Side items instead of dessert

bookgirl2632 · Jul 31, 2015

For those that have been to WDW since the changes were made, have you tried to sub out your dessert at QS locations for a side item? For instance, I'd like to get a salad or the pretzel knots at Pinocchio Village Haus instead of dessert. Has anyone tried something like that?

JACKNAG · Jul 31, 2015

I would like to know also especially at table service,
And how were the salads or soup substitute, and was it worth it or just Generic.

sharonabe · Jul 31, 2015

No one is reporting back. The only report we've seen for sure was at The Wave where they had a specific veggie as the substitution offer. It could be that the restaurants are not fully trained yet. The changes were made "official" in the 2016 brochure, but we don't know how the CMs are treating this right now.

Lisaloo · Jul 31, 2015

We were there last week and I was never able to substitute a side for a dessert. I asked at multiple locations.

mom2AidanAndEli · Jul 31, 2015

Lisaloo said:
We were there last week and I was never able to substitute a side for a dessert. I asked at multiple locations.

Where were you when you tried to do this--TS or QS--or which restaurants? And what were you trying to substitute?

Just trying to figure out if it's possible anywhere!

supersnoop · Jul 31, 2015

Note that the brochure says you can sub a snack item, not a side item. I'm not sure how often those are the same.

jon18uk · Jul 31, 2015

supersnoop said:
Note that the brochure says you can sub a snack item, not a side item. I'm not sure how often those are the same.

and of course Table Service don't serve snacks, so it may not be possible there. But at places like Flame Tree BBQ where Onion Rings are a snack you might be able to substitute. But as the only written policy is the 2016 brochure it could be next year until you can do this for certain.

bookgirl2632 · Jul 31, 2015

jon18uk said:
and of course Table Service don't serve snacks, so it may not be possible there. But at places like Flame Tree BBQ where Onion Rings are a snack you might be able to substitute. But as the only written policy is the 2016 brochure it could be next year until you can do this for certain.

I know that TS is different. And yes, I'm aware that it is a snack item you can sub. As for it being for 2016, all the press that Disney put out made it seem that this was effective May 31, 2015. That's why I was wondering if anyone had tried it successfully. I'd love to get onion rings at Flame Tree instead of a dessert. That's the type of substitution I'd love to be able to do.

baerchenland · Jul 31, 2015

I did read somewhere else (probably theDIBB) that people where able to substitute at QS locations. TS I have not found any positive info. And since we will not need it at Sanaa and 50s Prime next month, I cannot help there... But QS, I will report back in 4 weeks as I will try at multiple locations...

jon18uk · Jul 31, 2015

bookgirl2632 said:
I know that TS is different. And yes, I'm aware that it is a snack item you can sub. As for it being for 2016, all the press that Disney put out made it seem that this was effective May 31, 2015. That's why I was wondering if anyone had tried it successfully. I'd love to get onion rings at Flame Tree instead of a dessert. That's the type of substitution I'd love to be able to do.

Disney didn't put any press out about this. Many fan sites (such as this one) reported on it but no press release came out of Disney. I guess the fan sites got the info from internal Cast briefings. Thats why the only written statement at switching dessert for a snack that has come direct from Disney is the 2016 brochure.

madge · Jul 31, 2015

bookgirl2632 said:
For those that have been to WDW since the changes were made, have you tried to sub out your dessert at QS locations for a side item? For instance, I'd like to get a salad or the pretzel knots at Pinocchio Village Haus instead of dessert. Has anyone tried something like that?

we ate lunch at BoG earlier this month ... had no trouble swapping 2 cupcakes for 2 soups. That swap enabled our family to use only 3 credits instead of 4. HTH!

PoohsHunnyBee · Jul 31, 2015

I know I saw a report on here that someone had tried to swap for the onion rings at Flame Tree and was told no. I can't find it to link though. Hopefully, they just got an uninformed CM, but considering the changes were supposed to be in place a full month before Flame Tree reopened, who knows?

madge said:
we ate lunch at BoG earlier this month ... had no trouble swapping 2 cupcakes for 2 soups. That swap enabled our family to use only 3 credits instead of 4. HTH!

