sugar heavy) options. Buying a healthy breakfast oop that satisfies my kiddos would be pricy!!

the kids need a break during the day, but it's too much to trek all the way back to the hotel. We've found that a TS lunch gives a chance to take a break, get out of the weather & the kids get a good meal. we all leave refreshed for the afternoon.

DH would worry about what everything costs at each meal if we were paying oop. On the dining plan, he orders what he really wants...not just the most economical option.

The one thing we had more than we needed on the deluxe plan were snack credits. That was in part because we were conserving them more than we needed to at the beginning of the trip. We did use them all...at the end we picked out things that we could take home as gifts for friends and family.