Just returned on Deluxe plan -- not again

[Rneighh]

We just returned from a great trip on the deluxe plan but we won't do it again. No one human should eat that much in a day!!!! Yes we saved money with the plan over $500.00 but we ate and ate and ate. We ate when we were not hungey and still came home with 5 meal credits. We went to several 2 credit meals, Brown Derby, CRT, and Narcoussie. You cannot eat (should not eat) that much. I still feel like a stuffed whale. On our next trip we will do the regular plan or may buy all our meals out of pocket. It is just way too much food.

Renee

 

[angelmav]

We just returned from a great trip on the deluxe plan but we won't do it again. No one human should eat that much in a day!!!! Yes we saved money with the plan over $500.00 but we ate and ate and ate. We ate when we were not hungey and still came home with 5 meal credits. We went to several 2 credit meals, Brown Derby, CRT, and Narcoussie. You cannot eat (should not eat) that much. I still feel like a stuffed whale. On our next trip we will do the regular plan or may buy all our meals out of pocket. It is just way too much food.

Renee

Thanks for the report, thats kind of how I figured it would go down. Do you feel like you really 'saved' that much, would you ever attempt that many restaurants normally? Thats the part that I know we could get carried away with on the planning side, but it seems like the reality would be a whole different matter. Either way, hope you had a great and memorable trip!

 

[Rneighh]

Yes we felt consumed by the dining plan. It was a great trip but I don't think I will eat for the rest of the week.

 

[Tiger926]

We just returned from a great trip on the deluxe plan but we won't do it again. No one human should eat that much in a day!!!! Yes we saved money with the plan over $500.00 but we ate and ate and ate. We ate when we were not hungey and still came home with 5 meal credits. We went to several 2 credit meals, Brown Derby, CRT, and Narcoussie. You cannot eat (should not eat) that much. I still feel like a stuffed whale. On our next trip we will do the regular plan or may buy all our meals out of pocket. It is just way too much food.

Renee

Thanks for your report, sorry it didn't quite work out for you, but everyone is different. If you don't normally eat 3 meals per day, then maybe it will be too much food, but if you do, perhaps not. We eat 3 meals per day, with many healthy snacks as we have low blood sugar: no fast food, pop or candy either. We exercise portion control and only eat what we can finish - if I'm not hungry for an appetizer or dessert, then I don't order it, plain and simple. If you felt it was too much food, then why didn't you order less on day 2?

Tiger

 

[VacationDad]

Thanks for your report, sorry it didn't quite work out for you, but everyone is different. If you don't normally eat 3 meals per day, then maybe it will be too much food, but if you do, perhaps not. We eat 3 meals per day, with many healthy snacks as we have low blood sugar: no fast food, pop or candy either. We exercise portion control and only eat what we can finish - if I'm not hungry for an appetizer or dessert, then I don't order it, plain and simple. If you felt it was too much food, then why didn't you order less on day 2?

Tiger

It is not worth buying unless you make the most of it right? If you are going to eat lightly and practice portion control, you should just pay out of pocket.

 

[disneyjunkie]

Can you post an example of what you ordered?

We're using the deluxe plan on our next trip.

I imagine our days will look something like this.

Counter service breakfast (super early between 6:30-7:00)
Table service lunch (buffet or regular ) ADR @ 11:00 -12:00
Table service dinner (buffet or regular) ADR@5:30-6:30

Or

Table service breakfast ADR @10:30

signature dining dinner ADR @ 4:30-5:30

When we used the plan in 2005, we skipped many desserts and/or appetizers. We only ordered what we knew we'd eat. I plan to do the same thing in August.

The deluxe plan includes a lot of food, but you aren’t required to order/eat everything that you're entitled to.

 

[Pakey]

I too felt awful eating that much food. We did the platinimum plan years ago that had the same quantity of food and after 3 days, we had to start cancelling ADR's because we just couldn't do it. I do normally eat 3 meals a day but not that kind of food. And yes, we skipped appetizers and we do not eat dessserts and it was still too much food. And I do not consider myself to be a small eater.

Since we have AP's we just use the DDE now and are much happier doing it that way. We would definitely lose money on the dining plan with our eating habits, even at 3 meals a day.

