Deluxe DDP Stategy & Limitations

[Castillo Mom]

Oops, I just realized that I should've posted this in the Dining Plan section of the forum. Moderator, please feel free to move this!:/

Hi there! I've just begun the early planning process for our trip in 2017 during F&W. This will be our 6th trip but the last couple of times we've skipped the DDP. Due to all of the changes to DDP and the addition of new restaurants, I have several questions before determining whether the deluxe plan would be worth it for us.

A little background first. Our travel party will primarily consist of adults which would be myself, my adult sons ages 23 through 28 and 27 year old DIL. I own DVC and we'll be staying for two weeks. We are foodies, enjoy alcohol in moderation and typically have dinner at four to five signature restaurants during our trips. Again, we are going during F&W, so we'll be visiting Epcot at least twice, probably three times. As for the parks, we no longer feel the need to stay from opening to close. We arrive at rope drop, leave after lunch, relax at our resort, have a leisurely sit down dinner somewhere, then back to a park for night time entertainment.

My list of must do sit down restaurants are the following: Jiko, Boma (once for breakfast and once for dinner), Sci-Fi Dine-In (lunch), Monsieur Paul, Via Napoli, Rose & Crown (lunch), Be Our Guest (lunch), California Grill, Raglan Road, Morimoto Asia, The Boathouse, Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar, The Edison, STK Orlando and Homecoming: Florida Kitchen and Southern Shine. I know the last three I mentioned haven't opened yet but will supposedly debut summer/fall of this year.

Sooo, if you're still reading, here are my questions:

1. Does anyone have any recent experiences to share about the deluxe DDP and did you think it was a value?

2. What are the limitations with regard to the newer venues such as Monsieur Paul, Morimoto Asia or The Boathouse with regard to use of DDP credits? I'm sure there are exclusions based on my review of the menus.

3. Is a small plate considered an appetizer?

4. I'm thinking of purchasing TIW at the DVC Member cost of $150. We'd use this to get the 20% discount on alcohol and anything DDP doesn't cover. We typically have wine or a cocktail at dinner every night. Do you think it's worth it for two weeks?

5. With the recent DDP changes, has anyone had the opportunity to convert a TS credit into three snack credits, what has your experience been and how to you get maximum value?

Thank you in advance for reading my long post!

 

[jmkjr72]

We are 69 days out from the new deluxe
When we did the math based on just my fiance and I we will only save enough to make up for dad who won't eat like we would

 

[senadler]

You would have to run the numbers, but with your party being mostly adults, you will probably be better off with TIW. It is very likely that the deluxe plan will cost more than OOP, especially with the TIW discount. The deluxe plan will give you 3 TS credits a day and include apps, entree, and desert. Unless you think your party will all order apps and desert at every meal it is difficult to for the plan to make sense. If you are more likely to share apps and dessert, and also order alcohol at some meals instead of fountain drinks, that also makes OOP more expensive. I really like the deluxe plan, and have used it in the past, but I could not imagine eating like that for two weeks. Using deluxe credits for either counter service or 3 snacks will definitely not be cost effective.

I would add that if you are staying in more than one room, you can add the deluxe plan to one room, and share credits with the rest of your party. This can be cost effective, especially if you put in on a room that has a couple of children. If you used the credits either for your most expensive meals when you want apps and deserts, and used them for adult meals, the plan can be cost effective. You can spread those credits out of the two weeks and not have to use them every day if you are sharing.

 

[Castillo Mom]

Thanks for the advice Senadler. We won't have any kids with us other than my niece who will be 14, but she'll be staying in different accommodations with her parents, so technically not in our group. Since I'm a DVC member, my sons and DIL will all be sharing a two bedroom villa at AKV. That would mean all of us would need to be on the DDP.

We typically do order an appetizer per person at dinner as well as dessert. Yes, it sounds like a lot of food but with all the walking we do, I don't usually gain weight and have actually come back a pound or two lighter believe it or not!

I'm thinking some of my questions might be a bit premature since folks haven't had too much opportunity to utilize the deluxe DDP with the new rules. I'm also wondering how it would pan out for F&W. Maybe the regular DP would be a better option for us, combined with TIW?

