Is the DDP enough

[jonhall]

Hi there, we will be going to Disney for the first time is 7 years. It will also be my two daughters first time going this July. My question is regarding the DDP. Are two meals enough for people throughout the day? I am trying to decide between the DDP and the Deluxe plan. I don't see us taking full advantage of the Signature restaurants but am still wondering if I should be taking it so I'll be able to have three meals a day for everyone. I wanted to be able to book and not have to worry about meals while we are there and so am questioning the DDP and if it is enough food.

 

[Ginny Favers]

The last time we selected the regular dining plan, and wondered the same thing.

We felt it was definitely enough. We ended up having to space out our meals better, because we would eat a QS lunch and not be hungry at all by our TS dinner reservation. OF course, we are the type of people who are satisfied with a simple bagel in the morning. If you're a big eater, you might feel differently.

 

[mchllevns]

It's been more than enough for us...we often scramble to use the rest of our snack credits at the end of the week and end up taking home bags of disney pretzels, etc because we didn't use all of our credits during the week. We often use a snack for breakfast as opposed to a CS. I don't think I could do the Deluxe...you'd be eating all the time!

 

[havoc315]

Hi there, we will be going to Disney for the first time is 7 years. It will also be my two daughters first time going this July. My question is regarding the DDP. Are two meals enough for people throughout the day? I am trying to decide between the DDP and the Deluxe plan. I don't see us taking full advantage of the Signature restaurants but am still wondering if I should be taking it so I'll be able to have three meals a day for everyone. I wanted to be able to book and not have to worry about meals while we are there and so am questioning the DDP and if it is enough food.

Most people find that the DDP is enough food.... BUT.....
If you decide to upgrade to the deluxe plan, that's about $35 per adult. (Not sure of the ages of your daughters, but they may be considered adults).

You can pay for breakfast at the food court for about $5-$10.

So if your sole worry is having breakfast, then it is NOT worth upgrading to the deluxe. The only reasons to do the deluxe would be if you want a TON of table service and signatures.

Getting back to the basic DDP --- The 3 most popular methods of getting 3 meals are:
1 -- Eat breakfast cheaply in the room. Bring granola bars or a box of cereal.
2 -- Eat breakfast with snack credits and your mug. Your mug for coffee, and get bagels or pasties for breakfast. (snack credits).
3 -- Share meals. 2 people can pretty easily share a CS combo platter breakfast. And 2 people can split many of the CS lunches. So you really can stretch the CS credits to cover 2 meals per day.

.... and as mentioned above, you can purchase a breakfast platter out of pocket for about $10. So not worth paying $35 to upgrade to deluxe, just to get breakfast covered.

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

So if your sole worry is having breakfast, then it is NOT worth upgrading to the deluxe. The only reasons to do the deluxe would be if you want a TON of table service and signatures.

For me - it's not necessarily the breakfasts (last time I brought full boxes of cereal and purchased fresh fruit and bagels)
I am missing the appys! We don't eat desserts all the time but love appetizers!
I was just looking at the deluxe plan and if we get free dining in September I'm am crunching numbers to see if it would make sense to upgrade to deluxe and use the snack credits as take home gifts (we did that last time with tons of lollipops and such)..... so much to think about!

 

[havoc315]

For me - it's not necessarily the breakfasts (last time I brought full boxes of cereal and purchased fresh fruit and bagels)
I am missing the appys! We don't eat desserts all the time but love appetizers!
I was just looking at the deluxe plan and if we get free dining in September I'm am crunching numbers to see if it would make sense to upgrade to deluxe and use the snack credits as take home gifts (we did that last time with tons of lollipops and such)..... so much to think about!

I love appetizers to, but appetizers alone wouldn't be enough reason to upgrade --- if you're happy with 1 TS and 1 CS per day. Adding an appetizer to a TS dinner costs $5-12.... Significantly less than the $35 upgrade charge.

The only way the deluxe is worthwhile is if you want to use MORE than 2 TS credits per day. You can have a coupe CS meals in a week, but you will have to use 3 TS credits most days to make it worth the cost. (either 3 TS meals, or 2 TS meals with 1 of them being signature).

 

[Chelley00]

It was too much food for us. We use a snack credit for breakfast (or I take/have delivered granola bars or muffins) Sometimes we'll do big breakfasts at character meals, snack credit for lunch and then a counter service for breakfast.

We've never gone hungry, even without the appetizer.

