Standard or deluxe?

[explorer06]

Hello! Hesitating between the standard dining plan and the deluxe one. Latter is almost the double in price, which amounts to 185$ a day for two adults and two little girls (5 and 3). What are people's experience? I tried the standard one on a free promo 2 years ago and liked, of course (was free after all!). Is deluxe worth it in terms of savings you'd say? Thanks.

 

[septbaby]

The dining plan has changed this year, appetizers are no longer included nor are tips. The Deluxe plan does include appetizers, but not tips.

My gut is to stick with the Basic Plan unless your family would do the following:

Eat at least 2TS meals a day, want appetizers at most every meal or plan to eat at a Signature restaurant/Dinner show most every evening.

You costs increase $84 per night $20/night $64/night more for the two adults. If you really think that you'll eat $84 more per day more, go for it. Otherwise just pay OOP for your extras.

I have a 6yo and he is not so interested in food that paying extra makes any sense for us.

 

[rentayenta]

I'd stick with the regular DDP. The Deluxe sounds good if it were an adult only trip but with little ones, you may be spending a good deal of time at the character buffets and those are only 1 TS. Plus, in order to get good value, you'd have to do mostly TS which takes more time away from the parks.

 

[explorer06]

Many thanks. Didn't realize appetizers were no longer included. Is the basic plan useful at all then? Seems like it's lost value.

 

[explorer06]

Other thing I'm wondering is given we'll be staying at the GF, maybe we'll do more table service than our last stay at the All Star Sports. Thinking a table service breakfast and dinner every day. Wouldn't that make it more worthwhile, the deluxe I mean?

 

[septbaby]

Basic plan is still great deal, especially for you. It cost $9.99 for your kids per night. You could not take them to one charcter meal for that amount. Also I won't starve at wdw w/o an appetizer, and as it turns out we're eating all buffets (3 character meals, and Boma) so its a moot point anyway.

 

[bam1004]

We just came back last week and we were on the deluxe dining plan. It was me, DH, DD7 and DS5. My children are very adventurous eaters, so it worked out well for us to be able to get appetizers since my little ones were getting very bored with chicken nuggets and mac n' cheese. I am glad we got the deluxe plan because it allowed us to eat at restaurants that we would not had gone to before and really have a good time.

 

[Tam1067]

I ran the numbers many times in trying to decide whether to upgrade our upcoming trip and decided against it. We will pay OOP for about four TS breakfasts and one signature dinner. And it's STILL not worth it for us to upgrade. We are saving about $300 total by NOT upgrading to deluxe but by paying OOP for a few meals we wanted that were not covered under the standard DDP.

My kids do not want to have three sit down meals a day. Two sometimes, but not three. The appetizers are not important to us because we're eating at character meals, family style, and buffet places several nights. We do have breakfast at Kona one morning and the Wave another morning, but those are not good "values" on the deluxe generally and can be done for less or cheaper OOP. We have a hard time eating one snack a day each, so I can't imagine our ability to consume two each! And, with the deluxe, to get your money's worth, you really do need to make each ADR. Otherwise, you lose value very quickly.

I think if we didn't have the kids, DH and I would love deluxe, but the kids just cannot tolerate 2-3 long meals a day. That's just us.

 

[DISNEY1975]

Hello! Hesitating between the standard dining plan and the deluxe one. Latter is almost the double in price, which amounts to 185$ a day for two adults and two little girls (5 and 3). What are people's experience? I tried the standard one on a free promo 2 years ago and liked, of course (was free after all!). Is deluxe worth it in terms of savings you'd say? Thanks.

I havent been to Disney in a couple of years. I have never been on the dining plan ever. All years we go, we eat breakfast at the hotel..mostly counter service. We then go off to a park, grab another snack/drink and then have an early dinner mixing between counter and table service.

I have 3 kids and hubby. We mostly stay in deluxe resorts and we are not "cheap" people, but I dont like to just throw my money out the window either. We choose counter service for the kids. Is it hard to A) get them to sit quietly for over an hour and B) get them to eat anything other than chicken fingers, burgers and pizza.

From what I have been reading on these boards, the cost of Disney counter service and especially table service has completely skyrocketed. One person posted that they spent $165 for breakfast one morning (family of 4, 2 adults, 2 kids) for bacon and eggs at a table service. Another posted they spent $75 on counter service for 2 burgers and 2 chicken sandwiches, 4 drinks and some fries.

If you go to the princess breakfast and pay $165, that right there is cost of your dining plan for the day and you will basically be eating lunch and dinner for free that day.

You know your family and how much they eat. Do they pick all day or sit for meals? Keep in mind one out of pocket restaurant could cost the same as the extra $$ for the deluxe dining all week!

I would suggest glancing over the menus, think about where youmay want to eat and somewhat calculate your daily cost. You should be able to figure out your need from that.