DxDP - Is "it's too much food" really that big an issue?

[GillianP1301]

I've been sitting here reading old threads on DxDP, trying to gather some tips for my upcoming Aug '14 vacation with my DS6. I've used the DDP in the past and have found it to be either a break even or slight savings, so for me the Dining Plan is more about convenience and being paid up front. This will be my first time on the deluxe plan and chose it mostly as a go for it/try it out type of situation. I've loaded up with character meals and throwing in a couple of signatures to try for the first time. I'm pretty excited about it!

What got me thinking here is I read a lot about people saying it's a lot of food/too much food/too much time, etc... Am I nuts to not be concerning myself with this? The time one, I'm not so concerned about. To me, the TS meals will be as much for cooling down breaks as they are for the meals. Fortunately, my DS generally doesn't have an issue sitting through 1hr+ restaurant meals, so that helps. And, I have developed touring plans where all the restaurant time is not interfering with covering the attractions we want to see. So on that front, I'm good.

But the too much food one, is that really that big of an issue? I figure I'll order the 3 courses at lunch & dinner and if it's getting to be too much food, I just won't clear my plate. I still like the idea of being able to try stuff, even if I only eat a portion of it.

What have your DxDP experiences been like? I guess all the "too much food" posts have me second guessing myself and I'm looking for a little reassurance, but whenever I read that, I just keep thinking to myself, "so why didn't you just eat less of each course"?

 

[MakiraMarlena]

It would be as far as I am concerned because I would not normally order appetizer, entree, AND dessert at every single meal. Ever. So I don't get a dining plan and I just order what I want. I don't like to waste the food by leaving half of it behind. Some folks don't mind that.

 

[Anchored]

I guess it depends on your vantage point. I spend a few days a week volunteering at a food bank and see so many hungry people. I ABHOR throwing away food. I really try not to throw any away at home or anywhere I go. It is definitely too much for me and I wouldn't get it.

 

[brymolmom]

It might not be an issue for everyone..But in my experience - I eat WAY more if there's food sitting in front of me than I do when I finish what is there. So with the situation where I KNOW there's going to be more food than I will finish to be 'just full' - I know that I'm very likely to leave STUFFED...Or wish I hadn't eaten as much.

Honestly even with the DDP - I get SICk of eating after 5 days and really just want a sandwich and no huge meals.

 

[shortnsassy730]

We almost always do the deluxe plan and we do an early lunch and a late signature every day. We do two signatures on HS day and use our snack credits at Food and Wine another night instead of a TS. If I don't have room for dessert, I just don't order it. That way there's no waste. We are seafood/steak eaters anyways so we would most likely order the higher priced items so the cost evens out give or take 50.00 overall. I find that at a Signature its not too much food as the apps and deserts are very light. That being said, if you qualify for a Tables in Wonderland card, that is usually a better deal. You can still hit the same restaurants but order smaller if you aren't in the mood for a full meal.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

We did it once and it worked that time for us but it's not something I would choose to do every trip. The positives were we did a mix of signatures and dinner shows at dinner plus a character breakfast each day. We didn't use all our snack credits but the kids used them up on candy and rice krispie treats to bring home for friends. The food cost was mainly taken care of and we enjoyed doing all the stuff we had always put off doing.
The negative was we found that we 'wasted' lots of park time because our plans were so detailed in advance (dictated by having breakfast and dinner ts) that we lost the flexibility. Also the cost of tips was an absolute nightmare.
All in all if I had the money I would probably go to WDW every six months and do dxdp one trip in four.

 

[DLB]

We (DH, myself and 2 kids) have done it twice and IMO yes, it is way too much food. We felt like all we did was eat and when you do eat it was a lot of food. Ordering an app and diner would leave us stuffed. We collected so many to go desserts that were never eaten. At the end if the trip we have 50+ snack credits left and we didn't skimp on snacks. If we wanted something (popcorn, pretzel, water,ice cream) we got it.

We did a few 2 credit meals and IF I were to ever do it again I would do more. You can def get by with a TS breakfast, snack for lunch and a 2credit TS for dinner.

Hope this helps!

 

[juliebug1997]

Is it a lot of food? Yes.
Does it take up some time? Yes.

However, DH and I don't always get to have lunch and we usually go when it's hot out so we like to find an A/C filled escape. And, honestly, I've been in the CS places during peak times of the year and those places just gave me the rages. So many people, it's so loud, etc.

 

[patsal]

I think the "too much food" has to do with the idea of paying for items you are not going to eat. DXDDP is never free, so for many paying for items you are just going to toss out or not bother ordering makes it a poor value.

If a person regularly eats 3 full meals per day, has an appetizer and dessert with both lunch and dinner and consumes two snacks per day in addition to that, then the DXDDP might be a good choice for them. In addition if they are going to do a TS breakfast or character breakfast plus a signature meal every night while enjoying two snacks throughout the day then again this may be a good value.

Thing is for many of us 7, 10, or 14 days of eating like the above just isn't worth it and you can eat less expensively oop. Once you begin not ordering all of your entitelements the value fo the DXDDP decreases.

 

[GaBelle]

We get the DxDP every visit...my DH won't go without it.
It can be a lot of food. My advice would be space your meals out 6-7 hours (or more) apart.
We've even just made breakfast and dinner ADRs, and utilize snacks credits in between meals.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

I think time of year and how you distribute your credits makes a huge difference. We don't seem to want to eat as much in hot weather, so on a fall trip when we also had access to a concierge lounge, we were stuffed the whole time. We would never go into a restaurant and order an appetizer and dessert for each family member, but we did when it was included in the price.

