I'm a believer! How the DxDP worked for us--spreadsheet planning, mini-reviews & thoughts! UPDATED

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Loved this review! Thank you for taking the time.

Thank you for reading, and so glad you enjoyed!

 

[JerseyJanice]

I’m a spreadsheet kinda girl, so I like your style, OP. And your children are absolutely gorgeous.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I’m a spreadsheet kinda girl, so I like your style, OP. And your children are absolutely gorgeous.

Aw, thank you I agree, but I'm very biased!

 

[bluejasmine]

We always come to WDW in Sept when its still pretty warm and we like having the TS meals to take a break from the heat and sit down... For me WDW is not just about rides, its relaxing, its the food and its the resort Im staying at. We take breaks right after lunch time to go back and swim and shower and then come back to the parks and as long as its a 7 day or more vacation we take one day off from the parks..

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

We always come to WDW in Sept when its still pretty warm and we like having the TS meals to take a break from the heat and sit down... For me WDW is not just about rides, its relaxing, its the food and its the resort Im staying at. We take breaks right after lunch time to go back and swim and shower and then come back to the parks and as long as its a 7 day or more vacation we take one day off from the parks..

I never got this before, but I definitely do after this trip. We are getting DxDp again for our February trip. We do the same break schedule after lunch for a couple hours to get showered up

 

[flowergirl45]

Loved your report! So great that you were able to go and enjoy Disney World with your children. I know you will enjoy it even more the next time when your husband is able to be with you too so you can be there as a family. Thanks for taking the time to share, And I loved the spreadsheets LOL.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Loved your report! So great that you were able to go and enjoy Disney World with your children. I know you will enjoy it even more the next time when your husband is able to be with you too so you can be there as a family. Thanks for taking the time to share, And I loved the spreadsheets LOL.

Thank you for reading, and LOL on the spreadsheets. I love fellow excel-ers

 

[ziggystardust]

Thanks for this. Seeing first hand experience is always helpful. My husband has always liked the ease of a dining plan, basically knowing the cost before you go. I don't think we eat that way (we RARELY eat desserts). But this next trip, I'm actually jumping on the bandwagon and really thinking the Deluxe may be the way to go. We are going with our twin girls who are still free but will obviously need to eat. We will probably be doing a bunch of character meals and we like appetizers and including a cocktail now is definitely an upgrade for us. I should really get a spread sheet going

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Thanks for this. Seeing first hand experience is always helpful. My husband has always liked the ease of a dining plan, basically knowing the cost before you go. I don't think we eat that way (we RARELY eat desserts). But this next trip, I'm actually jumping on the bandwagon and really thinking the Deluxe may be the way to go. We are going with our twin girls who are still free but will obviously need to eat. We will probably be doing a bunch of character meals and we like appetizers and including a cocktail now is definitely an upgrade for us. I should really get a spread sheet going

I hope it ends up being as much of a positive surprise for you as it was for me. We're actually gearing up for round #2 next month with my husband. Looking forward to the alcoholic drink portion of the equation especially with my new 21 year old son The spreadsheet was a really nice way to see it all spelled out. I'm probably going to do it again. If I do, will follow up here with the results. Let me know if it works out as well for you

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I just wanted to follow up on our second experience using the DxDP--and the first with DH and alcohol. Our trip was Feb. 21-26th over the Princess RD weekend. There were three of us: me, DH, and DS21 (special needs). My daughter is off to college so she wasn't with us for the first time We were flying in from the UK so we stayed the first night at Pop before checking into AKL Kidani. This gave us 4 nights of the DxDP. I included the meal costs of our first evening/morning (not on DxDP) at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

Our list of restaurants:
LUNCH/BRUNCH:
Sanaa
Boma
Trattoria Al Forno (character)
California Grill (2 credits)
Tusker House (character)

DINNER:
Ohana
Cinderella's Royal Table (2 credits)
Tiffins (2 credits)
Teppan Edo

This time around we didn't have any three meal days, which I think is something I will strive for going forward. It wasn't the amount of food so much as it made our days feel more flexible, which is something you do lose with the DP (and FP+, for that matter).