 

[sharonabe]

I'm not sure what you mean by the "new rules." Since you're all in the same room and must all get the plan, you're not sharing credits. The trading of a QS or TS credit for 3 snacks has been done in practice, and still is not spelled out in the brochure as something that is allowed, but it is done and done often. However, there's no way you'll get the value of even a DxDDP credit. At $110/night, taking $10 off for the 2 snacks, your meals are still roughly worth $33 each. There are no snacks that will add up to that value even at F&W.

As far as I've seen from reports here, there are no exclusions at the restaurants you mentioned. You can order any app, entree, and dessert at those restaurants. What we have seen is many of the signature restaurants changing their menus and making what used to be a combo (like steak and lobster) and making one of the items that was on the combo now on an add-on menu which would not be covered with the plan. You would have to pay OOP for the add-on.

 

[Castillo Mom]

By new rules I meant that you can now replace dessert with an app or a side order at a TS. At a QS you can now also ask for a side instead of dessert. I read about some of the other changes but don't have them memorized yet.

 

[gzmtlock]

We're DVC also, and have done TIW, DxDDP, and DDP on various trips. I run the numbers every trip to see what will be the best use of our $$. However, we would never do DxDDP for more than 2-3 nights. It's simply too much food. Last time we did DxDDP, it was a split stay; we had DxDDP for two nights, which we spread across three days. This was DH and I plus two college-age kids. By the end of the third day, my kids were glad to hear we were out of credits! They were overwhelmed with 3 course meals! It was still worth it, because we took left-overs back to the villa and ate off them the rest of our stay. But if we had had DxDDP for the entire stay, we certainly would have lost money.

Next month, we're taking the DGKs for Spring Break. Again, split stay, DxDDP for the first night. Still wrangling back and forth about DDP or TIW for last 5 nights. Cost comes out very close. TIW is a tiny bit cheaper, but DDP would help with sticker shock at end of trip. I've been mulling it for weeks. . .and each time I "decide," within days I'm looking at the spreadsheet again. Pretty pitiful, really.

 

[Castillo Mom]

We're DVC also, and have done TIW, DxDDP, and DDP on various trips. I run the numbers every trip to see what will be the best use of our $$. However, we would never do DxDDP for more than 2-3 nights. It's simply too much food. Last time we did DxDDP, it was a split stay; we had DxDDP for two nights, which we spread across three days. This was DH and I plus two college-age kids. By the end of the third day, my kids were glad to hear we were out of credits! They were overwhelmed with 3 course meals! It was still worth it, because we took left-overs back to the villa and ate off them the rest of our stay. But if we had had DxDDP for the entire stay, we certainly would have lost money.

Next month, we're taking the DGKs for Spring Break. Again, split stay, DxDDP for the first night. Still wrangling back and forth about DDP or TIW for last 5 nights. Cost comes out very close. TIW is a tiny bit cheaper, but DDP would help with sticker shock at end of trip. I've been mulling it for weeks. . .and each time I "decide," within days I'm looking at the spreadsheet again. Pretty pitiful, really.

I now what you mean! We did the same thing for our 2011 trip. We made a split reservation at AKV and we did a combination of DxDDP for a couple nights, regular DDP for most of our stay, combined with TIW and this was also during F&W. It worked out very well for us and we came out ahead, although I don't remember the exact numbers. At the time, only one of my sons was of drinking age. Now they are all sophisticated drinkers (again, in moderation ) and picky eaters as far as food quality, so we actually prefer sit down restaurants as opposed to quick service.

I have a feeling that the regular DDP combined with TIW might be the best option for us as we tend to order more expensive items, even when paying OOP here at home. I can see myself changing my mind ten times before our trip though!

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

The only way to find out if it is worth it for your trip is to run the numbers.

I run them each and every time. And some trips it saves and some trips it is not worth it.

TIW has never been worth it for us. We rarely drink and we already get 10% off of so many restaurants.

 

[linzjane88]

Since your no noob, I assume you have seen http://www.distripplanner.com/ before. But if you haven't I think it's a really great way to estimate costs.

