deluxe dining upgrade

[princesspeach]

We have done the dxdp twice now for 10 days each time. We ate 2 ts a day. We spread out our meals lunch at 1130. When the restaurants first open you get right in and it never took more than 1 hour. We are rope drop people so we were ready for a break by then. Dinner at 8pm most likely a signature. We never go to the parks in the evening by 3pm we are done for the day. We normally work out at the healthclub and relax at the pool late afternoon and early evenings. Were not snackers we like to eat 2 healthy meals a day. I have never gained weight on the plan. The plan works for us and our eating style. The break even point I believe is using 2/3 of your points. Its really not that much more food than the ddp or qs. Insteard ot 2 fast food meals you get 2 better quality and healthier ts meals.

 

[DisneyFamily123]

Counter service can take a lot of time too. I remember waiting in line at Pinocchio's Village Haus in MK for what seemed like an eternity! There were only about 10 people in line ahead of us but it was 20+ minutes. Also, Flame Tree BBQ was a madhouse at AK... Very long lines, few tables available. This was Thanksgiving weekend so it was a busy time. I thought... we could have been seated at a restaurant faster. Of course, it's not always that crazy busy.

I can see how eating on the go can save time -- like eating dinner while in line for Fantasmic (or eating in Fantasmic). But I'd rather be relaxed at a table when eating, not cramped in line or in tight seating.

I'm one who can enjoy a nice lunch buffet and "stuff it"... then skip dinner and just have a healthy snack or something. But everyone else in our family eats like clockwork --- 3 meals a day.... or they get grouchy!

 

[princesspeach]

I wonder what the average caloric intake for regular dining vs deluxe dining works out to?

I guess CS meals can be pretty high calorie/fat if not careful.

We are getting the free regular dining and are sticking with it. I guess I can understand having 2 table service emals per day... probably 2-3 hours of total time sitting in resturaunts vs 1-1.5 hours. If you do a lot of character meals I could see that as being fun for a few days...

But 10 days? Plan on doing a lot of walking to burn off those extra calories!

Calories have more to do with what you eat then how much. I love sitting in restaurants. Its part of the vacation for us. The parks are fun for a few hours, but for me I need to relax on vacation. Obviously thats not what you enjoy so stick with what works for you. There is nothing wrong with sitting in a restaurant being served for those of us that enjoy it. Why are people always in such a rush anyway. Its suppossed to be a vacation.

 

[HubbDave]

Calories have more to do with what you eat then how much. I love sitting in restaurants. Its part of the vacation for us. The parks are fun for a few hours, but for me I need to relax on vacation. Obviously thats not what you enjoy so stick with what works for you. There is nothing wrong with sitting in a restaurant being served for those of us that enjoy it. Why are people always in such a rush anyway. Its suppossed to be a vacation.

Absolutely agree. I do intend on relaxing on my trip (in 32 days now!!!). I definitely enjoy taking my time eating a relaxing long meal, having a glass of wine,from time to time. I do, however, have 2 younger children (ages 4 and 10) who will be ok with 1 TS meal per day (maybe!). I hope grabbing a quick salad or wrap or the like for a lunch will allow me for more relaxing time watching my kids eyes light up at each new attraction. Our dinners will almost all be TS including some signature meals. I can enjoy a long lunch almost anytime...when not working

If I were to spend the additional $1350 it would probably be for a longer stay vs more TS meals, but to each their own. Nothing wrong with doing the DDP... not offense was meant.

 

[TDluvsDaisy]

We've done deluxe dining for years now. Most days we do breakfast and a signature dinner. Some days we do 3 meals. IMO it is not much more time than finding a counter service, ordering and finding a table if you already have a good idea of what you want. Also your server can try to speed up the process if you ask them to put in the whole order at once.

Tips can add up but upgrading from free dining to deluxe gives you a good bang for your buck. We love it and have always come out ahead based on what we would normally eat anyway even with adding in tips. It works for our family.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Calories have more to do with what you eat then how much. I love sitting in restaurants. Its part of the vacation for us. The parks are fun for a few hours, but for me I need to relax on vacation. Obviously thats not what you enjoy so stick with what works for you. There is nothing wrong with sitting in a restaurant being served for those of us that enjoy it. Why are people always in such a rush anyway. Its suppossed to be a vacation.

I think if you eat all CS, and something like a burger and fries, every day, or worse for both meals every day, you're probably eating more calories then say a salad, grilled fish, and a no-sugar dessert.

Sure it could go both ways, and someone eating CS could be eating relativly healthy, and someone on the deluxe plan could do a buffet everyday for every meal to pigout 24/7, but just because you eat more TS doesn't mean you're stuffing your face.

