Just returned on Deluxe plan -- not again

[ransom]

You don't HAVE to eat 3 meals a day on the DDP. You can shake it up and eat at some REALLY NICE places for 2 credits or get room service breakfast/dinner.

Do not discount room service as I find that to be one of the more valuable things about DDP! Nothing like being too tired to go to dinner after being in the park ALL day with tired and whiney kids. You can get them in their jammies while waiting for dinner to show up and relax without crowds around you and eat your dinner in your room.
There is always something special about room service while your on vacation I think more parents with little ones should look into Room Service by the time they are half way done eating, the little ones pass out in their little beds leaving mommy and daddy to relax on the balcony finishing dessert ALONE

Also, those 2 point TS service places are not to be missed! You don't EAT more but you EAT BETTER

I agree completely as regards the 2 TS places, but I have to admit you opened my eyes about room service. I hadn't really thought about it, but you're right -- with the tip included, it's really not that bad of a deal, and could be the exact right thing to do in certain situations.

Thank you!

 

[praline3001]

From my DDP I see that only the Deluxe hotels offer in room dining on the dining plan. I do see moderate hotels having pizza delivery for in room dining on the plan. Just wanted to throw that out there!

check the DDP brochure to make sure your resort offers in room dining on the plan.

 

[MsStinkerBelle]

OP: Sorry to hear the deluxe plan didn't work for you.

We're booked for the Deluxe DDP for December '08 as we love dining at TS restaurants. I did the DDP for free last August and still wound up paying out of pocket considerably as we do eat 3 meals and snacks. We saved our snack credits for Mickey rice crispy treats to take home then. Disney is something we've done for year for 20+ years so we spend about 50% touring, 25% enjoying the resort and 25% enjoying TS restaurants. It's never been 'too much food' for us because at some restaurants we'll have a light meal and a heavier one at others.

With the numbers crunched, the Deluxe DDP works for us. But that's us.

 

[praline3001]

oh room service dinner is REALLY good too!
Here are some pics of the room service dinner I had at AKL a few years back\
(sorry if some of it has already been eaten )

this was prime rib. Here was the dessert:

 

[Colleen27]

It is not worth buying unless you make the most of it right? If you are going to eat lightly and practice portion control, you should just pay out of pocket.

You really to have to make the very most of it for it to make sense, at least on paper. Heck, you don't even have to use every credit. We don't worry much about portion control because DS9 happily shares our appetizers and dessert (kids meals just aren't enough for him at this point - he's 5', 95lbs and eats like the football player he is! ), but I ran the numbers using a lot of salads where they're available and it still made sense. We're also doing some character meals where we probably won't eat much - none of us are big breakfast people - but DD is an autograph hound and meeting characters at meals is so much easier/nicer than waiting in lines in the park.

I do think that, for us, it could be too much food if we were all adults. DS9 and to a lesser degree DD6 are the main reasons 3 course meals work for us. They share our appetizers and desserts and sometimes try our entrees as well, but still have the "safe" kids meal food to fall back on if it turns out that they don't care for the adult menu items. It never bothers me if they fill up on my crab cakes & shrimp (as DS did at Kona) and don't finish their mac & cheese or hot dog, so the kids meals don't really factor in to my thinking about the quantity of food.

 

[Melissa_E]

We're still toying with the idea of doing the Deluxe DDP on this upcoming trip. On our previous trips, every single day we would use at least the equivalent of 2 TS credits per person -- either we did a signature TS meal for dinner, or we had a buffet breakfast and a regular TS dinner, or we did a TS lunch and a regular TS dinner. So I did the math, and the Deluxe DDP would work for us. It wouldn't save a ton of money, but we definitely wouldn't lose money on it.

This is exactly why we are doing the DxDP. Most of our days we have breakfast and dinner planned. Some of those dinners are 2TS. Right now we have 14 out of 21 TS credits accounted for, with two days where we only have one meal planned or no meals planned. I figure we'll be able to use those 7 TS somehow. Plus the snacks. I ran the numbers, I looked at the menus and figured it out. For the way we eat (good breakfast, good dinner) it works for us and I can't wait!

Also, when I visited Disney in the late 80's, my family was on the dining plan they had available then. In order to get your meal free, you had to eat at a sit down meal. I never once felt like I missed on anything in the park because we were stuck eating somewhere. It certainly helped that we were there for 8 days.

