Real World DxDDP Experience

[gzmtlock]

Summary Opinion: Do it for the experience, not for value.

My family (me, DH, DS19 and DD18) recently used DxDDP. There are so frequently questions about the deluxe plan, I thought I might share our experience with it, in hopes it might help others make a decision.

We were on a split stay, 1 night/6 nights. I got the DxDDP for the one night. Here's how we used it:

Arrival night: buffet at Boma. Boma is our favorite WDW restaurant, always a must. It was the holidays, so the highest price was in effect. (Sorry, I didn't keep actual receipts.)

Breakfast at DHS: We hit rope drop. Used our two snack credits each for breakfast.

Lunch: 50s Prime Time. Appy, entree, dessert. I intentionally ordered the sampler platter, to have left-overs to bring back to our villa. My dessert was also packaged straight into a take away container. Everyone else ate all three courses.

Dinner: Captain's Grill. (As an aside, this was our first time here, and we really loved it.) Appy, entree, dessert. Again, I ordered around planned take-out. Someone else (DD, I think) also brought some food back to the villa. So only two of us ate our entire meals at one sitting.

Along with the soda cups, this exhausted our DxDDP.

The next day, we had lunch at Rose and Crown (but they were serving off the dinner menu only). No one asked for three courses. About 4 hours later, we headed to Via Napoli for our Candlelight Processional package. I forgot that it came with three courses. DS19 was talking about how full he was and how much he was looking forward to not ordering so much. When he found out it was another three-course meal, he groaned. I told him he didn't have to eat all three courses. We took quite a lot of food back to the villa from this meal (mostly pizza). This meal was NOT DxDDP, but resembled it in its inclusion of all three courses.

Over the course of the next week, we did eat almost all of the left-overs.

We enjoyed our one day on the plan, and under similar circumstances would consider doing it again. We felt free to eat more expensively and try new foods/restaurants. But everyone was also glad when it was over. For us, DS19 included, it is too much food.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Still not an experience that I feel I'd like to have.

 

[ajgardner]

I agree that is more for the experience than the value. We've never had a problem using our credits and have never felt over done. Everyday is breakfast and dinner (occasionally a lunch and late dinner - always at least 8 hours between the meals, trying to pack in the meals close together would not work for us, that would definitely be too much and not enjoyable) - one being a two credit meal therefore using our 3 credits and not overstuffing. We've enjoyed going to the Signature restaurants and shows, where we probably would not have gone without the DxDDP. Everyone has their own preference of touring, ours definitely includes breaking from the parks for dining - that in itself is its own experience. The deluxe plan is what makes our experience better…. but we don't do it for the value!

 

[LovesTimone]

For us we love DDXDP.. We spread the credits out so that we have them for departure day, for breakfast ( character breakfast) and or lunch at Raglan Road or another DTD spot. Then we have used up our left over snack credits at Main Street Bakery or at Goofy's at DTD. We have used meal entitlements also at Earl of Sandwich for sandwiches for the road.

This is always a subject of discussion. I really believe that you have to just do what you are comfortable with. Also I think it depends on your families life style, and what you are interested in, how you tour and vacation.

 

[KEPE]

We've done this in the past and it worked out to be a slight savings. We ate at three signatures. We did character breakfast every morning and a sit down dinner. DD and I were never hungry for lunch but Dh usually ended up having a quick bite or something later in the evening like pizza. The first time we did this I made one mistake.... If we wanted a water or a soda we paid cash because I thought it was a waste of a snack credit. At the end we had a TON of snack credits left over. This time I'll just use them whenever we can. In the end adding up the totals I felt like it was a wash with the snacks being free, but we wouldn't have eaten all of them had we not had the plan.

This time we are trying it again and with the price increase (I feel it went up a lot since our last trip in 2013) and depending on what we order could be slightly over or under what we paid but nothing significant. I should note we do order apps, entrée and dessert, DH is a big steak guy so if that is on the menu will order it every time.....

