Should I upgrade to the Deluxe Dining Plan?

[doublescoop]

I can't decide whether to pay $900 to upgrade our dining plan to Deluxe or not. We will get a Dining Plus plan (1 table-service, 1 quick-service and a snack/day/person) included with our vacation package but I don't know if that will suffice or not. Our family is 4 ppl: my DH, me and two girls: 12, and 3. What do you think? It does seem like a lot of money to upgrade but if we end up paying for lots of extra meals and snacks, maybe not.

 

[Sappermont]

I'm having the same conflict. You will find that there are very strong and valid points for both staying with the DDP and upgrading to the DxDP. I saw a giant ice cream cookie sandwich on a dining report today that is one snack credit - that made me think staying with the DDP is a good idea. Then, I see these delicious trip reports about signature restaurants with appetizers and I want to upgrade to the DxDp. I'm sorry I'm no help - just wanted to say that I'm in the same boat!!

 

[rackerlee92]

My DH and I love dining at WDW and if it were just the two of us, I think we would upgrade to Deluxe, but our DDs (now 10,12), just don't want to sit in a restaurant more than once a day...not sure about your kiddos, but something to consider.

We also never feel like we don't get enough to eat. We rarely spend extra on food, but do always pack some cereal for breakfasts and some easy snacks...

 

[Jungle Cruiser]

The DDP is a lot of food daily. I agree with the PP, we don't want to do more than one table service meal a day. Play around with the menus and see if the DDP will in fact save you money, because you would hate to spend the money upgrading and not use your TS meals.

 

[Colleen27]

I don't think you're giving us enough info to help you out. Where are you staying? How long? Is this a first trip or first in a long time, or have you gone as a family before? Are you interested in signature dining or dinner shows?

The DxDDP can be wonderful but it takes more planning and does involve somewhat more time spent eating. And depending on how you approach it, it can be a LOT of food.

We're planning our 4th DxDDP trip right now but I hesitate to recommend it across-the-board because enjoying it depends a lot on your travel style. We don't take breaks in the afternoons, we like nice meals (including a lot of 2-credit signature dinners), and we want appetizers at lunch/dinner so it works for us. We don't plan 3 meal days - those did feel like too much food and too much time spent dining on our first DxDDP trip, while 2 meal days feel just right. We don't go for the DxDDP for more food but rather for better food - table service lunches instead of counter service, signature dinners instead of table service. And we don't think about getting the most out of the plan, because that is a sure path to overstuffing yourself - I do all the math beforehand and know it is smart buy for our preferences, so when we're at Disney we just relax and eat what we want without thinking about prices or value.

 

[disneybex]

I voted yes as we had the DDP last year and loved it (and used all of the credits and paid for a few character breakfasts OOP). So this year when we got the DDP free we knew that we would upgrade to DxDDP.

Especially as we like to take our time, we are in WDW for 3 weeks so there is no need to rush. Plus we probably wouldn't pay OOP to eat at all of these places if we didn't have free dining, especially the Signatures so for us it's a real treat

Can't wait for our DxDDP trip!

 

[vllygrrl]

We chose to upgrade to DxDDP on our next trip. This allows us to have one "fun" meal a day for our son, and one nice meal for us. I agree with other posters that recommend against scheduling 3 TS meals per day. We tend to schedule either breakfast and an early signature dinner, or an early lunch and a later signature dinner. The snack credits allow you to fill in between meals as needed. We're also taking advantage of the plan to go to the Hoop De Doo, and Cinderella's Royal Table...both of which we would avoid on the regular DDP. We also have reservations at Narcoosee's, Citricos, California Grill, Artist Point, Flying Fish, 1900 Park Faire, Biergarten, Sci Fi, and Yak and Yeti...so a nice balance. I also find that the kids meal choices at the signatures are a little better...

 

[OhThePain]

As a PP said, your leaving out a lot of info that could make a difference. If you are regular visitors and don't mind losing 5+ hours of park time a day on eating and traveling, then I don't see an issue with upgrading. But if this is a once in a while or once in a lifetime type of trip DxDP is just going to take away from too much of the park time, plus it doesn't sound like you are 100% you would use all the credits or not.

A lot might also depend on where you plan on eating, what you plan on eating and when you plan on eating.

 

[sukhakuli]

The snack credit differences between the dining plans bugs me. And I am still debating upgrading one leg of our trip. I really wish you could get 2 CS and one TS a day, or one CS, one TS, and 2 snacks. Small kids really need to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, so one CS and one TS meal, plus one snack may not cut it. We will have to supplement their meals, and give them our snack credits. As a family of 5, we get 5 snacks a day, so if dh and I do without, then we can give the kids our snacks.

I also think I am going to upgrade our 9 yar old to an adult. She doesn't care for chicken nuggets and hot dogs and prefers adult meals, so maybe she will get more food, and not be hungry as often.