 

[Colleen27]

You don't HAVE to eat 3 meals a day on the DDP. You can shake it up and eat at some REALLY NICE places for 2 credits or get room service breakfast/dinner.

On our upcoming trip we only have 1 day where we are eating 3 TS places... and that is to keep everyone in the family happy

Same here. We're going to be doing some room service, a lot of signature dining, and only one day where we eat 3 meals. That day is simply a matter of too many can't miss restaurants and too few days - DH wants a breakfast where he can get eggs benedict (Concourse, since WL room service doesn't offer it), the kids want Beaches & Cream for lunch & ice cream, and then we have the Princess dinner at Akershus in the evening.

 

[ransom]

Also, when I visited Disney in the late 80's, my family was on the dining plan they had available then. In order to get your meal free, you had to eat at a sit down meal. I never once felt like I missed on anything in the park because we were stuck eating somewhere. It certainly helped that we were there for 8 days.

Aha! I think you hit the nail on the head. Like you, we tend to take longer WDW vacations. So spending the time at TS restaurants isn't a problem. But I can see how if we were only there for a short time, doing TS restaurants would cut too much into our theme park time.

I wonder how many of us DxDDP folks are of the stay-longer variety?

 

[praline3001]

Aha! I think you hit the nail on the head. Like you, we tend to take longer WDW vacations. So spending the time at TS restaurants isn't a problem. But I can see how if we were only there for a short time, doing TS restaurants would cut too much into our theme park time.

I wonder how many of us DxDDP folks are of the stay-longer variety?

We usually stay 8 days. Not sure if that is considered long or not....
I know we have stayed 5 days and OUCH we were hurting afterwards trying to get everything in

 

[Cinderumbrella]

Aha! I think you hit the nail on the head. Like you, we tend to take longer WDW vacations. So spending the time at TS restaurants isn't a problem. But I can see how if we were only there for a short time, doing TS restaurants would cut too much into our theme park time.

I wonder how many of us DxDDP folks are of the stay-longer variety?

Great point! We are usually there from 8-10 days.

 

[Tiger926]

Excellent point about staying longer. We usually are there between 10-12 days in the summer, and 7-8 days when we go during the holidays or March Break as I'm a teacher. We find that eating TS meals are great for our health (this is the way we eat as we have food allergies/sensitivities and low blood sugar), allow us to degrief from heat and chaos in parks, eat much better food than CS meals offer, and best of all, get fabulous character interaction!

We have been eating TS meals for awhile now, before the Dining Plan, so we are anxious to try the Deluxe Plan as it is going to save us some money, while still allowing us to take a relaxed vacation. We are DVC members who never cook in our villa, as well as don't feel the need to see and do everything each and every trip, so even when we take shorter trips of 7 days, we still eat at TS meals 2-3 times per day.

It's neat to see how everyone makes use of each of the Dining Plans depending upon their family's eating habits/needs.

Happy eating, Tiger

 

[Colleen27]

Aha! I think you hit the nail on the head. Like you, we tend to take longer WDW vacations. So spending the time at TS restaurants isn't a problem. But I can see how if we were only there for a short time, doing TS restaurants would cut too much into our theme park time.

I wonder how many of us DxDDP folks are of the stay-longer variety?

That's a good point - I wouldn't use the plan on a shorter vacation. Our deluxe dining trip is 11 nights.

 

[tnmomof4]

We are going in September, and I decided to do the DxDDP. I did the DDP last year. We are staying 10 nights. I have a 12 year old boy and 10 year old boy, and they are really excited about trying adult meals. I also have twins that will be 5.

I think it will save me money. I usually end up buying drinks at the resort for all the kids, so now they can have their own mugs. There were times last year that they all got hungry, and I would buy 1 or 2 CS meals for all of us to share. We always use up snack credits in the parks, and I end up buying drinks in the parks too. So even if I have to tip, I still will be saving money by not having to pay for all the extra drinks and snacks and CS meals. I guess if there is a certain appetizer that we want I can just buy that and share it. Does anyone else think my thinking is correct?

I was also wondering if you have to do any TS. I thought it was 3 meals a day and you got to choose TS or CS. I thought that some days we would do 3 CS. Are the meals divided up into TS and CS?