And I use TS meals as a break from the park too. As a solo traveler I find it easier to eat TS then CS, and I would rather sit and be waited on, then standing in line for my food, and then waiting for a table.

Even paying OOP for food this trip I'm still doing more TS then CS.

 

[AndreaDM]

We are going in August and upgrading from free dining to the deluxe plan. It will be a first for us, but we're excited! We are doing a lot of firsts this trip, CRT, HDDR, and several signatures, so we never have more than 2 meals planned. Early lunches or late breakfast with a later dinner in the evening. The 2 snacks pp should fill in the gaps nicely! I know it will be hot and I know it's a lot of food, but nothing says we have to clean our plates, this is just going to be a trip to experience some different things and some dinner shows. I agree with a table meal not taking that much longer than some counter service meals, we stood forever in the heat at AK last summer for a burger and a bag of chips, then sat in the blazing heat to eat it as well.

 

[DisneyFamily123]

We are going in August.......... The 2 snacks pp should fill in the gaps nicely! I know it will be hot........

I LOVE using the snack credits for the frozen slushie cokes/lemonades on a hot day!

 

[Dizneefamily+4]

We had the DxDP the first year we bought the DDP. We felt that we spent all of our time in restaurants and had to plan the rest of the day around ADRs. So, for our last trip and our upcoming Aug. trip, we do the QSDP. It just fits our Disney plans better. We eat when we want rather than what our ADRs dictate. And if we feel like it, we just pay out of pocket for a table service meal (and yes, they do run about $150 for a family of 4 per meal - or more depending on the restaurant.)

 

[Woth2982]

I love the DxDP. We have used it twice. We like to do the Signature meals, and last year we did HDDR and CRT. If I booked those two alone, it would have cost us $120 each I believe for those two meals alone. We paid $288 each for the DxDP. Now my friend and I both ended up getting food poisoning one day, so we had three or four meal credits left in total on the last day, and a VERY nice waiter let us break the rules and let my friend who was not staying with us use one of the credits for her dinner. Our usual plan of action is a buffet breakfast around 10 am and a Signature meal at night around 7, and if we are hungry in the day we will use our snack credits to grab something quick. There is NO WAY we could use three sit down meals a day. So this works for us.

 

[Tara922c]

For me, that is WAY too much money to spend on food, but that is me. Being said we are only a family of 3, and dd is only 4. You have to ask yourself is it worth it to you and your family. We thought about upgrading to DxDDP, but my Dh wont go for it. He said, "if you want an appitizer, order one". His thing is he doesn't want to have more than one sit down meal a day because he doesn't like waiting for a table that we already have ADRs for. We spent a lot of time on our last trip going to our 8 ADRs, and can't imagine doing that at least twice a day, for 10 days.

Being said, that is just how my family feels, everyone is different!

 

[shenaniganzz]

Maybe my thinking was convoluted, but it made sense to me!

We figured that we were going to WDW either way but lucked out in that free dining was being offered during the time frame we wanted to go. We paid somewhere around $350 (can't recall exact amount) to upgrade from DDP to DxDP for four days. So, the way I look at it.. we would have paid way more than that OOP. We are not doing any TS for lunch.. just QS/CS.

We easily would have spent $100/day just on our dinners alone so we are ahead of the game especially once you add in our TS/character breakfasts plus lunches and snacks.

Now, we may have alot of snack credits left, but I fully plan to use 'em up for take home goodies!

Plus, if you don't want to do all your TS meals every day, then save some up for some nice signature restaurants - if that appeals to you.

I think it really, really depends on your family. We like to take some time out to relax and eat each day, DH likes a full breakfast and we LOVE good food so signatures appeal to us.

Whatever you decide, have fun and enjoy!

 

[cmesq61]

Depends on your kids, I think. My teens eat a good amount, as do we parents! Also, although we paretnal units make them roll their eyes on a regular basis, we still enjoy sitting down for meals as a family.

In order to avoid the so-called "running around" that lots of folks seem to think is automatic with the DxDP, here is what we do: big breakfast, 2 TS credit meals for dinner as we all enjoy a bit of "finer" dining, and use snack credits during the day so the kids don't think they're melting away from hunger!

For us, it works really well. I hope you enjoy it.

