to Delux DP or not to Delux DP, that is the queston...help me decide!

[emmamc252]

Ok, so our orginal holiday plans have all gone up in smoke after some of our party dropped out last minute!
We were orginally doing 4 nights universal staying on I drive then 10nights at AKL.
Due to the dynamics of the group changng we are now doing JUST disney,
so we have 4 nights at Bay lake tower and then the 10 at AKL.
SO....
we wouldn't have done the deluxe dining for 10 nghts as way too expensive, BUT we are now toying with the idea of booking it for the 4 nights stay. BUT we would like some advice on if you think it would be a good option for us.
Our group is now me, DH, DD who will be 3 1/2 months, my mum and our nephew who is 4years old. its a bit of a mish-mash.
So for the 4 year old character breakfasts would be great, but DH doesn't like american breakfast food (we are coffee and porridge boring englsh people!) WE really like nice restaurants, and its hard to take a baby to anywhere nice in the UK but as we are in disney we are thinking it may be an opportunity to eat at VERY nice places which are still kid friendly for the baby and the 4 year old. so we would be using it fo good kd places in the day then prob the sgnatures at night.
something like....

day 1
arrvival day we get in late-
Cali Grill at our hotel

day 2
Breakfast at tusker house
flyinh fish cafe / yachtsmanat boardwalk

day 3
breakfast at the character one in DHS
Artist point dinnner

day 4
dinner at Jiko

day 5 (move to AKL but credits still valid)
Breakfast at chef mickeys (IF we can get in) if not the one in MK
Ohanas dinner (already booked so unlkely we can move ths

that would use all of our credits. We don't like tonnes of food so we wouldn't want a restaurant lunch and dinner, so we would use it for signatures.
The only prob with this is that it means all the character meals and all the signature places are at the start of the holiday, its a bit uneven. BUT if we didn't get the plan we would only do 1 signature and 2 character buffets.

we really can't decide.
The regular dning plan doesn't appeal as we would like to go to the sgnatures and without 3 courses it doesn't seem economcally viable on the regular plan. Otherwise we would eat at cheaper restaurants and take away places.

just wondering what made other people decde to do it or not, what you would advise etc! particually given the makeup of our party!

 

[River Country]

Ok, so our orginal holiday plans have all gone up in smoke after some of our party dropped out last minute!
We were orginally doing 4 nights universal staying on I drive then 10nights at AKL.
Due to the dynamics of the group changng we are now doing JUST disney,
so we have 4 nights at Bay lake tower and then the 10 at AKL.
SO....
we wouldn't have done the deluxe dining for 10 nghts as way too expensive, BUT we are now toying with the idea of booking it for the 4 nights stay. BUT we would like some advice on if you think it would be a good option for us.
Our group is now me, DH, DD who will be 3 1/2 months, my mum and our nephew who is 4years old. its a bit of a mish-mash.
So for the 4 year old character breakfasts would be great, but DH doesn't like american breakfast food (we are coffee and porridge boring englsh people!) WE really like nice restaurants, and its hard to take a baby to anywhere nice in the UK but as we are in disney we are thinking it may be an opportunity to eat at VERY nice places which are still kid friendly for the baby and the 4 year old. so we would be using it fo good kd places in the day then prob the sgnatures at night.
something like....

day 1
arrvival day we get in late-
Cali Grill at our hotel This is 2 TS

day 2
Breakfast at tusker house
flyinh fish cafe / yachtsmanat boardwalk This is 2 TS

day 3
breakfast at the character one in DHS
Artist point dinnnerThis is 2 TS

day 4
dinner at JikoThis is 2 TS

day 5 (move to AKL but credits still valid)
Breakfast at chef mickeys (IF we can get in) if not the one in MK
Ohanas dinner (already booked so unlkely we can move ths

that would use all of our credits. We don't like tonnes of food so we wouldn't want a restaurant lunch and dinner, so we would use it for signatures.
The only prob with this is that it means all the character meals and all the signature places are at the start of the holiday, its a bit uneven. BUT if we didn't get the plan we would only do 1 signature and 2 character buffets.

we really can't decide.
The regular dning plan doesn't appeal as we would like to go to the sgnatures and without 3 courses it doesn't seem economcally viable on the regular plan. Otherwise we would eat at cheaper restaurants and take away places.

just wondering what made other people decde to do it or not, what you would advise etc! particually given the makeup of our party!

It looks like you are using 3 a day which is what i do on the DxDP.

for 4 nights u would get 12 TS which it looks like you are using so IMHO i would do the deluxe

 

[goofyintoronto]

I agree with the OP, i would also do the delux in your case.

 

[purple figment]

day 1
arrvival day we get in late-
Cali Grill at our hotel

Are you flying in from the UK this day? If so, you'll have to take into consideration the time zone change - how late/tired will you be?

Cali Grill has a $20 per person no show fee with a 48 hour in advance cancellation policy so if your plane is delayed and you can't make it to dinner, you'll be charged. I know it's convenient because you'll be at BLT, but it might be better to schedule this on a different night just in case.

 

[AirGoofy]

Your TS math is correct. Now, there are 2 other questions.

(1) Can you eat that much food? I am a big eater and when we did DxDP, we did a breakfast and signature dinner/ dinner show. Or, we did CRT and a dinner. But, that was a lot of food. I had a hard time eating that much. Normally, we do one appetizer for the family, individual meal, and one dessert for whole family. But, since we paid for DxDP, we each had app, meal, and dessert. It was good - but way too much. As for the $, we found that eating the way we wanted with alcohol cost the same as DxDP.

(2) Do you want to spend that much of your time at Disney eating meals? Yes, it was terrific to get in the TP before RD for reservation, but then we had to leave the park and go eat signature dinner. Not only do you have the meal time, but the walk and Disney transportation time to get there. Thus, we now only do a signature meal on a day we are not going to Theme Park. Good luck in your decisions. You do have some great ADR(s), which would make it difficult to cancel.

 

[auntfrannie]

I really enjoy doing the deluxe dining plan. I like doing a signature each night and like having the appetizer with my meal. Enjoy!

 

[TDluvsDaisy]

I say go for it! It's only 4 days. We've done it for 8 nights before and while we were full for 2 days after returning home (going from walking 10 miles a day or more to 0 will do it!), we still love it and take full advantage of it. It's well worth it to us.

 

[WTP]

I think it will be different for each family, but I can tell you that having just gotten back from reagular DDP with a 4yo and 16 month old, both of whome are used to eating out, it was a lot of sit down w/o the appetizer course. Some meals stretched out to 1.5-2 hours and we ended up taking shifts outside the restaurant for the baby to run around. Just keep in mind that some of these signature meals will eat up a lot of time. They sound so delicious though! It's a tough choice.