dxdp or ddp Hubby is making me crazy

[Mike N Kathy]

Hubbie wants the dxdp ... I was hoping we can save some money but god forbid >.< Do you guys think its worth it ... I did want to try some signatures and Dining shows... But if we couldnt oh well im not gonna go crazy over it. It just seems like alot of eating ... Granted we love to eat... But i dont want to base my vacation on Spending hours of it eating What you guys think?

 

[mickeysgirl17]

Well, it depends. If this is your first trip, I highly recommend not doing the deluxe plan because you'll want to see and do as much of the parks as possible.

That aside, I think the deluxe plan is great but there are a few things you should consider:

1. Will you be driving or using Disney transportation? If you drive, it will benefit because you can get from resort to resort or anywhere on property a little faster. If your relying on Disney trasportation, I'd probably do the regular DP since they'll be less TS to worry about and you won't have to travel to the resorts much.

2. If you have young kids, it may be too much trouble. If you plan to do 3 sit down meals per day, you'll have to space them apart, meaning your last meal will be late in the day where your kids will probably be too tired and want to be in bed instead of a busy disney restaurant. There are ways to get around this though, because if you did 2 meals per day (1 TS and 1 signature worth 2 credits each) you don't have to space them as far apart. For example, you could do a sit down breakfast worth 1 credit, snacks for lunch, and a signature for dinner or dinner show (worth 2 credits each).

3. If you have picky eaters or people who eat very little, this probably won't be worth it since the plan comes with a ton of food and most of it would be wasted. Then you wouldn't get your money's worth. Also, if you prefer counter service fast food meals or you don't use all of your credits, you won't get your money's worth so its very important to plan it all out in advance to make sure you have a spot for all the credits.

Besides this, I really do recommend the deluxe plan but only if it works for your particular family.

 

[mykidsrock76]

I am in the same boat. We did the DDP last year but I am seriously considering the DxDP for our trip in Dec 08. We did Hoop De Doo last year and loved it and would like to do it again. And no trip to WDW is complete w/o a trip to Cinderella's castle. It does seem like a lot of food, but I think it could be spread out so it doens't feel like you're eating your way through WDW. We have 3 kids and would love to hear from anyone that has done the DxDP with kids.

 

[Jimdvc]

But i dont want to base my vacation on Spending hours of it eating What you guys think?

I think with the DDP that is what will happen. You will ADR's running out of your ears, and they will take 100% control of your time at WDW.

Now keep in mind if you are a foodie, and look forward to a week of eating out more then the parks/pool/family aspects of WDW, there is nothing wrong with that. But for me, I would hate to have 2 ADR's a day controling me. Shoot, having 1 is bad enough.

 

[distherapy]

I am in the same boat. We did the DDP last year but I am seriously considering the DxDP for our trip in Dec 08. We did Hoop De Doo last year and loved it and would like to do it again. And no trip to WDW is complete w/o a trip to Cinderella's castle. It does seem like a lot of food, but I think it could be spread out so it doens't feel like you're eating your way through WDW. We have 3 kids and would love to hear from anyone that has done the DxDP with kids.

We basically broke every "rule" people suggest about the DxDP. We used it on our first trip AND we used it with 2 3 year olds. With that admitted, we absolutely loved it and couldn't imagine not having done it. It helped us so much to have reservations and never have to wait or look for a table (at almost all restaurants we were actually take a few minutes ahead of time). We ordered only what we wanted to eat so it didn't feel like too much food, and looking at our receipts, we still came out way ahead.

We did a couple of 2 credit meals - CRT and Narcoossee's and both were excellent. We did some of the character buffets (1900 Park Faire and Crystal Palace), so again, we ate what we wanted.

We never felt pressured or hurried to get to our reservation time, and the one time we weren't quite feeling it, we canceled a dinner reservation and added a lunch one for the next day instead, and we picked up a pizza at the resort. It was great to have that flexibility - I think the restrictions I thought I felt at first (when first planning the trip) were more mental than created by the plan.

Oh - and we were there for 5 days and I actually LOST 5 lbs.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll have a great time no matter what you pick.

Here's the trip report I'm working on if you want more details - http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1712496

 

[Tricia1972]

I think with the DDP that is what will happen. You will ADR's running out of your ears, and they will take 100% control of your time at WDW.

Now keep in mind if you are a foodie, and look forward to a week of eating out more then the parks/pool/family aspects of WDW, there is nothing wrong with that. But for me, I would hate to have 2 ADR's a day controling me. Shoot, having 1 is bad enough.

