Weighing in on Deluxe

[boldlyreal]

We did the Deluxe dining over Spring Break in March. It had been a dream of mine for years and years. Pretty much a bucket list item. At the last minute actually, the last day we could add it, I wavered but my husband pushed me to do it. He knew how much I had wanted it. Guess what?!?!?! It sucked for us. 6 nights 7 days of too much!!!!!! Wasted food, wasted time and pure misery. Our 15 yr old DD completely shut down, some days refusing to eat. We had some wonderful meals I would highly recommend, but for the most part it was just not for us and we will NEVER do it again.
BTW our party included myself, my DH, our 17 yr old DS, 15 yr old DD and my mom.
Meals we would do again:
Breakfast at Old Key West
Dinner at Artist Point
Dinner at Via Napoli
Dinner at Le Cellier
Dinner at Yak and Yeki
Any Meal at Crystal Palace
Any Meal at Kouzzina
Breakfast at Hollywood and Vine
Dinner at Kona

Meals we might try again
Dinner at Yachtsman (we had so much food in us who knows)
Dinner at Cape May Clam Bake
Any Meal at Tusker House

Meals that we are done with for a lonnnnnnnnnnnng time
50s Primetime (2 bad meals in 2 visits)
Chef Mickeys(same thing)

I wish everyone who wants to do Deluxe the best of luck and to those who do it with success Hats off...you are amazing and I am humbled in your gastric presence!

 

[PictureJumpr]

ITA - had the same results the one and only time we tried Deluxe.

I find it hard to use all my regular DDP credits (well, except snacks - I'm a rabid WDW snacker), never mind all the time spent in restaurants and feeling like you just don't want to eat another thing by about noon on the second day of the trip...

We did almost all of the signatures on the plan during that trip, the only ones we missed (on purpose) were Narcoosee's and CRT. I don't like either of those. But we did have lovely meals at all of the others... with a lot of wasted food and more than one unordered dessert.

We even used some of our credits on (gasp!) CS.

All in all, it was an experiment, and now I know - never again.

 

[TDluvsDaisy]

It's definitely not for the faint of heart...or stomach.

We happen to do very well on the deluxe plan. Or at least did until the price increase coming for 2013. But food is part of our excitement at Disney and we learned how to schedule out our meals properly for our eating pleasure. It definitely doesn't work for everyone.

 

[DisneyKidds]

It's definitely not for the faint of heart...or stomach.

We happen to do very well on the deluxe plan. Or at least did until the price increase coming for 2013. But food is part of our excitement at Disney and we learned how to schedule out our meals properly for our eating pleasure. It definitely doesn't work for everyone.

Agreed. If you are prone to food hangovers the deluxe plan is not for you!

We have also done the DxDP in the past, and had done very wll with it. A breakfast (usually a buffet) and a signature dinner. We like to eat, so app, entree and dessert never went wasted on us.

Alas, at $100 per person per night in 2013, we will no longer bother with Disney's overpriced dining plans. A shame, because they used to be a decent value....but not any more.

 

[gtpoohbear]

I think they key is to find something that is similar to the way you are used to eating at home.

For us, the Deluxe plan works great, b/c we always eat 3 sit-down meals every day at home, and never any fast food. So anything less than 3 TS credits/day would leave us feeling hungry and grumpy. I don't necessarily clean my plate at every meal, and we only order dessert maybe 1/2 the time (and never eat it all when we do), so I never feel overstuffed. But trying to skip meals or get by on a CS once or twice a day would not sit well with my family.

But if you are used to eating lighter, on-the-go meals more often, or snacking a lot instead of full meals, then the DxDP is probably not going to be a good fit. (I've said it before, but I'm still surprised that there isn't a DP option in between the regular and deluxe, as there is a BIG difference in the two)

I was thinking about trying Kouzzina next time - glad to see that it's on your do-again list

 

[BuzzandWoodyMom]

I agree - huge waste of time and money. We tried it the first year they came out with it because we love dining at Disney, but the deluxe was not a hit with our family. My husband and kids were sick of it by the third day and told me to never get the deluxe plan again. We have always, before and after, gotten the basic plan - 1TS 1CS and 1 Snack, and it seems to be the right fit for us.