Awesome! Did you preorder? I'm worried about preordering with substitutions and this is the first report I've seen of someone trying (and succeeding!) in substituting for soup!

supersnoop · Jul 31, 2015

PoohsHunnyBee said:
I know I saw a report on here that someone had tried to swap for the onion rings at Flame Tree and was told no. I can't find it to link though. Hopefully, they just got an uninformed CM, but considering the changes were supposed to be in place a full month before Flame Tree reopened, who knows?

Disney has only said that the changes take place in 2016, so I don't doubt that some CM's are still uninformed. And Flame Tree has a long history of not allowing you to swap out side dishes, so this could be confusing when you order. They won't trade one side for another, so asking to trade a drink or dessert for a side could catch them off guard.

madge · Jul 31, 2015

PoohsHunnyBee said:
I know I saw a report on here that someone had tried to swap for the onion rings at Flame Tree and was told no. I can't find it to link though. Hopefully, they just got an uninformed CM, but considering the changes were supposed to be in place a full month before Flame Tree reopened, who knows?

Awesome! Did you preorder? I'm worried about preordering with substitutions and this is the first report I've seen of someone trying (and succeeding!) in substituting for soup!

we intentionally did not, so we could try to make the switch.

PoohsHunnyBee · Jul 31, 2015

supersnoop said:
Disney has only said that the changes take place in 2016, so I don't doubt that some CM's are still uninformed. And Flame Tree has a long history of not allowing you to swap out side dishes, so this could be confusing when you order. They won't trade one side for another, so asking to trade a drink or dessert for a side could catch them off guard.

Actually, Disney is saying that the changes in the 2016 brochure are in effect now. There has not been, nor will there be IMHO, an announcement about this; however, it seems like guest services CMs are all saying that the QS substitutions are currently available.

I know not to blindly trust what an individual Disney CM says, but when they're all saying the same thing...maybe you'll think I'm naive, but personally I believe it. *Note: This is only in reference to substituting QS beverages and desserts for other snack items; not any of the rumored changes which received no mention in the 2016 dining plan brochures!

But there's a big difference between guest services knowing what you can do with your dining plan credits and food-service CMs being trained on what is allowed and how to enter it in the system! I think this is the problem we're seeing and now that we're two months out from when the changes were said to be in effect, hopefully we'll be seeing more positive reports like madge's.

bookgirl2632 · Aug 1, 2015

PoohsHunnyBee said:
But there's a big difference between guest services knowing what you can do with your dining plan credits and food-service CMs being trained on what is allowed and how to enter it in the system! I think this is the problem we're seeing and now that we're two months out from when the changes were said to be in effect, hopefully we'll be seeing more positive reports like madge's.

Yeah, my trip is at the end of September/early October. I'm hoping to see more positive reports about this in the next couple of months.

PoohsHunnyBee · Aug 1, 2015

bookgirl2632 said:
Yeah, my trip is at the end of September/early October. I'm hoping to see more positive reports about this in the next couple of months.

Me too, but unfortunately the last two months have only shown a handful of reports. I'm hopeful but doubtful that we'll start seeing a lot more reports these next two months.

happymommy · Aug 2, 2015

We have the free QS plan in a month, and I'm hoping we can sub desserts for snacks. I don't care for any of the desserts offered at the QS places really!
I will report back what we find. Fingers crossed!

jon18uk · Aug 2, 2015

happymommy said:
We have the free QS plan in a month, and I'm hoping we can sub desserts for snacks. I don't care for any of the desserts offered at the QS places really!
I will report back what we find. Fingers crossed!

Just don't forget that there are a lot of QS places where the only snack credits are beverages and desserts. In this case you might be better off taking dessert.

madge · Aug 2, 2015

happymommy said:
We have the free QS plan in a month, and I'm hoping we can sub desserts for snacks. I don't care for any of the desserts offered at the QS places really!
I will report back what we find. Fingers crossed!

that reminds me ... when we ate at Columbia Harbor House, I casually mentioned that I didn't want the dessert and wished I could get something else .. more just sort of lamenting than requesting, if that makes sense. The CM offered me the option of getting bottled waters, which I had sort of forgotten about. we were hot and hungry, bordering on hangry. I wasn't worried about trying to swap anything at that point. LOL

at BoG, I asked specifically if I could get soup instead of cupcakes.

we also were able to trade 3 snacks for a CS meal at Everything Pop! ... but we were able to do that before the announcement, like 2 years ago.

Side items instead of dessert

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