2012 Dining Plan...Unable to book!!!

[kristenrice]

Hi all!

Dad and I just completed booking our 7-night family trip for next June. (I'll be starting a PTR later)

I was wondering if we ran into an isolated (just us) problem, or if anyone else has experienced it. Here's the breakdown of our reservation...

...Saturday: Cash w/ member discount
...Sunday: Points, segmented
...Mon-Th: Points, non-segmented
...Friday: Cash w/ member discount

We segmented the Sunday reservation because we are planning on doing the Illuminations GG dinner on Monday night. Dad did the math and it is a much better deal for us to use the DxDDP for one night. We want to add it to Sunday so that we can get our mugs ASAP.

We booked the first cash night along with the points nights this past Monday. At that time, Dad wanted to add and pay for the DxDDP. The CM said that it wasn't letting him do it. The CM thought it was perhaps because the DxDDP hadn't been finalized yet for next year. (I knew it had been posted on the member website) We figured that we'd just add it later.

Today, I called to book our last night on cash. We asked again if we could add the DxDDP to the Sunday night. The CM put us on hold for about 10 minutes. When she came back, she said there is a "glitch" in the system(go figure!) and it will not let her add it to our reservation.

Side note: Dad has purchased $900 in gift cards (9 X $100) to cover the dining plan. I told him that I don't think they can take more than two forms of payment so he should double check. The CM *assured* us that they do it all the time and paying for the DxDDP with multiple gift cards will NOT be a problem.....time will tell.

She took down my dad's phone number and said that someone from Member Services will call him when the "glitch" is fixed. Has anyone else encountered this? We have 2-2BR villas booked as noted above with a total of 14 people. We're not a huge group so I really doubt that the multiple villas is the problem.

 

[Alexander]

My opinion, and my opinion only....I think the segemented dining may be gone by 2012. There have been nothing but problems with it since it began and it is costing Disney more money and time than it is worth for them. So many people have been given cash refunds or credits because of the problems, not to mention all of the CMs that have to repeatedly issue new room keys and those at the restaurants who have to deal with the wrath of angry guests because there are no dining credits on their keys.

I don't believe there is a glitch, I think they are waiting to see if segmented dining is even going to be available when your trip rolls around.

 

[disneynutz]

My opinion, and my opinion only....I think the segemented dining may be gone by 2012. There have been nothing but problems with it since it began and it is costing Disney more money and time than it is worth for them. So many people have been given cash refunds or credits because of the problems, not to mention all of the CMs that have to repeatedly issue new room keys and those at the restaurants who have to deal with the wrath of angry guests because there are no dining credits on their keys.

I don't believe there is a glitch, I think they are waiting to see if segmented dining is even going to be available when your trip rolls around.

From what I was told Disney didn't intend for people to have so many segments for one travel plan. They thought that most would split their vacation in two, half on the plan, half off. Many are changing plans every day and that takes CM time and is costing Disney money.

Segmenting is being looked at to determine what Disney's true costs are and depending on their findings we may see a policy change allowing only two or three segments per stay.

Bill

 

[kristenrice]

From what I was told Disney didn't intend for people to have so many segments for one travel plan. They thought that most would split their vacation in two, half on the plan, half off. Many are changing plans every day and that takes CM time and is costing Disney money.

Segmenting is being looked at to determine what Disney's true costs are and depending on their findings we may see a policy change allowing only two or three segments per stay.

Bill

I agree, but I have a question...

With our reservation, we had to book 2 nights on cash (first and last since they were the weekends) but the rest were on points. So, is our reservation only "voluntarily segmented" one time because we separated out one night of the five on points? Since we have a cash/points mix, is that automatically considered "segmenting"? Say we wanted our first two nights to have the dining plan...would that be one or two "segments" since one is cash and one is points? (I see how MS gets confused...I think I confused myself!)

I know that Disney's IT department is generally abysmal, and I, myself, have minimal computer knowledge, but I have another question. If they can take a points chart and assign each individual day of the year a point value, why can't the computer be programmed to recognize that on this day, with this dining plan, it will cost xxx points and yyy dollars to the member for that night? Then, couldn't it just combine the consecutive nights and pull together a total of points/dollars? I'm sure there is a completely logical reason why this wouldn't work, but I'm a little simple and cannot figure it out.

 

[quirty30]

Not sure about the segmenting issue for 2012, but I can assure you, they can take multiple gift cards to pay for dining. I rented points to some friends of mine for October, and I used 3 gift cards to pay for their DxDP for 2 nights. It was a pain to read off all the numbers, but it did work.

 

[mopee3]

I agree, but I have a question...

With our reservation, we had to book 2 nights on cash (first and last since they were the weekends) but the rest were on points. So, is our reservation only "voluntarily segmented" one time because we separated out one night of the five on points? Since we have a cash/points mix, is that automatically considered "segmenting"? Say we wanted our first two nights to have the dining plan...would that be one or two "segments" since one is cash and one is points? (I see how MS gets confused...I think I confused myself!)

To me you are mixing apples and organes, you have booked two seperate nights on cash, 5 nights on points, and you now have 3 ressies. The booking of the rooms has nothing to do with Dining plan. Rooms is rooms, but when you start figuring out where, when, and who is eating and on what plan the confusion starts. Are all under the same reservation number? It gets easier if they are, or at least if each room has it's own ressie number.