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

The only way the deluxe is worthwhile is if you want to use MORE than 2 TS credits per day. You can have a coupe CS meals in a week, but you will have to use 3 TS credits most days to make it worth the cost. (either 3 TS meals, or 2 TS meals with 1 of them being signature).

on my way to see all the TS restaurants I would like to go to and then see if it's worth it!
Thank you for your info!!!

 

[dancin Disney style]

Another angle to consider is the time spent in TS meals. You may find that going with the DxDDP will cost you a ton of time every day. Consider that each meal will be approx 90 minutes....signatures a little more. Then also factor in time spent traveling to restaurants.

In terms of food we find the best way to effectively use the DDP (for us) is to have a late breakfast and then an early dinner. Filling the gap with a snack if needed. Almost daily we don't use the snacks in between. It's a lot of food.

 

[ReneeA]

We have found that the regular DDP is plenty for our family. I always pick up a few boxes of breakfast bars to stick in the suitcases and have water delivered to the resort (won't use snack credits for water). This is the way our typical day goes:

Grab a breakfast bar on our way out the door in the morning in order to make it to rope drop...the food courts are mass chaos in the mornings, and I don't want to waste the time or aggravation on that. We then get a couple snacks to share if hungry later in the morning. We head for CS right at opening (11am) in order to avoid the lunch rush and get nice, fresh food. The CS meals are HUGE. Many times, I will share with DD since she's not a huge fan of the kid's meals. 3 meals +drinks+desserts easily feed the 4 of us, and DH is not a dainty eater. Sometimes we get snacks in the afternoon, sometimes after dinner. We normally eat dinner at the TS about 5, and that fills us until bedtime.

Even though it's only 2 meals a day, it is much more food than we eat on a regular basis. Our last couple trips, we had a few CS meals and snacks left to use before leaving. We had sandwiches wrapped to go to take with us to the airport.

 

[naosam]

For us deluxe was good. We would go to early breakfast in the morning. We would do lunch before going to our room and the pool.My ds don't like quick food so for him hit was better.

 

[brymolmom]

We just got back from a trip with 5 families. My own family (2 adults, 2 kids) had 4 CS credits unusued at the end of the trip. My parents had 5 unused and my sister's family had about 5 unused too. This was with the regular DDP - it is PLENTY of food.

We always bring a box of cereal in the luggage. Mostly due to not wanting to do the crowds in teh food court in the mornings and just quick eat and head to the bus. We probably only used it 3 mornings on this trip. We split a lot of CS meals - would order 3 instead of 4 and all split them. We get the pizza deal at the food court - large pizza, 2 desserts and 2 drinks for 2 CS and it feeds our whole family - this gives us some 'extra' cs credits to use for breakfasts.

OR
Sometimes we do a TS breakfast at 10 or 11am....have a snack around 2 or 3 and then eat a dinner at 5 or 6.....

If quantity of food is the deciding factor I would guess that the regular DDP would be plenty quantity wise for most average eating families.

 

[Don Disney]

We always have too many CS and snack"credits"left over-four 10 nite trips,and we have NEVER used all of them;until the end of the trip when we're scrambling around buying lollipops,Mickey rice crispy treats,candy,mixed nuts,Powerade,Mickey ice cream bars,Sundaes etc... at Everything Pop.We all have pretty good appetites too! We get Dole Whips,Churros,milkshakes,popcorn,and other treats while at the parks also.Long story short,it's a LOT of food!!! We went to Hoop-dee-Doo,and almost OD'D on fried chicken,ribs,cornbread,beer,and strawberry shortcake! It was 2 TS meals,but what a meal! We have cancelled at least 1 TS each trip too-food overload! I failed to mention that we do bring some snacks from home in our luggage,and order a few things from Garden Grocer to have some nibble in our room!

 

[pippi]

A regular DDP is just fine! We are a family of 6. We found that we could eat cheaply in our room for breakfast, have a quick lunch or a sit down lunch and use the other, QS/TS, for dinner. Keep in mind that the more times you sit whether it's quick or not, the less times you have to enjoy the parks. You also get a snack which can always tie you over until the next meal. I don't think the deluxe plan is worth the time or money.

 

[lan3]

For me and dh it was fine but I spent a lot extra on my kids. They eat three meals per day want breakfast in the am. They also wanted chicken strips (adult menu) instead of chicken nuggets (kids menu) and that cost us extra each day.