My experience with the deluxe dining plan

Keenolive

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 29, 2017
I thought I would share my experience last week using the deluxe dining plan.
we were doing a split stay at pop century 2 nights/yacht club 3 nights so I thought it would be a good way to test out the deluxe dining plan during our pop century stay.

I paid $690 for 3 adult plans (DH, me, DD11)
Did we get our money's worth? yes
would I ever do it again? hell no - reasons below

Here's the breakdown:
3 mugs = 56.85
12 snack credits average 5.50/each = 66.00

Meal 1 - Skipper Canteen: $170
tip OOP: $35.00

Meal 2: Spice Road Table: $130
tip OOP: $27.00

Meal 3: Coral Reef: $140
tip OOP: $29.00

Meal 4: Yak & Yeti: $128.82
OOP because my child did not want to eat a full meal: $13.30
tip OOP: 28.00

Meal 5: Frontera Grill $145
tip OOP: $29.00

Meal 6: 50s Prime Time Cafe $130.00
tip OOP: 26.00

Meal 7: Chefs de France $175.00
tip OOP: $35.00

total "value" of plan: $1340.00
"profit" $450
tip OOP costs: $209

Why wouldn't I do it again?
- we hated being slaves to our reservations. we ran from park to park because the restaurants we wanted to eat at did not align perfectly with the rest of our day. We didn't have a car (magical express) so that eliminated a lot of the resort restaurants from our list, and we were staying at pop century, which doesn't have a nice onsite restaurant.

- It.was.too.much.food. I thought we were big eaters. we are not. this is ridiculous! we started having them pack things up right away for us to take to go - but that meant we needed to hustle back to the hotel to refrigerate it. However, this strategy worked to enable us to use a lot of the saturday food leftovers during the rest of our stay, lowering the overall cost for food on those day.

- The prices on the food in these restaurants is just absurd. I'm sorry, these meals were NOT WORTH $150 for 3 of us. I know it's disney pricing, but honestly I would expect to pay maybe $75.00 for most of these meals for the 3 of us at home. The food is...fine. My husband liked the steaks he got. I thought most of the food was middling.

- The feeling you HAVE to order everything you are "entitled" to, which raises the overall cost and the ultimate tip you leave. OOO costs for tips add up FAST.

- Because of the ridiculous amount of food at meals, we did NOT use our snack credits for the most part, except for some starbucks drinks and caramel apples. I found myself in the hotel shop buying stupidly overpriced bags of beef jerky and cookies at the last minute. These did come in handy in the days after, though.

So there you have it - fun to do it once, never again. YMMV. I'm glad I chose a split stay to experiment with because I would have died trying to make it pay on the full 5 night trip. We would, however, consider the regular dining plan, which would fit our park style a little better. Hope this is helpful to anyone contemplating it.
 
Last edited:
I thought I would share my experience last week using the deluxe dining plan.
we were doing a split stay at pop century 2 nights/yacht club 3 nights so I thought it would be a good way to test out the deluxe dining plan during our pop century stay.

I paid $690 for 3 adult plans (DH, me, DD11)
Did we get our money's worth? yes
would I ever do it again? hell no - reasons below

Here's the breakdown:
3 mugs = 56.85
12 snack credits average 5.50/each = 66.00

Meal 1 - Skipper Canteen: $170
tip OOO: $35.00

Meal 2: Spice Road Table: $130
tip OOO: $27.00

Meal 3: Coral Reef: $140
tip OOO: $29.00

Meal 4: Yak & Yeti: $128.82
OOO because my child did not want to eat a full meal: $13.30
tip OOO: 28.00

Meal 5: Frontera Grill $145
tip OOO: $29.00

Meal 6: 50s Prime Time Cafe $130.00
tip OOO: 26.00

Meal 6: Chefs de France $175.00
tip OOO: $35.00

total "value" of plan: $1340.00
"profit" $450
tip OOO costs: $209

Why wouldn't I do it again?
- we hated being slaves to our reservations. we ran from park to park because the restaurants we wanted to eat at did not align perfectly with the rest of our day. We didn't have a car (magical express) so that eliminated a lot of the resort restaurants from our list, and we were staying at pop century, which doesn't have a nice onsite restaurant.

- It.was.too.much.food. I thought we were big eaters. we are not. this is ridiculous! we started having them pack things up right away for us to take to go - but that meant we needed to hustle back to the hotel to refrigerate it. However, this strategy worked to enable us to use a lot of the saturday food leftovers during the rest of our stay, lowering the overall cost for food on those day.