Are both rooms following the same eating pattern? Are all the people in each room eating at the same places and on the same plan, i.e. DXDP, DDP, cash etc. This is what I call segmenting, not the room renting.

If I read you correctly you will end up with at least 3 sets of 14 room keys and each time you go from cash to points and back to cash a new ressie starts. The chance for error both by yourselfs and the MS working with you....well it really becomes a pain in the, yep that's place.

For instance for the 1st night on cash are all 14 on same dining plan? Great, that works. The next 5 nights are all 14 on the same plan, or at least is one room full of people on the same dinning plan? Great! Same for the last night, It works so much better if they are.

Does any of this help?

Moe

 

[n2mm]

Not sure about the segmenting issue for 2012, but I can assure you, they can take multiple gift cards to pay for dining. I rented points to some friends of mine for October, and I used 3 gift cards to pay for their DxDP for 2 nights. It was a pain to read off all the numbers, but it did work.

The last time I renewed my APs I was told they could take 3 forms of payment per transaction. I was using a 1 day ticket, 1 gift card, 1 cc. I wanted to use 2 gift cards, but the cm checked and it wouldn't work since the second gift card was not enough to pay the balance. This also happened to me when paying my Cruise balance. I had 16 gift cards, but could only apply 3 then I would complete, log out and log in and do another set of 3 gift cards. I did this several times until I used up all of my gift cards. (These were the $25 gift cards I got for the AP referral several years ago.)

 

[CarolAnnC]

Hmm, it's been the case in prior years that the DVC member must be staying on points to qualify for the DDP. Nights staying on Cash member discount were not eligible (nor any other cash ressie for that matter).

Not sure if that has changed, but it was always the case before.

 

[Dean]

Hmm, it's been the case in prior years that the DVC member must be staying on points to qualify for the DDP. Nights staying on Cash member discount were not eligible (nor any other cash ressie for that matter).

Not sure if that has changed, but it was always the case before.

Cash through MS are technically points stays, my understanding is they are eligible for the DDP and can be truly linked to any other reservation. I would agree that the segmenting has been a hassle for them and while I suspect they didn't realize how it would be treated, they should have given past experiences (day by day call, walking, etc). I predict you'll see both walking and segmenting of the same reservation go away within 2-3 years if not sooner.

The other possibility is that it came with the global reservation change and they didn't realize it was possible to segment in this way until it was too late.

I would not segment this way, too much risk and too much hassle for a meager savings. I'd just to the points days as the regular dining plan OR the Dx plan and not try to micromanage it.

 

[kristenrice]

Just a few points of clarification...

...Yes, the entire 7-night reservation, both villas, is all under ONE reservation number...

...The first and last nights are on cash, but it is the SECOND night (which is the first night booked on points) that needs the DxDDP, and, yes, this was segmented when we booked....

...Yes, all 14 people in both villas will ALL be on the SAME dining plan...

...Here's why....

Dad is paying for everyone to do the Illuminations Grand Gathering dinner. For our trip, which is peak season, the TOTAL cost of that event (based on 2011's prices) is $845.86. For the DxDDP (at 2012's prices), the cost is $888.63....only $42.77 more. The plan is that everyone will use 2 of their credits for the dinner and then everyone gets one more credit to use as they please. Plus, for the additional $42.77, we'll get 14 refillable mugs and 28 snacks. The mugs alone would cost almost $200! Add in another $112 for the snacks and, oh, say a dinner at Chef Mickey's for 14 people at a cost of about $470, and we're saving almost 50%! The savings will be even greater if (when) the price of the GG even goes up. Based on previous years, it looks like the Illuminations dinner will be held on Monday night which is why we want to add it to Sunday, as close to the beginning of our vacation as possible. We are all heavy soda drinkers so the mugs are invaluable to us as a money-saver.

I've already discussed the need to go to the desk on Sunday morning, Monday morning and Friday morning (the first days of each segment) to get new keys and Dad is OK with that. He's an early riser anyway and it will give him something to do I am hoping (and kind of assuming) that they will have the computer issues resolved some time in the next 10 months.

I'm trying a "segmented" stay in October, but I don't think it counts. I'm doing 2 nights at BLT with DxDDP and then 3 nights at BWV with no DP. It is all under one confirmation number as well so I'll have to see what happens.

Thank you all for the information and input. Yes, based on what I've read here on the DisBoards, I do see the potential for disaster, but I also have every confidence that they will get their act together before next year.

 

[quirty30]

The last time I renewed my APs I was told they could take 3 forms of payment per transaction. I was using a 1 day ticket, 1 gift card, 1 cc. I wanted to use 2 gift cards, but the cm checked and it wouldn't work since the second gift card was not enough to pay the balance. This also happened to me when paying my Cruise balance. I had 16 gift cards, but could only apply 3 then I would complete, log out and log in and do another set of 3 gift cards. I did this several times until I used up all of my gift cards. (These were the $25 gift cards I got for the AP referral several years ago.)

Interesting...I used 3 separate $100 gift cards, and then the remaining $20 or so on my Visa. This was about a month ago.