Dining Plan Restrictions?

[DISNEY*lover]

Hello ladies and gents. DH and I will be going to WDW in late August to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. We're thinking about trying out the dining plan because we tend to spend over $100/day on food and snacks. We know there must be some restrictions to it.

What are the restrictions?
Is it really worth it?
Is it true you get an appetizer, entree and dessert for your sit down meal?
What's a snack credit?
What's considered a "snack"?

Thanks for all your help in advance. We find this dining plan stuff kinda confusing. :rotfl:

[ginnymack]

Adults do not get an appetizer anymore and tipping is not included (tax is). To see if it would really make sense for you, I would recommend you check out a few menus to get an idea of what you would order and then crunch the numbers. My family would probably come out ahead if we did not do the dining plan, because we are not a dessert at every meal family - we may share one at dinner...but we certainly would never, if left to our own devices order 4 desserts for lunch and then 4 morfe at dinner! Same for snacks - we would be likely to share a snack or 2 through the day. (a snack is defined as a single serve drink or food item - ex, piece of fruit, ice cream bar, sweet roll, popcorn, cookie, etc.) That being said, if we were going to eat everything offered, and we were to eat on the "high end" side of the menu, the dining plan would definately save us money! (Of course, I would never turn down free dining either! ;) - unless it came at the cost of loosing a really good room only discount!) HTH!

[TDC Nala]

Adults get appetizer, entree and dessert on the deluxe dining plan only. If you're on the basic dining plan a TS meal includes entree and dessert. Kids age 3-9 get appetizers, but only from the children's menu.

Gratuities in most cases are not included. Some TS restaurants (referred to as "signature restaurants") cost 2 credits per meal.

You may want to take a look at the "Everything you always wanted to know" sticky thread at the top of the dining plan board, which has the restrictions that have been reported. There arent' many, and some may no longer be relevant.

[jenseib]

Adults get appetizer, entree and dessert on the deluxe dining plan only. If you're on the basic dining plan a TS meal includes entree and dessert. Kids age 3-9 get appetizers, but only from the children's menu.

Gratuities in most cases are not included. Some TS restaurants (referred to as "signature restaurants") cost 2 credits per meal.

You may want to take a look at the "Everything you always wanted to know" sticky thread at the top of the dining plan board, which has the restrictions that have been reported. There arent' many, and some may no longer be relevant.


Kids get appetizers? I never knew that?

[Nadjalu]

We love the DDP. We average $130 a day for the 2 of us, so it is a savings for us.
Having the sit down meal is great, we love to take a dinner break and Disney has some wonderful restaurants to relax and eat in.
We stick to 1 TS meals, I don't think it is a savings if I have to use 2 credits on a meal but that is just me.

Basically there aren't any restrictions other than staying within your plan, as the above poster posted.
Snacks are a bit more of a mystery, they seem to "change" a bit from trip to trip and CM to CM but rule of thumb is $4 or under. Again it can change, but you can usually find some great snacks if you look or ask often.

Looking at menus and planning in advance (losely obviously) on what you are going to have, you can stretch out your plan if you need 3 meals a day.
The DDP is a good amount of food, at home we usually eat 2 good meals and a snack or 2 during the day. However we have found at DW we burn enough calories and energy that we need a bit of a breakfast to get us thru the day. ;) So we have learned some CS meals to share to stretch those out.

If you choose it, doing some research will guarantee a better bang for your buck, but eat what you want, not what is most expensive and you will think you are in food heaven!! :cloud9:

[TDC Nala]

Kids get appetizers? I never knew that?

Yes, kids get appetizers - from the kids' menu only. Adults wouldn't consider these "appetizers." They're usually things like a small green salad, carrot and celery sticks, or a small cup of soup.

Children don't get to order appetizers from the main menu. If there's no child's appetizer on the children's menu, they just don't get one.

Snacks are a bit more of a mystery, they seem to "change" a bit from trip to trip and CM to CM but rule of thumb is $4 or under.

Under $4, and single serving. Items considered mutiple servings (like a box of doughnuts, a half gallon of milk, family size bags of chips, a bucket of popcorn, or some larger bags of candy) will not be included.

[DISNEY*lover]

Yes, kids get appetizers - from the kids' menu only. Adults wouldn't consider these "appetizers." They're usually things like a small green salad, carrot and celery sticks, or a small cup of soup.

Children don't get to order appetizers from the main menu. If there's no child's appetizer on the children's menu, they just don't get one.



Under $4, and single serving. Items considered mutiple servings (like a box of doughnuts, a half gallon of milk, family size bags of chips, a bucket of popcorn, or some larger bags of candy) will not be included.

Thanks for the info! I'll have to remember the $4&under thing for single servings. And kids get an appetizer? Weird. You'd think it would be the other way around. :confused3

"Everything you always wanted to know" sticky thread and it was quite useful. I'm not sure how I missed that the first time 'round. Thanks.