I feel like I'm using the Deluxe DDP wrong!

[sookie]

Hi everyone,
I'm setting out my ADR's, and I'm having an issue. DH and I had this great idea (and I still think it is, to a point) of having different character buffets on our ADR plan.

We thought this would help our family see different characters throughout our stay without waiting in line and tracking them down. We could eat and wait. Two birds, one stone right?!

Well, am I circumventing the whole point of upgrading? Because don't you get an appetizer on the deluxe plan or something? If someone could explain this to me a little better, it would be great. I have to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of buffet dining. But when I booked I thought at least everyone could find something.

Thanks!

Here is our ADR schedule:
1900 Park Fare Dinner (Stays, kids love this place and dinner is new to us!)
Akershus Lunch
Liberty Tree Tavern (may cancel for Narcoossee's)
Dessert Party at MK
Sanaa
Jiko
Chef Mickey's
Hollywood Brown Derby Lunch (F! Package)
Flying Fish Cafe
Ohana Breakfast
Chef's de France (Candlelight Processional)
Beaches and Cream
Crystal Palace
The Plaza Restaurant
Cinderella's Royal Table
1900 Park Fare Breakfast (Probably Staying, Kid Favorite).

Any thoughts?

 

[MOpGrad2013]

The DxDP is a lot of food. We had it on our trip in 2010. Loved the plan; hated the tips...It came to about $500 additional for 2 adults, 2 teens. I had under estimated how much it would be.

We used the credits for Character Dining first, as you are desiring. I still prefer having a meal while the characters visit you (even OOP). They are all buffet or family style. No added benefits over the regular dining plan.

I am unable to figure how many days' worth of credits you are using. We usually did TS breakfast, QS lunch and TS dinner. A few days we had TS lunch and then QS dinner.

I would recommend having a minimum of 6 hours between each meal's ADR time. Reason being, by the time you are seated and then finish eating (1 1/2 hrs), it will only be about 4 hours until you need to go get in line for checking in for the next meals. I will say that DD got so sick on the trip due to the amount of food.

Oh! And you will receive the appetizers at the other TS meals. We had so many appetizers (1 per person per meal) that we often found ourselves packing those up to take along for snack. WCC had appetizer, AYCE platter, milkshakes (bev) and dessert. No appetizers at breakfast meals. I don't know if he was supposed to, but our waiter at Maya Grill brought us bottled water along with our soda, the appetizers, meal, dessert and coffee. No charge on the Dasani or coffee.

Used snack credits for a breakfast at Starring Rolls one morning. We still packed out of our hotel room with extra snacks and a few QS meals. We were driving so it worked in our favor

I still love the amount of food you can try on the DxDP and I think it was the best for our family for the trip.

Enjoy your meals!

 

[quakechicago]

Hi everyone, I'm setting out my ADR's, and I'm having an issue. DH and I had this great idea (and I still think it is, to a point) of having different character buffets on our ADR plan. We thought this would help our family see different characters throughout our stay without waiting in line and tracking them down. We could eat and wait. Two birds, one stone right?! Well, am I circumventing the whole point of upgrading? Because don't you get an appetizer on the deluxe plan or something? If someone could explain this to me a little better, it would be great. I have to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of buffet dining. But when I booked I thought at least everyone could find something. Thanks! Here is our ADR schedule: 1900 Park Fare Dinner (Stays, kids love this place and dinner is new to us!) Akershus Lunch Liberty Tree Tavern (may cancel for Narcoossee's) Dessert Party at MK Sanaa Jiko Chef Mickey's Hollywood Brown Derby Lunch (F! Package) Flying Fish Cafe Ohana Breakfast Chef's de France (Candlelight Processional) Beaches and Cream Crystal Palace The Plaza Restaurant Cinderella's Royal Table 1900 Park Fare Breakfast (Probably Staying, Kid Favorite). Any thoughts?

You do get an appetizer but not at buffets.

We LOVE the deluxe plan and are upgrading again! We do as many character meals as we can with DD3. They're so fun and the time spent standing in line to see one or two characters, we see 4-5 and have a nice sit down rest/meal. I'll be sad when too soon kiddo is "too old" for character meals. Sigh.

Then we'll do signatures!

I'm not sure how it's too much food. Our last trip I was recovering from parathyroid surgery and still we walked over 15 miles a day! We were hungry! Pre-park 8 am breakfast, lunch at 1, and dinner at 7 and you eat whatever you like with zero worries or sticker shock. We eat pretty healthy and don't tend to over-eat, especially knowing another meal is just 6-7 hours away.

Then last day we hit main st bakery for snack credits and on the plane ride home savor popcorn and Mickey Rice Krispie treats to keep the magic going!

Upgrading to deluxe during fd was around $40 more per adult per day. That's like getting our third character meal free! Otherwise it's $110/day? I think? Totally worth it. Still getting a free sit down or more if you eat well at a signature.

 

[supersnoop]

With the deluxe plan, you get three meal credits per day. With the regular plan, you get one table service and one counter service credit. That's the difference if worry about, and not the appetizer. You have 20 credits with of reservations on your list. How many days are you there?

 

[sookie]

7 nights, but as an aside - I do plan on pay for The Plaza and Beaches and Cream OOP.
Too inexpensive to actually use on the plan.

 

[salamander3]

I'm only counting 17, so go ahead and use your credits The dessert party isn't on the dining plan, so that one will be OOP. I don't think you're doing anything wrong. To us, the whole point in upgrading was having the choice to go where we wanted. The regular dining plan was 1 table service per day, so now you have the freedom to go wherever. Don't stress too much about getting your moneys worth. If you and the kids are happy, why stress over some apps?

