Done some research...any reason NOT to go with DXDP???

[jenniel73]

Okay I've been pricing things out and it looks like we might stay 4 nights/5 days to take advantage of the kids free deal. If we do this I'm wondering if there is a reason NOT to add on DXDP? Some of the meals we would like to do, if we can get reservations at this late date would be 2 credit meals...ie aloha dinner, cinderella's royal table.

I have two small children 5 and 3. We will be staying at the POFQ.

The only other reason i would lean towards it would be my husband...he might find it easier to part with the money if it was in one chunk rather than piece by piece.

 

[MissBritt]

DH and I did it in December 09 and loved it. We were there 3 nights/4 days, and had 3 meals each full day and 2 meals each travel day (we split a few) and felt like we tried everything we wanted. If you are doing more park days than nights, it's definitely a good way to stretch credits.

 

[Cafeen]

If you're planning enough TS meals to take up around 2/3 of the credits or more, and pricing it out would be cheaper than paying OOP, there's really no reason not to.

For 4 nights, that would end up being 12 credits each, 4 of those are "already spent" with SoA (the luau) and CRT. This should be pretty easy to make up the rest to reach that break even point (which is around 2/3 of credits spent on TS).

 

[ReneeA]

For us, there are a couple reasons not to do DxDDP. One is the time involved to eat at a sit down restaurant 2-3 times a day. I don't have the desire to spend 1 1/2 - 2 hours per meal 3x a day. That's 5 hours minimum out of my park time, pool time, or relaxation time. My kids and husband would revolt and by mid trip refuse to sit down anymore. We'd end up at CS meals anyway.

Two is the travel time to get to each restaurant. Unless you have a car, you are relying on WDW transportation to get you these places...which we have not had many issues with, but also are not using them many times during a day...only to and from our hotel to the parks. You'd have to be savvy enough to book restaurants within the parks you are touring and get lucky enough to get the reservation times you want.

Three, it's simply too much food for us. I know that you don't have to eat everything in front of you, but I know I would be sick to my stomach eating 2-3, 3-course meals a day. At home, we don't eat big breakfasts. We eat cereal and breakfast bars...and that's just fine for our trips, too. We use the regular DDP for every trip (4 trips since 2005) and it's plenty of food for us. We've also been to WDW enough to find the really good CS meals in the parks. Normally on our last day, we are spending our last few CS credits at the food court to take food to the airport with us.

Those are OUR reasons. It may be perfect for your family.

 

[gigi1313]

i was going to say that the only downside we found to the DxDDP was the cost of gratuities (four adults on the plan)... but if you are going to SoA, CRT, etc then it's well worth it 'cause the gratuity is included

 

[squirrel]

If it's your first trip and you only have a few park days, then I think the DxDP is too much. You will spend a lot of time eating and not much time in the parks riding or seeing attractions.

 

[The Duchess]

We're going end of October and did not get the Dining plan and instead opted to get a Club Level room with the 40% discount PIN for the Concierge Service. Of the six restaurants we wanted to book, two (Il Mulino and Victoria & Albert's) aren't even ON the Plan (unless you go Platinum) and the others are Signature and count as two...Jiko, Yachtsman, California Grill and Artist Point. Only booking two lunches.
Plus Club Level has continental breakfast and the Food and Wine Festival is on and the food on the Epcot carts is great.

 

[mommy2_3]

we are doing the DXDP. 3 meals 2 snacks a day will be great for us! we are staying 9 days 8 nights. i figured that since we are staying so long we will have all our meals already paid for so we wont have to budget for all those meals.

 

[crewmatt]

Wife and I did the DDxDP in January. It was great, we saved several hundred dollars when adding everything up. However, we wont be doing it on our next couple trips. We never ate so much in our entire lives. We brought bagels/etc for breakfast in the room (this way we could do rope drop no issue) so we had a table service lunch and signature meal every night basically. Soooo full. But the food was awesome

 

[MissBritt]

I should add that when DH and I went (we have no kids), we spent no more than 55 minutes at any TS meal, and the average meal was about 40 minutes including wait to be seated. Unless it's a signature with kids, I don't see a meal lasting 2 hours.

 

[Cookie Princess]

I should add that when DH and I went (we have no kids), we spent no more than 55 minutes at any TS meal, and the average meal was about 40 minutes including wait to be seated. Unless it's a signature with kids, I don't see a meal lasting 2 hours.

I agree. WDW tries to turn tables over quickly to accomodate a lot of diners. Unless you are eating at a signature dining spot and enjoying a very "relaxed" meal at your own pace, you are usually done in less than an hour.

We love the DxDDP, but understand that it is not for everyone.

