plus dining or dining deluxe

[Leleluvsdis]

I would like to have the opinions of those that I have done dining and dining deluxe. We are definetly going to do a dining package on our next trip, but would like to know which is the best option. We def would like to do the nicer resturants as we haven't b/c didn't really have the extra to put into it. Thanks for your opinions!

 

[irongirlof12]

hi , we have done ddp regular ,and found it to be more than enough. the problem with booking meals is that you are tied to a schedule. I like to have 1 meal a day book up but like to have the rest of the day free. Some CS are IMO better than some TS , i.e. flame tree, cosmic rays. we found DDp to be far too much food and at one point towards the end DH said ' enough food already' which is not him!

Whatever you decide, have a fab trip!

 

[Colleen27]

We've done both and much prefer the deluxe plan. With the basic plan, we found ourselves eating counter service we didn't enjoy at all just to use up the credits, and still ended up paying OOP or skiping restaurants we wanted to try because we had too few table service credits. With the deluxe plan, we can have an air conditioned mid-day meal and a quieter signature dinner and not bother with the hassles of counter service at all.

 

[Leleluvsdis]

This is what I've been thinking. DH and I are both big breakfast people and late dinner eaters, and this past trip we found ourselves wanting to eat a big breakfast and big dinner and not to intersted in counter service, but just a snack or split a counter service for lunch.

 

[KigerKat]

When we went last year, DH and I were on the deluxe plan while the rest of our party was on the basic plan, so we got a side-by-side comparison of what it was like.

I hated it. I thought it would be really cool to try so many different places, since it was our first trip there. But we were constantly having to cut things short and miss things because of our ADRs. In fact, we canceled a few of them and just used our credits for CS instead to save time.

One thing I noticed about Disney restaurants is that the servers like to take their time. I know they are busy, but every single place we went to was AT LEAST 90 minutes, some places it was even 2 hours.

And then we were so full after eating, we didn't want to ride anything right away. We hardly ever ordered dessert. A few times we took it back to the room with us, but still never got around to eating it.

So I would say about 4-5 hours of our day was spent eating, and maybe about 2 hours taking it easy after such big meals.

Meanwhile, the rest of our party got to spend a lot more time enjoying the parks because they brought their own breakfast to eat in their rooms while everyone was getting ready or on the bus, grabbed CS for lunch and wound down the day with a nice sit-down dinner.

We've booked on the free dining plan this August, and I have no intentions of upgrading.

On the other hand...if you are a true Disney Vet and want to take your time and have a more relaxing vacation, then it's probably not a bad route to go. Good luck, whichever way you choose!!

 

[squirrel]

I would go with the regular DDP for starters. I found it to be more than enough.

If it's not enough next time get the DxDP. I would think the regular DDP and even having to buy a few meals out of pocket would still be cheaper than the DxDP.

 

[swooshfan2]

We did the basic dining plan in December, and we are upgrading to the deluxe plan this year. While some people say it takes time away from the parks, I think it will give the much needed break in the middle of the day. Plus, we don't have any kids coming on this trip, so it will be fun to go to some of the signature restaurants. So to answer your question...I guess it really depends on your circumstance.

 

[GrumpyMike]

As a 6'1" 280lb man who can eat a lot, I can tell you that the regular ddp is plenty of food for a day. We always do one breakfast at O'hana(DO IT! you won't regret it), and usually pick up a large pizza that night. I will sometimes pick up an extra snack during the day. Don't bog yourself down with food. Spend the extra time not dining and enjoying the parks. We've done this our last 4 trips and haven't been disappointed. I only wish we'd have done this the first 3 times. DDP is the way to go.

 

[disneyJMD]

My family upgraded to DxDDP last year during free dining. I was lot of food, but we love to eat. We used the credit to do several signature restaurants and the HDDR. I would recommend DxDDP but not for a first timer. You definately lose out on park times, but for us that was ok as we have been many times before. It is a great plan for someone who is willing to plan their park days in advance,as it is very difficult to change plans mid vacation. I would still do the plan again, as I got to try out several places I would never have thought I could afford OOP. We did spend about $700 in gratuity over our 12 day stay, so that is definately something to keep in mind when budgeting for your trip.

