DxDP and park time?? (food allergies)

[brown1442]

After doing some more thinking about our upcoming trip and my son's food allergies (he has multiple) I am back to considering the DxDP. My biggest concern with the DxDP is spending all of our time in restaurants though... instead of in the parks.

Those who have done the DxDP... have you felt that you got enough time in the parks too??

I am fairly certain we wouldn't "get our money's worth" out of the DxDP other than the peace of mind that the TS places are better equipped to deal with my son's food allergies. I'd like to do 2 meals a day and then fill in the gaps with snacks or whatever.

This is what I was thinking... do you think we'd get enough park time with this dining schedule on the DxDP...

Sunday... arrive and Ohana's for dinner (tradition)
Monday... MK... Chef Mickeys 9am and Cinderella's castle 6pm
Tuesday... Epcot... Biergarten 12am and Le Cellier 6pm
Wed... DHS... 50s Prime Time 11am and Cape May 7pm
Thursday... MK... Whispering Canyon (or LTT??) 11am and Kona 6pm
Friday... AK... Boma 11am and Cali Grill 7pm

If we did the regular dining plans this is what our schedule would look like...

Sunday... Ohana
Monday... MK... Chef Mickeys 9am (OOP) and Cosmic Rays
Tuesday... Epcot... Le Cellier 11:30 and somewhere in the World Showcase (Liberty Inn for food allergy child)
Wed... DHS... Pizza Planet 11am and 50's Prime Time 6pm
Thursday... MK... Caseys 11am and Kona 5
Friday... AK... Flame Tree 11am and Cali Grill 7pm

We aren't huge breakfast fans but my kids LOVE Chef Mickey's breakfast so its a must. In the past we'd picked up snacks at Captain Cooks (we stay at the Poly) and at those in our room for breakfast.

Anyone have experience with eating at Pizza Planet, Flame Tree, and Liberty Inn with food allergies... we haven't eaten there before.

TIA!!

 

[DisneyFamily123]

After doing some more thinking about our upcoming trip and my son's food allergies (he has multiple) I am back to considering the DxDP. My biggest concern with the DxDP is spending all of our time in restaurants though... instead of in the parks.....

We had the deluxe Dining Plan (DxDDP) in 2009 and 2010, and will again this year. DS is allergic to egg. It is SO much easier to do table service and let the Chefs handle the allergy. Handling allergies at counter service is more your responsibility and the choices more limited. The Chef comes to your table and discusses the allergies with you. For buffets, the chef walks the buffet and we have been offered different food if what's there doesn't work (for example, cook salmon fresh without the sauce that has egg in it). For regular table service, the chefs basically would cook up anything DS liked and sometimes made special desserts.

I don't view the dining as a loss of time. Dining at table service is a great way to relax, take a break from all the walking and the go-go-go of Disney parks, have some family time, and often entertainment. There's character meals, places with musical entertainment, or even belly dancing.... Plus it's air conditioned!

I have waited in some VERY long lines to get counter service.... thinking... we could have been seated at a restaurant faster than this. Plus with multiple allergies, do you really want to waste time looking through ingredients lists trying to figure out what is allergy OK at counter service?

I will say that the All Star resorts were great for breakfast. The chefs made a special egg-free batter for DS and cooked his pancakes separately.

We never have enough time to do everything we want in the parks, but that's because there is so much to do, not because of dining. This will be our 4th trip coming up... we added waterparks to our plan so we have even less time!

As far as value.... you don't have to do all table service to get your money's worth. We considered just doing the regular dining plan (not deluxe) this upcoming trip but the savings are about the same even if we do some counter service. Overall, including tips, both plans are the same... we end up paying about 42% of the cost (including meals, tips, snacks, mugs).

We used up our meal credits like this. Arrival day - lunch and dinner. Departure day - character breakfast and late lunch. Other days we usually have a lunch and a 2 credit dinner (signature restaurant or dinner show). A few days we had 3 meals - an early character breakfast (around 8am), a later lunch (around 1pm), and dinner (around 7 or 7:30).

Have you had lunch or dinner at Brown Derby in Hollywood Studios? Gets bad press because it's 2 credits, but on deluxe you might have some credits to use up. We had 2 great meals (dinner one day, lunch another) last trip.

How about a lunch on Monday? You could always arrive earlier for Chef Mickeys and see if you can get seated.... then have lunch in Magic Kingdom. Crystal Palace is nice, quick, and you can eat as little as you want.

For Wednesday, how about breakfast at Hollywood and Vine? If you have young children, DS loved Dancing with Agent Oso and Handy Manny. We like to get an 8am breakfast there before the park opens at 9am. But... 50s prime time is some heavy home cookin food, not to mention the HUGE milkshakes, I'd have to make that later if I was having breakfast that day!

For Wednesday's dinner, if you like seafood... we had an INCREDIBLE dinner at Flying Fish Cafe right near there. And the Boardwalk entertainers were right outside the restaurant... very funny magic, comedy, and juggling with audience participation. FFish is 2 credits and well worth it!

