delux dining plan is it worth it ?

[london75]

You're probably right, just checked and for a fortnight it's 924 more, say we'd actually use 6 more TS meals rather than all 14 at around $100 per meal plus say 8 breakfasts at $50 so $1000 value for £924.

...and tips on those meals that you don't pay on CS meals would make it worth even less. It's probably only me that wants a starter so $100 for 10 starters.

No brainer really.

 

[2Tiggies]

You're probably right, just checked and for a fortnight it's 924 more, say we'd actually use 6 more TS meals rather than all 14 at around $100 per meal plus say 8 breakfasts at $50 so $1000 value for £924.

...and tips on those meals that you don't pay on CS meals would make it worth even less. It's probably only me that wants a starter so $100 for 10 starters.

No brainer really.

Yeah, I think DxDDP has its appeal and can be very good value but it's for a very select market and certainly not intended for extended stays. I could see some real 'foodies' enjoying dining experiences and focusing on that aspect of the trip rather than on the parks, but I don't see it working for (a) first time visitors and (b) long stays.

 

[JintyB]

OK, so I may be the odd one out, but we did DxDP last summer for a full two weeks and I wouldn't want to do anything else! We made full use of the credits to do the Hoop-de-doo (twice), the Spirit of Aloha show, the Cali Grill etc. We had a character meal almost every day and used room service for breakfast when we wanted really early starts. At the end of our stay we did have quite a few snack credits over, which we spent on giant lollipops to bring home.

We all prefer savoury, so much prefer starters to desserts, hence the DDP was less attractive to us. For us the dining was all part of the experience. And spending 60-90 minutes out of the sun at lunchtime was restful and delivered us back to the parks rejuvenated without having to return to the hotel.

Everyone is right though - it is a lot of food, but you don't have to eat it all! Although I forgot that on a few occasions...

 

[wayneg]

Just when my Pre holiday diet was going soooooo well, you mention the words Krispy Kreme

Now do I try my best to erase my memory or do I jump in the car and head towards Birstall?? Hmmmm......

Karen got home from work today to tell me one of her parents works at Krispy Kreme Birstall, brought them a box of 10 in to share today. I did not get one

 

[Disneynutinlondon]

Can I ask, do people tend to buy starters or stick with the entree and pudding? I love some of the starters and would take over pudding most times if it were allowed. That was one of the reasons I'd consider deluxe but only late August when same day reservations are reasonably easy to get as I'd hate to plan that much, I didn't enjoy fixing restaurant choices this year, goes against our usual holiday mode.

On the whole we prefer starters to desserts so we generally pay OOE for the starters and the take our desserts "to go" so we can snack on them later. As we usually do our TS meal in the evening we either eat our dessert once we get back to the hotel after fireworks, parade extra magic hour etc or for an afternoon snack the following day

 

[paulh]

were doing 3 nights DVC at BLT,We looked at doing the deluxe DDP but even we thought it was way to much food,and we have done to old DDP were everything was included(starter,main,desert and tip included)and was impossible to eat every thing.have ended up just getting the regular DDP
Paul

 

[wayneg]

OK, so I may be the odd one out, but we did DxDP last summer for a full two weeks and I wouldn't want to do anything else! We made full use of the credits to do the Hoop-de-doo (twice), the Spirit of Aloha show, the Cali Grill etc. We had a character meal almost every day and used room service for breakfast when we wanted really early starts. At the end of our stay we did have quite a few snack credits over, which we spent on giant lollipops to bring home.

We all prefer savoury, so much prefer starters to desserts, hence the DDP was less attractive to us. For us the dining was all part of the experience. And spending 60-90 minutes out of the sun at lunchtime was restful and delivered us back to the parks rejuvenated without having to return to the hotel.

Everyone is right though - it is a lot of food, but you don't have to eat it all! Although I forgot that on a few occasions...