 

[Leleluvsdis]

As of now I'm leaning towards the regular dining plan. We could still do a couple signature resturants and be ok. Last week DH and I typically split a lunch if we were going to have a big dinner. There were only 1 or 2 days when we got our own meal.

 

[RainbowWit]

We've done both. Last years trip centered around food. We were on the deluxe, and only planned breakfasts and dinners. Breakfast early in the parks, spend the day touring and then a signature dinner at night. The back to the park with emhs the relax and have more fun. It all depends on what you want to do. If its a trip where you want to get a lot of touring thr parks in, do the ddp, if you are foodies, do the dxdp. We are planning to switch off yearly.

 

[SereneOne]

We did the Disney dining plan last time and it was okay. Paying oop for a breakfast and then the same boring things with the cs meals got old.

This trip we plan on doing the deluxe. We appreciated the fact that by eating at character meals, you get to sit in air conditioning and have them come to you, so we planned several character breakfasts for around 8am and then lunches around 1pm and then dinners at 7pm, again, several character meals, we have an almost six year old daughter. My skinny husband eats alot and will be more satisfied too, we think. I will just have to be careful though, since I do not have his skinny gene!

 

[Leleluvsdis]

We currently don't have any children, but if we do by then, they will be no older 1 year, and the kids that will be in our party will be 18 and 17 so they are as interested in the characters as younger kids. We'd rather spend more time on rides then eating, although we do like to eat haha but who doesn't like to eat while at disney!!! We do a lot of grab and go meals.
I sat down last night and wrote down all the TS meals I would do if I could do any of them, but then I realized we would be spending ALOT of time in resturants, and we'd rather be in the parks durins that time.

 

[Tina G]

As others have said, I think it depends on how much time you plan to spend eating. To make the DxDP a value, you have to eat as many TS meals as you can. This will greatly take time away from touring the parks as you wait to be seated, waited on, served, etc. Also keep in mind you will spend more on gratuities with the more TS meals you eat. It seems to me that getting the regular DDP and then paying OOP for any other TS meals you may want would be the best value. I have a hard time believing that too many families can eat enough to spend $71.99 per person per night on the trip. Even at Disney, that is a lot to spend.

 

[Colleen27]

As others have said, I think it depends on how much time you plan to spend eating. To make the DxDP a value, you have to eat as many TS meals as you can. This will greatly take time away from touring the parks as you wait to be seated, waited on, served, etc. Also keep in mind you will spend more on gratuities with the more TS meals you eat. It seems to me that getting the regular DDP and then paying OOP for any other TS meals you may want would be the best value. I have a hard time believing that too many families can eat enough to spend $71.99 per person per night on the trip. Even at Disney, that is a lot to spend.

You really don't have to use all the credits for table service for the deluxe plan to make sense. The breakever point on meals alone is about 2/3 table service, so if you want 2 sitdown meals per day or a signature dinner each night, the deluxe plan would be the way to go.

And you really don't have to be a big eater to spend $72/night on food at Disney prices! I'm a compulsive overplanner and I run the dining plan numbers through my spreadsheet before every trip to decide which plan makes the most sense. Some quick meal prices from this year's sheet (including appetizer, entree, sometimes dessert, drink & tax):

Narcoosees - $87.33, $87.14, $78.81

California Grill - $78.81, $69.93, $59.64

Artist Point - $61.77, $62.84, $58.58

Spirit of Aloha - $58.56 per adult

So for a family like mine that wants a signature dinner each evening and considers steak, lobster, sushi and such as much a part of the vacation experience as the resort pool, the deluxe plan really is a no-brainer. Even if we get the cheapest possible CS lunch (which we never do - I HATE the whole CS experience of waiting in line, hunting for a table, getting your own condiments, no drink refills, etc.) and use our snacks for fruit and bottled water (which we do often), we'd come out ahead on the plan.

