Deluxe Dining Plan

[surgefest]

For those of you out there who have had the Deluxe Dining plan.... Do you have any tips or reviews for when you had it??? This will also be our first time using the dining plan all together... Thanks for any information!

 

[Suellen]

We used it on our last trip and will again this time.

We LOVED it. It was so nice to be able to do the character dinners and not worry about having to pay for while there.

I would say definately book some (2) Table Service Meals. Also try to get in with the Princesses Breakfast in Norway ~ only uses one table service and it was FANTASTIC!

 

[5intexas]

We used the Deluxe this past September when DH and I went (sans kids) for our 10th anniversary. Since we were alone, it was a great opportunity to eat at some of the nicer 2 credit restaurants. We loved it for that trip. For a trip with the kids though, I am not sure I would do it. The only way I see to make good use without spending much of the day in a restaurant would be to go to several 2TS credit places. With the kids (we have 3 little ones), I don't think that would make sense for us. I have considered getting the Deluxe maybe once so that we could take the kids to the Luau and the BBQ and such, but I think we will save that one until they are a bit older

 

[vedlin71]

my dh will not go if we dont get it .we have 3 teenagers who love to eat .we make adrs for breakfast and dinner and just do fast lunch.and it works great .

 

[danielle.st]

We loved it too. We used some credits for CS and it was always so much more stressful, IMO. Longer lines, which counter to go to for which food, etc.

One lesson we learned for ourselves is that we do best with more buffets. I thought it would be because of the variety, but it turns out that we pace ourselves better and don't overeat with a buffet. One day only we had no buffets, used snack credits for breakfast and a TS for lunch (sci-fi) and dinner (mama melrose) and we were so full that we couldn't eat our dinners. When they placed all the food in front of us at TS, we felt compelled to eat as much as we could, however when we went up to a buffet we would just try a little bit of a few things and go up for more if we were still hungry and liked something.

We were planning on a CS at AK, but after my dh saw the lines we ran out and left the park, choosing to eat at our hotel instead. Had we done a TS for lunch that day, we would have spent another couple hours after lunch at AK. I doubt we would go to WDW without the DDP again, unless there is an exceptionally dramatic price increase (although, if that happened, I think my dh would just boycott going at all)

 

[habg1]

We did deluxe in Nov. my advice: If you plan to eat at a table service for breakfast, lunch & dinner; space them out so you will be hungry!

Eating at table service 3 times a day might be the only way to make the plan pay for itself. One day we had Kona Cafe, Tony's and Grand Floridian Cafe all in the same day. We Were stuffed to say the least. We loved trying all the places and ordering the food. Getting an app. & dessert was a plus. But be prepared to feel the bloat as you proceed with your day!

Another thing: Some places allow you to get like a smoothie for a drink because you're on the deluxe plan. Ask your server.



Good luck & choose your restaurants wisely.

 

[NMW]

We did the deluxe plan last May and have it booked again for our trip this May. We LOVE this plan. It is a perfect fit for our family. We were 4 adults/1 child on the plan (kids 11, 9-we paid for adult plan for him, and 6). Here's what we did:
Every morning we did either a very early character breakfast or resort breakfast. Crystal Palace, 'Ohana, Cape May Cafe (2x's), Norway princess, Donald's Breakast in AK, Captains Grille

We find that eating an early breakfast filled with protein is better for us. The previous times we have tried eating pasteries/bagels/doughnuts for breakfast, our kids were STARVING by 10:30 and we had to stop and eat.

We only did a few TS lunches with the plan. Le Celliar, 50's Primetime, and Yak and Yeti. We also ate lunch at Brown Derby ( a tradition for us) but we paid cash OOP for that lunch. DH and I only get the cobb salads and the kids all kids hot dogs and fries, so it's pretty cheap and not worth 2 credits each.

We did buy CS at MK two days and paid cash for it. Other days we used our many snack credits for things. We were never hungry, nor were we too stuffed to eat. We didn't "save" snack credits for things, the way others have stated they do. That's too much work for me. If we wanted a bottle of soda or water, we used a snack credit. I think people underestimate the value of that. 5 bottles of soda is about $15 for our family. Do that once or twice every day of your trip...and it adds up. Use the many snack credits on the deluxe plan, and you pay nothing.

