Is this Deluxe Dining split-stay crazy? Will it work?

[MomOTwins]

Okay, so the best part of a Disney World trip for my kids (and me, if I'm being honest) is the character meals, but they are soooo expensive. Plus, my DH really wants a signature meal for his birthday. So I am planning to do a split stay with a two-nights stay and package at our first hotel on the Deluxe dining plan, and front-loading the character meals with a buffet lunch at the earliest lunch time (will skip or just have cereal for breakfast, as we are not big breakfast eaters) plus dinner. This is the plan:

Arrival night
Cape May Café dinner (I know the characters are only at breakfast, but we love seafood and it is at our hotel, so convenient for a post-travel meal)

Day 1
Tusker House lunch
Yachtsman Steakhouse dinner

Day 2 (checkout day)
Minny's Lunch at Hollywood & Vine
Akershus dinner

By my count, the DDP gives us 6 table credits for our 2-night opening stay, which I understand we can use even after we check out as long as it is before midnight on checkout day, for a cost of $624.96 for our family of 2 adults 2 kids and 1 baby (eats free at buffet and will probably feed him from our plates at other restaurants). It looks like this saves us over $250 just on the meal prices (the buffets are fixed price but though I had to do some guesswork on what we would spend at Yachtsman), and that does not even include the free beer/wine DH and I will get with the 2018 DDP, and the snacks and drink mugs that are also included.

So three questions: (1) did I do the credit-counting math right such that I right that I can really get ALL of these meals if I get a 2-night Deluxe dining plan? (2) is this crazy and we will hate it because it is too much food? (3) what do you think of my choices--any substitutions you would recommend?

 

[sharonabe]

So three questions: (1) did I do the credit-counting math right such that I right that I can really get ALL of these meals if I get a 2-night Deluxe dining plan? (2) is this crazy and we will hate it because it is too much food? (3) what do you think of my choices--any substitutions you would recommend?

Looks good to me. You counted the credits correctly and everyone gets something they want.

 

[drwadadli]

Ok......
1) did I do the credit-counting math right such that I right that I can really get ALL of these meals if I get a 2-night Deluxe dining plan? Yes you did the math right. You get 3 table services and 2 snacks per nights stay plus 1 refillable cup.

2) is this crazy and we will hate it because it is too much food? Yes, you will hate having that much food on that short of a trip. For my wife and I, here is our typical rule of thumb: under 3-day trip pay out of pocket; between 3 - 5 day consider quick service or basic dining plan; over 5-day trip do deluxe dining plan.

3) what do you think of my choices--any substitutions you would recommend? My only suggestion is that this sounds like a short turn-around trip. Are you sure you want to waste the time leaving a park to go to Yatchsman Steakhouse? You would be wasting valuable park time traveling there and back. Since it looks like you are AK for at least lunch, maybe consider eating dinner at Jiko or Boma at AKL which would be a shorter travel time. Or even consider dinner at another park if you weren't planning to be at AK all day.

Just my thoughts

 

[MomOTwins]

3) what do you think of my choices--any substitutions you would recommend? My only suggestion is that this sounds like a short turn-around trip. Are you sure you want to waste the time leaving a park to go to Yatchsman Steakhouse? You would be wasting valuable park time traveling there and back. Since it looks like you are AK for at least lunch, maybe consider eating dinner at Jiko or Boma at AKL which would be a shorter travel time. Or even consider dinner at another park if you weren't planning to be at AK all day.

Sorry I wasn't totally clear. We are staying 5 days, but we are only getting the dining plan for the first two (we are staying at BC with the package plus dining plan for two nights, then switching to another hotel for the rest with no dining plan). We save a lot on the hotel that way.

 

[MomOTwins]

Looks good to me. You counted the credits correctly and everyone gets something they want.

Phew thanks. The savings was so good I kept getting paranoid that I had done the math all wrong and I was going to run out of credits before thend.

 

[Lesley Wake]

Sorry I wasn't totally clear. We are staying 5 days, but we are only getting the dining plan for the first two (we are staying at BC with the package plus dining plan for two nights, then switching to another hotel for the rest with no dining plan). We save a lot on the hotel that way.

I think it looks good and makes sense financially. I think having 2 ADRs per day is fine, even if they are buffet. Just make sure to space out the time between them.

I tried to consider this for my upcoming 3-hotel split stay, but couldn't get my signature meals to fit in the right order to be financially viable.

 

[drwadadli]

Sorry I wasn't totally clear. We are staying 5 days, but we are only getting the dining plan for the first two (we are staying at BC with the package plus dining plan for two nights, then switching to another hotel for the rest with no dining plan). We save a lot on the hotel that way.

Then yes.....everything looks great

 

[NYCgrrl]

Okay, so the best part of a Disney World trip for my kids (and me, if I'm being honest) is the character meals, but they are soooo expensive. Plus, my DH really wants a signature meal for his birthday. So I am planning to do a split stay with a two-nights stay and package at our first hotel on the Deluxe dining plan, and front-loading the character meals with a buffet lunch at the earliest lunch time (will skip or just have cereal for breakfast, as we are not big breakfast eaters) plus dinner. This is the plan:

Arrival night
Cape May Café dinner (I know the characters are only at breakfast, but we love seafood and it is at our hotel, so convenient for a post-travel meal)

Day 1
Tusker House lunch
Yachtsman Steakhouse dinner

Day 2 (checkout day)
Minny's Lunch at Hollywood & Vine
Akershus dinner

By my count, the DDP gives us 6 table credits for our 2-night opening stay, which I understand we can use even after we check out as long as it is before midnight on checkout day, for a cost of $624.96 for our family of 2 adults 2 kids and 1 baby (eats free at buffet and will probably feed him from our plates at other restaurants). It looks like this saves us over $250 just on the meal prices (the buffets are fixed price but though I had to do some guesswork on what we would spend at Yachtsman), and that does not even include the free beer/wine DH and I will get with the 2018 DDP, and the snacks and drink mugs that are also included.

So three questions: (1) did I do the credit-counting math right such that I right that I can really get ALL of these meals if I get a 2-night Deluxe dining plan? (2) is this crazy and we will hate it because it is too much food? (3) what do you think of my choices--any substitutions you would recommend?

As PP stated your count is fine. Just make sure to use all your snack credits by midnight of your BC/YC stay (can't recall which hotel has Cape May on premise) even though your trip will continue in a different resort. We did well with travel easy snacks at Karamel Kuche.
We are doing much the same our July trip but in reverse: first stay will be off the OOP and last hotel on the deluxe plan. We'll do a Signature every day with most at night, 2 as brunches. We have no ADRs for lunch or breakfast currently.

Have fun!