- The prices on the food in these restaurants is just absurd. I'm sorry, these meals were NOT WORTH $150 for 3 of us. I know it's disney pricing, but honestly I would expect to pay maybe $75.00 for most of these meals for the 3 of us at home. The food is...fine. My husband liked the steaks he got. I thought most of the food was middling.

- The feeling you HAVE to order everything you are "entitled" to, which raises the overall cost and the ultimate tip you leave. OOO costs for tips add up FAST.

- Because of the ridiculous amount of food at meals, we did NOT use our snack credits for the most part, except for some starbucks drinks and caramel apples. I found myself in the hotel shop buying stupidly overpriced bags of beef jerky and cookies at the last minute. These did come in handy in the days after, though.

So there you have it - fun to do it once, never again. YMMV. I'm glad I chose a split stay to experiment with because I would have died trying to make it pay on the full 5 night trip. We would, however, consider the regular dining plan, which would fit our park style a little better. Hope this is helpful to anyone contemplating it.
This info is helpful, thank you
 
It sounds so good when planning, but I agree, the reality is tough. The longest I’ve done dxdp is 3 nights of a split stay. We were so tired of eating when we were done, and we did signature nightly.

Thanks for sharing
 
1st time for us on the DxDDP I planned B/L/D every day of a 10 trip. On day 2, while waiting for dinner, I called Disney dining and cancelled our lunches for the remainder of our trip.

Did I learn...yes, but not how you may think!

We still get the DxDDP, but now plan a breakfast and signature dinner or dinner show. We do go to a few non signature dinners, but with the extra credits we have from only using 1 credit for those meals, we buy a light lunch (salads w/ drink, ice cream:) ) at the waterparks on the days we are there, or just on whim, get a QS if we're hungry.

I think its a great plan having it prepaid is the best. Yes the tips add up, but you would have to still pay them even if you paid for the meal OOP. I welcome the TS opportunity to get off my feet for a bit, in the AC and not have to wait in line for a burger, or try to find a table etc...

If you dont plan on every meal as TS then no, its not worth it. But even leaving a few credits behind is worth it to me.
 


This is good info. I am possibly planning a DxDP on on of my three rooms so that we can spread the credits for 5 people across a total of 9 people. That should keep us out of 3 meals a day sit down. OP, your post affirms in my mind that I probably could never do it for my own party. Way too much food and, like you, I am kind of obsesses with making sure I get the value out of the meals. I would never get it for Signature dining either (which we do a lot of). Once I read how you get ripped off financially by using two credits on a signature meal, I just can't do it. We'd come out at a loss with that.

But I'm really intrigued by using it for a group booking. Thanks!
 
Yes, we talked about how it might make sense in the future when our daughter is old enough to bring a friend and have a separate room - then we might get it just for the one room and split it amongst everyone. it is WAY too much food - what I found out is that just one of those meals would tide me over all day (without even eating it all) and I might need a snack or extremely light meal to supplement. so 3 a day was outrageous. I'm glad it was helpful!

This is good info. ...
 
you are right, you would still have to tip if you were paying cash - but I found we would never buy that volume of food if we were paying cash - we might split an appetizer between the whole table, share 2 entrees, and get maybe 2 desserts to share, and likely only my husband would have gotten an alcoholic drink, that would have been MORE than enough food for my family of 3, so the overall tip I paid was higher based on the higher cost of ordering every option available to us (and the more expensive entrees). I know you don't HAVE to do that, but of course, there is a psychology at play that compels one to maximize the "savings" of the plan.

It was, in general, a cheap lesson for us in the long run - I've always been intrigued by the dining plan and debated it every time we went to Disney. the split stay was the perfect way to try it out. and overall we spent ABOUT the same amount OOP we do on a 5-day trip, mostly thanks to us not wanting to eat AT ALL the last 3 days after stuffing ourselves silly.

1st time for us on the DxDDP I planned B/L/D every day of a 10 trip.
 


I’ve never done the deluxe plan but I agree about the planning aspect. I need a worksheet to jot down reservations then choose parks accordingly and hope to get fast passes to match those days. A lot of work!