 

[basketlacey]

The snack credit differences between the dining plans bugs me. And I am still debating upgrading one leg of our trip. I really wish you could get 2 CS and one TS a day, or one CS, one TS, and 2 snacks. Small kids really need to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, so one CS and one TS meal, plus one snack may not cut it. We will have to supplement their meals, and give them our snack credits. As a family of 5, we get 5 snacks a day, so if dh and I do without, then we can give the kids our snacks.

I also think I am going to upgrade our 9 yar old to an adult. She doesn't care for chicken nuggets and hot dogs and prefers adult meals, so maybe she will get more food, and not be hungry as often.

I can't weigh in on the dxddp because I have never done it but I can tell you that we made the regular ddp work for us. We also eat 3 meals a day - not just the kids, dh and I too. After we ordered 5 CS meals on our first day, we realized we had WAY too much food. After that, we split which gave us extra CS meals for breakfast or to spread out to other times of day. We did bring some granola bars from home but honestly, didn't use them much. We would pick up pastries from the bakery in the evening with our snack credits and have those for breakfast or order one of the bounty platters and share it. Other than a bottle of milk OOP from the store at the resort, we were able to pretty well stay on plan. I was worried about it but it was a non-issue. Your kids won't be able to eat a whole "snack" likely so you will be able to share those too. If you ordered 5 snacks at once, you would likely be shocked by how much food it was.

 

[basketlacey]

Oh - and one other quick point! We would often ask for grapes or carrot sticks instead of the CS dessert. If we didn't eat them all, I would throw those in my bag and that would be a quick snack for later. The CS desserts aren't anything to write home about so to me, we weren't really giving anything up. I think dessert at both a CS and a TS and likely a sweet snack or breakfast would be complete sugar overkill for the day (and trust me, I like my desserts!)

 

[newdeal]

LOL you will not pay for any extra meals and in fact you will think you had too much food on the dining plan. We never even use our snacks most days because you get dessert with lunch and dinner

 

[newdeal]

if you are really concerned about one extra snack a day bring a box of cereal bars or something into the park its a lot less than $900. We just eat an early lunch at 11ish and an early dinner at 5ish then a snack for the fireworks if needed (which rarely is needed). If we are hungry before lunch we just have a granola bar or an apple or something that we bring along

 

[angierae]

We upgraded - it will be 2 adults and 2 "disney adults" (teenage girls).

Original package price: $4740
"Free" DDP : $3650 (I know it was $3600, not sure on the rest)
Upgrade to DxDP: $4240

So, for $500 less than we've already budgeted, we are now able to do 2 credit dinners we might have not done, eat more TS meals (which to us is part of the vacation) and get 2 snacks a day. I think by my math, given the restaurants we're considering and picking what we are all "likely" to eat, we'll have made up the $924 by day 4.

Could we have eaten on DDP for free and not spent the $924? Sure. But I feel like we are going to have a better vacation now that we can do signature dining and a dinner show and things we would have went without. And we're STILL spending less than what we budgeted.

 

[padawans]

If you plan on doing a lot of signature meals I would do it. A signature meal for our family of 2 adults and 2 kids will usually cost us about $180.00. the cost of plan is about $210 a day. If we add another ts for lunch its $80-100 a cs around 40.00. We use our snacks for drinks. We always save money with it. If we did not get the plan we would still do the signatures everynight. I'm not sure we would do ts lunch everyday. Yak and yeti and wolfgang packs are the only lunch places I feel are worth the money. For us it fits our eating style. My goal is mainly breaking even. I like having everything prepaid. I believe to break even you only need to use 2/3 or 3/4 or your credits.

 

[stitch34]

We do it every trip. quite costly... but we love it!
we don't take breaks back to the resort, and for us, a nice table service early/mid afternoon is the break we need!
For us we work it 10/10:30 character breakfast... then "lunch" at 2:00, 3:30 time frame... then dinner could be 6:30, 7:00.... even 8:00 may do. It all depends. Some days will only do two meals... which works as then have credit left over for 2 credit meals like CRT or HDDR, signature dining.

It also depends on what types of places you will eat at.
If using it for a bit of counter service/food court stuff... then don't think you're getting your money's worth. If use it for character meals.... or I know for us, dinner at Cape May or 1900 Park Fare or Garden Grill, Whispering Canyon... adds up quick and is worth it.
Also remember... the more meals you are doing now because of having DXDP... the more money you will be spending on tips.

Snacks... it's a lot of snacks. first couple trips had extra left over and last day went and was using them up on goodies to bring home. Those days are long gone! We use them all up... bottles of water, hot pretzels, popcorn, funnel cake, wheezy breezies at DHS, a snack for the kids when return to resort at night, etc.

