Basic Dining Plan vs. Deluxe Dining Plan

[fatcat9]

We have our family (2 adult and 3 kids (ages 6,5,3)) planned for 6 nights in September and we got the Free Dining Plan. I upgraded to the "Deluxe Dining Plan" (3 meals which can be table or quick service and 2 snacks pp) for about $330 more. Can anyone tell me if that is worth it? To me it seems the Basic Dining Plan (1 table, 1 Quick, and 1 snack pp) wouldn't be enough food for one day. Is it???

[GusMan]

Welcome to MP!!

Personally, I think the deluxe plan is way too much food and you are pretty much making a commitment to seeking out table service eateries to get your moneys worth. This is especially the case with all three of your kids being younger.

It also means that you are committing to a lot of time out of your park schedule to sit down and eat at a table service eatery. Average TS meal is going to take you around an hour or longer.

The regular plan is not designed to cover all your dining needs. But what a lot of people do is grab a smaller breakfast out of pocket, eat a counter service meal at the parks, and then use the table service credit for a dinner. Sure, your mileage may vary... but that is what we used to do on the plan.

Personally, I would look at the menus here at MousePlanet (<--link - scroll down to dining) and take a look at some of the prices. See what your family would eat and how much it would cost. Then compare that with what each dining plan would get cost you. Comparison shopping is your best friend.

Keep in mind, its not too late to change your mind and reverse the upgrade if you decide to do so.

[3Princesses1Prince]

We found the regular plan to be plenty of food. We aren't huge breakfast eaters so we had a bowl of cereal in our room or something on the go. Also a number of the CS desserts we saved for breakfast. At our hotel CS we could grab a pastrie or yogurt for dessert and we saved it to eat the next day.

[petesimac]

I don't know, for me that sounds like a pretty good deal. With the regular plan, you'll definitely have some out of pocket expenses, but with the Deluxe, I would imagine that all you'd be out would be the tip and any extras that you might buy, such as alcoholic drinks. Now, of course, you're out the $330, but that is still paltry for all the food you'll be getting. As for the time spent sitting down to eat, my family craves those moments, and looks forward to them most. Even though we typically don't do a table service for lunch, it still takes time to do a quick service, so if you can do a sit down and take just a bit more time, why not? What is key is that you have enough time to make your ADRs for any table service meals. If so, I say go for it. If I got a free regular dining plan and had the cash to upgrade, I'd probably do it. Good luck with your decision.

[Barberella]

If you were a family of adults, I might agree with petesimac. However, because of your children's young ages, I totally agree with Gusman - especially this part:

..Keep in mind, its not too late to change your mind and reverse the upgrade if you decide to do so.

And don't forget that at counter service places, you can ask for an extra plate and order less meals than the number of people in your family.

[3Princesses1Prince]

It depends on how your kids do in restaurants or sitting down for a meal for an hour a couple of times a day. I'd look at what you want to accomplish and where you'd like to eat. If you want to try some signatures and dinner shows, or do a number of character meals, I say go for Deluxe. We were totally stuffed after a week of the Regular plan BUT that's because I chose "all you can eat" meals for our sit downs because my almost 3 year old (who eats A LOT) was free and my oldest (9 at the time) wasn't limited to the kids food. I'd definitely plan some regular meals next time.

[petesimac]

If you were a family of adults, I might agree with petesimac. However, because of your children's young ages, I totally agree with Gusman - especially this part:


And don't forget that at counter service places, you can ask for an extra plate and order less meals than the number of people in your family.

LOL, you see, I didn't even notice the bit about the kids, that's how excited I get when I think about food. For certain, kids factor into this kind of decision. While adults may like to sit down for a nice meal, some kids don't. Mine did, and still do, and all we talk about before a trip is all the great restaurants we'll be eating at, but some kids, especially younger kids, might not be as patient. The best part is that even if you do spend the extra $330 and it ends up being too much food, you only spent $330 on a boatload of food! Good luck!

[scoobydooby]

I think the deluxe plan, if I am going to be absolutely frank, is such an unhealthy amount of food. For me too it would just mean too much time eating! We have done the regular plan twice and it's more than enough if you get in some cereal for breakfast. Both times on the plan we had loads of snack credits left at the end of the trip and we threw away mounds of CS desserts. Of course every family is different but I can't see how anyone could eat that much food for consecutive days.

[Drince88]

Scoobydooby reminds me of something I think all should keep in mind when evaluating the plans (and cost effectiveness) for their family. Is it saving you money THE WAY YOU WANT TO EAT? It's much easier to say 'yes, it will save me money if I use it to it's fullest' - but personally, I virtually never get dessert with a CS meal (I think my sister and I did once, which was a complementary one, on her birthday) - and I only eat dessert at TS about half the time. For me to have the regular dining plan save me money, I would have to change the way I eat. I'm not willing to do that.

