Is Deluxe Dining Plan Worth the extra $$$

[disneykris2001]

We are planning our next Disney trip with my brother's family in October. My brother thinks we should purchase the Deluxe Dining but my husband says it's too expensive and we probably won't use all the credits. Please give me your opinion based on experience. We have a 12 year old daughter and a 9 year old daughter.
Thanks for your help.

 

[worm761]

I haven't used it but when we were planning our trip we seriously considered getting the DxDDP. We opted not to. What I did was look at the menus on www.allearsnet.com and decide where we would eat and what we would order. I figured out the approximate cost out of pocket, with the quick service dining plan, the regular dining plan, and the deluxe dining plan. The only one that would save our family money was the regular dining plan based on OUR eating habits. The difference in price was alot for us. I know we would use all the credits with DxDDP I just believe that we can do it cheaper with just using the DDP and paying OOP for a few breakfasts. I suggest you compare numbers and see what works best for you.

Also, remember that if your brother is in a different room you can get what you want. Only those staying the same room have to have the same plans.

 

[Colleen27]

We absolutely think it is well worth the money, and we'll be using it for the second time on our Sept trip. This is part of my response to someone else who asked a similar question (with younger kids):

It really depends what you're used to at home and how you would like to eat on vacation.

A couple things to think about regarding the deluxe plan -

Counter service can be a bit of a hassle with kids if you're trying to eat at "normal" times. At some locations, it is tough to find a table. At others, the lines are rather cramped. Think of a crowded mall food court...

The breakeven point on the cost of the deluxe plan is roughly 2/3 of credits used for table service. So if you do a character breakfast in the morning and a relaxing dinner in the evening, it doesn't matter if you use counter service for the midday meal. A lot of people read about the plan and mistakenly think they'd need to use all the credits for sit down meals for the plan to be worth it.

Character meals are a wonderful time and sanity saver. Instead of waiting 45min to meet Mickey in Toontown, you spend the same amount of time at Chef Mickeys where he comes right to your table while you enjoy a fairly good buffet. Instead of checking times guides to track down each Princess, they stop by during a nice sit-down lunch in the castle. My DD has been collecting autographs since she was 4 (starting a new book each trip which becomes a scrapbook when we get home), and I cannot say enough about the joys of knowing that we'll get most of the Princesses, the classic characters, Lilo & Stitch, etc. out of the way during meals!

With an "adult" kid by Disney's definition, it will also depend on how your older child eat. Will your 12yo be interested in adult options, or will she want to order off the kids' menu? My 11yo DS is a foodie and super-excited about finally being a dining plan adult for the first time on our upcoming trip, but his favorite foods are sushi (spicy tuna rolls and rainbow rolls especially) and wild game so there's no issue with him wanting the kids chicken nuggets.

We really enjoy the deluxe plan and can't see doing Disney without it at this point. We use it mainly for a TS lunch (or late breakfast) and a signature dinner, order room service if we feel like it, and just generally enjoy never having to think about prices on any of our meals for the entire trip.

As far as the dollars and cents of it, I have a spreadsheet and sample breakdown in the link in my signature that looks at the cost of the plan, the menu prices of meals, and how much you'll need to budget for tips. It isn't updated for 2009 pricing, but the price difference is minimal ($1 per adult) so plugging in your family's likely menu choices will give you a solid comparison of whether or not the deluxe plan makes sense for you.

 

[Girly_Qs]

I agree it depends how you'll be planning to dine (especially with a dd who will count as a WDW adult).

We've never done it before as, for US, it would just be all-together too much food for our week long trips. We've always done 'regular' DDP and have walked away stuffed with all sorts of snack credits leftover!

BUT, we WILL be doing DlxDDP for our upcoming Dec trip! We opted for it since it will be a short stay (3 park days, and we intend to carry one of our TS meals over to breakfast at Chef Mickey's on our checkout day!). We'll be burning through credits this trip though, as we're planning on doing a couple 'signature' meals (like CRT, which we've never done before!), so I really feel like we'll get our $'s worth out of it.