I agree it will work for some but majority have more than enough with regular DDP. Just looked how much for us to upgrade next year "Upgrade for just £1,575.00 more!" almost $2,500, you have to do some serious eating for 3 adults to get thru $2,500 more food ontop of DDP.
We are not fans of the signatures, you have to enjoy those at least to get value, we only enjoy Hoop not the other shows, you really need to do more than one. We don't eat breakfast, don't want to be in a TS at lunchtime etc so eveything works perfectly with regular plan but as you say it works for you and it will others.

 

[bex7583]

do u have to make bookings when doing the regular dining plan, is it possible to get tables just on the day , im a bit fussy and like to eat what i fancy on the day rather than what i have timetabled to eat !!

also could you have a day where you have a table meal for lunch and then another table meal in the evening or do you have to use one table meal per day??

or if you decide to take only a counter meal dining plan can you still make adrs for just the ocassional table meal /character breakfast ( paid extra) or will this type of extra booking have to be made when you arrive ?

 

[2Tiggies]

do u have to make bookings when doing the regular dining plan, is it possible to get tables just on the day , im a bit fussy and like to eat what i fancy on the day rather than what i have timetabled to eat !!

also could you have a day where you have a table meal for lunch and then another table meal in the evening or do you have to use one table meal per day??

or if you decide to take only a counter meal dining plan can you still make adrs for just the ocassional table meal /character breakfast ( paid extra) or will this type of extra booking have to be made when you arrive ?

Well it's a good thing you decided not to do deluxe dining then

If you are 'fussy' about where you want to eat, you can take a chance on the day but you may end up struggling to find somewhere and the popular placed DO book up fairly quickly. I know there is always the discussion about not knowing what you want to eat on the day but I can't tell you now what I feel like for dinner tonight - just like I don't know what I want to eat in 6 months time. You don't have to choose your food - you just need to pick a restaurant. I start by choosing what parks I want to do on what day and then have a look at the list of restaurants I want to eat at and pick one of them in that park or if there are resort restaurants, pick on at a resort that is easily accessible from the park I am visiting that day.

If you take the CS dining plan and pay out of pocket for your ADRs you still need to book as above and then yes, you just pay separately when you get there. This is what we do as we don't like a sit down meal every day when we are out and about. Food is not that important to us.

Regarding the credits, you get all the credits for your party at check in for the duration of your stay. You can use them as you please. If you want to eat 3 TS today and only CS tomorrow, you can do that.

 

[wayneg]

You might be able to get a walk up reservation at any restaurant at any time of year but chances are the one you want will be fully booked all evening, the popular ones can get booked up 6 months out. Last August I lost count how many people I saw turned away, many places were booked up all evening.

4 years ago before we did DDP we used to think how is it possible to plan 6 months in advance, we want to get hungry and go eat, we never even planned the next day. After doing DDP 3 times, 4th this year, I can tell you it can work well and be enjoyable.
We book all our meals 6 months out,when we get there if we like somewhere a lot we book again and cancel somewhere, or if we change plans while out there we change dining reservations.

As Lee says you can use the credits however you want, IIRC we have 1 day planned for a TS character breakfast, CS lunch and a TS meal but then we have other days planned where we goto Clearwater or Port Canaveral for the day and will only use a TS those days. We also have some meals planned offsite, Cheesecake factory & Manny's, the credits we save there go towards Hoop Dee Doo & eating in the castle which are both 2 credits.

As it stands now over the 21 days we have planned we will have 1 CS credit left each.

 

[2Tiggies]

I just want to add to this, having seen your most recent thread about resort choices, the QSDP (CS meals only) is not an option for you if you want to take advantage of free dining as they will not let you downgrade from the regular DDP to the QSDP on free dining, although you can pay the difference and upgrade.

 

[Holstar]

Quick (silly) question....

Does the DDP have a value per meal/credit used? For example, at Disneyland Paris, you were told that your vouchers for the Dining Plan were valued at £X each and you could pay the upgrade if your bill came to more?

