My recent opinions on the Dining Plan....

[marcyinPA]

Just got back from a week at Pop this past Saturday. We had used the dining plan last trip, in 2005...we had free dining. We thought it was great, so we purchased it for this trip.

I have to honestly say that I didn't like it so much this time around. The food was actually great, and the service was great everywhere we ate, but we were SO full all of the time, almost to the uncomfortable level. I've also decided that I really don't like doing a sit down meal every day. I'd like to mix it up a bit, and eat more of the "better" counter service. We felt really tied down to our ADR's this trip, which didn't really bother us last trip. But this time, for some reason, making it on time for ADR's was a hassle. We've decided next trip to make an ADR for dinner maybe every other night, instead of every night.

There were some weird things we encountered on the dining plan. We used CS credits at the Main Street Bakery on our last morning, for breakfast. My DS12 and I shared the meal, in which you HAD to choose the breakfast sandwich, and you got a pastry and a beverage. My Mom wanted to use a CS credit too, but didn't want a breakfast sandwich AND french toast loaf (too much food for her) and asked to just get a banana instead of the breakfast sandwich. They told her no. The sandwich was almost $6.00...but she couldn't sub a banana?? She ended up using the credit, but throwing out the sandwich. What a waste. She could have used snack credits, but since it was our last day, she needed to use up the CS credits.

We also had a strange experience at the Pop food court. The CS credits are not separated between adult and child credits. Those are still pooled. We split alot of meals between my DS12, DS8, DH and I. We usually got 3 meals for the 4 of us. One morning, the CM at the cash register at Pop said that we had 7 children's meal credits that we HAD to use. Ok...well, we had actually purchased 4 children's meals already during our stay....so where is he getting that info from? I almost felt like he was scolding me. I headed to to Guest Services to get the scoop from them. They gave me a print out of all of our credits, where we'd used them, and how many are left. The CM at guest services told me that the adult/child credits ARE NOT pooled, but we couldn't purchase more than 3 adult meals at one time because we have 3 adults on our card. We did know that, and did not break the rules. My DS8 got kids meals for lunch, and we split our adult meals for breakfast.

As for snacks, we found that not everything was marked with the DP symbol. I spotted fruit at one of the carts in Epcot. The fruit was not even listed on the menu. I had to stand in line, and then ask if it was included on the DP as a snack. Kind of a waste of time. We noticed this at a few other places too.


I kind of found the DP to be confusing, confining, and just a pain in the rear. I did like being able to eat at some of the nicer places like Le Cellier. We've decided that we can still do that, but save some money by not eating appetizers and desserts (which we pretty much picked at anyway).

Just my take on it....

Marcy

 

[bsmcneil]

there's never a reason to waste food. you could've: treated someone, paid OOP, let credits go to waste, save it for later or any number of things. i'm so sick of the wastefulness of this world.

 

[marcyinPA]

there's never a reason to waste food. you could've: treated someone, paid OOP, let credits go to waste, save it for later or any number of things. i'm so sick of the wastefulness of this world.

Or they could have let her get the darn banana....

I do agree with you on the waste issue, fwiw. We ate at both Ohana and Whispering Canyon this trip, and at both restaurants, our servers brought us seconds on food that we didn't even ask for. They plopped it right down and took off, without giving us time to even say "um, no thank you". You know where that untouched food was going.

 

[illiniowl]

there's never a reason to waste food. you could've: treated someone, paid OOP, let credits go to waste, save it for later or any number of things. i'm so sick of the wastefulness of this world.

a bit harsh IMO. DDP rules don't allow "treating someone," for starters. i won't argue that there isn't wastefulness in the world, but we're all guilty of it.

 

[Tink10]

I don't quite understand why people get so upset about food being thrown away....

It happens every hour of every day & at the end of the night, in just about all restaurants, food goes into the garbage.....It's not possible to send that food to those who really need it (although it would be great if we could) It's not going to stop so what's the point of getting upset about it?

To the OP, I'm glad to hear that both the food & service were great & I hope your trip was as well!

 

[rentayenta]

Or they could have let her get the darn banana....

I do agree with you on the waste issue, fwiw. We ate at both Ohana and Whispering Canyon this trip, and at both restaurants, our servers brought us seconds on food that we didn't even ask for. They plopped it right down and took off, without giving us time to even say "um, no thank you". You know where that untouched food was going.

I agree too It drives me mad to waste food and even with free DDP my kids will share. We will most likely end up with leftover credits, part of the reason we are doing 2 two TS, but oh well. Just because most people waste food doesn't mean it's right or right for my family. There are lots of things that a lot of people do but that doesn't make said things right.