 

[Dean]

We are planning our next Disney trip with my brother's family in October. My brother thinks we should purchase the Deluxe Dining but my husband says it's too expensive and we probably won't use all the credits. Please give me your opinion based on experience. We have a 12 year old daughter and a 9 year old daughter.
Thanks for your help.

It's difficult to eat 3 full meals a day in this format. Unless you truly want to avoid counter service options, I likely would not consider this option due to the amount of food and the cost. Maybe for a 2-3 day stay where you could spread the credits over a longer period.

 

[stella27]

We did it last August and loved it. We did lots of character meals (at least one a day) plus usally a TS at night. We ordered room service one night (2TS) and our 2 adult entrees easily fed our whole family (including 3 children).

We never looked at a price and we ate at nice restaurants. I think it was worth it!In fact, were doing it again this August!

 

[Mom2gymnasts]

We did it last July b/c there were so many of the restaurants we wanted to try, but it was just way too much food for us. We were there for a week & the day we checked out still had 26 snack credits left (we had 8 per day). We didn't use them on drinks unless we were in the parks b/c the plan comes with the resort mugs. We ate 1-2 CS meals & everything else was TS. We even did a couple of signature dining. I think we even had 12-15 meals left!!

I'm glad we did it b/c we would never have tried all the restaurants that we tried. I really wish Disney would have a DP with 2 TS meals. That would be perfect for our family.

 

[avahoneybee]

I agree with your husband that it's A LOT of food. Even with the regular dining plan we were stuffed and still had credits left over.

 

[cnorth]

It really depends on how you dine as to whether it is too much food. I completely agree that 3 TS meals per day with appetizers and desserts would be waaayyy too much food. However, we love DxDDP. We eat cereal in our room for breakfast, a 1 credit TS lunch, and a 2 credit TS dinner.

It lets you go to the signature restaurants, Mickey's Backyard BBQ, Hoop De Doo, CRT, Spirit of Aloha, or even room service, which are all 2 credit meals. I don't think it's an astronomical amount of food, if you do it this way. Or you could have a 1 credit breakfast around 10, then a 2 credit dinner around 6.

We used our snack credits for drinks in the parks, and whatever is left over is used for food "souvenirs" for home!

Overall, we love it. My kids (except the little one) eat just about anything- except sushi (but I keep trying!), so having an "adult" kid is no issue for us.

We are actually are debating making DS, who will be 8 when we go next year, an adult so that the two oldest don't fight over the "good" food!

 

[bleeps]

We opt for a lot of signature restaurants each trip, and so between those and the flexibility to have a sit-down meal whenever we want, we find the DxDDP is worth it for us. DS is 11 and is very much anticipating his second trip as an 'adult' so that he can get whatever he wants to eat -- I'd say the DxDDP is partly responsible for making him an adventurous eater.

 

[abc999]

We think it is totally worth it. We like to do a TS restaurant as a mid day break for us and the kids instead of heading back to the resort. We also like the appetizer options, which usually with 2 TS meals a day is the break even point for us. Also, we got to try a couple of signature restaurants and a bunch of character breakfasts.

Are your October dates flexible? If you get to WDW by Oct 3, you can get free dining and upgrade to DxDP for $32 a day per adult.

 

[Girly_Qs]

In case an example helps, here's how we'll be using our DlxDDP for the first time:

Day 1:
Breakfast grabbed on cruise before departing
Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern (1TS)
Dinner at Hoop Dee Doo Revue (2TS)

Day 2:
Breakfast of snack credits
Lunch at CRT (2TS)
Dinner at Le Cellier (1TS)

Day 3:
Breakfast at Akershus (1TS)
Lunch of snack credits
Early dinner at 1900 Park (1TS)

Departure Day (no parks):
Breakfast at Chef Mickey's before heading out

I think we might still struggle a bit with burning through all the snack credits (2/person/day?!!), even with using a few for 'meals.' But, we also won't hesitate to use them for Mickey ice cream bars and treats to take home!