I agree with this completely. I also agree with a PP who stressed the importance of non Disney transportation for attempting the DxDDP. In October it was nothing for us to wait 20-45 minutes for a bus to go to a resort. Then it's about another 20 minutes on a bus to get anywhere. Resort to resort transportation is not available, so if you were at your resort going to Artist Point for dinner you could either take a taxi (aprox $20) or take a bus to the Magic Kingdom. Wait for a bus to Wilderness Lodge and bus to Wilderness Lodge. (Assuming your home resort isn't Wilderness Lodge) That would take a huge chunk of your day.

Also, when selecting the 1TS Credit/2TS Credit method you are limiting yourself with some of your dining choices.

Breakfast
In Room Dining - if available at your resort
CRT

Lunch
In Room Dining - if available at your resort
Pizza Delivery to your room
CRT

Dinner
Jiko
Flying Fish
California Grill
Hoop de Doo
Mickey's BBQ
Citricos
Narcoosee's
Spirit of Aloha
Artist Point
Hollywood Brown Derby
Private in Room Dining
Pizza Delivery to your Room
CRT


Obviously you have many choices for dinner, but your breakfasts and lunches are somewhat limited for 2TS options. This is fine, unless most of the restaurants you wanted to try are 1TS options only open for lunch/dinner. (Beaches & Cream, Spoodles, Yak & Yeti, Sci-Fi, 50's PTC, Mama Melrose, Les Chefs de France, San Angel Inn, LeCellier, Coral Reef, Tutto Italia, Biergarten, Rose & Crown, Nine Dragons, Restaurant Marrakesh, Teppan Endo, Tony's Town Square, Liberty Tree Tavern, The Plaza, Cap'n Jack's, Planet Hollywood, Wolfgang Puck Cafe, and Raglan Road)

You may feel even more limited (you personally, not everyone) because any time you pick one of these choices for lunch and dinner, you need to either use a 2 TS for breakfast or lunch, or book an early lunch at one of the 1TS options and then a later supper at a 2TS location so you'll feel remotely hungry.

To me it sounds like your DH may be happy in theory, and you'd probably start off resenting the plan for taking away from your day to begin with. Further frustrations for you would be if you don't want to eat at all of the 2TS restaurants, and then possible limitations on scheduling so you get all of your meals in. This may make you a very unhappy camper with the DxDDP.

 

[3dog2kidmom]

We just got back from doing the Deluxe Plan for 4 nights/5 days and absolutely loved it.

I neither felt like we were controlled by ADRs nor that we were eating all of the time. I also didn't feel like it was too much food -- if you don't feel the need to clean your plate, that is! Here's what we did (family of 4):

Day 1
Lunch - shared 2 credits + 2 snack credits (1 flatbread, 1 kids meal, 2 salads) at Captain Cooks
Dinner - 8 credits at CRT

Day 2
Breakfast - shared 6 snack credits (4 muffins, 2 bowls of fruit) at Captain Cooks
Lunch - 4 credits at Coral Reef
Dinner - 4 credits at Le Cellier

Day 3
Breakfast - 4 credits (shared 2 meals) Poly Room Service
Lunch - shared 3 credits at Yak & Yeti
Dinner - 8 credits at Spirit of Aloha

Day 4
Breakfast - 8 snack credits (4 pastries, 4 beverages) at Main Street Bakery
Lunch - 4 credits at Liberty Tree Tavern
Dinner - 4 credits at 'Ohana

Day 5
Breakfast - 4 credits at 'Ohana
"Lunch" - 6 snack credits (2 sodas, popcorn, 3 ice creams)
Dinner - shared 3 credits at Mama Melrose

and we had a bunch of snack credits left that we used for stuff to eat on the plane or bring home.

We spent $919 on the plan, and the stuff we ate would have cost over $1400 OOP... so our savings was more than $500. Granted, we would have eaten more frugally had we been paying OOP, but we would still have broken even if not saved a little. I think it was a great deal and we got to try a lot of places we wouldn't have otherwise.

 

[septbaby]

Hubbie wants the dxdp ... I did want to try some signatures and Dining shows... But if we couldnt oh well im not gonna go crazy over it. It just seems like alot of eating ... Granted we love to eat... But i dont want to base my vacation on Spending hours of it eating What you guys think?

If you want the dinner shows and Signature restaurants and hubby wants to pay for it the Deluxe seems a no brainer to me. You both want the same thing; go for it and enjoy it!