 

[kaytieeldr]

As for snacks, we found that not everything was marked with the DP symbol. I spotted fruit at one of the carts in Epcot. The fruit was not even listed on the menu. I had to stand in line, and then ask if it was included on the DP as a snack. Kind of a waste of time. We noticed this at a few other places too.

Most likely, the fruit on the cart wasn't marked with a snack symbol because, well, individual pieces of fruit have been a Snack since the onset of the Disney Dining Plan.

 

[tasha99]

I'm glad I'm going when dining is free. Next year DS will be 10. If they have free dining, I think we'll eat almost all signature restaurants for table service, and make the rest up with food in the room and CS paid out of pocket. I agree that a sit down ADR every day is confining.

 

[bsmcneil]

Or they could have let her get the darn banana....

I do agree with you on the waste issue, fwiw. We ate at both Ohana and Whispering Canyon this trip, and at both restaurants, our servers brought us seconds on food that we didn't even ask for. They plopped it right down and took off, without giving us time to even say "um, no thank you". You know where that untouched food was going.

I totally agree. I both understand and hate things like this (like if you're wanting a combo and you want to substitute something cheaper/healthier). Sometimes we let rules get in the way of common sense

 

[bsmcneil]

I don't quite understand why people get so upset about food being thrown away....

It happens every hour of every day & at the end of the night, in just about all restaurants, food goes into the garbage.....It's not possible to send that food to those who really need it (although it would be great if we could) It's not going to stop so what's the point of getting upset about it?

To the OP, I'm glad to hear that both the food & service were great & I hope your trip was as well!

The fact that it happens as often as you said should make you (and it does make me) sick. What's possible is using less, eating less and being less wasteful. Part of the problem the world faces (and by that I mean the problem that the Industrialized world gives to the whole world) is wastefulness of resources. When America and Western society collapses, which will happen (just like Rome, Greece, etc etc etc) it will be because we cannot manage our resources and we think that we can do anything, simply because we can.

Oh, free food that I don't need (an example I saw this week while feeding the homeless), sure I'll take it, just because.

Drive 30 miles out of the way to buy clothes when there's a store 15 miles away (or, God forbid, making our own or something), sure because we can.

It's just sad that people can be so flip about the limited amount of resources we have.

 

[KMLOVESWDW]

 

[marcyinPA]

Most likely, the fruit on the cart wasn't marked with a snack symbol because, well, individual pieces of fruit have been a Snack since the onset of the Disney Dining Plan.

actually, it wasn't individual pieces of fruit. It was fruit cups, fruit salads, watermelon chunks, etc. I'm not new to the Dining Plan, but some people are and don't do their research like those on the Dis do. I think everything should be clearly marked, so there are no questions (or at least less questions!)

 

[Colleen27]

I totally agree. I both understand and hate things like this (like if you're wanting a combo and you want to substitute something cheaper/healthier). Sometimes we let rules get in the way of common sense

I think that's one of the down sides of the technological age we live in. Common sense is overruled by a computerized check out, inventory tracking and dining plan credit system that cannot account for the variations of human preference. Something as simple as substituting a banana for a sandwich becomes ridiculously complicated when there is no appropriate entry for it in the computer system and no way for the computer to accomidate a judgement call.

It is the same thing that some people have been reporting regarding using adult credits for kids' meals. Even though it should be obvious that it is to Disney's advantage for those credits to be used on the less expensive kids' meals and that it is likely to to be a common request when "adult" starts at 10 years old, it seems that in the process of seperating adult and child credits, the computerized interface lacks a mechanism for handling that situation.

 

[marcyinPA]

I think that's one of the down sides of the technological age we live in. Common sense is overruled by a computerized check out, inventory tracking and dining plan credit system that cannot account for the variations of human preference. Something as simple as substituting a banana for a sandwich becomes ridiculously complicated when there is no appropriate entry for it in the computer system and no way for the computer to accomidate a judgement call.

It is the same thing that some people have been reporting regarding using adult credits for kids' meals. Even though it should be obvious that it is to Disney's advantage for those credits to be used on the less expensive kids' meals and that it is likely to to be a common request when "adult" starts at 10 years old, it seems that in the process of seperating adult and child credits, the computerized interface lacks a mechanism for handling that situation.

What makes that particular situation even more maddening is that last trip (2005-free dining), we ate at the Main Street Bakery and were able to get ANY two items and a drink for a CS credit. You could pick 2 pastries, or a pastry and a fruit, or a pastry and the yogurt parfait....it was totally up to you. If it was so easy back then, why so difficult now??

