Deluxe Dining ADRs

[JackOfHearts]

We have free dining for our next trip. I am thinking of bumping up to the deluxe plan. These are the ADRs I want to try. We have two daughters, 3 and 6, and will be at the Contemporary. Any thoughts on my plan? We would have 48 credits total.

Day 1
Dinner- BOG (4)

Day 2
Breakfast- Chef Mickey's (4)
Dinner- Spirit of Aloha (8)

Day 3
Breakfast- Garden Grill (4)
Lunch- ? (Epcot, 4)
Dinner- Backyard BBQ (8)

Day 4
Breakfast- 1900 or Crystal Palace (4)
Dinner- CRT (8)

Day 5
Breakfast- Bon Voyage (4)

 

[blbrodger1]

Whatever you do, be sure to keep Garden Grill. It's my favorite character breakfast and the food is amazing. If you can, request a booth instead of a table.

Enjoy!!

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

I am not a fan of the dining plan personally, because it just doesn't work with how I eat. However, two table service meals a day sounds like a lot-especially with little kids. My thoughts:

The Spirit of Aloha show really isn't all that good or authentic. Since you're on the monorail, though, and the Poly is a gorgeous resort, if you want to keep a dinner ADR for that night I'd try to go for O'hana or Kona Cafe, or maybe even swing for HDDR.

Garden Grill is a great character meal, definitely keep it. Epcot has so many dining options, I wouldn't try to schedule a lunch ADR. That would be too much for me personally, and if you're going during Food and Wine, the booths there are always fun to try, and the QS is good. I haven't done the Backyard BBQ, so I can't comment on that.

Crystal Palace is my favorite character breakfast of all time, so I'd swing for that. I am not an Alice and Wonderland fan so the 1900 PF Breakfast doesn't appeal to me, though the dinner is great.

 

[nkereina]

On day 3, I wouldn't do a TS lunch if you're tentatively planning that. After an all you can eat breakfast at Garden Grill and the dinner show at night, your bellies will be full! Plus it would take a lot of touring time away from your Epcot day. Would you do Backyard BBQ and Spirit of Aloha if you were NOT on the deluxe plan? Personally, I don't think either show is worth upgrading to the deluxe plan for. Aside from the additional credits with the deluxe plan, you're also getting an appetizer at every meal so it's just a lot of food. I would remove one of the dinner shows, omit TS lunch at Epcot, stick with the free regular dining plan and pay OOP for anything beyond the regular dining plan credits.

 

[Hopefully]

I agree with @nkereina That is a lot of dinner shows with a 3 and 6 YO. Plus I personally don't think either of them are very good.
I would stick to the basic DDP. Eat breakfast in the room, a QS lunch in the park and a 1 credit TS each evening for dinner.
Good Luck

 

[Faldred]

Day 3
Breakfast- Garden Grill (4)
Lunch- ? (Epcot, 4)
Dinner- Backyard BBQ (8)

Day 4
Breakfast- 1900 or Crystal Palace (4)
Dinner- CRT (8)

If you're going to do 3 sit-downs in a single day, day 4 looks like a better bet than day 3. Buffet breakfasts both days, but BYBBQ is AYCE (and CRT isn't), so you can likely get by easier on day 3 with just snacks between breakfast and dinner.

 

[tyandskyesmom]

We love the deluxe dining plan. Especially since you got the regular one free and just have to pay to upgrade. Especially with two kids under 9. We've been doing it since my kids were both kids on the plan and now they are 18 and almost 13. We have done a mix of three meal days and two meal days. If we do a three meal day, we try for breakfast pre-park opening so around 7am or 8am usually...lunch around 1pm or 2pm...and dinner 8pm or 9pm...which depending on your kids might be too late. But only you would know that. We have never done the dinner shows because the food served doesn't look that special to us and I have heard the shows are mediocre. But there are a lot of people who love them.

I'd do Crystal Palace over 1900 Park Fare. 1900 has always been slow seating for us, even early. And we enjoy the food more at CP.