 

[Tiger926]

It is not worth buying unless you make the most of it right? If you are going to eat lightly and practice portion control, you should just pay out of pocket.

Of course it's still worth buying, for different reasons. Eg. If I go to a character breakfast, Marrakesh for lunch, and Le Cellier for dinner, plus 2 snacks and my refillable mug, I've already spent more than $69.99 for that day. We normally eat 2-3 TS meals per day using our DDE card, so we tallied up our receipts (hubby is a banker) and without 2 snacks per day, and the refillable mug, we were more than with the Deluxe Plan will be, and we aren't people who normally order appetizers (maybe 1 for the 3 of us to share), drinks or desserts - just our normal meals and juice or milk (if not at a buffet) adds up. We really feel the Deluxe Plan is worth it though as our 4 year old only costs $19.99 and that is a great savings as well.

I guess we think differently as we really don't think that we have to eat each and every little item that is available to us or it won't be worth it. If you use the same analogy, then you musn't feel that buying park tickets are worth it, as there is no way in a 24 hour period, you can do everything at WDW that there is to do. Or, what about people who spend $400.00/night to stay at the Grand Floridian? They must surely spend each and every second in their room to get their full value according to your way of thinking.

Everyone defines 'value' in a different way. Tiger

 

[soonerlpn]

I contemplated going deluxe for our trip in July but decided not to and go with the regular ddp...If it works for someone else thats great...its their money if they choose to spend it that way then they can..thats what makes the world go round! Hope everyone has a great time on their upcoming trips!!

 

[angelkk]

Hello, despite the massive amount of food, how did the Deluxe Dining Plan work out? Do you have to show the Resort Key before you can order appetizers?

 

[llmurphy17]

When I read the deluxe plan it did seem like ALOT of food.

 

[adisneynut]

In the begining were were taking 2 15 year old boys with us. Well that changed however I still had all the resevations made so I said well we can try it once. We did and we found a few resturants were great and some not so greta. I will chalk it up as a lesson learned but doubt I will ever try it again.
We spaced out our meals but also wasted alot of time eating. about 1.5 hrs for a TS meal. It took anywhere from 10-20 minutes just to pay your bill.

 

[ransom]

I'm sorry it didn't work out for you, Rneighh. It is definitely a lot of food!

We're still toying with the idea of doing the Deluxe DDP on this upcoming trip. On our previous trips, every single day we would use at least the equivalent of 2 TS credits per person -- either we did a signature TS meal for dinner, or we had a buffet breakfast and a regular TS dinner, or we did a TS lunch and a regular TS dinner. So I did the math, and the Deluxe DDP would work for us. It wouldn't save a ton of money, but we definitely wouldn't lose money on it.

But, this time we're going with my parents, and they're very light eaters, so I'm not sure what we'll end up with.

Anyway, thanks for relating your Deluxe DDP story!

 

[Cinderumbrella]

I feel your pain!! Back in the day of the silver and gold plans, we always ate 3 TS meals per day and felt stuffed beyond belief (not to mention it felt like we were always seated at a restaurant and not in the parks. Which brings to memory my FIL famous quote of "Hurry up and finish your breakfast- we have to go to lunch soon!" )

That being said, we will be deluxe dining this trip, but mostly 2 meals per day- Character Breakfast early and Signature dinner late with the snacks mid day. We have a couple of days where we will eat 3 meals- but that is not the norm.

 

[Rneighh]

I had several character breakfasts planned and we didn't make a single one. My kids (15 and 19) wanted to sleep in and have a relaxing morning. At home we are a ceral or muffin in the monring family, so we did that. We usually had a single credit TS for lunch and signature TS for dinner but we were usually still stuffed from lunch. The regular plan would work better for us or maybe no plan at all just out of pocket.

At most restraurants we had to show our room key first -- I guess to make sure we were on the delux plan. OUr food would have cost more than the plan but we would have never ordered an app., entree, and dessert for each of us. At home my oldest daughter and I regularly share meals when we go out. We just can't eat such large portions.