 

[pixie08]

We are doing the deluxe dining plan in June. We really enjoy eating at Signature restaurants. We are aslo not huge breakfast people so we will most likely just have a muffin, bagel, fruit or bring some granola bars for that. Then we will have an earlier lunch and 7ish dinner. I suppose if you had little ones this schedule may not work as they may be accustomed to eating dinner earlier? However you could have a bigger breakfast, split some lunches and then do signature dinners as well. There are many options. Either plan you choose you will have a great time imo

 

[blondinkaya]

Well, we're getting the DxDP for our first trip in May. For one thing, we like the mostly prepaid aspect of it and a less likely chance that we'll run out of meal credits. Trust me, my guys (we're a family of 4, and I'm the only girl in the house other than our crusty old cat) can eat, especially my pre teen! I swear, every hour on the hour he's rummaging through our pantry in search of grub! I'd rather have three meals for the guys than two. I do have early lunches and dinners for at least 6 hours later planned, and we can get fruit or whatnot for breakfast (if we get up early enough we can have breakfast at a food court or a late night "snack" after the parks). We wanted to try some 2 meal credit restaurants but not have to sacrifice credits or be restricted to specific credits for cs or ts meals.

For another thing, while this is our first trip, I'm not all about trying to see everything. I know it couldn't be done anyway. Plus, I enjoy food; to me it's an experience and it's as much a part of our vacation as the sight seeing aspect. I'm as excited to sample the food as I am to enjoy the parks.

I honestly think the DxDP is going to work better for us than the regular DDP (and going completely oop isn't an option for this family). If it ends up being too much food, it will be a lesson learned. I'd rather have too much than not enough, kwim?

 

[LSchrow]

we absolutely loved it and couldn't imagine not having done it. It helped us so much to have reservations and never have to wait or look for a table (at almost all restaurants we were actually take a few minutes ahead of time). We ordered only what we wanted to eat so it didn't feel like too much food, and looking at our receipts, we still came out way ahead.

so we're not the only ones?!
we never felt "tied down" in the multiple times we've used the DDP. rather, we found it incredibly convenient and stress-free. the DDP just fits our "vacationing style" of relaxing (pool, "strolling", even some <gasp> no-ride days), not running from attraction to attraction, no waiting hours to find whether we may or may not get to eat where we want , not looking at menu prices, all the while saving quite a bit of money (easily over $500 for our trip in may).
of course, DDP won't be the best option for all. for some, OOP, DxDP, DE or off-site are better suited......IMHO, it's great that there actually are so many options to fit so many differing "styles"

 

[d1gitman]

do the deluxe plan this next trip. we have done the base dining plan 2 trips in a row, during the free dining plan promo. We love it but found we were doingl dinners shows and signatured dining, so we had to spend some cash out of pocket. We grow tired of counter service after a few meals. fast food is fast food and to us, it gets old quick. we find sitting down and relaxing for a nice meal is a good break from the park. we never felt tied down to dining reservation times as we normally eat at meal times every day anyway...i have read some posts on all the time lost running around for dining reservation. well, to us, commons sense says to eat at the park you are in that day. if you want to eat at a resort other than the one you are staying in, then i would definitely make it for dinner and not plan to go back to the park. figure some money for a taxi to go from one resort to another. the only way to do it on disney transportation is to go from resort to park to resort, a lot of running around.

Anyway, if you enjoy a nice sitdown meal and also want to do some signature dining and dinner shows, the go for the deluxe, you will likely find that doing teh base dining plan and paying for extra meals or dinner shows will come close to the deluxe plan anyway. my 2c.

 

[dreamer17555]

This trip is a first to WDW for my DH and DD6 and we are doing the DxDDP. It makes a lot of sense to me if you DO have kids. We are doing tons of character meals for DD (she is a character freak and frankly I like sitting in the AC and having then come around more than waiting in a hot line.) We are doing 2 Signature Meals and Two Dinner Shows. Only Two of our 8 Days do we have 3 TS planned and DD is at Neverland Club both of those nights so its is a late or an Adult Meal.

March 30th, Sunday (Arrival Day)
8:00 California Grill (See Wishes)

March 31st, Monday
8:00 1900 Park Fare (Supercalious Breakfast)
5:00 Hoop Dee Do Revue

April 1st, Tuesday
7:30 'Ohana Character Breakfast
4:30 1900 Park Fare (Cinderella Gala)

April 2nd, Wednesday
7:00 Chef Mickey’s Breakfast
11:00 Garden Grill
4:00 DD6 to Neverland Club
5:10 Le Cellier

April 3rd, Thursday
11:30 Lunch at Crystal Buffet
5:15 Aloha Luau Dinner

April 4th, Friday
8:05 Tucker House
2:30 Lunch at Living Seas- Request Tank Side
5:00 DD6 to Neverland Club
9:30 Sci-Fi Drive In

