Deluxe dining...yes or no?

[Haygar2]

I am trying to plan a trip for next August. I know they haven't come out with next year packages, yet, so I am basing it on this year pricing. I know it will change but it gives me a starting point. My husband and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary so we will be without kids. Woohoo! I know we will have a more laid back time and we love our sit down meals. For those of you who have done Deluxe, did you find it was worth it? I have tried explaining to him that if we put that money back we can do what we want. He has a hard time grasping that and wants to get the dining plan. So we will either have the regular or Deluxe. I'm trying to decide which one to budget for.

 

[Pumbaa_]

You will spend 3-5 hours a day Dining

Most folks do a ts bfast or lunch then signature dinner
You can do 3 ts a day, but that is harder. You may also get sick of eating after a week w each person getting an app, entree and dessert

I recommend going to your favorite ts restaurant and ordering an app, entree and dessert each. Then go walk a mile or two. That is exactly what dxdp is like

If you want to have a more relaxed food based trip, then dxdp can be a great way to go. Signature dinners are quite lovely. They now include a drink w dinner. The cg Sunday brunch is also included

Happy anniversary and I hope you have a great time

 

[jillt2ph]

I like to book split stays and get DlxDP for just a few days. That way you have basically an extra day to spread out the meals. If I book a one night stay with DlxDP, I will maybe schedule a 1 credit dinner that first night and then book something for 2 credits the next day (CRT, a CP package or a signature). When I have it for more days, I waste a little more food because I don't finish everything that comes for every course, but I like being able to have a taste. But I would not book it for more than 3 nights.

I am already trying to get meals booked for a 2 night DlxDP package in September. Trying for that California Grill Brunch!!

 

[Best_Vacation_EVER!]

It depends how you normally eat... we don't usually have appetizers, entree and dessert everyday -- at every meal ... so for us it was way too much over the 12 days we were on the Deluxe Dining Plan --- even though we did one signature per day plus one additional meal with our 3 credits each day. When you add in the snacks - it was way too much for us. There was tons of waste at every meal since we left at least 1/2 of what was on each plate. Maybe if you're only going for a few nights it would be good but for a longer trip it was way too much. The whole trip we felt we'd eaten too much and it sort of sapped our energy.

While it was good to try -- I think we'd never order that much food normally so the value isn't there for us. If you normally are big eaters and have 3 course meals everyday then maybe it will work for you at bit better value-wise. If you aren't big eaters it might be better book a couple of nice meals and maybe a special event (Highway in the Sky, Dessert Party, tour, etc....) instead.

 

[Nancyg56]

We like the DxDdp on some trips. We book a ts lunch or breakfast and s signature dinner.

Before you book the plan, plan your meals. I think that if makes sense to have the meals in mind and then see which plan makes the best financial sense. If you start with the DxDDP you might plan to the plan rather than fit the plan to you.

 

[DisneyHardin]

We did it for the first time last year and really enjoyed having it. We really like appetizers, so that was neat to be able to try some without feeling like we were running the bill up. We did a big breakfast and then a signature dinner most days.

We are going to do it again this year. We are going during the first week of November this year, which is a really busy time, so I have us scheduled for 3 meals a day on a couple days just for a break from the crowds.

We probably won't do it again next year because after this trip we will have tried all the signatures we wanted to try out and it is an added expense.

 

[jillt2ph]

We like the DxDdp on some trips. We book a ts lunch or breakfast and s signature dinner.

Before you book the plan, plan your meals. I think that if makes sense to have the meals in mind and then see which plan makes the best financial sense. If you start with the DxDDP you might plan to the plan rather than fit the plan to you.

I agree with this! The first time I booked DlxDP I was doing a 1/4/4 stay and had the F! dinner at H&V the first night and a Candlelight Processional Package at CdF the second night. Those 2 meals cost more than the Dlx plan for one day, and as a bonus I then had the refillable mug for all 9 nights. So there are times it makes financial sense.

 

[Nancyg56]

I agree with this! The first time I booked DlxDP I was doing a 1/4/4 stay and had the F! dinner at H&V the first night and a Candlelight Processional Package at CdF the second night. Those 2 meals cost more than the Dlx plan for one day, and as a bonus I then had the refillable mug for all 9 nights. So there are times it makes financial sense.

It does, but not always, so having the meals planned and then choosing the pan to fit the need seems to work better than making meals so you do not lose money on the DxDDP. This trip we have 7 in a villa and so I woudl have to upgrade all of us. As much as it kills me to pay OOP for some meals this trip rather than upgrade, it makes no sense for us to do so. My DH is joining us this time, and that man is going to insist on additional meals and apps as well, but I think it still makes sense so far for us to Poly OOP for the extras.

