Disney Dining vs .Disney Deluxe Dining Plaj

[MelDane]

Our trip is consisting of my self, my DW, and our DD(4). We are booked at CSR on November doing free dining. We are currently upgraded to the deluxe dining plan because we like the idea of the all-inclusive feel of the deluxe dining. There has been some concern about this because of the amount of food and time comment of eating at a bunch of table service. If we did not upgrade to deluxe dining it would make the option of upgrading to a deluxe resort more feasible. Any thought on the deluxe dining and how feasible of an option would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

Our trip is consisting of my self, my DW, and our DD(4). We are booked at CSR on November doing free dining. We are currently upgraded to the deluxe dining plan because we like the idea of the all-inclusive feel of the deluxe dining. There has been some concern about this because of the amount of food and time comment of eating at a bunch of table service. If we did not upgrade to deluxe dining it would make the option of upgrading to a deluxe resort more feasible. Any thought on the deluxe dining and how feasible of an option would be greatly appreciated.

I do not feel like the Deluxe Dining Plan is worth it if you are paying for it - unless you eat at Signature Restaurants or order the most expensive item. If it is free that is different. We have calculated the Dining plan each time we go and have saved money paying OOP. We did the DDP once and will not do it again.

We eat at least 1 TS per day - especially during the summer - we usually do it during the day to get out of the heat.

The idea of it being a lot of food is that you get dessert for lunch and for dinner - we would not order dessert for both meals - so for us all that dessert is a waste of food.

This is what I would do. Make a list of what it would cost you to stay at CSR with the free dining and then make a list of what it would cost you at a Deluxe resort and estimate where you will eat and what it will cost.

We love the Deluxe resorts because where we stay saves so much time getting to some of the parks. We stay in the EPCOT area mostly and can walk to EPCOT and take a lovely boat ride to HS.

On a side note - we have been to Janesville many times. DHs family is in Wausau and Green Bay. Lovely state.

 

[andi100]

We are also staying at CSR (Xmas week) and have the free dining, which we upgraded to DDP. My "kids" are 21 and 25 and love the signature restaurants. So, for us, we will do mostly character breakfasts (buffet) (1 table credit) and signature dining (2 table credits). There are times where we use only one ts credit for dinner (BOG), but we use the extra ts credit on our travel day (like dinner on arrival, or breakfast on departure). So, it all works out for us and we love the signature restaurants. Yes, we prefer staying at deluxe resorts, but found that we are park people (late emh) and are not in our rooms enough to justify the price of the deluxe resorts.

 

[davedmaine]

Terrible idea. With deluxe you'll be a slave to the plan, spending your day going from ADR to ADR. With a 4-year-old, I'm guessing your time would be better spent in the parks.
If I were you, I'd drop the plan altogether and pick up the room discount. If you want an all inclusive feel, take the money you're saving and put it on a Disney gift card. You'll save a lot of money and have a lot more flexibility with your dining.

 

[sharonabe]

Most people who enjoy the DxDDP tend to do a character breakfast or early lunch and then do a signature meal for dinner. This helps with that too much food, too much time problem. With a 4 yr old, those character breakfasts will be a huge hit. If you do get hungry between the two meals, you do have TWO snacks per person to tide you over.

So, I would definitely look at the different character things and signatures to see if that will work for your family. Your still going to be using up some time, and you need to plan them accordingly so you don't miss rope drop or evening entertainment, but it can be done.

 

[MelDane]

As of right now we have character breakfasts scheduled most mornings and character dinners scheduled every night. We are not planning on being at our resort much. If we drop the dinning plan there would be no way we could afford all the character dinning.

 

[mamaode]

I had a nice long reply how awesome the deluxe plan was great for us. But it timed out when loading We did tons of character meals breakfast lunch dinner. It was our recharging time as we also did not go back to the resort mid day. My kids were great stroller nappers

 

[jperrot1]

As of right now we have character breakfasts scheduled most mornings and character dinners scheduled every night. We are not planning on being at our resort much. If we drop the dinning plan there would be no way we could afford all the character dinning.

Based on the information you state, I would suggest keeping your CSR with free dining, and keeping that deluxe dining up grade. In addition, I would keep those breakfast and dinner character reservations. I think you have a great plan.
Now I can see how you are looking into the deluxe resorts and l can tell you they are a step above moderate resorts, but the moderate resorts are fantastic and with a 4 year old I would select all those character experiences over deluxe. I would look into CBR as it offers a toddler water section, right next to the main pool that has a zero entry pool section. If you loose the FD then stay put at CSR . CSR is probably my favorite of the moderates.

 

[TDC Nala]

In general the deluxe dining plan is not a money saver for anyone who doesn't follow the 1 credit late breakfast/early lunch plus 2 credit dinner model. However, since yours is an upgrade from free dining (not paying full price), you have a child under 10 years old and you have multiple character meals booked daily, you should likely keep it so long as you plan to stick to that schedule.

One of the biggest issues with prepaid dining is that if you get there and decide that you really didn't want so many character meals after all, you don't get your money back. It does help that you are not paying full price for the plan.