Deluxe Dining Plan Sucess!

[PrncessA]

Just wanted to share our recent experience with the Deluxe Dining Plan. We are a family of 4 (kids under age 10), we stayed at YC for 6 nights (June 1-7) with the DxDDP. Here are our thoughts:

* We were sprinkled with Pixie Dust and upgraded to a CL room. With the extra food and drinks from CL we had more food than any person could possibly need! The mugs were completely unneeded and we didn't get them filled once, but they were nice to keep my free wine cold at the pool! And they are a nice souvenir.

* We had 14 ADR's planned and we kept all but 1 (Crystal Palace)! We did three 2-credit meals (CRT, Hoop Dee Doo Review and Jedi Mickey Dining at Hollywood &Vine).

Our TS restaurants were:
Coral Reef
'Ohana
Hollywood & Vine (Jedi Mickey)
Kona Cafe
Sci-Fi
Cinderella's Royal Table
Cape May Cafe
Via Napoli
Tusker House
Biergarten
Akershus Breakfast
San Angel Inn
Hoop Dee Doo Revue


*We had no problem with ordering anywhere, although Via Napoli did stick with their reputation and made the rules clear. FYI, Sci-Fi Diner actually let the kids choose a full size appetizer from the adult's menu as their appetizer, instead of limited kid's choices.

*We tipped between 18-20%, depending on service, but I do think it is weird that you have to write your tip, then give it to the server to process. I am sure it helps cut down on people not tipping, but it is a little odd.

*We did not buy the most expensive meals or snacks in order to get the most "bang for our buck". We used credits for CS meals at Casey's Corner, Restrauntasuras, and Backlot Express.

*We learned that even though we bought the DxDDP so we would no worry about the cost of food not for a cost savings, the DDP would probably work better for us. We do like to eat 3 times a day, but usually a CS or splitting a couple of CS work for a lunch for us.

*We never had a problem with any of our Magic Bands or credits.

The cost breakdown:
The plan cost us: $1,613 (we booked before the recent increase)
All meals cost: $2,125 (not including tip)
Snacks (not including 3 I cannot find receipts for): $256

The dining plan save us: $768!!
Proof that the dining plan can and does save money, even if you are not trying.

Granted we probably would have ate differently if we didn't have the DxDDP, but we enjoyed the freedom of not worrying about the cost of food and trying new restaurants that the cost would have caused us to stay away from.


Just wanted to share our experience.

 

[mickeynut1]

Just wanted to share our recent experience with the Deluxe Dining Plan. We are a family of 4 (kids under age 10), we stayed at YC for 6 nights (June 1-7) with the DxDDP. Here are our thoughts:

* We were sprinkled with Pixie Dust and upgraded to a CL room. With the extra food and drinks from CL we had more food than any person could possibly need! The mugs were completely unneeded and we didn't get them filled once, but they were nice to keep my free wine cold at the pool! And they are a nice souvenir.

* We had 14 ADR's planned and we kept all but 1 (Crystal Palace)! We did three 2-credit meals (CRT, Hoop Dee Doo Review and Jedi Mickey Dining at Hollywood &Vine).

*We did not buy the most expensive meals or snacks in order to get the most "bang for our buck". We used credits for CS meals at Casey's Corner, Restrauntasuras, and Backlot Express.

*We learned that even though we bought the DxDDP so we would no worry about the cost of food not for a cost savings, the DDP would probably work better for us. We do like to eat 3 times a day, but usually a CS or splitting a couple of CS work for a lunch for us.

The cost breakdown:
The plan cost us: $1,613 (we booked before the recent increase)
All meals cost: $2,125 (not including tip)
Snacks (not including 3 I cannot find receipts for): $256

The dining plan save us: $768!!
Proof that the dining plan can and does save money, even if you are not trying.

Granted we probably would have ate differently if we didn't have the DxDDP, but we enjoyed the freedom of not worrying about the cost of food and trying new restaurants that the cost would have caused us to stay away from.


Just wanted to share our experience.

Thanks for your review and congrats on the upgrade . I'm glad the DlxDDP worked well for you. We've done both the DlxDDP and DDP and we enjoy them both. I totally agree that some people can (and do) save money on the dining plans. The DDPs don't work for everyone, but they do work for some.

 

[jerseygal]

How did you like Kona?

We have been there in the past and have had a good meal...

Thanks...

 

[PrncessA]

How did you like Kona?

We have been there in the past and have had a good meal...

Thanks...

We really enjoyed Kona, our waitress was wonderful!!! The kids were stuffed from eating appetizers at the hotel, so she just brought them chocolate milks at no charge!

I had sushi for both my appetizer and my entree (which the waitress warned me was a not a good use of my dining plan money) and it was yummy. I can't for the life of me remember what DH ordered, and I don't have the receipts with me, but I do know we both ordered the pineapple upside down cake as our dessert and it was DELISH!!

Oh and the pineapple bread and butter was to die for!! I would go again just to eat a loaf of bread!!!

 

[Mariep26]

Can you clarify on the tipping thing? It has been awhile since I have done DDP so I probably am not remembering correctly.

