Several ?'s on the Duluxe Dining Plan

[MagicalMawMaw]

At the moment we are on the Reg. dining plan & thinking about upgrading to deluxe. I've several questions I thought someone might be able to answer for me.

1. For an appetizer can you get soup or salad?

2. About how long does it take to eat at a place like Narcoossee's or Yachtsman's Steakhouse. Like if you had reservations at 5 p.m. when would you most likely be finished?

3. If we have some TS left can we trade the credits for snacks?

4. Also, like at AK we can't get a lunch at Yak & Yeti & we are eating Tusker House at breakfast...could we use the TS credit at Flame Tree BQ instead?

Really appreciate the help.

 

[LoriABil]

We went in October with the Deluxe Dining plan, so I will try to answer some of your questions!

1. For an appetizer can you get soup or salad?
We found out that most places will let you substitute a house salad if you can't find an appetizer you want. Most places already have some sort of soup on the menu. But the house salads varie widely from place to place! Some places, it was a nice huge salad, other places you got limp iceberg lettuce.

2. About how long does it take to eat at a place like Narcoossee's or Yachtsman's Steakhouse. Like if you had reservations at 5 p.m. when would you most likely be finished?
I can only speak for Yachtsman, but most meals took an hour to 1.5 hours. I guess it depends on how leisurely you eat; I don't think we are quick or slow eaters, probably somewhere in between. Usually, if we were left waiting, it was to get a check, or to get our KTTW card back after giving it to the server.


3. If we have some TS left can we trade the credits for snacks?
You don't have TS and CS on the DxDP, but 3 meal credits that can be used anyway you want. You can do 3 TS a day everyday and be covered, or 3 CS per day every day and be covered! That said, I don't know if you can change these in for a snack...


4. Also, like at AK we can't get a lunch at Yak & Yeti & we are eating Tusker House at breakfast...could we use the TS credit at Flame Tree BQ instead?
See above. There are no TS and CS per se, so you can eat anywhere you want to!

Now that all that is said, I would ONLY recommend DxDP if you absolutely LOVE food and can EAT A LOT of it! I consider myself a real foodie, and I could not do it. We were so miserable that we could not eat a Dole Whip or shop at Goofy's Candy store! We did not use many snack credits at all. It was kind of sad. Then again, we rarely have appetizers OR dessert when we go out to eat a normal meal, much less when we are eating huge yummy meals at WDW! I think it's only worth it if you are planning a lot of Signature meals requiring 2 credits. Hope that helps! Have fun!

 

[Faldred]

1. Generally, a soup or a (non-entree) salad counts as a DxDP appetizer.

2. I haven't done it myself, but the rule of thumb is to allow more time for signature places, so budget 90 minutes to 2 hours.

3. Trading credits for snacks is generally a "maybe". People tend to have better luck at their resorts than in the pars.

4. As noted above, your DxDP credits can be used for TS or CS; it' generally considered cost-effective to use at least 2/3 of your credits for TS, but by all means, slip a few CS in there if you want.

 

[DisneyFamily123]

Adding on to what others posted....

On the deluxe DDP, all our meals were table service. We arrive early on our 1st day an depart late on our last day so we use credits then. Also did some 2 credit signature restaurants and Hoop Dee Doo. We had NO problem using up our credits...

I would not waste deluxe DDP credits on counter service, and absolutely not on any trade for snack credits -- if even possible. Deluxe DDP gives 2 snack credits per person x #nights... On our departure day, we still had 12 snack credits left between 3 people.... so we got fudge and candy bars to take home!

For all the restaurants we went to, an appetizer is near anything that is not an entree -- salads, soups, appetizers, etc...

I think all the signature restaurants like Narcoossees and Yachtsman don't open until 5:30pm. Our signature meals were at opening time and never waited to be seated. For us, the time from being seated to walking out was anywhere from 70 to 100 minutes for signature restaurants. Others were 60+/-. But we were with DS4 so we didn't take a slow, lingering pace. We didn't rush either so I'd say our pace was comfortable. If at Narcoosees during fireworks, maybe longer. By the way, many people go to California Grill for fireworks... but we really liked being there at sunset -- great beautiful views!

