DxDDP math/thoughts

[Colleen27]

Since it is quickly becoming clear that I haven't the time or the photos to do a decent dining review, I decided instead to share the quick-and-dirty math on our recent DxDDP trip.

My travel party was made up of all adults for the plan purposes, though I'm the only one of legal drinking age. My youngest daughter (9) could have gotten by with the child's plan, but because she hasn't eaten from kids menus in years I didn't want to risk her being stuck with the kids' plan if they suddenly started enforcing the "kids must order from kids menus" language, so we up-aged her to an adult. The other three are teens/young adults, one of them a pescatarian. So we were not a particularly advantageous group in terms of trying to save with the plan.

We were there for five nights, and had four signature meals planned in that time. We ended up cancelling one of them in favor of trying something new at Disney Springs.

Our ADRs were:
California Grill brunch
Raglan Road dinner
50s Prime Time lunch
Yachtsman Steakhouse dinner
Cape May Cafe breakfast (just me & DD9)
Rose & Crown dinner (just DS20 & his SO)
Spice Road Table dinner (just me, DD16 & DD9)
Be Our Guest breakfast
Narcoosees dinner
Yak & Yeti lunch
Ohana dinner
Flying Fish dinner (cancelled in favor of Maria & Enzo's)

We had a couple of really fabulous meals - Yachtsman was a standout and went up several notches in my estimation since our last visit, which was good but not spectacular like this one. Maria & Enzo's was a find; the quality and price of the meal was almost on par with our signature dinners, but it is only one credit and we were able to walk up with no reservation and no wait. And Raglan Road's latest menu change had me over the moon because you no longer have to share their best appetizer choices.

We also had a couple disappointments, but they were largely expected - I'd never eat at Be Our Guest if not for the pre-park-opening advantage, and I'd never pay cash there. The food isn't bad but it just isn't worth the price tag. And Ohana continues to fall flat for me, though the kids still like it.

Overall, we had far more good meals than bad, a few hiccups here and there (Yak & Yeti wasn't quite as good as I remembered, though the Yak Attack is amazing, and the service at Spice Road Table left something to be desired), but mostly really nice dining experiences.

Financially, we didn't make the most of the plan by any stretch. We ended up cashing in a few meals' worth of snack credits at Goofy's on our last day, because I'd "budgeted" for a signature dinner before starting the drive home and the changed those plans, and we didn't hold back on using snacks for bottled water or fruit if the mood struck.

So did the plan work for us? Absolutely!

Just on the meals listed above, we came out ahead by almost $200. That isn't factoring in the snack-credit lunch around the world at the Flower & Garden festival booths or the refillable mugs, which we usually buy anyway. I didn't keep tabs on all of our snacks, but the receipts I did keep add up to an average value of just over $6 per credit.

My spreadsheet ahead of the trip projected a savings of $473.47 and as best I can figure from the receipts I kept and the pictures I did take, we beat that by about $150... mostly because my spreadsheet values a snack credit at $4 and between Starbucks and the festival booths our average came in much higher than that.

I was actually a bit surprised by the numbers because it didn't feel like we made as good use of the plan as in the past... but I guess a few $10 snack credits balance out those bottles of water and apple slices with caramel faster than one might think. The convenience remains the biggest appeal, though; I didn't have to worry about the kids having money for meals when they went their own way, or keep tabs on what they were charging to the room.

 

[gillep]

It is great to see more good reviews of Maria & Enzo's, we need a break from Il Mulino for our pre-marathon meal, so I think that we will be trying here instead!

Glad the plan worked well for you, we are doing the DxDP for one night of our upcoming split stay and I am already worried that someone is going to need to roll me out of Sanaa.

 

[Specter]

My DW and I haven't yet had DxDDP, just regular, but even then I feel like we've managed to get our money's worth. Based on the calculators that we've checked online it does look like the DxDDP would be even better for us, because even when we had the standard plan we would sometimes get an appetizer and a cocktail or glass of wine. Our upcoming trip is booked with Dx and we're already starting to think about our ADRs even though we have about six weeks until we can start making the reservations. Glad the plan worked for you, and can't wait to try it for ourselves. Also, thanks for the thoughts on some of the restaurants. Raglan is a favorite of ours and we've always kicked around trying yachtsman, but haven't yet. The more good reviews we read the more the scales tip in its favor.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Good to read your eatery reviews and know you were happy with choosing the DxDP .

After your CG brunch did you eat dinner @ RR (or some place else) and if so do you recall the times of your ADRs?
Trying to figure out if we'll really want a full dinner that night or just snacks. Our brunch ressie is for 12:50 PM.

 

[DisneyHardin]

We did DxDDP for the first time last year and we felt like it was worth it too. It was just DH and I, but we had such a great time eating at the signature restaurants.

I'm glad to hear that Raglan Rd has changed theirs around a little bit. When we ate there in November for the first time using the DxDDP, I was disappointed that they would only let us choose one appetizer for the two of us to share even though there was no mention on the menu of them being "for 2".

 

[Colleen27]

Good to read your eatery reviews and know you were happy with choosing the DxDP .

After your CG brunch did you eat dinner @ RR (or some place else) and if so do you recall the times of your ADRs?
Trying to figure out if we'll really want a full dinner that night or just snacks. Our brunch ressie is for 12:50 PM.

Brunch was at 12:20. Dinner was at 8:50, and we checked in a bit early because we were all hungry by that point. We did spend the afternoon at the pool, though, which always works up a bit of an appetite.

We did DxDDP for the first time last year and we felt like it was worth it too. It was just DH and I, but we had such a great time eating at the signature restaurants.

I'm glad to hear that Raglan Rd has changed theirs around a little bit. When we ate there in November for the first time using the DxDDP, I was disappointed that they would only let us choose one appetizer for the two of us to share even though there was no mention on the menu of them being "for 2".

Their appetizer menu used to be in two categories: "Its all for me" and "Its all for sharing", and most of the choices we really like were in the sharing section which required two people combine their appetizer to order them. I'm not sure when that went away but it was since January, which is when I last went through and checked menus/tweaked ADR plans.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Their appetizer menu used to be in two categories: "Its all for me" and "Its all for sharing", and most of the choices we really like were in the sharing section which required two people combine their appetizer to order them. I'm not sure when that went away but it was since January, which is when I last went through and checked menus/tweaked ADR plans.

We were there for lunch in November and the menu was not divided in any way. We just tried to order 2 and our server told us that unless we got something small like a cup of soup or side salad, all the appetizers were for "2". There was nothing on the menu at all that indicated this. I was a little annoyed, but didn't push it - we still had tons of food, we just wanted to try the scallops and the little sausages. We just got the sausages and they were great.