Deluxe Disney Dining plan, your thoughts?

[surgefest]

Who has done the Deluxe Dining plan and what did you think about it??? I've seen the "guide" for it but wanted to get some reviews from people who have actually used it. Any information would be great!

 

[my3sons77]

We were just at the world 10/25-11/1 and had the deluxe dining plan. Our family includes myself, hubby, ds 9, ds 8, and ds 2. It was our first time using it and let's just say that before we even left, hubby made it clear that we will never go to disney again without it. For some it doesn't work out well. But for us, it was PERFECT! Our boys are big eaters and it was awesome when they would say, can we get a snack (ie: ice cream, drink, etc) we could say, "YEP go ahead. Get whatever you want" Next time though we won't do as many table service restaurants. Although hubby said he wants to do California Grill THREE times the next time we go He fell in love when we were there and our server was amazing.

The day we were to check out we had 5 meal credits left and 7 snack credits left. With those 5 credits we got breakfast at POP's cafeteria for all 5 of us. With the 7 credits I bought 4 milks and some fun dip (for the road )

We love love love the deluxe dining plan.

 

[ilovediznee]

We did it for my 40th b-day trip and it was great. Remember, you DON"T have to eat it all! We saved up some and did 2 credit meals like at the Yachtsman and stuff and we really enjoyed it.

Di

 

[2manypets]

We're planning on hitting most of the signature restaurants for dinner and also eating a TS for lunch. The snack credits will cover breakfast. I think it's the perfect plan for us.

 

[tiredsigh]

We just decided to add the plan. We were on the DDP, but we are two adults, a 10 year old who eats a lot, and an 18 month old who likes his milk and to graze throughout the day.

Plus, we aren't stressing too much over the rides. We're there for Christmas decorations and events and not many rides.

I added it because we were going to use up our snack credits fast on milk and other little goodies throughout the day. Plus, my youngest likes to sit and decompress at mealtimes. Sitting down to eat is much more pleasant for us with the toddler. We are doing the fantasmic package at the Brown Derby. Other than that, we have a lot of TS meals. Character meals every morning and CPP package and Fantasmic packages during the trip. I don't have to worry about the $ and can just go.

Our last trip was spent constantly telling our youngest that she couldn't eat everything all the time and she wanted to try everything. Now, she can and we'll have enough food to cover our toddler as well.

 

[Colleen27]

We did 11 nights on the deluxe plan in January and we LOVED it. We won't go back without it unless the plan changes dramatically.

Most days, we scheduled two meals - a 1 credt TS and a signature dinner. We had room service on our resort/swim day. We tried most of the signature restuarants (haven't been to Brown Derby, Flying Fish, or Citricos yet), and really enjoyed the all-inclusive feel of not having to worry about a food budget.

The sit down meals do take time, but since we keep a slower pace on vacation anyway, we didn't find that to be an issue. Going in the winter when park hours are short, it was easy enough to schedule dinners for after the parks closed for the evening.

We had 4 meal credits left over when we were getting ready to check out, just enough to grab sandwiches and bottled drinks to eat at the airport while waiting for our flight. We did have a TON of snacks leftover, even though we were using them at every whim for chocolate covered strawberries, bottled waters, and ice cream in every park. We brought home 40 Mickey rice crispy treats for the kids to take in as a treat for their classes!

 

[jblrn2b]

We used the DDP the last time in April. I have two boys 14, 8 who will eat anything but love to eat good food and LOTS of it. We had at least one TS meal a day (with signature restaurants) most two a day d/t having a Character breakfast every day and then a nice sit down dinner. We did had have two meals leftover but I think that was a mistake because I planned our ADRs. There were no snack credits left due to the popsicle monster living in my house. My DH and I thought it was a lot of food for us but boy was it fun!!!

 

[iluvpluto27]

We loved the deluxe plan. We did 14 nights on the plan this September/October and loved it. Most days we used snacks for breakfast, 1 TS for lunch then a signature for dinner. We were able to hit every signature restaurant, and try lots of 1 TS restaurants we'd never got round to before.

We're going back next year and using the deluxe plan again. Only downside was it was quite tying, we had 28 ADRs and it was a lot of food, but we didn't eat everything the plan offered, only what we wanted.

 

[mmps108]

I think that answers my questions...

Because you get 3 meals a day on the DxDP, you can have all three of them TS? So we can go to a character meal for breakfast, use a snack for lunch and use the other 2 for a signature dinning or some place like the Hoop-dee-doo?
Or we could have 3 counter service meals if we wanted to (not practical use of money), but we could, right?

You mean we can eat at all the signature dining places? WOW!