Now, for some, the ease of being able to 'not worry about the money' and have everything pre-paid has a non-monetary value, and for others, the dining plan doesn't change the way they eat. If you fall into that group, I say go-for-it. (And pre-teens and under 3s really do change the monetary calculation, too - so you have to look at it for YOUR family!)

I know if I got the free dining plan, and didn't have another room discount available to me, I'd still not change the way I ate, and I would not get full monetary value from that free plan. I was brought up to 'clean my plate' - so you can bet those desserts wouldn't be making it onto my tray!

And to the OP -- if you do want to do TS for all your dining credits, I recommend getting ADRs for everything ASAP. During free dining promotions, the restaurants do fill up disproportionally to the actual number of people in the parks, and you're going to have to be super flexible to be able to do TS for everything without ADRs. (And by super flexible I mean eating at off times and going to resorts for some meals, and that's going to cut into your touring time - plus if I have a late lunch, I sure don't want an early dinner!)

[currence]

We did the regular free dining with a 2 1/2 year old and 4 adults and found it to be the perfect amount of food. Most days we would use our snack credit for a pastry at the Boardwalk Bakery for breakfast, have a quick service lunch to tide us over until a sit-down dinner (which might be early depending on the reservation. It may have helped that 2 of our adults eat like birds, but all that really did was allow the extra credits to feed the 2 1/2 year old who was not on the dining plan. We also did a few buffets so that the toddler cold legitimately eat for free. If you over-indulge at a buffet for one of your meals, it is very easy to only eat one main meal and maybe a few snacks for that day. Since we also shared some meals at the table-service places, we were also able to dine in some of the 2 credit places.

I did another trip with just 2 adults where all we did was eat! It was a great trip, but we would have been hard-pressed to get into the parks with our dining schedule (we did tours instead).

Keep in mind, every time you dine at table service you will have to tip, so the extra $330 could become a lot more, really quickly. Also the time factor as mentioned by others.

[scoobydooby]

Tipping. Good point. Both my free dining experiences over 2 week trips have cost me in excess of $400!!!

[mousecanuck]

Deluxe, for us, would be way over the top - too much food and too much time needed. Most of the time it was 1.5 - 2.5 hours per table service meal when factoring in time needed to get there from where you are (which, with younger kids, could easily be your resort and add to travel time) - either from resort or from 'other end of the park', then wait for seating (even with reservations timing can be off a little), then order, eat, have dessert and then be done. Do that times 3 and you could be spending 4.5 - 7.5 hours or more each day just on meals. We did the regular dining plan, it was lots for us and we had snack credits to use up at the end, but we also brought a toaster and bagels for the first week in our room, then would do as others did and get small pastries, etc. for breakfast - mostly for the time factor (a big deal for us, obviously ) We still had one nice, relaxed meal each day and like another poster said - even quick service can take some time, but we didn't waste any more time than we needed to getting to our meals or waiting for tables.

[bennette]

We loved deluxe when we used it. We did mostly signature dinners plus one dinner at Hoop de Doo. Some TS breakfasts and one breakast in bed (two credits). We used up a lot of credits that way without feeling stuffed at every meal.

The rest of the time we made meals out using our snack credits at some of the places with more choices, like Sunshine Seasons at Epcot.

But we aren't parkstormers, we like our down time and our dining (we aren't really big on counter service), and we didn't have small kids with us. I think the Deluxe plan can be a good value but don't know if I'd choose it during the hotter months or if it meant getting small kids to sit through long meals (especially if they were anxious to be in the parks).

I've done several trips just paying plain out of pocket because the circumstances made it a better fit and been very happy with my choice.

[Bell30655]

I think that the DDP is too little food and the DxDP is too much food. However... If you do opt for the DxDP remember that it includes an appetizer and desert at each meal. Plus you could use the DxDP credits for some signature dining or dinner shows. (They take 2 credits)

I'd love to see a 3 QS plan or a plan where you purchase a set number of TS or CS meals.

[danyoung]

When I first started going to WDW, back before any of the dining plans, I was booking 3 meals a day, including a sit-down breakfast. After a couple of trips I found that eating a big breakfast made me not so hungry for lunch. And eating lunch after a big breakfast would really leave me not so hungry for dinner, when I really wanted to eat well. So I started skipping breakfast, or maybe getting a quick sweet roll or bagel at the park, then eating an early lunch and a big dinner. That has worked out very well for me. As GusMan said, having the responsibility of eating 3 full meals a day would quickly turn into more of a chore than it should be. And I'm also agreeing that you'll find yourself spending way too much time eating and not enough out there storming the parks. Regular dining plan should be fine for you.