Question for those who have done the Deluxe Dining Plan

[Nutbean]

15 year anniversary trip for DH and I. First time on the DxDDP.

I've been making ADRs with a 1 credit lunch as soon as the restaurant opens or as close to it as I can get (ex. our earliest lunch ressie is Raglan Road for 11am and our latest lunch ressie is Le Cellier at 12:35pm).

I've then been making 2 credit signature dinners for after 7:00pm (ex. our earliest dinner ressie is Monsieur Paul for 7:15pm and our latest is Hoop-Dee-Doo Review at 8:30pm, the majority of our dinner reservations being at 7:45pm).

Since DH prefers lunch ADRs to breakfast, we only have one breakfast ADR and that is for Boma on the day we leave.

For those of you who have done the DxDDP before, do you think this is enough time between lunch and dinner ADRs? Or should I schedule more 1 credit breakfast ADRs instead of lunches or make our 2 credit dinners even later in the evening?

I'm trying to make sure we're as hungry as possible for both meals (believe me, we get that the DxDDP is A LOT of food...but we are determined to try it!)

 

[figment_jii]

This is pretty much exactly what my family tends to do. We select the earliest possible lunch ADR (e.g., 11:30 am) and then aim for a late evening dinner ADR (e.g., 8:00 pm). We often will get a small snack in the mid-afternoon (just because there are so many tempting snacks out there). I try to leave about six hours between meals (i.e., end of one meal until the start of the next).

 

[busymommy2pink]

Our plan is to have a good breakfast for many mornings, with signature dining for dinner and using one snack mid day. I think it'll work well for us..leaving a snack for later in the day. I am also certain we will "wing it" some days and waste a few on quick service lol. But overall looking forward to minimal grocery order and less eating in the room this time around.

 

[Melanie B]

We like doing breakfast or early lunch and then a later dinner. It's a lot of food but if you plan it right it will be fine.

You mentioned planning 1 credit lunches. Le Cellier is a signature and is 2 credits for lunch and dinner.

I've been making ADRs with a 1 credit lunch as soon as the restaurant opens or as close to it as I can get (ex. our earliest lunch ressie is Raglan Road for 11am and our latest lunch ressie is Le Cellier at 12:35pm).

 

[Nutbean]

We like doing breakfast or early lunch and then a later dinner. It's a lot of food but if you plan it right it will be fine.

You mentioned planning 1 credit lunches. Le Cellier is a signature and is 2 credits for lunch and dinner.

Yes, we will have an extra credit from our arrival day to use up. Le Cellier for lunch seemed like a great way to do it!

 

[Melanie B]

Le Cellier is a must-do for us every trip.

Enjoy your trip

 

[shortnsassy730]

We do super early lunch and late dinner on deluxe as well. Sometimes I jsut don't have room for dessert at lunch so I pass. I find that while the signature restaurants do fill me up, the meal as a whole sits lighter so makes a good late dinner. During Food and Wine, we have also been known to book two sigs on Hollywood Studios day (Brown Derby and Flying Fish) and then on EPCOT day, we use our snacks to enjoy Food and Wine instead of TS dinner that day

 

[GillianP1301]

I think your strategy is good for maximizing what you can eat on the DxDP. I'm getting this plan for the first time this trip, but I find with my DS6, that I need to stick to as close to our normal meal times as possible (he gets cranky when hungry), so in order to satisfy that need, my breaks between meals are not as long as I'd prefer. I still wanted DxDP though because I'm stacked up on character meals and want to try signatures this time around. I figure if it ends up being way too much food (which I think it will), I'll just eat less of each course, that way I still get to enjoy all the great food and hopefully avoid having to be rolled onto the plane back home.

 

[CraigInPA]

My wife and I have used this dining schedule for the last five trips. It works really, really nicely for us.

One thing I might suggest, though, is to use the dining plan calculator spreadsheet to determine whether it might be cheaper to do out of pocket instead of DxDP.

With the latest increase in the price of DxDP as an excuse to review the potential savings, my wife and I sat down with the bills from the last trip, added 10% to them, and then subtracted out the price of anything we got "just because it was included". DxDP was going to be $2200 for our trip. On paper, we calculated out of pocket at $1900. That's a pretty significant difference, with most of the savings coming from the fact that we rarely ate the snacks (taking them home as gifts instead).

So, this last trip in February, we decided to do out of pocket. It didn't change the restaurants where we ate: HBD, California Grill, Narcoossee's (twice), Citricos, Artist Point, Cape May Cafe, Via Napoli, 'Ohana, Yak and Yeti, San Angel Inn, Liberty Tree Tavern, Kona Cafe, Grand Floridian Cafe, and Bongos. Nor did it change how we ate: Appetizers, entree, desserts, drinks. We ate exactly as we ate on the DxDP, choosing the whole Maine Lobster at Narcoossee's, for example. We even had ice cream and snacks a few days in the park, which we've done in the past when on DxDP. One of the nice things was that when we were offered the "trio of small desserts" at HBD, and we didn't really want that, we skipped it and each got a funnel cake in the park, along with a drink, for about the same price later that night when we actually felt like eating dessert. When we got home, we added up the receipts. We were surprised to come in at $1675, an even greater savings than we ever imagined.

 

[Nutbean]

My wife and I have used this dining schedule for the last five trips. It works really, really nicely for us.

One thing I might suggest, though, is to use the dining plan calculator spreadsheet to determine whether it might be cheaper to do out of pocket instead of DxDP.

With the latest increase in the price of DxDP as an excuse to review the potential savings, my wife and I sat down with the bills from the last trip, added 10% to them, and then subtracted out the price of anything we got "just because it was included". DxDP was going to be $2200 for our trip. On paper, we calculated out of pocket at $1900. That's a pretty significant difference, with most of the savings coming from the fact that we rarely ate the snacks (taking them home as gifts instead).

So, this last trip in February, we decided to do out of pocket. It didn't change the restaurants where we ate: HBD, California Grill, Narcoossee's (twice), Citricos, Artist Point, Cape May Cafe, Via Napoli, 'Ohana, Yak and Yeti, San Angel Inn, Liberty Tree Tavern, Kona Cafe, Grand Floridian Cafe, and Bongos. Nor did it change how we ate: Appetizers, entree, desserts, drinks. We ate exactly as we ate on the DxDP, choosing the whole Maine Lobster at Narcoossee's, for example. We even had ice cream and snacks a few days in the park, which we've done in the past when on DxDP. One of the nice things was that when we were offered the "trio of small desserts" at HBD, and we didn't really want that, we skipped it and each got a funnel cake in the park, along with a drink, for about the same price later that night when we actually felt like eating dessert. When we got home, we added up the receipts. We were surprised to come in at $1675, an even greater savings than we ever imagined.

Oh, I completely agree with you on that. I should have mentioned that we will be doing the Deluxe Dining Plan only if free dining is offered (so far it's looking like a possibility) and we would just be paying the difference. I don't think it would be worth it for us to pay full price for any dining plan. That said we do enjoy it and would certainly take advantage of the FD promotion if it is offered.