Deluxe Dining Plan

[KennyandKim]

Has anyone found this to be worth it to their family? We are going in September 2011 and I was thinking about upgrading to Deluxe dining. Hopefully they will offer free dining again for our trip. We would hten just have to pay the difference. Im having trouble finding that it would be worth it since we are staying Club level. We are big eaters. My DH has to have breakfast every morning and we do a sit down meal for dinner each night. We find ourselves buying snacks while in the park OOP.

[forever a child]

I have never used it before. But it seems to me it would really only be worth it if you planned on doing a lot of signature dinning. I have read a few posts here of others who have used it before...but not many.

[Janmac]

After our January 2010 trip, when we found ourselves really enjoying our out of pocket sit down breakfasts (as opposed to the ones we made in our villa) we investigated the deluxe dining plan.

We looked at menus at info central for restaurants we like to eat at, selecting table service for breakfast and supper and counter service for lunches. We gave snacks a set cost of $4 to make things easier. Our last two trips we have used Garden Grocer for some items. When we noticed the fruits and the small sizes of Silk, etc., in the counter service restaurant at our resort, we figured we could use some of the snacks (2 a day could be a lot) for those items at the counter service and not make a Garden Grocer order.

When we got done with our figuring, we would save with the Deluxe Dining Plan, at least using 2010 prices, sometimes as much as $20 a day (depending on restaurants). An added reason for the dining plan is that some of our group just like using it. Since we use my sister's time share points to exchange into DVC, we're not talking free dining. When our next WDW trip finally rolls around (Sept 2012 at this time :( ), we'll find out.

Jan

[Friend of Figment]

We liked the flexibility to eat wherever we wanted without worrying about credits or cost. We used the extra snacks to buy gifts for our respective offices. One thing to remember is you are not obligated to eat table service - the credits work for counter service too. You can also order an extra entree to share at the table. For us, it wasn't so much about the exact budget, but the ease of having whatever we wanted to eat paid for ahead of time.

[KennyandKim]

Thank you all for your responses. I have a hard time figuring the numbers. The reaosn I want to upgrade to Deluxe is I want to eat at some pretty expensive restaurants and as mentioned above I want to eat where and when I want and not worry about it. I will find out from Debbie at MJ what my difference would be if they come out with free dining again and we upgraded.

I want to do the Yachtsman Steakhouse and I know it's a signature dining.

[brivers222]

We booked it for our Dec 2011 honeymoon.... why? because why the heck not?!

I have all my adrs ready to be made come june... what would be really nice is if they would officially give the 2nd week in December free dining so we only have to pay the upgraded price! now that would rock!

[SBETigg]

We used it and thought it was way too much food, too much eating for us, and we even did a lot of Signature dining. But, on the other hand, we didn't do it on our last trip and the kids ended up wanting to try appetizers at a lot of places, and we would have actually saved to use the Deluxe plan and just not force it to use all the credits. It really depends on your dining style. You have to know how your dining might go and play with the numbers in advance to really make the best decision for you.

[KennyandKim]

We are hoping for free dining as well so we just have to pay the difference. We would save 300 still as opposed to 1100 if we didnt upgrade. We are also staying club level but im not sure how much we will actually catch the snacks during the stay. My husband says stay the way we want or stay home so we are. Lol

[whitney37354]

We did DxDP June '10. I kept all receipts & we saved over $200. We still have snacks in our cabinets too! We did 10 character meals, F! meal package & lunches were CS. We used a few snack credits for bottle water since it was hot. The last morning I used the remaining snack credits for snacks to bring home.

We probably won't do DxDP again, just because we probably won't do as many TS again & didn't need all of those snack credits. No TS=no tips too.

Most people probably wouldn't save as much as we did unless they did lots of signature restaurants &/or ordered the most expensive things on the menu.

It was just very convenient for us as 1st timers to pre-pay. From now on, we'll either do a smaller meal package or pay OOP by putting it on our KTTW & paying that off before checkout. Disney Gifts Cards were a great help in paying down our KTTW without having to carry lots of cash or put a lot on the CC. Next time, I think I'll get more gift cards before we go.