Is Deluxe too much during summer?

[hollybearsmom]

We tend to eat less in the summer and I'm just wondering if the Deluxe plan is worth it.....

 

[Tricia1972]

For us it wasn't. The deluxe was too much in January. We were very tired of food by the end of our trip.

If you're generally big eaters throughout the year, then yes, I think the Deluxe may work for you in the summer.

For us, I sent a text to a friend on the way home that said "As God is my witness, I'll never do the Deluxe Dining Plan again" (a horrible nod to Gone with the Wind on that quote )

Our normal eating style that of a grazer. Smaller meals and snacks throughout the day. A typical day of meals would be a small bowl of cereal or a piece of fruit in the morning, light lunch and our big meal is dinner.

Generally speaking our meals took 1.5 - 2 hours, not including getting there or waiting 5-20 minutes to be seated. We always felt like we were waiting for a meal, eating a meal, or feeling full after a meal. I felt compelled to order the more expensive items because when running the calculations on whether or not we were coming out ahead, we weren't 'saving' the money I thought we would.

I also felt like I missed out on a lot of snacks that I love because I was too full to even think of a snack in the park.

The DxDDP works great for a LOT of people on this board, and I am sure many of them will post here how wrong I am, but I can tell you that in our party of 7 at Disney, not a one of them will ever do the DxDDP again.

The DDP doesn't work for us because I like sitting down when I want to for a meal, and there is too much CS in the DDP for us.

Next trip we're loading a credit card with what we would have paid for the DxDDP and going to spend it eating what we want when we want. We anticipate using that card for quite a few souvenirs at the end of the trip because we barely broke even with the DxDDP in January.

 

[hollybearsmom]

thanks for your reply
I am really torn about enjoying the sit down - air conditioned comfort of TS
but worried about "wasting" too

 

[Tricia1972]

I definitely think that an air conditioned sit down would be great for lunch, especially in July!

The question is will you be hungry enough for an appetizer, an entree and dessert mid-day? If not, maybe loading up a credit card with what you would have spent on the DxDDP may work better for your group. That way you're ordering what you want and no more than just that.

You can greatly reduce the amount of time you 'need' to spend away from the parks as well by reducing a course or two from your meal.

 

[sunshineNJ]

There are alot of air conditioned cs restaurants. The only way i could see deluxe being worth it is if you want to do signature dining everyday. We do the basic plan and still have alot of smack credits left at the end.

 

[hollybearsmom]

I really can't see wanting three courses three times...
but eeating charactermeals and Le Cellier may be worth it...
oh, choices, choices

 

[KigerKat]

We did the deluxe DDP in October a few years ago, and found that it was a huge waste of money. Planning so many meals got to be such a hassle. And it seemed like we were constantly running to make our next ADR. Even though we did book a couple of signature places and a dinner show, we ended up wasting some of our credits.

When we went in August the following year, we had the regular DDP, and even though it was a little more manageable, we had a hard time eating everything that came with it.

You also need to consider the cost of tips if you do a lot of TS restaurants. It adds up fast!

We are doing QSDP this time around, and paying OOP for 2 TS dinners for our 9 day trip. I think this will be perfect for us!

 

[hollybearsmom]

I can see that planning to use all those credits would be a hassle...
hmmmmm
think I'm leaning away from it at this point

 

[Wendy&Grumpy]

I think it all depends on what your plans are.

DH and I are using the Deluxe plan on our weekend getaway in a few weeks.

We will be doing the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show (2 credits) on Friday night, breakfast at 1900 Park Fare on Saturday, dinner at the Yachtsman Steakhouse (2 credits) Saturday night, snack-credit breakfast Sunday, and a late lunch at Boma Sunday afternoon.

We're doing a resort-only stay this time around, so the refillable mugs will come in quite handy while we lounge by the pools!

We did a rough number-crunch and decided the Deluxe plan really works out best for us this trip.

 

[hollybearsmom]

Sounds like it will work for you
We are a family going for five days, and it looks like we might be over our heads in food with deluxe.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

Sounds like it will work for you
We are a family going for five days, and it looks like we might be over our heads in food with deluxe.

Personally, I think it works better in summer (not just for the heavenly A/C ) but because the parks have longer hours and I don't feel like I am "wasting" park time sitting down to eat.

Remember just because the credits come with appy and dessert for each course (except breakfast) doesn't mean you need to order them.

Do a price comparison for all the places you want to eat on DxDDP, but pick the foods you are most likely to eat and see if you still come ahead buying the plan. Remember, you also get the refillable mug per person on Deluxe, plus 2 snack credits per person per night (which will EASILY get spent on bottled water etc).

Good luck!

 

[treehugnmama]

We did delux once and won't do it again Iam a big eater(shouldn't) and I fond it both too much food and I felt like we were always racing to a ADR. We have done reg and tiw and prefer tiw however we don't have aps this year. We feel one sit-down a day is good and one cs and we have breakfast in room cereal or tots. We go in sept.