Again, the DxDP was a great experience, and we ended up doing better by over $400 (see spreadsheet below). I say "doing better" rather than "saving" as is on the spreadsheet, because there was probably a little more "dining plan mentality" working on this trip than the first due to the inclusion of alcoholic (or speciality) drinks. I will concede that I drank quite a bit more than I probably would have had we not had the DP This is not a bad thing--it was actually very fun--but I thought I'd make it clear since this differed a little from the first trip, where I really don't think our eating choices were impacted by being on the DP (the exception being a couple desserts and the mugs on the first trip).

My husband is not a WDW fan, and he had a much better experience on this trip in part due to the DxDP and, probably even more so, due to taking Uber and Lyft everywhere rather than buses. The two combined made for a much more relaxing and enjoyable trip. I will say though that because we go to Disneyland so much, we are a little burned out on rides, and we were *much* more laissez-faire than usual about making our FP+ times. Coupling this with the fact that we have a bunch of WDW trips on the calendar, and the two RunDisney events we participated in (5k and half) that made for a couple late mornings and early nights, we ended up not spending a lot of time in the parks.

We repeated a lot of the restaurants we did the first time around in July as we enjoyed them so much, and I wanted to let DH experience them. The two new-to-me restaurants we tried were Tiffins and Ohana, both of which I've read a lot about. We happened to hit the fireworks in Ohana and had a decent view, which made for a fun night, but I'm not sure this will be a frequent repeat. It was a stress to get over there. We had a FOP FP for right before and--of course--the FP line took forever. We had to catch a cab from AK to make it (we were about 20 minutes late), and it was expensive (2x as much as uber/lyft) and stressful. I loved the Hawaiiana atmosphere and kitsch, but the food was a little meh for me and IMO way overpriced. [Aside observation: I do think most of WDW's food is way overpriced due to the dining plan to make people feel as if they are getting value. For me, as we would eat at most of these places anyway, this is actually a reason to do the dining plan as you are taking advantage of the built in dining plan price rather than paying the inflated OOP prices. To use an overly simplified example fo what I mean: a meal that might be priced at $20 is priced at $30 to make DP people feel as if they are getting a great value, but OOP people are stuck paying the $30.] Ohana wasn't a miss for me, but just not something I'd do unless we were staying at Poly or a resort nearby. The guys liked it better than me though. Tiffins on the other hands was awesome, and I think this will be a "must do" like Sanaa and Teppan Edo going forward.

Without further ado ... the spreadsheet!




Thoughts and differences from last time:

Cost category in spreadsheet: I was much more careful about asking for the non-zeroed out copy of the receipt so all of these are accurate. The zeroed out receipt really annoys me, and I had to explain it to MANY servers who had no idea what I was talking about. They didn't realize that the copy they gave back to DP users at the end no longer had the amount on it. I get the feeling I'm the rarity in tracking this stuff I had many of them tell me "what a good idea."

Mugs: I was thrilled when our room was ready at 10 am when we checked in to Kidani. I was not so thrilled when I realized why. We had a horrible 1-brd Savanna view. I requested close to lobby elevators, and we couldn't have been more far away if they tried. The room was literally a quarter mile from the elevator--my husband paced it out. It also had a view of what we dubbed the bootleg savanna (Pembe). Compared to our usual Sunset savanna, there were very few animals and it wasn't nearly as picturesque. I've always booked cash; this was the first time I used points. Maybe they weren't so eager to please as before? I was a little PO'd that I'd wasted extra points for this. Next time I'll know and wait for a different room! It also impacted our DP experience since it wasn't nearly as easy to go down and refill our mugs. I still thought they were worthwhile, just less so. So my advice: if you plan to take advantage of the mugs, try to have a room that makes filling up easy. Walking a half mile for a mug of coke zero or coffee required a little more eagerness.

Snacks: Not as much park time and early brunches made them a little more difficult to use than the first trip. I love the snack credit for a mid-morning or afternoon Starbucks and oatmeal at breakfast and we were only able to use them a couple times for this. That being said, my husband and son love the candy and we usually buy it anyway. We just might not have bought as much. I mentally subtract that last $23 from my "savings."