 

[Have3Kids&aHusband]

My 2 cents: I think it all depends on your family & your needs. My friend has a child who eats three square meals a day. Her child's sugar level drops & it does effect her mood. I saw it and as soon as she had a snack she was back to herself. My kids on the other hand have to be forced to eat. They get so busy playing that they forget about having to eat. For my friend the deluxe plan was well worth it and for us our kids are fine with one CS & TS a day. If our kids were like my friend's than I would probably do the deluxe too. Plus, my husband and I do enjoy planning our trip, deciding where we want to eat for TS, and finally making an itinerary for the week. We went with my sister who did Disney without us once before & didn't have the itinerary. This time with us she said it was like having a travel agent & she & her family were able to do more this time b/c it was planned out better. I think having those TS help you enjoy your trip more because you have to plan ahead and are forced to sit and relax a bit. So if you had to do two TS a day, we would be actually relaxing some more.

 

[cdadabo]

Last time my family and I went down to WDW we used the DDP. I have a husband and two boys all who LOVE TO EAT. We got to dine at restaurants that we wouldn't normally have gotten to go to mostly do to expense (Ohana was one). We loved it and will definitely use it again on our next trip in 2012.

Honestly, it doesn't seem like you are spending "half your day" eating and not enjoying the parks since sitting down and taking a welcome break from the heat and crowds is nice. I will say that we had several "snacks" left over at the end of our trip -- but we used them up buying fruits and things to take home with us (we drove down) and snack on on the way home.

 

[peaches00]

We upgraded to deluxe and definitely got our moneys worth...but we are adults and don't eat breakfast so we had sit down meal for lunch and signature restaurants for dinner. The food was amazing!

 

[peaches00]

We upgraded to deluxe and definitely got our moneys worth...but we are adults and don't eat breakfast so we had sit down meal for lunch and signature restaurants for dinner. The food was amazing!

 

[disneynutz]

Two meals a day does not equal one-half your day eating. On a ten day trip which is what we did you will have plenty of time to enjoy some nice relaxing meals. It is a vacation after all. How many times can you ride the same rides over and over.

When you include the time to get to and from your ADR's and especially if you include a breakfast you can easily spend half a day "eating". Most people on the dining plan want to get the best value so they plan their day based on their food choices. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, it's a food thing.

Bill

 

[hannahdrewmom]

When you include the time to get to and from your ADR's and especially if you include a breakfast you can easily spend half a day "eating". Most people on the dining plan want to get the best value so they plan their day based on their food choices. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, it's a food thing.

Bill

This isn't always true if you plan meals based on where you are going to be. If you eat breakfast in the resort or the park you are going to you are not spending much more time than normal. Breakfasts that are not character will normally be under an hour and you are eating where you are. The same is true with dinner.

Now if you are traveling all over WDW to just eat this can be VERY true and might even be an underestimate. So if you are in Epcot eat in Epcot and dront travel to AK for a meal and you'll be fine!

 

[DisneyBabies]

I would upgrade to the deluxe plan. Your cost is $33.75 per person per night. For that you will get the following per person by upgrading.

• 30 dining credits to use instead of 20
• 1 appetizer per person at every table service meal (except family style and buffets)
• 20 snack credits to use instead of 10
• a refillable resort mug

Since you are staying at a deluxe resort, you probably have easier access to a lot more restaurants. It could be a lot of eating....but.... many people eat 3 meals a day. We did the deluxe plan but didn't eat 3 meals a day --- we dined on our arrival and departure days, and dined at several signature restaurants that charge 2 credits per meal.

Table service is a welcome break. We almost never go out..... I like taking that time out from all the walking in the parks and having a relaxing meal. We consider the dining to be part of the fun and vacation. Typically, we will have lunch and dinner. When 3 meals a day, it's usually a character breakfast (8am?), lunch around 1pm, and dinner around 7pm.

Appetizers being included is a big plus for us... everyone gets an appetizer and it gives us all a chance to share and try different foods.

You can also use your credits any way you like.... meaning... maybe some people in your party (the teens?) might dine on their own more or less often then others in your group.

Extra snack credits can be used to buy treats to take home on your last day. We brought home fudge from MK and Caramel from Epcot (Germany).

Here's a link to our "Dining Plan Analysis"!

This is our thought on the DxDDP as well. We do a breakfast before park opening, and late dinners (several signature restaurants and at least one dinner show). If we get hungry in the middle of the day, we get one or two meals and split it. By the last day all of our meal credits are gone. And we LOVE that appetizers are included.

And whatever snack credits are left at the end, we use to buy snacks to eat on the drive home.

And the table service meals are the time we take to make our daily plans (breakfast) or to talk about the day and what we liked and disliked (dinner). The kids also use this time to make notes about their day for their Disney Journal. This is a nice family time for us.

But really, if you plan it right, you don't miss more than an hour or two of "park time" even with travel time to and from.