I’m doing the basic plan next week with just a few reservations and two table services credits up in the air so I can wing it. Luckily, I have friends staying at other hotels and they will be sharing with me since I also have TIW but I’m looking forward to leftovers. I must add this trip is centering around food and bev. Normally, if using a DDP, quick service is the way to go! Snack credits never go unused since I do “research “ on must have uniquely Disney snacks. I’m a bottomless pit (and a sucker) for dole whips and sundaes!!!
 
I'm confused by your math. You only had 12 snack credits (2 x 2nts x 3 guests), but used 9 meal credits (I believe Coral Reef is 2 TS)? That would be 3 nights worth? Did you pay some of those meals oop or did you have the dx dining plan for 3 nights?

There's a definite chicken and the egg thing with the prices at Disney. They raise them and dining plan guests feel they get more "value". The buffet prices are insane. I can see doing the DxDP and doing buffets in the late morning and then signatures at night.
 
I meant to mention that at a couple of meals we only ordered 2 allotments because we were too stuffed! for example, spice road it was only me and my husband. so we got "more" meals out of it. We used every meal credit, but it was a real chore to do it.

Coral Reef is only 1 TS credit.

I'm confused by your math. You only had 12 snack credits (2 x 2nts x 3 guests), but used 9 meal credits (I believe Coral Reef is 2 TS)? That would be 3 nights worth? Did you pay some of those meals oop or did you have the dx dining plan for 3 nights?
 
We don't even use all our credits when we have the QSDP, so I know deluxe won't work for us, but thanks so much for sharing the detailed breakdown! I have been curious about how the deluxe plan would work out.
 
I can see doing the DxDP and doing buffets in the late morning and then signatures at night.

This is exactly what we do. Though Im not fond of a buffet, I feel like part of being at Disney is character interaction and not having to wait in line at the parks and having them just come to our table for photos/autographs cant be beat. If I wanted a regular breakfast, Id save a ton of money by staying home and eating out down the street!

At night, after a day with characters and fun in the parks, it nice to have a more "grown up" dinner. I love the food and ambiance at the signature dining venues, but of course have to include my favorites, San Angel Inn, Via Napoli and Teppan Edo!

If we have the breakfast around 8 - 8:30, then dinner around 6:30 - 7, I dont feel like its too much. Actually just right. If we're hungry in between we get an ice cream or some snack, but that is very rare. We usually end up with most of our snack credits a the end of our trips, which my kids use to take home treats for their friends and their lunchboxes :) The Chip and Dale snacks (goldfish) and Minnies cookies are great for this, and their friends get rice crispy treats and such as a souvenir of our trip.
 
We did the dxdp for two nights, spreading the food over three whole days of a split stay. Because of the split stay, it was cost effective. Two nights was my limit though.
 
Was your mug good for Yacht Club too? I heard they are active for 14 days regardless of the resort you are in.
 
Did dxdp years ago for a 7 night stay. I completely agree, it was too much food. My husband and I are big eaters and took it as a challenge, and we failed. Completely underestimated how full we would get getting our own appetizer, entree and dessert each and every meal. We did 1 table service and 1 signature each night and by the end of our stay we had a mini fridge stuffed full with boxed up desserts and left overs we couldnt finish. We also ended up with an absurd amount of unused snack credits. We did a mad dash to the gift shop prior to check out and stocked up on random candy and snacks. It just didn't work out for us. The plus was trying out a bunch of signature restaraunts. From now on we mostly use TIW (dvc) instead of getting any dining plan. It works better for us.
 
My daughter and I would share a credit. Worked well. We did do California grill brunch where we used two each.
 
This is good info. I am possibly planning a DxDP on on of my three rooms so that we can spread the credits for 5 people across a total of 9 people. That should keep us out of 3 meals a day sit down. OP, your post affirms in my mind that I probably could never do it for my own party. Way too much food and, like you, I am kind of obsesses with making sure I get the value out of the meals. I would never get it for Signature dining either (which we do a lot of). Once I read how you get ripped off financially by using two credits on a signature meal, I just can't do it. We'd come out at a loss with that.

But I'm really intrigued by using it for a group booking. Thanks!

This is a great use for DxDDP. My first time we did DxDDP we got it for one room and got the free dining in the other room. We ended up doing a couple breakfast and sit down dinners and then used QS for lunches on the day with no breakfast. It worked out really well for us and gave us the chance to try Apps. We are coming in December and we are getting the DxDDP for the first time for just two of us staying 3 nights at YC and 1 night at GF. We are getting the DxDDP for the 3 nights so we will have 9 credits to use over the 4 days. We are doing early lunch and late dinner on two nights and breakfast and dinner another night and an early breakfast late lunch and very late dinner to use the last 3 credits. We have found that if you utilize DS late dining times it can help. I debate every trip to stop using the DP but I always go back to getting each time. I know if I pay OOP I will choose cheap menu items and I would be afraid to be adventurous in my choices. It works for us but in no way works for others. It does take a lot of planning to make it work in the parks you are going too.
 
