Free Dining -2 vouchers for character meals-how do you make up for this next day???

[tami82]

We have the free dining for our 4 night stay in August.
Can someone tell me are there any character meals which would require only 1 voucher? What do you do in the case that you have to use 2 vouchers or can you use 1 and pay out of pocket for the rest of the balance on the meal.
How do you usually make up for this at the next sit down dinner the next day or do you just make the counter service the main meal the next day.

[Henlady]

If you use 2 "credits" for a table service meal, you will then have to pay out of pocket for one of the nights not covered. You cannot use 1 TS credit per person and pay for the balance. You could use 2 TS credits for one persons meal then pay the full amount for another persons meal.

[daisygirl902]

I'm pretty sure Chef Mickey's breakfast as well as Crystal Palace are each 1 TS with characters...

[texaslady22]

1 credit character meals:

Hollywood & Vine
Chef Mickey's
Crystal Palace
Norway Princess Meals (includes pictures!!)
1900 Park Fare
Ohana Breakfast

The only 2 credit meal I can even think of is Cinderella's Royal Table!

And you might want to read the FAQs in the Dining Plan thread. They're not doing vouchers, they're doing credits...you'll be pleasantly surprised!

[djp0630]

Most character meals are only 1 TS. CRT & the dinner shows are 2TS. We are trying to do CRT, and don't mind it being 2TS. We are just having 1 day without a TS meal, which is no loss to us. We are skipping it on the day of DHS, as I have heard mixed reviews at the TS at DHS, so it's really not a loss for us.

[catne]

Easiest way to get your value out of "free dining" is skip the 2 TS meals -- as PP said, the only character meal that is 2 TS is Cinderella's Castle meals. That's fun to do once in awhile, but not worth 2 TS unless you have money to burn - food is good, not great...you're really paying a lot extra to eat in the castle. There are LOTS of character meals for 1 TS credit per person:

If you want a meal with a lot of princesses, do the Akershus Princess dining in Norway/Epcot - it's only one TS, and that includes a photo. Eat there when you're going to be doing Epcot. Kind of a blend of served dishes (main dishes) and buffet (salad/cold sides)

For Mickey & friends, can't beat Chef Mickey's Buffet at the Contemporary. Walk to Magic Kingdom (or hop the monorail for a loop around the lake back to MK) During free dining, they usually have Chef Mickey's open for breakfast, lunch & dinner so it's a good one to leave the park in the middle of the day for a meal break (take monorail - very fun to get off in the middle of the hotel. Or you can walk)

Crystal Palace buffet in the Magic Kingdom has Winnie the Pooh & friends for 1 TS, breakfast lunch & dinner. Eat here when you're in the Magic Kingdom for the day.

1900 Park Fare buffet is at the Grand Floridian - breakfast characters are Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland & Mad Hatter. Dinner characters are Cinderella, Prince, stepmother & stepsisters. This is another one that's on the monorail, so easy to get back & forth from the Magic Kingdom on the monorail.

Hollywood & Vine buffet breakfast & lunch are Playhouse Disney characters I think (never been to that one) Eat here on your Hollywood Studios day.

Tusker House buffet (Animal Kingdom park) breakfast is Donald Duck & friends - eat here on your Animal Kingdom day.

Cape May Cafe buffet at the Beach Club has character breakfast -- Minnie & friends in old-fashioned swimming suits. This is at an Epcot resort, so can walk to Epcot after breakfast.

Garden Grill in The Land/Epcot also has character dining at dinner - Chip & Dale, Mickey, etc. Not a buffet but food is served family style (so you can ask for seconds on anything your family wants more of) Another good one for an Epcot day.

[catne]

We have the free dining for our 4 night stay in August.
Can someone tell me are there any character meals which would require only 1 voucher? What do you do in the case that you have to use 2 vouchers or can you use 1 and pay out of pocket for the rest of the balance on the meal.
How do you usually make up for this at the next sit down dinner the next day or do you just make the counter service the main meal the next day.

By the way, there are no vouchers anymore -- all the credits are "loaded" on your Key to the World (KTTW) card -- your hotel room key card. Also has your park tickets on it so it's one card swiped for all.

You cannot use 1 TS credit off the card for a 2 TS meal -- it's either use 2 TS or pay cash for the whole thing - they will not split it out that way. You have to pay for the meal in advance if you're not using dining plan credits. They will take a credit card to hold it even if you're on the Dining Plan. So if you showed up with only 1 TS credit left on your card, they'd just charge the full amount to your credit card at that point.

If you absolutely must eat at the Castle & burn 2 TS, then yes it is possible to use the counter service as your main meal the next day -- especially if you go for the non-burgers/fries counter service places. Those with the large combo meals are your best bet for getting "main meal" of the day...like the chicken/ribs/green beans/potatoes combo at Cosmic Rays in Magic Kingdom. Or the pizza/salad/cookie combo at Toy Story Pizza Planet in Hollywood Studios. Or meals at Sunshine Seasons/The Land/Epcot...lots of hot meal combos there. Hotel counter service, especially at Value & Moderate resorts, usually have good combo meals for lunch or dinner, too.

Check out the menus on allears.net...it's not exact...but close enough to give you a good idea about what's served where in each park.

[Seahunt]

Also remember you receive all your credits when you check in and it's up to you how you spend them - you could use them all the first day if you wanted to! Like everyone else says, if you want to use a 2 credit TS on one day just plan on no TS another day or paying OOP.

And yes, they are not vouchers but credits on your room card. When you pay for a meal they swipe your card and it subtracts the credits used, and it shows up like this on your receipt (previously posted by kind DISer Bedell (thanks Bedell!)

On this receipt Bedell bought a pretzel for a snack and it shows "Entitlements used 1" for 1 snack credit used, and "12 Snack Cpns Remain" to show they had 12 snack credits left to use:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/IMG_1109.jpg

Your receipts will be different because you won't be there as many nights as Bedell was, but shows how it works. You will get the same type of receipt for TS and CS when you use them too, all showing how many credits you have left to use. :goodvibes

[TDC Nala]

No vouchers on the WDW dining plan. You will receive dining credits for each person in your party, per night of your stay, encoded onto your room key card. You must present the room key card to pay for meals using dining credits. All credits for your entire party are accessible from all the key cards assigned to your reservtion, so you need present only one key card to buy meals for your entire group.

All character meals are one TS credit per person except for Cinderella's Royal Table, which costs two TS per person, and Mickey's Backyard Barbeque, which is considered a dinner show and costs two TS per person. You can't split on the 2 TS credit meals between credits and cash. You must use either credits or cash to pay for an individual meal. However, you can have some of the persons in your party use dining credits to pay for their meals, and others pay in cash. You must make sure the server knows when you order which meals are to be charged to dining credits and which will be paid for in cash.

There is no limit as to how many character meals you can attend. If you are so inclined you may use all your TS credits for character meals.

Please see the "Everything You Always Wanted To Know" dining plan sticky thread at the top of the dining plan board for an FAQ and information on using the dining plans.

[tami82]

thanks so much everyone i really appreciate the information. Im so glad that alot of the Character meals are only 1 credit.