But is worth it if doing more expensive meals and all table service rather than using it for counter service. If that's the case... may be worth it to only do the regular dining plan.... do one table service per day, have the one counter service... and then out of pocket do another counter or table service. Do the math... and it may come out less, especially if think you will have days you only do 2 meals, or are doing no 2 credit or signature meals.

but for us, it works great. Was REALLY great before when it was me and three kids... now one child is an adult and next year they ALL will be "adults"... and yeah, we will have to rework our dining plans and it will become totally outpriced for us.

 

[Winky65]

If you could give more information as others have said, it would be easier to answer. Main question is how many days are you staying and where. We are going for 10 nights in late Nov/early Dec. and because of DVC bookings are doing a split stay. We are doing the Deluxe plan for the first two nights and regular for the rest of the trip. For me, the deluxe plan is way too much food and time spent sitting in restaurants every day. The regular plan was borderline too much food for us (DW and 4yo DS and me) last time we went. You will get enough food on the regular plan. There are many CS meals that can be shared. Columbia Harbor House comes to mind. We ordered 2 CS meals for the three of us, so basically "banked" a CS meal for later. We wanted to do the Deluxe for the 2 nights this time to try Signature restaurants. We are doing Flying Fish and Jiko. (I know, doing those at the beginning of the trip, we run the risk of being disappointed food-wise the rest of the trip). If you plan on doing signature meals then upgrade, if not, then I would suggest not as 3 sit down meals a day would be too much food and time spent in restaurants to me.

 

[havoc315]

There is no automatic answer. But I would not worry about the regular DDP "not being enough food."

Many people split some of their meals. Or use snack credits for some meals. And with the meals being pretty large, many people find 2 formal meals enough.
If you really do want 3 meals per day... And you use the CS/TS for lunch/dinner. It's pretty cheap to do breakfast OOP. So if your concern is just that 3rd meal, it is NOT worth upgrading to the DxDP.

So who should upgrade to the DxDP? My own family does the upgrade -- Because we like signature restaurants, and detest CS meals.

So for us, it's not about "more food" -- it's just about "better food."
Instead of a CS lunch, we get a TS lunch.
Instead of a regular TS dinner, we get a signature dinner, or dinner show, etc. We get our choice to add appetizers.

Basically in conclusion -- if quantity of food is your primary concern, stick to the DDP.
If you are happy limiting yourself to 1 TS meal per day, then the DDP is the way to go. (Even if you end up paying for CS breakfast OOP)
If you want 3 table service meals per day, then upgrade.
If you want lots and lots of 2-credit meals, then the upgrade may be the way to go.

 

[Cafeen]

I skipped the responses (except Havoc's, because he was last in), but a whole lot hinges on what you're looking for the experience. I can't even suggest either way without more information.

The idea about quality over quantity is a very good one, and limiting to 2 meals per day utilizing signatures and 2 credit locations works out very well.

Basically, if you think you're going to spend at least ~3/4 of the DxDDP credits at TS locations (while getting value from at least most of the remaining 1/4 and the majority of the snacks), then DxDDP will be a good way to go. This also presupposes that you are OK with the added amount of time for both dining and planning to make this come to fruition. (Estimate 60-90 minutes per meal plus travel time, and realize that all these ADRs will have to be in place before time). And lastly, that you are planning to enjoy the extra entitlements that you are to receive on DxDDP (App, Entree, Dessert, Drink) at almost every meal (skipping an app or dessert once or twice isn't going to kill you, but skipping them for the entire time may be a waste).

If you're just looking for additional credits to cover breakfast (or lunch, depending on how you do it) and you're not planning on putting for the required effort into planning it all out (nothing wrong with that, it's a pretty large amount of effort and time and not everyone is willing to do that for their vacation) and you're going to do mostly CS, then I'd pay OOP for the extras and stay on DDP.

In the end, it's all about the math. Figure how much you'd be spending OOP, then add DDP to that (reducing for things covered by DDP). Then do the same with DxDDP and see what you come out with.

 

[DRDISNEYMD]

This was too much for us. The year I used the Deluxe Dining, the children said they never wanted to eat at Disney -- ever again.

Three even two tables a day was far too much, the children and DH had reached their boiling point with all the sit downs. We were running from park to park and restaurant to restaurant, I made horrible plans and it was too much food.

We left 21 meals and a boat load of snack credits. When I checked out the CM shook his head at me and said "maybe you should try the basic plan". Of course my poor planning played a role in my family's meltdown.

Many of the servers were excited to see we were on the Deluxe Plan. However this excitement quickly weaned as soon as we placed our order. We don't do appetizers (except for Signatures), we typically will not order the most expensive entree (except for Signatures) and DH doesn't like dessert. Sometimes I get dessert.

The server at Coral Reef was so mad, she said, "you guys just don't know how to use this plan properly, you shouldn't use deluxe, if your going to order like this".

With that said, I just love the Deluxe Plan, I'm a little disappointed that is doesn't work for our family.