To DxDP or not?

[princesswendy720]

Dbf gave me a thumbs up to book a trip for September/October of next year!! I'm trying to strategically plan our dates so I'm there for the very end of free dining and the beginning of F&W. I think the dates 9/19 to 9/26 will catch the last day of free dining and the first day of F&W.

I'm toying with the idea of of ugrading to Deluxe dining. I know the best way to know if this would be a good option for us is to see how the regular dining plan works for us in December, but I'm interested in knowing other opinions.

I know the DxDP is ALOT of food, but I'd plan on doing a good deal of 2 credit meals : Cali Grill, Narccoosses, CRT (for the little girl in me...), Hoop de Doo...maybe one more (Yachtsman or Jiko) depending on how I plan out the week. I know if I just do the regular, I'd have to scratch these off my list.

I wish there was a good compromise between regular and deluxe, I've schedule 3 or 4 meals that we are paying for OOP on our upcoming trip, but as i'm figuring out what we'd do for the Deluxe plan I don't know how I'm going to use all the credits! For those who have done Deluxe, was it too much food? did you have credits left over? were the meal experiences worth the extra cost? did you feel like you were eating all the time? did you feel too "scheduled" around your meals?

The cost to upgrade for the 2 of us (this is of course, assuming free dining will be offered again), will be $448.

 

[Krmrr]

Hi,
My wife and I upgraded this year and had a great time. We had never eaten breakfast at DW because it wasn't worth it to us. But on the Deluxe plan we had a lot of fun at the Crystal Palace, Norway (my DW got pictures of me with all of the characters and princesses, but would not have hers made), and Boma (twice). We only went to Narcooses and Calif. Grill, so we had three days when we ate three TS meals. But, we got along fine. There's no rule that you must go back to the breakfast buffet 5 times. I tried to sample everything that looked different and sometimes when back to get a little more if I really liked something. The only time I really felt stuffed was after Tutto. They serve really big, tasty portions.

Our adventure is at http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1953162&page=1&highlight=

I say go for it.

 

[WDisnut]

Do it once, upgrade, and then decide. I'm glad I did it going to all the 2 credit dinners, but I probably won't again. CG( best meal), Spirit of aloha (get lvl 2), jiko (loved). Narccoosses, CRT, I could have passed on. I have never been to Yachtsman or hoop de doo. I would recommend early morning snack breakfasts, early lunches 11:30am to noon ( pass on some of the desserts) and around 6 pm dinners . OR early breakfast / breakfast buffet, snack lunch, 5:30PM to 6 dinner.. Never eat late or you will have problems sleeping and you won't want to eat anything in morning. also spread your meals out giving yourself time to digest and then will have some room for your other snacks . At least that is what happened to me.

 

[wdwluver]

yeah, I say go for it too. This trip will be our first time going on the deluxe plan. 3 meals a day, no way! We are going to have an early 1TS breakfast and a mid evening 2TS dinner. We plan on mostly relaxing, enjoying the resort and playing activities by ear, so I'm not worried about being ruled by our ADR's If we find that deluxe won't work for us, it'll be a yummy lesson learned.

 

[princesswendy720]

Thanks everyone...I think I'm going to go for it! We'd probably do the 1 TS breakfast, 2 TS dinner most days with the exception of one or two days.

We tend to fly in early and fly out late to maximize time there, so hopefully I'll be able to use up all the credits.

 

[chinchiller]

Thanks everyone...I think I'm going to go for it! We'd probably do the 1 TS breakfast, 2 TS dinner most days with the exception of one or two days.

We tend to fly in early and fly out late to maximize time there, so hopefully I'll be able to use up all the credits.

This is pretty much what we're doing (lunch instead of breakfast and flying times to maximize our time at Disney). We're going to be on our honeymoon and, while we could have survived with a regular dining plan, we just couldn't get over the fact that there were so many restaurants we both really wanted to try and several of those were worth 2 TS credits. So, we went with Deluxe and I'm going to be making a gazillion reservations in a couple of weeks.

 

[msujroot]

I think that you will enjoy your decision to upgrade. DW and I absolutely love the DxDP! Some might even say that the meals that we schedule are the highlights of our trips!

 

[msujroot]

I think that you will enjoy your decision to upgrade. DW and I absolutely love the DxDP! Some might even say that the meals that we schedule are the highlights of our trips!

Have a great time!

 

[LIBLULA]

Do it, upgrade!! We had the DxDP in September. It was a lot of food, but we loved it!!!! We have already upgraded for next September with the free dining!!!

 

[bangzoom6877]

DH and I talk about deluxe vs. regular dining all the time. It all really depends on your dining preferences if you were not on any type of dining plan, IMO. What we did to plan our trip this past July was sit down with the list of WDW restaurants and figure out where we will eat. We knew we wanted several character meals for the kids and would definitely do those, so we priced them according to menus we read online. We also knew we would be having lunch in a park each day, but we knew we would not want to spend the time on a TS restaurant for lunch, nor the money for one for lunch if we were paying OOP. So we knew we would end up having a CS meal at the parks. We also knew we would want to sample some of the delicious snacks that are unique to WDW, such as Mickey ice cream bars, Mickey rice krispie treats, and treats from Main Street Bakery. So with all that, we came to the conclusion that the regular DDP was right for us. We had done the math and it actually saved us a good amount of money and fit right into our eating pattern on vacation.

