To Deluxe or not to Deluxe, that is the question!

[Aimros]

Hi everyone!

As you can see from my ticker, DF & I have just under a year to go before our honeymoon trip to WDW. We got free dining for next August, and I just recently started looking into the DxDP. I never would have given it a second though because of the cost, but since we got DDP for free I figure that to upgrade it would only be about $450 for both of us. I did a little figuring out to see if that would be worth it. I'd really like to eat at the following places:

Boma
California Grill*
Crystal Palace
Jiko*
Kona
Ohana
Teppen Edo*
Cinderella’s Royal Table*
Sci-Fi*
Whispering Canyon Café

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Review*
Artist’s Point*

The one's that are *starred* are restaurants we haven't tried yet. At first, I wasn't thinking about signature restaurants except CG (which I've wanted to try for awhile), but once I started reading some of the reviews on here I quickly added Jiko, CRT, and would love to try Artist's Point and Hoop-Dee-Doo. So, I tried to figure how much it would cost to do these meals OOP and broke it down and figured out how much we could get from the DDP and how much extra it would be. So it comes out to be right around $400. In some ways, I don't really know why I'm even asking this question anymore and think we should just upgrade, because it would be nice to eat at sig restaurants and not have to worry so much about saving our TS credits or paying OOP (and remembering what meals we're paying OOP for). It is our honeymoon, but it's also $450 more. So, what do you all think? Would it be too much food? We do like to eat... and all the DxDP reviews I've been reading make me want to call Disney tonight! (Which i very well just might do!)

 

[Aimros]

I forgot that I had a few questions for those of who that have done the DxDP before...

About how much do you think you ended up paying OOP between tips and alcoholic drinks?

Do any restaurants offer alcoholic drinks/wine with their meals (besides HDDR)?

Did you feel like the DxDP definitely wasn't worth it because you just couldn't eat enough?

TIA!

 

[Faldred]

That looks like 17 TS credits already laid out for 7 nights (I'm assuming, based on the $450 upgrade costs), so DxDP is likely a good idea if you want to do all of them. You also gain the appetizers for lunch/dinner at non-buffet/AYCE places, and extra snack per person per night, and the resort mugs.

Plus, you still have 4 credits unspoken for, which can be CS or TS. Even room service (a great idea for a honeymoon)!

I can't speak to extra costs for the drinks, but I normally suggest budgeting your average tip % times the cost of the plan, with plan savings being offset by places that don't have tips (CRT, dinner shows, CS).

The dinner shows are the only places I know where (limited) alcohol is included in the meal price.

 

[Colleen27]

We love the deluxe plan. We've used it twice so far and didn't even question whether or not to use it again for our next trip.

Is it too much food? I think it would be if we'd tried to use every credit to its fullest or eat 3 real meals per day, but what we do is usually a 1 credit character breakfast or a quiet table service lunch, followed by a signature dinner. The snacks more than make up for the "missing" meal, and eating two meals/day doesn't get to feeling like food overload even when they're full, three-course meals.

The appetizers and the signature restaurants are what really sell us on it. We're not dessert eaters normally and skip it sometimes even though it is included, but we LOVE appetizers. And the signature restaurants are a wonderfully relaxing break from the parks; for the most part they're quieter than the 1 credit restaurants, the food is more creative and often lighter/smaller portions, and the overall experience is very nice.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I was just going over our list of ressies, trying to decide the same thing.
It comes out to $540 for us to upgrade and we would gain the advantage of appetizers, which we would order and pay OOP for anyways.
We have 5 extra TS that we would have to pay OOP for also.

I think the upgrade is the answer. Seems like a big chunk of $$, but we would end up spending that much anyways. This way it is all prepaid and I don't have to limit myself when I am ordering.

 

[MissBritt]

We did DXDDP in December and loved it. We did CP with 2 TS each (which I now consider a waste), had almost all TS meals, and shared a few when we weren't very hungry. Also, we had more park days than we had nights, so we had plenty to cover the last day. Tips went anywhere from $7 for a shared meal to over $20 (CP at CdF). We enjoyed it and would do it again in a future stay longer than 2-3 nights. I always say do as much as you can as often as you can because you never know when you will be able to again!