If you are a couple and doing mainly 2 TS meals and taking your time in the parks, or not worried about a lot of park time, I'm sure it would be nice, but there's no way I would recommend it for families or for people wanting to maximize their park time.

 

[disneyworldfamily]

Interesting review, thanks for sharing!

We are on the deluxe for our upcoming trip. We originally booked the regular plan but upgraded to deluxe when the regular was offered for free. The main reason why we did is because we have never been to Disney and we want to take advantage of many character meals as we can for our kids. When we weighed everything out, deluxe made the most sense for the places we wanted to try for meals.

That being said, if dining had not been offered for free, we would have made due with the regular plan. I KNOW it will be lots of food, but we are ready for it. Food is a big highlight of our vacations and we love trying new things.

And the bright side for you in all of this @boldlyreal is that you tried it, it was after all a bucket list item for you If you hadn't, you would have always wondered. At least now you know

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

Yes, I can't imagine doing the DxDDP for 7 nights! That's why we are doing a split stay in a few weeks. We have added the DxDDP to the first part which is only two nights. Two nights of it is plenty for us. We are spreading the credits over three days. We are doing two signatures on two of the days with cheaper OOP lunches, plus Le Cellier for lunch and Ohana for dinner on the other day. The last two days of our trip will be cheaper OOP meals (except for Artist Point). Even with this plan, we will be stuffed!

 

[LockShockBarrel]

From what I've read over the years on these boards, I think the deluxe plan really truly works for people maybe 30% of the time. Between just the draw of "but we get all this food" and poor planning and maybe misunderstanding how to use the credits and that desire to squeeze every cent out of the plan, it's just seems that it's not a great fit for most people.

I got it for the first time for my upcoming trip (19 days, eep!) and normally I wouldn't have bothered but I think understand the circumstances it'll work out well. I upgraded from free QS, and I'm only going for 3 nights. I have 1 signature ADR and one ADR on my departure day so its not a ton of stuff crammed together. I'm a picky eater and honestly most of the appetizers don't appeal to me, I might nibble a bit but it won't be the whole "Oh between the bread and app and entree and dessert I ate every single thing on my plate!!!" thing.

It'll be interesting to see how it goes.

 

[herb102211]

We usually do the deluxe dining plan when we do split stays. We'll do the regular dining plan for 3 days and then the deluxe for 2-3 days when we know we are going to be eating at the signature restaurants. It is certainly a lot of food if you try eating 3 TS meals a day!

 

[smiths02]

Interesting...it used to be a bucket list thing for me too...

Now with the price increases and not wanting to do many signature experiences seeing as I will have 3 children on the next trip...I am not so sure. (There are also many not included snacks and experiences I would like to do like Garden View Tea)

I think if I got free DDP as my best discount, then I would upgrade to DxDP and just not worry about getting every cent out of it-probably leave credits and/or entitlements (desserts, apps) on the table. (Plus next trip, we should have 2 adults, 1 child and 2 under-3s...so we could spread out the food to feed all of us.)

 

[jlhill4444]

We have used deluxe in the past and it was a trial and error type situation. We are using it again in January, but we have figured out how to make it work for us. We have three kids so we like to do very early character breakfast before park opening and then a TS dinner (either signature or a show like HDDR) we don't eat three meals a day and there are several days when we only eat one TS meal and use our credits for CS. We also arrive very early and leave in the evening on departure day, so we can spread out our credits to include that extra time. We are not concerned about getting our money worth of food, we just want the freedom of not worrying about what things cost and eating when and where we want.

It doesn't take park time from us any more than the regular plan would because we always eat breakfast before the parks open, (or just eat CS breakfast or snack if no reservation.) I agree, it is not for everyone, but we make it work for us because it gives us the freedom to meet the characters without standing in line, and to get a snack or break whenever we feel like it. We are not park commando's.