 

[Cramden]

The DxDP makes sense for me this time. I'm doing it for the first time in September. Staying 3 nights at WL on my first solo trip. The plan is costing me $348.75. My constantly evolving plan currently has me eating at

Sunday 1pm BOATHOUSE Snack Credit at MK at MNSSHP
Monday 12:00pm Lunch Tiffins 8:30pm Narcoossee's
Tuesday Lunch using Snack Credits at F&W Dinner 7:00pm Cali Grill
Wednesday Snack Credit at HS Dinner 4:00pm Art Smith's

At Narcoossee's and CG I plan on getting the Cheese Selection as my dessert and bringing it back to WL (along with any other leftovers) for snacking purposes. Using most of my credits for Sig's just makes more sense for me. I think it would be a bit difficult eating 2 big meals a day each day. Crunching my numbers based on what I plan to order, along with a nice glass of wine and tax I'm well over $600 at the 5 restaurants above.

 

[Nutbean]

We did it in 2014 for our 15th anniversary. Nine nights total. We loved it. It was a lot of food but we did an early one credit lunch and then a later signature restaurant dinner. We also managed to slip in a few Food & Wine Festival days too. We got to try almost every single signature restaurant and we did the Hoop-Dee-Doo Review as well.

When we go without the kids, dining, shopping, walking around and soaking up the atmosphere and just relaxing in general is our main priority. We don't really care about rides so much as we've already done all of them several times.

We are debating doing it again next year for our 20th anniversary but we want to go for 14 nights and I don't think I could do it for that long so we're probably just going to do the regular dining plan and then have a meal at Be Our Guest and Tiffins (ROL dining package) where appetizers are also included. Then we will have at least a couple of days free where we can use our snack credits and quick service credits to use exclusively at Food & Wine.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

We did it once and while I wouldn’t choose it every trip it worked on that occasion.
We were able to visit 2ts restaurants each day such as CRT, YS, Le Collier and then we also did SOA and HDDR.
In a week this took 16 of our credits per person. We would eat a pre-park opening breakfast and an evening meal so no lunch required.
It did define the holiday but we had a character meal every day (different circumstances to you of course) but this meant no autograph lines that trip.
Definitely got to try some different places.

 

[Haygar2]

We did it in 2014 for our 15th anniversary. Nine nights total. We loved it. It was a lot of food but we did an early one credit lunch and then a later signature restaurant dinner.

When we go without the kids, dining, shopping, walking around and soaking up the atmosphere and just relaxing in general is our main priority. We don't really care about rides so much as we've already done all of them several times.

This is what I was thinking. The only difference being that we might eat a late breakfast, snack around 3:00 or so, and then eat a signature dinner. I need to write down all of the restaurants that we want to go to and see if it makes sense.

 

[Nancyg56]

This is what I was thinking. The only difference being that we might eat a late breakfast, snack around 3:00 or so, and then eat a signature dinner. I need to write down all of the restaurants that we want to go to and see if it makes sense.

This is how to do it. Make your ADR's and think about what you are likely to order.

 

[rwdavis2]

Probably not. It's a LOT of food. Plus all the time spent. Personally I would not focus a WDW trip on dining. I can eat at better restaurants at home at a lower cost. But I realize some folks don't have that option. After a few days of this you may be sick of eating. I would just plan one table service meal a day.

 

[motherof5]

I think it works if you are planning a signature dinner. We got it for our upcoming trip since we are going to Cinderella's Castle and it's cheaper for the kids then paying outright then the next day we can do another meal for the 3 credits. Granted I booked a split stay and did a 1 night so I only have to purchase the dining for a short time.

 

[NYCgrrl]

When we decide to get a dining plan we've always opted for the deluxe. We eat Continental style breakfasts courtesy of snack credits, go to a 1 table credit for lunch generally and 2 credit signature for dinner. Our desserts tend to be light such as a dish of ice cream or sorbet unless we eat at the Flying Fish at which point all bets are off-I wuv the desserts there. We rarely each have our own desserts so lose money on that end but the quality of food served at the signature dinners makes up for any monetary loss IMO.

 

[gillep]

I love the Deluxe plan for a night or two, more than that and it is just way too much food for how we prefer to eat. That said, if my choices were DDP or DxDP I would choose DxDP every time as the regular DDP does not work for us at all which is why the vast majority of our trips we pay for food OOP.