We did a TS dinner every night, including several signatures-Narcoossees, Citricos, Calif Grill, Yachtsman Steakhouse. We also did Raglan Road, Cape May Cafe, and Rose and Crown. Most nights our ADR's were 7:30 or later. We only did an early dinner the night we wanted to do EMH at DHS. We are not early dinner people.

This is the way we always eat at Disney. we did the basic dining plan once and it was not a great fit for us. We get very sick of CS and dislike doing it every day. Not to mention that we paid so much money OOP for TS breakfasts and extra meals so we could do signatures and have some TS lunches. It was a bad fit for us.

The fact that we space our meals out so much may have something to do with why we were never too full to eat (even on days we did 3 TS meals). For example, we might eat breakfast at 8 AM, a TS lunch at 12:30, and dinner at 8 PM. Honestly most of our snack credits were used for soda and water. It was hot in May. We never used the mugs in the AM, but we did use them in the evening or afternoon when we got back from the parks.

We did not experience any mistreatment by CM's because we were on the deluxe plan. We tip 20% and just had a tip envelope of cash for our tips. We overestimated and money left over. This was even with many times tipping slightly over 20% so we didn't have wait for small amounts of change. For example at breakfast at Cape May Cafe, if 20% was $18, we just left a $20 bill instead of waiting for $2 change.

I know several families that have used thedeluxe plan and loved it like we do. I also know a family that used the basic and WISHED they had gotten the deluxe. The ended up paying more $$ for food OOP than the difference between the two plans!

Hope this helps!

 

[serene56]

Where can you find information about costs? I am trying to figure the difference in price between the regular dining or upgrading to the delux but cant find prices

 

[bluenosemickey]

You can find all the prices on the mousesavers website, but the quick answer is 39.99 (or .97, can't remember) for DDP and 69.99 for the DxDP. I believe that the DxDP allows for appetizers with your TS meals and the regular DDP does not.

Because you can use your credits until 12am on the day of departure, you can actually get one more day out of them if you are leaving late in the day.

We did this in the summer and it worked out great. We "saved" some of the credits so that we could cover the last day's breakfast and lunch. With 3 meals per day, we had no trouble skipping a lunch and a breakfast while we were there. On arrival day we did not need 3 meals. We just used our snack credits wisely (bread sticks, cereal, bagels etc.) and they covered us for the missing meals. So we got one extra day with 2 TS meals out of the plan.

Doesn't always work with departure times, but it might be worth a later flight if you know you are covered for the meals. Gave us one more day at WDW that was sort of a freebie.

 

[ibouncetoo]

We did a TS dinner every night, including several signatures-Narcoossees, Citricos, Calif Grill, Yachtsman Steakhouse. .

Hope this helps!

So, which of the signatures did you like the best? I've been to Calif Grill (several years ago) and to Jiko but none of the others. I have to pick one for my September trip (4 adults, all 'foodies', one a vegetarian) and would like to try a new place.

You haven't done a dining review by any chance???? Link????

 

[NMW]

So, which of the signatures did you like the best? I've been to Calif Grill (several years ago) and to Jiko but none of the others. I have to pick one for my September trip (4 adults, all 'foodies', one a vegetarian) and would like to try a new place.

You haven't done a dining review by any chance???? Link????

No, I did not post a dining review. Sorry. We had wonderful service and food at all of them. If I had to choose, I'd pick Yachtsman and Narcoossees for both food and service as my favorites. We had wonderful experiences at Citricos and California Grill as well though, so it's hard to choose. DH would probably pick Yachtsman or California Grill as his favorites. Next May we are repeating all of them except Citricos. We are subbing Flying Fish for Citricos. Flying Fish is a favorite of ours and we have not eaten there since 2007. So, we have lots of dining choices to look forward to in May.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

You can find all the prices on the mousesavers website, but the quick answer is 39.99 (or .97, can't remember) for DDP and 69.99 for the DxDP. I believe that the DxDP allows for appetizers with your TS meals and the regular DDP does not.

The price for the Deluxe is incorrect. It is $71.99/night/person.

