Regular Dining Plan vs. Deluxe Dining Plan

[islandersfan1]

Ok, so, with the regular Magic Your Way Plus Dining, you get two meals a night (one table service, one quick service) a snack, and a resort refillable mug. All of this for about $55 a night for an adult. The Magic Your Way Plus Deluxe Dining includes three meals a day, regardless of table service or counter service, two snacks, and a resort refillable mug, per night. This is $99 per adult, per night. So, I will be staying at POFQ, for 5 nights, and with the regular dining plan, the price for the room, dining plan and tickets cost a total of $2728. With the deluxe dining plan, the price would be $3394. This would essentially take care of most of my food, with the exception of some thing like an ice cream cone that isn't part of the plan, etc. Has anyone ever got the Deluxe dining plan, and was it worth it over the regular dining plan. Plus, I have such a long list of table service restaurants I want to visit, and this would allow me to go to all of them. Thanks!!! Oh, BTW, two adults one kid, age 14, if it matters...

 

[DisneyDebNJ]

Ok, so, with the regular Magic Your Way Plus Dining, you get two meals a night (one table service, one quick service) a snack, and a resort refillable mug. All of this for about $55 a night for an adult. The Magic Your Way Plus Deluxe Dining includes three meals a day, regardless of table service or counter service, two snacks, and a resort refillable mug, per night. This is $99 per adult, per night. So, I will be staying at POFQ, for 5 nights, and with the regular dining plan, the price for the room, dining plan and tickets cost a total of $2728. With the deluxe dining plan, the price would be $3394. This would essentially take care of most of my food, with the exception of some thing like an ice cream cone that isn't part of the plan, etc. Has anyone ever got the Deluxe dining plan, and was it worth it over the regular dining plan. Plus, I have such a long list of table service restaurants I want to visit, and this would allow me to go to all of them. Thanks!!! Oh, BTW, two adults one kid, age 14, if it matters...

I have done deluxe dining .... once. It was soooo much food, I had a slew of credits left over. If you plan to do a few signature restaurants (2 credits per person, per dinner) it may be worth it. But honestly, its ALOT of food. I would peruse the menus, both signature and 1 credit restaurants, then decide. But it is ALOT of food! Have a wonderful trip!

 

[britlightyear]

We did the deluxe plan twice and both times we had a lot of points left over. The first time we got it, our son got sick the last couple days of vacation so even though we lost a bunch of points we thought we would try it again the next year with better planning and visiting more 2 credit restaurants. Both times it seriously felt like we were going from restaurant to restaurant and trying to squeeze rides in between. It was just too much food, the regular dining plan works great for us. Plus you have to take into account all the extra money you will spend in tips going table service 3x a day.

 

[Mukta]

I have done the deluxe dining plan for a 8 night trip.
In order to get my money's worth, I ate a TS meal for breakfast or early lunch and then a signature meal for dinner. That was the only way I could utilize my credits without feeling overly full.
It was a great opportunity for me to try appetizers, entrees and desserts at the signature restaurants.

 

[Bama14]

With the regular dining plan I usually have quick service meals left over. I get so full because of the quantity of food you get at most of the restraunts (large portions usually and dessert) that all I can eat later is a snack or very light quick service meal. I've been tempted to get the deluxe, bc there are so many restraunts I want to try, but I can't imagine being able to eat it all. Now if they will make a plan that is table service and free Ghiradelli ice cream for your whole trip, I'm in!

 

[Monty]

You need a "None of the above" choice.

I long ago abandoned the Dining Plans. I save much more with room discounts and the TiW card. It might not work for everybody, but for me travelling solo or with my son, it's much better.

 

[stefan74]

I've gotten the Regular Dining Plan on my last three trips and to me, it is worth it. I plan on getting the Deluxe Dining Plan in 2014 where I will eat a Signature Restaurant each night. Can't wait!

 

[Minthorne]

Disney does the dining plan because it makes them money. If you are not getting it for free then it is almost a sure bet that you will pay less, and get to eat and pay for only what you really want by skipping the dining plan and just paying out if pocket. The dining plan just gets you to agree before hand that you will pre-purchase the max amount of food at each meal regardless to the fact if you feel like eating it.

 

[jmb2676]

Disney does the dining plan because it makes them money. If you are not getting it for free then it is almost a sure bet that you will pay less, and get to eat and pay for only what you really want by skipping the dining plan and just paying out if pocket. The dining plan just gets you to agree before hand that you will pre-purchase the max amount of food at each meal regardless to the fact if you feel like eating it.

This. If it's not free, seriously consider if you really need it. We only came out a little "ahead" by ordering the most expensive things on the menu. Our most recent trip in October was without dining plan and we actually spent less on food than the plan would have cost. Of course we only had a couple of table service meals and generally skipped dessert in favor an ice cream bar or something a little later.

 

[Master Yoda]

When talking in generalities, the only way that I have found for the deluxe dining plan to be practical is if you have a trip based around food and the parks are secondary. To get close to a break even point with the deluxe dining plan you are going to need to do a sit down breakfast or lunch and a signature dinner or three sit down meals. That is a lot of time in restaurants, making the parks at rope drop can be tricky and I just can not see doing this kind of trip with your average kid in tow.

