Matbe Deluxe Dining Plan?

[JVig]

Hey:

I'm trying to decide about the dining plan. The regular plan with 1 table service, 1 quick service and 1 snack doesn't give us enough table services for what I have planned, really not even close. The cost for that plan would be $840ish for us (2 adults and 1 child) -- seems pretty reasonable if we can cover all our food for the week that way, so i am considering changing my plans to make it fit. but that will be tough, partly because of signatures we want to try and partly because my family just doesn't dig quick service meals.

We are there 6 nights and my ADRs so far include 3 signatures and 5 table service. I guess my question is considering the cost of the DDP (which wild run about $1500 for us), is there any way that is ever financially the right way to go? I haven't crunched the numbers yet--I will do that--but I wanted to get a sense from you guys what your experiences have been. Thanks!

 

[JVig]

The title is supposed to say "Maybe"--- should've finished my coffee first!

 

[sharonabe]

You're going to have to crunch some numbers, but if you can up the number of signatures and plan your other TS for breakfast or early lunch, you'll probably come out ahead.

If you keep the regular DDP, you're pretty much stuck with QS for some of your meals; there's just no way, financially, to get around that. So if TS is preferred over QS, and you can handle the $1500, I'd probably go that way.

BUT, it is possible to eat all TS for less than that $1500. It just depends on how you want to eat.

 

[disneysuncat]

There are three of us, two adults and one teen, and we're doing the deluxe plan. Planning to eat signature 5 of our 5 nights, and one other table service each day. I plugged it all into that dining plan calculator, and with our plans, we were going to come out ahead with it, but admittedly not by much!

Still, I'm not going to sweat it, just going to order and try not to think "am I getting my best value out of this?"

 

[jahber]

If you can afford the deluxe plan and don't care about "maximizing" it, just do it. There is no way my family of 4 would eat $1500 worth of food in 6 days, so it wouldn't work for us. That's twice our monthly food budget at home and I wouldn't be able to handle that (which is just a personal thing as a cheapskate--not a judgment at all). But with so many signature and TS meals, especially if you factor in buffets, it could easily make sense to just do the deluxe plan and not worry about it.

 

[btk2333]

You'll have to do the math for yourself- only you know what you would order. Personally we don't do any dining plans, we always get a TiW card and pay OOP- we eat two TS per day and like to have alcohol with our meals so TiW works very well for us.

 

[chilepeppr4]

Hey:

I'm trying to decide about the dining plan. The regular plan with 1 table service, 1 quick service and 1 snack doesn't give us enough table services for what I have planned, really not even close. The cost for that plan would be $840ish for us (2 adults and 1 child) -- seems pretty reasonable if we can cover all our food for the week that way, so i am considering changing my plans to make it fit. but that will be tough, partly because of signatures we want to try and partly because my family just doesn't dig quick service meals.

We are there 6 nights and my ADRs so far include 3 signatures and 5 table service. I guess my question is considering the cost of the DDP (which wild run about $1500 for us), is there any way that is ever financially the right way to go? I haven't crunched the numbers yet--I will do that--but I wanted to get a sense from you guys what your experiences have been. Thanks!

I have the exact same problem deciding as you!
We will be in the world for 8 nights. Me, dh40, dd4, ds7.
My plan was to do a 2 TS a day. Breakfast and Dinner. With snacks in between.. And I was also hoping for free dining (staying value so a credit of close to $900 will be applied to account if free dining comes out) with that said.. We would be paying OOP about $1270 for the upgrade from free to deluxe. A lot of people told me we'd be wasting time and money having so many ADRs.. I just don't know what to do.. And I guess I'll have to wait till the free dining does come out to see. A bunch are character meals. And 2 two credit meals.
Some people suggest just eating breakfast in the room.. Ordering from garden grocer or brining cereal and things. Has anyone done that before? I could see the advantage of that by not having to rush out the door even earlier.. So conflicted on what do to!!

 

[aaarcher86]

I have the exact same problem deciding as you! We will be in the world for 8 nights. Me, dh40, dd4, ds7. My plan was to do a 2 TS a day. Breakfast and Dinner. With snacks in between.. And I was also hoping for free dining (staying value so a credit of close to $900 will be applied to account if free dining comes out) with that said.. We would be paying OOP about $1270 for the upgrade from free to deluxe. A lot of people told me we'd be wasting time and money having so many ADRs.. I just don't know what to do.. And I guess I'll have to wait till the free dining does come out to see. A bunch are character meals. And 2 two credit meals. Some people suggest just eating breakfast in the room.. Ordering from garden grocer or brining cereal and things. Has anyone done that before? I could see the advantage of that by not having to rush out the door even earlier.. So conflicted on what do to!!