Alcohol: Unless you plan to drink alcohol or a fancy drink every meal, I think the inclusion of alcohol can take away some of the value of the plan. My just-turned-21 DS was able to take advantage, but my husband doesn't drink so he let me have his drinks (subtly) and ordered water or ice tea OOP. This made for a couple extra "wet" brunches/lunches. My son learned the problem of a wet lunch: the required nap, LOL. I mentioned earlier that the included drinks were hard to pass up--it's a little bit like an open bar I have no problem passing up included dessert, but apparently alcohol is another thing! I enjoy drinking on vacations, but I wouldn't have done 3-4 every day. There were a few times we didn't use up our three speciality drink at meal allotment (Tusker house and Tiffins only 2, and at Boma my husband got a non-alcoholic smoothie). Had we not been on the dining plan, quite a few of those drinks probably would have come off (probably 4 or 5 so figure $50-70 with extra tips). If you don't use the drink portion, I think it makes it much harder to break even unless you are maximizing the appetizer, main dish, dessert cost, which we don't do.

Amount of food: (A common reason against the DxDP) Not an issue for us. I don't feel as if I over ate and no weight was gained--even with those extra drinks, LOL. Our family always orders appetizers and my husband and son typically get dessert. On this trip, the only time I felt as if they got dessert when they might not have was the frozen yogurt at Teppan Edo. So take $15 off there. The only dessert I had was the included sorbet at CRT and cheese plate at Tiffins--I would have ordered both of those.

Too much time: (Another common reason given against DxDP). With the exception of Ohana, which was a little cumbersome to get to, this wasn't an issue for us. Actually being on the DxDP I think results in less time out for us for meals overall and it makes for nice break times in the day. We only had three restaurants that took over an hour, and that was fine with us (celebratory California Grill Brunch, Teppan Edo, and Tiffins). The amount of time we save in not figuring out what everyone wants to eat and finding seats ... I think we come out ahead. Our waits for tables ranged from 5-15 minutes. We have one more stay coming up at Kidani in April, but after that we may be switching to BLT for most of our stays. The biggest bummer about this is that it will make Sanaa and Boma more difficult to get to. It's a real plus having three (including Jiko) excellent DxDP restaurants on site.

Restaurant reviews: I have already mentioned Ohana. The other new restaurant for me was Tiffins, and I loved it. I started with the bread course (which was meh compared to Sanaa) and ordered the ramen for my main. LOVED it. The other restaurants were repeats and we enjoyed them all again. I just love that California Grill brunch, and as an after race celebration it can't be beat. It's on the list for April again. CRT gets a lot of mixed reviews. We really enjoyed it last time, and although my steak salad wasn't quite as good as the first go around, we were there for the fireworks, which is really really cool. There's just something about eating at the castle that makes me think we'll be repeating this one quite a bit. As I mentioned in my first report DS is special needs and loves characters--especially princesses! Teppan Edo is one of my faves. I know this is another restaurant that has mixed reviews--and it's not as good as Benihana--but I'm a sucker for these places. The udon noodles with vegetables are so good. DH was also a big fan.

Arrival/Departure time: This trip made it clear that you really need to take that into consideration on the DP. My friend and half-marathon companion overlapped with us for a few days, and she tried out the DxDP even knowing she was going to miss some meals. She arrived after midnight on the first night and left before lunch on Monday, which made it almost impossible to catch up. I think she burned one table serve on a quick serve and had one left that she used on candy/snacks. She didn't break even, but I think went into that knowing that would be the case but wanted to try it out anyway.

Ending thoughts: Even with the higher price point of the DxDP with alcohol, it still makes a lot of sense for my family's style of eating/park-hopping and was a solid value. Even taking out the extra snacks, drinks and desserts, we were still ahead by $300 without trying and eating normally (not ordering food we didn't want or the most expensive offerings). Again, I left WDW feeling *much* better than I do after a typical Disneyland or non-dining plan trip to WDW because of the better quality of food at the table serve restaurants. We were full between meals, which avoided a lot of snacking on tempting junk. This was true last time, but stuck out even more this time because of my husband, who definitely has a sweet tooth.

