I am neither for nor against the dining plan, in and of itself; whether or not we get it depends on the focus of the trip we are taking. I have found we eat more towards what and how we like, and save money, when paying out of pocket (OOP). When the dining plan is free, we get it because it gives us the opportunity to do a sit-down in the a/c once a day. However, if we are going to WDW during the food & wine festival, we never get the dining plan; we put the money towards park hoppers so we can go to Epcot for dinner at the festival each night.
Some things to consider: The dining plan is a LOT of food, and with the DxDP you are going to spend a LOT of time eating. At WDW, time is money, so if you are sitting in a restaurant (that you are paying for), you are losing out on park time (that you've also paid for). As you are staying at the cabins, you'll have a kitchen. If you really want to do the dining plan, I'd suggest dropping the deluxe and doing the regular. You can make breakfast in the cabin each morning; even if you don't want to cook, you can do cereal, yogurt, bagels, fruit, etc. You'll find this a savings to put more wiggle room in your budget. Also, before committing to the dining plan, look at the menus and see if you'll really find value in the DP. Usually you have to buy the most expensive entree and a dessert with every meal to get your money's worth. If your tweens/teens aren't big eaters, you'll lose money there, for sure. If you like the pre-paid aspect of the dining plan, consider investing in Disney gift cards instead. You can take a guestimate of your food costs, then buy Disney gift cards for a similar amount before going on the trip- you can even buy them one at a time, over several months, to make it more affordable. Just use these to pay for your OOP meals. It's like being pre-paid, but you get to eat what you want, when you want it!
You also might want to think about 7 day tickets, if you are really AT Disney for 7 days. I suspect they are not a lot more expensive than the 5 day tickets, and even if you are having a non-park day, it's nice to be able to go into MK at night for the parade and Wishes, or over to Epcot for a quick service dinner (Tangierine Cafe comes to mind!) and then watch Illuminations. Of course, if 2 of your 7 days are truly travel days, this isn't a good idea!
Keep your eyes open for room-only discounts and also
free dining. You have 3 years to plan... PLENTY of time to wait for the appropriate discounts! Suscribe to mousesavers.com (if you haven't already); they are pretty good about announcing the upcoming discount offers.
