Upgrade Worth $32/night???

[Terk-1]

I am booked for a 10-day/9-night trip to WDW at the end of September with the free dining plan. This is a solo, adult trip. I booked the All Star Sports, since POFQ would be almost $500 more to the total. Do you think it's worth the extra $288 to upgrade to the deluxe dining plan? I have not had the chance to go to WDW since 2006 and would love to try some new places.

 

[MickeyNicki]

I would, that isnt a bad deal!

 

[Hootch]

personally, it would be worth the money. I like to sit down and enjoy a good, sometimes creative, meal. I wouldn't do three TS meals a day. I would do a signature meal evryday and another TS for breakfast or lunch.

It really depends on what you're trying to get out of your trip. Since you want to try some new places, the deluxe plan seems to be a good buy.

And even though I really like POFQ, I would switch to a value if I could get the deluxe plan for 60% of the savings.

 

[Faldred]

If you want to do 2 "sit down" meals a day, then yes, the upgrade is worth it, even if you keep 1 CS meal a day. An extra TS meal, including appy, beverage, entree, and dessert is likely going to be more than $32, once tax is included. You'd also get an appy with your other TS meal, an extra snack credit, and "the mug".

If you drop the CS in favor of a third TS or making one of the TS meals a "signature", it's an even better idea to upgrade.

It all comes back to the first point, though -- if you don't want at least 2 TS meals a day (on average), then it isn't worth it.

 

[CharacterFan]

It's a deal for me, and I'm most likely going solo during free dining. You can eat anywhere, even the nice 2TS credit place and still have another meal that day, and the next. I find on my solo trips they are a bit more relaxed and I can just eat my way around the world.

 

[OllieDannyandMe]

I am booked for a 10-day/9-night trip to WDW at the end of September with the free dining plan. This is a solo, adult trip. I booked the All Star Sports, since POFQ would be almost $500 more to the total. Do you think it's worth the extra $288 to upgrade to the deluxe dining plan? I have not had the chance to go to WDW since 2006 and would love to try some new places.

I went with the Deluxe Dining in 2008, and it felt wonderful. I loved splurging on the appetizers and desserts. I loved having 2 snacks per day. If your trip coincided with the Food & Wine Festival, I think some of your snacks can be used at booths set up for the festival. I liked that the mug came with the meal plan, too.

I love to have a table service breakfast. I would have purchased it out of pocket, if I had not upgraded to the Deluxe Dining Plan. And at Disney, my breakfasts averaged $20 per day.

So for an extra $12 per day, I received appetizers at both lunch and dinner, an additional snack credit, and a third entree and dessert for lunch (at a table service restaurant, no less!). Or if I preferred, I could forgo the third table service meal and combine it with my dinner credit to have a signature dining experience. Not a bad value for $12.00!

 

[kat3668]

I would say no it is not worth it. It is just WAYYYY to much food. My friend had it last Sept and no sooner than we were done with one ADR it was time to leave for another. It seriously cramped her touring syle. She was sick of food by the 3rd day. They had umpteen snack credits left and even skipped Adrs becaus it was way too much. I'd save your money and go with the basic it is more than enough.
Good Luck!

 

[Terk-1]

I would definitely not be doing 3 table service meals a day, but rather 1 one credit TS credit meal and 1 signature (2 credits) meal per day.

I'd like to try some places I've never been to before, such as Narcoossee's, and others that I have not been to in a long time, such as California Grill, Brown Derby and Yachtsman Steakhouse. I was thinking I may even give Cinderella's Table & Hoop-Dee-Doo another try.

 

[inkedupmomma]

I would say no it is not worth it. It is just WAYYYY to much food. My friend had it last Sept and no sooner than we were done with one ADR it was time to leave for another. It seriously cramped her touring syle. She was sick of food by the 3rd day. They had umpteen snack credits left and even skipped Adrs becaus it was way too much. I'd save your money and go with the basic it is more than enough.
Good Luck!

Honestly, that just sounds like poor planning on your friend's part. (no offense!)

 

[SoonipiLady]

Honestly, that just sounds like poor planning on your friend's part. (no offense!)

I am a obsessive planner and DH and I are huge foodies. We love to try new things. We went Deluxe on our adult only trip for a long weekend last year and we had 3 TS credits that went unused.

We found that in the heat of September we just weren't hungry enough for 2 TS meals every day (we did one regular and one Signature most days), let alone 3. It was nice to eat what we wanted when we wanted, but even having well spaced out ADRs we found that when we didn't have and ADR, we just didn't eat. We also found that when we went to the CS spots for our lunch a few days, they always gave us the extra snacks (they do that sometimes during free dining since TS ADRs can be tough to get) and somehow we ended up using only 1 credit even when trying to use 2!

Would still probably do it, but with the understanding that it isn't as easy as you think to get everything out of it as you may think.

We also did almost nothing other than walk around, shop and eat. It really wasn't a big "park commando" trip for us, more of a relaxing, touring, check out all the things we don't get to see when the kids are here trip.


Loved trying all the different foods though and saw some great resorts that we hadn't been to before.

Karen

 

[Tbelle1976]

We have already paid to upgrade to Deluxe and we are very happy that we did! There are many new restaurants that we are excited to try. We know that it will be alot of food, but I'm also planning in a way so that we are not feeling sick after a few days. I believe we might only have actually 3 meals on 2 days, all the other days we will be doing 2 meals. Snack credits can be used for breakfast items (muffins, School Bread, etc) or we can just pay OOP for those items and save snack credits for F&W Fest. The way I see it is that we have never had the chance to do Deluxe, and with FD we are going to take advantage of it.