 

[havoc315]

I've been asking myself the same question, and ultimately decided not to upgrade. Decided to do a couple OOP table meals. I assume you are doing 7 nights.

Here are the issues I'd consider if I were you: I have no doubt the deluxe plan will "save money" compared to buying the exact same meals, outright. But are you simply buying more food than you actually want? For example, when dining in restaurants, we often skip dessert, or will share 1 dessert. Now, if you are having a table service lunch and a table service dinner each day, you are each getting 2 full desserts per day. Is that something that you really have any interest in buying if it wasn't "included?"

Being on a Honeymoon, you may very well put more emphasis on spending a couple hours of formal dining per day, instead of cramming every minute into the parks. But that should be a consideration as well. For us, knowing that we want to get into the park early each morning (particularly for extra magic hours), I couldn't imagine doing any table service breakfasts.

Finally, just breakdown the prices. For example, Sci-Fi is on your list, and we plan on doing a lunch there. With their lunch prices, a very filling lunch would still likely be less than $25. Pass on dessert and appetizer, and probably under $20. Especially consider the prices of the so-called signature restaurants -- Would you really be otherwise spending $60-$70 per person, or would you likely only be spending $50 per person (in which case, paying OOP could make much more sense).

Comes down to this -- If you really want approximately 2 table service meals per day, if you really want a full dessert and appetizer for each person, for each lunch and dinner --- Then the deluxe plan will likely save you a lot of money.

I personally wish there was something in between the deluxe plan and the regular plan. Maybe something that offered 2 meal (for either TS or CS) credits per day + 2 snacks. Or something with an added appetizer. Or a "breakfast on the run credit" -- Coffee + pastry. (Can use the snack credit to get the pastry, but then need to pay OOP for the coffee).

Regardless of what you decide, have a wonderful honeymoon.

Hi everyone!

As you can see from my ticker, DF & I have just under a year to go before our honeymoon trip to WDW. We got free dining for next August, and I just recently started looking into the DxDP. I never would have given it a second though because of the cost, but since we got DDP for free I figure that to upgrade it would only be about $450 for both of us. I did a little figuring out to see if that would be worth it. I'd really like to eat at the following places:

Boma
California Grill*
Crystal Palace
Jiko*
Kona
Ohana
Teppen Edo*
Cinderella’s Royal Table*
Sci-Fi*
Whispering Canyon Café

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Review*
Artist’s Point*

The one's that are *starred* are restaurants we haven't tried yet. At first, I wasn't thinking about signature restaurants except CG (which I've wanted to try for awhile), but once I started reading some of the reviews on here I quickly added Jiko, CRT, and would love to try Artist's Point and Hoop-Dee-Doo. So, I tried to figure how much it would cost to do these meals OOP and broke it down and figured out how much we could get from the DDP and how much extra it would be. So it comes out to be right around $400. In some ways, I don't really know why I'm even asking this question anymore and think we should just upgrade, because it would be nice to eat at sig restaurants and not have to worry so much about saving our TS credits or paying OOP (and remembering what meals we're paying OOP for). It is our honeymoon, but it's also $450 more. So, what do you all think? Would it be too much food? We do like to eat... and all the DxDP reviews I've been reading make me want to call Disney tonight! (Which i very well just might do!)

 

[Aimros]

I've been asking myself the same question, and ultimately decided not to upgrade. Decided to do a couple OOP table meals. I assume you are doing 7 nights.

Here are the issues I'd consider if I were you: I have no doubt the deluxe plan will "save money" compared to buying the exact same meals, outright. But are you simply buying more food than you actually want?

Being on a Honeymoon, you may very well put more emphasis on spending a couple hours of formal dining per day, instead of cramming every minute into the parks.

I think I've actually come to the exact same conclusions and will probably not be doing an upgrade unless someone gives me $500 and tells me to use it specifically for that purpose . My biggest concern is being tied down to ADR's. Yes, we are going for 7 nights. I've always had that issue with ADR's when going to WDW because they really schedule your day and make it hard to change your mind about your plans. Since we have been to WDW 3 times together already, I was hoping this trip would be less planned out and we would decide on a day to day basis what we really wanted to do. And I totally agree that with the DxDP we would most likely be getting more food than we really want/need. We would also like to do one day off-property and take a trip to a beach since I haven't been to the Florida coast since I was 10 and DFi has never been. So I attempted to break everything down and came to this:

1. I'm only going to plan sit-down dinners for 5 of our 7 nights. I am not going to plan a sit-down for our first night (because last time we did this we could barely finish our meals... a day of traveling just made us too tired and not in the mood to eat a big dinner), and one less for the night we will not be on property.

