Is it worth upgrading to DxDP?

[cuddleworthy]

DBF booked a trip during FD dates We are planning on staying at POR for 5 nights, so we'll be on the regular dining plan. Using the DxDP has always been on my list of things to do at WDW, and I thought now would be a great time since it'll only cost about $34/person/day to upgrade. DBF is concerned that it might not be worth the money to upgrade to DxDP and that it might be way too much food. Has anyone done this, and if so what are your biggest cases for and against?

 

[crostorfer]

It really depends on what you mean by "worth it".

A lot of people are going to tell you that if you don't intend to eat 3 sit down meals every day, it's a waste of money. I disagree.

I love the DxDP because it makes my vacation all inclusive in a sense. I like having two snack credits per day, especially if I don't want to carry bottled water with me as I can use a snack credit on a bottle. We like to eat at signatures, this coming trip alone we have two booked. It's hard to eat signature on the DDP, unless you are willing to pay OOP.

It doesn't work for some people, it works for our family. That's my .02. I don't know if it ends up being a "savings", but quite frankly that isn't what I'm using it for.

 

[Kate0716]

Totally agree with Crostorfer - I think you need to look at where you want to eat, look at the menus, then decide whether or not it will be good for you.

My family is 100% upgrading to the DxDP as we love it and would pay for it even if it wasn't a discount. We don't do 3 sit down meals a day on the plan- so the argument that the DxDP is too much food never means much to me. We do 2 meals per day and yes, some of those meals are the Signature dining. We have 2 booked on our upcoming trip. We really like the Signature restaurants and definitely get our money's worth out of the plan and then some.

I'd say if you've never tried Deluxe dining, this is an easy way to try it without a huge out of pocket cost. Try it- you might just find you never go back to the regular plan. My family hasn't.

 

[jennyf2]

Last year I said never again - but we are upgrading again this year I made a few planning errors last year & didn't use all our credits, but we still came out ahead. We've been to Disney many times & only do a few days of parks & the rest is relaxing at the pool. So we do a breakfast or early lunch & a signature restaurant for dinner. I love the 2 snacks per day & the signature meals have been great!

Good Luck w/ your decision

 

[Singinglizzie]

We are doing something similiar, except, Yikes, we are staying Value and upgrading to deluxe dining. The pp extra is more like $50 per person per day, so it is a bit more. Our options were either stay Mod and do the reg. dining plan, or stay value and do the deluxe and now you know which one won. It can be a lot of meals, if you try eating 3 times a day. We plan on doing 1 signature, + 1 lunch or breakfast each day and that will be plenty. If you add the cost of the appetizers for the signatures (avg. of $15) you are already at the deluxe dining price as it was previously mentiond that it is $34 to upgrade from QS to DDP. Now we can order what we want, and instead of 1 TS per day on the DDP, we have 3 TS per day. Deluxe dining works well if you prefer to eat at the signatures.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I think it's worth it, and I'm paying $50 a night to upgrade from the QSDP. But I also think it depends a lot on your eating habits, and it can be too much food. I upgraded because I want to eat at a lot of the signature restaurants, and they will use up a lot of the credits.

 

[ldnoggle]

We did this last year, and have Deluxe booked again for this year. Of course we are hoping for free dining, but will keep Deluxe regardless (in November). We booked either a breakfast or lunch each day, and ate a Signature (2 credit) meal every night. We used most of our snack credits at the Food and Wine booths- which was an amazing value. It was a lot of food, but we loved it!

 

[ChristineOH]

I won't even consider it until our kids are way older. Like maybe out of the house. I bet it would be really fun to do for an adult group.

 

[nkereina]

My BF and I (late 20s) did DxDP last September for 7 nights, staying at POR. For us, WAY too much food. There's never an instance in our every day lives where each of us eat an appetizer, entree and dessert. We ended up canceling several dinners simply because we weren't hungry. It was also very hot which took a lot out of us and we did not feel like eating big meals. We ended up having a ton of credits left over.

One mistake we made was that our ADRs were too close together. I thought lunch at 11:30 and dinner at 6:30 would have been fine, but after the big lunch at 11:30, we weren't hungry again until around 9pm. I'd consider doing DxDP again only if we were going during a cooler time of year and touring at a slower pace, and then I would make a TS breakfast ADR and a late 2 TS dinner ADR.

 

[donnaf516]

We've did the dxdp 2 years ago then did the ddp last year and ended up spending an additional $500+ oop. Needless to say we are upgrading again this year. I'm another who likes to treat it as an all inclusive.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

If we ever used DDP we would upgrade to DXDDP, so I think it's worth it. We would eat breakfast or lunch, then a signature dinner every night. That is what we do paying OOP. If I didn't plan to eat at least one meal that was 2 TS every day, I wouldn't consider it worth it. We could never eat 3 big meals a day, whether they were TS or CS. I would be miserable, after the first couple of days. I think it depends on each groups dining habits, whether or not it's a good idea.

