PrePaid Meals?

[Chris9ty]

We were given an all-expense paid trip for my Dad's 30 years at his workplace. We are working with our travel agent to figure out how to best pay for our meals in advance. She tried but can't get the dining plan because we aren't staying on site. She is looking into the Blue Bayou Halloween event because it is prepaid, but that's not really our cup of tea since we have young kids and don't want to miss the party. We are looking into booking a night at Medieval Times since she can pay in advance for it. Any other ideas for prepaid meals at Disneyland or in the area?

 

[califlorican]

Could you get the dining vouchers to be included, so you can decide what you want to eat once you're there?
Or gift cards?

 

[RichP1269]

Disney gift cards.

 

[figment_jii]

Is there a reason the meals have to pre-paid? There really aren't that many pre-paid meals within DLR itself.

I don't think they're necessarily a very good value, but you can look into purchasing the character meal vouchers (see Mousesavers for more information).

 

[SMD]

There is no longer a dining plan at DLR, it's not just because you're not staying on site. You can buy vouchers for character meals. They're an option as an extra when booking through the Disney site, so they should be available to travel agents as well.

 

[agamble]

You can use the vouchers at the character meals, but you can also use them for their value at other restaurants. So that may be a good way to have prepaid dining. I think you have to use the entire amount at one time though, so it's not the best option. The other option is gift cards. If they gave you a set amount of money per person per day for food it could all be loaded onto a gift card and prepaid that way.

 

[keltiesmom]

you do have to use the entire voucher at one time, but you can do a voucher and cash so that you arent wasting a voucher. we did this on our last trip and it did save us some money at a couple of meals.

 

[sheetz]

In addition to Medieval Times Buena Park also has the Pirates Dinner Adventure
http://piratesdinneradventureca.com/

 

[Chris9ty]

My travel agent is used to planning for Disney World since we live on the East coast, so Disneyland has been all new territory for her. It would be nice to have as much as we could paid in advance so we don't have to cash a check and carry cash around with us.
Thanks for the ideas, but we can't buy the Character dining vouchers through Disney since we aren't staying on property. But Gift cards are an option and our travel agent is looking into how much we would need and how best to do it.

 

[Chris9ty]

In addition to Medieval Times Buena Park also has the Pirates Dinner Adventure
http://piratesdinneradventureca.com/

Thanks, I forgot about this one, I'll ask the family and see what they say.

 

[wilkeliza]

Just have the person who is doing the all expense trip put it on a Visa card. Usually in these instances there is a "per diem" amount for food so if they just put that on a prepaid credit card you can just pay for everything with that and not be tied to a prepaid reservation you may not want.

 

[SMD]

My travel agent is used to planning for Disney World since we live on the East coast, so Disneyland has been all new territory for her. It would be nice to have as much as we could paid in advance so we don't have to cash a check and carry cash around with us.
Thanks for the ideas, but we can't buy the Character dining vouchers through Disney since we aren't staying on property. But Gift cards are an option and our travel agent is looking into how much we would need and how best to do it.

You don't have to stay on property to buy the vouchers, they're also available when you book Good Neighbor hotels. You don't even have to buy them through Disney. Get Away Today and aRes both sell the vouchers. Dream Unlimited might as well. Have you thought about consulting a travel agent that does Disneyland? Maybe they'd know if you can buy them a la carte through Disney.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Second the recommendation for Disney gift cards. They can be used in the parks and at the on site hotel restaurants (e.g. Steakhouse 55, Storytellers Cafe, etc.). This way you will get the full value of the card. With the dining plan vouchers, other posters have reported that you don't get change. So you lose whatever remaining balance was on the voucher if you buy something for a lesser value.

 

[MichelleWDWfan]

I recommend Disney Gift Cards to pay for meals and souveniers. I do this for every trip at WDW and am doing it for our 1st visit to DL.
They sell them at our local grocery stores. Luckily they sell $100 and $500 at our stores so I don't have to buy a lot of them.
You can go onto allears.net in the Disneyland / dining section and view the menus & pricing for most all restaurants on the property including quick service.
This is really helpful to estimate your approximate food costs and start buying Disney Gift Cards ahead of time.

For our trip next week I totaled up all of the amounts for our table service meals/dining packages for Fantasmic and WoC,
then added a bit extra each day for snacks, beverages. Don't forget to also add in extra for tax/tips