I think we would have enjoyed it more in cooler weather with late breakfasts and signature dinners.

 

[Melanie B]

We like it because it gives me the option to order whatever I want without having to worry about the cost. I get to try some interesting things and things I may not have normally ordered. We feel it's a good value for the types of food we enjoy. Breakfast or an early lunch and then a signature for dinner is perfect for us.

 

[smiths02]

I agree with PP. 1) If the food is there, you are likely to eat more. 2) Value decreases if you don't use entitlements.

In both those ways, it could be too much food.
Perhaps if you go to the Wave and get a coffee and egg white omelette for breakfast, then a bottle of water and piece of fruit midday, then a signature dinner with salad, entree, sorbet for dessert, it wouldn't be too much. But many of the options are going to be WAY more calories than that. And ordering as above is probably losing money.

ETA: It sounds like fun, and I wanted to make it work for our next trip, but I can't make it work moneywise since we only want a few 2 credit meals.

 

[Infamousmare]

For the past four years, my family has gone on free dining and upgraded to DxDP. We are total foodies and character meal aficianados, so we loved it.

Honestly, for us it was a welcome break to duck in out of the heat and a super fun way to do every character meal and eat high-end food. We would do a breakfast each morning and a signature or character dinner each night. We snacked for lunch and did just fine. (There were a few times we'd do an early lunch and a later dinner and did fine, as well.) Like other people said, if we didn't feel like an app or a dessert, we just didn't order it.

That being said, this year, we will not be doing the dining plan at all. It was way fun the first several times, but now my kids are getting slightly older and want to spend more time walking around EC and seeing the countries or riding more rides without having to break for an ADR. They have also done every character meal (except BoG, which is on our radar for this year!) and we have now narrowed down our favorite signature restaurants...so this year, we'll make a few ADRs and just wing the rest. *insert this type-a mama clutching her chest*

For some people, just the convenience of having it pre-paid and knowing you've got ressies to some cool restaurants is worth the money, no matter what the actual breakdown is. I know it was for me. If you're that person, then go with it and have fun. Don't sweat it being too much food - if you don't feel like eating an app or dessert, just don't order it. Nobody will judge you when you proudly announce to the server that you're on the dining plan. Promise.

 

[lucyem]

Someone once said on here that the DxDP was a better value the fewer days you use it. That at some point you do hit burnout.

 

[aaarcher86]

Not for us. We do a lot of character buffets so we eat as much or as little as we want. We do a QS lunch and if it's a menu TS we don't lick our plates clean if we don't want to.

 

[dbramer]

Whenever we go, we get the DxDP. We like the convenience of it and have never complained about "too much food." We don't go to a lot of TS restaurants at home, so we use vacation as our time to splurge. It is more about being able to enjoy the meal and the flexibility it provides as well as being paid up front and not having to worry about whether we budgeted enough money for our meals. I think it is great....for MY family.

 

[muushupork]

We did it once and it worked that time for us but it's not something I would choose to do every trip. The positives were we did a mix of signatures and dinner shows at dinner plus a character breakfast each day. We didn't use all our snack credits but the kids used them up on candy and rice krispie treats to bring home for friends. The food cost was mainly taken care of and we enjoyed doing all the stuff we had always put off doing. The negative was we found that we 'wasted' lots of park time because our plans were so detailed in advance (dictated by having breakfast and dinner ts) that we lost the flexibility. Also the cost of tips was an absolute nightmare. All in all if I had the money I would probably go to WDW every six months and do dxdp one trip in four.

The main reasons I don't want to do ddp again are the tipping and flexibility.

 

[jenjersnap]

I too am planning the DxDDP plan on the trip my youngest (age 7) and I are going on in November. Our entire family has done DxDDP twice before. I find the "too much food" thing wildly over-stated. We nearly always do a character breakfast and a signature so just two meals a day. I don't think we are particularly big eaters either. Signature portions are not large, generally, and I am always so distracted at character meals that I don't eat that much.

As a family we won't be doing DxDDP again, I don't think, as my middle DS is now a Disney adult and, as a result of health issues, his appetite is small...paying $110/day for him would be a waste when he would be happy with a kid's meal for a long time to come. But this trip, we are splurging...my kid wants the daily character meal and loves the TS experience, in general, while I want signatures plus dinner shows. When I do the math, even skipping dessert sometimes, I am saving money.

This is more detail than you need, I am sure.. I just wanted to explain the thought process for our situation...only you can know if it is right or too much for you. I do think many people who say it is too much food haven't tried it (not everyone but many) so it is good to take it with a grain of salt.

 

[CalSea12]

Honestly we always do a dining plan, I love the ease of it all. Sometimes we will do regular and sometimes deluxe. It depends on how many days were staying, and what we want to do on our trip.

This time I want to go to a couple of the shows, and eat at a couple signatures. I also want a few appetizers, so we will be going deluxe.

Do I think its too much food? For me no, but I sample a lot and also feed my 2 year old off my plate. I am a total foodie and love eating. On the deluxe I gain about 5-10 pounds by the time I get home, but then I work it off once I am home. Vacation is about having fun and letting loose, when I get home I get back to work.

I do love the breaks of getting into a million lines, dealing with crowds of people, getting out of the heat.

Also I am the type of person who will look for the cheapest thing to order, and if I have already paid for the deluxe then I will be more willing to get the $70 lobster and steal combo that I really would prefer. DH and I will also get two desserts so we can share and get two types of taste, etc.