Deluxe dining: Is 3 TS meals a day really that crazy?

[MrsLS]

3 TS a day, I personally think its a lot. If you do a really early breakfast, a CS lunch and a late TS dinner, maybe not. You might find that it might be a lot of food as the week goes on to do 3 full meals.
When we had used the delux plan a few times, we did the earliest lunch or an early breakfast, sometimes a snack and then a signature 2 credit TS which is why we liked the delux plan. We can eat a lot but as the week went on it did get to be a lot of food and we rarely did a buffet and at first would get dessert just to try it every meal, after a few times with the plan, we would skip the desserts at most lunches and some dinners.
We don't do the plan anymore since we have a TIW card and don't do as many signatures at night.

 

[cluvsdisney]

I generally have breakfast, lunch & dinner 4-5 days a week when I am home so I would probably mix it up and have 3 meals some days and just 2 on others. On the 3-meal days, I would plan my meals accordingly and just eat smaller portions. Granted, I am not really concerned with park time and don't give priority to going on rides and such so I wouldn't worry about the time spent in the restaurants but if I am only having once course instead of 2, it will take less time.

 

[herb102211]

We’ve done the deluxe DP before and I will tell you it is a ton of food, because you’re getting an appetizer, dessert and entrée per person, unless you’re doing a buffet. When we’re on the DxDP now, we try to do a lunch between 11am-1pm and then a later signature dinner so that we’re using the 3 credits but not for 3 meals. Occasionally, we’ll do an early morning character breakfast and then lunch around 2 and dinner around 8 if we aren’t eating at a signature restaurant that day. We’ve found that works as we usually don’t eat a lot of food at the breakfasts.

We like the DxDP because we feel that you get the most for your money, so I would definitely recommend it, but only if you’ve been to WDW before. 2-3 TS meals a day does tend to take up a lot of park time. We’ve been to WDW a bunch so it doesn’t bother us, but for someone that goes infrequently, you might find yourselves spending most of your time in restaurants rather than parks on the DxDP.

 

[scanne]

We just decided to do the DxDP for the first half of our vacation. We are staying 5 nights at POR and we will have the DxDP for those 5 nights. We have three signature meals booked: CRT, Fulton's and Artist Point. We have Tusker House breakfast, Boatright's on our arrival day and 'Ohana and Chefs De France dinner.

Our CRT is before RD and Chefs is dinner that evening at 6:20pm. I figure we will have snacks midday (and I have NO problem using snacks for WATER when on the DxDP) so we will get maximum time at MK and Epcot has EMH's the night we're having dinner at Chefs. So we can just enjoy Epcot at night and if we get on Soarin', that's fine, but we go to Epcot for the atmosphere.

I like that we are doing the split stay and not doing a dining plan when we switch to WL - we will be staying club level at WL so I don't want to be locked in to a dining plan.

I think we have the best of both...

To answer the OP's question about 3 meals a day - it wouldn't be too much for me but my DH wouldn't like it. That's why we chose a few signature places. Have fun planning....

 

[iloveeeyore]

We will be on the DxDP for the first time this August, and we have thought about it many times over previous trips and decided to go for it this summer (a big celebration trip for us), mostly because we wanted to try lots more restaurants, we love the signature dining and we enjoy appetizers most (they are not included in the regular DDP)! Over our 7 nights on the DxDP, we only planned one day when we are having 3 meals (check-in day). And honestly, we only have 3 scheduled because we must have breakfast at Kona when we arive, but don't want to give up lunch. 5/7 of our dinners will be at 2TS credit venues.

DxDP does require a lot of planning, if you don't want it to "eat" too much into the stuff you want to get done at the parks. We enjoy mid-day breaks (especially in August), and our lunch becomes part of our mid-day break. We also plan our park days first, and then decide where to eat, so we will minimize our time traveling to restaurants. For a sample 7-night stay using the DxDP, follow the link in my signature to my pre-trip dining report, which explains our plans in more detail.

 

[MolonLabe]

On days when we did 3 TS a day we would have a early breakfast 7-8am, lunch at 12-1 and then dinner 7-8.

My family and I aren't huge breakfast people, so we never gorged at breakfast which means we were always hungry for lunch. Dinner being after 7 or 8 meant we were ready for dinner.

Many days we did breakfast in room, a early lunch 11am and then a dinner after 7. We did a few 2TS meals and also ate on check out day which used up all the entitlements.

Eating in park is key if you are on the DDP. The time spent/wasted hoping around kills the day, a lot more so than eating itself.

We are also all day people. We are in park from open to close everyday virtually every day. Lunch was normally 75 minutes and dinner about 90 minutes. Considering we were in each park (except AK) 12-14 hours, these 'breaks' are welcomed... we would have needed to sit down and relax somewhere anyway.

When we go back this year, we are planning to spend some time at the resort (this will be the first trip on property in non value resort) so our plans will be a bit different as we want to enjoy some resort time and some park rides/characters we've done before won't be repeated this trip.