 

[ajsmommy1129]

We are booked at CSR with the regular dining plan (paid in full, woo hoo!!!) for September 4th to 13th, which is tradtionally when free dining is offered. Has anyone ever done the upgrade from regular to deluxe during free dining? I am hoping since we are already PIF for regular they will et us upgrade to deluxe. If I have figured it right, we will save big $$$ since we really do like to eat three good meals a day. My DS without 3 meals = meltdown by 4 PM. Has anyone done the upgrade? TIA.

 

[Colleen27]

We LOVED it! Absolutely, without question, won't go back without it LOVED it! It was so nice having everything pre-paid and not having to think about the dining budget at all. We did quite a few signature dinners, CRT for lunch, room service twice, etc. It was fabulous!

My advice would be not to fret over value. If you're going to do mostly table service and signatures, having a few counter service meals or poor value per credit TS like the Plaza or room service won't undermine the overall value of the plan. We grabbed a couple quick breakfasts at Roaring Forks, made a point of leaving room for one breakfast at the Main Street Bakery, ordered room service twice, went to the castle for lunch, and still came out ahead. Even though the biggest appeal for me is the convenience, it was nice to see that losing money on the plan is unlikely if it is a reasonable match for your eating style.

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

We did the dxdp in December for 9 nights and LOVED it! We just booked it again for September. One thing we did was use our snack credits for everything....I know a lot of people try to "maximize" the snack credits which I would do on the regular dining plan, but with two a day, I didn't want to end up with loads of snack credits left over and paying cash for bottles of water, soda, etc. So, anytime we wanted a snack whether it was popcorn, ice cream, water, or whatever, we used a snack credit. By doing so, we never paid out of pocket for drinks, snacks, etc. and STILL had 6 snack credits to use on the check out day which my girls used for treats for the plane ride home. This even included credits used along the way for candy apples, fudge, cotton candy, suckers, etc. It was such a nice feeling for my girls to be able to grab a frozen drink and a pretzel and not fork over $20 for it! We booked many character breakfasts, and dinners such as Teppan Edo, Tutto Italia, Le Cellier etc, it was wonderful! Sometimes we were not hungry at lunch, so we would just use a snack credit. By doing this, (and we also ate breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table which used 2 credits each) we STILL had just enough for breakfast on check out day with Lilo and Stitch at Ohana's and our lunch before we left on the plane that night. So it covered our "extra" day there as well. We used every single credit and I even lost 1/2 a pound! It was wonderful!

 

[gigi1313]

my advice... if you are not going to do some 2credit meals, then you may wish to rethink the deluxe plan... on the days we tried to eat three meals/day, we found we were far too full, and spent far too much time going meal to meal...

if you are going to do a 2credit meal most days, it is well worth the price and a great way to do disney and enjoy some great meals!

 

[gigi1313]

We are booked at CSR with the regular dining plan (paid in full, woo hoo!!!) for September 4th to 13th, which is tradtionally when free dining is offered. Has anyone ever done the upgrade from regular to deluxe during free dining? I am hoping since we are already PIF for regular they will et us upgrade to deluxe. If I have figured it right, we will save big $$$ since we really do like to eat three good meals a day. My DS without 3 meals = meltdown by 4 PM. Has anyone done the upgrade? TIA.

we upgraded our free dining to deluxe dining and thought it a great deal... esp since you are paid in full, it would be like getting the deluxe component for "free"

 

[victorandbellasmom]

We are booked at CSR with the regular dining plan (paid in full, woo hoo!!!) for September 4th to 13th, which is tradtionally when free dining is offered. Has anyone ever done the upgrade from regular to deluxe during free dining? I am hoping since we are already PIF for regular they will et us upgrade to deluxe. If I have figured it right, we will save big $$$ since we really do like to eat three good meals a day. My DS without 3 meals = meltdown by 4 PM. Has anyone done the upgrade? TIA.

We upgraded to deluxe during our free dining trip last year and absolutely loved it. We used most of our credits for sit down meals or 2 credit meals and had a great time. We used our sit down meals as a chance to cool down from the humid heat and to take a break without actually going back to our hotel for a break. I liked that we were able to do a few 2 credit meals like CRT, Narcoossee, and HDDR and were able to grab snacks along the way without having to think about how much will i be paying for that. We also loved the refillable mugs.

 

[dansyr2514]

We also upgraded last year and it was awesome. Ate either breakfast or lunch and has a 2 credit dinner. 3 meals a day would've been too much food.