 

[sookie]

You do get an appetizer but not at buffets.

We LOVE the deluxe plan and are upgrading again! We do as many character meals as we can with DD3. They're so fun and the time spent standing in line to see one or two characters, we see 4-5 and have a nice sit down rest/meal. I'll be sad when too soon kiddo is "too old" for character meals. Sigh.

Then we'll do signatures!

I'm not sure how it's too much food. Our last trip I was recovering from parathyroid surgery and still we walked over 15 miles a day! We were hungry! Pre-park 8 am breakfast, lunch at 1, and dinner at 7 and you eat whatever you like with zero worries or sticker shock. We eat pretty healthy and don't tend to over-eat, especially knowing another meal is just 6-7 hours away.

Then last day we hit main st bakery for snack credits and on the plane ride home savor popcorn and Mickey Rice Krispie treats to keep the magic going!

Upgrading to deluxe during fd was around $40 more per adult per day. That's like getting our third character meal free! Otherwise it's $110/day? I think? Totally worth it. Still getting a free sit down or more if you eat well at a signature.

Getting to sit down and take a break twice a day is huge for us. While quick service has been OK for us in the past, it is really easy for us to address DD's allergies at a table service - we don't feel like we are holding up a line like that. That really factored into my getting the plan originally.

I'm going to have to make a list of snacks - Mickey Rice Krispie treats sounds awesome - for me! I love Rice Krispie treats... LOL

With the deluxe plan, you get three meal credits per day. With the regular plan, you get one table service and one counter service credit. That's the difference if worry about, and not the appetizer. You have 20 credits with of reservations on your list. How many days are you there?

I like having the extra table service credit, that is for sure.

I guess what I was trying to say was: Am I bypassing the best parts / perks (such as appetizers) included in the Deluxe plan by doing all these buffets, but I had totally forgotten that I would have originally gotten 1 quick and 1 table, not all table. I guess sometimes we lose focus when planning... I'm getting to the point where I am over thinking it! I am sort of having a duh moment now.

And I had forgotten about the snack credits too!! LOL

I'm only counting 17, so go ahead and use your credits The dessert party isn't on the dining plan, so that one will be OOP. I don't think you're doing anything wrong. To us, the whole point in upgrading was having the choice to go where we wanted. The regular dining plan was 1 table service per day, so now you have the freedom to go wherever. Don't stress too much about getting your moneys worth. If you and the kids are happy, why stress over some apps?

Agreed. And if I do switch to Narcoossee's, even better.

 

[Tilnar]

I will say that we've found that the Deluxe Plan is a *lot* of food -- even spaced out -- my wife and I find ourselves very full and often feel a little wasteful in terms of extra food (like deserts) that we're not quite up to finishing.

However, having said that -- using credits on buffets (especially character meals) and burning a couple of double credits for signature dining and/or shows has really worked well for us....

Of course, the question is whether it's better to pay for the upgrade to DDX or to just pay the difference out of pocket -- I'm not really sure which of those works out better financially -- though the nice thing about paying the upgrade is that you've "locked in" the cost of your trip (tips notwithstanding).

 

[quakechicago]

Getting to sit down and take a break twice a day is huge for us. While quick service has been OK for us in the past, it is really easy for us to address DD's allergies at a table service - we don't feel like we are holding up a line like that. That really factored into my getting the plan originally. I'm going to have to make a list of snacks - Mickey Rice Krispie treats sounds awesome - for me! I love Rice Krispie treats... LOL I like having the extra table service credit, that is for sure. I guess what I was trying to say was: Am I bypassing the best parts / perks (such as appetizers) included in the Deluxe plan by doing all these buffets, but I had totally forgotten that I would have originally gotten 1 quick and 1 table, not all table. I guess sometimes we lose focus when planning... I'm getting to the point where I am over thinking it! I am sort of having a duh moment now. And I had forgotten about the snack credits too!! LOL Agreed. And if I do switch to Narcoossee's, even better.

Yes! Kiddo and I have food allergies (mine is mustard which is easier to avoid). Kiddo has a lot more including soy and msg. The sit downs have taken awesome care of us. Really the food is not always my favorite (as a picky foodie) but the peace of mind knowing a special allergy chef is making safe food just for us? It's awesome. It's how all places should be! It spoils you so it's hard to go right back to the real world!

 

[TJA]

Hoping to answer your questions correctly, so if I understand right, you are asking if you're missing out on the perks of deluxe plan (i.e., appetizers) by booking lots of character meals, right?

We've done both deluxe and regular plan, and love the deluxe plan BY FAR over the regular plan. We are not a QS family -- like you, we love the sit-down TS meals for breaks in the day/night. Having said that, one of the things we loved about the deluxe plan was indeed the appetizers. However, we also have 2 kids and for the same reasons as you, we love the character meals. So here's what we did, and it worked perfectly for us:

> Some days a character breakfast, snack credits during afternoon, then a 2-credit meal which would give us our appetizers.

> Other days, snack credits for breakfast, and early one-credit TS lunch sometimes character, then a 2-credit meal at night again giving us our appetizers.

> One day we did CRT 2-credit breakfast, snacks for lunch, then TS dinner - if not character dinner then we'd get our appetizers.

We didn't do a character meal every day. If for 7 days, we would normally have character meals maybe 4 or 5 times.

Oh, and we never had 3 actual meals per day. We used a 2-credit TS meal or show every day. If you need another 2-credit meal, don't forget about California Grill where you could watch Wishes from outside right during or after your dinner. Great view from the top of CR!