We did deluxe last trip and were able to order a side as a dessert easily. We never tried to swap a credit for 3 snacks--that seems like a pretty poor choice on the expensive deluxe credits but if they are going to go to waste anyway then it would work I guess. IIRC the swap needs to be done in one transaction which is why we never attempted it. If it could be broken up and used throughout the trip I might have been inclined to try but we like getting a snack here and there and sharing. Too much fun food to try to blow all your credits in one spot

Also keep in mind thta using the Tables in Wonderland with the DDP you will be getting about a million receipts at the end. The portion of the not DDP covered items will have the tip automatically applied so factor that it when tipping! I was forgetting that the first part of our trip and ended up leaving some VERY generous tips once I realized I was leaving a tip on the main DDP bill and the TIW portion.

ETA: I saw your more recent posts that you've already (successfully) used a combo of DDP and TIW . After trying to deal with all those reciepts I almost swore against ever doing it again, LOL.

 

[senadler]

We typically do order an appetizer per person at dinner as well as dessert. Yes, it sounds like a lot of food but with all the walking we do, I don't usually gain weight and have actually come back a pound or two lighter believe it or not!

We often do that on vacation as well, especially at dinner, but consider a three course meal 2-3 times a day. It works for us for a 5-6 day trip because we are doing some dinner shows, character meals, etc. But I know by the last day or two we already start skipping some deserts. We would definitely not make it for two weeks.

 

[linzjane88]

We're DVC also, and have done TIW, DxDDP, and DDP on various trips. I run the numbers every trip to see what will be the best use of our $$. However, we would never do DxDDP for more than 2-3 nights. It's simply too much food. Last time we did DxDDP, it was a split stay; we had DxDDP for two nights, which we spread across three days. This was DH and I plus two college-age kids. By the end of the third day, my kids were glad to hear we were out of credits! They were overwhelmed with 3 course meals! It was still worth it, because we took left-overs back to the villa and ate off them the rest of our stay. But if we had had DxDDP for the entire stay, we certainly would have lost money.

Next month, we're taking the DGKs for Spring Break. Again, split stay, DxDDP for the first night. Still wrangling back and forth about DDP or TIW for last 5 nights. Cost comes out very close. TIW is a tiny bit cheaper, but DDP would help with sticker shock at end of trip. I've been mulling it for weeks. . .and each time I "decide," within days I'm looking at the spreadsheet again. Pretty pitiful, really.

I can't give up my love affair with the 'idea' of DDxP, eventhough when we were there in December we adamantly decided it was too much for our family (both food and time dining). We are foodies, but I am also impatient and spending 1.5 hours at a sit down 2-3 times per day almost did me in. I was so bored with sitting in restaurants by the end of that short trip!

 

[bphilb]

We did the DDP on a 10 day trip in 2012. It was great, as the restaurants are a big part of the overall experience for us. The one "mistake" we made was not having a signature experience on a couple of the days and the three meals were quite a bit (we also didn't space them out very well). If you can do 1 TS and a signature dinner I think the experience is great. We are going in September this year and are looking to have the DDP again. It may not be entirely cost effective, but I love the idea of eating wherever we want and not needing to tell our kids "no" to any options. That kind of peace of mind is great to me for vacation.

 

[Castillo Mom]

Since your no noob, I assume you have seen http://www.distripplanner.com/ before. But if you haven't I think it's a really great way to estimate costs.

We did deluxe last trip and were able to order a side as a dessert easily. We never tried to swap a credit for 3 snacks--that seems like a pretty poor choice on the expensive deluxe credits but if they are going to go to waste anyway then it would work I guess. IIRC the swap needs to be done in one transaction which is why we never attempted it. If it could be broken up and used throughout the trip I might have been inclined to try but we like getting a snack here and there and sharing. Too much fun food to try to blow all your credits in one spot

Also keep in mind thta using the Tables in Wonderland with the DDP you will be getting about a million receipts at the end. The portion of the not DDP covered items will have the tip automatically applied so factor that it when tipping! I was forgetting that the first part of our trip and ended up leaving some VERY generous tips once I realized I was leaving a tip on the main DDP bill and the TIW portion.

