Newbie to the food deals...please please help!

[heathersmom]

OKAY: I am in charge of a group of 6 of us meeting at Disney in February 2011.
My husband and I have gone before but we always just ate the bare minimum at our hotel . Because we have others involved this time AND b/c we upgraded from the free QDDP to the DDP--I want to make sure everyone gets their
$$$ worth. First my problem is: 18% gratuity for our party to sit together???
What do they do ? Charge right to my credit card at the hotel?
2nd: My hubby says he CANNOT believe we have to make a plan and reservations for every day...is it at all possible to walk in to a park and say " Hey we'd like to try this today..." and get a reservation?
Please please HELP me...we have a budget and we already used most of it to upgrade for the food...ANY ideas, ANY ONE already been down this route...ANY suggestions? 4 adults, 1 Senior and 1 child...Please And THANK YOU!!!!

 

[chryscrazy]

In February you would probably be able to get seated without an ADR, but you would have better luck at the resorts than in the park. I would still go ahead and make the reservations, and then maybe if you feel like something else, see if you can get in and then call and cancel the other.

 

[plutolovr]

First my problem is: 18% gratuity for our party to sit together???
What do they do ? Charge right to my credit card at the hotel?

Yes, with a party of 6 you will be charged 18% automatically. However, you can pay however you want. I would suggest that you have everyone in your group bring some cash and you can divide it up equally and just pay with cash. Since you'll be using the Dining Plan, the tip should be the only thing you need to pay for unless some in your party get extras like appetizers and alcoholic beverages.

 

[Nadjalu]

Yes the 18% will be added to the bill and as PP said you can pay it with cash, cc, kttw card, gift card...however, but it will be charged to your party.

And I disagree with PP that said you shouldn't have issue with walking up.
I do believe you will as another poster said.
With free dining going on more people stay onsite to use this promo and the restaurants book up whether the parks are full or not.
And with more people staying onsite, the resort restaurants book fast as well, because people like to eat where they are staying.

So with that in mind, also consider this. What happens if you don't make adrs for your sit down meals and you can't find one when you get there....you are forced to eat CS for your TS credit. If you paid to upgrade then you are losing money.

Last time we went was a free dining period and a very slow time of year....4 of the 6 days we were there we seen a sandwich board at all park enterances saying "we're sorry but all TS restaurants are booked and no walk ups are being taken. Please enjoy one of our CS locations for your meal".

And these notices were out by 10-11am.

I can't stress enough, make all your adrs for where you "think" you might want to eat. THen when you get there and want to change check it out, if you can cancel the adr and go with that. But at least you will have somewhere to sit and eat.

 

[purple figment]

OKAY: I am in charge of a group of 6 of us meeting at Disney in February 2011.
My husband and I have gone before but we always just ate the bare minimum at our hotel . Because we have others involved this time AND b/c we upgraded from the free QDDP to the DDP--I want to make sure everyone gets their
$$$ worth. ANY suggestions? 4 adults, 1 Senior and 1 child...Please And THANK YOU!!!!

To get the value of your plan you must make reservations when your 180 day mark rolls around. In February there will be Valentine's Day and President's week end and free dining so the restaurants will fill up.

I know it's difficult to plan 6 months in advance, but since you are on a budget and do not want to spend anything more than the gratuities, you will definitely need to have all your meals planned out. Otherwise it's quite likely you will find yourself traveling to the resorts or eating more CS meals in the parks than the one per day on your DDP.

While the 18% gratuity is automatic you can look at the menus on allears and on the DisneyWorld sites to see which restaurants have overall less expensive menus such as Rose & Crown vs. Tutto. Also if a restaurant has different lunch and dinner menus, lunch is typically less expensive so you can have your TS at lunch and CS at dinner.

 

[BriarRosie]

Be cautious about presenting your resort ID with the DDP credits. One of my friends last month had the gratuity charged to the room, and she was upset because she wanted to pay for it in cash. The server messed up by not allowing her a choice. I think it's a good idea to tell the server before he or she takes your dining credits, "We would like to pay the tip in cash."

We didn't have ours charged to our room because we didn't put a credit card down at our resort for charging privileges (which also covers Express Check Out). We were able to use our DDP credits and pay the tip in cash.

 

[TruBlu]

I wouldn't risk going without ADRs. If you get there and find that restaurants are empty you can always cancel and change as you go.

To avoid having an ADR every day, you could plan a TS breakfast (skip lunch) and have an early TS dinner in the same day. That will leave you a day with 2 CS meals. We do this at least 2 days every trip - usually CMs breakfast and a big TS dinner OR Sci-Fi lunch (early) and a late TS dinner.

 

[francie57]

I would make ADRs since Feb. had the free dining and the holiday. Most schools around here have a week off around the holiday - some before and some after. I wouldn't take the chance since you are a party of 6 and that size may be hard to accommodate as a walk up. As for the tip, we just got back and I just gave them my room key for the ddp and simply told them I would be leaving the tip in cash. We never had a problem.

 

[Tricia1972]

Closing this thread, all tipping discussion on the restaurant board is limited to the Tipping Sticky at the top of this forum.

The first post has a tipping FAQ, as well as explains why there is just one thread and thread guidelines.