Sept. Dining Plan Option...What do you think?

[melomouse]

Bicker..lol - it was the part about being too lazy to truck off to Olivia's or Shutters!

I purposely planned our recent trip to be outta WDW before FDP started, having done FDP last year. One of the things I realized, once again on this trip, was how lucky I am to be a DIS'er and be "in the know".

So many guests on this current promotion are clueless about the number of places to dine on property, how to get there, or the amount of food included in the DP in general. They panic. A lanyard and a couple of snacks looks like redemption!

 

[kaytieeldr]

Well, I'm a relatively new DIS-er who's planned my trips for years. I can easily put my hands on the 1993 and 2004 Unofficial Guides, and if the other ones aren't around here somewhere it's because I've given them away to 'share the wealth'. But I digress. I've learned things here in the last couple of years that I'd have never known on my own. Recent example: Without the DIS, I'd probably still be waiting for Disney to call me about the extended Teppan Edo closing - and I surely wouldn't have known to ask about "VIP" viewing for IllumiNations
But, trade a Table Service credit for Counter Service? Puh-leeze! I know several restaurants where I can likely get seated, if not at the last minute then at least by making reservations at the beginning of my trip for the end of it. And if I can't? Then I ask for suggestions! Trade? No way! Now, trade Counter Service for, say, three snacks? Sure!

 

[LoriZH]

I don't know, I think that would be something we may be interested in. We do have all our TS meals in place, but in truth it is really WAY too much food for us and we LOVE to eat! This is our third time doing DDining (2nd free ) and we find ourselves with extra credits, either CS or Snacks and then scrambling to either give them away or use them up. But, still I may consider it if it were offered.

BTW, has anyone been given this option? I've called to get TS and no one said a word to me when all the dates I was looking for were full, I've filled them now, but definitely not my first or even second choices on some, those I did a long time ago.

 

[Jenna45]

We just returned last nite, it was 2 snacks or a laynard. We did redeem one offer which is why I say that.

Also, we did not have ADRS for 2 meals and were able to walk up and sit almost immediatly , ( CP and Planet Hollywood) CP was at 6:30pm before P&P and PH at lunch 1:00. When I called I could not get an ADR for either. The CM at CP said they always try to accomodate walkups.
We were almost 1 hour late to our Ohana's ressie due to transportation issues but they still seated us with in 15 minutes and this was at 6pm. We also were late somewhere else but I can't remember, I know we had no problems getted seated anywhere we went though including Le Celier which sat us w/in 15 minutes but we had an ADR, I am not sure how easy it would be to walk up there but there were several empty tables which never had people the entire time we dined which was about 90 minutes.

I am sure this was not everyones experiance, but for me overall the dining experiance was fine

PS the last dining ressie we did not have an ADR was for Animal Kingdom for that one they were booked but we are safari club members and they seated us with in 10 minutes

 

[tiggerbell]

So where do you exchange the credits? Front desk? Because 4 members of our party will be doing a signature meal and I'm taking my DD to 9 Dragons that night, so we will each have 1 TS left over.

 

[clombardi]

We just got back from our free dining trip 8/26-8/31. We took advantage of this offer for several reasons.

First, we have been to Disney 3 times this year and we are just sick to death of the nearly identical menu in every restaurant.

Second, we were just so sick of food by the third day, that my daughters just didn't want appetizers and desserts. I thought it would be a waste of food for us to go to a TS and barely touch the food.

So, we traded 5 TS credits for CS credits and received vouchers for 10 snacks. We used these to bring home Disney candy and those Disney altoid-type mints that I love. For us, it was a great solution.

I am sure that if I had paid for dining plan like I have in the past, I would feel the need to use my TS credits in TS restaurants, but since I didn't pay for it, I didn;t mind at all.

As an aside, I attempted to change a reservation time we had at the Plaza in MK. The CM I spoke to checked and it was completely booked the entire week. That really says a lot about how packed the restaurants are.

We ate at the Turf Club at SSR and were really thrilled with the food, the view, the atmosphere, and especially the service. Our waiter JR was the best we've ever had on Disney property.

 

[clombardi]

I forgot to say in my last post that I am an obsessive planner and had all the ADRs made way in advance but wound up not wanting several of them. It just turned into the most laid back trip we've ever taken to WDW. We didn't feel like being tied to our ADRs. So this was another reason that we didn't mind trading TS for CS.

Also I mentioned Turf Club because it was empty and would be a great last minute ADR spot.

 

[clombardi]

I wouldn't recommend taking the exchange but it is an option for people too uninformed or blaise to make advance reservations and too lazy to truck off to Olivia's or Shutters to have dinner.

Not blaise, uninformed, or lazy by any stretch of the imagination just didn't want 5 days of TS meals.

 

[momof2disprincesses]

We just got home like an hour ago and my dh and I commented how nice it would have been to have this offer again as we were just so full from all the food that we would have loved to turn in a ts and do this. However, we didn't know they were offering it again.

We ate yesterday for lunch at LTT and there was a very irate man in front of me in line checking in because he said "you gave us this FREE plan, but there is nowhere to eat!" The cm was so patient with him and so nice and explained about ADR's, which he had never heard of. It was obviously his first day using the dining plan and so she explained to him to talk to the conceirege at his resort and get some ADR's. She also told him (and many others yesterday) that there were NO sit down ADR's available anywhere at MK or Epcot for the rest of the day yesterday.

 

[PudgetteD]

I'm seriously thinking about doing this for all of our ADRs (we only have 3-Sci-Fi, Biergarten, and Plaza). I'm not crazy about German food, have read lots of bad reviews for Sci-Fi, and only took Plaza 'cause nothing else was available. We are only there for 4 nights, so our time is limited and I'd much rather spend it doing something else as we can do counter service much quicker. Also because I'm not a big eater, I tend to graze more so than eat a lot at meal times so those extra snack vouchers would come in handy for me. Plus I could get a couple of extra pins to trade! Think I'll talk it over with DH and see what he thinks, which is usually "Whatever you want, I don't care".

 

[BabyPiglet]

Last year, it was two snacks AND the lanyard. So apparently, that was a little too generous for Disney, so now it is the two snacks and the lanyard.

I wouldn't recommend taking the exchange but it is an option for people too uninformed or blaise to make advance reservations and too lazy to truck off to Olivia's or Shutters to have dinner.

Excuse me. But it may also be an option for people who do not feel like eating all those table services.

What an absolutely horrid blanket statement.

 

[clombardi]

Excuse me. But it may also be an option for people who do not feel like eating all those table services.

What an absolutely horrid blanket statement.

 

[bicker]

Yup, it was a horrible generalization. Sorry about that.