For Thursday, we had lunch at Kona and it was OK... On that day, there were just a few too many flies in there... How about a 2 credit signature at the Grand Floridian instead? Citricos and Narcoosees both have some good things... Citricos' food is outstanding... Narcoosees has a good view of the water and castle... if timed right, you can see the electric lighted boat parade and fireworks from Narcoosees (whole lobster is good). We like visiting the Grand Floridian because the new lobby is really nice (character tile work, floral arrangements, etc.) and there's a live band (small orchestra, no strings) and a piano player who alternate there in the evenings.

Have a great trip!

 

[angierae]

Count me in with the people who say that dining time is also vacation time. I like the go-go-go of the parks but I also like the time to sit with my family and discuss the stuff we've done and make plans for the afternoon/next day and enjoy the Dining Experience. Maybe it's because DD is older (16) but I loved being on DxDP and I'm glad we were able to upgrade to it for our upcoming trip.

And with the allergies - yeah, I'd MUCH rather deal with TS than CS.

 

[havoc315]

We prefer doing the DxDP.... With a TS lunch and TS (or signature) dinner. Just as you mostly laid out.

Does it take time away from the parks? Really depends on how much time you plan on spending running around the parks.

We get to the parks at rope drop, and eat lunch around 11:30-12. So we typically have had a solid 2-3 hours of the park before a nice long sit-down break. Then we will do another 1-2 hours after lunch.
Then relax until dinner.

We find that 4-5 hours of park time, per day, is plenty for us. We skip half the headline rides, as our kids are too young for Expedition Everest, Tower of Terror, etc. So we create a touring plan that lets us really take in the flavor of the park over 4-5 hours.

If you're the type of family that wants to spend 8-10+ hours of park touring, then I could see the DxDP being too much downtime.

 

[havoc315]

Anyone have experience with eating at Pizza Planet, Flame Tree, and Liberty Inn with food allergies... we haven't eaten there before.

TIA!!

Although I can't talk specifically about those restaurants.. Disney is excellent about food allergies in general. In the TS restaurants, where requested, a chef will come out and talk to you about the menu and potential allergens.

Not sure about how it works at the CS restaurants, but I believe you can call/email Disney in advance for more information. There are tales of Disney going to great lengths to help families with allergies.

 

[Colleen27]

We don't feel like the DxDDP takes too much time away from the parks at all. We don't take midday breaks back at our resort, so a table service lunch is a nice chance to recharge after the semi-commando pace of rope drop mornings. Then we take the afternoon slower and have a nice signature dinner to unwind at the end of the day. We've also had very good luck with our dining choices; we seldom wait more than 10-15 min for a table and often less, so an in-park TS lunch doesn't really take significantly longer than trying to get counter service at a normal meal time when the lines are long and tables scarce. And sitting down to be waited on is FAR more relaxing than dealing with the hassles of a busy counter service restaurant!

 

[clanmcculloch]

I commented about this in your other thread as well but I figure I'll address this specifically here as well. You mentioned that you also have a special needs child. Each special needs child has his/her own needs so I don't know if you have the same issues as I do or not, but with my autistic daughter I know I can only spend a specific amount of time each day away from our resort and that includes sitting in a restaurant. If I spend 2 hours in a restaurant (and with complex allergy lists I always expect to spend that long at eat TS meal), that's 2 hours less we can spend in a park. We can do 3 hours in a park plus a TS meal total in a day. If we did a second TS meal then that means we'd get to spend maybe an hour in the parks. 2 TS meals works well for us for a break day or an Epcot day (not sure why but Epcot is the park where she can handle a longer day). It's just a fact of life for us with our autistic daughter's particular needs. It's at least something to keep in mind. If this isn't an issue for you and you can financially afford to pay for the DxDDP then go for it and don't second guess yourself.

 

[brown1442]

clanmcculloch my son has autism as well as a mitochondrial disorder so fatigue is a major issue for him. He wouldn't make it park open to close either but as long his wheelchair he does well for a good amount of time (as long as its not too hot... we were VERY luck our past 2 trips with beautiful cooler weather). We do need to allow for a good solid 12hours of sleep at night for him otherwise everything will fall apart. That is why most of our meals start with lunch. In the past it was 10pm or later before we got back to the resort after fireworks (a must) so we let him sleep until 10am and then left for the day.

 

[3pletprincesses]

We did DxDDP with our triplets and loved it. We didn't feel it was a waste of our time, more like a time to relax. We had our meals pretty much planned like yours, early breakfast and fairly early dinner and it was great. We usually go back to our resort for the afternoon break and would then go dinner and then head backto the park. I feel by doing this that we are in fact making up time. If we decided to not take an afternoon break and go go go, our girls would get over tired and we would have done less then doing 2 TS a day with a break in between. In the few hours in the morning and the few hours in the evening, I feel we did more then if we would have dragged our feet all day at the park and everyone was much happier and rested.

 

[sharonabe]

If you decide to do the DxDDP itinerary, I vote for LTT for lunch on that MK day instead of Whispering Canyon. That way you get to stay in the park instead of using MORE time to travel over to WL.