 

[StirlingSilver83]

We love the dxddp. We usually do all the character dining experiences. My family is a big 3 meals a day family so we usually spread our dining credits out...breakfast between 7 & 8, lunch around 12 and then dinner around 6. Sometimes we don't get an app with the meal but I have expensive taste lol I usually order the most expensive thing on the menu so it makes up for not having an app. With our snack credits I usually use 1 snack credit a day on coffee from Starbucks or we use our snack credits on water if we run out of water that we brought to the park. On our last day of our trip if we didn't use all our snack credits we usually get snacks and drinks to bring with us on the drive home. Plus it's a bonus having all your meals paid for.

 

[JVig]

We love the dxddp. We usually do all the character dining experiences. My family is a big 3 meals a day family so we usually spread our dining credits out...breakfast between 7 & 8, lunch around 12 and then dinner around 6. Sometimes we don't get an app with the meal but I have expensive taste lol I usually order the most expensive thing on the menu so it makes up for not having an app. With our snack credits I usually use 1 snack credit a day on coffee from Starbucks or we use our snack credits on water if we run out of water that we brought to the park. On our last day of our trip if we didn't use all our snack credits we usually get snacks and drinks to bring with us on the drive home. Plus it's a bonus having all your meals paid for.

I just posted a new thread to ask about this and then read your post

So you find that it works out financially? I'm looking at my current ADRs for our April trip and thinking about getting this plan. We have 3 signatures planned now but I'm not opposed to adding more, and we like a big breakfast. I'm going to crunch numbers later today by looking at the menus, but I wanted to start by seeing how people here felt about it.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

Last year we came out ahead. We saved about $200. We didn't eat at any signature restaurants though. This year I think we are breaking even maybe saving a little when I crunched the numbers. I just like it because all our meals are already paid for when we get down there. Plus my kids have a major sweet tooth so with dessert what we end up doing is ordering different desserts and then sharing all of them.

 

[JVig]

Last year we came out ahead. We saved about $200. We didn't eat at any signature restaurants though. This year I think we are breaking even maybe saving a little when I crunched the numbers. I just like it because all our meals are already paid for when we get down there. Plus my kids have a major sweet tooth so with dessert what we end up doing is ordering different desserts and then sharing all of them.

Thanks. I think I may do it. It will be nice to just order what we want and know its already paid for. The regular dining plan definitely doesn't work for us because we really don't eat quick service meals.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

Yeah we don't like quick service meal. Although on our trip last year my son got a stomach bug half way through the trip and we had to cancel some of our adrs. Anyways we were staying at the contemporary and their quick service place, the contempo cafe, has the best pot roast I have ever eaten at a restaurant before lol.

 

[frannn]

We stopped using it a few years ago because DD12 is a WDW adult, but eats like a bird. It was worth it to pay for DH and I since we go annually and enjoying the food is a big part of our trip. We both love the more expensive menu options- steak and seafood. It just isn't worth it for us to pay for the upgrade for a kid who likes chicken nuggets and is full after 4 of them. Now DD mostly enjoys the CS because she would rather have that type of food.

 

[GillianP1301]

I loved DxDP when we tried it last trip and I've booked it again for our upcoming trip. I do agree that it's generally more the experience, than the value for us. If I wanted to do dining on the cheap, there are a lot better ways to do it than any of the dining plans. But that's just not the experience I'm after because dining is an important part of my vacation.

The other really important aspect of the deluxe plan for me, is I like having my 3 meals a day planned so that I know I will have a table in a nice A/C restaurant at the meal times I need. My DS gets super cranky if he misses a meal time, so winging it just ends up causing me stress. We also load up on character meals, usually 6 - 7 of them in our one week visit. I then spend next to no time in M&G lines in the parks.