Personally, I'm not sure I can see doing Dlx for an entire week's trip. Mostly because we'd run out of 'signature' experiences that are 'appropriate' with our kids (not-quite-3yo and just-turned-6yo). But, for our 'short' trip it's proving to be perfect! We'll be able to do things we've denied ourselves before (the CRT experience) because we didn't want to be w/o a TS credit on another day using the 'regular' DDP.

 

[Colleen27]

It really depends on how you dine as to whether it is too much food. I completely agree that 3 TS meals per day with appetizers and desserts would be waaayyy too much food. However, we love DxDDP. We eat cereal in our room for breakfast, a 1 credit TS lunch, and a 2 credit TS dinner.

It lets you go to the signature restaurants, Mickey's Backyard BBQ, Hoop De Doo, CRT, Spirit of Aloha, or even room service, which are all 2 credit meals. I don't think it's an astronomical amount of food, if you do it this way. Or you could have a 1 credit breakfast around 10, then a 2 credit dinner around 6.

We used our snack credits for drinks in the parks, and whatever is left over is used for food "souvenirs" for home!

That's about how we use it as well.

We're not breakfast eaters, so unless we were doing a character breakfast we just grabbed the kids some fruit or cereal or pastries with snack credits and DH & I used our mugs for coffee/tea.

Then we'd have a TS lunch instead of a midday break and a nice dinner, often at one of the signature restaurants.

We usually arrive around noon and fly out late in the afternoon, so we eat 2 meals on arrival and departure day.

We used some snacks in the park for drinks & treats, and we brought the rest home as edible souvenirs for the kids to share with their friends & classmates.

Most of the "too much food" posts assume using the deluxe plan for 3 sitdown meals per day with an eye on maximizing the value the way people do with the basic plan, but the deluxe plan is priced so that there's no need to use every credit for TS or order every course at every meal for the plan to make sense. It is a lot more flexible than the basic plan that way. We aren't especially big eaters (other than DS11 ), but we came out several hundred dollars ahead on the deluxe plan despite sharing desserts, having a handful of counter service meals, using quite a few credits for "low value" (by basic DDP thinking) restaurants/meals, and eating the way we would without the plan minus the worries over prices.

 

[princesslover]

Can someone answer a question about the deluxe plan?

One of the concerns I have is having to stop in the middle of the day for a TS meal -- that it will take too long and "cut" into our day. It seems like if you have a QS meal, it would take less time, especially if you have little kids that won't want to wait 45 minutes to get seated, served, etc. Thoughts?

 

[jlw29]

We're doing DxDP on our trip next week and like several other posters above, we're using it to do signature dinners and spread 5 nights worth of meals over 6 days (arrival day at 10am and departure day not until 6pm). It will be me, DH, DD13 and DD11. Both girls are disney adults. DD13 eats like a typical teenager, ie more than DH. DD11 doesn't eat much quantity-wise but is a foodie and LOVES all kinds of sophisticated foods. This is our plan with credits used in parenthesis:

Arrival day: Yak & Yeti lunch (4), Boma dinner (4)
Day 2: Crystal Palace lunch (4), CRT dinner (8)
Day 3: Epcot CS lunch (4), Cali Grill dinner (6) - DD11 will share with me or we'll pay OOP for a kids meal for her
Day 4: Wolfgang Puck lunch (4), Yachtsman Steakhouse dinner (6) - again DD11 sharing or more likely ordering fish or chicken off the kids menu. She hates steak
Day 5: CS lunch (4), Room service dinner (6) - pizza for kids and menu for adults
Departure Day: Late Boma breakfast (4), Tusker House dinner or "picnic in the park" to eat at the airport (4)

Total 58 credits of 60 available. This leaves us 2 extra credits to fill in or something. DD11 and I aren't breakfast eaters and DH and DD13 will just use snack credits mostly for breakfasts and to fill in for the unlikely situation that we're hungry between meals.

Spread out this way, it doesn't seem like an overwhelmingly large amount of food. I'm looking forward to having everything (except tip and EtOH) paid for in advance.

 

[Colleen27]

Can someone answer a question about the deluxe plan?