The tip is charged back to your room, paid in cash/cc/gc etc.. so why wouldn't you have to put the amount? Is there a difference with the Deluxe DP?
No auto tip because you are a group of 4.

Just want to be sure I am not confused on how the process works.

Thanks!

 

[flyfire]

Would you explain the rules for Via Napoli?

 

[mom2of2]

Can you clarify on the tipping thing? It has been awhile since I have done DDP so I probably am not remembering correctly.

The tip is charged back to your room, paid in cash/cc/gc etc.. so why wouldn't you have to put the amount? Is there a difference with the Deluxe DP?
No auto tip because you are a group of 4.

Just want to be sure I am not confused on how the process works.

Thanks!

when you are on a DP, you are given a check that has the full amount of the bill with a line for you to write in the tip. If you don't write the tip in before the dining credits are removed, it closes the check and the tip can't be added in. Servers technically can't ask you to write it in since that is a big no no. They can ask you to look the check over and fill it out.
A lot of guests don't want servers to know what they are leaving them until they leave

 

[Polish Hammer]

Would you explain the rules for Via Napoli?

No sharing, all diners will be charged a separate dining credit.

 

[PrncessA]

A lot of guests don't want servers to know what they are leaving them until they leave

Which is why I wouldn't be surprised if it has cut down on non-tippers or low tippers.

Oh and I should add that if you are on the DxDDP and are planning on eating at a lot of TS meals that tipping should actually be a good part of your budget.

 

[mom2of2]

Which is why I wouldn't be surprised if it has cut down on non-tippers or low tippers.

Oh and I should add that if you are on the DxDDP and are planning on eating at a lot of TS meals that tipping should actually be a good part of your budget.

one would think right?

 

[sydneysmom]

thank you for sharing your experience w/ the DxDP. We also love it too.... my DH is of the theory that even if we break even, it's still 'paid in full'. He likes the idea of an "all inclusive" vacation rather than paying ut of pocket, so for us, it works also. Glad you had a great trip and yay for getting sprinkled w/ pixie dust!!!!

The last time we went, we did what you did too and budgeted for the tips.... so I've got that planned out for the next trip too.

 

[PrncessA]

No sharing, all diners will be charged a separate dining credit.

You can pool your credits to get a larger appetizer or a larger pizza. You can order one of the "specialty" pizzas with specific toppings, but you can not make substitutions, or you can order a 1-topping pizza. All additonal toppings are $3.50 each and not covered by the dining plan.

I ordered the wine flight and she made very very certain that I knew it was NOT included on the dining plan. Which I knew of course.

 

[PrncessA]

The last time we went, we did what you did too and budgeted for the tips.... so I've got that planned out for the next trip too.

With that much TS dining it was imperative or we would have went way over our spending budget! I used an online dining calculator and it was just about right. I budgeted a bit more since I knew that we would add some adult drinks onto a few of the bills.

 

[GillianP1301]

Thank you for this review! I'm trying DxDP on our upcoming trip for the first time. We've done the regular DDP in the past and like it. This year it's just my DS and I and her has to do 3 meals a day (hungry kid = grumpy kid) and wanting to do lots of TS because navigating CS meals while trying to keep track of the kiddo without my DH with us, is far from appealing to me. That's why I decided to go big with DxDP and now I'm super excited about all of the new restaurants we'll be trying!

I've done like you did and have money set aside in the budget for tips. It was easy enough to do by checking out menus.

 

[sydneysmom]

With that much TS dining it was imperative or we would have went way over our spending budget! I used an online dining calculator and it was just about right. I budgeted a bit more since I knew that we would add some adult drinks onto a few of the bills.

I totally agree.... I used the online calc also and figured all the meals if we picked the most expensive thing, so that way I over estimated. I got a bunch of smaller bills and we had a separate "tip wallet" so that I didn't mix any money up. It worked out really great too. I'm so glad that we did that, because you're right, you would totally go over the spending budget. this way, we didn't even think about it.

 

[ceccyboo]

Thank you so much for posting about your experience with DxDDP!
My family went on our first trip to disney last year and didnt know about the dining plans, we ended up spending close to $1,800 in 2 weeks on food
This year i have booked the DxDDP the travel agent tried to talk me out of it, after reading this thread im really glad i have it!

 

[roxannekeszo]

Can you remember how your receipt looked? Were the credits broken down by adults and kids? I wanted to pay oop for a couple kids meals and won't know how many kids vs adult credit we have left!!

 

[PrncessA]

The receipts don't break down how many meals you have left. The snack receipts do though. You can go to the front desk at any time and ask for a print out and it breaks everything down for you.

 

[jerseygal]

The receipts don't break down how many meals you have left. The snack receipts do though. You can go to the front desk at any time and ask for a print out and it breaks everything down for you.

Last time that I saw a DDP receipt was Aug of '11...Thought that I remember after each meal used on DDP, "remaining credits" was on the receipt?
Not ANYMORE? I liked the "tracking" mechanism shown on the receipt!