 

[lampshadehead]

After alot of thought, we decided to go with the Deluxe (myself, DH, and DD7yrs). This is because, IMO, the worst thing to be on vacation is hungry! I just cant see 1 table, counter and snack being enuf to satisfy us for a whole day and night for 7 nights.
You dont have to make 3ADRs a day. What we did was book 2 shows (2credits each), and one or two ADR's a day (you can always call and cancel, some walk up might be very happy). I took into account that there may be a night that we are tired and want pizza delivery (another 2 credits).
All I can remember is being in Disney at 12 yrs old on a family trip that I went on without my parents (aunts and cousins) and I had my own money for certain purchases, and being hungry all the time even tho im not even a big eater and we did eat at least twice a day at a CS or TS (all that vacationing can make a person very hungry)...and having to wonder how much it was going to cost if I wanted a snack and if I had enuf or if I should wait till later and how much was I going to have left and blah blah blah....well now that im old enuf to work and pay for my own vaction, I want to pay and get it out the way and know that there will be enuf food. I certainly hope the DxDP has enuf!!!

 

[Leleluvsdis]

I didn't think of it that way of include all the courses. I know DH would like to have a couple signature restuants as i would as well, and several of the shows are 2 credits and we really like the shows. How does that work on deluxe plan?

 

[Tina G]

You really don't have to use all the credits for table service for the deluxe plan to make sense. The breakever point on meals alone is about 2/3 table service, so if you want 2 sitdown meals per day or a signature dinner each night, the deluxe plan would be the way to go.

And you really don't have to be a big eater to spend $72/night on food at Disney prices! I'm a compulsive overplanner and I run the dining plan numbers through my spreadsheet before every trip to decide which plan makes the most sense. Some quick meal prices from this year's sheet (including appetizer, entree, sometimes dessert, drink & tax):

Narcoosees - $87.33, $87.14, $78.81

California Grill - $78.81, $69.93, $59.64

Artist Point - $61.77, $62.84, $58.58

Spirit of Aloha - $58.56 per adult

So for a family like mine that wants a signature dinner each evening and considers steak, lobster, sushi and such as much a part of the vacation experience as the resort pool, the deluxe plan really is a no-brainer. Even if we get the cheapest possible CS lunch (which we never do - I HATE the whole CS experience of waiting in line, hunting for a table, getting your own condiments, no drink refills, etc.) and use our snacks for fruit and bottled water (which we do often), we'd come out ahead on the plan.

Absolutely I agree that for your family the plan makes sense. I tend to think though that more families are not eating at those few signature restaurants. You listed probably the top 4 most expensive restaurants. Yes, if you eat at mostly those types of restaurants you absolutely will make out with the deluxe plan. But if you are eating at the other 80% of the TS restaurants in Disney, you may not be.

Crystal Palace character breakfast - $18.99
Ohana character breakfast - $18.99
Kona Cafe average breakfast price - $15.00
Quick-Service Meal average price - $12-15

I just think there are a lot of people who assume the DDP or DDxP is a good value but it all depends on WHERE you like to eat, WHAT you like to eat, and the types of meals and foods you prefer.

 

[Colleen27]

I didn't think of it that way of include all the courses. I know DH would like to have a couple signature restuants as i would as well, and several of the shows are 2 credits and we really like the shows. How does that work on deluxe plan?

They still take two credits but that's not bad when you have 2 per night to work with, particularly since snack credits can make for some really good breakfasts (like giant cinnamon rolls at Main Street Bakery).

 

[mwatson011]

We did the deluxe ddp in January, and I was insistent on saving receipts, writing down meal totals, and comparing them to the cost of the plan...for the first three days! We had character buffet breakfasts each morning, a TS lunch everyday, and a TS dinner everyday, and our total was significantly higher than the cost of the plan, so I gave up on keeping track and enjoyed the rest of the vacation.

That being said, we did not purposely order the most expensive things on the menu, sometimes we drank water, and sometimes we skipped or split dessert. Oh, and once DH got two apps instead of an app and an entree, too.

We were able to do so many sit down meals because we have dd2 and dd3 who LOVE to eat in restaurants, so a TS lunch was a nice break for all of us. We did a CS lunch our last day there, and DH and I agreed that we would think twice before NOT ordering the deluxe ddp in the future. CS was just not for us. However, when the girls are older, we cannot foresee wanting to give up so much ride time to sit and eat either, so at that point, the deluxe ddp will be out the window.

Point being, as many have already stated, decide what you want to get out of your vacation, and go from there. We love to eat, our dds are too small to HAVE to get to the park at rope drop and RUN to all the big attractions, and wait in lines all day, so we figure for now this is the way to go.