I'd keep checking for Yak and Yeti -- we love that restaurant! Yak and Yeti has great appetizers! I bet an opening will come up and you might even try just walking up. Tusker House also has a great buffet for lunch and dinner too.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

Thanks for the answers everybody.

I still don't know which way we are going yet but this helps. Will be staying 6 nights & will have 4 TS left each if we do it. Even w/ leaving that many would be way cheaper than doing OOP. If I can land one more signature that I want at the time I need we'll go D x DP.

 

[canopynut66]

Thanks for the answers everybody.

I still don't know which way we are going yet but this helps. Will be staying 6 nights & will have 4 TS left each if we do it. Even w/ leaving that many would be way cheaper than doing OOP. If I can land one more signature that I want at the time I need we'll go D x DP.

Tusker House has character breakfast that is good and fun is 1 TS and Boma's has great breakfast and dinner buffet as well as Cape May has character breakfast and dinner buffet all 1 TS. can use 2 TS for Hoop De Do Dinner show and for the Poly Luau. we had DXDP once and we are big eaters and it is a lot of food. was like we eating all the time. we just get the MYWD (but they dropped the appetizer) with one TS and that works well for us. So if you already have them is chance to do another signature or dinner shows. the CS we had left they let us take 3 snacks each for at our resort (Music last winter) POP will also let you.

 

[Kathy Z]

We are not real big eaters but we have the DxDP for our upcoming 1 week trip. We have 3 signature dinners plus the Candlelight Processional Package that also counts as 2 TS. Since we are 2 adults traveling without children we are mostly doing late breakfasts and early dinners rather than 3 meals a day. We'll use snack credits here and there if needed in the middle of the day.

We also will use up some of our credits for a few room service breakfasts which counts as 2 TS. We'll be in a Savannah View room at AKL so we hope to have some animal viewing opportunities in the mornings at breakfast time.

Past experience with Signatures dining was an average of 90 minutes for us.

 

[bartleyosu]

WE are going Dec 19-24 with free dining and I am upgrading to DLX because of all the 2 credit meals, candlelight, fantasmic derby, Narcossees. I figured out and paying out of pocket for candlelight and fantasmic makes it 30.00 more to go deluxe and then we can do lunch at Tusker and get preferred seats for Nemo! I am traveling with my mom who just got done with chemo and her 75 friend and not waiting in line is a high priority for me so let with packages. Good luck.

 

[Krmrr]

Just a quick note, some places, like Narcossees, take a while, to get to. We had our car, drove to the GF, had to park in the visitors lot, walk through the large hotel parking lots to get to the GF, then we had to walk down to the lake where Narcossees is located. Riding in on the Monorail is a lot faster!

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

If I can ever figure out how to book the Poly Luau dinner show online w/o charging our credit card I may have this lined out.

Glad to know we can just use a credit at a CS if we want. I know it's not as good a value but don't want to spend all our time in restaurants. I hope I can use my unused credits on snacks...I'll try at the resort as suggested.

My plan to start out w/ on reg. dining was:

Day 2: Fulton's Crab house lunch..OOP
LeCellier..supper
Day 3: CP breakfast
Keys to kingdom tour includes lunch
Ohana...supper
Day 4: Coral Reef...supper
Day 5: T.H. safari breakfast...OOP
Ohana...supper
MVMCP arrive by 7:30 in time for the first parade at 8:15
Day 6: LeCellier...supper
Day 7: Chef Mickey breakfast..OOP

Changing to:

Day 1: Boatworths supper
Day 2: Wolfgang Puck Cafe lunch
LeCellier supper
Day 3: CP breakfast
Keys to the kingdom tour includes lunch
Ohana supper
Day 4: Teppon Edo lunch
Coral Reef supper
Day 5: T.H. safari breakfast
Flame tree BQ lunch ...if hungry
Poly Luau dinner show
MVMCP arrive by 7:30 in time for first parade at 8:15
Day 6: LeCellier lunch...early
Yauchmanns supper...late
Day 7: Chef Mickeys breakfast

This uses 15 credits apiece. Will have 3 each left but we need a few late mornings & might grab a breakfast at a counter service but I doubt it. I sure hope I can trade the leftover meal credits for snacks to go. Imagine we'll be getting some of our regular snacks to go too as we aren't huge eaters.