I think I got ripped off on the Dining Plan.

[Statler]

I'm sorry if this is confusing. Ill try to explain the situation the best I can. I just can't help but feeling that I got ripped off on my DDP credits.

I went with three other people. I stayed alone in my room and they stayed in another room. We stayed for 6 nights and were on the Dining Plan. So we each had 6 table credits. 18 total for their room and 6 for mine.

This was our first time on the DDP and the first place we ate was Coral Reef. After the meal, we all handed the waitress our room keys. She told us that that it would be easier to just charge all four meals to their account and I could just use my credits for their meals sometime later in the week. (So they had 14 credits and I still had 6)

So later in the week we went to Chef Mickey's and I put four meals on my plan. So now I had two credits left. The waitress knew exactly what we were doing and it went fine.

We went to Le Cellier later in the week and I still had 2 credits left. At the end of the meal, we asked all four meals to be put on their account, just as we had done earlier. The waitress refused and said that I needed to use my own account. She would not let them put my meal on their account. We told her that we had done it all week and the waitress at Coral Reef told us it was easier. She still refused.

The next night we had ADRs. They had 7 credits left and I only had one. (For a total of 8) Jiko told me that I could not combine my credits with theirs so I had to pay OOP since I did not have two credits in my DDP. The cost was $71.

I am a little ticked that Le Cellier did not let the other people at the table pay for me using their credits. Nobody else had a problem and it made things much easier. We both had an extra table service credit left over because of this plus I had to pay $71 out of pocket. This doesn't seem fair to me and could have been prevented if Le Cellier had simply let us do what we had been doing all week.

Is there some rule that says we were not allowed to do that?

 

[Tricia1972]

Unfortunately the brocuhure is clear that paying for more dinners than what is shown on your Keys to the Kingdom Card is prohibited.

I think the CM's who dropped the ball on this one are the ones who instructed you to NOT follow the rules! You did get the short end of the stick in this and that's unfortunate.

Q. Can I use my Disney Dining Plan to redeem meals for friends or family members who are not included in my reservation and have not purchased this plan.
A. Sorry, you may not use your Disney Dining Plan to redeem meals for friends or family members who are not included in your reservation and have not purchased this plan.

 

[Samandmom]

Sorry you had encoutered this problem. You should have spoken to a manager and told them that the other restaurants told you to just do the one bill. We had the dinning plan on two rooms. (my family of 4 and my niece and nephew in their room) On the second day a waiter at Whispering Canyon Cafe messed up the credits and took the wrong amounts off the wrong cards. So we told him and he fixed it on one card and said on the next dinning we could use the other card. We did not have a problem doing so.

 

[solgent]

We went to Le Cellier later in the week and I still had 2 credits left. At the end of the meal, we asked all four meals to be put on their account, just as we had done earlier. The waitress refused and said that I needed to use my own account. She would not let them put my meal on their account. We told her that we had done it all week and the waitress at Coral Reef told us it was easier. She still refused.

The next night we had ADRs. They had 7 credits left and I only had one. (For a total of 8) Jiko told me that I could not combine my credits with theirs so I had to pay OOP since I did not have two credits in my DDP. The cost was $71.

I am a little ticked that Le Cellier did not let the other people at the table pay for me using their credits. Nobody else had a problem and it made things much easier. We both had an extra table service credit left over because of this plus I had to pay $71 out of pocket. This doesn't seem fair to me and could have been prevented if Le Cellier had simply let us do what we had been doing all week.

After Le Cell, you were alerted that there might be a problem with using credits from another room. But you went to Jiko the next night expecting to be able to redistribute credits. I would have gone to the front desk of the hotel when I got back from Le Cell and explained the whole thing to them and asked them to straighten it out so everything would be smooth the next night. I know it's a hassle to take time out to deal with things like this and it would be easier if all the restaurants handled things the same way. Then there wouldn't have been an issue. But I think you had a chance to prevent the problem at Jiko.

Also it seems to me that your companions in the other room should share the $71 expense because they had an equal part in the situation.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Yes, you got hosed.......by the server who gave you bad advice at Coral Reef and by your friends who let you foot the whole $71 bill for the Jiko meal. It is good advice to take such a matter up at the front desk of your hotel when something like this happens (they probably could have put the proper credits in the proper places), but many people wouldn't have thought of that.

 

[clkelley]

Thanks for bringing that to our attention. We'll be in a similar situation, a party of 5 adults on two separate reservations. 3 adults on one card, and 2 adults on another card, but often eating together. We'll insist that none of the servers "combines" us for ease.

 

[Statler]

Yeah, I guess I should have tried to straighten it out before going to Jiko. Live and learn I guess. Still had a great time.