There is no right or wrong where dining plans are concerned. You have to know what your priority is (i.e. cheap eating, experience dining, etc...) and base your decision on that.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

We usually do all the character dining too. I'd rather see the characters sitting down in an air conditioned room while eating some yummy food than standing in the hot sun in a line to meet characters lol. There are a few characters that my kids want to meet that aren't at meals but those are fast passes (tinker belle, talking Mickey, Anna & Elsa, and rapunzel). Then there are a few characters that we would like to meet only if their lines aren't crazy long. They aren't that important so if we meet them great and if not it's no big deal. Those characters would be Peter Pan, Merida, tiana, fairy god mother, gaston, and the toy story characters.

But our main reason for getting the dxddp is bc we do so many character meals. We do it for experience and we also love to have all 3 of our meals planned out as well.

 

[pixarmom]

I'm just about to call and add the deluxe dining plan for our one-night stay Easter Weekend. It's been a very long time since we used the dining plan, and that was just the regular one. Since then, it's been TIW and we often stay CL and book two ADRs per day. Our oldest son eats a ton, but our middle son and I are light eaters, so the dining plan usually doesn't work for us.

But Easter Weekend is different. TIW is blocked on Easter Day, we're not staying CL, and we have ADRs at Liberty Tree and Garden Grill on Saturday and Tusker House and Chef's on Easter Sunday. Without CL, the refill mugs will be useful, and so will the snack credits. We'll use TIW on Saturday for Liberty Tree lunch, and the deluxe dining plan for Garden Grill, Tusker House and Chef's. I ran the numbers based on what we would actually order for one child and three "Disney adults" (in our case, that excludes desserts and may exclude appetizers for two of us at Chefs) and I think we'll come out about $100 ahead.

 

[Melanie B]

We're a deluxe couple too. While we're on vacation so we like to splurge a bit. Since the options are there we eat steak, lobster sushi and other pricier options. Based on what we like to eat we do save money.

Sometimes we do three meals a day and others we do just two if we have a signature booked. For three meal days we have an early breakfast around 8, then lunch between 1 and 2 then dinner between 8 and 9. For two meal days we do an early lunch around 11 and then dinner at 6 or 7.

 

[nkereina]

There's never an instance in the "real world" where we'd order an app, entree, and dessert EACH. We may share an app and dessert, but on DxDP, you're paying for EACH person to have one. It's a lot.

I do think DxDP is worth it if you are doing a TS breakfast and 2 TS credit dinner (signature, dinner show) each night. That spaces it out nicely both for the amount of food you'll be consuming and so you're not running from restaurant to restaurant and wasting park time. I do think it's better geared towards adults or families with older, maybe teenage kids. Since you'll have so many ADRs and the cancellation policy is strictly enforced, it may be harder to keep all of them with young kids in tow. We're two adults but the mistake we made on our first trip using DxDP (prior to ADR cancellation policy) was scheduling our ADRs too close together. We had to cancel a few on the fly then, and wouldn't have that option now.

 

[momto3pirates]

We are trying the DxDDP for the first time in June. It is just DH and I and I want to eat at all the "fancy" places we cannot go to when the kids are there.

 

[Jing]

We did it a couple years ago for 4 nights, eating exactly how we normally would on vacation, and saved 23-27% (don't remember which). We also were CL at AKL, though mostly partook of the bottled water and booze - we were in it for the sunrise safari, not the lounge offerings. We did breakfast and a signature or early morning snacks, lunch, and late dinner. Loved the long meals as a stimulation break from the parks. Not a credit was left to waste and we did not over-stuff ourselves.

With Mr. Littles (22months when we go in October), I can't see taking that kind of time to dine until he is at least school age. I would love to do it again for the sake of convenience, but any of the DDPs at this point seem silly until we know what kind of Disney traveler he will be. I am already feeling a lot of QS and room service in our future.

 

[bookem]

We always do the DxDDp. We do all the character meals, including royal castle, and t-rex, rain forest and teppan edo. All the meals to keep our 2 pre-schoolers occupied! We usually do QS lunch and sit down breakfast and dinners. When I average out the cost with 2 adults and 2 children, I find we save money. Plus with all the desserts and snacks we bring back to the hotel, we're never hungry. Plus nothing cures a cranky child like a sugary snack!!