We have done deluxe at least 7 times (some upgraded from free dining and some we paid for) and for usually 14 nights. On our last trip we trips OOP (haven't finished that dining report yet) because we were wondering ho we'd fare OOP and with only minimal table service meals and we hated it!

If your family is used to eating out and enjoys it, deluxe dining (especially upgraded from free) will be awesome!

 

[JackOfHearts]

On day 3, I wouldn't do a TS lunch if you're tentatively planning that. After an all you can eat breakfast at Garden Grill and the dinner show at night, your bellies will be full! Plus it would take a lot of touring time away from your Epcot day. Would you do Backyard BBQ and Spirit of Aloha if you were NOT on the deluxe plan? Personally, I don't think either show is worth upgrading to the deluxe plan for. Aside from the additional credits with the deluxe plan, you're also getting an appetizer at every meal so it's just a lot of food. I would remove one of the dinner shows, omit TS lunch at Epcot, stick with the free regular dining plan and pay OOP for anything beyond the regular dining plan credits.

I want to do the shows but would not do them without DXDP. Since we have free dining this might be the only time we can try DXDP. We are going for Christmas and I would really prefer to avoid CS since it will be crowded. I am hoping to get PPO for Garden Grill, but I might split the 4 "extra credits" and use them for CS meals we can split on two different days. It will also depend on our flights and if we need an extra meal on either arrival or departure days.

 

[tyandskyesmom]

We did Christmas 2015 (over Christmas and New Years) with the deluxe dining plan and was even more happy we did that I normally am. I had heard so many horrible things about crowds that I was prepared for horrid! But one of our though processes was that CS places would have long lines to order, long waits to get food, long time to find a free/clean table...only to sit down to cold mediocre food. But not us...we had arounf 50 ADRs and never waited to be seated (except Ohana), or to order or to find a table. And we left feeling actually pleased with crowds. I still read about people there the same time we were that are complaining about crowd levels...we never saw it. And I think a lot of it was caused by dining plans (well, and well placed fast passes!).

I don't encourage using credits on deluxe for CS. It's a waste. If GG is pre-park opening then you should be fine with a lunch.

 

[nkereina]

I want to do the shows but would not do them without DXDP. Since we have free dining this might be the only time we can try DXDP. We are going for Christmas and I would really prefer to avoid CS since it will be crowded. I am hoping to get PPO for Garden Grill, but I might split the 4 "extra credits" and use them for CS meals we can split on two different days. It will also depend on our flights and if we need an extra meal on either arrival or departure days.

Keep in mind that Backyard BBQ and Spirit of Aloha are both outdoors. In December, the weather can be unpredictable. They will cancel Spirit of Aloha if the temperature drops below 50 degrees and I assume the same with Backyard BBQ. Even if its 55 degrees and they don't cancel it, I can't imagine that would be enjoyable. You would be running the risk of having a lot of leftover credits in the event that they cancel either of them, which IMO is not worth the DxDP purchase.

 

[lwc]

We love the DxDP.

We have not been to the BBQ or Garddn Grill, but everything else you have listed is a favorite of my kids.

I'm not fond of the food at Chef Mickey's, and I don't the the Spirit of Aloha is terrific, but my kids love both.

This tool will help you see whether you are better upgrading to the DxDP or paying out of pocket for the extra credits.

https://www.distripplanner.com/

 

[kboo]

We've been to the backyard BBQ and although it is fun, I think it's a waste of good credits for really mediocre food. (And second the weather comments, above). We've always paid OOP, but California Grille if you can get it is lovely, and you can get an early seating (we took our oldest when she was 3), and come back later for fireworks. (our girls are 5.5 and 1, our oldest has been pretty much every year since she was 2)

We are also fans of CRT, 1900 PF (it is becoming one of our must-dos ay WDW, usually arrival night dinner), BOG dinner, Akershus, CP, Garden Grille... not a big fan of Chef Mickeys... Our older daughter's hands down favorite restaurant? BOG dinner and meeting the Beast!