ETA: I saw your more recent posts that you've already (successfully) used a combo of DDP and TIW . After trying to deal with all those reciepts I almost swore against ever doing it again, LOL.

Yes, thank you, I just finished running some rough numbers by using the planner. Based on that, yet another reason to consider regular DDP, unless someone else has another opinion. With regular DP, I can convert a QS to three snack credits which can be used for F&W. Now, I may need to do a bit more research in this regard but I believe this was successfully done by many last year.

I did remember the tip portion of TIW. I usually tip 20%, sometimes more for stellar service.

There was only one time that I felt our server didn't deserve 20% and this was at Citricos. By this time of the trip, we were on the regular DP. In addition to our entree, we ordered appetizers, cocktails, french press coffee and specialty non alcoholic beverage for my son. I informed our server at the beginning of the meal that we were also using TIW. At first he said we couldn't combine it with the DDP. I explained that I had done my research prior to the trip and knew that I could - I had to break it down for him but did so in a very polite manner. For some reason he must've been offended by this, or maybe he was one of those servers who was anti DP. In any case, at the end of the evening, he made it a point to mention very clearly that I would need to include a tip for the DDP portion of the meal, not just for the non covered items where TIW applied the tip. i reiterated that I knew exactly how it all worked and assured him that I was not going to cheat him out of his tip. I was quite perturbed but didn't want to create an uncomfortable situation for my son as it was a special evening.

 

[linzjane88]

Yes, thank you, I just finished running some rough numbers by using the planner. Based on that, yet another reason to consider regular DDP, unless someone else has another opinion. With regular DP, I can convert a QS to three snack credits which can be used for F&W. Now, I may need to do a bit more research in this regard but I believe this was successfully done by many last year.

I did remember the tip portion of TIW. I usually tip 20%, sometimes more for stellar service.

There was only one time that I felt our server didn't deserve 20% and this was at Citricos. By this time of the trip, we were on the regular DP. In addition to our entree, we ordered appetizers, cocktails, french press coffee and specialty non alcoholic beverage for my son. I informed our server at the beginning of the meal that we were also using TIW. At first he said we couldn't combine it with the DDP. I explained that I had done my research prior to the trip and knew that I could - I had to break it down for him but did so in a very polite manner. For some reason he must've been offended by this, or maybe he was one of those servers who was anti DP. In any case, at the end of the evening, he made it a point to mention very clearly that I would need to include a tip for the DDP portion of the meal, not just for the non covered items where TIW applied the tip. i reiterated that I knew exactly how it all worked and assured him that I was not going to cheat him out of his tip. I was quite perturbed but didn't want to create an uncomfortable situation for my son as it was a special evening.

We had an interesting experience using both at Boma. The waitress was a very scatter brained older woman who clearly had way way too many tables but spent the majority of her time gabbing with the next table over because they came from her home state. Long story short she said we couldn't do both, had to go ask when I told her we could, then said the system was down and she was going to get a manager to try and enter in it... Basically I think she didn't know how and instead of getting help she pawned us off on someone else. And kept waiting tables around us completely ignoring us and never following up. It ended up taking like 40 minutes from us initially asking for the check. I was so mad! Our party just got up and left (except me waiting for the check nonsense) to try and prove a point /get attention because it was so odd and she just kept ignoring us! It has been about 2 years now so I can't remember all the details but it was still probably the worst service I have had in a Disney restaurant still to this day.

 

[purple figment]

By new rules I meant that you can now replace dessert with an app or a side order at a TS. At a QS you can now also ask for a side instead of dessert. I read about some of the other changes but don't have them memorized yet.

Some TS restaurants will let you sub out the dessert, but it will be for something of the restaurant's choosing - usually a small side salad or veggie side dish. You will not be able to choose something from the appetizer or first course section of the menu. At CS restaurants you can choose anything with the purple DDP logo as a substitute for the dessert or beverage component.

 

[nkereina]

We've done DxDP and aren't fans, even though we are big eaters. An appetizer and dessert at each meal for each person was too much for us, when normally we'd share an app and/or dessert. Because we were stuffing ourselves, we didn't even drink as much as we wanted to and we felt logy and tired after the big meals. Especially in the Florida sun. We also found that doing 2-3 TS meals per day took away too much time in the parks.