I thought I would share my experience last week using the deluxe dining plan.
we were doing a split stay at pop century 2 nights/yacht club 3 nights so I thought it would be a good way to test out the deluxe dining plan during our pop century stay.

I paid $690 for 3 adult plans (DH, me, DD11)
Did we get our money's worth? yes
would I ever do it again? hell no - reasons below

Here's the breakdown:
3 mugs = 56.85
12 snack credits average 5.50/each = 66.00

Meal 1 - Skipper Canteen: $170
tip OOP: $35.00

Meal 2: Spice Road Table: $130
tip OOP: $27.00

Meal 3: Coral Reef: $140
tip OOP: $29.00

Meal 4: Yak & Yeti: $128.82
OOP because my child did not want to eat a full meal: $13.30
tip OOP: 28.00

Meal 5: Frontera Grill $145
tip OOP: $29.00

Meal 6: 50s Prime Time Cafe $130.00
tip OOP: 26.00

Meal 7: Chefs de France $175.00
tip OOP: $35.00

total "value" of plan: $1340.00
"profit" $450
tip OOP costs: $209

Why wouldn't I do it again?
- we hated being slaves to our reservations. we ran from park to park because the restaurants we wanted to eat at did not align perfectly with the rest of our day. We didn't have a car (magical express) so that eliminated a lot of the resort restaurants from our list, and we were staying at pop century, which doesn't have a nice onsite restaurant.

- It.was.too.much.food. I thought we were big eaters. we are not. this is ridiculous! we started having them pack things up right away for us to take to go - but that meant we needed to hustle back to the hotel to refrigerate it. However, this strategy worked to enable us to use a lot of the saturday food leftovers during the rest of our stay, lowering the overall cost for food on those day.

- The prices on the food in these restaurants is just absurd. I'm sorry, these meals were NOT WORTH $150 for 3 of us. I know it's disney pricing, but honestly I would expect to pay maybe $75.00 for most of these meals for the 3 of us at home. The food is...fine. My husband liked the steaks he got. I thought most of the food was middling.

- The feeling you HAVE to order everything you are "entitled" to, which raises the overall cost and the ultimate tip you leave. OOO costs for tips add up FAST.

- Because of the ridiculous amount of food at meals, we did NOT use our snack credits for the most part, except for some starbucks drinks and caramel apples. I found myself in the hotel shop buying stupidly overpriced bags of beef jerky and cookies at the last minute. These did come in handy in the days after, though.

So there you have it - fun to do it once, never again. YMMV. I'm glad I chose a split stay to experiment with because I would have died trying to make it pay on the full 5 night trip. We would, however, consider the regular dining plan, which would fit our park style a little better. Hope this is helpful to anyone contemplating it.
Our sentiments exactly. We got the DDP at a huge discount a few years ago and realized then we would never pay full price for it. IMHO, people get oo wrapped up in WDW dining. The vast majority of it is mediocre (Ruby Tuesdays/Olive Garden level). There are exceptions but we don't sit there at the 180 day mark making reservations. We just do it when we get around to it and make changes while there.
 
Thank you for sharing. I'm going to try the DxDP on our next trip and am worried about too much food. We are going to do the “early lunch and later dinner at a signature” plan. I've always wanted to try the signatures and if the meal isn't prepaid, the kids (26 and 24) will be too considerate of my wallet and not order what they'd like to try. Because you can spread 4 night's credits over 5 days, and I'm planning signatures, we'll get 2 days with only one planned meal and can use snack credits for the other one. Wish me luck!
 
I just did DxDP for 4 nights l (split stay too) for me DH and DS5 two weeks or so ago. It was a lot of food and travelling. It was a great experience for us though because we like trying new food. We did signatures including CG brunch Flying Fish Tiffins Jaleo and CRT. We saved about 700-800. We skipped some desserts and DS5 shared food with us. We used snack credits mostly for water bottles or other drinks. I think it’s really more of what you want. For us, food is important so we prioritize it. As DS5 grows older and prioritizes rides more, we would probably switch out to just paying OOP.
 

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