PLEASE HELP!!! DP or DDP

[4my_girls]

Hello - I really need help deciding if we should do the Regular Dining Plan or the Deluxe Dining Plan. I did the math and the additional cost is $430 for a 5 night/6 day stay. I am concerned that we won't eat that much food but then I am scared of getting there and not having enough and then being oop way more! I am also worried that if we do the DDP we will be spending much more time eating than exploring. We also have a daughter with a medical condition and I am worried about keepign her on a TIGHT schedule. I'm driving my husband crazy b/c I keep going back and forth. Here is what I have planned so far:

Sunday (arrival) Magic Kingdom
breakfast - will eat before we arrive
lunch - ?
Supper - 830 PM at the Crystal Palace

Monday: Hollywood Disney
breakfast - ?
lunch - 11:15 50s Prime Time Cafe
supper - ?

Tuesday: Epcot
breakfast - ?
lunch - ?
supper - ?

Wednesday: Animal Kingdom
breakfast - 9:25 AM Tusker House
lunch - ?
dinner - ?

Thursday: return back to Magic Kingdom
breakfast -
lunch - ?
supper - 5:40 PM Cinderella Royal Table

Friday - leaving Disney early and heading to the beach for two days before driving 1700 miles back home

Ok - so, if I stick with the regular Dining Plan - would it be better to cancel the dinner Thursday night since it takes 2 sit downs and just go to Akershus while at Epcot for lunch (I currently have a reservation for that and didnt' want to cancel it until I decide what plan to go with)
Of course, if we go with the DDP, I would need to get busy making more reservations.

I am just worried either way - UGH! What do you for breakfast if on the regular DP? I would not want to use our snack credit for that would I?

Thank you so much for any input you can give me!!!

 

[hannahdrewmom]

First of all I'd look at the times you are eating right now. 8:30 on an arrival night will be a nightmare! You won't be done eating until after 10. The next day you have an early lunch so there is no way that you will want a sit down breakfast too. Overall the timing needs to work for your family.

Honestly the best use of Dxdp is if you do some signature restaurants. Right now you don't seem to be anywhere near your alottment if you did dxdp. You will get 1 cs for each day too so you won't need to supplement that much and if you are going to do CS oop it won't be near $430. The other option would be to do CRT oop (probably $160) and then you will have 2 more TS meals to plan. Remember too if you do dxdp that tips add up QUICKLY! We do it and sometimes the tips can be close to $400 more!

If this is your first time in Disney I would not want to spend much time eating. Enjoy your vacation... the food is nothing FANTASTIC. Remember in the years to come your daughter isn't going to talk about the meals as much as the experience.

 

[4my_girls]

Thank you so much for your input!!! On our arrival day, we will already have been in the Disney area.....I have our entire day planned at MK that day b/c of the extended hours.....you don't think that is a good idea???

CRT oop is $198 :O) that is one reason we were even considering the DDP.....b/c this is nearly half of the price increase.

So, we could either do an extra oop CS meal - OR - change to lunch on the 31st at Akershus Royal Banquet if the experience is similar.

 

[hannahdrewmom]

As far as the first night how old are your kids? For us it makes more sense for us to get there EARLY in the mornings and then leave at a normal time. Our kids are younger and there is no way that I could have them finishing eating at 10pm. (Quite honestly I wouldn't want to eat that late myself... so it's not an issue.) The other problem is the next morning. If you don't get home until really late the next day you wouldn't be able to get up. If you miss RD you end up waiting in LONG lines (especially at HS). Dxdp works if you do 2/3 of your meals at TS restaurants. Each restaurant takes about 90 minutes from arrival to leaving. So if you are in the parks 8 hrs a day 3 hours would be eating. That is where some people get frustrated. Disney is a big place with TONS to see and do. You will make yourself crazy if you have to "get your moneys worth" out of everything. It turns from a fun vacation to a list that needs to be checked off. I'd look at what you really want to do and what your family likes to do. If you all like eating out and food is a focus then go Dxdp. If you would rather experience more rides and more touring then don't. Remember Disney always has options out that that are "only a little more". We're all there with you on that!

 

[catra121]

I would recommend Deluxe. I have a condition that limits my mobility (but I don't use an ECV or anything) but with proper planning just based on where you are going to be there shouldnt be any rushing around. And if you miss a reservation and decided to eat CS...you have the flexibility to do that (even if it's not "cost effective" to do so). Plus...with my condition I loved being able to do the sit down meals throughout the day because it gave me time to rest from the hustle and bustle. Just the convenience and flexibility would make it worth it in my opinion.

 

[4my_girls]

As far as the first night how old are your kids? For us it makes more sense for us to get there EARLY in the mornings and then leave at a normal time. Our kids are younger and there is no way that I could have them finishing eating at 10pm. (Quite honestly I wouldn't want to eat that late myself... so it's not an issue.) The other problem is the next morning. If you don't get home until really late the next day you wouldn't be able to get up. If you miss RD you end up waiting in LONG lines (especially at HS). Dxdp works if you do 2/3 of your meals at TS restaurants. Each restaurant takes about 90 minutes from arrival to leaving. So if you are in the parks 8 hrs a day 3 hours would be eating. That is where some people get frustrated. Disney is a big place with TONS to see and do. You will make yourself crazy if you have to "get your moneys worth" out of everything. It turns from a fun vacation to a list that needs to be checked off. I'd look at what you really want to do and what your family likes to do. If you all like eating out and food is a focus then go Dxdp. If you would rather experience more rides and more touring then don't. Remember Disney always has options out that that are "only a little more". We're all there with you on that!

what is RD???? sorry, so new to all of this!!!
Our girls are 7 and 9 (7 year old is the one with a medical condition). We are planning on going to the parks as early as possible and then heading back to our room after lunch so that she is able to take a nap. One of us might stay at the park with our older daughter so that she is able to do more, we will just have to see how that works out.