We have a trip coming up for the Dark Side half marathon in April and I'm in the process of doing a little re-arranging of our restaurant reservations because of this trip. We had a couple three day meals in there, which I'm going to try to avoid, and I'm also a little nervous about the Disney Springs reservation at Raglan Road. After the Ohana experience, I'm worried it will take up too much time, but it looks really fun so I still may end up keeping it. DD18 will be with us so that means DS and I will have 6-8 drinks a day to split between us if we want them ... STAY TUNED whether we can resist the "open bar" or whether it's going to be Mom gone wild Spring Break 2018

 

[susieq76]

Thank you for this review. I have three teenage boys and the DDX works for us too. We usually order appetizers and at least a glass of wine each (DH and I). The boys always get dessert. I think if you go a lot (we do 4-5 trips a year) and don't stress about going on every ride and like good food- it's a wonderful plan!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Thank you for this review. I have three teenage boys and the DDX works for us too. We usually order appetizers and at least a glass of wine each (DH and I). The boys always get dessert. I think if you go a lot (we do 4-5 trips a year) and don't stress about going on every ride and like good food- it's a wonderful plan!

So well said! I feel the same way. The DxDP has really added to our overall enjoyment of WDW and made our trips much more relaxed. We’ll be back in a couple weeks for our third go around finally with all four of us! I’ll make sure to post back with another update. We are trying a few new places this time (Jiko, Morimoto, raglan road, and yak and yeti).

 

[iheartbelle87]

Fabulous reviews! We've been going to WDW for over 25 years, but this May we'll be doing the DxDP for the first time and I really enjoyed your thoughts! We're also eating at Boma for breakfast, and Teppan Edo.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Fabulous reviews! We've been going to WDW for over 25 years, but this May we'll be doing the DxDP for the first time and I really enjoyed your thoughts! We're also eating at Boma for breakfast, and Teppan Edo.

So glad it was helpful and you enjoyed. I really enjoy the DxDP and I’m not sure I could go back! I just feel so much better food-wise doing it this way. I hope it works our for you. Boma is my son’s #1 and TE is one of mine. As I mentioned, I, such a sucker for those places.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

For anyone interested, I've posted an update from our Dark Side Weekend with the DxDP in the Dining Plan section this time as it probably fits better over there. I also added a new spreadsheet with everything we ordered to help show that you don't need to max it out. https://www.disboards.com/threads/t...undle-with-spreadsheets-mini-reviews.3678702/

 

[sanapp]

Great detail! We also really enjoy the dlxdp. We only do 2 meals a day which is the perfect amount. We only order what we want as you have and have always come out ahead. We really enjoy the signature dining places over the regular ts. I feel like I can eat healthier with a lot more fish and seafood options and some wonderful salads as appetizers. I do enjoy a few bites of sweet after dinner, so I love the dessert too. I like that many of the signature places have slightly smaller portions, so it works better to have an appetizer and dessert.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Great detail! We also really enjoy the dlxdp. We only do 2 meals a day which is the perfect amount. We only order what we want as you have and have always come out ahead. We really enjoy the signature dining places over the regular ts. I feel like I can eat healthier with a lot more fish and seafood options and some wonderful salads as appetizers. I do enjoy a few bites of sweet after dinner, so I love the dessert too. I like that many of the signature places have slightly smaller portions, so it works better to have an appetizer and dessert.

Thanks! So glad you enjoyed. I have a little too much fun with all this I think 2 meals is perfect, too. The one day we had three we all ate really lightly. And I totally agree about the healthier aspect. I loved all the veggies and salads in the apps/meals. It really helps combat that heavy food feeling that I get when eating quick serve type places at the parks.

 

[rhoshi]

I really enjoyed your dining review and found the spreadsheet breakdown very helpful. We enjoy dining at table service restaurants and in particular some of the signatures, but we have never done the dining plan. This helps me decide that it might be worth checking out next time.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I really enjoyed your dining review and found the spreadsheet breakdown very helpful. We enjoy dining at table service restaurants and in particular some of the signatures, but we have never done the dining plan. This helps me decide that it might be worth checking out next time.

Thank you so much for reading, and I'm so glad you found it useful. I hope it works out for you as well if you decide to give it a try. I'm shocked by how much ahead we come out, and it really seems geared to our eating style.

 

[Sailormoon2]

Thanks for sharing your experience!