Do what YOU want to do. Everyone has an opinion on what the best route is.

For me, eating breakfast in the room or any form of cooking is NOT a vacation. We love the DXDP when we can get a dining discount. We do a TS breakfast and dinner, with a QS lunch. Most TS meals are character. IMO, it's no more a waste of time then standing in line to meet the same characters. If I can eat a meal and meet 4 - 5 characters in 1 - 1.5 hours, relaxed, in the AC, the. I consider that a win. It'd take the same amount if time to stand in line and meet all those characters.

We've never had an issue of meals being a waste of time. We get there early, have the whole day and evening in the parks, and finish it off with dinner. Would we normally order an app and dessert for everyone at dinner? No. But the price to upgrade to the DXDP is LESS than what we would've paid out of pocket ordering what we want (since most are buffet) so I enjoy getting to try different apps and desserts I wouldn't normally order. It makes the tip a little ****** - I don't care. It's vacation lol.

 

[chilepeppr4]

Do what YOU want to do. Everyone has an opinion on what the best route is.

For me, eating breakfast in the room or any form of cooking is NOT a vacation. We love the DXDP when we can get a dining discount. We do a TS breakfast and dinner, with a QS lunch. Most TS meals are character. IMO, it's no more a waste of time then standing in line to meet the same characters. If I can eat a meal and meet 4 - 5 characters in 1 - 1.5 hours, relaxed, in the AC, the. I consider that a win. It'd take the same amount if time to stand in line and meet all those characters.

We've never had an issue of meals being a waste of time. We get there early, have the whole day and evening in the parks, and finish it off with dinner. Would we normally order an app and dessert for everyone at dinner? No. But the price to upgrade to the DXDP is LESS than what we would've paid out of pocket ordering what we want (since most are buffet) so I enjoy getting to try different apps and desserts I wouldn't normally order. It makes the tip a little ****** - I don't care. It's vacation lol.

Thank you! I think you're the first person to agree with my crazy thinking LOL!!
I'm going to review my original plan with TS breakfasts and dinners. I'll probably make ADRs as if we will be on the deluxe and wait to see if Free dining comes out. If it's good price wise we will probably keep it. If not.. I can use the money I would not be spending on it towards my air fare

 

[aaarcher86]

Thank you! I think you're the first person to agree with my crazy thinking LOL!!
I'm going to review my original plan with TS breakfasts and dinners. I'll probably make ADRs as if we will be on the deluxe and wait to see if Free dining comes out. If it's good price wise we will probably keep it. If not.. I can use the money I would not be spending on it towards my air fare

Yeah. We just figure, if it's the cheaper option, why not? We don't need to lick our plates clean, we can try some new things we wouldn't normally order, and since we saved money on just the meal portion the snacks were just an added bonus.

The snacks we didn't use we just grabbed stuff and took it home with us - Mickey Rice Crispy treas for a week! lmao

There's tons of people who eat breakfast in the room, take snacks into the park, pack lunch, or whatever - it's just not what I want for my vacation. And that's fine. We're all different. But I'm going to do what I enjoy most. We have DVC now and do TIW since we can't get the DXDP at a discount, but we still don't utilize the kitchen at all. I cook enough at home, I like hot breakfasts, and character meals are FUN!

 

[chilepeppr4]

Yeah. We just figure, if it's the cheaper option, why not? We don't need to lick our plates clean, we can try some new things we wouldn't normally order, and since we saved money on just the meal portion the snacks were just an added bonus.

The snacks we didn't use we just grabbed stuff and took it home with us - Mickey Rice Crispy treas for a week! lmao

There's tons of people who eat breakfast in the room, take snacks into the park, pack lunch, or whatever - it's just not what I want for my vacation. And that's fine. We're all different. But I'm going to do what I enjoy most. We have DVC now and do TIW since we can't get the DXDP at a discount, but we still don't utilize the kitchen at all. I cook enough at home, I like hot breakfasts, and character meals are FUN!

I've been using the "dis calculator" so hopefully that will also help me decide. I'm having trouble understanding it tho. It almost seems like OOP maybe the way to go..

 

[aaarcher86]

I've been using the "dis calculator" so hopefully that will also help me decide. I'm having trouble understanding it tho. It almost seems like OOP maybe the way to go..

It might be. There's no real magic to it. Everyone is different. I don't know if the calculator can account for FD though? I usually just do it by hand. There's a sticky with the upgrade costs.