 

[Faldred]

I should add that when DH and I went (we have no kids), we spent no more than 55 minutes at any TS meal, and the average meal was about 40 minutes including wait to be seated. Unless it's a signature with kids, I don't see a meal lasting 2 hours.

With three young kids (including two diaper changes per meal) we averaged 60-70 minutes per TS, excluding things like HDDR. CS meals still took 45-50 minutes, including standing in line for food, so I don't buy into the "TS takes up too much time" line. You do have to be pretty good about planning your touring around your ADRs, but that's what all of the knowledgeable folks at the DIS are for!

 

[Duckiedee]

Hey there, although this is our first time to Disney, we have decided to go with DxDP. For our family I can't imagine another alterative as good, although who knows what our reality will be.

Part of a fantastic trip for us is the dining experience - even our five-year-old LOVES to eat out. We don't eat outside the home as much as the average family as I find we can eat healthier at home. So when we do eat out, it is a super-fun experience for us.

We are touring for 10 days, and wanted the blessing of forced downtime in our trip. No rest breaks and food off our usual schedule 'causes a cranky family in our house. No point in touring if we are all shouting at one another because we are tired or hungry.

We are planning rope drop most days and really early breakfasts the few we do... (early rise, early to bed family)... lunch daily will be around 11/11:30 Dinner usually as soon as it opens for the particular restaurant... except for a couple.

We are also doing a bunch of Signature meals and Dinner Shows.

Including Hoop De Doo, Backyard BBQ, Spirit of Aloha, California Grill, CRT.

We also used our credits for Fantasmic preferred seating, and many, many character meals. To us the character meals are a must with our still imaginative DD. We are also dining at the Sci Fi, Coral Reef,and 50's PT... because although I've heard so-so remarks on the food - the dining experience sounds unique and fun.

Even with all these, we STILL have enough credits for Le Cellier, Teppan Edo, Boma, and have made reservations around parade time at Liberty Tree and for Illuminations at Rose and Crown hoping to get a good seat.

Except for character breakfasts - we will still need to have breakie in our room for several days because of all our two-credit meals. We should have lots of snack credits due to the amount of food to cover this... although DD and I are oatmeal in the morning kind of girls and after just finishing two weeks away - I've learned not to give up that fibre in the morning!!! so it still completely works for us. (I plan on packing some bowls and a small kettle.)

Personally we only plan (at this point) to do CS a couple of times. I tend to find CS meals start to taste the same after a day or two regardless of where you stay or how good the food is. I know ten days of so much CS will make me super-cranky. But that's me, and I've heard over and over the CS is really good, so maybe this would be an exception... I'll probably find out for sure on another trip!

To figure out our ADRs, we decided on which park, which day and ate at the TS in that park we were interested in.... or if we wanted to do CRT on a certain day, that meant MK is our park that day. Booked Cali Grill on the night of my birthday (and the Neverland Club for DD) so MK is our park that night. All in all I booked at 180+10 and was able to secure all my requests within 10 mins.

 

[hstrickland]

we are doing the DXDP. 3 meals 2 snacks a day will be great for us! we are staying 9 days 8 nights. i figured that since we are staying so long we will have all our meals already paid for so we wont have to budget for all those meals.

Just returned from a 9 day Poly visit with Dxdp. I'm a big planner, so it worked well for us. We LOVE sitting down at TS and getting out of the heat for a while....have started a TR with all of our TS meals. You can see through the TR why we love the Dxdp so much. I will give you these estimates. We saved ALL of our reciepts from the restaurants. For 2 adults per day the Dxdp cost around $145.98...basically for 8 nights $1167.84. Now...DH and I did not always order appetizers or dessert ( which you can on Dxdp) If we had paid out of pocket the cost would have been $1510.18. I did not include the 2 mugs we got worth $27 and the 2 snacks we got each day...worth $94....as you can see, we saved a pile of money by doing the Dxdp. If you don't like TS, then deluxe isn't for you. Hope I haven't confused anyone

 

[mom2val]

Longest meal we have ever had was less than 2 hours. That was California Grill and included the time we spent outside watching the fireworks. With character meals we are always done and just waiting for the characters to come aroubd so we can leave. Disney wants to turn those tables and will promptly bring your next course and get you in and out asap. We have never felt rushed to get out and actually appreciate the speed.

We love the DxDP and will getting it again this next trip. We love the fact that the food is already paid for. There is no keeping tabs on what eveyone is ordering or picking something cheaper for yourself bc dh just ordered a $34 steak!

 

[gigi1313]

although DD and I are oatmeal in the morning kind of girls

good news... oatmeal is available at most food courts (values and mods, not deluxes in my experience) for a snack credit