 

[hahmood]

our arrival day)we stayed at WL last year for only 2 nights but were at DW 3 days. This March we are staying 4 nights/5 days and are on the DxDDP. We have made our ADRs and will have no trouble using up our credits, especially since CS & TS have the same credit amount. Most of our TS credits are used for dinner at 2 credit places, such as California Grill (our arrival night),Artist Point, Narcossees, then a late lunch Brown Derby before we leave to go to our condo at hte beach. Throw in a character breakfast at OHana and not much left! We had 3 main reasons for doing it, first my husband has restricted diet for health reasons and the signature restaurants cater to this, the convenience of being prepaid, and I enjoy trying new items on the signatures menus instead of the same old, same old or counter service and relaxing after battling crowds at the parks. After all, you are on vacation!

 

[praline3001]

We are going in September, and I decided to do the DxDDP. I did the DDP last year. We are staying 10 nights. I have a 12 year old boy and 10 year old boy, and they are really excited about trying adult meals. I also have twins that will be 5.

I think it will save me money. I usually end up buying drinks at the resort for all the kids, so now they can have their own mugs. There were times last year that they all got hungry, and I would buy 1 or 2 CS meals for all of us to share. We always use up snack credits in the parks, and I end up buying drinks in the parks too. So even if I have to tip, I still will be saving money by not having to pay for all the extra drinks and snacks and CS meals. I guess if there is a certain appetizer that we want I can just buy that and share it. Does anyone else think my thinking is correct?

I was also wondering if you have to do any TS. I thought it was 3 meals a day and you got to choose TS or CS. I thought that some days we would do 3 CS. Are the meals divided up into TS and CS?

You can do 3 CS meals but then you would be losing BIG bucks on the package. Its 69.99 per day per person so to even come close to breaking even you want to try to get 1TS (a good TS) a day..
or a room service


I have another question... for those who find the DDP to be a good deal~ how many of them have growing boys? I noticed this poster talking about trying to keep her boys from starving in the park and I can sympathize
My boys 10 and 13 are very trim but have developed a tape worm I swear they have!!!!!!!!!!! Our grocery bill rivals are house note and we live in a nice house
If we did the regular dining plan, I would still have to shell out money for food in the parks. A CS meal just doesn't fill them up for as long of time as a TS one.

 

[Native NYer]

I have another question... for those who find the DDP to be a good deal~ how many of them have growing boys? I noticed this poster talking about trying to keep her boys from starving in the park and I can sympathize
My boys 10 and 13 are very trim but have developed a tape worm I swear they have!!!!!!!!!!! Our grocery bill rivals are house note and we live in a nice house
If we did the regular dining plan, I would still have to shell out money for food in the parks. A CS meal just doesn't fill them up for as long of time as a TS one.

I don't have growing boys (or any kids for that matter), but I do think it's an excellent deal. Like you, I do enjoy room service. It's also worth it to me because I don't have to eat at a cs restaurant EVER, wait on lines, and hunt for a table.

I'm sure the deluxe dining plan is too much food, but I don't have to finish it all. Plus, I always remember my mom's advice....Eat less at dinner so there's room fore dessert

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Actually, my two teenage sons (14&18) are one of the main reasons we are going with the deluxe dining plan next trip this year. They are bottomless pits! Last trip on regular dining plan, I spent quite a bit of money purchasing extra meals for them. Plus, our DD's enjoy CRT, so right there that takes up 2 credits. So for us, the deluxe dining was an easy choice. We usually go for 10 days...

 

[tnmomof4]

I agree with you guys. My sons 12 and 10 are bottemless pits too. A kids CS meal doesn't fill them up. So this way they can get an adult meal and not be so hungry, and I won't have to buy extra CS meals.

 

[mickiecake]

We are going on the Deluxe Plan, what I did was:

Schedule 2 ADRs per day, several hours apart. Say, breakfast, then a late dinner. I also chose several 2 credit meals, so we won't have lots of credits left over.

Hopefully we won't feel overstuffed!!

 

[praline3001]

Actually, my two teenage sons (14&18) are one of the main reasons we are going with the deluxe dining plan next trip this year. They are bottomless pits! Last trip on regular dining plan, I spent quite a bit of money purchasing extra meals for them. Plus, our DD's enjoy CRT, so right there that takes up 2 credits. So for us, the deluxe dining was an easy choice. We usually go for 10 days...

yup those growing boys will cost you on food
I even try to make sure to throw in buffets at least once a day as the TS hard menus don't always fill 'em up. DH and the boys have NEVER mentioned that the DDP was just too much food for them
They scarf down whatever I have left on my plate

I swear people must think I don't ever feed them as they are all really thin! They just have high metabolisms. anyone that has older growing boys, the DDP is the way to go hands down!