DxDP family of 4 is it worth it

[lmhidd]

It will my husband and me our DS 2 and DD 5. We are doing 5 nights/6 days. We are not going to wait in lines to see characters and only plan on doing the little kid rides. We also plan on having breakfast done prior to rope drop most days ad we are early risers. So our son is not covered and can eat off of our plates. He tends to eat a lot so he can eat our extra food and he eats anything. Here is my plan right now:
Day 1:
Snacks or a QS lunch
BOG dinner
Day 2:
Ohana (lilo and stitch) breakfast
Hollywood & Vine (disney jr) lunch
Mama melrose (fantasmic dinner pkg)
Day 3:
Crystal palace breakfast
Cinderellas royal table lunch
Spirit of aloha dinner show
Day 4:
Akershus breakfast
Coral reef lunch
Garden grill dinner
Day 5:
Tusker house breakfast
Snacks lunch
1900 park fare dinner
Day 6:
Cape may breakfast
Snacks or QS lunch at our resort

 

[RDawn]

3 complete sit-down meals a Day at WDW would be too much for my children. We were there last year with DS6 & DD8 on the DDP with 1 snack, 1 quick meal & 1 sit down meal per day. We used our snack credit for the 3rd meal of the day & had more than we could eat all six days.

 

[lovedworld]

Honestly I could never eat that much food in one day. Three sit down meals in one day would be way too much food for me, but that's just me it might be o.k. for your family.

 

[sharonabe]

I agree with PP...that is a lot of food with a lot of buffets. You'll see some of the same characters over and over.

If at all possible, I would scale it back to a character breakfast and a signature dinner each night.

 

[Maus]

Character meal overload in my opinion, one per day would be plenty for us. Not only is it a lot of food but it also takes a lot of time away from other things, you have travel time, waiting time and the actual meal will probably take an hour + too. Will you get your money worth with this plan? Sure.

 

[Zooshoveller]

It will my husband and me our DS 2 and DD 5. We are doing 5 nights/6 days. We are not going to wait in lines to see characters and only plan on doing the little kid rides. We also plan on having breakfast done prior to rope drop most days ad we are early risers. So our son is not covered and can eat off of our plates. He tends to eat a lot so he can eat our extra food and he eats anything. Here is my plan right now:
Day 1:
Snacks or a QS lunch
BOG dinner
Day 2:
Ohana (lilo and stitch) breakfast
Hollywood & Vine (disney jr) lunch
Mama melrose (fantasmic dinner pkg)
Day 3:
Crystal palace breakfast
Cinderellas royal table lunch
Spirit of aloha dinner show
Day 4:
Akershus breakfast
Coral reef lunch
Garden grill dinner
Day 5:
Tusker house breakfast
Snacks lunch
1900 park fare dinner
Day 6:
Cape may breakfast
Snacks or QS lunch at our resort

I like it. We did DxDP last trip (it was my kids first time) and we did as many character meals as we could. This time we are doing QSDP and paying oop for breakfast at Tusker House (missed it last time). It is a LOT of food, but IMHO worth it to meet the characters without waiting in line.

 

[lmhidd]

I like it. We did DxDP last trip (it was my kids first time) and we did as many character meals as we could. This time we are doing QSDP and paying oop for breakfast at Tusker House (missed it last time). It is a LOT of food, but IMHO worth it to meet the characters without waiting in line.

How old were your kids

 

[lmhidd]

I like it. We did DxDP last trip (it was my kids first time) and we did as many character meals as we could. This time we are doing QSDP and paying oop for breakfast at Tusker House (missed it last time). It is a LOT of food, but IMHO worth it to meet the characters without waiting in line.

Also were your kids already used to eating three sit down meals a day? Mine always sit down for three meals everyday. DH and I don't like fast food type food either so I thought more table service would give is more options too

 

[Zooshoveller]

Also were your kids already used to eating three sit down meals a day? Mine always sit down for three meals everyday. DH and I don't like fast food type food either so I thought more table service would give is more options too

Mine were 7 turning 8. And yes, we rarely eat fast food. Again, it's a lot of food and not something we plan on doing every trip, but definitely worth doing at least once! Splurge!