So, basically what I think my question is... Could you use a CS voucher at a TS restaurant and pay the upgrade cost? Or, would you have to use a TS credit?

I'm just thinking of people who might only be on the QSDP - how do they manage if they want a TS meal?

xxxx

 

[wayneg]

Quick (silly) question....

Does the DDP have a value per meal/credit used? For example, at Disneyland Paris, you were told that your vouchers for the Dining Plan were valued at £X each and you could pay the upgrade if your bill came to more?

So, basically what I think my question is... Could you use a CS voucher at a TS restaurant and pay the upgrade cost? Or, would you have to use a TS credit?

I'm just thinking of people who might only be on the QSDP - how do they manage if they want a TS meal?

xxxx

No value, its just a credit for an entree, dessert & drink, any value off the menu. So no it has no value against a TS meal unfortunately.
If you are on QSDDP the only way is pay for TS meals.

 

[2Tiggies]

N
If you are on QSDDP the only way is pay for TS meals.

It's not for everyone, but because we prefer the QSDP, we've used it three times running now and have always just payed OOP for our TS meals and it still worked out cheaper than upgrading, as we only wanted a couple of sit down meals a week.

 

[scottishgirl87]

It's not for everyone, but because we prefer the QSDP, we've used it three times running now and have always just payed OOP for our TS meals and it still worked out cheaper than upgrading, as we only wanted a couple of sit down meals a week.

I haven't done DDP before but looking at next year I think I've decided that the QSDP would be best for us. Like you, Lee, we'll just pay OOP for any TS meals. Alot of times in the US we only have a main at dinner as we, well me especially, struggle to finish even that alot of the times due to the size!

I think with QSDP it will give us the flexibility to book a few ADRs that we really want and then wing it the rest of the time. I've been reading some of the QSDP Trip Reports on the Dining board and I was actually surprised at the amount of choice with quick service!

 

[Shazzie B]

my 2 sons eat us out of house and home here and it can be long days so dont think them skipping breakfast or lunch will go down too well

My DS is the same he's never gone hungry on DDP. I took cereal bars, Belvita biscuits etc for him for breakfast as he was 'worried' he'd miss a meal . Also speeded things up as he could eat in car/bus on way to park. The other 3 of us wern't that bothered by breakfast or had fruit (alien concept to DS). We'd have a QS for lunch fairly early - noonish & then TS for dinner 6pm.

It used to be that if you used a QS for breakfast you could have two drinks - so with our spare QS credits (sometimes DH & I shared one for lunch as you get so much) we went to the food court at one of the 'All Stars' & had pancakes - you get 4 and 2 is an ample serving (for us anyway) so breakfast for 4 with 4 orange juices using 2 QS.

Or as PP have said use 'snacks' as breakfast - bet you'll have loads spare anyway

 

[2Tiggies]

I haven't done DDP before but looking at next year I think I've decided that the QSDP would be best for us. Like you, Lee, we'll just pay OOP for any TS meals. Alot of times in the US we only have a main at dinner as we, well me especially, struggle to finish even that alot of the times due to the size!

I think with QSDP it will give us the flexibility to book a few ADRs that we really want and then wing it the rest of the time. I've been reading some of the QSDP Trip Reports on the Dining board and I was actually surprised at the amount of choice with quick service!

We like really active holidays at Disney so being tied down to a TS every day or being 'forced to rest' when we want to keep going just doesn't suit us at all. That said, we have loved the TS meals we've done, and we've done quite a lot (6 or 7 on one trip) but not having the DDP meant that we were free to eat at ANY TS we liked, not just the ones that participate in the DDP (these were also so much easier to get ADR's for and even change them at the last minute with no problems).

I'm not sure what you like to eat but I'm a picky eater and in all the trips we've done, I have never had a problem finding variety and healty options anywhere. There is so much choice and I don't eat burgers, hot dogs, pork sandwiches, fried nuggets .... yet never felt restricted in any way.