 

[sabcook]

We did the DDP for our last trip in 2010 and have added it again for our upcoming 9 night trip in December. I think it all depends on your attitude towards food and your mindset going into the trip. For example, we like the 2TS credit restaurants for dinner, the character breakfasts for the kids and we rarely, if ever, do CS meals. We are very laid back and relaxed in the parks (that's why we go when there are fewer peeps there) and like to take our time and not get stressed on vaca. We typically do a larger breakfast and dinner and use a snack credit or two in the middle of the day. We also never feel like we need to clean our plates. The DDP is great for peace of mind - never worring about picking the ckicken over the beef to save a few bucks. It's also a great way to try a bunch of things we would never typically order since we get three courses. I know it's different for everyone and this is just one perspective but it works for us.

 

[scanne]

We have done the DX plan three times. The first time was a disaster. Poor planning and awkward room set up messed up our dining credits and I couldn't keep track (6 people in our party) and it was just a mess.

But, now we have the hang of it.

Most recently, we did the DX plan for 6 nights at POR. I love the DX plan - not for the savings because if I did sit down to do the math, I probably would just break even. But I love it for CONVENIENCE.

Every bottled drink, mickey bar, popcorn, pretzel, funnel cake, etc. was a snack. Easy. No worries. No cash. Just swipe the card.

Meals were planned with a character breakfast 2 mornings, CS lunches and two signature meals (YS and CRT - and at CRT I realized way after our meal that they only charged us one credit each....oops).

We used each credit and enjoyed our meals. We ordered wisely when we had the table service and got apps that we could all share and felt we really were able to enjoy every single one of our meals.

In October '11, we did the regular DDP and I spent $25-30 every morning for OOP breakfasts for me and the kids. Ugh.

With our trip last month, we loved that we did a split stay - 6 nights at POR with DXDP and then 6 nights at WL (club level). I would not hesitate to do this set up again. While we were at WL, we only had three sit down meals over the 6 nights.

Both extremes (DXDP and club level) worked for us.

 

[Kimosabe]

We did the deluxe plan in April and felt like we wasted lots of otherwise wonderful food, but I'm not sure we planned properly in terms of meal timing.

We also had an age issue that threw a wrench into our specific value of the plan. Our daughter had just turned 10 (a birthday trip), so she was considered an adult, at least by Disney standards [translation: $$$]. She enjoys a wider variety of food than the typical kids menu, so that was helpful, and I (dad) was able to "encourage" certain menu items that I wanted to try if I knew she would otherwise be filled up by a particular appetizer or entree, but it was still SO much food. We ate at California Grill one night and the waiter, even knowing we were on the plan and that our steak-loving daughter was technically an "adult", still asked her if she preferred the kids menu steak ($13) or the oak-fired filet on the regular menu ($47). Uh, she'll take the filet, please! Another day, we had early lunch at Les Chefs de France and then dinner at Via Napoli later that night, thinking we had separated them by a sufficient amount of time (11:00 and 7:00). None of us was the least bit hungry when dinner came. Via Napoli was the restaurant I had been looking forward to enjoying the most, so I was disappointed in myself for not planning better.

Even so, I am glad we did it at least that one time, as we had wanted to eat at several good restaurants and spend some time enjoying that part of the WDW experience, so it did allow us to try a lot of new things. Perhaps the deciding factor is not so much value per bite of food as maybe value for the experience. As with anything at WDW, we have to attribute some of the value to appreciating the overall experience, lest we would never feel like we're getting our money's worth.

 

[danceintherain]

Alas, at $100 per person per night in 2013, we will no longer bother with Disney's overpriced dining plans. A shame, because they used to be a decent value....but not any more.

Seriously? I knew they upped the cost, but that seems like overkill. Deluxe dining has always been something I've been curious about as well, but it's doubtful that I'll ever want to pay that kind of money for it, especially since while they've made slight increases in the out of pocket costs, they're still nothing in comparison. Maybe it has something to do with the number of people who upgrade to Deluxe when they get regular free?

