DxDP Postmortem - The Analysis

[BuffaloJim]

Back in October, my family and I went to WDW during F&W. There were a total of nine of us - 4 adults, 3 Disney adults (11, 12, 16), and two kids (8, 9). We used the DxDP, not so much because I wanted to save money, but instead so I could prepay for everything.

I first paid for the room (a 2 bedroom suite at AKL-Kidanai) through David's DVC rentals. Then I bought the tickets in a couple of transactions. Finally the dining plan was purchased. We have such a large family that we never seem to have any cash lying around, so piecemeal over a full year was the only way I was going to put this trip together.

We were there for 5 nights/6 days so we had a total of 135 meal credits. We ended up using 134 of them - just about perfect. I thought for sure we'd have a few left over despite the fact I over scheduled meals, knowing some of us would not show up for every meal. The DxDP is an awfully large amount of food and sometimes you just don't want to eat 3 full meals every day. I think I scheduled about 155 individual meals, and as I said we ended up actually using 134 of them.

I addition, we had 90 snack credits to use. We did not do as good a job here. For some reason, we just did not generally snack during the day. Sure, we had some Dole Whips, a few milkshakes, and a variety of other items, but I think we could have used some more in the bakeries and carts around the parks. We also used a few of them at F&W booths - a great way to get maximum "value" from them. I think the problem was we saved too many of them for our last Epcot day. By that point, everyone was full. Towards the end of the night we had about 40 of them left. We ended up buying a bunch of those large Disney suckers with them. The kids gave them to friends as souvenirs, so I guess it worked out fairly well, but it wasn't what I was planning. In addition I think the lollipops were about 5 bucks each so it probably was a good use of the snack credit.

The DxDP ended up costing us $3231.10 for our stay. A lot of money certainly, but then I knew this trip wasn't going to be cheap. But then I added up our receipts. Just over $4600 in food, and I was missing numerous snack credit receipts. The real total was probably between 4700 and 4800. So we ended up "saving" over $1500 dollars. Clearly it was money well spent.

Or was it?

We ate a LOT of food, more than we'd ever eat if we weren't on the dining plan. More than any family should probably eat. If we were not on the DP, we probably would have spent under $3000, but of course we would not have eaten as well and we probably would have not tried out the variety of cool restaurants that we did. (I'll have mini reviews posted soon)

I'm glad we did the DxDP plan this time. This was a once in a lifetime trip. The kids were all still good ages and it was something we'll remember forever. When we go again, we probably won't have all nine of us and we probably won't do the DxDP. Personally what I'd really like to see is a plan with 2 table service meals and 2 snacks a day. Character breakfast in the morning and a sit down dinner in the evening. Probably won't be happening though.

At any rate, that's our story about the DxDP.

Jim

 

[MinnieLovesMickey12]

Did you order appetizers at lunch and dinner? Did you find a lot of food going uneaten?

I am getting the deluxe dining plan for our adults only trip this November but I don't think either of us could eat an appy, entree and dessert.

To be honest I think I see myself not even ordering most appetizers and only having a few bites of dessert.

I just want to get it for the fact that all 3 meals are covered and all 3 meals can be TS meals.

 

[phdhycster]

Just came back from a trip with deluxe dining. My husband and are are both big eaters and probably weigh more than we should... The delux dining had way tooooooooo much food for us. I felt guilty leaving all the food behind. We certainly had a great time trying new restuarants and experiences. I recommend doing a few signature dining meals to use up some of the meal credits. On the days we only had two meals because we were doing a signature meal the snack credits made great breakfasts!

 

[dzneelvr]

Thank you for the detail related to the dining plan. Every so often I think it would be a good idea to try but then I read the true information in posts like yours and re-remember why we are very happy with the Tables in Wonderland plan. So glad you found it added value but for us it would be too much food and too many food requirements. Thanks again for the information. I'll be renewing our TIW

 

[BuffaloJim]

Did you order appetizers at lunch and dinner? Did you find a lot of food going uneaten?

I am getting the deluxe dining plan for our adults only trip this November but I don't think either of us could eat an appy, entree and dessert.

To be honest I think I see myself not even ordering most appetizers and only having a few bites of dessert.

I just want to get it for the fact that all 3 meals are covered and all 3 meals can be TS meals.

We often had soup or salad as our appetizers. Of course, there was food that went uneaten, but then that's always the case with us. We just usually take a doggy bag back from the restaurant. That did not happen at WDW - it was left.

Always get desert - we had some excellent ones.

For an adult only trip, I think you can get some real value out of the DxDP. Make sure you do some signature dining and Plan, Plan, Plan! Make your ADRs 180 days out and I'm sure you'll have a great time.

 

[BuffaloJim]

Thank you for the detail related to the dining plan. Every so often I think it would be a good idea to try but then I read the true information in posts like yours and re-remember why we are very happy with the Tables in Wonderland plan. So glad you found it added value but for us it would be too much food and too many food requirements. Thanks again for the information. I'll be renewing our TIW

If you're eligible for TIW, I think that generally makes better financial sense.

But I think an adults only trip can see some real value in the DxDP and if you have a bunch of kids under 10, you can really save some money with the DP, especially if you do a lot of character meals.