Which plan? Thought I knew but now not sure. Help!

[flower72]

I'm taking 2 girls, 6 and 7 to Disney for the first time in Jan. I pay off the trip in 3 days and now I am questioning the dining plan I picked. I decided on deluxe dining because I did not want to worry about money when eating. I like that eveything is included ( well 3 meals and 2 snacks). I've even had my ADR's done for a while. I am going to hoop-deed-doo and Cinderella castle plus a few character meals.

However, after looking at my schedule, I'm starting to feel like a lot of our time is in restaurants. If I switch plans I will save 400. So now I'm wondering if I should Change the plan or leave it.

Thanks!

 

[sharonabe]

If you change the plan, will you feel like you're missing out on some dining experiences you really want to have?

With DxDDP, the best way to use your credits AND time is to do signature dining (2TS credits) for dinner and a character breakfast or lunch each day. That way, you're not spending as much time in restaurants. You already have CRT and HDDR. Do you have other 2TS places you want to go? Can you still get ADRs for different places?

 

[marilyn23]

I like the dining plan myself. We used that last yr and will again in two weeks time. I would love to do the deluxe, it just seems to me to be a bit much money. We are having a fairly expensive trip this year staying at Yacht Club and a parkhopper but that's where we preferred to spend the money. The flexibility in eating at more table service is nice as well as the signature and character meals but we found we had a nice experience with the dining plan and really almost too much food. I would go for the QS but I don't really like cafeteria style eating.

This yr our reservations are at:

Sci-Fi - Our second time here. This is fun. Food is pretty standard but the atmosphere we really like.
9 Dragons - Our third time here. We go there for the honey sesame chicken.
Yak & Yeti - Our second time. we really liked the atmosphere, food quality and portions.
Tony's - Our second time. I love Lady and the Tramp and the food was nice.
Les Chefs - Our first time. We have heard good things though and I guess Ratoutille(sic?) sometimes makes an appearance.
Via Napoli - Our first time. I was just working in Sicily for two months so want to bring the flavours to the rest of my family
Raglan Raod - Our second time. Loved this place. Not Disney themed though.
Liberty Tree - Our second time. We have reservations for the feast at dinner on Christmas Day
San Angel - Our first time. Really nice atmosphere in the Mexican pavillon
Le Cellier - Our first time. Having lunch here on 26 Dec. Can't wait, we've been trying a couple of yrs to eat here.

We have a one extra meal that we will pay for OOP because Le Cellier was a last minute addition when it popped up for availability. The cheapest meal would be Sci Fi with a lunch time seating so that's the one we'll pay for. That will probably be $80 for five of us if we don't have desert.

 

[MicRac]

I like the deluxe dining plan is allows us to do many 2 credit meals that we would have to skip on the regular plan. We never have to pay out of pocket for any food or drinks while on vacation and that is nice. My kids never say they are hungry and between the four of us there are plenty of snack credits so that we can try anything we want and don't feel like that something was a waste of a credit. So I would Stick with your original plan.

 

[dizkrazkate]

Personally, I think the Deluxe plan is just too much. Too much food, too much money, and too much time spent in restaurants. Especially when you are going with kids who want to hit the rides and see the attractions.

We often do the regular Disney Dining Plan, and I can't imagine trying to eat any more than we already do, and I like to eat! The portions at Disney are very generous, and I always seem to be full.

If you switch to the regular plan, you will save good $$. You can still go to one nice table service meal per day and feel like you are on vacation and enjoying yourself. Having your second meal as a quick service will mean the kids will get more time to enjoy the parks, not sitting in restaurants trying to behave.

We often eat a quick breakfast in the room, or use snack credits.

On our last visit, I found myself using snack credits even when not hungry, just so I could use them (okay and I just like snacks alright).

I think the Deluxe works best for adults who want to hit the fancy signature restaurants.

 

[havoc315]

Anyone who picks the DxDP as a means of simply having 3 prepaid meals per day, is making a mistake. It is MUCH significantly cheaper to simply add qs breakfast oop, as opposed to upgrading. (or using snack credits for breakfast).

People can legitimately differ on 3 TS meals per day. But each TS meal -- even most qs meals -- are double the size of the meals you probably eat at home. So eating 3 TS meals at Disney would be a bit like eating 6 meals at home.
And yes, TS meals are time consuming. That's why I feel 3 TS/day is way too much food and time.

The DxDP can still work for families --- if you hate qs, and you prefer lots of 2-credit meals. Thus doing a TS breakfast OR lunch, along with a 2-credit dinner. It's still a lot of food, but not too much more than the regular ddp. And it's not that much more time consuming than the regular ddp -- especially if you prefer to relax at a sit down lunch, instead of the hectic qs scene.

Of course -- for most guests, the most affordable option, is to simply eat realistically oop.

 

[Colleen27]

We enjoy the DxDDP, but we hate in-park quick service and enjoy a lot of signature dining. We don't do it for more food than the basic plan, we do it for a different dining experience - a TS breakfast or lunch instead of QS, and a signature dinner instead of a 1 credit TS. The basic plan was plenty of food on quantity alone but we didn't like feeling "forced" to eat that much counter service or to limit our TS dining to fit the number of credits we had to use.

If CRT and Hoop Dee Do are your only two credit ADRs you may very well find that you're better off to pay for the less expensive of the two OOP and use the basic plan.

 

[myramsy]

We love the deluxe plan and it seems to us the only way to go. We like taking time out of our busy days to have a nice relaxing meal. Plus we are all big eaters so it is great for us...but be warned it is alot of food!!!