We have an "open day" in the middle of our trip. Breakfast at park fare and dinner at Narcosse. We will do lunch where ever we are and don't even have a plan for which park to hit this day.

As usual, we don't do park hoppers, we spend the money on DxDP and this time on a MVMCP, which on this day means we will be technically ''hopping'.

I've found that travel times between parks are simply too costly for the most part. The dining usually isn't.

I will say that last trip LTT was horrible, we were 5 minutes early for our reservation and we waited 45 minutes to be seated. That sucked.

 

[a1tinkfans]

I know all the threads about deluxe dining say that having 3 TS meals a day is too much food and too much time spent eating. But there are just so many places I want to eat!

If I'm planning to have the earliest breakfasts and latest dinners I can get ADRs for, is it really that crazy? I think it'd be rather nice to have a sit down lunch to rest in mid-day without having to go back to the resort.

I'm going for 7 or 8 nights (haven't finalized my plans yet) and I'll have hopper tickets.

well...only you know best, but I would not do it again...it is WAY too much lost park, travel time and lost fun time...its too much Food too.....
But if you are one that likes to spend 1-1/2 hours each meal, so basically 4 1/2 hours a day eating, well, you'll like it! And IMHo having a Hopper will make you choose more restaurants at farther places, which will be even More time, it really does add up with transport etc to consider too...
If not, Id re-think it....we enjoy one sit down meal a day, dinner and a quick serve for lunch, sometimes a meal at the food court for B fast but sometimes, just a piece of fruit...its nice to not feel we "had" to use that food/money up
Regardless what you choose, have a great trip and YUMMY eating to you and yours..........
Oh, just wanted to mention that for us, we are early risers, so dinner for us has always been about 5ish (and we always got the good places to eat, ADR's) so having the Deluxe made for late dinners to spread it all out, and sitting down at 7-8 meant leaving a restaurant at 930ish which was so late and made for Full tummies, not wanting to do certain rides and just feeling Icky....but that was our experience...

 

[sunshineNJ]

Deluxe dining in my opinion is too much food UNLESS you do signature dining then I think it could be great! Have a GREAT trip!

 

[jla525]

We are doing the deluxe plan so we don't have to pay for any meals out of pocket. We don't have any days planned with 3 TS meals and I don't feel obligated to use the credits for TS meals.

We did the regular dining plan last year and attempted the whole breakfast in your room thing. I say attempted because typically my kids were hungry before lunch time on those days so we ended up buying a morning snack we wouldn't have purchased if we'd just eaten a better breakfast.

We've broken down the price over and over and think we would spend way more than the 400ish extra dollars between the two dining plans.

 

[babygirlamg]

so i thought the deluxe dinning plan was 3 meals a day...do all three have to be table service

 

[figment_jii]

so i thought the deluxe dinning plan was 3 meals a day...do all three have to be table service

You get three meal credits per night of your stay. The Deluxe Dining credits are good for both table service and counter service meals. You don't have to have three table service meals per day; you can use the credits in any combination during your stay (i.e., you could, theoretically, use 2 credits one day and four the next).

 

[iloveeeyore]

so i thought the deluxe dinning plan was 3 meals a day...do all three have to be table service

You get three meal credits per night of your stay. The Deluxe Dining credits are good for both table service and counter service meals. You don't have to have three table service meals per day; you can use the credits in any combination during your stay (i.e., you could, theoretically, use 2 credits one day and four the next).

Yes, and many restaurants "cost" 2 meal credits, including the dinner shows, California Grill, Cinderella's Royal Table, and many more. So you can have 2 meals in one day (say, breakfast at CRT and dinner at CG) and spend 4 credits. If you want, you can have a counter service lunch in between for your 5th credit for that day. It's easier to keep track if you think of it in terms of credits, rather than meals. For a 7-night stay, you get 21 meal credits to use as you choose from the time you check in until midnight on the night you check out...it's an allotment over the course of your stay, not per day. You also get 2 snacks per day, but you can have 10 left on the last day and stack up on Mickey shaped rice crispy bars to bring home, if you choose, as long as you purchase them before midnight on checkout day.

 

[elaine amj]

I've been wondering a bit about Deluxe dining and the number of people who have been saying it's too much food. It sounds just about what we'd eat when cruising - and I know we're not really out of the norm when it comes to eating on a cruise.

Our last 5 day cruise, each day we had: a full buffet or a sit down breakfast, a buffet or sit down lunch, and a sit down dinner promptly at 6pm. At each meal, we ate, and ate, and ate. Definitely at the very least it was an app, an entree, and a dessert at each meal. At dinner, each night we had 2 apps, 1.5 entrees (We would order extras and share) and a dessert. Later that night, there would always be a bedtime snack (cookies, bards, even whole sandwiches!) It was crazy, it was tons of food....but I can't say it was ever TOO much food as we managed to pack it all away somehow LOL!