 

[scottishgirl87]

We like really active holidays at Disney so being tied down to a TS every day or being 'forced to rest' when we want to keep going just doesn't suit us at all. That said, we have loved the TS meals we've done, and we've done quite a lot (6 or 7 on one trip) but not having the DDP meant that we were free to eat at ANY TS we liked, not just the ones that participate in the DDP (these were also so much easier to get ADR's for and even change them at the last minute with no problems).

I'm not sure what you like to eat but I'm a picky eater and in all the trips we've done, I have never had a problem finding variety and healty options anywhere. There is so much choice and I don't eat burgers, hot dogs, pork sandwiches, fried nuggets .... yet never felt restricted in any way.

I'm quite a picky eater, although nowhere near as bad as I used to be, whereas boyfriend will eat anything! We will do a few TS but will just pay for them. I'm also not one for planning all days in advance, I do usually take a Busy Day Guide with us but then we just pick the night before what we fancy doing the next day.

Don't get me wrong though, if I can book a Mod with Free DDP on the US site nearer the time then I won't be saying no

 

[2Tiggies]

I'm quite a picky eater, although nowhere near as bad as I used to be, whereas boyfriend will eat anything! We will do a few TS but will just pay for them. I'm also not one for planning all days in advance, I do usually take a Busy Day Guide with us but then we just pick the night before what we fancy doing the next day.

Don't get me wrong though, if I can book a Mod with Free DDP on the US site nearer the time then I won't be saying no

I've also improved (although the jury is still out on that one )

Despite planning our park days ahead of time, and sticking almost exactly to which parks on which days, it's the stopping to eat that gets me. I do know that dining is a very important part of the Disney experience, but with me, food is great when it suits me and that is one thing I find irritating is when I'm having fun and have to stop to go and eat when a coffee and a cookie or a Dole Whip float would do me just fine with minimal interruptions

Don't get me wrong, I love eating and trying out new places when we are there, but it has to suit me and not cost me too much park time. Anyway if you do go with the QSDP, I found it helpful the first year or two to check the menus on Allears for non fast food type meal option and all I did was made a list of the ones (just the names of the places with options we liked) for each park which I printed onto a small card about the size of a credit card and carried with me. Now that we know what we can find where it's less of an issue, but it was enormously helpful to know when we were hungry where the nearest place was to stop and eat, rather than having to scout about the CS locations to check menu boards first.

 

[queendisney]

I've also improved (although the jury is still out on that one )

Despite planning our park days ahead of time, and sticking almost exactly to which parks on which days, it's the stopping to eat that gets me. I do know that dining is a very important part of the Disney experience, but with me, food is great when it suits me and that is one thing I find irritating is when I'm having fun and have to stop to go and eat when a coffee and a cookie or a Dole Whip float would do me just fine with minimal interruptions

Don't get me wrong, I love eating and trying out new places when we are there, but it has to suit me and not cost me too much park time. Anyway if you do go with the QSDP, I found it helpful the first year or two to check the menus on Allears for non fast food type meal option and all I did was made a list of the ones (just the names of the places with options we liked) for each park which I printed onto a small card about the size of a credit card and carried with me. Now that we know what we can find where it's less of an issue, but it was enormously helpful to know when we were hungry where the nearest place was to stop and eat, rather than having to scout about the CS locations to check menu boards first.

Yes we do that, well I do anyway, go through the menus and make notes. We have the added difficulty of being vegetarian but we always eat really well. Even the CS places try to make sure they offer alternatives. Looking forward to the Poly this year for the self serve Dole Whip and the vege sushi! We would not do anything else other then the QSDP as the thought of having to plan 21 days of dining and with that comes the planning of which park to be in, along with having to have a busy day guide to make sure you're not in a busy park the day that you have your ADR....good grief no...not for us!