 

[Gmouse]

Deluxe dining is way too much food...especially for kids. We had the regular DP when DS was 9 and it was just right. But now that he's on the adult plan it's not worth it at all. I don't know of any 12 yr old that can eat that much food. Much less 6 and 7 yrs old. We can't eat 3 TS meals a day or even 3 QS meals. And we didn't even eat 1 TS every single day of the trip. It's too time consuming.
This trip we did something different and it worked great. We bought two $500 Disney gift cards, in the resort store. This way we know how much money we have left to go on when we get our receipt. If we needed more we could have gotten it, but we didn't have to. It kept us from spending way too much on dinner by ordering things we really didn't need and probably couldn't finish. On the DP's- kids get appetisers and by the time my DS was done with that- he was too full to eat his dinner, let alone a desert too. Alot of food was waisted on the DP, but back then his was only $9.99 so it didn't bother me too bad. This time we never ordered deserts -too full and we would rather have something sweet out in the park.
We loved using the gift cards. It was like our own little dining plan
We made ressies for 1 TS per day that we might like to have. The day before (if we felt like we wouldn't have time or really just didn't want to go) we called and canceled. (make sure you check your cancelation policies though!)
We ate 2 QS meals per day for about half of our days (11 days total) and the other half we did 1 QS and 1 TS. We had cereal/muffins in the room so we didn't have to scramble around every morning to get breakfast and miss getting in the parks early. In all we only spent a little over $700....that's for ELEVEN days. 2 adults, 12 yr old and 2 yr (free of course) And we never heard our stomachs growling
e only had one TS breakfast- on DDs birthday at Akershus. Depending on how many days you stay/where you want to eat- I would only do 1 TS breakfast and a couple TS dinners.
Another reason we didn't do DP this time- is if someone got sick- we still had to pay for the DP. Insurance in available, but I'm not sure if it covers the DP's.

 

[NLD]

How many sit-down meals do you have booked right now?
And how long will you be in Disney World?

Personally I don't even like one sit-down every day. And there are CS restaurants I really enjoy and would miss if we were doing a bunch of TS.

Some folks love having 2 sit-downs a day.

My dd would be one unhappy kid if we tried to make her sit-down twice a day, though.

 

[Angie789]

Obviously, you know your own kids best, but I don't know too many 6 or 7 year old girls who would be okay with long TS meals when there are rides to ride & princesses to see! I've always assumed that the deluxe dining plan was targeted towards adults who were primarily at Disney for the dining experience. I don't think it's a wise choice for travelling with kids who will likely be FAR more interested hanging out in the parks or at the pool.

 

[aubriee]

We are taking my 3 y/o grandson down there for his very first trip in Feb. I go to WDW several times a year. I have the TiW card and have done the basic DDP and the DxDDP many times over the last few years. For the Feb trip we chose the DxDDP (even though I have a current TiW card). The reasons:

1. We prefer TS to CS (so the basic DDP gives us too many CS meals and not enough TS)

2. We wanted to give my GS the experience of eating at every character meal

3. We like taking the breaks from the parks.

4. Because of his small size, there are going to be alot of rides he can't do and we want to force ourselves to take the trip at a slow, relaxed pace

5. We also like the Signature restaurants and know my GS does well in nicer dining locations

I figured all the places we wanted to go, figured what we'd probably eat and ran the figures for OOP with TiW, basic DDP and paying OOP for the extra meals, and the DxDDP. For this particular trip the DxDDP came out cheaper. Yes, the trip will be alot slower paced and we'll be spending less time in the parks and more time dining, but we wanted that enforced slower pace.

For my upcoming May trip, I'll be going back to paying OOP and using the TiW card, but for the Feb trip the DxDDP made more sense.

 

[brymolmom]

My kids are 8 and 9 now, but been there with regular Dining Plan when they were 6 and 7. I have to tell you - the Regular Dining Plan is a LOT of food. We share some credits here and there and use snacks as fillers and split a lot of snacks for breakfasts. Plus we always bring a box of cereal in our luggage for quick breakfasts while Mom/Dad are showering in the mornings. Anyway - I don't think I would ever spend the money on Deluxe. I agree that it is way too much time at restaurants. My kids never want to sit for that long - even though it is a good resting time. Keep in mind that even tho an hour long meal is relaxing for adults - for younger kids - it isn't that relaxing....It's waiting for a table, then ordering - then waiting for food (which is tough if they're hungry at that point) - then waiting for dessert. Especially when my kids were in the 2 - 5 age range - no way would I try makign them sit still for that long more than once a day. It would NOT be relaxing for any of us. Now we COULD do it, but there's no need for the extra $$ (or the extra food - way too much already).

We end up spending little to nothing out of pocket on the regular dining plan.

 

[3pletprincesses]

I have done regular DDp and Deluxe with my 5 yo triplets and we prefer the deluxe alot better but we only eat 2 meals a day. We usually do early breakfast and early dinner and eat our snacks in between. We like the freedom it give us when ordering and love the kids menu much better at signature restaurants then regular TS. Our girls get tired real fast of the same choices over and over and over. To us deluxe gives us the freedom of having a kids breakfast with characters and a nice signature meals for us. The better of the 2 worlds and everyone is pleased. We take the sit down time ot talk about the day and what we will be doing the next day or later that day and so on. It's a forced down time to us. We usually save around $400 by taking the deluxe after paying for all the extra tips but we only do TS and no QS. also we usually arrive early the first day and leave late the last day and we have enough credits to cover our 8 days of meals with 7 nights of dining plan.

Another thing to not forget is that you have way more tip to pay with deluxe then DDP.