I would love to do Deluxe dining - just gasp whenever I see the extra $1000 it would cost the 4 of us for our 10-12 day trips and can't bite the bullet.

 

[mommyof3princess27]

I know all the threads about deluxe dining say that having 3 TS meals a day is too much food and too much time spent eating. But there are just so many places I want to eat!

If I'm planning to have the earliest breakfasts and latest dinners I can get ADRs for, is it really that crazy? I think it'd be rather nice to have a sit down lunch to rest in mid-day without having to go back to the resort.

I'm going for 7 or 8 nights (haven't finalized my plans yet) and I'll have hopper tickets.

This exactly!! Everyne I run into or talk to says its too much BUT there are so many places I want to eat/try!!!! I think if you do a 8 or 9 am breakfast and a 2pm lunch then a 8 or so dinner it should be fine. Besides you dont have to clear your plate

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I've been wondering a bit about Deluxe dining and the number of people who have been saying it's too much food. It sounds just about what we'd eat when cruising - and I know we're not really out of the norm when it comes to eating on a cruise.

Our last 5 day cruise, each day we had: a full buffet or a sit down breakfast, a buffet or sit down lunch, and a sit down dinner promptly at 6pm. At each meal, we ate, and ate, and ate. Definitely at the very least it was an app, an entree, and a dessert at each meal. At dinner, each night we had 2 apps, 1.5 entrees (We would order extras and share) and a dessert. Later that night, there would always be a bedtime snack (cookies, bards, even whole sandwiches!) It was crazy, it was tons of food....but I can't say it was ever TOO much food as we managed to pack it all away somehow LOL!

I would love to do Deluxe dining - just gasp whenever I see the extra $1000 it would cost the 4 of us for our 10-12 day trips and can't bite the bullet.

If your family can eat that much, DxDDP would be a great fit for you. Why not give it a try, if it's in the budget?

On a cruise, I will usually eat a pastry & oatmeal or a parfait for breakfast. If we eat in the dining room at lunch, I usually order 3 courses, but never eat more than 1/2 of anything other than dessert. If the dining room is closed, I usually eat a cold cut sandwich or something similar & dessert. (I never pass on dessert & rarely leave any on the table. ) At dinner, I again order all three courses, but never come close to eating all of anything other than dessert. If there's more than two desserts my DH & I want to try, we'll order an extra. We never order extra of the other courses. At times, I'd love to take advantage of the late night snacks, but I'm always too full. The extra dessert could have something to do with that. Another note, in our experience, the serving sizes in the dining room on cruises are much smaller than a typical serving size at WDW. They're closer to the serving size at the signature restaurants. I doubt most people could eat 3 large meals a day + snacks for multiple days in a row. I have a sister who can, so DxDDP would be great for her. Unfortunately for her, no one she visits WDW with can eat that much. She loved the cruise we went on though.

 

[mommyof3princess27]

Well it wasnt in our budget but now we have FD and am thinking about trying it. Its booked now and tomorrow are our ADR's so I think we will try it

 

[Inventor]

I have a teenage son and a husband that eats like a teenager so I am seriously considering it. When we have done the smaller dining plan the troops have insisted we eat another full meal anyway so I really don't think it will cost me that much more.

 

[Bete]

There's no real right or wrong answer, here.

To maximize your results I would get to the parks early and stay late and I would utilize early and late extra magic hours. If the day is long the park tickets will get good value even if you take out more time to eat three table service meals. I would try to stay with park restaurants or monorail resort restaurants to cut some commuting time.

I would consider some 2 credit restaurants and two meals, not three in a day if you want to spend less time doing the park. Maybe, alternate your days this way.

I agree with another poster that you should make sure to come early on your arrival day and leave late on your departure date; so, you can best utilize your credits over a longer period of time.

If your budget is okay to do deluxe then go for it.

 

[starousse]

You don't necessarily have to do 3 meals per day. Do a one credit breakfast or lunch and then a nice 2 credit signature place for dinner. We did it in December and loved it. What makes it a lot of food is when you get the appetizer and dessert with every meal. If you can manage to skip those here and there, you'll be fine.

 

[Phatoomch]

I say go for it, try it out, you never know!

We are foodies (fav channel is Food Network ) We have decided to try delux dining this time as most of our evening meals are signature so require 2 TS credits.

We plan on a light breakfast of a pastry and coffee. Hit the parks when they open, stop for an early 1 credit (TS or CS, haven't finalised yet) lunch. Then have a signature evening meal.

We are in the parks for at least 12hrs so those two meals will be a welcomed break and a time for the family to sit and chat about our day so far etc etc - quality time amongst all the adrenylin ! I did a rough number crunch looking at menus and estimating how much we would spend at each restaurant and we are at about the same cost for Delux dining as OOP expenses .... and I haven't factored in the snack credits which we use for drinks. There are 5 of us, 2 drinks using the snack credit is $40 a day I won't be spending.

I think it will work well for us - 4 adults (me, hubby & my parents) 1 daughter (12yrs).