Will Deluxe Plus Dining take up too much time?

[flower72]

My girls and I will be headed to Disney in Jan for our first trip. I picked the Deluxe plus dining since I didn't want to worry about any oop costs. I am second guessing my decision now and would like some advice.

I am worried that all of these ts meals will take up too much of our time at the parks. I figured it will be about 2 hours for each meal. THat's 6 hours out of our day at meals. Am I way off on this one?

Which plan did you pick? Pros? Cons?

Thanks!

 

[CajunMomof3]

We do the DxDP.
We enjoy the scheduled breaks in our day. Where you are eating (ie in the park you are already in, a buffet, etc) will determine how long you are spending. To me, 2 hours seems a bit long... I don't think we have ever taken over an hour for a TS breakfast, for example.
Either way, I hope you guys have a great trip!

 

[TDC Nala]

How many TS meals have you planned? You aren't required to use all your deluxe credits for TS meals. You can use them for CS meals too.

If you've planned three TS meals a day, and you want more park time, think about making some of them CS or booking some 2-credit signature restaurants so you have two restaurant meals a day.

 

[havoc315]

First off, it depends on your touring preferences. Do you get to the park for rope drop?
Do you tour for 6 hours per day or 10? Those questions will answer how much time you have to commit to meals.

Secondly, not many meals will be 2 hours. Plan meals where you are going to be, so you're not spending a lot of time commuting to meals. I'd estimate 90 minutes on average. Breakfasts and lunches, shorter.

Finally, with all that said -- 3 sit down meals per day is still too much food and time for my family. Many people, ourselves included, really use the deluxe plan to do 2 sitdown meals per day. Breakfast or lunch, and then a 2-credit dinner.
We typically grabbed a quick breakfast, using snack credits, maybe sharing 1 CS breakfast platter. Then do rope drop at the park. An early TS lunch, 11:30-12ish. Finish park touring by 3 or 4. Then a 2 credit dinner around 6-7.

If you like quality food, the 1 credit restaurants can't compare to the signature restaurants.

 

[havoc315]

First off, it depends on your touring preferences. Do you get to the park for rope drop?
Do you tour for 6 hours per day or 10? Those questions will answer how much time you have to commit to meals.

Secondly, not many meals will be 2 hours. Plan meals where you are going to be, so you're not spending a lot of time commuting to meals. I'd estimate 90 minutes on average. Breakfasts and lunches, shorter.

Finally, with all that said -- 3 sit down meals per day is still too much food and time for my family. Many people, ourselves included, really use the deluxe plan to do 2 sitdown meals per day. Breakfast or lunch, and then a 2-credit dinner.
We typically grabbed a quick breakfast, using snack credits, maybe sharing 1 CS breakfast platter. Then do rope drop at the park. An early TS lunch, 11:30-12ish. Finish park touring by 3 or 4. Then a 2 credit dinner around 6-7.

If you like quality food, the 1 credit restaurants can't compare to the signature restaurants.

 

[Bonniec]

There are so many things that will take uo your time at Disney. Even waiting in line for drinks or a QS meal will take out a huge chunck of time. We go often with our APs. We get there usually around noon and stay for 8 or so hours, and quite often we'll find we only rode like 3 rides during all that time. Yet it's always a blast.

Of course going early at rope drop, taking an afternoon break, and going back in the evening would certainly allow for better timing on rides compared to how we do it.

My advice to friends coming is to not worry too much about time. Time will fly in the parks no matter what you do. Don't be upset if you don't get to do everything....because you won't. Just enjoy everything and take in the sites. Disney food is definately yummy too! I'm a bit jealous because we can never afford it since we are oop. In fact..... feel free to give me a call if it's just too much for ya. We'll take it off your hands!

 

[catra121]

I never spent 2 hours at any of our meals when my mom and I went with the Deluxe Dining Plan. Usually it was about an hour and all of our meals were scheduled where we were at any given time (so no commuting time to get to a different park or resort). I found that it was a really nice break to be able to sit and rest for a bit, eat some food, and then hit the park with renewed energy. We stay at the parks all day though so taking a few hours out each day to sit and eat a relaxing meal doesn't take up that much time. If you are the sort who also wants to take a mid day break or sleep late, then maybe adding TS meals to that would take out too much extra time. As others said, really depends on your touring style more than anything and how many meals you actually plan to eat each day (I usually do 2 with one as a signature or using the extra on departure day).

 

[MSLRAC]

We don't find that it takes up too much time. We eat breakfast before the parks open and dinner after the parks close (in Jan they will close fairly early). So lunch is the only meal that takes away park time and it was usually only 60-90 minutes which was a nice beak mid day.

 

[sweeteypie1118]

I was in Disney last month and had the regular dining plan. I found that I paid out of pocket often because we really wanted to try an appetizer, or there were more table service restaurants than counter service places we wanted to eat at. We ended up with leftover counter service credits that we converted to snack credits that I scrambled to use up before we left.

We are planning a Thanksgiving trip next year and I will be doing the deluxe plan. Three sit down meals a day to me takes up too much time, but mostly there just isn't enough stomach room to cram 3 sit down meals in!! I plan to mostly have an early sit down lunch and go to signature restaurants for dinner. We probably will end up with a few dining credits left over, but they can always be used for some great counter service meals that travel well for meals at the airport going home.

 

[Colleen27]

It really depends on how you use the plan. We don't find it takes up too much time at all. We seldom have 3 meals per day, opting most days for a 1-credit breakfast or lunch and a signature dinner.

One credit meals don't generally take 2 hours - most of ours have been closer to the 1 hour mark, sometimes 1.5hrs. Character meals and buffets can be even shorter, and if time is a factor at those you can ask your server to handle the bill as soon as you're seated so you're free to leave as soon as you're done eating. We don't do much in-park counter service, but for the one that we did have last trip it took about 50min, so it really wasn't significantly faster than our table service lunches. It was, however, significantly less relaxing because about 1/3 of that time was spent standing in line waiting to order and then waiting to get our food.