 

[bsmcneil]

I think that's one of the down sides of the technological age we live in. Common sense is overruled by a computerized check out, inventory tracking and dining plan credit system that cannot account for the variations of human preference. Something as simple as substituting a banana for a sandwich becomes ridiculously complicated when there is no appropriate entry for it in the computer system and no way for the computer to accomidate a judgement call.

It is the same thing that some people have been reporting regarding using adult credits for kids' meals. Even though it should be obvious that it is to Disney's advantage for those credits to be used on the less expensive kids' meals and that it is likely to to be a common request when "adult" starts at 10 years old, it seems that in the process of seperating adult and child credits, the computerized interface lacks a mechanism for handling that situation.

What's weird to me (about this and the OP story - NOT that I'm saying OP is lying, cuz I'm sure he/she's not) but in my experience, this is the sort of thing CMs and WDW is good at - just doing the common sense thing without dealing with the BS. For example, how often we've heard stories of people having a shirt ruined or something and a CM helping to replace it. While it may not happen all the time, it should be in the purview of CMs to do this sort of thing (especially when it obviously is an advantage for disney). It's one thing to give away a tshirt in hopes that good customer service will bring more money. It's another to give away a banana (that you may 1 dollar profit on) than a french loaf (which you make 50 cents profit on) or whatever the figures are (adult/kids cs for instance).

 

[rentayenta]

Did you buy that with a snack credit?

 

[bicker]

I don't quite understand why people get so upset about food being thrown away....

It happens every hour of every day & at the end of the night, in just about all restaurants, food goes into the garbage.....It's not possible to send that food to those who really need it (although it would be great if we could) It's not going to stop so what's the point of getting upset about it?

Not only that, but we have lots and lots of food. Food is a renewal resource. There is no "wasting" going on, as if it was about to "run out."

Worry about wasting fuel. We could all take hybrid cars down to WDW instead of flying in jets, and save a lot of fuel, which is not renewable. Or even while flying, many of us could stand to lose a lot of weight, and bring half as much luggage, and that will save a lot of fuel, which again is not renewable. We can all move closer to work instead of wasting so much fuel commuting so far. Fuel is definitely something to worry about wasting.

 

[bicker]

Part of the problem the world faces (and by that I mean the problem that the Industrialized world gives to the whole world) is wastefulness of resources. When America and Western society collapses, which will happen (just like Rome, Greece, etc etc etc) it will be because we cannot manage our resources and we think that we can do anything, simply because we can.

However, food is the wrong target. Yes, fuel, and trees, and things like that -- scarce resources that need to be protected, should be protected. Food is not. If anything, we need to find new ways to use MORE food (without eating it) or we're basically wasting the American farmer.

 

[NMW]

there's never a reason to waste food. you could've: treated someone, paid OOP, let credits go to waste, save it for later or any number of things. i'm so sick of the wastefulness of this world.

Well, I agree that they could have just paid OOP for a banana. I probably would have done that (or just use a snack credit), but she did say it was the last day of the trip. So, maybe, there wouldn't be another chance to use the CS credit that they paid for. Also, the DDP is non-transferrable, so it's not like she could have just given 1 CS credit to someone outside their party. People waste food everyday. It's not like there is anyway for me to get the food I throw out after my family eats dinner to someone who really needs it. I don't think wasting food and wasting non-renewable resources are the same thing. Also, to suggest that western civilization will crumble because someone throws out a breakfast sandwich, is a leap.

 

[Tink10]

The fact that it happens as often as you said should make you (and it does make me) sick. What's possible is using less, eating less and being less wasteful. Part of the problem the world faces (and by that I mean the problem that the Industrialized world gives to the whole world) is wastefulness of resources. When America and Western society collapses, which will happen (just like Rome, Greece, etc etc etc) it will be because we cannot manage our resources and we think that we can do anything, simply because we can.

Oh, free food that I don't need (an example I saw this week while feeding the homeless), sure I'll take it, just because.

Drive 30 miles out of the way to buy clothes when there's a store 15 miles away (or, God forbid, making our own or something), sure because we can.

It's just sad that people can be so flip about the limited amount of resources we have.

I agree with Bicker that food is a renewable resourse and there aren't any negative effects from anyone throwing away something that they either don't like or can't finish. So no, it doesn't make me sick. What are the alternatives? I really do prefer that restaurants throw away perishables at the end of the night.....Heck, It's a safety issue and I know that I would want to eat old food....

The only other option to prevent food waste at Disney would be for Disney to reduce portions even further......Would that really make anyone happy?