 

[scrapperjill]

Wow...it dose sound like you got the short end of the stick. And it's a shame that the other party didn't offer to pay for part of the bill...after all them having the large group and using up most of your credits early in the trip is what caused you to be short in the end. At least you had a good time...and learned a lesson...which you've also taught many of us. We'll be in a simular situation in just a couple weeks. I'm afraid it'll be way to easy for our credits to get mixed up. We'll have 4 groups that'll have 3adults, 4 adults, 2 adults and another one with 4adults Now you've got me wondering how to make it easer for the waitstaff. I know for some of the meals DH and I plan on shareing with our kids...so at times we'll only be using 2-3 credits at a meal. I'm not sure what the rest of the group plans on doing....but it's sounding like it could be one HUGE mess

 

[minster22]

We had the same thing happen to us when we went in June. Our first night at Spoodles the waiter told us the same thing, just give me one card and it all works out in the end. Well when we went to pay for our dinners on the last night at California Grille, the same thing happened as you...only one credit left because the other credit we needed was on another room key.We paid OOP and when we returned to the hotel spend quite a bit of time straightening it all out. The poor CM at Guest Services had to go back to the first night and rearrange all our credits (I had to bring our nephew who had another room and the "extra" credit on his room key to verify the whole thing)and then have her issue a credit to my credit card for the OOP expense.And the credit never went back on my credit card as promised and I had to call back after I got home to get it finally straightened out!!Funny the amount was very similar to yours..... $71.00.Only hassle we had on the DDP and not sure if the server did not know or was just taking a shortcut.If you have all receipts and everything I would give Guest Services a try from home, you definately could have fixed it from WDW.

 

[gina2000]

If CMs aren't following rules that have been set up, it's WDW's fault. And this is a huge bone of contention when money is involved. Should the OP have checked sooner? Sure. But you know something? Customer service is getting more and more shoddy at WDW. This thread is proof of it.

 

[JimMIA]

Yes, you got hosed.......by the server who gave you bad advice at Coral Reef and by your friends who let you foot the whole $71 bill for the Jiko meal.

Yep! You had the misfortune of running into one CM at Le Cellier who did the right thing. I know you didn't like the answer, but it was the correct answer.

The server at Coral Reef was just being lazy, and risking her job to boot!

 

[JimMIA]

You might try writing a letter to Disney Dining explaining the situation and asking (nicely) for some help. You obviously know when you were there, what room you and your friends were in, and where you ate each night. They can easily reconstruct the dining charges and see what happened.

And it's not going to be a question of he said, she said. If a server charged more meals to a card than there were people in the room, they're wrong...period.

If your friends ended up with TS credits left over, Disney Dining might be able to go back in and journal entry some changes to charge the Jiko meal to your friends leftover credits and reverse your credit card charge.

Disney Dining put those rules in as a response to abuse of the plan by guests, but your situation is not like that. It's very clear in your case that nobody was trying to get anything they weren't entitled to -- it was just two servers being lazy and one following the rules.

It's a longshot, but it might be worth a try.

 

[Lewisc]

Larger parties, in two rooms, had their credits on two cards. Originally the dining plan could only have a maximum number of 4 guests on one card.

This isn't exactly the same situation but a CM at the resort should have been able to make an adjustment.

Yep! You had the misfortune of running into one CM at Le Cellier who did the right thing. I know you didn't like the answer, but it was the correct answer.

The server at Coral Reef was just being lazy, and risking her job to boot!

 

[NMW]

That really stinks for you. The brochure is really clear. I think the first two CM's were just being lazy and when you ran into CM's following the plan correctly, you were unfortunately the loser. Did your friends offer to split the Jiko cost with you at least?

 

[familyS]

They were lucky you still had the cash at the end of your vacation to cover it!
I have the same question as the previous poster- since your "friends" used your credits, did they pay at least 3/4 of that oop expense?

 

[danalee]

we had this happen to us, I was in the restroom and the waitress says "oh I can just put them on one card blah, blah" so my family's is like um ok? (we had 4 on 1 card and 2 on another)

So i get back to the table get the story and went to the manager, and made them fix it, well they said they fixed it, they didnt. I had to go to the front desk at the hotel and they fixed it. it was a hassle but I knew (from reading these boards) that it could cause a problem somewhere down the line. The CM at POP said "this happens now and again, some servers think its ok?" well someone might want to tell them its not!

This happened at Sci Fi by the way.

 

[nezy]

This happened w/us -sort of-although it all ended up ok, because we fixed it among ourselves. We went to Rose and Crown and ordered some Pub Food-so it was CS meals. We paid at the bar-when I went to give the bartender my card and my friend gave hers for her family, he put it all on hers and gave me a look like "you have got to be kidding"when I suggested he put my families meals on my card. It was too much of a hassle for him to think about splitting up the check I guess.

We figured it out ourselves and just "bought" w/ my card the same # of meals to recipricate. Should they do seperate checks from the start? I have always hated that "seperate checks" thing, but I could see why you might need it it the case of the OP.

 

[spindoctors]

I have a question about our upcoming trip. We are a family of five - me, dh, ds 12, ds 11 and dd 8 - staying in two rooms at Pop. I was told that because of the way the reservations were made by our TA that my husband would have one key card with the three adult dining plans and I would have another key card with one child and one adult. Do you think the front desk can put us all together on the key cards? It will be a real pain when we split up if dh can never get a meal for dd and if I can never get a meal for the boys. What a mess!

 

[honeymo78]

Even if they can't put the all on one card (which I don't think they can do), as long as each child carries their own card (or Dad carries your dd's and you carry one of the boys cards - that way each parent has one of each card type) you won't have a problem.

 

[spindoctors]

I was also told that the dining credits would only be on the two adult cards. Is that incorrect?