 

[Cafeen]

I'm a big fan of the DxDDP, but only for myself (well, and anyone who's dining itinerary and style also fits it ). However, I'm also all over these boards saying that it's a personal decision that factors in much more than just "how many credits do you want to spend" and do realize that it doesn't fit everyone.

So, write up a couple sample itineraries. One with DxDDP and one with OOP (and any others you feel like) and see what they tell you. When writing up the itineraries, be sure to not simply pick the most expensive entree and not to include app and dessert everywhere, but rather what you would most likely actually eat. Also, for these samples, don't worry about credits so much, just go by what you'd actually like to do. I do recommend different itineraries as I know some (most? I know I would do it myself) would choose different restaurants, and skip things they may want if paying OOP.

As far as for the summer, it's a balance of a longer break in the AC than at a CS place with feeling stuffed and overfull which is never that good in the heat (honestly, it's not that good in general, but that's a different topic ). With longer park hours though, you can split the meals up quite a bit: 8am breakfast, 2pm lunch, 8pm dinner; 11:30am lunch, 7-8pm dinner; 10am breakfast, 5:30pm dinner; etc.

 

[hollybearsmom]

spreading the times out would be a giant plus for the plan

 

[GiJohnsGirl]

I've seen people do a breakfeast and dinner ts (and snack the rest of the day).

We are trying the DxDDP for the first time (we did the DDP+ last time). However, we are doing many two point TS dinners (dinner is a big meal for us), just one big lunch and a few bfs. So, it really is very individual.

 

[hollybearsmom]

it really is very individual.

It absolutely is quite a decision. With hubs gone, I just wanted a sounding board to bounce the question off of you know, and I think I've gotten great input.

Working on menus and what we would eat so i can compare OOP to the plan.

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

Deluxe is soooo much food. Heck, the regular plan is a lot of food. With the regular plan, you can still go to counter restaurants with a/c. We did the quick serve in Jan. 2 quick, 2 snack. The four of us shared meals and we were able to easilt stretch the credits to cover all of our meals. Dh and I still thought the quick serve was plenty of food.

In addition to the amount of food, a part of Deluxe that is also difficult is the time spent sitting and eating. With deluxe, you might worry about "wasting" money by not choosing table service.

I recommend the regular plan.

 

[hollybearsmom]

I think I would be worried about the time since we aren't staying very many days. I didn't realize that many CS also had air conditioning.

 

[loganpaulsmom]

In 2008 myself and extended family did the DDXP.. After the trip was over I swore that I would never do it again.. But, back then.. I was just someone who LOVED Disney.. I knew a few places that I wanted to eat, but I didn't really pay attention to the signature dining or any of the shows..

Well, fast forward to this May and we are doing a split stay and I upgraded to the DDXP for the later part of our trip.. I did for the simple reason that I wanted to try a bunch of signatures and I knew I would be paying OOP (ALOT) if I just did DDP..
I also did a spread sheet.. I went through each restaurant that I wanted to eat at.. I also chose the foods that I know that myself, DH and DS most likely would order and it just made sense.. We are going for 9 days.. I scheduled my ADR's in such a way that the end of our DDP day we will start right away using DDXP.. We are going to Le Cellier.. Flying Fish, Narccoosses, Hoop De Doo Review.. right there that is a pretty penny.. and then you add on Ohana Breakfast.. Chef Mickeys.. Crystal palace. La hacienda and Via Napoli.. and it made sense for us..
I do however reccommend NOT planning more than 2 ADR's per day.. That was our downfall the last time.. We scheduled 3 meals a day and it did always seem like we were running from 1 place to another..

 

[smiths02]

We like to stay at least 5 days...I would love 7 again...so for us DxDP would be just too much restaurant and food time. If we were doing a split stay or staying only a weekend, it would make sense (b/c we drive, we could do dinner on our 1st night and breakfast/lunch on the day we leave).

Also, we love to eat, but we love the buffets, so the appy isn't that much of a plus. We don't drink tons of soda so the mug is not a plus (and you get a drink at every meal anyhow). And finally, we have a 5 year old and just aren't that interested in signature dining at this point...also we won't do CRT b/c we have a boy...and don't really see the point in the dinner shows (except to use up credits) our park tickets are really entertainment enough for us. We also have stayed at deluxe where we have a fridge and we drive, so we can bring our own snacks if we want (or save snacks...I had 1/2 a TRex sandwich for breakfast one day and school bread for breakfast another from the fridge)

We have done DDP and we had plenty of food. We had enough snack credits and enough CS to share and cover every meal. We brought a case of bottled water which was great. We also paid OOP for one appy and one meal at T-Rex.

ETA: But never say never...supposedly you can get the value out of the DxDP if you only use 2/3 of credits...so I could see us doing breakfasts and dinners every day at 1 TS restaurants.