Deluxe Dining Plan, yay or nay?

[BaconAndAvocado]

Have already booked the standard Dining plan, just had a small cash injection and am wondering whether we should go for Deluxe?

We do love our posh nosh (kids included) and it will probably be our last stay at Disney.

Like the idea that you get a starter too.

[sha9]

I would love to do it some day. I suppose it depends if you could use the money for something else? I know we would do quite a few signatures so could get value from it. If you think you would and you wouldn’t grudge the tip money then go for it!

[mummyroo1]

It's a no from me, we can't eat everything on DDP so while the odd starter would be fab I'm sure it would be cheaper to pay for them and maybe the odd cheaper meal OOP. The extra tips for all those table service meals would also really add up too. I like to have the odd QS meal so the DDP is plenty to allow me to have some signatures too. There are some fab healthier options, Satuli Canteen was fab and you can't beat a Blaze pizza.

[jdouds]

Hi it's a lot of food ,3 sit down meals a day or signatures every night plus breakfast or lunch not to forget all the snack credits etc. for most people it's the amount of time involved at the restaurant as much as the huge amount of food.

[sha9]

Originally Posted by jdouds

Hi it's a lot of food ,3 sit down meals a day or signatures every night plus breakfast or lunch not to forget all the snack credits etc. for most people it's the amount of time involved at the restaurant as much as the huge amount of food.

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The credits are interchangeable for QS though so it doesn’t need to be 3 sit down meals every day. I think DxDDP is best suited to people who like signature meals but I suppose it depends how you like to eat on holiday. Besides, I’m not convinced TS takes that much longer. We spent 45 minutes in Le Cellier last year. Granted we only had a main course but still.

[BaconAndAvocado]

Oh I forgot about the tipping element!

Last time we were there we went to the Flyong Fish and loved it, so the idea we could go to a restaurant like that every night is appealing!

[Wigan Lass]

If you like signature dining, then, yes, DxDDP could definitely work for you.

Sit down breakfast, snack lunch and signature for dinner and your credits are all but gone.

It’s only a lot of food if you try and cram in 3 full meals a day. I couldn’t do that, but I definitely could do the breakfast and signature option

[macdonald]

i have the dining plan at the moment & have really splurged to stay at the GF this year..
Like you i think this will b my last time at Disney for a while and would like nothing better than to upgrade my dining plan to deluxe plan but the extra money i feel would take me out of my comfort zone ,but if gratuity was included i would definitely do it!

[Guest]

Originally Posted by jdouds

Hi it's a lot of food ,3 sit down meals a day or signatures every night plus breakfast or lunch not to forget all the snack credits etc. for most people it's the amount of time involved at the restaurant as much as the huge amount of food.

See more...

No dibber that I have read of using the deluxe dining plan has ever had three sit down meals a day. Like us, who had it for five days earlier this year, it is most commonly used for a breakfast e.g. character meal and a signature dinner each day. I expect most people sit down somewhere twice a day in order to eat.

It is also not a huge amount of food, it is different food, a signature meal is a smaller meal than a QS meal. As somebody said on another thread, we broke the dibb rule and used snack credits on bottles of water and iced coffee, we didn’t look to maximise the amount of food we could consume, we turned down dessert on a majority of evenings and took it to go and subsequently didn’t eat it on others.

The benefit of the deluxe plan is the flexibility, you don’t have to count out your TS versus QS, you can go wherever you like and you also have less restrictions on what you choose from the menu e.g. you can have a starter.

I am paying OOP next trip, I have decided that OOP or deluxe dining are the only options for me because of the restrictions with regular DDP, absolutely nothing to do with food quantity.

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Claudette

No dibber that I have read of using the deluxe dining plan has ever had three sit down meals a day. Like us, who had it for five days earlier this year, it is most commonly used for a breakfast e.g. character meal and a signature dinner each day. I expect most people sit down somewhere twice a day in order to eat.

It is also not a huge amount of food, it is different food, a signature meal is a smaller meal than a QS meal. As somebody said on another thread, we broke the dibb rule and used snack credits on bottles of water and iced coffee, we didn’t look to maximise the amount of food we could consume, we turned down dessert on a majority of evenings and took it to go and subsequently didn’t eat it on others.

The benefit of the deluxe plan is the flexibility, you don’t have to count out your TS versus QS, you can go wherever you like and you also have less restrictions on what you choose from the menu e.g. you can have a starter.

I am paying OOP next trip, I have decided that OOP or deluxe dining are the only options for me because of the restrictions with regular DDP, absolutely nothing to do with food quantity.

See more...

That would be my reason for doing it if we ever do. I’ve said often that I would like an in between dining plan with the same number of credits as DDP but with credits interchangeable between TS & QS and dessert could be switched for starter. As much as I have a sweet tooth I do often find I have a dessert because I can or get it to go and leave it uneaten in the fridge.