If we had to do it over, I would only do TS breakfast and signature dinner, and I would plan out my snack credits a little more creatively. We ended up using a lot of them on bottled water and on pre-packaged items to bring home, just so they didn't go to waste.

 

[strat68]

As was mentioned I would thing the DxDP would be too much food. The regular plan for us was was too much. I always mentioned that it wastes a lot of time eating but since you are there for 2 weeks it won't really matter.

The dining plans are no designed to easily (if ever) save you money. To me that last thing I want to think about is how to maximize the value of any dining plan. I just want to have a meal. Finally, we don't obsess over food at Disney. Most of it it just OK with a few exceptions where it is really good. We tend to take advantage of unique things like Wishes at California Grill, Sanaa, etc.

 

[Lisa F]

I haven't done it but have been looking at a split stay doing DxDDP first 3 nights then last 4 nights OOP and all of the things that are not good values on the DDP. I am planning 2 sit down meals a day and a couple of signatures so ALL of my credits will be going to TS restaurants, no QS. Obviously that is a tough pace to keep up for a long time but I think for the first 3 full days + our arrival night it is not too bad, then we can slack off last half of the trip. Because of that, I value my meal credits at about $33/credit and it is pretty easy to break even/come out a little bit ahead on the DxDDP because the break even point is a bit lower than on regular DDP at $38/TS and the addition of the appetizer. I also am traveling just myself and a disney child and that changes the math greatly considering it is $32 a day for him and you can spend 2/3 of that on one character buffet alone (we are doing mostly character buffets and a couple of signature restaurants).

I do not think it is a great value to change QS credits to snacks because the places where you can do this do not have $5-6 snacks. They have $3-4 snacks, like fries and drinks and maybe a soup or like the boardwalk bakery where most items are more around $4 each, giving you about $12 per QS credit which is on the low side for maximizing value. You can't go up to a food and wine booth and buy 3 items for a QS credit and you can't go to like the funnel cake place at HS where you can get the funnel cake sundae for $8 and buy 3 of those to split among your party for a QS. It's really only at places where you can already buy a QS meal and they have a few snack options as well. That may change later but for now that seems how it is.

Considering you have no disney kids, are planning to get TIW ANYWAY for booze etc, I think DxDDP would not be a savings (esp when you consider in the 20% TIW savings, so you'd have to figure at least 20% ) and would needlessly constrain your vacation eating plans. I am saving about $150 on the DxDDP portion of the stay over 3 nights so that is not too shabby (and more than pays for hoop dee doo!) but that really amounts to about a 21% savings... and I am REALLY working the plan and have a 1:1 ratio kid to adults which helps tremendously. Considering the $150 for TIW is likely to be a sunk cost regardless of whether you are doing any dining plan or not, I'd say it would certainly be cheaper (and more flexible) to just use TIW the entire time for you guys... I think 20% savings on the DDPs is impossible to achieve without a ratio 1:1 kids to adults (or greater kids to adults... you can do even better if you use those kid TS credits for adult meals but I don't have that option).

 

[loves to dive]

One, I'd run the real numbers using menus and not that planner ap. It bases numbers on averages and I've found when I've compared that and using real menu numbers, the real numbers come out less.

Two, if you are there during F&W I can almost guarantee you are going to be subbing at least one or two meals with eating there or are going to be too full from the snacking around the world to eat a sit down meal. Last year the only sit down meals I ate in a 6 day period while at F&W was a tea at GF and a food and wine pairing meal. I did do QS for breakfast and other than that, between the cooking demos and snacking around the world I waddled home.

Three, you are going to be in a DVC villa so I'm assuming there might be either some breakfast cooking on those days you just don't want to get up and go to an ADR or some left over reheating instead of eating a full meal.

I just wouldn't do the deluxe under any circumstances, it's way too much food for me and wouldn't do the regular during F&W. Personally, I've found paying OOP works better for me, I never look at prices on menus anyway and there are days I just don't want a big meal at all.