 

[4butlers]

If you're getting FD to begin with and it's only costing you $34 for each of you per day, then I think it's totally worth it! That's what we did last year. Now, we wouldn't outright pay for DxDP because it is expensive and a lot of food. We actually ended up canceling a couple reservations and had a couple credits left over. But we still felt like we got our money's worth because it only cost us the price to upgrade (which usually paid for itself in one meal).
You have to ask yourself if you would spend that much in food if you didn't have FD? Most likely, yes, if not more. We really liked having the freedom to order pretty much whatever we wanted and didn't have to worry about money for food and never having to say no to the kids for whatever snack they wanted.
I say go for it! You'll love it!

 

[dclfun]

We upgraded this year to the DxDP with our FD trip to Pop in late Aug/Sept. We really like the appetizers and signature dining, so every night we have a signature restaurant booked with one night being the HDDR that we haven't been to in a few years. We have a few character breakfasts included but I don't intend to worry about getting our money's worth by dining at all TS- it's more about being able to dine where we want and having the appetizers. Except for my grandson we could care less about desserts so may not get them, or may get them and just have a taste. I've never had a problem with restaurant CM's boxing up leftovers if we want them. We are coming back to AoA in mid Sept. and have just the QSDP then so it will be a different style of trip. On that one I'll have a 2 year old and sitting down for longer meals won't be the enjoyable experience it will be on the earlier trip. OP- I would say to go for it this time since you've been looking forward to trying it and the price is right with the upgrade.

 

[Disney-Kim]

This is our first time booking DDP and we went deluxe. We have always had AP's and TIW in teh past...but we don't want to buy AP's this year.
We are not planning on eating 3 TS meals a day...but we do eat all TS meals for the trip....and we eat at signatures too...so for us it was a better fit.

I like the idea its all inclusive in a way...similar to our cruise style. We will only pay for alcholic libations and tips

 

[Disney-Kim]

DBF booked a trip during FD dates We are planning on staying at POR for 5 nights, so we'll be on the regular dining plan. Using the DxDP has always been on my list of things to do at WDW, and I thought now would be a great time since it'll only cost about $34/person/day to upgrade. DBF is concerned that it might not be worth the money to upgrade to DxDP and that it might be way too much food. Has anyone done this, and if so what are your biggest cases for and against?

Just wanted to mention that when I booked my trip this week I tried the new discount/adding the ddxp and booking the free dining and upgrading to ddxp...

it was $80 cheaper to book the discounted room with ddxp added

 

[ratlenhum]

We always upgrade to DxDP. We do tons of character meals that we would not do otherwise because of the cost. We also eat at restaurants we wouldn't eat at. I would never pay OOP for some of the entrees because the prices are insane but to be able to eat wherever and whatever we want for basically $34 a day, it's worth it!

 

[Masonmj84]

We had FD this past Feb., upgraded to the DxDP and thought it was totally worth it.

The biggest key, IMO, is generally booking no more than 2 meals per day, with 1 of the 2 being a 2 credit (e.g., signature) meal. Unless, you're party is a bunch of enormous eaters, 3 sit-down meals a day is flat-out too much food (and takes too much time).

Another key, aluded to above, is to be careful about the spacing of the meals, particularly if you're doing lunch and dinner on the same day. I also learned that I had to be pretty disciplined about afternoon snacking (for example, a late afternoon funnel cake or giant cookie ice cream sandwich might negatively affect your enjoyment of a signature dinner, regardless of how late you book it).

But overall, we had a blast on the DxDP. Our lineup included Citricos, Jiko, Artist Point, Flying Fish, Cali Grill, 'Ohana, CRT, Tusker House, Cape May, Crystal Palace, 50's Prime Time and Coral Reef. This enabled us to not only enjoy a bunch of great meals (my only regret was doing Coral Reef for lunch instead of Le Cellier) but also visit all of the major deluxe resorts as well as get into a couple of the parks before they opened. For the upgrade cost of $34 per day per adult and $10 per day per kid, it was money well spent (even factoring in the cost of the tips).

 

[Cafeen]

When I hear "is it worth it?", my mind immediately shifts into math mode. From a pure cost to value ratio, yes it is (cost = how much YOU paid for the credit, value = how much the credit covered). However, the caveat is that it is a larger investment (both time and money).

