dining plan help

[amr916]

We are going to disney world in sept and are going with the standard dining plan. It's 2 adults and 1 6 year-old. We were going to plan on using the quick service for breakfast at the hotel.

day 1:
arrival - no meals planned

day 2:
dinner @ coral reef

day 3:
dinner @ california grill

day 4:
lunch @ rainforest cafe

day 5:
no meals planned

day 6:
dinner @ nine dragons

day 7:
dinner show spirit of aloha

==

Should we upgrade to the deluxe dining? I'm not sure if we are using the standard plan to it's fullest potential, or if we are going to either a) still be hungry, or b) have to spend a lot of money on extra meals. We have never used a meal plan before.

Thanks for your help.

 

[navywifetill2002]

Breakfast is your least expensive meal so if paying OOP for a meal this would be the one to do it! If you're eating at your hotel you can get coffee, tea, or cocoa in your refilable mug and pay for your meal ($8 range) and save the CS credit for lunch at the parks. Since breakfast doesn't come with a "dessert" you are missing that portion of the value when you use your credits for CS breakfast. If you're wondering on prices check out allears.net

Personally we're going to buy a half gallon of milk in the resort store and bring some breakfast item to eat in the room before we go (saves time as DD3 can do her slow morning eating while we're getting ready, plus it saves some cash). DH is also a BIG eater so just 1 meal at the park is not going to be enough for him and touring with a hungry man is just no fun!

 

[TDC Nala]

It appears you are staying 7 nights, which will give you 7 TS, 7 CS and 7 snacks per person. You have five restaurants booked and two of them are 2 credits. So you have all 7 of those TS credits spoken for. Remember you also have 7 CS credits per person.

I don't see why you need the deluxe plan unless you plan to do more TS restaurants, or more signature restaurants.

 

[figment_jii]

Should we upgrade to the deluxe dining? I'm not sure if we are using the standard plan to it's fullest potential, or if we are going to either a) still be hungry, or b) have to spend a lot of money on extra meals. We have never used a meal plan before.

Upgrading to the DxDP means you are willing to spend a lot of time eating. The DxDP is essentially designed to be the most cost effective when you use at least 2 out of the 3 credits for TS meals. So this would translate to either a TS lunch and dinner or a 2 TS credit Signature/Show dinner. I liked the DxDP, but found that we were spending four so hours a day at meals (2 hours for lunch and 2 hours for dinner when you including time spent waiting to be seated, ordering, eating, etc.). That's a good chunk of the day.

As the PP indicated, breakfast is the least expensive meal. So I would plan on OOP breakfast (unless you are thinking of doing a lot of character buffets), a QS lunch, and then a TS dinner. I'd use the snack to tide me over from lunch to dinner.

This is my rough breakdown of the DDP "cost" for 2012:
Cost of DDP: $51.50
Assumed Average QS Cost: $15
Assumed Average Snack Cost: $4
"Value" of TS Credit: $32.50
"Value" of 2 TS Credits: $65
Tax Rate: 6.5%
So, pre-tax Signature sub-total: 1.065x = $65 => x = $61

So, if you spend at least $30.50 (pre-tax) at a TS location on a standard-non-alcoholic drink, entree, and dessert, then your credit is cost effective.

 

[amr916]

alright sounds like we will stick with the dining plan as planned. good point about using the QS for lunch rather than breakfast. thanks for the help/tips.

i guess in the back of my mind i thought we'd be able to get a character dining reservation(s), and the deluxe plan would cover them. not really having any success with those reservations at this point, but i keep checking every day.

 

[TDC Nala]

That would depend on how many character meals you were thinking of adding, since if you went deluxe you'd have 21 credits per person to use.

If you wouldn't use all your deluxe credits, and you only want to add one character meal, pick the least expensive meal on your list and pay for it OOP.

 

[havoc315]

alright sounds like we will stick with the dining plan as planned. good point about using the QS for lunch rather than breakfast. thanks for the help/tips.

i guess in the back of my mind i thought we'd be able to get a character dining reservation(s), and the deluxe plan would cover them. not really having any success with those reservations at this point, but i keep checking every day.

You can always pay OOP for 1-2 extra TS meals. The DxDP upgrade only makes sense if you want A LOT of extra TS meals. If you want to add 6-8 character meals, then the upgrade might make sense.

 

[figment_jii]

The rough breakdown of the DxDP "cost" for 2012:
Cost of DDP: $85.52 per person per night
Assumed Average Snack Cost: $4 * 2 = $8
"Cost" of the three meal credits: $77.52
"Value" of a meal credit: $25.84
Tax Rate: 6.5%
So, pre-tax sub-total of a meal credit is :$24.26
For a two credit venue, the pre-tax sub-total: $48.53

If you did one QS each day, then the "value" of each credit is $31.26 (post-tax) or $29.35 (pre-tax), which is pretty close to the "value" of the DDP TS credit.

As the others have said, you really have to plan to eat a lot of TS meals to justify the cost of the DxDP. In some ways making up the cost of the plan is easier because you get an appetizer with each TS meal, but it also means committing lots more time to eating. However, given that, you have to ask yourself if you can eat an appetizer, entree, and dessert at every TS meal...that's a lot of food!

As for getting the ADRs, the only advice that can really be given is to keep trying. Things open up as plans change. At this point, I would keep stalking the reservation website and see if you can find the character meals you want. You can always upgrade to the DxDP if you get lots of TS meals booked up until a week before you arrive (I think it's about a week). There may be a package change fee, but most information seems to indicate that this is waived if the package is going up in price.

This really won't help you in terms of the DDP, but with the one-day cancellation policy in effect for character meals you might have more luck finding "day-of" ADRs.

 

[amr916]

I'd be happy with one character meal.... upgrading just isn't worth it then.

It sounds like the deluxe dining is great for some people, but frankly I don't want to waste a lot of time at TS meals. I think 1 TS meal daily will suit our needs just fine.

I was able to grab a reservation for BOMA for our arrival day. The reviews seem favorable.

Again, thanks for all the help and breakdowns. I guess sometimes we automatically think more is better, and the "what-ifs" confuse you even more.

 

[amr916]

I was able to get a reservation at tusker house.