Dining - I also found that Boma, CRT, Akershus and Chef Mickey's handled a group fairly well. Sometimes with tables just adjacent to each other, sometimes with tables pushed together to make one big one. I hear that Mickey's Backyard BBQ is good for groups, too. Even though I like to think I'm pretty bright
I found the Dining plan hard to understand prior to using it a couple times (what's included at a Counter Service? what's not? do I have to do anything special? what about tipping?) I suggest telling your guests to stop in to your resort's counter service at an off time and ask a CM to explain it to them. I've found the CM's extremely kind and helpful this way and it's easier to "get it" when you're right there looking at all the menus and food options. That's of course for CS and snacks - for TS, just be sure to explain that tipping, adult beverages and appetizers are not included, but can still be purchased and put on cash/credit.
This is some good points, though I slightly disagree about dining in big groups. When I said
DDP eliminated some problems, a biggie was reducing the
part of my group that whined about food (and time) costs at every TS meal, even though I'd sent menu information!
We've dined all over, and while some meals were relatively smooth, we repeatedly ran into the following issues:
1. Seated WELL past our ADR time.
2. In some ways DDP is simple, but in other ways, it is a bit confusing. At least part of my family prefers snacking over complete meals, so they would do things like use a full meal credit- even though they didn't order a drink or dessert, THEN an hour later, they'd use a snack credit to get a coffee. Explaining didn't help.
3. A second confusing thing about DDP is that credit are charged per room. It doesn't include alcohol, tip, or meal extras, so you easily end up with a pile of slips (three per room) at the end of every meal. If you have four hotel rooms, you 'll end up with 12 charge slips: A.) shows meals ordered, B.) shows DDP credits (with place to add tip), C.) shows alcohol and extras, plus tip
4. Meal credits are SUPPOSED to be charged PER room, but servers don't always get it right. Sometimes they charged the wrong room. Worse, they sometimes charged kid meals an adult TS credit (from the wrong room). Getting the charges fixed requires a manager, and that takes a while.
5. Group members need to expect to pay the gratuity at TS. If they get the most expensive item, the tip is quite a bit higher. If they don't understand how DDP works, they won't budget for tips. (which brings me back to whining over meal costs) With large groups, I think servers added 18% gratuity, so check for that when you get the bill.
6. Several servers automatically charged the overages back to our room. Even when we said we didn't want to do it that way.
In the end, we just took turns paying the gratuity, instead of trying to figure out the specifics of who owed what.
***
I also requested a paper copy of the hotel bill on our last full day. Otherwise, your cc gets charged overnight, and you only get an email copy. I found it worth my while to review the bill.
We also learned to avoid the charging back to our room privileges with a group.