Artist Point at Wilderness Lodge and the restaurants at the Grand Floridian are quite nice, and there is lots to see and do at the GF. I think every day at 3pm they do a Princess Parade and dance, and you could do that before dinner or after lunch. You don't have to be a hotel guest to do it. Grand Floridian Cafe is really surprisingly good (as are Citrico's, Narcoosee's and 1900 PF) - we tried them all with our kids last time. Also love Kona Cafe and the kids love riding the monorail!

In the parks, Tusker House and Spice Road table are really good, and you could walk to the bus stop at MK, take it to AKL and have dinner at Boma or Sanaa.

 

[GillianP1301]

I would run your plan through a dining plan calculator to be sure, but I would bet on the deluxe plan working in your favour with what you have planned. Lots of character meals and 2 kids under 10 definitely benefit from dining plan.

 

[sullyfam]

We do the deluxe plan with our kids. It works for us because we do a lot of character dining and we like to do the signatures and dinner shows too. I like having the freedom of all those credits and never having to pay OOP for any meals during our trips. I also don't want to stand in line for food and then have to worry about finding a table with 3 hungry kids. We like making reservations and knowing we can sit down and have a good meal.

I would vote for Crystal Palace as it's in MK and we prefer it over 1900. And I would consider doing HDDR instead of the BBQ. My kids LOVE HDDR and it's inside so you don't need to worry about the weather. For Epcot lunch we have done Akerhaus which is great for little girls because it has the princesses. My kids also love Coral Reef because it has the big aquarium.

Have fun!

 

[DISNEY1975]

I always get the deluxe and 2 meals is perfectly fine. Nothing worse, for me, than being on vacation and carrying a tray of food or standing in line to order, or looking for a table!

For your GG and BBQ day, with the BBQ being around 6ish, you would not be hungry for a lunch unless maybe you all split QS or something. Even with teen boys, we could not eat 3 meals. I do do all the dinner shows and signature dining, along with character breakfasts and it works out great. If we are hungry in between breakfast and dinner (rare), we use our snack credits or split a QS meal.

Your reservations look great! Enjoy your trip!

 

[Aurora2017]

Another point in favor of the DxDP is that if you are planning to go to the Candlelight processional in Epcot you could make the Garden Grill meal into a candlelight dining package which uses 2 points for each meal instead of 1.

 

[Juliet0778]

Keep in mind that Backyard BBQ and Spirit of Aloha are both outdoors. In December, the weather can be unpredictable. They will cancel Spirit of Aloha if the temperature drops below 50 degrees and I assume the same with Backyard BBQ. Even if its 55 degrees and they don't cancel it, I can't imagine that would be enjoyable. You would be running the risk of having a lot of leftover credits in the event that they cancel either of them, which IMO is not worth the DxDP purchase.

I always guess someone is not from.the north if they think 55 degrees is way too cold to be outside.

But I agree...I like indoor stuff because then you're not foiled by unpredictable weather!

 

[nkereina]

I always guess someone is not from.the north if they think 55 degrees is way too cold to be outside.

But I agree...I like indoor stuff because then you're not foiled by unpredictable weather!

LOL I'm from Buffalo, NY! 55 degrees, no matter where you are from, IS cold when you're sitting outside at night in the dark trying to enjoy a show and dinner. Add wind to it and there's no way I'd find it enjoyable. But to each their own!

Now 55 degrees on a dreary March day after a Buffalo winter sounds magnificent. But I'm not trying sit outside and enjoy an expensive dinner show on my vacation in that weather either.

 

[jsternad]

I would love the DxDP! I could eat sit down for every meal at Disney. I need that break, in the AC, and tine to sit and regroup. If you don't want to order something heavy, don't. Even the lighter meals are still miles better than QS. Don't get me wrong, QS at Disney is better than ANY theme park anywhere, but when you have such yummy food available, take advantage! And I'm always STARVING at every meal with all that walking and stairs and standing and sweating!

 

[speedyfishy]

I love the deluxe dinning plan, but I wouldn't do Spirit of Aloha or Mickeys BBQ. I'd look into a nice signature restaurant or Hoop Dee Doo.