Deluxe Dining Plan questions

[Dave H]

So I'm on the Deluxe Dining Plan for the first time, which gets me table service for lunch if I so choose. Should I be making ADR's for lunch, or is it generally possible to do walk-ins for that? I'm aware that the premium restaurants are likely all booked up for lunches.

My dinners are all planned out, so I know which parks I'll be in for dinner but I would rather not have to plan out the lunches as well - this gives me more flexibility and doesn't completely force my schedule.

[Tink1]

So I'm on the Deluxe Dining Plan for the first time, which gets me table service for lunch if I so choose. Should I be making ADR's for lunch, or is it generally possible to do walk-ins for that? I'm aware that the premium restaurants are likely all booked up for lunches.

My dinners are all planned out, so I know which parks I'll be in for dinner but I would rather not have to plan out the lunches as well - this gives me more flexibility and doesn't completely force my schedule.

Since you can use the credit for sit-down or counter, I think I would wing it. I do tend to eat at off times (either early lunch since I skipped breakfast or late lunch since I ate breakfast).

If I wanted a sit down, but the wait was too long, I would at least know I can pass on it and grab a quick service meal.

If you are set on eating certain places, eating at lunch rush time or at popular places (Via Napoli for instance) I think I would make reservations.

Nanci

[gardenia]

You don't mention when you're going which is the most important factor! From your signature it looks like December - which could either be slow (early December) or packed (late December). If you go during a busy time, you can't walk up to TS restaurants. And if you eat lunch at a CS instead, you're just throwing money away and the DDP is not worth it for you. I wouldn't recommend DDP for anyone who doesn't want to make ADRs or feel "forced". You would be happier and save money paying OOP.

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

I'm a personal fan of making ADR's for any meal you know you want to eat.

So, if you have some places in mind for lunch, and you're quite set on them, then I would make ADRs for those places, since even lunch can get booked up.

If you have some "open" days, I'd take a chance and, as Nanci said, and if you do a couple of CS's, it isn't a horrible thing, the deluxe dining plan is so much food (but so very yummy!)

[WDWForever]

I've always done DDP and made ADRs ahead of time. It's a hit or miss about getting in without them, sometimes I've seen long waits or sometimes people just walk up and are seated. So it will depend on how crowded it is when you go. I'd suggest if you know where you'll be for that day, go ahead and make the reservation and just cancel if things change.

We've also done a couple of days where we have a huge breakfast and dinner with a lite lunch using our snack credits.

[Dave H]

Thanks for the responses everoyne. I should clarify a few things:

1) My trip dates are 12/4 - 12/10, so early December. I'm aware that it's getting more and more crowded that time of year.

2) The reason for the DDP this year was to make a lot of 2-credit dinners, things like the Brown Derby and such. We're generally not big-breakfast eaters, so the extra breakfast credit goes to dinner.

3) Having extra credits allows us to make game-time decisions if we want to try something on the fly.

I think we'll probably look into which places we might want to lock up for lunch and hope there are times left, otherwise yeah, I was planning on winging it and trying my luck. It wouldn't be the end of the world if we had to eat a couple of counter-service meals because yeah, it's a ton of food.

[phlo8810]

We do DDP every year but hardly ever eat lunch. The times we have we've never needed an ADR. Def try Via Nappoli one day for lunch it was great.