One of the concerns I have is having to stop in the middle of the day for a TS meal -- that it will take too long and "cut" into our day. It seems like if you have a QS meal, it would take less time, especially if you have little kids that won't want to wait 45 minutes to get seated, served, etc. Thoughts?

It really depends... What we do is hit up some of the popular rides in the morning (we don't eat a real breakfast) then use lunch as our break. We don't take afternoon breaks at our resort, so we appreciate an air-conditioned sit down meal and take our time with it.

But as far as whether CS is quicker, it can be. It can also be more time consuming, depending on what time you stop for lunch, what restaurant you choose, and how crowded they are at the time. It can easily take 20 min + just to order and get your food at peak times, and then you have to add in getting condiments, finding a table and eating. We've had hour long CS experiences (OMG, El Pirata at noon during free dining... ) and we've had 30-40 min TS. AK is one park where we've run into this - long lines and long waits at Flame Tree for CS, while the Tusker House lunch buffet was our quickest TS meal of the trip.

 

[trainingupmy4princes]

By the time we drag the kids through the long line to order and search around for an empty table big enough for our family, clean it with a antibacterial wipe and get condiments etc. it isn't that quick a service. Meanwhile at a TS we do have to wait for the food but while sitting and relaxing and drinking some cold beverage.

 

[Girly_Qs]

Yeah, as to whether CS can be faster/easier/whatever - again, it really depends on your preferences.

Generally, we are a minimal breakfast kind of family. We'll grab cereal/granola bars in the room with yogurt smoothies (stored in the room fridge), etc, and we're always at a park at rope drop. So, we're hungry for lunch pretty early. In the past, that has worked well for us. We walked right up to the registers at Flametree last year, had our food ordered/paid for/on trays in less than 5 minutes and we easily got a great table down by the water in the lower seating area big enough for our group of 6. But, if you wait til 12:30-1pm . . . that scenario won't happen.

So, I guess my 'short' answer is: QS CAN be quicker, if you do it 'right.' It can also be FAR more stressful and take just as long if you don't.

 

[Faldred]

Can someone answer a question about the deluxe plan?

One of the concerns I have is having to stop in the middle of the day for a TS meal -- that it will take too long and "cut" into our day. It seems like if you have a QS meal, it would take less time, especially if you have little kids that won't want to wait 45 minutes to get seated, served, etc. Thoughts?

Other posters have chimed in on the time issue... let me add that with three young kids who are very routine-based, I found the days we did TS lunches to work MUCH better than the ones we tried to do a CS lunch. As noted previously, we get the mid-day break in the AC, but more importantly, their routine has them wanting to eat at peak lunch times (pretty much noon). Having maybe a 5 minute wait for a table as opposed to the long CS lines and scrambling to get a table and high chairs and/or boosters worked out so much better for us, and we would ask the server to bring out the kid's full meal at the same time as our appetizer so they wouldn't have to wait.

Of course, you don't have to stop for a TS meal... you can use your deluxe meal credit at a CS restaurant if you like. We did both over the week we were there, doing CS 3 times for lunch (although 2 of those were splitting a single adult meal for the adults) and TS 4 times. In general, the TS worked out much better for us.

 

[kevgraub]

Can someone answer a question about the deluxe plan?

One of the concerns I have is having to stop in the middle of the day for a TS meal -- that it will take too long and "cut" into our day. It seems like if you have a QS meal, it would take less time, especially if you have little kids that won't want to wait 45 minutes to get seated, served, etc. Thoughts?

One thing that someone mentioned earlier in this thread to consider is the impact of character meals. If you head to CRT for lunch - you will spend longer than you would at a typical CS meal, but you will also get to see four of the princesses, which can save time later.

Not sure how many TS lunches are character meals (CRT and CP are the only two that come right to the top of my head), but I view character meals as killing two birds with one stone - eating a meal and meeting the characters. I would much rather spend 1.5 hours sitting in a nice, air conditioned building eating lunch and meeting several characters (for my kids, of course), than spending 45 minutes doing a CS meal and then standing in a hot line outside to meet one or two of those same characters.