You'd want to make sure that the plan would fit your trip first. Just because it looks inexpensive to upgrade to it, doesn't mean that it'll work right for you. My typical list of key points to make sure it works for you and your party : (stupid emoticon for party made me have to put a space there )
* Are you ok with spending ~60-90 minutes eating each meal?
* Are you ok with planning out where you'll be ahead of time? While several don't need to be at the full 180 days out, you're not going to want to wing it with DxDDP.
* Are you ok with mostly TS meals? And at those TS meals, mostly 3 courses? For each person in the party?
* Are you ok with the initial outlay of extra money?

It IS a lot of food, but there are some ways to manage it:
* Spread meals out - Since you're getting 3 courses for lunch and dinner, a 12pm lunch and a 6pm dinner may be too close. I like to go to lunch between 11 and 11:30, and save dinner for ~7pm
* Utilize the signatures - They don't give the utmost super-duper most value per credit spent, but they'll average higher than the actual cost of the credit
* Don't be afraid of a few QS - Much like the signatures, not the best cost to value, but other meals will come out much higher and will balance these out. So long as ~75-80% of your total credits are spent at TS, a few QS will not make you fall into the red.
* Skip an entitlement if you need it - Again, losing out on some value, but if you just don't want that app or dessert, don't order it. It's not going to break the plan for you
* Don't sweat a couple unused credits - The plan will likely start coming out ahead around 80%, so if you have 2 or 3 (depending on the length of stay) credits remaining, it's not going to kill you.

Now, except for the first two points above, you aren't going to want to do that for every meal, but they are ways to trim down the raw amount of food that you'd be having.

The last bit would be to sit down and do the math if you're still on the edge. Figure out approximately what you'd order and see if it makes sense.

For an example, with my upcoming trip, I am intending to do the same as you (note that for 1 person @ standard CBR for my dates... it's ~$34 cheaper to use the free dining plan promotion and upgrade to DxDDP than it would be to use the public 25% discount, buy the same tickets, and pay for DxDDP.) I have the following key points: (9 nights)
* 17 ADRs totalling 20 credits used at TS (will be 21 if I can score an early Citrico's or Narcoossee's on my 2nd party night)
* 7 planned QS meals - mostly breakfast, but 1 dinner and 2 lunches in there
* 2 unused credits (will be 1 if the above ADR comes through)
* Saving ~15% - (My estimated cost is ~$972, and if it were OOP it would be ~$1142)

Now, comparing to my math for DDP plans (which would differ), I could save ~$187 by not upgrading, but I'd only save ~$40 on DDP. Upgrading gives me an extra ~$300 worth of food, for about $200. Plus far less OOP at the time of dining (not really savings on that part, it just gets shifted to beforehand).

Of course, I'm also a nerd and I really like to look at all these numbers I certainly would not expect anyone else to delve that deep.

 

[iloveeeyore]

We are actually paying for the DxDP because we think that for the way we enjoy dining in WDW, it is worth it for us. We use one snack credit for quick grab-n-go breakfast, TS lunch and mostly signature dinner, well-spaced. In our 7 night trip, we have 5 2-credit dinners planned. We also really enjoy appetizers with our meals, for us that's often the best part, and those aren't included in the regular DDP.

Check out the link in my signature for our dining itinerary to see what our 7 nights DxDP pland look like. If that itinerary looks like something that might interest you, upgrading would definitely be worth it.

 

[nadira36]

We have used regular DDP once and have used DxDP on 3 trips and have booked it again for our next trip.

Our reasoning: first we like to eat. A lot. When we eat out at home we order an apply, entree, dessert. Sometimes 2 of each. When eating at home we don't eat so much, but mostly b/c foods expensive!

Second we have a special diet. We can get our diet easily accommodated at QS, however it still takes us an hour+ to get our meals and eat. PLus it involves a lot of line waiting and a lot of noise, often without AC.

We have 3 kiddos under 5. 'nought said.

Our girls love to get autographs. They don't like to stand in lines. We usually fill 1.5 books with autographs from meals alone.

We like to eat at Signature dining locations.

We use snacks for bottled water, and fresh fruit as well as the occasional Mickey Bar and many dole whips. Regular DDP uses up all our snacks on water alone - and I hate standing in line to get glasses of ice water at CS for free. And can't stomach the warm water fountain extra chlorinated water.

We still eat QS meals on occasion. I believe for our next 8 night trip we actually have 7 CS meals planned. We still get more than our moneys worth. If we paid Oop we wouldn't eat a many of the restaurants we eat at. And we'd enjoy ourselves less. To use we go on vacation to enjoy our selves and to relax.

It's nice to sit during a busy time of day and relax. Talk about our day, sip a glass of wine (or iced tea in MK), and enjoy the magic.