I think they key is to find something that is similar to the way you are used to eating at home.

But if you are used to eating lighter, on-the-go meals more often, or snacking a lot instead of full meals, then the DxDP is probably not going to be a good fit. (I've said it before, but I'm still surprised that there isn't a DP option in between the regular and deluxe, as there is a BIG difference in the two)

I was thinking about trying Kouzzina next time - glad to see that it's on your do-again list

I don't think the intention of the dining plans has ever (at least not since I became aware of it) been to be a good fit for most people. If they offered something that was reasonably priced with two table service and one counter service a day, then it would be easier for most people to save some money, or at least break even. Instead, they make it so you have to at least be comfortable ordering and sampling everything it includes in order to get a "good deal."

We've been gradually knocking out meals at the various restaurants every trip. We tend to do one table service meal a day, and 1-2 counter service. We might be able to make deluxe work with breakfast and signature dinner, but I don't much like making ADRs first thing in the morning, and DH can't handle "late" breakfasts.
Oh well...maybe they'll offer us something better suitable at some point, but I imagine the dining plan won't be a good value until they stop offering it for free.

 

[gtpoohbear]

I don't think the intention of the dining plans has ever (at least not since I became aware of it) been to be a good fit for most people. If they offered something that was reasonably priced with two table service and one counter service a day, then it would be easier for most people to save some money, or at least break even. Instead, they make it so you have to at least be comfortable ordering and sampling everything it includes in order to get a "good deal."

I'm sure that's true, afterall, there has to be something in it for Disney, right?
Fortunately for us, the DxDP IS a good fit, even though we aren't the norm it seems. So I suppose from a purely selfish/cynical point of view, I shouldn't be hoping they change it b/c less people doing the DP means more ADRs available for me, lol!

But then there's this unexplainable urge to make everyone else to love Disney as much as I do... and since the DP is one of the things I love so much, I can't help but wish that it worked better for more people.

 

[danceintherain]

I'm sure that's true, afterall, there has to be something in it for Disney, right?
Fortunately for us, the DxDP IS a good fit, even though we aren't the norm it seems. So I suppose from a purely selfish/cynical point of view, I shouldn't be hoping they change it b/c less people doing the DP means more ADRs available for me, lol!

But then there's this unexplainable urge to make everyone else to love Disney as much as I do... and since the DP is one of the things I love so much, I can't help but wish that it worked better for more people.

I know! I wish it worked better for us, simply because it would be an easier sell to other people. I'd love to be able to tell my friends that Disney actually has a good way to save money, but in reality they offer a lot of good ways to spend money.
I have a hard enough time convincing my friends to take advantage of the military ticket deal, and that's really good savings for anyone.

 

[AliceIn]

We just did our trip for 5 days with the Deluxe Plan. It was me, DH, DS11, DS8, and DD7. Three Disney Adults, and 2 children. We did a character breakfast at 8 am each morning, and did a few 2 credit per person meals. It was a lot of food, and we brought home about 15 bags of candy from Goofy's. It IS a lot of food, however it worked out for us. My children and I like to eat a lot of seafood when we go to restaurants because my husband hates it and doesn't want it cooked at home. We had shrimp, crab, and fish galore at Disney. The two kids on the children's menu ate off of everybody else's plate and pretty much ignored the burgers, nuggets, and pizza on the regular menu. I found that I just ate a little of everything and stopped when I started to feel full. My DH is a big eater, and he never gets that food hangover. The only drawback is the time in restaurants. We did the early, early breakfast in the parks and that worked out REALLY well for us.

 

[BubMunkeyBles]

I love Deluxe. I love getting the appetizer and I like being able to eat at nicer places. After doing it a few times I learned to only book a breakfast and a dinner. Anything over that and we all start to get cranky. We also enjoy the extra snack credit and on the regular plan we were always paying for meals out of pocket because we like breakfast.