April 5th, Saturday
11:00 Lunch at Prime Time Café
5:00 Dinner at Mama Melrose (Fantasmic Package)

April 6th, Sunday
8:30am Akershus Princess Breakfast
1:00 Cinderella Royal Table
4:00 Leave

 

[dlander]

Dreamer we are arriving the same day as you I have never done the ddp. I was thinking of the dxddp for this trip. Unfortunately, they do not accept it for the lunch with an imagineer at Brown Derby. That kind of blows the effectiveness for me. It will be myself, DH, DD15 and her friend15. Right now my ADR's are:

March 30

Hoop Dee Doo

March 31

lunch - Beaches and Cream
dinner- 50's Prime Time

April 1

dinner - Tony's Town Square

April 2

Lunch w/Imagineer - Brown Derby
Dinner - Jiko

April 3

Lunch - Chefs de France
Dinner - Coral Reef

April 4

Breakfast - Cape May Cafe

We are celebrating DH's 50th birthday What do you think about dxddp for our group?

 

[Melissa_E]

1) You will not spend all of your time in restaurants. I made breakfast and dinner reservations. Even at the signature restaurants, we usually took an hour to 90 minutes to eat. I figured that we would need to eat dinner at some point and I didn't want to eat CS the whole time. Breakfast took maybe an hour depending on what you wanted to eat, but I made reservations around 8a.m. or so, that meant we were still at most park openings.

2) You do not have to use all of your credits at TS locations to "make money" off the plan. I think we had a GREAT balance, we did:
3 signature dinners x 3 people x 2TS= 18 credits used;
8 regular TS meals x 3 people x 1TS= 24 credits used;
20 CS meals, these were mainly split between us using 1 or 2 credits at a time;
1 credit left over.

We received $330+ in value over what we paid for the plan.

We spent 8 days/7 nights at the parks and saw everything we planned to do! We didn't go hard core and refuse to take breaks, we did go back to the room if needed and relaxed as needed.

I don't understand why people think you have to eat TS at each meal, have ADRs for everything and will miss 6 hours out of your day for eating. It just isn't true!

 

[Tricia1972]

I don't understand why people think you have to eat TS at each meal, have ADRs for everything and will miss 6 hours out of your day for eating. It just isn't true!

I think that the belief in missing time at the parks comes from those with ADR's at resorts and who are using Disney Transportation. It can take an awfully long time to get anywhere using Disney Transportation.

My favorite story is when my friends and I were at Boma for supper, and another couple we were friends with was eating there at the same time. They came over to say good bye to us and headed off to take the bus to Epcot. We finished eating, paid our bill, went to the savanna to look at the animals, looked for the hidden Mickey in the grill work outside, came back in and looked around the lobby a bit, went to go get our car from valet, drove to Boardwalk, parked, walked through some shops, entered through the International Gateway, and met up with a bunch of friends in England. We were chatting with our friends for about 5 minutes when the couple from Boma came puffing up wondering how we got there so fast! We were shocked, but they just got off the bus, and walked up to meet with us.

So if you plan a lot of resort meals without a car, it can take a while to get from place to place. Maybe that's where the impression of time is coming from?

 

[LauraVV]

Hubbie wants the dxdp

We just got back. We had the Deluxe plan. I'd certainly recommend it. We were there a week and made reservations for only 4 meals (Canada steakhouse, Chef Mickey's, Cinderella's Castle, and Ohana's). We didn't base the trip on food.

I'd certainly do the deluxe plan. We didn't use all the credits but we would have run out of credits without the deluxe plan. We were able to have room service, had all the Mickey Premium ice cream bars we wanted, saw Cinderella, and had the time of our lives.

Go Deluxe!

 

[Tricia1972]

We just got back. We had the Deluxe plan. I'd certainly recommend it. We were there a week and made reservations for only 4 meals (Canada steakhouse, Chef Mickey's, Cinderella's Castle, and Ohana's). We didn't base the trip on food.

I'd certainly do the deluxe plan. We didn't use all the credits but we would have run out of credits without the deluxe plan. We were able to have room service, had all the Mickey Premium ice cream bars we wanted, saw Cinderella, and had the time of our lives.

Go Deluxe!

Financially how would it have been for you paying OOP for the same thing vs doing the DxDDP?

Just going off of the TS Resturants you listed your OOP with tax and gratuity would have been around $160 per adult, that's dinners at all of the Buffet/Family Style locations and ordering the absolute most expensive things at LeCellier. The DxDDP for 6 nights/7 days would be about $420 per adult. $260 per person is a lot of CS meals and a lot of snacks.

I can understand doing it for convenience and peace of mind. I admit, we're a bit more (too much more?) budget oriented.