Deluxe Dining Plan tip

This is a tip for anyone on the deluxe dining plan - make sure to make your ADR's several hours apart. We had the deluxe on our last trip and we ate at mostly sit-down restaurants. There is so much food that each time another ADR came up none of us were really hungry. I even got to the point where I thought, "Oh geez, it's time to eat again." Often we didn't eat half our meal because there was still dessert (after an appetizer and entree). There is a lot of food on this plan. We made the mistake of eating at a breakfast buffet almost every morning of our trip. We won't do that again. We'll hit the food court or go to someplace like the GF Cafe. Don't forget on top of the three meals you get two snacks, as well. We were never hungry and we always get water so we had over 30 snacks to bring home with us! So, we haven't decided if we're going to do deluxe or not on our next trip but if we do I plan on making any ADR's we need at least six hours apart, if possible, and eating at more counter service places. :hammer:

What I have seen that works well when on the deluxe plan is to do a sit down breakfast, snack your way through lunch and then do a signature dinner.

Great tip, thats what we usually do and if we have extra credits we put them towards Cali Grill or Brown Derby etc. But I like to try and eat all 3 meals and snacks during the day but my better half cant keep up with me, I turn into a bottomless pit when I go to the world and I am only 170 lb guy!

When we first used the dining plan back in 2006 it was much closer to the Deluxe version now (3 meals per day plus appetizer and dessert at TS). I remember we had a lot of food then and like you were barely finishing half our meals. You definitely need to space things out like you suggest when you have that much available.

Just about everytime I have gone we have done the Deluxe Dining. It is a ton of food! I remeber one night leaving the Liberty Tree Tavern, I thought I was going to burst.

We do the delux DDP and we tend to do use the snack credits for breakfast (muffin, fruit, water or juice) and do early TS lunch and late Signature dinner. Or a big breakfast and use snack for later in the afternoon and a late dinner. We have also found that if we dont use 3 credits a day then we can eat on the all days of stay without for paying for a meal out of pocket! Yes, by the end of the week we all are full and had enought FOOD. We also like being able to eat what we want and not look at the prices...get something we would normally not even think about at home unless a special dinner!!!

Yeah, I totally agree with that. At home we don't get a lot of appetizers or dessets so the deluxe dining plan was our chance to "live it up" so to speak. Also, with so much food we really encouraged our kids to try new things. With our younger son on the kid's menu it wasn't as easy but he could try our food. We all tried new things, as a matter of fact, which we wouldn't encourage as much at home, either.

Best advice on ddp, don't waist your money!!! The regular dining plan has food than any sane person could eat,Why spend more so you will have more half finished meals to throw away?

Once we have gotten our fill of desserts we ask for bottle water to go instead of the dessert. Most all the resturants are more than happy to do this. Remember your paying a tip on what you order so dont order just because its FREE. We mostly go in August and we have no trouble drinking the water and woud be buying it anyway.

I am not doing deluxe dining again unless they start to include tips again! I tipped over $500 our last trip. It just ends up costing more than it is worth both in cash and time.

It is great for a trip centered around food where the parks are secondary. I would never recommend it outside of those conditions.

I agree....I you want to tour your ressies then Deluxe DDP is fine, You woukd still need t do a Signature everyday, or else you will burst from food overload!

This is exactly what we have done. We usually schedule a character breakfast first thing in the morning at the park we are attending that day (so nice to get in before the crowds and walk the empty streets/paths..great photo time). We snack for lunch and then have a "early" signature dinner. It has really work well for my family (2 adults and 3 kids).

My husband is insisting on the Deluxe Dining plan for our next trip. He wants all the snack credits for Food and Wine and want to do Signature everyday. I'm the one stuck trying to figure out how to work everything around a then 2 and 4 year old's schedules. Thanks for the tips.

Our first use of the dining plan was in '97. At that time you got a specific dollar amount allotted to each person in the room per day. I think it was $58 or something, and for kids it was half that. So, for each room there was basically an account and you used your key as a debit card.

This was a much more efficient way to run the plan! There was no worrying about what kind of credits needed to be used and how many, etc. Not only was it less confusing for us, but for cast members as well. I so wish Disney would go back to this model.

If you like eating at the signature restaurants, though, it is worth it.

We usually do the regular dining plan (1 TS, 1 CS, and a snack). That works well for us because we very rarely will eat large breakfasts - just something small will do. Besides, we are usually too anxious to get to the parks!

I totally agree with many of the suggestions. Most people cant handle the 3 meals a day or even 2 a day plus 2 snacks. I've done the Deluxe twice once in 2011 for Christmas and this last April during Easter. My parents and sister were blown away with the amount of food at each meal. My wife and I can handle it pretty well. My suggestion and what I am going to do on the next trip this Christmas is to book a mid morning breakfast buffet between 9:00 and 10:00. We will snack throughout the lunch time period then eat at a signature restaurant for dinner probably between 6:30-7:30. That way those with me wont complain about being full. The Deluxe plan is well worth it in my view but thats just me. Good luck! You can always do a quick service for an early lunch and signature dinner or do a early breakfast, noon or 1:00 lunch, and a late dinner if no signature restaurant plans are made for a day

My best tip for the Deluxe Dining Plan is save your money. I really would find it hard to be able to eat the amount of food to be able get your value out of the deluxe plan.

Just pay for what you eat and you will save money and probably calories.