Regular DP vs Deluxe DP

[DisneyFamily123]

We did the deluxe dining plan on 2 trips. For us (DH, DW, DS4/5), going deluxe didn't seem to be much more money (or any more money) than if we did the regular dining plan and paid out of pocket for extra snacks and table service meals not included with that.

We like doing all table service. The food is better and I like taking a break and sitting down and relaxing. I like appetizers (included in the deluxe plan) - an opportunity to try different food (DW and I share our food well!).

A lot of food? Sure, but this is vacation. I had 2 milkshakes at 50s Prime Time, one strawberry with my meal, and a peanut butter and jelly to go! Indulge! I really just wanted a sample of the PBJ instead of dessert, but the waiter insisted on a full size... and I couldn't control myself after the first slurp. Those milkshakes are incredible if you ever dine there!

Never had a problem using up the credits. We arrive early on our 1st day, and leave late on our last day.... so we have meals those days. The other days are mostly 2 meals a day -- character breakfast and early dinner, or lunch and signature dinner or dinner show (2 credits). A few days, we had a very early breakfast, a 1pm lunch, and later dinner 7/7:30pm. Some days when we had an early lunch... we just grabbed coffee/muffin or something in the morning. DS is happy with cereal in the room.

Click Here! Deluxe Dining Plan Analysis!

 

[sjs314]

We did the deluxe dining plan on 2 trips. For us (DH, DW, DS4/5), going deluxe didn't seem to be much more money (or any more money) than if we did the regular dining plan and paid out of pocket for extra snacks and table service meals not included with that.

We like doing all table service. The food is better and I like taking a break and sitting down and relaxing. I like appetizers (included in the deluxe plan) - an opportunity to try different food (DW and I share our food well!).

A lot of food? Sure, but this is vacation. I had 2 milkshakes at 50s Prime Time, one strawberry with my meal, and a peanut butter and jelly to go! Indulge! I really just wanted a sample of the PBJ instead of dessert, but the waiter insisted on a full size... and I couldn't control myself after the first slurp. Those milkshakes are incredible if you ever dine there!

Never had a problem using up the credits. We arrive early on our 1st day, and leave late on our last day.... so we have meals those days. The other days are mostly 2 meals a day -- character breakfast and early dinner, or lunch and signature dinner or dinner show (2 credits). A few days, we had a very early breakfast, a 1pm lunch, and later dinner 7/7:30pm. Some days when we had an early lunch... we just grabbed coffee/muffin or something in the morning. DS is happy with cereal in the room.

Click Here! Deluxe Dining Plan Analysis!

I just want to say I just read your DxDP Analysis (link in your siggie) and when I got to the end I was delighted to see you came up with a cost savings percentage of 38% .........I did an analysis for our current trip and the savings came out to 38.75% interesting to say the least.

 

[aripantaloon]

We prefer the deluxe dining plan as we like to explore the signature restaurants for dinner as well as do many character meals for the kids. We can just order what we want without having to think about the price, which makes it so much less stress on our parts. We've been there with our toddler who was under 3 during one of our trips. She honestly didn't eat much of anything (and still doesn't at age 4), but we would have just offered her things off of our plates, or if we were having things that we knew that she wouldn't have liked, we would just have ordered her a kid's meal.

We like the flexibility to be able to choose what type of place we want to eat whenever we want without having to be relegated to one TS meal a day (or one per each day of our trip). Last trip, we planned an on-the-fly CS meal for lunch in HS (i.e. we didn't have an ADR and we figured when we were hungry we would grab some lunch. Well, I was not in the mood for anything we saw at 2 CS places, so we went to Sci-Fi instead. Not planned and not something we would have done if we either didn't have any dining plan or didn't have the deluxe one.

 

[mickeytai]

I personally don't think you need Delux mealplan. We had been on dining plan twice. Both time we had basic dining plan (1 TS, 1 CS and 1 snack). In the past March, we (two adults, two kids, 5 and 3 y.o.), like for Breakfast, we usually just use 2-3 CS instead of 4, which is more than enough food for us. (And remember, you can order adult CS food for the kids CS credit, they don't care). And sometimes we use snack credit to get pastries for breakfast. It turns out by the time we left (We were there for 6 nights), we still have a few snack credits left. The portion at CS is big, in my opinion.

Also, my friend who just went with his family said, 3 meals a day is too much, they are spending way too much time at the table (10a.m. finished lunch and then had to go back for lunch at 1p.m.) - usually take at least an hr for the whole TS meal. And my friend was on Delux Plan for 2 adults and 1 kid (DD is under 3 and she eats for free) but he is paying $30 tips per meal. So about $100 on tips every day if you are dining 3 meals a day at Table service. These adds up quickly.

mickeytai

 

[sjs314]

I personally don't think you need Delux mealplan. We had been on dining plan twice. Both time we had basic dining plan (1 TS, 1 CS and 1 snack). In the past March, we (two adults, two kids, 5 and 3 y.o.), like for Breakfast, we usually just use 2-3 CS instead of 4, which is more than enough food for us. (And remember, you can order adult CS food for the kids CS credit, they don't care). And sometimes we use snack credit to get pastries for breakfast. It turns out by the time we left (We were there for 6 nights), we still have a few snack credits left. The portion at CS is big, in my opinion.

Also, my friend who just went with his family said, 3 meals a day is too much, they are spending way too much time at the table (10a.m. finished lunch and then had to go back for lunch at 1p.m.) - usually take at least an hr for the whole TS meal. And my friend was on Delux Plan for 2 adults and 1 kid (DD is under 3 and she eats for free) but he is paying $30 tips per meal. So about $100 on tips every day if you are dining 3 meals a day at Table service. These adds up quickly.

mickeytai

It has been reported by some Disers that CS places which do not offer a separate childs menu (there are a few) do allow you to order and use a childs CS credit for an adult CS meal but if a childs menu is available this is not the case as the servers can see you have 2 A and 1 child and you will have to use your credits in that manner.

Your friend must be eating at the most expensive restaurants and ordering the most expensive items on the menu for each meal to warrant a tip of $30, since that would be a 20% tip on a $150 meal. Which is not the average cost for 2 Adult meals except at Signature Restaurants.
$100 dollars a day in tips would scare even me away from the DxDP.

I do have to say the cost of tips is one reason I did a cost analysis of what I felt we might order at each meal and based on that 20% tips averaged out to $45 per day

I do agree with you that TS meals can take up a lot of park time but it can also afford you a place to cool off and relax