This is where my stress is hitting me, becuase I am feeling like I "have to get our monies worth" when it comes to the DDP (it is right at $1000 for all of us). I am also scared that we would constantly be watching the clock to make it to our next reservation. Plus, when I was trying to make reservations, a lot of the dinner shows were 8 PM and later, so I was worried about that too. I am basically thinking outloud at this point, lol. I am leaning more towards the regular meal plan...that way we only have to worry about limited reservations and then we can just do the rest of our time based on her needs. I am a little worried about eating a heavy lunch or even breakfast b/c of the heat and the rides..............


Thank you so much for your help!!!!

 

[CathieArms]

Hello - I really need help deciding if we should do the Regular Dining Plan or the Deluxe Dining Plan.

I think you need to first plan your days around the number of meals you think you might want to eat. You need to be sure - if you do the DxDP that you have enough time between meals so that you're not finishing one meal and starting another. For my family, I plan a *minimum* of 4 hours between meals, planning that each meal will last about 90 minutes from the beginning of the ADR time. So, for instance:

8AM Breakfast will last until 9:30, probably. That means that the earliest lunch we're gonna want to eat 1:30. That lunch will last until about 3:00, so the earliest dinner I'd want to eat would be 7. That's on a 3 TS Meal day, which I really wouldn't want to do every single day. And then, on the days we'd do that, I'd want to schedule a lunch that wouldn't necessarily be a heavy lunch. So, for example, on an Epcot Day, we might do Akershus or Cape May for Breakfast around 7:30 or 8:00, then a lunch at Teppan Edo at 1:30, and then dinner at 7:00 somewhere.

On another day, we might do a late breakfast at, say 10:20 at maybe Tusker House, and then an early dinner at about 5:00.

 

[dntd]

Last time I went I did alot of 2 credit meal, this time only on. It would cost over $400+ extra tips for the deluxe,I think one table service a day is great. This works well for us too as we can go back to the hotel, if we want to eat at the hotel we can or at the park. We booked only one morning ADR and the rest night ones around 5:30, allowing us early morning and naps/swims in the afternoon.

 

[Celidh]

You mentioned breakfast. I have heard some good ideas for a quick easy breakfast. One is to ship yourself a parcel care of your resort, or bring something yourself with you, depending on how you are travelling. In this parcel you can have snack stuff, including breakfast items like breakfast bars, individual cereal etc. An example of an easy breakfast if it would suit your kids is to use the ind. cereal and buy a carton of milk from the resort and a juice to drink and voila, cheap easy breakfast. Another option i heard is if you have a coffee maker in your room, just brew hot water and use instant oatmeal. Another option is to just get a snack, cinnamon roll, muffin or whatever and a drink. This would all depend on your children's eating habits. My kids are pretty easy going for breakfast as none of them want big breakfasts and neither do I.

If you ship yourself a parcel, you can have other things in it for snacks that might cost a fortune at the resort. I plan on doing this and including crackers, pringles chips (a bag would be crushed) and maybe some drink crystals to add to water later in the day in case my kids find the water tastes funny to them compared to what they are used to.

Anyway, that is my idea for some options breakfast for you.

Good Luck

 

[shawnh199]

We love the deluxe plan. We do 3 TS meals a day (my girls are used to having 3 meals a day) with a pre-park opening character breakfast, lunch around 1pm and dinner after 630pm. You don't miss any park time by eating breakfast before the park opens. Most meals last us appx. an hour. I have only had two meals (Ohana for dinner and Garden Grill) that have been longer. One way to speed up a meal is to take care of your check early on in the meal so you are not waiting on it after you are finished eating. This is especially important when you are on the dining plan and have to deal with several different receipts.

We like the ability to sit down and rest in the air conditioning and not having to mess with crowded CS places that you have to wait in line and then try to find a table. The wait in lines and for tables can last almost as long (30-45 minutes if you are lucky) and you are not able to "relax". My girls typically nap at lunch until their food comes. This break gets us rested so we are ready to keep going. I also feel we eat a little better, not just hot dogs and hamburgers. Yes, there is more food since you get apps and desserts, but you don't have to eat every bite of food on your plate (unless you are at 50's Prime Time and they try to get you to eat your entire entree : )

You have to plan it correctly - no park hopping between ADR's unless you plan to stay at the 2nd park. In other words, we eat at the park we are planning on going to for the day (or a nearby resort restaurant). That way you aren't wasting a lot of time traveling from place to place. For example if we are at MK, we eat at CP (or CRT/Ohana/Chef Mickey's, etc) for breakfast. We are trying LTT this time for lunch and Tony's for dinner on our first day. On our 2nd day we are doing Ohana or breakfast, Wilderness Lodge for lunch and Grand Floridian for dinner. We don't plan on returning after dinner as we will have seen the parades and fireworks the first night. This is the most traveling we have for one day and can justify it because we will have been at MK the day before also. Our ADR's are mostly inside the same park all day.

As far as constantly worrying about your ADR times, we set our alarm on our cell phone for about 30 minutes before the ADR time so that we have time to get to the restaurant. We won't get in a long attaction ride line if it's near time to eat. You just have to be aware of that.

The most important thing is to have fun. You are at Disney!! We enjoy the food at Disney just as much as the rest of Disney so with all the character meals we do (7 planned this trip) the Deluxe plan makes financial sense for us (I sit down with the menus to figure out what plans work for us based on where we want to eat). Everyone is different so you have to pick what works for your family.