To Dining plan or not - advice please

[abbydancer]

We have a split stay, and I'm debating the Deluxe. Here's the situation -

We are DVC members. Husband and I arrive on Saturday Dec 6 in the evening. We have 2 nights in one room, and then switch to a 7 night stay with my sister and nieces there 6 of the 7 days.

My nieces have celiac, and will be doing breakfast in the room most days, so no dining plan for all 5 of us.

We are planning to purchase a TIW card. For 7 days and 5 people, we'll make it back.

For the days of the first stay we have:
Saturday - probably arrive in time for dinner. Sunday lunch at Chefs de France, dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse. Monday lunch at hollywood brown derby and dinner at Artists point. We typically both have appetizers and may or may not have dessert.

So, my understanding is for check on Saturday and out on Monday we'll have 6 credits to use at any restaurant we want and Signatures don't count as 2 (is that right?). As you can see, there are 4 there. There is probably going to be a Saturday dinner as well.

The calculators kind of come up as close to a wash. Since we'll have the TIW card, we'd have to spend more than the 109 per day the plan costs.

I suspect we shouldn't get it, but maybe I'm missing something. Your collective wisdom is most welcome.

 

[sharonabe]

We have a split stay, and I'm debating the Deluxe. Here's the situation -

We are DVC members. Husband and I arrive on Saturday Dec 6 in the evening. We have 2 nights in one room, and then switch to a 7 night stay with my sister and nieces there 6 of the 7 days.

My nieces have celiac, and will be doing breakfast in the room most days, so no dining plan for all 5 of us.

We are planning to purchase a TIW card. For 7 days and 5 people, we'll make it back.

For the days of the first stay we have:
Saturday - probably arrive in time for dinner. Sunday lunch at Chefs de France, dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse. Monday lunch at hollywood brown derby and dinner at Artists point. We typically both have appetizers and may or may not have dessert.

So, my understanding is for check on Saturday and out on Monday we'll have 6 credits to use at any restaurant we want and Signatures don't count as 2 (is that right?). As you can see, there are 4 there. There is probably going to be a Saturday dinner as well.

The calculators kind of come up as close to a wash. Since we'll have the TIW card, we'd have to spend more than the 109 per day the plan costs.

I suspect we shouldn't get it, but maybe I'm missing something. Your collective wisdom is most welcome.

On the DxDDP, Signatures still count as 2 TS credits. You have to go up to Premium to get rid of that. So you have one too many credits for the plan. Looks like your TIW is going to be the better bet since you're already buying it for the second half of the stay.

 

[eeyoresmom]

The signatures do count as two credits on the deluxe plan.. For a two night stay you would have 12 credits. You have 3 signature meals booked so that is your 12 creidts right there not including Chefs. If you will already have TIW, I think you will come out ahead with that. I am getting the dxddp for one night but DH and I will share lunches at Chefs and Sanaa so the deluxe plan for that one night will cover two days of dining for us. I almost never do a ddp but for us this trip it will save us a fair amount of money without us changing out dining habits or plans for the day/ evening.

 

[MrInfinity]

The signatures do count as two credits on the deluxe plan.. For a two night stay you would have 12 credits. You have 3 signature meals booked so that is your 12 creidts right there not including Chefs. If you will already have TIW, I think you will come out ahead with that. I am getting the dxddp for one night but DH and I will share lunches at Chefs and Sanaa so the deluxe plan for that one night will cover two days of dining for us. I almost never do a ddp but for us this trip it will save us a fair amount of money without us changing out dining habits or plans for the day/ evening.

I concur. Standard 2-point meals are not a really good use of the DDP. Pay cash / TIW.