2. Those 5 meals will consist of Artists Point, Cali Grill, Teppan Edo, Jiko, and Ohana. Granted 3 of those 5 meals are signature, but I figured I could use 4 of our TS for two of those meals, pay the other OOP, and still have 3 TS remaining for the other 2 dinners and 1 breakfast. I am a big breakfast person, but I don't want to plan on waking up every morning and getting to breakfast on time when we can just concentrate on relaxing and get something quick. With that being said, we would pay OOP for a Boma breakfast (not worth to use a TS for), Sci-Fi lunch (also not worth using a TS for), one of the sig dinners, and 3 CS meals (I figured there was enough CS to use for every breakfast and lunch not at a buffet or TS except for 3.

3. I also considered the chance that we would want to get an appetizer at our dinners. Chances are we might, but I don't think we would BOTH need an app like with the DxDP. So, I figured an extra $10-15 for our Jiko and Cali Grill meals (since we wont need apps at Ohana, Teppan Edo, or whatever other buffet we choose), meaning an extra $30-35.

4. Considering which meals I'm choosing for us to pay OOP and even with the addition of apps at two of the dinners, I figure that our OOP costs would be around $300. (Sci-Fi lunch=$60, Boma=$45, Artists Point=$100, 3 OOP CS=$80, appetizers=$35 TOTALING $320) and I KNOW I'm estimating WAY high

5. Maybe we would benefit from having 2 snacks a day, but that would also only be another $10 a day or so.

6. I'm not a big meat-eater... I've been attempting to become a vegetarian for a few years but have a tough time making the official transition. With that being said, the DxDP isn't as worth it for me because I'm not usually ordering the $40 beef option.

So basically what it comes down to is that we probably will spend that $465 we could use to upgrade on food. But I like the fact that we won't be so tied down to breakfast and dinner ADR's everyday. I'm looking forward to getting up and deciding to go sit by the pool for 3 hours and making our way to a park later in the afternoon... after all, it is going to be the middle of August, and last time we went in August I was gung-ho about waking up early every morning to get to a rope drop, and we ended up being exhausted and cranky by 1pm. My goal is to avoid that this time, and concentrate more on relaxing and enjoying our time.

My decision for today is to just keep our free dining and pay for everything else OOP. Granted it won't be as convenient, but I can't justify it right now. I'd rather just pay for the things we want rather feel like we HAVE to eat, eat, eat because we paid for it. With that being said, I still have a year to go, and 6 months before I can book any ADR's, so who knows what my decision will be come January. I think I'll probably be sticking with this plan though...

Thanks for all of your help! And sorry for the extremely long posts!

 

[sctigger]

We did the dlx dining plan for the first time last year. We ate at 4 signature restaurants so it was worth it for us. Don't know if we would have been able to use all our credits otherwise. We were upgraded to CL at the Poly and found it easier to use the lounge for a quick breakfast instead of using DP credits. We were also able to use the extra snack credits at EPCOT during Food & Wine. For our 2011 trip we will do the dlx dining plan again only if we don't stay at CL at one of the dlx resorts (still haven't decided on CL or not at AKL).

 

[heatherwillmom]

We always do a dining plan. We have done the regular & the deluxe. It really depends on how much you eat if it's worth it. If you do signature's, it's definitely worth it. When the kids wanted to do charater breakfasts, it helped us. When we have done the regular plan, we usually take cereal, cereal bars, & muffins from home to keep in the room for breakfast. WE would then schedule lunch around 11:30.

 

[odaddy!]

Do the deluxe only if you are doing signatures, we just got back from 11 nights of the regular plan, we always do a couple signatures, but a real waste of 2 TS credits if you are on the plan. An entree at a signature restaurant is not designed to be the meal. At california grill, the entrees were great,but small, they are meant to be a course, so you just do not get very much for 2TS. We loved it, Bought a salad and flatbread anyway, and do it for the fireworks, as a deluxe with the appetizers, it would be a lot better.