Now, we also discussed the deluxe plan recently, when talking about our next trip. We decided it would be too much food for us. We are DVC members and will be staying in a one-bedroom. We will have a full kitchen and while I do not cook on vacation, I have no problem preparing some frozen waffles for my kids (which they love anyway), and even making some scrambled eggs (not much work and there is a dishwasher!). So even with doing 3 character breakfasts on a 10-day trip, the deluxe plan would cost us more than paying for those breakfasts OOP. There are also so many snacks. We found the one snack a day per person to be plenty back in July. We had 2 credits leftover on the last day of a 5-day trip and I brought grapes and a rice krispie treat for the road. I bring cases of water on vacation so I would not need an extra snack credit for a bottle of water each day. 80 snacks for the 4 of us on a 10-day trip just seems like too much. We also do character meals mainly because the kids are little, and those are all you can eat so we are not affected by the lack of the app on the regular plan.

Now, if DH and I were planning to go to several signature restaurants, then we would definitely get the deluxe plan for 2 reasons. One, it includes the appetizer, a much better value for 2 TS credits (plus you get to sample more of the food at a signature place which we would want to do), and two, we would still have enough meal credits for our lunches each day and a couple of character breakfasts throughout the trip.

Perhaps the deluxe plan will be more for us when the kids are older and will appreciate a signature restaurant more. But right now they are little and more interested in characters!! DH and I like the food at the buffets so the regular plan works for us.

 

[tinks86]

I'm having this debate at the moment! We have got free dining booked for next Sept. but we are contemplating upgrading to deluxe! We loved eating in the signaure restaurants this year - and really want to do at least 6 (in a 14 night stay), so that would use loads of credits up. We could never eat 3 big meals a day, but could have breakfast some days, and skip lunch or vice versa.

With the ordinary plan, I still want to do the signature meals (its one of the highlights of our trip) so would have to pay for some nights meals, and would be limited to CS for lunch??? Also there are no appertisers on ordinary, and I'm worried we may spend more in extras than it would cost to upgrade!
As its a 2 week trip though, we would be looking at £450 (about $700 - depends on ex rate!)
Any thoughts

 

[allisonswonderland]

we are trying it! We arrive on Friday, I totally expect to need a major diet upon my return! LOL

 

[disneynuts777]

I did the DxDDP with 2DD's (12&14) this past August. We had a blast. Ate at lots of signatures and loved the fact that no one was ever hungry or thirsty!! We did struggle to use all of the snack credits but lots of those little single items made there way home to be enjoyed until we return next August (on the DxDDP again!!!)

 

[bob6sims]

Its alot of food to get through

Read through the dining reviews before you make your mind up

 

[Whipperwhirl]

If It was an upgrade I might be tempted to do it.

For our upcomming vacation - I started with dxdp - then I switched to the basic and most recently down to none. I will tell you - its like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Planning where to eat was becomming the focus of our whole trip. I budgeted out each meal yesterday and on paper anyway- it was cheaper than the basic plan. Like a good diser Im going to analyze the whole thing when I get back - since we will be back two times next year - it will be good to know.

Good luck with your decision

 

[katieam1]

Dbf gave me a thumbs up to book a trip for September/October of next year!! I'm trying to strategically plan our dates so I'm there for the very end of free dining and the beginning of F&W. I think the dates 9/19 to 9/26 will catch the last day of free dining and the first day of F&W.

I'm toying with the idea of of ugrading to Deluxe dining. I know the best way to know if this would be a good option for us is to see how the regular dining plan works for us in December, but I'm interested in knowing other opinions.

I know the DxDP is ALOT of food, but I'd plan on doing a good deal of 2 credit meals : Cali Grill, Narccoosses, CRT (for the little girl in me...), Hoop de Doo...maybe one more (Yachtsman or Jiko) depending on how I plan out the week. I know if I just do the regular, I'd have to scratch these off my list.

I wish there was a good compromise between regular and deluxe, I've schedule 3 or 4 meals that we are paying for OOP on our upcoming trip, but as i'm figuring out what we'd do for the Deluxe plan I don't know how I'm going to use all the credits! For those who have done Deluxe, was it too much food? did you have credits left over? were the meal experiences worth the extra cost? did you feel like you were eating all the time? did you feel too "scheduled" around your meals?

The cost to upgrade for the 2 of us (this is of course, assuming free dining will be offered again), will be $448.

I agree go for the DxDDP!!

 

[buzz1fan]

We have decided to use the Deluxe plan, because i figured in the two out of pocket TS meals, and breakfast meals for my little ones, mugs and extra snacks, and it is cheaper for us to get the Deluxe. Even if we dont use them all, atleast we spent less money. Plus we plan on leaving late our departure day so that covers that day too. We will be on it for 4 nights.