My DH and I are having a hard time deciding if we want to do the DDP or the DxDP or none at all...so many options!!!!

 

[TifffanyD]

We've done it twice now - both for stays of 1 night. The first time we checked in early saturday, had TS lunch and dinner... and then TS lunch the next day. Some snacks thrown in too The second time we did some snacks for lunch and signature dinner on day 1, then lunch on day 2. We find it perfect for these shorter trips! We're doing it again on xmas eve, 4 nights next jan, and a few more trips after that!

 

[iluvpluto27]

I think that answers my questions...

Because you get 3 meals a day on the DxDP, you can have all three of them TS? So we can go to a character meal for breakfast, use a snack for lunch and use the other 2 for a signature dinning or some place like the Hoop-dee-doo?
Or we could have 3 counter service meals if we wanted to (not practical use of money), but we could, right?

You mean we can eat at all the signature dining places? WOW!

My DH and I are having a hard time deciding if we want to do the DDP or the DxDP or none at all...so many options!!!!

Yes that's exactly right, you can use the credits for 3 1TS credit meals a day, a 1TS and a 2TS or 3 CS meals if you wanted. It's totally up to you how you use them, we did a couple of days where we had 3 TS meals a day, but we couldn't have done that every day, so it was mostly 2 TS meals a day for us allowing us to eat at every signature.

 

[Cookie Princess]

I am really tempted by this plan, especially since the dropped the appy from the original dining plan. We loved the original plan, and I am toying with the idea of the deluxe for our next trip.

We enjoy signature dining and I would not be one to turn down an extra snack each day.

 

[chinarider]

I'm debating upgrading to this plan for half my trip. We had to make two reservations so that we could get the biggest benefit of the promotions - I have 2- 7 day reservations. My thought is upgrading for the first week and we will have a frig in the room so, we could possibly save food that we haven't eaten for the following week. My only hesitation is that it is just my daughter and myself ( she will be 14 at the time of the trip )- she is not a fancy eater by any means. She mostly a chicken and pasta type of gal, no steak, seafood, pork etc. With that said, is it really cost effective for us? We did the regular dining plan last trip (2006)- and loved it except planning around the reservations sometimes got to be a bit much however, we wouldn't do it without it. We're not big early breakfast eaters and we're not big late night eaters either (I think we just eat a lot during the day )It think the deluxe is approx $65 more per day for both of us- not sure if it's cost effective but, I think it would give us the opportunity to eat at places that we normally wouldn't and give us the opportunity to splurge some as well. Just concerned about looking at TS menues and what she would be willing to eat.

 

[surgefest]

a lot of great info!!! Does anyone know if any part of the dining plan (snack credit or counter service meal or whatever) Can be used to have a birthday cake delivered the the room??? I'm guessing no but figured it's worth asking. OR anything along those lines... Thanks!

 

[bangzoom6877]

a lot of great info!!! Does anyone know if any part of the dining plan (snack credit or counter service meal or whatever) Can be used to have a birthday cake delivered the the room??? I'm guessing no but figured it's worth asking. OR anything along those lines... Thanks!

I would think not. I know for sure that a snack credit must be used for a single serving item only, whereas before this year you could use it for anything $4 or under. Now this is not the case anymore...you must use a snack credit for a single serving only. I don't think they would take a meal credit for a birthday cake. I believe you would have to pay OOP.

 

[allisonswonderland]

We just returned from he deluxe plan.....11/7-11/15. My motto was eat what you want. It was a lot of food. It was fun to try it once and we had a lot of signature dining. I would also say that you might be better off to go with a late breakfast and then a sig dinner (eat a snack for lunch). I would not do that again, but am glad that my husband and I tried it once.

 

[Colleen27]

a lot of great info!!! Does anyone know if any part of the dining plan (snack credit or counter service meal or whatever) Can be used to have a birthday cake delivered the the room??? I'm guessing no but figured it's worth asking. OR anything along those lines... Thanks!

No, cake is strictly OOP but well worth it IMO. Disney makes amazing cakes!! We had one at Grand Floridian Cafe for DD's 6th birthday trip that was yellow cake, custard with sliced strawberries filling, white buttercream frosting and a yellow cake, custard with strawberries, chocolate buttercream frosting for DS's 10th birthday in January. They were $40 each plus tax and tip and worth every penny.

 

[Kurby]

we're doing it in the spring

we figure this will prob be the last time we can take advantage of not having to pay for our dd plus we can't seem to knock off any of the restaurants this trip.

if we try them all now (staying for 15 nights) we won't have to do them all again in the near future.

we can go back to the ddp after this.