From a financial value standpoint the dining plans can be worth it, but there is a catch. If all you do is look at food to dollars you can almost always come out ahead with the dining plan. However, when you start to look at what you would actually order if you were paying cash, the savings tend to erode. All it takes is skipping dessert or ordering light on a meal or two to tip the scales back in Disney's favor. The only way to know for sure is to take a look at the menus, see what you would order if you were paying cash and run the numbers.

Lastly we have to take a look at the psychological angle. Any of the dining plans can give your Disney vacation a cruise ship feel where you simply go to a meal and order what ever you want without the sticker shock at the end. It is also nice having nearly everything paid for prior to arriving. If your calculations have you coming in a bit shy, the convenience and/or the cruise ship factor can still make the dining plan worth it to you depending on what value you put on those psychological factors.

 

[Tinkerbell 8]

I have done the regular dining plan on every trip but our last two, we upgraded to the deluxe and I don't think I would ever go back to the regular plan. My bf and I LOVE food, well, good food, so we really enjoyed going to the signature restaurants for dinner every night. We used up all of our credits (even snacks) on our last 7 day trip by having an early breakfast every morning, and then we had dinner at a signature every night around 5:30, we were always seated right away because thats what time the restaurants open, so we were done the meal pretty quickly and we were able to make it to the parks in plenty of time for the fireworks/parades. We also really enjoyed going to the different deluxe resorts a little early, having a drink at the bar, and walking around each resort, it was a great way to see the different resorts and it helped us to pick a place to stay on our next vacation. It was also a great way to escape the park crowds for a little while and sit down to rest our feet. We went during the F&W festival so we used most of our snack credits trying all the wonderful foods offered there, and each night we had a little snack before leaving the park. When we got home I wanted to see if we actually saved money by having the free dining plan and upgrading the the deluxe, and both times we saved a TON of money. That's just us, some people don't save and its a waste of money if you don't use all the credits. Each family is different, and I love that Disney has different plans for the different needs. If I were you, I would look at menus for the restaurants you want to try and figure out how much you think you would spend, then see if the dining plan would save you money.

 

[monkeysammich]

We haven't experienced it yet, but we went for the Deluxe dining plan because we are traveling with a 2 year old who eats more than a bag of cheerios for lunch and dinner... so we're hoping that with all this abundance of food everyone speaks of we can share between our 5 year old and 2 year old.

It may end up being too much... but I tend to be an eater, so I think I can handle it.

The best part right now is that Psychological feeling of freedom that Yoda refers to... My wife loves it that we're going in with just spending/tip money... everything else is done.

 

[aw14]

my sister just got back at the end of september after using deluxe dining and shared the sentiment about it being too much food. They were trying to use as many snacks on the last day as possible just to use them

 

[NeedDisneyNow]

In your long list of table-service restaurants you want to try, do any include 2-credit meals? If so, I'd go with the deluxe plan. We've done both plans and prefer the deluxe plan because we got to try a bunch of 2-credit restaurants, and we also saw 2 shows, which are 2 credits. Some days we ate a TS meal for breakfast, used snack credits in the afternoon, then had a 2-credit meal at night. Other days we used snack credits for breakfast, had a TS meal for lunch, then saw a show later at night for 2 credits. For our 2 credits, we went to the SoA show at Poly and also HDDR at FW. Our 2-credit meals were at Jiko, California Grill, Artist Point, and the Castle. We had no meal credits left, but we did have some snack credits left so we stocked up on bags of microwave popcorn to pack in our luggage to take home.

I don't think it's too much food if you utilize the plan like we did. For us, it was just 2 meals per day as I outlined above.

 

[islandersfan1]

In your long list of table-service restaurants you want to try, do any include 2-credit meals? If so, I'd go with the deluxe plan. We've done both plans and prefer the deluxe plan because we got to try a bunch of 2-credit restaurants, and we also saw 2 shows, which are 2 credits. Some days we ate a TS meal for breakfast, used snack credits in the afternoon, then had a 2-credit meal at night. Other days we used snack credits for breakfast, had a TS meal for lunch, then saw a show later at night for 2 credits. For our 2 credits, we went to the SoA show at Poly and also HDDR at FW. Our 2-credit meals were at Jiko, California Grill, Artist Point, and the Castle. We had no meal credits left, but we did have some snack credits left so we stocked up on bags of microwave popcorn to pack in our luggage to take home.

I don't think it's too much food if you utilize the plan like we did. For us, it was just 2 meals per day as I outlined above.

Thanks, I think I am going to go with the Deluxe, as I really want to try a couple of 2-credit restaurants.. The idea of eating in the castle just blows my mind, idk why....

 

[coachwnh]

Only did deluxe once and it was food overload. We are APs now and use TIW, so we haven't done it since. If I did do it again I'd be sure to include as many signatures as possible. Then I think it might be worth it.

 

[Pooh Lover]

I have done deluxe dining .... once. It was soooo much food, I had a slew of credits left over. If you plan to do a few signature restaurants (2 credits per person, per dinner) it may be worth it. But honestly, its ALOT of food. I would peruse the menus, both signature and 1 credit restaurants, then decide. But it is ALOT of food! Have a wonderful trip!

Totally spot on. Not only a lot of food but a lot of time taken from each day for all these meals. I enjoy dining at WDW but it does take precious park time, especially if you go during off season when the parks offer limited hours. No way I could fully take advantage of deluxe dining.