Reg vs Deluxe Dining plan???

[jsh1975]

We are thinking about upgrading from the reg meal plan to deluxe so we do not have to worry about coming out of pocket for any meals. We are traveling with 4yr old and 18month old. Any thoughts?

 

[jsh1975]

Cost increase is $380. We will be there for 5 nights and 6 days.

 

[mommyof3princess27]

ITs alot of food!!!!! Plus dont forget, its about a $20 tip (which is at the bottom of your reciept) at wach TS meal....and you have to pay that amount. I was considering it for DH and I but I think it would be too much food. If you get the regular DP, you only need to come oop with breakfast and u could use the TS credit for lunch or dinner and a QS credit for the other. THe kids could def share...I went last year with my 3 DD and one was 2, she shared with us and at a buffet, they eat free.

 

[mommyof3princess27]

Cost increase is $380. We will be there for 5 nights and 6 days.

it may be cheaper to order from Garden Grocer and have some breakfasty items delivered to your room

 

[CajunMomof3]

We have done both DDP and DxDP although our kids are bit older. We prefer the DxDP. We like paying for all of our food in advance and knowing that we have scheduled breaks in our days. It is alot of food (and time,), but we prefer TS to CS so it just works out better for us. IMHO, $380 for an additional snack and 2 additional TS meals per person per day is well worth it. And, don't forget the mugs (we always get them so we subtract the $13 per mug from the upgrade cost for analyzing purposes...)

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

Too much food and too much time taken away from the parks to eat, especially with the ages of your kids, but of course thats just my opinion.

Our family goes home with credits from the regualr dining plan . I couldn't imagine eating all that food associated with the deluxe dining plan.

 

[lin7]

You're on holidays, why would you want to stand in lines waiting for food when you can get table service and spend getting in the lines to go on rides? You're saving money at the cost of wasting time. I say if you wanna upgrade, go for it.

If you think it's too much food, leave the first day as regular dining and make a separate reservation and start deluxe the second day. That means you have 2 different reservations, but at least you're paying for what you eat and nothing more.

We're going this xmas for 9 nights and leaving the first night as regular dining and starting our deluxe dining starting the second night. It's just enough food and we're saving on one day.

 

[jsh1975]

I know on deluxe you can use either qs or ts but most likely we will be doing 1 ts a day and the rest qs. So we would use the additional meal as a qs.

 

[arcticdisneylovers]

We always do DxDDP Most days we have a character breakfast at as close to 8am as possible and signiture supper at 5:30pm. For lunch we use snack credits or if we're really hungry split a CS. DD was 5 when we first used DxDDP. We decided DxDDP for a number of reasons. We wanted to make sure DD ate regular meals not just fast food (she won't eat regular kiddie food). DD eats great at buffets especially breakfast foods, veggies and fruit. She always chooses steak or grilled chicken breast option with mashed potatoes for TS suppers. We are up early (latest 7am) so we figured we might as well get a good start on the day and enter the park for early ADR and be ready to hit the rides at opening. We do character meals partly because we don't want to waste time standing in lines to see them in the parks. We still stop to see a few special ones in the parks but most of regular characters/princesses we see at meals. Meal portions are so big at disney restaurants you will be able share with your 18m old and not have to buy a meal. We use alot of our snack credits for bottled water and treats to take home if we have left overs. Truthfully by 5:30pm we are ready to be done in the parks so we have supper and head back to CR where we watch the fireworks from or balcony. We rarely if ever return to the parks after supper. But if DH or I get the munchies later in the evening we always have lots of credits to get a Marinated Beef flatbread at the Contempo Cafe

We are pretty big eaters and we figure the regular dining plan just isn't enough food for us, especially since we really aren't interested in eating CS every day. We'd end up paying OOP for a lot of meals, etc so DxDDP just makes sense for us. I make ADRs for all our meals and if our plans change we just cancel and book something else online in the evening or morning from our room and we've never had any problem.

 

[julie4423]

It definitely isn't cost effective if you're using the extra meal as QS. You have to eat 2/3 of your meals as TS or do signatures before DXDP will pay for itself.

 

[jsh1975]

It definitely isn't cost effective if you're using the extra meal as QS. You have to eat 2/3 of your meals as TS or do signatures before DXDP will pay for itself.

If i book a reg can i upgrade to deluxe before my trip begins?

 

[skylilly]

If i book a reg can i upgrade to deluxe before my trip begins?

I was told yes from the CS representative when I booked. He said up to 24 hours before but I would not wait that long.

 

[momtoejanda]

We always do dxddp. Yes it is way to much food but we do it for the character meals and the signature dining. Like the PP mentioned. We like a big character breakfast in the morning. my kids could live on breakfast foods so they really eat a lot. Then we snack sometime around 1-2 and then we do an early signature dinner around 4:30 with a second snack around 7. It works very well for us. It just really depends on your touring style. We have friends that eat pizza and granola bars at WDW for a week because it is the fastest option and they tend to eat it in line for rides or shows.

 

[nkereina]

ITs alot of food!!!!! Plus dont forget, its about a $20 tip (which is at the bottom of your reciept) at wach TS meal....and you have to pay that amount.

What do you mean by this? They tell you how much to tip at the bottom of the receipt and thats what you have to tip? I tried to do an approximate calculation of how much cash we'll need for tips, but I'd hate to come up short!

 

[jsh1975]

You're on holidays, why would you want to stand in lines waiting for food when you can get table service and spend getting in the lines to go on rides? You're saving money at the cost of wasting time. I say if you wanna upgrade, go for it.

If you think it's too much food, leave the first day as regular dining and make a separate reservation and start deluxe the second day. That means you have 2 different reservations, but at least you're paying for what you eat and nothing more.

We're going this xmas for 9 nights and leaving the first night as regular dining and starting our deluxe dining starting the second night. It's just enough food and we're saving on one day.

If our check in date wasnt the last day of the free dining plan window i would do this. I am probably going with the deluxe because of dinner shows and character meals. If we sit down to eat it might reduce number of days with a nap.

 

[TDC Nala]

What do you mean by this? They tell you how much to tip at the bottom of the receipt and thats what you have to tip? I tried to do an approximate calculation of how much cash we'll need for tips, but I'd hate to come up short!

If there are six or more in your party it is an automatic 18% tip. If your party is five or fewer people they are just suggestions.

Please note that all tip discussion is limited to the Tipping Information sticky thread.

 

[Cherinva]

That's a lot of food, but if you are big eaters, then i say go for it.

 

[gracie1]

When we went to disney we were going to do the regular dining plan but decided not to do any dining plan at all. We kept all of our receipts, and we ate a character breakfast every morning, and almost 2 ts (lunch and dinner every day). Maybe only 4-5 meals were cs. And after adding everything up with tips....it was cheaper than the dining plan. This was counting snacks and everything. So we were glad we didn't do the dining plan because we actually got better meals out of it.