 

[mb_uh]

We liked it for character meals plus ts give you a break at meals to rest and cool off. Our kids were fine we did it with a 2,6,8 yo twice. We are scaling back because we have done ALL the character meals so no need to keep repeating.

 

[Allison]

Not worth it to me. It would be too much food and way too much time spent in restaurants.

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

I think it's way too much. I doubt a 2 and 5yo would think it's fun to sit through so many TS meals. I would scale back, take a hard look at the duplication in characters, and maybe go with the regular DDP. Keep in mind, many people have reported 2yo's being scared of the characters.

I would drop CRT (Akershus is a better value for the TS credit). I would probably also drop Coral Reef and Cape May Buffet. Also, you don't say where you're staying, but keep in mind it can take up to an hour to travel from one resort to another. This might be fine for adults, but most little kids wouldn't choose it.

 

[brertoad]

I personally think the added value in the DxDP comes from the ability for you to order an appetizer - in addition to the meal and dessert and drink at the TS a la carte restaurants. You are doing mostly all buffets correct? So you would not be getting an appetizer, and most buffets do include a soft drink into the price.

At $99-ish dollars a day PLUS tip for an adult DxDP plan, I don't know if you can break even on the DxDP, you would have to do a little more research, there is a thread on here that links to a website that has an app where you can plug in your reservations into a spreadsheet and figure if OOP, TiW, or DP works best. Keeping in mind breakfast and lunch are cheaper, and even during high season with higher buffet prices, I'm not sure if it adds up.

1 TS credit is worth about $40 of real cash to me. In order to get your money's worth, your TS meals need to average about $40 to break even. Keeping in mind that you will be tipping the server in cash or cc (except for the dinner shows which are all inclusive), and that figures into the $40 number.

I count the snacks and refillable mug as a wash, you can count those, but I usually don't factor that in until last.

But, some of the benefits of the DP is that you don't have to worry about any of this (numbers stuff) unless you want to. Everything would be pre-paid and may be less stressful on you during the vacation, i.e. ordering high priced items TS, having snacks covered, your 2 year old would be able to eat buffet food from your meals at no additional cost.

I'm sure someone knows where to find that spreadsheet thread.

I think your reservations look good, they look fun for the whole family, there is variety there. Part of the fun is the dining, hope you all have a wonderful vacation.

 

[lmhidd]

Yeah I forgot to mention we have free dining with upgrade to deluxe and are staying at POR. The more I think about the more I think it will work for us as its ok of we don't clean our plates

 

[lmhidd]

And our two yr old seems to love characters that we run into here not disney but characters

 

[gretchenohar@hotmail]

We've booked the DxDDP several times with our grandchildren and although it's a lot of food, we loved it.
The first time the youngest was 2 & the oldest 6 - so very similar to your family and it worked out great. We also were more interested in the characters and kiddie rides - in fact they both balked at most rides the first time - but they're 7 & 11 now & have been gradually trying more, so hopefully we'll spend more time on rides this time around. I expected the youngest to be scared of the characters, but she saw her brother go up and hug Mickey & the rest is history... Even if yours are a little afraid, the characters will take the hint and back off.
I can tell you that ours LOVED CRT - the first time the little one saw the castle from the Poly, she started jumping up & down screaming "The Castle! The Castle"! They were awe-struck once inside! I will say the interaction with the princesses is better at Askershus - but my 2 (a girl & a boy) both prefer CRT. BTW - even tho children under 2 are not included on the DP, we were given a small plate for bkfst for our little one at CRT.
We haven't had the pleasure of eating at BOG yet (hope to rectify that in June) or H & V, but our kids loved all the rest of the places you've chosen.
Have a great trip! You'll be making some wonderful memories!!!