I liked having it all paid for but it was just too much. My hubby feels like things are just too out of control and over indulgent at Disney. The $250.00 Bibbi Bobbity Boutique little girls walking around was the icing on the cake. We are creating little monsters and the food the "little princesses" were just too much for him. He says he wants just go sit on a beach next year.

Renee

 

[MarieA]

I feel your pain!! Back in the day of the silver and gold plans, we always ate 3 TS meals per day and felt stuffed beyond belief (not to mention it felt like we were always seated at a restaurant and not in the parks. Which brings to memory my FIL famous quote of "Hurry up and finish your breakfast- we have to go to lunch soon!" )

We used to do the gold plan too and felt like we were always in a restaurant. It's the reason we won't be using the Deluxe Dining Plan for our trips in May and Nov (we won't use the basic Dining Plan either). I don't want to plan my trip around eating, plus I don't want to make ADRs 6 months out for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We decided to use the DDE the next two trips and pay OOP. It is actually cheaper for us to pay OOP and use the DDE.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Looking at the $69.99, I probably wouldn't book the deluxe plan, but I decided to give it a try since I got it with the bounce-back promo. Looking through the menus of the restaurants I'm planning on making ADRS at, (including all the signature restaurants,) it does seem like too much food, and I'm already wondering how I'm going to eat that much.

Of course, it's still saving me money, since I got it with the bounce-back rate, but OOP, it wouldn't be worth it to me. The basic plan also wouldn't be worth it to me if I had to pay for it for that matter.

 

[praline3001]

Our family does the DDP and we like it. Of course I have 2 boys and a DH who seem to have a tape worm

Here are some of the ways we use our points to our advantage without it seeming like soooo much food.

We will order room service breakfast (tips are included in this) which is 2 points.
The advantage is the family gets to eat their fill while we are getting ready for the parks. They can piddle around and take turns in the shower and munch off of each others plates until its time to hit the parks... all with a full belly. besides I am spoiled and love breakfast room service
If we do this, then we pick a TS dinner worth 1 point for around park close. During the day we use our 2 snack credits to keep us going 'til dinner.

We could chose to do the opposite by picking a 1 point TS breakfast and a 2 point TS dinner that night, using our snack points to keep those boys from starving hahah

You don't HAVE to eat 3 meals a day on the DDP. You can shake it up and eat at some REALLY NICE places for 2 credits or get room service breakfast/dinner.

On our upcoming trip we only have 1 day where we are eating 3 TS places... and that is to keep everyone in the family happy
Supercali breakfast (I have a princess in the family)
Le Ceillers lunch (that was my pick as I can't miss this place)
Rose and crown dinner (my boys LOVE LOVE LOVE the fish and chips here)

I am sure by the end of THAT night I am going to be looking for my fat sweatpants
Out of our 8 day stay, this is the only day we are eating 3 full meals.

Do not discount room service as I find that to be one of the more valuable things about DDP! Nothing like being too tired to go to dinner after being in the park ALL day with tired and whiney kids. You can get them in their jammies while waiting for dinner to show up and relax without crowds around you and eat your dinner in your room.
There is always something special about room service while your on vacation I think more parents with little ones should look into Room Service by the time they are half way done eating, the little ones pass out in their little beds leaving mommy and daddy to relax on the balcony finishing dessert ALONE

Also, those 2 point TS service places are not to be missed! You don't EAT more but you EAT BETTER

 

[msr709]

Our family does the DDP and we like it. Of course I have 2 boys and a DH who seem to have a tape worm

Here are some of the ways we use our points to our advantage without it seeming like soooo much food.

We will order room service breakfast (tips are included in this) which is 2 points.. . .Also, those 2 point TS service places are not to be missed! You don't EAT more but you EAT BETTER

That is an excellent idea, I never thought of Room Service!! Heaven!! We have 2 sleepy heads in this trips and getting them up is an act of congress, this will be perfect! Thank you so much for the suggestion.

 

[Donald&Tinkerbell]

We plan on slimfast for breakfast in the room, an early lunch, 1 TS, and a great dinner at a 2TS. We tend to do the 2 types of restaurant each day anyway, so the DxDP would definitely save us money, even if we don't use all the appetizers and desserts.