 

[CharacterFan]

I've done Deluxe Dining and done 3TS in 1 day, and was fine I did an 8am breakfast 1pm lunch and a 8pm dinner. I have a high matablaism and a small stomach so it all depends on your eating habits. I will say we did have a lot of snacks left over at the end. We took cookies home to our friends as gifts, and they loved it.

 

[luckytobeme88]

Honestly, that just sounds like poor planning on your friend's part. (no offense!)

Agreeing with you 110%.

 

[aubriee]

I would say no it is not worth it. It is just WAYYYY to much food. My friend had it last Sept and no sooner than we were done with one ADR it was time to leave for another. It seriously cramped her touring syle. She was sick of food by the 3rd day. They had umpteen snack credits left and even skipped Adrs becaus it was way too much. I'd save your money and go with the basic it is more than enough.
Good Luck!

Honestly, that just sounds like poor planning on your friend's part. (no offense!)

Agreeing with you 110%.

Since I'm the friend Kat is talking about, I can say 'no offense taken'. As a matter of fact last Sept was the second time I've done the DxDDP. I was solo last May at POFQ and chose to eat an early TS lunch every day, then did a late 2 credit Signature meal every night. I used maybe 3 or 4 of my snack credits that week, then went to Goofy's at DTD to use up the rest of them on my last day (for stuff to take home). The DxDDP worked great, the way I used it on that trip. I loved it.

I agree that for the Sept trip I really goofed. I was with my mom who is a diabetic and must eat three meals a day and my husband who loves to eat. They both prefer TS meals and are not fond of CS. So yes we planned early morning breakfasts, lunches around noon, and dinners around 7:30pm, (all TS). As Kat said we spent the week running from ADR to ADR and were sick of food by the third day. We started skipping appetizers and/or desserts and also skipped some ADRs. At the end of the week we hadn't used a single snack credit, so again had to run down to Goofy's to use up all of our snack credits on the last day.

Saying all of that, I think I learned my lesson. I currently have free dining again Sept 26th-Oct 4th and am considering upgrading to the DxDDP again. If my trip stays solo, like it is right now, I probably will. This time I'd do a combination of what I did the other two trips. I really enjoy the Signature restaurants so would do several of them, along with an early lunch/late breakfast TS. Because I''ll be there during the food and wine festival, I'd spend a couple of days using snack credits around the World Showcase. I like having the appetizers, but would not feel like I have to order an appetizer and dessert every meal. Some days I might have three TS meals, some days I'd do a 1 credit early lunch and a 2 credit Signature meal, and some days I'd throw in a CS meal. I definitely would not be trying to get the most value out of my credits again, but I would enjoy having the credits available if I wanted them.

Hey Terk, I just realized that you will be there the same time as I am. I am also booked at AS Sports right now. lol I may change to a moderate though, if someone decides to go with me.

h

 

[Terk-1]

Hey Terk, I just realized that you will be there the same time as I am. I am also booked at AS Sports right now. lol I may change to a moderate though, if someone decides to go with me.

I usually book Port Orleans French Quarter, but it was close to $500 more than what I booked at the Sports. Plus, I don't spend a ton of time in the room anyway, so a value is fine for me. I've stayed at Music, Movies & Pop and thought I'd give Sports a try. My sister's friend has stayed there several times and really likes it.

 

[MandM-Mom]

Good luck on your decision we are going for the first time without kids and its during fd and trying to make the same decision I think its a good deal but will I feel trapped to my ADR's but we do want to do some signature spots...have fun with what ever you decide....I know I am driving dh nuts trying to decide but oh well

 

[aubriee]

I usually book Port Orleans French Quarter, but it was close to $500 more than what I booked at the Sports. Plus, I don't spend a ton of time in the room anyway, so a value is fine for me. I've stayed at Music, Movies & Pop and thought I'd give Sports a try. My sister's friend has stayed there several times and really likes it.

I'm staying at POFQ for my May 9th-16th trip, but was able to use the buy 4 get 3 nights free deal for it. Last fall I went with my mom and husband for free dining and stayed at PORS. Having an AP and always being able to find room discounts, I hated having to pay full price for it though, so decided to go with AS Sports for free dining this Sept. I've stayed there twice before (in the Surfs Up building and in the Football building) and enjoyed it. I have no qualms about staying there again. I'm just undecided on whether to try the DxDDP again. I sure like having all those credits to play with and knowing that I can go to any of the Signature restaurants and have them covered if I want. I also like the idea of having two snack credits/day to use at the booths during the food & wine festival.

 

[sammysmom]

We did the Deluxe dining plan last year and are going to be doing it again this time. The ability to try some of the signature restaurants that we never would have been able to try was great. We went to Narcoosee's which was our absoloute favorite and got to go to Mickey's Backyard BBQ. This year we plan to try Hoop De Doo. Also it is nice not having to worry about paying out of pocket for additional meals/snacks on the basic plan. It is worth it for our family. Good luck with your decision!

 

[Terk-1]

We did the Deluxe dining plan last year and are going to be doing it again this time. The ability to try some of the signature restaurants that we never would have been able to try was great. We went to Narcoosee's which was our absoloute favorite and got to go to Mickey's Backyard BBQ. This year we plan to try Hoop De Doo. Also it is nice not having to worry about paying out of pocket for additional meals/snacks on the basic plan. It is worth it for our family. Good luck with your decision!

That's what I was thinking. I want to be able to dine at some of the nicer places that I would not be able to do normally, without the worry of coming up with the extra money.

 

[ShannonMarkin]

I was wondering which was better for me too!